Tragedy

Yes, it is tragic. That I didn't come to this place sooner!

It is sad enough to be leaving this fantastic city next week, made even worse when I realized what a gem this botanical garden is. Seventy nine acres of pure delight for the eyes, I'm tellin' ya. Two days a week it is free to county residents and I walked around all morning thinking "What is wrong with me?!? I should have been here every week!"

The other tragedy was that my camera was flashing the battery warning the whole time. But I was still able to catch a few pictures that I adore now:

Wrap It Up

Dominica was the one day we decided to do a cruise excursion. Everything else we set up on our own or figured out once we got there. But we were so happy with this one--we went on a tubing excursion through the jungle. Then they fed us an authentic meal (beans and rice, Justin's favorite) and took us to this waterfall in the rain forest (where it did, indeed, rain on us).

Have you ever tried to swim into a waterfall? It's surprisingly difficult, I could barely breathe. But it was awesome. Afterwards, I said I felt like I was having a panic attack without the panic.

Last stop: St Thomas. I was pretty stingy about when I'd take my camera along. (Which explains why it looks like I wore the same thing all week...) Most days I wanted to just enjoy the island without the liability and worry of the camera (which has counted for two birthdays and a Christmas so far :) ) But I was so glad I had it in St Thomas, I wanted it every time I turned around.

the gang's all here: justin, ashley, bobby, katherine, melody, and paul

{justin and i argued over who contributed most to this incredibly awkward pose the two of us are doing...feel free to weigh in}

Most Delicious: I'd say it was these banana daiquiris we had on the mountain top, but we collectively ate close to 88 ounces of delicious steak that night! Justin should have his picture on the wall of that restaurant for his impressive eating skills which included no less than 2 appetizers, 1 salad, 22 ounces of meat, 2 lobster tails, and 2 desserts. It was the last night of our trip, so his stomach was well trained by then.

Contender for Best Moment of the Cruise: So there we are, snorkeling around in St Thomas. Boom--sea turtle. Boom, boom, boom, more sea turtles! Boom, sting ray! I was already content with my snorkeling experience when we came across all this. Earlier, Melody and I swam around with a huge school of fish. I felt like a little kid, just swimming wherever the school took us. But those turtles! So sweet. We met this girl out in the ocean who had an underwater camera and took some of us swimming and holding the turtles (and swimming a healthy ten feet away from the ray, thankyouverymuch).

Funniest Moment: One night Justin was one of six people to get hypnotized. Man, if I could watch that every night, I would never have to do an ab work out ever again. I wish we could have taped the whole thing, but Katherine caught this at the end. The guy hypnotized them to shout "I LOVE YOU!" if anyone said his name, Joshua Sant, even after they were awake and out of hypnosis. So we walked Justin over by another girl who'd been hypnotized and tested it:

We Be Cruisin'

Welcome aboard the Caribbean Princess

First stop, the lovely Aruba. We packed as light as we could for this cruise so we could haul down our snorkeling equipment. {Turns out you can pretty much rent it anywhere for $5, our mistake.} Nevertheless, we had a great time snorkeling and exploring Aruba.

Lifetime Goal, check: On to Bon Aire. A few months before we even planned this trip, Justin read some article on the top 10 dives in the world. The man LOVES to dive and made it his life goal to do all of them. I dive...but I don't love it. In fact, it usually leaves me exhausted and puking. When he found out our cruise would be stopping at none other than Numero Dos on his list, he couldn't stop talking about it.

The. Most. Beautiful dive of my life. Truly unbelievable. The reason being {and why it was ranked number two in that dive article} that you can start your dive right from the shore. No half hour boat ride, no lugging around heavy tanks and equipment, no puking through your regulator. We just sat down, strapped on our equipment, and took off. The beginning looked rather barren but a few yards away we dropped off a ledge and were in some pretty spectacular scenery. I actually felt surprisingly energized afterwards.

Most bizarre moment of the day: Yinny's house. After Bobby, J, and I finished the dive, we wanted to go check out the large populations of flamingos they have on the island, but we didn't have time to make it out to the flats. We happened to talk to a local who had a friend nearby who owned her own. A few things got lost in translation {we thought we were looking for a woman named Jinny, with one arm, and large dogs} but we eventually found her. Turns out Yinny has two arms and large dolls. And all this:

Welcome in our fantasy garden, indeed.
She's an artist. And all this is for sale.

And she has six flamingos walking around her yard.

{...melody, justin, and paul watching Grenada pull into view...}

Grenada was a pretty mellow day. Except that Justin jumped off a 45-55 foot cliff into a waterfall. We found a little place that makes pure nutmeg oil. For the Paces and all you other Essential Oil fans, it'll cure whatever ails ya (Amber, there's an oil for that!) Later that afternoon I was laying on Justin's stomach on the beach and this fella came up to serenade us:

I'm not going to say we deserved or even needed this vacation. Come on now, my life isn't that rough. I know this was a total indulgence. So I'm thankful for my mother-in-law who came to watch my kiddos while we were gone (thank you, thank you, thank you!) and never once made us feel bad for pampering ourselves. We love you, Kath.

I'm working on one more post to finish out the week.

Ms. Hayden

Ms. Hayden, you made it! Oh, this has been a long year for you and me. I think I enjoy you now more than I ever have, you are such a delight at one. Your personality came out of nowhere the past two weeks and we are loving it. I like the way you're headed, kid. I find another reason to love you even more every day. Happy Birthday, my little love. -mom

Why So Happy?

Why are these people so happy? Why? I'll tell you why!!

They didn't know that at that exact moment, thousands of miles away, the latter had left two gallons of milk in the trunk of her husband's car which were currently exploding and spoiling while the car sat in the sun for over a week.

nice.

Look Out

People keep telling me it is just about to get a whole lot harder. But this past weekend still felt pretty good, I'm so proud of my guy.

The fan club, Justin's mom and long-time friend, Kyler:

A tornado ripped through Kirksville the night before we came into town. I feel awful for our fellow KCOM students and families who are displaced right now--good luck to each of you. As a result, I feel things were a bit shuffled around all weekend and I didn't get to spend nearly the time I wanted with our old friends. (We all split up for 3rd/4th year rotations.) But thank you so much to those dear friends who helped us get through these past four years. It was wonderful to see you and your barely-recognizable children :)

Let's Get Started

One to make sure bobby's represented:

And one more blurry one I tried to hurry and catch when the tour guide joined the party. I think he came out to tell us to be quiet and quit jumping, but he succumbed to peer pressure.

We met up with the Aanderuds and Fields for the ultimate, spoiled graduation trip. Isn't that a good looking group?

We took a 7-night Caribbean cruise out of Puerto Rico last Sunday. We flew in with the Fields the night before and decided to just share a hotel room for the night. I was super pleased when we got there and found THIS:

Nothing but a glass wall separating us and the bathroom. Nice. A never-nude nightmare :) (Don't worry, Katherine's only sitting there for picture purposes.)

We spent the morning playing in the ocean and the afternoon playing in San Juan and had a great day. And this was all before we even got on the boat!

Stay tuned...

Shout Hooray

We've been up to a whole lot of this lately:

But today is Mr. J's birthday and he keeps kicking me off the computer with the "it's my birthday..." card. Lots to update, but will have to wait.

Happy Birthday Justin!!