Escape to Paradise

Craig and I initially planned on taking just one get away trip in February. However, when Craig heard about Freedom Fest in Nassau, Bahamas in January we quickly started to work out the details to make that happen. This was the second year Mark Skousen organized this 'World Economic Summit'. We were acutally excited about the speakers and rubbing shoulders with big wigs and meeting new people. I mean, how cool to hear Peter Schiff in person while staying at Atlantis in THE BAHAMAS in January! It's a no brainer. You make these opportunities happen. Thanks to Craig's mom and some awesome friends here-our kids were taken care of.

Check out the view from our ROOM. It was so heavenly to hear the waves crashing while sleeping.

We left on a Friday and arrived that evening. We sunburned on the beach on Saturday. We attended the amazing branch there on Sunday.

I was impressed with the spiritual strength of the members! We had fun talking to the elders and locals. The sunday school teacher was a HOOT! Her name was Alseda. (We thought it was unique that it was close to Craig's mom-Elzada). She was quick on her feet, laughed easily, and called on the visitors more than the ward members. She called us, "Beautiful lady.....and Handsome man" It wasn't until we were sitting in Sunday School and saw Mark Skousen there that we realized, "Oh he's related to THE Cleon Skousen" That was when the real fun began when we chatted after church with him and his cousin Mimi and her Husband George Murdock. We learned cool tidbits about them. We were humbled to be speaking to these millionaires who were the kindest people, who made you feel like we mattered and they cared about us!

We went to class Monday, part of Tuesday and flew home Wed. I could go on and on about the people we met and things we learned. I'll just simplify by saying it was a great opportunity to have...knowledge is power. Now on to more pictures:

We walked through the shark tunnel at the resort.

We rented wave runners for an hour to tour around a bit.

We stopped at a little island nearby.

We are hooked....So far in the few travels we've taken we really have fallen in love with the beaches of the Carribean. What's better than white sand, warm turquoise water!

February 21 we took the staff of our first practice on the Carnival's 7 day Mexican Riveria Cruise. It was so much fun. The last time we were on a cruise was 10 years ago to the Bahamas. We enjoyed going with other people to visit and hang out with. However, Craig made it clear to the staff that they didn't have to feel like we needed to do everything together. All he requested was we have dinner together each evening. For two couples this was their first time in a foreign country. I enjoyed watching them have this experience. It was fun to see them take note of the taxis, living conditions of the poorer areas, and the infamous little children on mopeds without helmets. Oh welcome to the world outside of America! They all had fun listening to Craig speak Spanish with the locals.

Here we all are dolled up for the formal dinner. We look pretty good eh?

Our first two days were on sea. As we headed south it gradually got warmer. Good thing we had clear blue skies and hot sun on all three ports!! We didn't do any cool excursions other than jet ski. Our main goal was reading and getting a tan! Seriously, it was all about the food and the beaches for us.


1. Puerto Vallarta. Too bad my battery died and my spare was on the ship. My pictures of this city is limited. Here is a photo of a chapel downtown on the square.

They had a nice board walk with many statues.

The terrain was mountainous and lush. It actually made us think of Columbia. We took a 30 minute taxi to the other side of the town to go to a beach. We liked seeing the houses built on the cliffs. So we get to this public beach and was immediately hit up by a guy that would get us two chairs and table for free....if we ordered food from his restaraunt....I love Mexico.



2. Mazatlan We did some shopping there for the kids. I liked their downtown. It was bigger and busier than Puerto Vallarta. They had a great beach! We rented jet skis and Craig boogie boarded.

This was our set up for all the ports. The beach at the top of the blog is from Mazatlan.

3. Cabo San Lucas We couldn't dock the ship right at the marina so we took a tender there. As soon as we got off we were immediately bombarded with men trying to get us to buy a ride on their glass bottom taxi boat. It was a good size marina. I enjoyed seeing the houses built right on the hillside.

We walked downtown a bit with the others

then, 'you guessed it' we headed to the beach. We walked away from the crowd and found a nice spot. Unfortunately we only had until 2 o'clock before we needed to return to the cruise ship for the sail back to the states.

Bless my mom who watched the boys and enjoyed spending that time with them!!!!!!! It's great to know they were in good hands and well taken care of.

We got the boys ponchos

And for a bunch of boys that like Nacho Libre...we got them Lucha Libre masks. (Breck didn't want to pose)

Ahh....and now it's back to reality for me. Days filled with poopy diapers, balancing business check books, laundry, and hugging, kissing, and playing with my kids!!

........until next time paradise.......