Our Retirement Cruise

To celebrate Mike's retirement, we decided to do it right, and head out on a Caribbean Cruise. We had a GREAT time, here are a few pictures from the week!

There is only one night on the cruise, that you have to dress up for dinner. The rest of the time, you can wear whatever you want. Here is a picture of us on the formal night.

Lani was in Fort Lauderdale for a conference the same time we were there. She took Cierra along to make her trip more fun. They invited us to spend the night with them at their hotel, before we left on our cruise. This is the view off our balcony.

The Marriot has it's own private beach that was beautiful.

We took Lani and Cierra out to dinner with us at the Outback, so yummy!

Here's our cozy little cabin, I am really going to miss Edison, who took such good care of us.

Each night, when we returned to our room, there was a darling towel animal to greet us. An adorable elephant,

and a cute swan.

We rented snorkeling equipment while in Cozumel, and had a good time floating around looking for fish.

There was a beautiful pool on the ship, we enjoyed relaxing by the pool and reading. (I read 2 books on the trip)

Most of our meals were eaten at the buffet. They had such delicious food, I have never eaten so much in such a short time!!!

Everything looks so beautiful, you can't resist trying it.

On our last night, they had 3 desserts that sounded amazing, we couldn't decide which to get, so we ordered all 3!

We enjoyed every bite of all of the desserts!

Every night we ate with this fun group of people. One couple was from Switzerland, one from California, and one from Indiana. Both of the young girls were art teachers, so it was fun for Mike to visit with them.

We decided it would be fun to do a para-sailing trip while we were at Key West. We found a guy that looked a lot like Jeffrey to take us out. It was very fun, and not even scary at all!!!

Here we go!

Up, up and away

We got pretty high in the sky, and had a great view of Key West!

Our last stop was at Cococay, where we just relaxed and swam around in the water most of the day. We used enough sun screen that we didn't get much of a sunburn, (or suntan unfortunately)

Cococay was a darling private island, everything painted so bright and cute!

They had a beautiful beach with hundreds of chaise lounges lined up to soak in the rays.

Back to the ship for our final dinner and to get packed and ready to head back to the real world.

Goodbye Grandeur of the Sea, we can't wait to cruise again!

Adorable Abbie

Our adorable little Abbie is growing up so fast. She has become quite the little crawler. She does the army crawl really fast, and now is up on her hands and knees crawling, not quite as fast. She is such a happy and sweet little baby, we are so glad she has joined our family!!!!

Fun in the sun with Libbie and Katie

Tonight, when we got to Josh's house, Libbie took us out in the back yard to show us that she can walk on a tight rope. Josh made her this fun tight rope, and she is pretty amazing at it! After dinner, we took a walk to the park and played for a while, the girls sure had fun. After you click on the arrow, click in the top left corner of the smilebox, and it will enlarge the pictures so you can see them. Then click on the arrow in the bottom right corner to change pictures. (I hope it's not too complicated)

Create a digital collage

Mike's retirement party

Last Wednesday, Mike's school district had a Retirement Party for him, and the 3 ladies that were retiring from his district. It was at a country club in Holladay, and was very fun. They served a delicious dinner, then showed a fun slide presentation of all of the teachers in their classes.

Tonight we had a Family Retirement party. We had a BBQ and a fun visit. All of our kids and grandkids were there. My parents, Lani, Ric, Kathy, Carissa, Chase and Morgan came too. Mike's mom, dad, Paula and Bob joined us as well. I made a photo collage of some of Mike's school pictures from the last 28 years. It was pretty fun to see how he looked when he first started teaching. (sorry about the flash from my camera)

Only 3 more days of school and then "School's out FOREVER!!!" When Josh and his family walked in our house, he had that song playing on his IPOD, and Libbie was singing it nice and loud.

Jamie and Jordan made Mike a cute candy bar poster

I got a recipe from a friend for the best homemade lemon
ice cream that was the hit of the party.

The weather was perfect, so we were able to eat outside,
lots better for a group the size we had.

Grandpa Cline's Garden

Grandpa Cline has been working really hard in his backyard. He bought a ton of flowers today, and has been busy planting them. He planted these wild flowers last year, and they have gone WILD! They look really great, he has lots of work to do, but is having a good time doing it. (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can actually see them)

He's made a cute little scarecrow that he put near his garden

Father and Son standing in front of the sandbox he is building for the neighbor kids to play in. They love to come out and visit with him while he is working in his yard.

Eagle Mountain Rodeo

On Sunday, when our kids were all here for dinner, Jamie and Jordan, mentioned that there was a rodeo in Eagle Mountain, that they were going to go to. They asked if anyone else would like to go. Jamie and Emily were game, and Mike mentioned that it would be fun to take Grandpa Cline, since it is only a few miles west of where he lives.

Here are the rodeo attenders, we had a great time.

It was really cold, we were wishing we would have brought
our winter coats like some of the others did.

I could not believe how those bucking bronchos could buck!!!

They invited a bunch of kids to come down and chase baby calves around trying to get ribbons that were taped to their tails. They got prizes if they got the ribbons. The kids looked like they had a great time!

Libbie is 4 years old!

Yesterday was Libbie's 4th birthday. (I remember how excited I was 4 years ago when I got the call that she was born, and I was a grandma! That was one of the best days in my life.) She invited all of us over for a fun party. They made "Cafe Rio" burritos or salads which were delicious. There were 31 of us, and that is just with her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. What a lucky little girl she is to have so many people who love her!!!

She got lots of fun presents!

Merijane made Libbie a darling Princess birthday cake,
it was very delicious, as well as adorable!

Josh and Merijane built this adorable play house for Libbie for her birthday! It is so cute, they did an amazing job!!!! I can't wait to go play in it with the girls. They will enjoy it for years to come!