Piano recital

The girls waiting for the recital to start

Despite Kassie being very nervous, she did great!

She did a wonderful job!

The girls with their piano teacher

Tornado

Monday night was a little exciting when the sirens went off letting us know we were in a tornado warning. We had lots of hail and strong winds. What was even freakier was the rotation of the clouds over our front yard. I've never seen anything like it. We are very thankful we were kept safe and sound. Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky. There were some homes that were destroyed.

Pinewood Derby

Kaden has been excited for weeks to participate in his first Pinewood Derby. Papa helped Kaden cut out his car since Mark and I were gone on our cruise. When we got home, Kaden and Mark got to work putting the car together and decorating it. Kaden was so proud of it! Now for those of you who know Kaden, know that he can be very sensitive about almost everything. He kept saying that he hoped he would win and we kept telling him it wasn't about the winning. We knew that if his car didn't do well we were going to have a train wreck of a child. When it was Kaden's turn to race for the first time, all we prayed for was that his car wouldn't come in last. Low and behold it came in second. We were so relieved! Every time his car had to race we just prayed that it wouldn't come in last. It came in first from then on. It was sooo exciting! It was fun to watch him and his friend cheer for the other cars in their troop. We combined with another ward and so for the results Kaden came in 2nd. He was 1st in our ward. It was truly an exciting day for our Kaden and a huge relief for his parents.

Getting ready to race.

Yeah Baby!

1st place

Getting his medal

The car

Kaden with his troop

A happy Kaden and his Dad

The Cruise

Mark and I decided it was time to spend some some quality time together, so we went on a cruise. We took a 5 day cruise on the Navigator Of The Seas through Royal Caribbean and had the time of our lives. There was so much to see and so much to do that when we got home we felt like we needed a vacation to recoup from our vacation.

Here we are waiting at the Tri-Rail station. We took an hour long train ride to Fort Lauderdale where we caught our ship.

Waiting some more

While we were waiting, an Amtrak train passed us

Mark looking out over Fort Lauderdale

The first night we were there they had a Set Sail parade on the Promenade

We played golf the first day we were there.

We took this picture from the helicopter pad

I'm on top of the world!

Mark looks like he's praying to some ocean God

Our beautiful dining room. It was hard to believe we were actually on a ship!

Formal night was so much fun. It was nice being able to dress up and to see what others were wearing. This staircase was a popular place to take pictures.

Out on the pool deck

Having fun on the pool deck

Still having fun

Every night our room attendate would make an animal out of towels.

Our favorite day was spent at a place call Playa Uvas.

This is what you call paradise!

The pavilion where we ate lunch.

We went snorkeling which was a fun experience. We saw a sting ray, barracuda, lots of Dori fish and Mark even saw an octopus.

I called this the mushroom tree

Trying to climb a tree to pick a coconut. :)

The view to the entrance of Playa Uvas

Our beautiful cruise ship

You don't really realize how big your boat is until you are standing next to it. It's totally amazing!

Leaving the port in Cozumel

More pictures of the port in Cozumel

The elephant

Our next stop was in Belize. Here we went to see the Mayan Ruins.

Here is a tree that grows a certain kind of nuts that the Mayans used.

A very long walk up to the top

One of the temples

A view from one of the temples

The sting-ray

We loved walking along the Promenade

Looking down on the Metropolis theater. Every night there was a show to attend.

This picture gives you an idea of how many decks there are. It's taken from the Promenade. Keep in mind there are many more decks than this picture shows.

The curtain in the Metropolis Theater

Waiting for one of the shows

The hallway leading to our room

Our stateroom - Deck 9

The swan

We were getting ready to participate in a game show.

Here is Mark coming back from turning in our answer to the game question.

The last night there they had a farewell parade.

Taken on the Promenade after the parade

Having a little fun in the gift shop

Mark and the invisible pitchfork

We had so much fun on our cruise but as you can see we got worn out. Here we are sitting in the airport waiting to go home.