This Time Last Week... Day 3

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

This may have been the most beautiful part of the trip - the little bit of the island we did get to see was so lush and green, with everything from pristine beaches to the Blue Mountains, and here's one amazing view we got of our ship from the tour bus:

The beauty and greatness of our morning in Jamaica was all due to "Phenomenal Phil"...
He took us to the Dunn's River Falls where we climbed upstream and played in the cool water...

And he took our group to lunch to what seemed to be one of those "hole-in-the-wall-but-best-authentic-food-you'll-find!" type places that was covered in beautiful tropical flowers...

It was a great way to experience the Jamaican culture... ya mon! no problem, mon!

(ok, ok... I know I am back in Colorado now and have absolutely no authority to talk like that... I got carried away for a moment!)

So what kind of adventures were Hamp and Sam having while we were playing on the island? Well if you look closely at this next picture, you'll see them with their grandparents waving goodbye to us from the balcony! (7th from the left, top floor)

I'm pretty sure between the grandparents, the arcade, the pool, the mini-golf course, the free ice cream, the basketball court, etc. etc. etc.... that they had a great time, too!

This Time last Week... Day 2

Labadee, Haiti



(in case you were wondering, no this private resort town on the Northern coast was not directly affecteded by the January earthquake and yes, Royal Caribbean is doing their part to help with the relief effort)

So... here is the beautiful beach where we spent our first day off the boat! It was amazing! A total paradise... beautiful beaches, palm trees, lounge chairs, hammocks, cool rocky paths through the tropical forest that led to more beaches, chairs and hammocks... and there were so many activities for those that preferred to "do something" - a zip line, a roller coaster, jet skiis, sea kayaks, and shopping! As for Hamp and Sam, they spent most of the day playing in the kids' water park! Here are my future hydro-engineers:

As for the adults, we mostly preferred to do this:
But we did get some fun time in the big "wipe-out" water park! I was so proud of Hamp for going up and down that big slide!

Yes... this time last week we were SO happily lazing around the beach and getting pretty comfortable with cruise-life! Here's the nuclear family on our way back to the ship...... and tomorrow: JAMAICA!

This Time Last Week...

Well, we have had ourselves some really great adventures recently! And so... in order to allow full appreciation of them I plan to spread out the sharing of photos and stories and videos (!) all week, hopefully posting each day with what adventures we were having

this time last week!

That being said, last Monday Hamp and Sam were with their family sailing the Caribbean Sea on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas cruise ship:

Isn't she amazing? Yeah - she's huge, and so much fun! There was so much to do on the boat that a full day at sea last Monday didn't even scratch the surface... but the boys gave it their best to do all the fun stuff right away, like play in the kids' pool:

and eat lots of free ice cream!!!

We celebrated Dado's 60th birthday with a formal dinner and lots of wine and fun gifts...

Needless to say, being home from vacation is a bit of a let-down! I have piles and piles of laundry, messages and emails to return, mail to sort through and plenty of chores around the house that kindly waited for my return! But I certainly can't complain... in fact the gentle rocking motion that I still feel when I stand still is just a sweet reminder of what I was doing this time last week...

ski day 7

No school yesterday... so we hit the slopes, of course! It was another beautiful day... warm, sunny... now I'm just sounding redundant! So I'll let the couple of pictures I took show you just how fun it was to be skiing with friends!

Here's what Hamp did while he wasn't on the slopes!

ski day 6

Another great ski day at Sunlight!

And the mountain lived up to its name today... warm and sunny - perfect for Spring skiing!

Hamp was a super-skiier today... he did several runs from the top of the mountain and made some really nice turns. Both boys (and mom & dad, too!) enjoyed the sunshine and being outside!
Here's Hamp all geared up and ready for another run!

(by the way, I found my old camera and brought it along... I just couldn't imagine a ski day without pictures!)

Grrrrr...

Well, I won't have any new pictures for a little while. I went to take an awesome shot of Sam in his best Olympic skiier pose with goggles and pajamas on... when I found my camera was out-of-order. After exchanging emails with Canon Tech Supprot, I realized all was lost. So we're trading it in for a new model... which should arrive sometime next week! I'm sure with a new camera to play with there will be many, many more random funny shots of the boys and their adventures! Until then - peace and happy weekend!