1.I told a friend before I left that my 3 biggest worries were 1)having my stuff stolen 2)getting murdered (the Bahamas and Carribean rank the highest in tourist murders) and 3)missing the boat at one of the ports. Since none of those things happened, I'd say it was a successful trip!
2. Did you know that banana trees are actually banana plants? The plants only produce one bunch of bananas per plant and then it is cut down. Isn't that crazy? You would think bananas would be a lot more expensive than they are.
3. Our friends TJ and Katie are from North Dakota from a town of only 200 people (and I thought my town was small!) Anyway, they have very thick accents (think the movie "Fargo") and one person even asked them if they were from Ireland. What?! Too funny!
4. We did a couple of excusions through the ship, but they are pretty expensive. So most days we would try to find taxi's or local companies to take us places and do activities. We were standing in line for a taxi to Cane's Bay in St. Croix and we paid for a round trip ticket. The lady at the front table said to everyone, "We are not responsible if our drivers leave you, or don't come back to pick you up" Blake and I just looked at each other with wide eyes. We get up to pay for our ticket and Blake says "Oh please come back for us! We don't have enough money to pay for another ticket!" They did indeed come back for us, for which we were very grateful!
5. There was a sign on one of the beaches that said, "No You Litter!!" Being the English nerd that I am, I got a good chuckle out of it.
6. Dominica has active volcoanoes so they have black sand beaches.
7. Nowhere on the boat, or on a any of the islands were there Pepsi/Dr. Pepper products. I was dying for one.
8. We got to try some interesting foods on the boat like lamb shank and escargo (Both were yummy by the way!)
While we were gone, though, Brooke had a vacation of her own with Honey and Pinch:
Cousins Jack and Isabel came to play: 
Brooke got to ride the tractor with Pinch:
And help plant a row of peas
She helped Honey wash dishes
And did lots and lots of crafts...
She watched "Nemo" and "Inc" (Monster's Inc) and they even braved taking her to a movie at the theater. Blake and I haven't even done that yet! They said she did great until the last 15-20 minutes.
There was lots of chocolate...
And some outdoor time...
Of course when we got home we couldn't wait to kiss and hug our Brooke trout!
Thank you, thank you for taking such good care of Brooke while were gone and taking all the pictures too. We couldn't have done a vacation like this without someone to love and care for B. as much as we do!
I wasn't too impressed with Peurto Rico. It had really pretty buildings, though. Here is a picture of our stateroom (yes they are tiny, but not as small as I thought!) Almost every night our housekeeper would fold our towels into animals. It was a fun surprise to come in each night to see what she had left for us. 
We spent the rest of the day at Megan's Bay Beach, voted as one of the top 10 beaches in the world by National Geographic.
Day Three: We walked around St. Croix, toured an old Dutch Fort built in 1760 and then spent the rest of the day at Cane's Bay beach and went snorkling. 
While snorkling, I stepped on a black, pokey, sea urchin and then fell and cut my knee on some coral. It hurt like crazy! That was the end of my snorkling days. I decided staying close to shore was more my style. Blake had a really good time snorkling, though.
We met some awesome new friends. We sat at dinner with two other couples that we got along great with. They were so fun and we ended up doing a lot together.
Day Four: Antigua, by far, was our favorite island! The water was amazing and so pretty! We spent the morning doing a zip-line tour through the rain forest and then spent the rest of the day at the most gorgeous beach I have ever seen.
Day 5: Dominica We went tubing down a river through the rainforest complete with rapids. We also saw banana farms and got a tour of the island
Video of river tubing 
Day Six: The island of Granada. This was our last port so we took a water taxi to Grand Anse beach where we were hounded like crazy to buy things. We paid $15 just to sit in a beach-chair! We went for a walk along the shops and I bought this awesome basket weaved from a leaf. So cool!
Day Seven: was our only day at sea. There were tons of activites to do on the boat like climbing the rock wall, miniature golfing, a belly flop contest, ice sculpting, dance lessons and just lounging by the pool and don't forget lots and lots of eating!
I'm afraid this post is alreay too long, but I have so many fun stories and cool things we saw and did while on our trip. It truly was amazing!
In an effort to make this more of a family journal, instead of just a Brooke journal, I wanted to post what Blake has been up to lately. He has been working so hard lately that he finally decided to take a day for himself. We all have spring fever, especially Blake's parents who recently returned home from a mission to Indonesia and are used to it being hot all year round. So Blake took his parents, and Lady, for a day on the river. I didn't get to go, but am excited to spend some time with Blake up on the mountains this summer. Blake fishes, I read a book, we both soak up some sun and get wet as we go through the rapids. It makes for a great day!
So I told some stories about how my sister and I used to fight all the time, but I liked it when she took us to the park. And how my younger brother Stephen used to make me want to strangle him. Especially when he yelled out to an entire restaraunt that we were "best brother and sister" and when he'd wear crazy clothes to school in high school and people would ask "Like, isn't that brother wearing that "kilt" and bright pink shirt?" (as you can see from the above picture, wearing crazy clothes is still his thing!). 
