USVI

Doug had to go to the Virgin Islands for "work" so of course I supported him by tagging along!!!! We stayed on St. Thomas it was soooooo fun. No cooking, cleaning, laundry, waking up early, chauffeuring, bum wiping, homework, nothing but FUN IN THE SUN!!!

This is the Wyndham at Sugar Bay resort were we stayed. It was really nice and pretty much had everything you would need to stay there forever and enjoy! I loved the cool looking trees that were everywhere!

The resort had its own beach next to the amazing pools where of course they waited on you hand and foot. Bringing you towels, drinks, umbrellas what ever your little heart desired! This picture of us is on the way to the pool. Every place there was so amazing!

If you look in the background you can see a rainbow. I told the kids it looked as though I could have swam out and touched the end of it!

There was a lot of wildlife at the resort. This pond is right next to the pool and Mangrove restaurant where we ate almost every day and these ducks were some Doug had never seen before so we took pictures of them every day. We have more pictures of these ducks than all of our other vacation pictures put together. The iguanas are huge and everywhere, we saw like 50 every day. One even tried to go for a swim in the pool. I don't know if you can see in the picture but just up the path are like 10 more iguanas.

Here is another spiky little bugger. I had to take a picture of this bird because we eat lunch with him every day. We had to keep a close eye on him because once Doug left part of a pizza crust on his plate and when this bird had the opportunity he jumped right down and grabbed it! The hotel staff tried endlessly to keep the birds and duck out of the eating area but it was a losing battle.

We went shopping at Charlotte Amalie and walked all around the town seeing the sights. Many years ago they really used these things to fight off the many pirates that tried to land here!

Then we went to Yacht Haven Grande were all the cruise boats and privately owned yachts dock. We did not do much shopping here the cheapest thing we found was a necklace for 20,ooo dollars. We ate lunch at the Fat Turtle and tried to peek at who might be on the docked yachts.

One day we took the ferry over to the island of St. John. This was the most beautiful place I have ever been. While we were there we went to Trunk Bay snorkeling. They have a self-guided snorkeling trail. Its like an underwater museum with signs pointing out various sea life.

This is where the snorkeling trail starts, the water is warm and so clear you can see all kinds of fish just standing in the water with out the snorkeling gear. This is the dock where we are about to get back on the ferry, behind me you can see some of the houses that are on this island, they are huge. Kenny Chesney has a home here, and why not, it is the most beautiful place on earth!

The resort had many activities throughout the day that you could attend. This was one of our favorites. The fire dancers. They were amazing and really fun with the audience.

Yes, she is eating the fire stick! It was fun to watch especially because we were so up close and personal!

This is Megan's Bay Beach, It was really pretty but way too many people. Five cruise ships came into St. Thomas this day and I think they all came here to swim.

T

Although there were many beautiful places, beaches and mountain scenery, this guy was the one exception to the beautiful sights. I could not believe someone would actually wear this so of course I had to snap a picture. It was only few minutes later that we "enjoyed" the view of a topless woman swimming and sunbathing on the beach. Sorry I did not take a picture of her!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

It was a great weekend! No school on Friday so we had plenty of time to make lots of tasty treats for our friends. The kids couldn't wait for it to get dark so they could leave their Valentines and try to make a quick get away before getting caught! They did a lot better this year then they did last year only getting busted a few times!!!

Rylie found this Valentines hair-do on the She does Hair blog and wanted to wear her hair this way to school on Thursday for her class party. It turned out pretty cute and it was really easy so Ashton and Skylar wanted their hair this way too! They all loved the complements they got through-out the day, Rylie is so tall she said she had to keep bending down to show her friends at school!

Always a surprise!!

Every time I download the pictures off my camera I find many wonderful photos that I did not take. These are always the work of sweet little Davin. He thinks he is so funny and really feels that he is getting away with something when he sneaks my camera and starts snapping away. The last time I downloaded we had to have a little talk, there were several pictures of me in my towel and a plethora of photos of peoples rear ends. We did have a good laugh trying to identify who's rear was who's. And these were not just family members, these were passersby at the supermarket, the Jr. jazz games, everywhere. I did know that he had the camera and the fact that it was keeping him very happy and busy should have been a good indicator that he was up to something!

You have my blessing!

When the girls asked permission to put make-up on Davin while he was sleeping, I know I should have said no, that would be mean. But instead I thought you go right ahead, that little fart would do it to you and would not even ask for permission. He slept right through them putting glitter, sparkles, pink and purple eyeshadow, ect. all over his face. We did not say anything when he woke-up and after a minute the girls tricked him into looking in the mirror. In true prankster appreciation he laughed and laughed, I think the girls were surprised by his reaction but all he could say was "That was a good one"!

"Bumblebee"

We have searched high and low but we cannot find Skylars beloved "Bumblebee" blanket. Many tears have been shed and she has had to face the world without the tattered, torn, yellow and pink bumblebee blanket. But she has found a replacement, a way to move on.... She has replaced the one small blanket with 10 new blankets. She has named each one and must have them with her at all times. Unlike "bumblebee" which I allowed to join us on our many adventures; to the store, the schools, McDonald's, church, etc. I have had to draw the line 10 blankets are just to many to haul around! Every night she has roll call, "Numbers, are you here?" "Animals, are you here?" "Pinky, Nanas blanket, Boy, Holes, Flower, Girly, Big Purple, and Baby Purple, are you here?" Once all are surrounding her she can finally drift off to a peaceful slumber. Each morning she hauls them out to breakfast, and drags them around the house will her all day! So although she may be over "Bumblebee" I am still looking, I use to silently complain that I had to drag that silly blanket with us everywhere, but now I would gladly take it back!

Lucky Seven

Yep. I was tagged, here we go my Lucky Seven Survey:
Seven things I can do:
*Heal minor wounds with a single kiss-I Love that I still have a couple of kids this works for!
*Sing the whole Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song- This is a popular demanded bedtime song for my three year old. The things you do for your kids!
*Get over things easily
*Talk- to anyone, anywhere, anytime about anything!
*Get out of a ticket- I tell Doug I am just nice, honest and not above begging for mercy. It must work, I have been pulled over about 20 times and ZERO tickets!
*Hunt- yes, having my blue card was part of the prenup and I'm a pretty good shot!
*Waste endless hours playing Guitar Hero!!!- In my next life I will be the lead guitar player in a really cool rock band!!! Watch out Pink!

Seven things I can't do:
*Get myself around in SLC- I have lived here my whole life and can still manage to get lost! Even my Tom Tom doesn't seem to help!
*Remember peoples names!
*Sing- but I keep try'n
*Play the piano-wish I would have listened to you mom and stuck with those lesson!
*Stop eating CHOCOLATE- I will never ever ever try to do that again it is not worth it!
*Swallow pills- retarded I know, but I would rather suffer with pain then take anything over the size of an Advil, that is even pushing it some days. My prenatal vitamins I would cut into thirds and it would take me all day to get those pieces down.
*Swim- I fear being in water where I can't touch the bottom or in water where I can't see what else is swimming with me!

Seven things I say most:
*Duh?
*You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!
*Can't we all just get along!
*Davin, leave her alone!
*I love you!
*Hurry, Hurry come on were late!
*What the ...

Seven Goals for the New Year:
*Go to the temple more
*Be more domestic
*Finish the 1/2 marathon my sister-in-law talked me into running
*Drink more water
*Give my scriptures at least the equal amount of reading time as I do my books- lets be realistic just make sure I read one verse before I pick up my other book!
*Take more time for friends
*Get caught up with my scrap booking! Blogging has really been bad for the scraper in me!

Seven reasons I fell in love with Doug:
* He was hot!
* He made me laugh!
* He was smart!
* He was really fun to kiss!!!!
* He showed me things I had never noticed before, everyday was an adventure!
* He made me feel safe!
* He had a strong testimony of the Gospel.

Seven things I love to eat:
*Chocolate
*Homemade jam on homemade bread
*Chicken avocado sandwiches
*Oatmeal- yes I really do!
*Diet Coke- not really food, I know but who cares?!
*Chex mix- the sweet kind and not like anything you can buy at the store this is an old time family recipe and I can eat a whole batch myself, I am not proud of that but I can do it!
*Pretty much anything I don't have to think up, plan, shop for, prepare or clean up after!

Seven people I tag:
*Paige
*Jolynn
*Vanessa
*Chelsi
*Katie
*Kadee
*Megan

Somebody call Guinness!

I think we may have broke the record for the longest amount of time a child kept a bite of food in their mouth refusing to swallow.

I thought she was being such a big eater. I would put a big bite in her mouth and then attend to the other five (some were friends) children refilling plates, getting drinks, getting napkins, you know the routine. We were in a big hurry, not your typical sit down meal, everybody was rushing. When I realized that every time I would give her a bite she would get down off of her chair. So I decided to follow her. What I found was a bathroom garbage full of Stir-Fry. Apparently she didn't really like it that well. So I sat her on the counter and bribed her with a brownie to take just one bit of her dinner. All of the kids thought it was so funny that she had been secretly disposing of her dinner that she quickly realized she was the center of attention (her favorite place to be), so she made everyone well aware that she was not going to swallow even one bite. After a few minutes I had to leave I told her to swallow the bite and I would be back to give her a brownie. I dropped the kids off to skating and took a friend home, when I got back she still had not swallowed the food. Finally after about 22 minutes she gagged it down. I guess we won't try Chinese food again for a while.