Where does the time go?  Things happen throughout my day and I always think to myself, "I should blog about this," and then I never do.  Here two years have passed since my last post.  I will make a renewed attempt to blog.  Here is a picture of my incredibly cute and grown-up kids outside of Avila, Spain this past summer. 

Well, here we are in the Ft. Lauderdale airport. We had an adventure getting there. We left Salt Lake to catch a connecting flight in Atlanta. We had only 45 minutes and the plane from Salt Lake left 30 minutes late. We made it on to our connecting flight but our luggage did not. In this picture it's about 11:30 p.m. and we are waiting for the flight that is to arrive at midnight with our luggage. Zach, of course, didn't mind spending more time in the airport.



Here we are on the Oasis of the Seas. We haven't even left port and it's time for ice cream!



This ship had a ferris wheel.

This was my favorite stop of the cruise. In this picture it's sunrise over Labadee, Haiti. I really looked forward to this stop because my older brother, Ron served his mission in Haiti. I know that Royal Caribbean's private area is very different from life in Port-au-Prince but I was excited to see it. It was so green and jungle-like and mountainous. I didn't realize Haiti was so mountainous. Ron told me that is what "Haiti'' means. I spent the whole day thinking of my brother and the 2 years he spent here and the Haitian people he learned to love.

The beach area was beautiful! We had perfect weather for playing in the water. It was hot and humid! Again I thought of my brother and the days he spent tracting in this weather. How did you survive?

Haitian Marketplace.

I took a Haitian Coastal Crusie, hoping to see more of Haiti, I wanted to see as much as I possibly could while I was there. The water was an amazing color of blue, or should I say, colors of blue. These pictures are for you, Ron. Is it making you homesick?

More pictures from my Haitian Coastal Cruise.

Look closely at the sails!

A storm came as we were leaving port. The lightning and thunder were pretty impressive. I would hate to see a hurricane.

Hannah and Zach had their own room on this trip. We'll do it this way from now on. It's way too crowded for four people in one of those tiny rooms!

Enjoying dinner in the Windjammer cafe.

Zach's favorite part of the entire cruise was the food. He could have as much as he wanted. I think he had 6 full meals a day.

While we were docked in Cozumel another Royal Caribbean ship was docked along side the Oasis of the Seas. You can really see here how big the Oasis is.

Zach was just humoring his mom. What a good boy!

GQ Zach!

The view from the very back of the ship.

Hannah and Grandma Kathy.

The last week of July was girls camp. I love being able to go because I get to be with Hannah. The entire summer had been so dry but we were at camp during the wettest week of the summer. It stormed 2 of the nights we were there and then Thursday was a strong storm in the middle of the afternoon. I don't like thunderstorms but I had to be brave.






This picture was taken during the Thursday afternoon storm. I thought this was a great picture because you can see the rain drops.



This picture really doesn't do the storm justice but I included it anyway.



This was Hannah's 4th year at camp so she participated in the 4th year hike to Island Lake in the Uintahs. The girls backpacked in and then spent 2 nights at the lake. They made swimming suits out of garbage bags. They're cute and modest!

It got pretty cold at night in the Uintahs.

Hannah and Sarah were proud of the tent they put up on their own. Theirs was the only tent that didn't leak - yes it stormed on them, too. Hannah is much braver than I am.

Summer of 2010

School starts in a few days. We've had a great summer. Here are some highlights:

We took a 10 day RV trip to the Oregon Coast. We rented a 4 person RAZR and drove around the Oregon Dunes. The kids say I drive faster than Dave.

We spent a day at Crater Lake National Park. This was a place I vacationed to as a teenager with my family and loved it. The water is an amazing color of blue. They offer a boat ride around the lake which wasn't offered when I was a kid. It was very interesting.

I love lighthouses. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because of a church song that I liked as a teenager called "Like a Lighthouse" By Michael Webb that compared the Savior to a lighthouse. I especially love to go inside the lighthouse which we were able to do in both that we visited. We saw the Umpqua River Lighthouse and the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

The Oregon coast is beautiful. I could live there. I like the cool temperatures and non-sandy beaches.

While in Portland we visited some friends, the Ririe's. Dave went to dental school with Don. They live on a farm in Oregon City. Dave and I took a walk around their neightborhood and their home is surrounded by Christmas tree farms. Very cool.

We celebrated Zach's 13th birthday on this trip. You can never have too many basketballs or so Zach says. Happy Birthday Z-man! So glad you're a part of this family. It wasn't complete until you came along. Love you tons!

We took a major detour from our destination of Crater Lake. We took a day and drove to Seattle to visit the Museum of Flight. Hmmmmm, I wonder who wanted to visit that?