The Carribean...

I want to live by the Ocean.

Preferrably this one.

Carlisle Bay, Barbados.
Hands down the most beautiful place in the world.

I'm currently experiencing withdrawal from beautiful sunshine and white sand beaches.

It's a little disturbing how quickly you can be plucked off the coast of breathtaking Carlisle Bay in BARBADOS...and back to freezing cold UTAH...doing laundry, shoving the suitcases back into the basement & doing the Hokey Pokey with 12 THREE year olds:)

That pretty much sums up the last 36 hours of my life perfectly.

Don't get me wrong...Life is good...today we learned about the letter "X" at preschool & we are going to fertilize the lawn this evening. Sigh.

Pretty exciting stuff I tell ya!

BUT...OH how much better it would be if I never had to cook, clean or make my own bed. I could swim with Sea Turtles and walk on the beach every afternoon...nap when I pleased...and read a novel every other day. Drink 6 Strawberry Daquiries every day....not care one teeny bit about calories and be with my husband 24/7. Not to mention the SUNSHINE and perfect weather YEAR-ROUND.

Yes---I most certainly have POST-VACATION depression right about now.

It happens every time.

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10 days ago we boarded a flight to Puerto Rico.

I, for blog book purposes, with be journaling a lot more of it than interests you....but I promise the pictures are breathtaking! (the landscape...of course:) Try to overlook the "I most likely just hit the buffet and downed 2 Pina Colada's" couple that will be in most of them). Maybe it will convince you to head straight there! You should!! It was beautiful and Romantic and I begged to never come home. 

We spent a day on the beach in San Jaun...then boarded the Carribean Princess for a cruise to some of the most gorgeous islands in the world.

I loved our Ship. I have only ever Sailed Princess...but I always love it and would highly recommend. This particular Ship had a huge outdoor movie theater above one of the pools and it played movies all day and all night. WE loved it. They handed out blankets, cookies and milk and called it "Movies under the stars". It was my favorite way to end every day. Sometimes we'd sit in the hot tub below the big screen...drinking Pina Colada's...and sometimes we'd cuddle up on one of the chairs...& eat popcorn.
I love that it's 80 degrees outside at 11:00 p.m.

Princess is very family oriented and always has such nice people...including families with kids and older couples:) We fit in a tad bit better with the "parent's of three"...than the "walk around wasted" crowd.

Not to mention...the staff is insane...and they do a fabulous job making sure you have the perfect vacation. 10 minutes after boarding I ordered a Pina Colada (the first of MANY) and in the 5 minutes it took them to go make it....I was asked over 15 times if I wanted something to drink:) The entire week I was amazed at how great they were.

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Our first Port was St. Thomas. We had to see Magen's Bay!

It is rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world..so we didn't want to miss it.

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I read and read and read.

I never thought I'd finish the books I brought...but by day 5 I was done with them and had to buy more:)

Jarom said I was a total nerd for visiting the "LIBRARY" on board the Carribean Princess.

True...but Whatever:) heehee

taking a break from browsing the shops in St. Thomas:)

I loved watching from the front of the ship as we Sailed Away every evening.

We look rather sweaty and gross in this one....but our Ship had a HUGE beautiful gym with all the treadmills & equipment overlooking the ocean. We hit the gym before dinner:) I think I would work out a bit more often if my treadmill at home overlooked the ocean instead of a few 2 by 4's in my unfinished basement.

hee hee.

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My favorite part of a cruise is getting dressed up and eating a delicious fancy dinner:)

Oh...and the fact that you never have to pay the bill. Genius idea.

I had my fair share of shrimp cocktails. I "pounded them" as Jarom likes to put it. 

So...he'd order one with every meal and give me his too:) We are such a good team.  

The thought of seafood makes Jarom gag!

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The second morning we awoke in TORTOLA in the British Virgin Islands.

We headed straight to the beautiful

CANE GARDEN BAY

(I want to steal one of the sailboats)

I wrote my baby's name in the sand. It was about day 4 apart that I started missing him pretty badly:)

I was in paradise...and he was having a blast with grandma...so I got over it after a good bawl session during breakfast (and a little pep talk from the husband). 

The Bay's were filled with Sailboats! I loved taking pictures of them...and I wanted to steal one for the afternoon. Lucky Lucky people:)

I couldn't get over how perfectly clear and blue the water was. It looked completely fake!

Every stop got better than the last!

After another day in the sun (and another Novel on my "TO-READ" list down) we headed out for another fancy dinner then a Movie under the stars.

The food looked like artwork (which really doesn't impress Jarom in the slightest:):) but it was fun with all the attention to detail!

Getting ready for the Evening Movie!

My favorite spot on the whole ship: The ice-cream bar.

Let's say I consumed about as many ice-cream cones as I did shrimp cocktails:)

Me and the wonderful Philipino crew member who served the ice-cream were on a first name basis.

Jarom was totally embarrassed. hee hee. 

EVERY SINGLE TIME I'D PASS THE STAND...he would yell in his little accent.....

"Want another Ice-Cream Kristin!". While a good 20 people waited in line for one:)

He would make mine about 8 inches taller than Jarom's or anyone else's.

It was a tad wierd...but I didn't mind AT ALL. :):)

I swear....some of those 6 year olds HAD to have visited that counter more than I did!

I couldn't get  a picture with my friend the ice-cream man...but this was the little stand that saved my life while laying out in 100 degree heat:)

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The next morning we arrived in ANTIGUA!

Jarom had planned for us to go Zip-Lining over cliffs in the Antigua Rain Forest. Men!

It was a LOT of fun. We saw such beautiful scenery, took a ride through the the Jungle, did some hiking and Zip-Lined for hours on 300 foot long Zip-lines that were hundreds of feet in the air. It was a little stressful making the first jump off the platform...but I got the hang of it! They tried to give us instructions on how to break or slow ourselves down...but if you did it wrong...how did they say it...oh yah... "Goodbye to your hand!"

I wanted to leave with all of my appendages...so I never breaked once. I just held on for dear life and flew acrossed those babies at full speed:)

Luckily they had pads straped to the trees and the platform! hahaha

(waiting on the Port to go Zip-Lining)

 They wouldn't let us take sunglasses, camera's or anything with us on the Zip-Lines! It was too dangerous, too fast and we were hooked up to TONS of equipment. It made me sad...because I love to take pictures for memories and for my scrapbooks...BUT I did snap this one of the men getting our harnasses ready!

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Our Next port was St. Lucia!

SOOOOO pretty.

We went to their Famous RODNEY BAY

This Beach had lots of fun watersports...with tubing, jet skiing and snorkeling.
We docked at the port about 8:00 a.m. It was such a pretty country....everything was so perfectly Green!

St. Lucia Airport! I thought it was so pretty...but it would scare the crap out of me to land there!
Ocean on both sides:) Doesn't leave you much wiggle room!

My afternoon nap! Sigh:) I will miss that.

Another delicious dinner! I am still dreaming about the food.
Anything tastes better when you don't have to cook it!

Me and my Date!

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My very very very favorite Port was Barbados.
There is nothing like it.
 You will see why...the pictures don't even do it justice:)

We went sailing on a big catamaran with a lot of fun people! The men who ran the ship were hilarious. While we were sailing along I cuddled up to Jarom and was just talking to him. One of the men walked over and asked for my camera:) He took this picture of us and then asked if it was our HONEYMOON!

When we told him NO...and that we have been married for almost 8 years...you wouldn't believe the reaction. People on the boat were clapping and thought it was amazing:) They then stopped all the music and stared at Jarom while the captain of the ship asked him what his "SECRET" was.
"How does he keep me looking at him like that for 8 years?!"
hahahaha.

I got a kick out of it.
Let's just say JAROM doesn't like the spotlight:)

It made me really happy actually.
I am more in love with Jarom now...after these 7.5 years...than ever before.
...I'm glad that perfect strangers can see it in the way I look at him...
It was a much needed break from the stress and business of life.

It was wonderful to get away together.
It was even more wonderful to escape all of our worries and take time to count our blessings.

(What a perfect place to do that! Look at that water.)

We spent the afternoon sailing and Whale watching.
It was amazing to watch.
I snapped over 100 pictures of a mother and baby whale splashing and playing off the coast.

The captain had been sailing for over 18 years....and had seen whales only twice before.
He kept saying how miraculous it was and how lucky we are!

The highlight of the trip was snorkeling with endangered Sea Turtles.
 It felt like a scene right out of "Finding Nemo". I can't wait to take Jaxson someday when he's a bit bigger.

 Carlisle bay has almost 100% visiblity underwater.
The water is as warm as a bathtub with perfect white sand. You can see perfectly up to 100 feet deep.
It was amazing and ideal for snorkeling.

The turtles were beautiful and they swam all around us for hours.

This spotted turtle is one of the most endangered in the world. We weren't allowed to touch it or chase it:)

 It came up and took big gulps of air before diving down again.

You see the Hilton on the corner behind us???

The moment I saw it...I dreamed about vacationing there someday with my entire family. I thought about my kids swimming with those Turtles and walks on the beach. 

I came home and looked it up immediately.

HOLY CRAPOLA. 

Maybe it will stay a DREAM forever:) haha 

A picture of our catamaran right before Sunset.

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After Barbados...we had an "at sea" day where we enjoyed lounging, eating & a trip to he spa! I begged Jarom...and he gave in:) He even joined me and it was the perfect ending to a fabulous vacation. 

Jarom even put up with all my crazy sun hats throughout the trip:) 

I documented his "12-a-day" strawberry Daquirie intake:)
It as SOOOO Hot...we just told the waiters to keep em' coming!
The minute one was gone...another was handed to us:) We both retained A LOT of water. hee hee.

Our last Dinner on the ship:)

We sat by the window during dinner and watched the waves and the ocean as we ate the best Fetticine Alfredo, Shrimp Cocktail and Strawberry Cheesecake dinner. I dreaded coming back to grocery shopping and cooking!!!

We talked about Jax...and how we couldn't wait to squeeze him. We talked about how we would never come home if he wasn't waitin for us:) We talked about how life throws you curve balls and things sometimes don't work out on your time frame. We talked about how...in spite of all the stressful and bad things....we wouldn't change any of it. We make a good team. Jarom contributes a bit more to keeping me rational and us getting along...but I wash and fold his garments and keep him fed. So it just works.

Thanks for such a perfect getaway honey:)
xoxoxo

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It has taken me the entire week to get back into ROUTINE.
The time difference alone threw me for a loop!
I keep waking up at 5 a.m. and NEEDING my bed around 7 p.m. haha.

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Things are finally back to normal around here:)
We spent the airplane ride home going through the calendar and looking for the next thing to "look forward too!" We have now written LAKE POWELL on the calendar and are working towards a fun week in the sun with my family coming up in a month. Doesn't it always help you through the stressful times when you have something to look forward too!?!

Me too.

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Happy Summer Vacationing to all of you!

me