ST. CROIX

In August, Justin and I went to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands for our 10th anniversary!! It was so much fun and so beautiful. What a trip. It's a pretty small island and isn't extra touristy, so we were able to see just about everything and still have a great time.

We got to the island at about 10 o'clock at night and had to drive our rental car to our hotel on the other side of the island in the dark. That was quite and adventure in itself.

The next morning we got up early and headed out on a sailboat to Buck Island. We snorkeled in the reef out there, which is so beautiful that it is a national park. The hurricane winds had come through just before we got there so most of the exciting fish had been scared off, but we did see a barracuda and some lobsters.

Most of the pictures Justin took are on video, so this is all I have of snapshots.

This is a look at St. Croix from our sailboat on our way back from Buck Island.
While at the island, we hiked to the top to this lookout point. It was beautiful and and extremely hot, so we were pretty excited to get back down in to the water.

That night we went on a night kayak tour. It was so amazing to see the bioluminescence in the water, but so scary being on the ocean in a kayak in the dark!

We had the neatest kayaks that we paddled with our feet and Justin steered with a little rudder in the back. Quite the workout, too!

The next day we took a drive through the rain forest and found these amazing trees. We think they were mahogany, but we're not sure.

Later we headed to Christiansted to do some souvenir shopping and had lunch at the best place. Angry Nate's had the best lime and a coconut and southwest blackbean soup!! Topped off by some tasty truffles from the candy shop!

After shopping we drove around the island and headed to Point Udall, which is the easternmost point of the united states. Justin thought it was so interesting.

We found a branch to attend church while we were there and met some couple missionaries who were from Malad and knew Justin's grandma. I think they were pretty excited to see someone from Idaho!

After church we headed Scuba diving. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done, but definitely worth it! We only saw an octopus and a really big jellyfish, but I was just glad that I finally passed off all of my certification to get in the water.

And last, but not least, I have to show our hotel. It was amazing. These pictures really don't do it justice. It was what I had always imagined staying in at a tropical location!! Beautiful!

This is the view from our room

This is just outside our room

This is the walkway from the front desk to the restaurants and beach at the resort

We had a Jeep Wrangler for our rental car so we drove to the top of the mountain above our hotel to find a tide pool that is supposed to be up there, but got a little lost. This is a view of our resort from the top of the mountain! So beautiful and so much fun!!!

Back to School

Yes, we are finally back to blogging and I've decided to start my catching up with the first day of school. Although it was almost 3 weeks ago, it still feels pretty new around here. You know, still battling the homework schedule, getting up early and actually getting dressed and combing hair within an hour's time. I will have to admit, though, that I'm really enjoying a clean house for a few hours each day!

Ellie is in 3rd grade this year. Holy cow, I'm old!!

Anna is a big second grader this year

Ogden is keeping busy driving all of the neighbors nuts ringing their doorbells trying to find someone to play with him

And Truman, well Truman is going through attention withdrawals and wishing his other mothers were home to give him whatever he wants

Amber's Birthday

Today is my beautiful wife’s birthday, barely a product of the 80’s (the only hint I think I am allowed to give), and since I didn’t make her breakfast in bed, I didn’t have time to let the Grapenuts sit in the milk long enough to make them palatable for her, I thought I might be able to redeem myself by posting something on her blog….a very humiliating experience for any husband.

Happy Birthday to you babe! Thank you for working so hard for us, we love you and hope you have an enjoyable day.

Rock-a-Bye Baby

Looking for Truman today and this is where I found him.

Maybe he was tired and was trying to rock himself to sleep!

Anna's Gymnastics Performance

Last weekend, Anna had her year-end gymnastics extravaganza. It was a crowded house which made for awful picture taking. I couldn't believe how people would just get up and walk right in front of everyone in the middle of a performance. Needless to say, most of my pictures are of strangers standing in the way. I even had Ellie standing on a table trying to get better shots, but we'll just say, she needs a little work on waiting for the focus before clicking the button.

Anna did a great job, though, and has loved her gym class this year. She's getting to be quite the gymnast, and my furniture is getting quite wore out!


Way to go, Anna!
(and nice farmer tan)

Ogden's Quotes of the Day

Quote #1:

Ogden: Mom, let's go buy some money so you can sign me up for swimming lessons!

Quote #2:

Ogden: Mom, can I have a fruit snack?

Mom: I don't have any fruit snacks.

Ogden: You've got to learn how to buy some.

Truman's Birthday

Friday was Truman's birthday but Justin was gone on a fly fishing trip, so Truman had to wait until Justin got home on Saturday night to get his cake and presents. Something tells me he didn't really mind.

He was so fun to watch and actually caught on to the present unwrapping pretty fast.

I think he was more excited for a big box to climb on than to actually play with his lawn mower.

I had to get a little bubble lawn mower because they always remind me of Clay.
When Clay was little, our neighbor girl had a little bubble lawn mower and he would sneak over to their house every day and steal it. He's pretty smart because my parents finally bought him his own so he'd leave hers alone.

I can already tell Truman and I are going to spend many hours together this summer.

I was trying to find a good idea for a cake and came across this little monkey one. I always call Truman "my little monkey", so this was perfect. Oh, and don't mind the creepy face. I couldn't find the black licorice ropes I needed and the only thing I could find in my cupboards were sliced almonds. I know it looks a little scary but it tasted delicious. And guess what kind of cake is inside? You bet ya, banana!! Mmm, yum!

I think he liked it!!

We hope you had a fun day, Truman, you're getting way too big!!

Happy Birthday, TRUMAN

Today is Truman's big day!! He is now a great big one year old. What a fun year it has been.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tru!

Manwaring Adventures

So, here's just a recap of what we did last week.

Monday night we went and flew kites for FHE.

Anna and Ellie
Truman, Ogden, Anna, and Justin

Ogden

Ogden and Anna


Wednesday night Justin wanted to head up to Wolverine to pick out a camping spot for his scouts for Friday night, so we went along. I didn't think he was serious when he mentioned hiking up to forty horse cave or we would have dressed a little more appropriately. We'll just say, Justin, Ellie, and Truman were the only hikers with good shoes on.

We still had fun, though.

For Christmas, Justin's sister, Natalie, gave us a book called Back Country Roads Idaho, or something like that. Justin has been aching to go hunt down one of the spots in the book, so on Saturday, we headed out to a part of Idaho I didn't even know existed to find a waterfall.

The kids were starving for some lunch when we were only about 4 miles from our spot, so we finally gave in and let them eat. There was sagebrush everywhere, so we had to picnic in the back of the truck.

When we were about 3 miles from our spot, we had to turn around because there was too much snow on the road. We all had such a fun time all crammed in the car together, though, that we'll probably attempt it in a few weeks when the snow has melted.