Snow Day

After all this snow since December, I realized that winter was almost done and that I hadn't taken the young kids sledding yet! The next day it snowed so we made a b-line for the park, a mile from our house. We did all the usual and took our time, we had fun sledding, making snow-angels and trying to play on the playground. We were having so much fun that Soph didn't even cry when she landed face down after a go at the hill.

We were the first and only ones at the park, that makes for tasty fresh snow cones.

My little angels making angels

My children are great actors. They were stopped so I could take a picture so I told them to act like they were still going down the hill.

Western Carribean II

Leaving the ship ports in Miami FL. I am glad to be safe at sea and on our way, Miami has some scary drivers, including our van shuttle driver.

Big Bull and Bull Jr. The shirts and glasses are mere coincidence. But cute huh?

Some typical streets in Roatan, That house is actually one of the nicer ones. This is quite an undeveloped island.

The island of Roatan, we spent our time on the other side of the island where the resorts and beaches are, for some reason I didn't get my camera out the rest of the visit, Dan and I took a boat ride to some coral reefs and had a guide take us through the valleys of the deep, it was fun.

Most of our pictures are with an underwater camera that didn't turn out well because it was cloudy and darkish.


This boat came speeding out to our ship as we got near their island, I don't know why, but that man in front has a rifle on his shoulder.

Here we are on a bus waiting for our guide to gather everyone. We are going to ride bikes through the jungles of Belize. The bikes were not American grade but we made the best of it. We learned a lot of herbal remedies for snake bites, stomach aches etc. and we could see the shadows of monkeys high in the trees. Lots of mud and it wasn't even the wet season!




This is some of our friends shopping in Cozumel, the vendors would beckon you to come into their shops and take a look, There was lots of silver jewelry, shirts, and typical souveniers.

Sorry this picture is sideways. It is a monkey made from a towel. The cabin crew would make your bed and depending if you needed a towel, hand towel or washclothe you would get an animal made from it. I actually went to a towel-animal making class on the ship on one of the sea days, and they made this monkey and gave it to me because I donated my hairband to clasp his hands together.

A cobra found on our bed one day. with mints for eyes. Cool huh








All this hard work has made me sleepy, finding a chair, laying out my towel, thinking of all the work that Michelle must be doing, it is all exhausting. Actually I just got done with a couple of hard swims with the snorkel in the windy sea.

Dan and Nate "chillaxin" on the ships private island in Honduras.

This is the ships main band that usually plays at the pool. They played fun and relaxing songs kinda reggae.

A not so funny story with a happy ending about these guys is that on the cruise the week before us they got held up at gun point while at Roatan. They just wanted their money, they gave it and the bad guys left.

Here are some of us at the Ft. Lauderdale airport at the end of the trip, "calling home". We all were eager to get home to see our families.

Our Trip to the Western Carribean Sea

A Group of guys from the firehouse decided to take a cruise together, so we jumped on board to go have some fun. 7 couples went and we all had a great time getting away from it all. The weather wasn't as warm as we would have wanted but we didn't let it stop us from having a good time.

We did mostly snorkeling like Dan and Marshal here, It was an easy way to see all the fish, sharks, manta rays and eels. (Yes I mentioned sharks). Some of the guys, Dan included, scuba dived in Cozumel, Mexico, while the rest of us went clear kayaking and snorkeling.

The air was a bit cool for being in the water, but as long as you stayed under, it wasn't that bad.

Here is the best view of our ship from the NCL private island in the Bahamas. We spent our last day here just trying to keep warm, snorkeling and catching up on our reading, and of course eatting the BBQ lunch provided by the ship.

Dan and I loved the music in Mexico, it was kind of carousel like and fun.

Captains Night on the ship, we did a casual dress. You don't hafta do anything you don't wanna, It's called freestyle cruising-love it!

More Christmas fun!

Christmas Eve after family home evening and one gift (pjs of course) to open.

Feeding the reindeer is a tradition that Grandma Mann gave to us. It is food that sparkles so that Santa's reindeer will be sure to find our house.

Sophia was so thrilled that Santa had found her house and that he remembered the play kitchen she wanted.

Cody and Sheree are happy with their gifts on Christmas morning.

Dan has found that helping with the chocolate making is actually kinda fun and relaxing. He was pretty darn good at it too. Jenni spent many hours in the kitchen making a record amount of candy and cookies, the neighborhood favorite has been the peanut butter thumbs, it will now be a tradition of high importance, yummy!