February

I adore this boy of mine! He soon will be 8 and I can't believe it. 

 Carmen had her first Erg Sprints competition and it was pretty intense to watch it all. 

Dallin was building a Lego set. He's just discovered that he can do it all by himself! I'm sad that no one lets me build them anymore because they are super fun to make. 

 David and I got to escape for a trip alone. We spontaneously decided to take a cruise! But first....on our way to the cruise ship, David realized he forgot to send his mother a Valentine's Day card. So we had to stop and take care of that before boarding. I love that he cares so much about his mom.

The week before our trip a virus broke out in Asia that was quickly spreading and an entire cruise ship got quarantined off shore. Our kids were so worried that we would go and get stuck for several weeks. We took a lot of extra precautions to make sure we washed our hands really well whenever we could.  

 There she is, the Disney Dream! 

As soon as the boarded the boat and found our room, we headed to explore and found ourselves getting a couples massage before we even left the port! It was so luxurious. 

Our first time getting off the boat at port in Nassau, Bahamas. I didn't take any pictures, but we walked down to a little beach and rented some chairs. The water was pretty chilly, but we both took a dip and then read books in the sun. We met a guy there who had attended school at Fishburn Military School in Waynesboro! Small world. 

I let David in on the secret that you could ask for Mickey Ears ice cream anytime you wanted and the crew member would get one for you. He got one everyday!

We mostly spent a lot of time in the spa area and ordering special drinks and reading books.  This was  a quiet corner of the ship where we found comfy chairs that we napped in, and read for a long time. I've been reading Boys in the Boat, which is such a good story. 

We found this on our bed for Valentine's Day. Every night there was some towel creation with chocolates left on our bed. 

Here we were arriving at Castaway Cay the next day. This is Disney's private island. 

Here we had booked a port adventure to go kayaking. It turned out to be a really long walk across the island and then a short little kayak trip. But it was beautiful and I enjoyed the scenery. 

We kayaked across this that little tip of land and then back again. 

After kayaking and making the trek back across to the other side of the island, ate a delicious buffet lunch and then got some bikes and headed over to the snorkeling beach.

Once back on the boat that evening, it was Pirate Night! Everyone dresses up at pirates and there was a big party on deck with fireworks, It was an impressive show and we even did a little dancing. 

The next day was a full day at sea. We explored the ship all over, but there was no way we would have been able to see every part of the boat. It was so massive. We relaxed in the spa some more and took a few classes. 

These are our new friends that we ate dinner with every night. One couple from the UK and the other from Singapore. And our waiter was so much fun each night with jokes, riddles and tricks. 

After disembarking, we went straight to the Orlando Temple. That evening we walked around Disney Springs and had a fancy Valentines dinner. The place was booked and had no opening, but David always has a way of talking his way to get what he wants. 

Our final day of our trip we spent at the Magic Kingdom. It felt odd to be there without the kids. And it was PACKED. I've never seen the park so full. It was hard to even walk any where. 

We watched a parade and then waited in line for nearly 90 minutes just to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. We were pretty tired after this and headed back to the hotel to just relax. 

A friend sent me this picture of Dallin at his Valentine school party. 

Once back home, we attend the Meriwether day of service and worked to beautify the school. Dallin, David and I cleaned out the butterfly garden, while Charlotte worked on this mosaic in the hallway. 

These horses are across the street from our place, we love to walk over and pet them. 

Charlotte's ukulele group preformed at Art Fest in the West. They played Somewhere Over the Rainbow and then she was interviewed about her experience in the group.