Last of the Birthday's - Maria Maria

So, I started this blog just over a year ago, and given all mine and Adam's immediate family their respective birthday shout outs. I've loved writing about each one of these dear people, and I hope they appreciate the sentiments, however, after this last shout out, please do not expect them again next year. Not that I don't love you all just as much, but I dont' want to be too repetitive in my blogging.

That said, today is a very special day because the one and only Maria (Griggs) Billen was born. I am so lucky to call this woman my sister-in-law. She certainly has handled being a Billen like a champ. Rolling with the punches and not being afraid to offer a few jabs back. She has a personality that shines. Intelligent and inspiring, her way with words puts my blogging to shame. She has a witty dry sense of humor that I just love. It's been fun to see Maria enter Motherhood, and while I wish we lived a bit closer, we've been able to share several visits since her little boys have entered this world, and let me tell you, she's a wonderful mother. While she'll be the first to tell you she's far from the perfect mother, I know she puts her heart and soul into being a Mom. She gives her boys all the love she has. She's a great fit for Ryan, as I know she challenges him on an intellectual level, they're basically two genuises and read more than any other couple I've ever met. Maria will also tell it like it is, and is just honest and real, I admire her strength to stand firm in her ways.
I am thankful Maria has been there for so many milestones in my life. She was there when I graduated college, got married, and was sealed to Adam in the temple. I've been lucky enough to visit her up in Vancouver Washington a few times now and with each visit we just grow closer and closer. Can't wait for you to be here for Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Maria! Love you to pieces!

Visit to Vancouver - July 2008, after Marshall was born

Visit to Vancouver - October 2006 - just after Gavin was born (yes, I had a broken leg)

Last Cruise Post: Antigua & St. Kitts

The wonderful time we had on our cruise will be well documented and remembered thanks to my long blog posts about it all. Thanks to all of you for putting up with it!

Our cruise was coming to an end, and our last two days were spent in Antigua and St. Kitts.

I had read that of all the islands we were going to that Antigua would likely have the best waters to snorkel in. I have to say, we snorkeled in three different places, and my researched proved to be right. Because I had read that snorkeling should be done in Antigua I found a Kayak and Snorkel tour that looked like it would be a good time. Antiguapaddles.com - I found the site on my own and booked it on my own, however as it turned out the cruise line actually operates with the same tour, only you pay about $15 more per person, if you book through Carnival. Anyway, so the tour group for this excursion was pretty big, a bus full of people. We drove about 45 minutes to a wonderful area of Antigua where there was beautiful clear water and mangroves all around. The kayaking was fun, but I have to say I felt like it was a bit rushed and I would have enjoyed longer out there. This is the trouble of going on a tour that operates with the cruise ship, they're much more regimented to a time schedule. The kayaking took us through the beautiful scenery and we picked up a huge starfish.

Next we hopped into boats that took us to a reef where we snorkeled and enjoyed the crystal clear water. We also hiked around the beach for a bit and relaxed there as well. All in all it was a fun excursion, although I don't know that I'd highly recommend it, only because of the regimented time schedule. Snorkeling in Antigua was awesome, but try to find a different tour operator.

Scenery in Antigua

Adam in the Kayak

Just finished snorkeling - the water was to die for!

Hiking around bird island

Our last stop of the cruise was in St. Kitts. Let me tell you we got our money's worth there. I researched and found an island tour that was recommended, so I went for it. The tour was small and private and the guide, Mr. Thenford Grey, himself knew all there was to know about the island. The island is 68 square miles and we drove around the entire thing. Stopping at several view points along the way. The tour also took us to Brimstone Hill Fortress, which was full of interesting history and very well preserved. Then we went on up toward the rain forest into the Botanical Gardens. A lovely little area where we enjoyed the beauty around us, and again Thenford gave us the royal treatment, pointing out the most interesting plants and telling us where they came from, he also was a great photographer and took plenty of pictures of us! The dive continued with several view points and historical information presented. We ended up at Cockshell Beach, where we had about an hour and half to snorkel, relax and see Wilbur the gigantic beach pig. If you want to see a lot, learn a ton and feel like you made the most out of St. Kitts, I highly recommend booking a tour with Grey's Island Excursions. He does several different tours, but we just did the basic Island tour and loved it!

Here's Wilbur the Pig

View of St. Kitt's

Brimstone Hill

The fort

Rocky Point

Botanical Gardens

Snorkeling at Cockshell beach

It was a great way to end our Caribbean Island experiences.

This post would be complete without a few mentions of the great time we had on board the Carnival Victory. We enjoyed the shows each night, Adam played a little sports trivia, we saw a bunch of live music, walked through the shops and ate a ton. I need to make mention of the great friends we made as well. Chris and Rachel were on their honeymoon, just married in Tornoto, Canada. They were such a fun couple and we enjoyed going to the shows with them. They even taught us how to play a card game call Youkers, which I was terrible at, but had fun playing anyway. Perhaps our paths will cross some other waters some day!
Our waiter Dwane from St. Vincent was awesome!

We miss you Carnival Victory thanks for the fond memories!

Barbados & St. Lucia

I feel like this posting about our cruise will never end, I'm sure you're all probably bored with it by now, but I hope for anyone planning a trip down there this has been helpful. Either way I am doing these posts for myself so I will have all these memories written down and captured forever!

So onward into the Caribbean we went. Waking up Wednesday morning in the beautiful waters of Barbados. We dedicded not to book an excursion there, mostly because the caves I wanted to visit were closed. So we made it a beach day. I had researched a bit about what to do there, and I found a beach area call The Boatyard. It was nice because we were able to walk there from the ship, despite all the cab drivers bombarding us as we were leaving the port, they almost forced us into their cabs, but we made it out and walked the mile and half to the beach. We needed the walk, and found the Boatyard to be a nice way to spend the day in Barbados. We plunged into the water from the rope swing, climbed the iceburg and jumped on the ocean trampolines. For the minimal entrance fee that included all the amenities, plus a drink and lounge chair with umbrella it was great!

Adam on the rope swing

Me enjoying the sounds of the Caribbean

The Boatyard

On to St. Lucia for Thursday. We decided to forgo the horesback riding and do something a bit more adventurous. We booked the Zip Line tour in through the rain forest there. Let's just say it was monumental fun, and Adam did great, he was a bit hesitant, as he's afriad of heights, but once he did the first line, he was ready for more! Helpful hint to anyone looking to do this excursion, don't book with the cruise line, I found a guide that would take us there for $20 less per person. Frank's Tours. Plus we were really lucky because we were the only two people who booked it this way and we got to the course before the cruise ship tour and therefore we were able to on the lines just the two of us with two guides, which made it a lot of fun to have a more private tour!

Adam was not a fan of the suspension bridges, but he managed.

Our excellent guides Nancy and Gavi!

The rain forest was beautiful and because our day in Barbados left us sun burned, we decided not to hit any beaches in St. Lucia, but enjoyed the afternoon napping on the ship.

So there should be only one more post about our trip then I'll move on to much less exciting things that are happening.

Here's a video of what we saw!

Dominica

After our fablously relaxing day in St. Thomas, we hit the ground running in Dominica. After much research, I decided to book an excursion with Levi Baron and Bumping Tours. (Pictured above) I really don't think we could have ended up on a better tour. We did the Roseau Valley Treasures tour and it was outstanding. Levi was an excellent guide and knew so much about the island and loved his hometown. After a few stops for pictures, we found ourselves in the fresh cold water swiming through Titou Gorge. One word, AMAZING!! The water was no colder than the ocean, and we were able to swim through a gorge, where they actually shot part of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. The swim led us to a waterfall where we jumped from a ledge into the falls. We then climbed up the falls, to an upper falls and played around then dove into the pool below! We tried to take some picture with our disposable underwater camera, but it was just too dark in the gorge and so none of them turned out, alas, I googled some other pictures and found some shots, so you can see how beautiful it all was.

Swimming up the gorge looked like this...

The Lower Falls we hiked up...

After the Titou Gorge experience, we made our way to Trafalgar Falls. Another wonderful experience was had there. Trafalgar Falls is a unique product of mother nature. There are two waterfalls side by side, called the Mother and the Father. The interesting thing is that the Father Falls actually comes from a hot springs and is warm water and the Mother Falls is fresh cold water. We jumped from hot spring to hot spring, then went over to the Mother Falls and cooled off in the refreshing cool water that flowed into the pools below. It was a lot of fun to hike and be able to swim in the falls and experience such wonderful expressions in nature.

Trafalgar Falls - The Father Falls on the left, Mother Falls on the right

Hot Springs from the Father Falls

Cool Refreshing Pools from the Mother Falls

Our tour was far from over. We drove around the island, stopping at a sulphur pot hole, botanical gardens, and several other view points. To top it all off we headed over to Champange Reef to enjoy snorkeling. Because Domicia is a volcanic island, the reef has bubbles that come up from the ocean floor, and it's one of only a few reefs in the world that does this.

Adam couldn't seem to stay under the water long enough to get the picture taken, but here we are snorkeling...

We certainly had a full day in Dominica and made it back to the ship in the nick of time. I think it was 5:15 when we got back on board and of course the dinner that night was a formal night, and dinner started at 6 pm. So my time to get ready did not allow me to dry my hair, but I think we still looked pretty good.

St. Thomas

On board the Carnival Victory, we departed Puerto Rico Sunday night, to wake up in the crystal clear waters of St. Thomas, USVI. We did not have an excursion booked that day, so we took our time that morning, had breakfast in the dining room, then headed out to catch a cab to Magen's Bay Beach. The cab ride was in a nice open air vehicle and had great views along the way. When we got to Magen's Bay we realized we really were in Paradise. It was so quiet and calm, tranquility at it's best. We laid on the beach for a few hours, soaking up the sun, floating in the glorious aqua blue sea. I had read a head of time that there was a hiking trail behind the bay, and I wanted to take advantage of all the amenities my $4 entrance to the beach entailed. So we set out to find the hike. We were not exactly prepared for what was ahead of us. It was so hot and humid, and we did not have any water with us. I had a water bottle, but it cracked and leaked, so that was a goner. Anyway, the hike was actually quite steep and we didn't really know which way to go some of the time, we were the only two people on the trail and it was all just self guided. The only thing we knew was that there were repeated signs saying DANGER, WASPS NESTS, so we were a bit nervous. Alas, after sweating through our clothes, we found a view point and snapped a few pictures before we headed back down and jumped into the water again. We decided forgo the downtown shopping area in St. Thomas, because let's face it Adam hates to shop and I done enough in Puerto Rico.

All in all we loved St. Thomas, after the whole cruise was over, Adam and I both agreed that Magen's Bay was our favorite beach we visited, although we didn't snorkel, we just loved how peaceful and colorful our surroundings were.


Absolutely Beautiful

Relaxing at its best

View Point after hiking

Caribbean Vacation Part 1

We went on vacation. Oh yes we did. It was amazing, to say the least. Nine days of pure bliss in the Caribbean. We did so much and had such a good time, I'm going to post in a few different parts so I don't exhaust you all too much all at once.

So, we begin in Puerto Rico. Adam and I took a red eye flight out Friday night, and arrived in San Juan Saturday morning at 9am. We grabbed a cab to our hotel, which was an interesting story in itself, ask me if you want to know the detais, finally arriving at the Intercontential in Isla Verde. Luckily they let us check in even though it was only about 9:30 am. We loved the resort. It was beautiful, right on the beach, with great views and a spectacular pool. Thanks to Adam's Priceline skills we got a great price. We spent the morning on Saturday at the beach, then cleaned up and hopped on the bus and headed to Old Town San Juan. This was the only time we experienced rain our entire trip. We were strolling around the shops and there was just a down pour, so we grabbed an umbrella and went on our way. In and out of dozens of souvenir shops and such, I think Adam was a bit tired out from shopping, he really gets no enjoyment from shopping. A welcomed break from shopping, we found our way to El Moro Fortress and walked around the base. It was a wonderful afternoon in Puerto Rico, that ended with a great meal at Cafe Puerto Rico complete with mofango, which we both enjoyed.

Here's a few shots from Puerto Rico

Old Town San Juan

El Morro - notice the cat in the picture, the place was surrounded with stray cats

The next day we spent the morning at the beach and pool again before heading down to the port to get on the ship. Our first time on a cruise ship, we were both so excited! We had an ocean view room, down at the very bottom of the ship. We resolved when we got on the ship to always take the stairs, which was helpful because we were on level 1 and all the food was on level 9, so having to climb 8 flights of stairs every time we wanted food helped us, one, burn more calories and two, stay away from the late night bistros, well mostly anyway. We loved the Carnival Victory. It's such a fun filled ship with so much to do and see, and the food was just as excellent as it was endless. The entertainment was great, singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, we loved the nightlife on the ship. I managed to make to the gym a few times, but our days were so busy at the ports, by the time we'd be back on board the ship it was time to shower and go to dinner, then the entertainment started and before we knew it it was time for bed. Being on a cruise was awesome, having our room cleaned twice a day, and all our meals prepared and served to us, we loved it. So now that I've told you a bit out Puerto Rico and our Cruise Ship, I'll leave you with some pictures. I'll be writing about each of our 6 port stops soon, so stay tuned!

Emergency Drill
Towel Animals

Nightlife

Happy Birthday Dad

Indeed Adam and I are out on our cruise now, which is why I just love the post option on blogger that allows me to save a date I want the blog to actually go live.

So I hope that while we're enjoying our cruise my dad is having a fabulous birthday! Sorry I'm not there to make you some crazy cupcakes as well, but I would have if I was!

Here are a few fun facts about my dad that makes him the funloving person he is that have influenced me over the years and make me happy to call him my Dad...

• He collects things and it rubbed off on me, for a while anyway. When I was little I collected pens, porcelin dolls, those little pressed pennies, souvinere spoons, charms, anything that was little and delicate, I wanted to collect. I've pretty much given up most of those things now, except for charms, I love building my charm bracelet with small tokens from the places I go. Here is a sampling of things my dad has collected of ther years that influenced me in my early year; Watches, Chess Sets, McDonald's Happy Meal Toys, T-Shirts, German Steins, wind chimes, etc.


• He has a worm farm. It's gorss, but it's resourceful. Basically any watermelon rinds, egg shells, unused parts of food, he give it to the worm and gets himself some compost, which leads to...


• He loves to garden. I remember when we were little and we would be so excited to go and see the prodcue his garden was sprouting up. Everything from grean beans to artichokes, he's grown it. I remember helping pulling weeds and sneaking samplings of the fresh peas from the pod off the vine. Delicious! I did not inherit this love for gardening however, I can't seem to keep plants alive, especially since our patio doesn't get any sun being blocked by building.


• According to his license plate from from Sport's Chalet, He'd rahter be riding his bike. My dad has been riding his bike for as long as I can remember. He rides to work almost everyday, and wouldn't you know I turned into a bicyclist myself.
  
• He recycles. He has a can for recycling and goes and takes in the bottles and cans and you know what he does with the money he gets from it? He saves it up as "fun money" so he can buy things he enjoys, which leads me to...


• He surfs (or is attempting to anyway) - My dad was not a surfer growing up, sure he'd tried it a few times, but never had his own board or went out with my brother or anything, but what I love about my dad is that he isn't afraid to try new things, so with some of his fun money he was able to put it toward a surf board and a couple years ago starting hitting the waves, just proving to me to never say it's too late to try something new.
  

It's amazing looking back the influence that my Dad has been in my life. While my mom and I very much alike, I never really realized all the things my dad and I have in common too.

Happy Birthday Dad! Love you!

I thought this was a sweet picture of my mom and Dad, at my Mom's graduation.... My Dad's so proud!