Snow Day

Halloween

Pomme de Terre Dam

Went on a Sunday hike to Pomme de Terre Dam with the Reisners & Henrettas.

Fall Soccer Season

Night Photography at Stockton Lake

This was a creative date night that we did...with the kids.  

Crabtree Cove

Grand Turks

Our fifth & final port for this cruise was Grand Turks.  We'd been to Grand Turks before, so we decided to do an excursion.  We went to go swim with the Sting Rays.

After the Sting Ray excursion, we just went back to the provided beaches near the ships.  They kids had a blast swimming and using their goggles.  

 

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Fourth port was San Juan.  For this day we left our kids in child care (they actually love it!).  I went down to Old San Juan.

 And then Chad & me met up to grab an uber that would take me to the mall and Chad to a beach so he could enjoy some snorkeling.  These pics were from the deck of the boat before we took off.

St. Kitts

St. Kitts was our third port.  

Um, yeah...Chaz had to pee and I whispered to him to just go pee in the water.  So he went to the water's edge and he whipped it out to pee!  Eek!  

Saint Martin: Dutch side

We also went to the Dutch side.  The beach we went to the Divi Little Bay Beach.

St. Martin: French side

This was our first eight day cruise.  We went on the Carnival Magic.  I think this is my favorite ship that we've been on!

Our first port was St. Martin.  This is the iconic port with the planes that fly right over the beach.  We wanted to go there, but the tides were too high and the crowds too large.  Instead we hit up two beaches.  The first we went to was Orient Bay Beach.  It was on the French side.

Back to School

Liam- 4th grade

Max- 1st grade

Chaz- preschool

Bennet Springs...again

 Liked it so much, we went back on another one of our Sunday nature walks!

Bennet Springs

 

Stockton Lake trail

My aunt Ruth was out visiting from Arizona, so she got to join us & the Reisners.  Stockton Lake was flooded from all the rain that we've been getting so we only got to go so far.  

Stockton Lake with cousins

Stockton Lake with the Reisners. 

Sunday nature walk

I'm an introvert.  Chad is an extrovert.  I'd love to stay home on Sundays.  Maybe get a good nap in.  Catch up on recording my personal history (write in my journal & work on our family photo album & blog).  Chad would love to entertain people.  Sometimes we've done my plan, sometimes Chad's.  But recently we found a happy medium.  We've been finding local trails and going on nature walks either alone or with family and friends.  This has become our favorite Sunday activity.  We get to see all the beauty around and enjoy company.   And my kids love spending time with their cousins.  

This trail was a Stockton Lake trail.

Ft. Walton Beach

There's this hotel in Fort Walton that is our favorite! We love it because not only is it beachfront, but it has a waterslide that my kids absolutely love! And we love it, because the pool isn't too large that you easily lose you child in the crowd. Not too big, not too small. Just right.

Royce's homecoming!

My little brother Royce has been in Ghana, Africa for the past two years serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We got to go to Arizona to be there for his arrival home! We all went to pioneer park for the kids to play since we had checked out of hotels and had some time before his flight got in. My kids loved it! Then it was a mad scramble to get to the airport! We actually underestimated how much time it would take to get to the airport, park, find the gate, etc. But luckily we made it and we eagerly watched for an elder wearing a baby blue suit coat jacket (which he had forewarned us he would be wearing). After welcoming Royce home, we headed up to the White Mountains. We made a few stops on the way up. I've traveled through Globe, AZ hundreds of times, and I've never seen signs for a "Besh Ba Go-wah". So we stopped and checked it out. It was cool. We also had to stop in Salt River Canyon and see the "honeymooners" crash up close and personal. We stayed in a nice airbnb in Pinetop-Lakeside and we had a Freestone family reunion. My kids instantly hit it off with cousins they'd never met. And we had fun participating in a talent show. That's me on the bottom mid-leap. Sadly, we didn't get to stay to hear his homecoming talk in church. The only flights were early Sunday morning. But we did make it home in time for 1 hour of church, followed by easter baskets that were "waiting" for us at home.