After my last post yesterday, and my remark about assuming we wouldn't have another thunderstorm for a while, God decided to show me up! Last night as I was lying in bed, lo and behold, what do I see? That's right, lightning! And this time, we actually got the whole experience! Rain, thunder, wind, everything! It was amazing! Just had to let all you faithful readers that I really have no idea what I'm talking about :)
The weather around here has been WONDERFUL this last week! It was sunny with nice breezes, and highs were in the mid- to upper-80's. It was lovely!! Tyler said it was too hot, but he's already become a Northwest wussy :) We not only got to enjoy the warm weather, we also got experience our very first Northwest thunderstorm this weekend!! I cannot even express how happy it made me to see the flashes of lightning and hear the rumbles of thunder! The storm was about 15-20 miles away from our house, so we didn't get any rain, but it was still amazing. I have missed the midwest storms, and this gave me a little taste of home. I assume that it will not happen again for some time, as this is the first storm we've experienced in the 22 months we've lived here, but it was fun while it lasted. I tried to watch as long as I could, but ended up falling asleep to the show :)
I can't believe how fast the time is going! June is almost over...where did the month go??! We have been keeping busy. Tyler has been working LOTS of overtime as he prepares for a big design review. I have been readying myself for KTC coming up in less than a month. I've gotta get someone to donate 400 glazed donuts and 400 glazed donut holes... :)
We have not been diving again since we got back from the cruise, but that will all change in the next few days!! We have been gradually acquiring our own gear, and in less than 2 weeks, we should have everything we need to go diving once again! :) We are really looking forward to owning our own stuff so we can take a splash whenever we feel the urge.
We have finally gotten some sunshine around here, and it has been lovely!! It's still pretty cool (mid-upper 60's), but at least the sun makes it feel more like summer! :) I must admit, I really miss the thunderstorms of the mid-west. It just doesn't seem like summer without having to watch the skies for tornadoes!
We have a new little nephew, born May 28th. Marshal and Rachel (Tyler's brother and his wife) have added Ryan Caleb to their family and from what I hear, he is a great baby!
Danny and Ryan playing together...so cute!!
And last, but certainly not least, we have company coming next month!! I get to see my parents after being apart for nearly a year! :) I'm really excited to get to hang out with them. So that's what's new with us, what about you?
Since I requisitioned your help for snack ideas, I thought you all might enjoy reading what the final decisions were. Here is the list:
Monday (Samson): rice cake with frosting, raisin eyes, apple mouth, pull-n-peel licorice hair; pretzel sticks with jumbo marshmallows as dumbbells
Tuesday (King Hezekiah/Belt of Truth): fruit by the foot to use as a belt; they'll also tear off a little bit and decorate it like a crown; granola "power" bars
Wednesday (Isaiah/Shoes of Peace): twinkies cut in half like shoes, pretzel rods (thick) stuck in as legs, pull-n-peel licorice as laces
Thursday (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego/Shield of Faith): rice cake with red frosting, 4 teddy grahams to stand up in the "furnace", and red hots
Friday (Jesus/Helmet of Salvation): glazed donuts cut in half and propped up on the cut end (picture a rainbow) to represent the tomb, donut holes to represent the rock that sealed the tomb, and string cheese
Thanks so much for the ideas!!
Life has slowed down a bit around our house since we got back from our trip. We are working on acquiring our own SCUBA gear so we can go diving whenever we feel like it. Hopefully we'll be fully outfitted by July! Tyler has been working more hours to finish up work before his next design review. I have co-hosted 2 baby showers in the last month which have taken some time to prepare for. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE vacations, but they really raise your expectations of "fun" to an almost impossible level that you have to deal with when you return to "real" life. Although, I freely admit, I wouldn't want to not experience the "ultra-fun" on trips just to skip the eventual let-down to reality! Does anybody else deal with this?
I am in charge of snacks for our church's "Kids Town Camp" (aka. VBS) this year, and I'm getting stumped on ideas. Just wondering if any of my faithful blog readers out there have any creative ideas for "superhero" themed snacks. We are studying Biblical superheros, and the main characters are Samson, King Hezekiah, Isaiah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and Jesus. We're also inlcuding the armor of God as part of the study, so we can utilize the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the spirit. I thought maybe for the shield of faith day I'd have sugar cookies that the kids could decorate with frosting and sprinkles and those would look like shields. I had also thought about one of the days (maybe the last day?) having gingerbread men cookies and coming up with little things for each of the pieces of armor (licorice for the sword, etc). Let me know if you all have any brilliant ideas! Your help is much appreciated :)
I just posted all our underwater pictures...click on the link if you want to see them!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189806&l=e9e2c&id=17026677
We are back! And boy, did we have an amazing time!! The trip started off with an interesting hotel stay on Miami Beach last Saturday night. The hotel was probably built in the 1950's and hadn't really been updated since then! 
From there, we just spent time exploring our home away from home until dinner. Monday, our 3 year anniversary, Tyler and I got up to watch the sunrise as we docked in Nassau. 
Our stop in St. Thomas was Wednesday. It was a nice little island, if not a little dirty. My inlaws said it reminded them a lot of Kenya. We shopped in the morning (supposedly St. Thomas is GREAT for shopping, but we did not have any luck at all!!), and ended up kinda depressed because we didn't find any good deals. The afternoon made up for the disappointing morning, though, as we snorkled at Coki Beach. 
It was a little crowded, but the underwater world totally made up for it! We saw (and touched) an octopus that was swimming along which was pretty cool. We also saw several squid, lots of tropical fish, a pretty large fish (I don't know what it was), a small sea turtle, and lots of coral. It was so fun to just float along the top of the ocean and take a peek at everything teeming underneath me. So, like I said, the snorkling definitely brought up my opinion of St. Thomas. Thursday brought our day at St. Maarten, and also, our first SCUBA dive without an instructor!!
I was a little nervous, as we had only done shore dives (walk out into the water with all your gear on and then descend to your desired depth, then ascend and swim back in and walk up the shore), and this was a boat dive (ride out into the ocean and step off a platform with all your gear on and descend to your desired depth, then ascend and climb up a boat ladder with all your gear on and ride back). I would love to say my "giant stride" into the deep was graceful and professional, but really I basically just face-planted and then recovered nicely. The dive itself was absolutely stunning. It felt like we were swimming around in a huge swimming pool (the water was 79 degrees) and there just happened to be fish living in it. We didn't see too much life the first dive, but what we did see was cool. A medium sized tuna fish, brightly-colored tropical fish, and lots of coral. I just can't even describe the feeling of being under 60 feet of water, perfectly able to breathe, and just hanging out as a fish swims by your mask. Once the dive was over, we took a ride to another dive spot that was much calmer (the first site was very rough and several people ended up not being able to relax enough to get down, and so didn't dive and ended up getting seasick as they waited on the boat for the rest of us to finish). This site had a sunken submarine and a fishing boat that we were able to penetrate. It was pretty cool seeing these old structures just rusting away under the ocean. Lots of fish were using them as shelter, and we were able to get some up-close-and-personal time with an 18 inch puffer fish. :) Our dive guide kinda showed us the ropes for a few minutes at this site and then let us wander and go explore where we wanted. The visibility wasn't as great there (only about 30ft as opposed to 100ft at the first site), but it was still soooo fun! Once that dive was over, we rode the boat back to the dive shop and then filled out our divelogs...we are now in the green pages (the 2nd level of divers)!! 
We went back to the ship for lunch and then Tyler and Jerry (my father-in-law) went back to the same spot to snorkle, and Jeannie (my mother-in-law) and I went shopping. We had much better luck at St. Maarten and came home with several shirts, a necklace, and a few other odds and ends. 
One cool thing about St. Maarten was that instead of taking a cab everywhere, they had "water taxis" that you paid a flat rate and got to ride as much as you wanted all day. Friday was another "fun day at sea" and we spent alot of the day reading again, and went to several activities onboard. It was also our 2nd "formal" night so we got to dress up again (Tyler was "thrilled" but he played nice). 
Saturday was our final day on the ship (*sob*) but the day was full of onboard activities including (but not limited to): the newlywed game, learning how to fold towels into animal shapes, and the galley tour (that's the kitchen for all you non-sailors). 
We kept busy, but not overly-so. It was a lovely way to end the cruise. The food was great the whole time. I'll just give you some examples of the fine dining we experienced: duck, lobster, prime rib, filet mignon, red snapper, rack of lamb, pork chops, salmon, and shrimp. Those were all main courses and of course, they had fancier names on the menu, but you get the idea. Some appetizers included shrimp cocktail, lots of yummy soups, escargo, smoked duck, and sushi. The desserts were also pretty decent :), and consisted of baked alaska, cherries jubilee, cappucino pie, tiramisu, and my personal favorite, warm chocolate melting cake! I seriously had this cake every night of the cruise. It's nice and cake-y on the outside, and the inside is like hot fudge. With vanilla ice cream, you just couldn't beat it! We liked it so much, we came home and found the recipe for it online, and I have the batter sitting in my fridge as I write this, just waiting to be baked in individual serving portions! 
As for the entertainment on board, Carnival really did a pretty good job. None of us were really thrilled with the singing/dancing shows, but there were comedians several nights that kept us laughing. Jerry was very into karaoke, and we sat through a few pretty terrible renditions of Elvis and Elton John to humor him. :) We also watched a movie on deck one night, which was pretty fun. I am quite sure I'm forgetting things, but this post is monstrous. Just ask if you want to know any more!! I would HIGHLY recommend going on a cruise to ANYONE! There is something to do for any age and life stage. 
Oh, I just remembered a detail: there was a group on board called "Santa on Vacation" that was made up of about 60 "santas." It seemed every time we turned a corner, we were face to face with old St. Nick himself. Made things interesting anyway...
