Hester Happenings

Our next stop on the cruise was St. Thomas. We took an excursion to go snorkeling at a nearby island-St. John. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! We had to take a bus ride to the port where the ship was docked. This was QUITE an experience...we were shocked that we didn't wreck on the way there! Here are some snorkeling pictures from the day:a

Day 3 was a day at sea. We started the day off by competing in a bean bag toss tournament. We got pretty far, no thanks to me....Jeff is MUCH better at this game than I am! We then rushed off for a tasting at the Steak House on board and boy was it delicious! We got recipes to take home with us, so we might be trying those soon! Next we had tea time: \ The show tonight was a juggler. The show started off a little rough (he kept dropping what he was juggling), but ended great! In this picture he is juggling knives that can actually cut an apple: Here is is riding on a 6 foot tricycle juggling knives and fire. Quite impressive if I do say so myself! Day 3 ended up being a great relaxing day for both Jeff and myself....just what we needed!

Day 2 of our cruise was quite eventful! We landed in Nassau, which is in the Bahamas. We took an excursion to go paddle boarding and snorkeling...and boy was it pretty!  There were lots of fish where we went snorkeling!! Jeff fed the fish so we could get some close up pictures of the fish...I did too! For those of you who know me well know that fish freak me out...seriously! So feeding them was quite a feat for me! This is Chuck Norris' house in Nassau... Back on the boat we had our fancy dinner. Food highlight: I had pumpkin soup and Jeff had alligator. YUM! We're not quite sure what this animal is supposed to be...any guesses?

Jeff and I were blessed enough to be able to go on an anniversary cruise! We decided to wait until the spring to go on this cruise to avoid any possibility of hurricanes...so technically it was a year and a 1/2 anniversary trip. We ended up driving the 9 1/2 hours to Florida, and surprisingly the trip wasn't that bad!  Our first dinner was delicious! I think this was supposed to be a seal...but I accidentally knocked it over before I could get a good picture. So I tried to recreate it...and failed!

The other weekend Jeff and I were able to go see Grandma Christmas for her 90th birthday. That's right...90th! I was able to meet some of Jeff's family that I hadn't met before. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with several members Jeff's family.  Happy Birthday Grandma Christmas! 

  Our family has a tradition of going to Providence Church on Christmas Eve with the Gardenhire family. We also always get pictures of the girls together in age order. Because Katie couldn't be there we face-timed her so you can see her on the ipad if you look closely.         The Gardenhire family:     On Christmas Day my family opened some more presents and ate breakfast together. Then Jeff and I came back to our house to quickly exchange presents. Jeff got me a Rachael Ray food scooper, a new alarm clock, and a new purse.     I got Jeff a smoker and some wood chips to use in the smoker.     We then went over to Reggie and Korrie's house to exchange presents with them. We gave the boys some stuffed animals that say things while you read the book they came with.         We then had Christmas dinner with Jeff's whole family and his sister...