Summer Trip 2013

WARNING: Many beautiful pictures are below. I am not responsible if it sends you into a depression wondering why you don't live in Belize :)  

You've been warned...

Trent and I had 2 weeks after I graduated BYU & before we started school again (update on all that boring stuff later, maybe, let's get to the good stuff!) So we went to Florida and on a cruise and it was AMAZING. I look at these pictures and wonder why I ever came home. I'm also amazed that we took all these pics and that we actually witnessed all of it firsthand. Like we were there. It was so fun. Best trip ever. Miss it already.

My awesome grandparents gave us a week stay at a Marriott Vacation Club resort for our wedding that we still hadn't used, so we chose Orlando! And we love our cruises so we thought it would be convenient to go on a nice little cruise after. 

This was our villa - it was so nice and so amazing!

And out our back patio... 

After dinner one night w/ our heart balloon :)

First we went to Sea World

Trent got to see Shamu for the first time!

I thank my lucky stars this is as close as we got to a shark this trip - we were nervous about that one after watching shark week the week before!! 

Then we went to....

and fed some alligators

This picture cracks me up! Tell me it doesn't look like the alligator is dying laughing at the other alligators joke...

On the topic- i just love alligators! I think it is SO funny that it looks like they're smiling!!

What can I say - i love smiles :) 
This alligator definitely needs his teeth cleaned though. You think he'd let me? 

I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to us if there was an earthquake while we were standing on this wooden bridge over 130 hungry alligators... yikes...

 This was us on a big tower above the 130 alligators: "let's hurry and take a picture of us" (as the wind is blowing and we hear the wood creaking) "okay yep let's get off now!"

However... If we did end up with the alligators, I think we'd be able to wrestle them... right?

Yep! My little animal lover is so cute. o. m. g. 

I think these animals are a little nicer and might not eat us as quickly if they had the chance...

 Yes those are real. I had to ask like 3 times "are you sure those are real??"

And Trent fed an emu (apparently it's said like eem-you, not ee-moo FYI)

All over the park there were signs that said things like "If you fall in, the alligators WILL eat you!" They don't allow you to put your kids on your shoulders or sit on the railings or anything. Scary!

Wow this picture is huge. haha. These snapshots are courtesy of my lovely iphone photography skills. Not too shabby right? Scary though!

On the topic of getting eaten by alligators... 

Trent and I went on this cute little nature walk. When we got OFF the trail we saw this lovely sign...

There were also signs by all the ponds in our resort area that said...

Okay thats enough about alligators.

Now on to frogs... 

There are TONS in Florida! And even more lizards! They are ALL over the sidewalk. I even accidentally stepped on one... and killed it... I felt so bad! 

Trent took these pics w/ his iphone & my iphone macro lens :)

i love that one - so cute huh!

We found a church to go to on Sunday - took us forever to finally find it but we made it!

We also played tennis one night - it was so fun. And holy humid!! Orlando is seriously the most humid place i've ever been - way more than hawaii! I'm sad for my skin now - it's back in the desert. But it was so fun being in the humidity, and playing tennis w/ my hubby. Needless to say, he kicked my butt. I need a lot more practice. A lot. 

Would you just look at this tub? I need it. 

And i even thought of a floating popcorn dish :)

Our cruise left from Miami, so we had a little road trip!

 One good thing about Utah... No tolls!!! We hate toll booths now!! The guy in one of them told us it costs Florida residents about $3500/year just to drive on the freeway! Kinda takes the FREE out of FREEway!!! 

 Then we went on our cruise! We LOVE cruises! If you've never been on one, you need to go. They are the best. On any other vacation, by the time you pay for all your meals, all your entertainment, hotel, transportation and everything, it is such a good value to just go on a cruise instead! Because all that is included! And you wake up in a different place every day! And the food is amazing, the people are so fun, the shows are fun, there are always fun things going on, and it's just f.u.n. So go on a cruise. 

our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico.

We took a tour of the island, toured a tequila factory (don't worry, they were more than happy to drink our tequila for us...), and snorkeled! oh and Trent saw a Barracuda! He came to me and said "Barracuda" and i was outta there! 

so glad he speaks spanish!!

Trent likes this pic so i kept it.. just look at the scenery haha.

These two little lovebirds!

And these two little lovebirds :)

beautiful sunsets on the boat!

the next day we woke up in Belize!

ahhh... belize....

This is my happy place. Here & Lake Powell.

we were in pure heaven the whole day.

Our heaven will be in belize I think :)

We took this tour with 2 other couples (one from france and one from canada!) to the barrier reef. I hear it's the largest living barrier reef in the world! It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Best snorkeling ever!

Trent took his GoPro - which was the best thing to have!! I'm SO glad we captured so much on it! The only thing is most the footage we got was videos, so i'm gonna talk him into making a cool video of everything we saw! But we held a starfish, we saw stingrays, saw a lobster, tons of cool coral, and hundreds of the coolest fish! Stay tuned for an awesome video...

Our tour guides were so cool! They let us sit on the bow of the boat, and it was like one of the coolest moments ever - just gliding along the perfectly blue water. ahhh

Then they took us to Bannister Island.

That is one of my favorite pictures of the trip! You can't really see but there's colorful kayaks under the little hut - so picturesque!

Trent and I want to own Bannister Island someday. 

It was SO incredible. 

By the time we got there, everyone else's tours had ended, so we got the island ALL to ourselves!! It was SO cool.

This is Trent's favorite picture of the trip- so perfect. 

This cute little family lives on the island. I repeat - they LIVE on Bannister Island. 

The dad was so cute and helpful - him and his wife blew up inflatable tubes for my cute little french friend and i to sit on in the water. 

And their kids were so cute. 

While on the topic - i have NEVER seen so many beautiful black babies in my life as i did these two weeks. I was drooling over every one. Every single black baby we saw was like model status. I need one. And yes, I definitely take after my mom.

You can see Trent swimming in the background, just hanging out with a starfish.

Anyways... this was Trent relaxing on his chair by his little tiki hut. Also another favorite pic.

Don't ask how I left this place - i thought they were gonna have to drag me away!

We also went kayaking off the island.

Love our GoPro! And look at that water!

Perfect in every way. 

Look how smooth the water is! I couldn't believe this was the ocean!

You just can't beat Belize. We had the time of our lives.

If you go here, snorkel the barrier reef and then go to bannister island!

Oh and take us with you!

But the fun didn't stop there! The next day we woke up in Roatan! It's a small island off the coast of Honduras- and Trent has wanted to come here for a long time, so he finally got to.

 We snorkeled here the whole time. And this place got the best snorkeling award! Ever! The water was crystal clear and SO beautiful. oh my gosh. it was like swimming in a huge aquarium.

i love this pic! i love all of them i guess!

 he is my favorite fish :) 

 but this lil fella is my 2nd favorite fish - we saw a ton of these and they were SO cool!! 

 this was one of my favorite moments of the trip - there was this huge school of these purple tangs. We swam RIGHT along with them! Like literally right with them! They didn't even seem to notice us or care - it was so cool.

 you can't really see it, but some of that big school of purple tangs is right by trent to the right. 

 These guys were big fish! They also let us swim right along with them - you can see me in the background - that's not a fish :)

We. Loved. Roatan. 

If you ever go here, go to West Bay Beach/Tabyana Beach. The snorkeling is RIGHT off the shore. the fish swim right up to the shore and the coral is all right there!

 Apparently they have "Islands Gym" there - haha! Had to include that cause i thought it was so funny they copied golds gym :)

Here's our boat: the Carnival Liberty

Crazy story: At midnight that night, we could tell something was going on with the boat so we went up to the top and realized they had completely stopped the ship. We went over to look off the side, and there was this TINY raft with a bunch of people on it waving flashlights! Mind you - we had been sailing in the ocean on a huge boat for 9 hours - we were in the middle of the ocean with nothing around us. They told us in the morning that there had been 8 people on the raft heading to Honduras, but they had run out of food and water so they flagged us down. But they didn't want to come on board! We're pretty sure they were Cubans escaping to Honduras. But seriously- their little raft wasn't even a boat. it didn't even have a motor. You can barely see cuba in the top right of that map, and that's how far they had ROWED. It was crazy. And it was PITCH black outside - like you couldn't even see the horizon - it was just all black. no stars, no moon, no light. I can't even imagine being out there in the middle of nowhere in the ocean in the pitch dark, and we had gone through some storms too. Honduras is so poor and that's what they were going through to escape to there- So sad what people do to escape their bad situations! We are so lucky.

Anyways... 

The next morning we woke up in Grand Cayman!

It was so fun, but so rainy! It poured almost all day!

We went on a little tour to go out to Stingray City!! It looks like Trent was the driver, but

they drive on the opposite side of the road! It's so crazy to see that!

 If you haven't been, Stingray City is about a 20 minute boat ride out to the middle of the ocean! But it's a sandbar, so you can stand up - it's crazy. but the even more crazy part is that there are stingrays everywhere! And they're nice! They'll swim right up to you and let you touch them.  

I think these are the coolest pictures!

 

Trent found a big shell :)

 Trent gasping for breath after swimming under water with them - he calls it beast mode haha

If you ever go to Grand Cayman, go to Stingray City! It was so cool! The tour guides let you hold a stingray

This looks like a new parent picture to me. We're holding our new baby! haha

They say kissing a stingray brings 7 years of good luck!

 I like kissing him better :) while getting a back massage is even better!

 Then they took us snorkeling by some reef!

 Trent likes to hang out at the bottom of the ocean :)

 The rain held off the whole time for us, until we were snorkeling. then it started lightning and thundering. needless to say- it was a long, cold, rainy, boat ride back in the rain!

But we got all dried off, finally, for elegant night on the cruise!

Little plug here for Carnival's chocolate melting cake. 

It is another piece of heaven on earth.

This cruise was the best! We'd do it again in a heartbeat! Any takers?! :)

Trent took these pictures when we are about to get off the boat in Miami - it was earlyyy!

 and we hung out in the Miami airport for ten hours. We went to the only place that had our first BYU game on - the budweiser bar! haha Trent: "uh do you have sodas here too?"

and trent taught me how to play blackjack! We had fun watching people gamble in the casino on the cruise. We're glad we weren't the ones losing all the money! :)

2 weeks all day everyday with my best friend wasn't so bad! It was a good vacation before we start school and get all stressed out and never see each other anymore. And we're not sick of each other AT all & still want to be together every second :) 

My favorite thing: traveling with my favorite person in the world! :) 

Luckily we have we have lots more traveling to do - so many other places to go, people to see, and things to do! 

Here's to fun trips!