Cruisin!

It has taken me a while to do this post with all of the recent going ons in our life, but I will attempt to journal our cruise since Ellia is playing with friends and Kate is asleep.

The first thing we did was fly to Houston.  I had hoped to see a couple of my best friends from high school who were only 20 minutes away.  Unfortunately it didn't work out.  Instead we did a lot of waiting.  Waiting for shuttles, taxi rides, friends to arrive...

It was a long day.  Good thing we had a lot of cute, fun company!

Our sweet ride to Galveston.

Our sweet suite onboard the ship!

I couldn't believe how massive the boat was.  I didn't even know we had started moving until I looked out the window, and then I felt a little sick!  Thankfully neither Wade nor I got too seasick!

The boys are sporting their gold medals they won in the dodgeball tournament.

Formal night.  I think the dining was my favorite part about the boat.  It was so fun.  I kind of felt like I was on Downton Abbey.  :)

On Wednesday we landed in Roatan.

  Wade and I did some snorkeling which was pretty sweet.

Unfortunately all of our pictures from Thursday (Belize - where we did zip lining and cave tubing) are on a waterproof camera that we haven't developed yet.  Maybe some day I'll add them in here.

On Friday we stopped in Cozumel.  We didn't have anything booked in advance and we weren't real sure what we were going to do.  

We ended up renting this sweet baby and drove to the opposite side of the island.

We found a sweet little restaurant on the beach

Turned out to be one of my favorite days.

Formal night number 2.

Me sporting my silver medal after the rock-climbing wall race on our last day at sea.

We had such a great time.  Hard to come home to reality, but at the same time I was SO excited to see all my babies!

 This past week has been a roller-coaster with the death of one of Wade's best friends.  It feels like a bad dream.  Wade is so grateful to have spent time with James last summer.  It's funny how death makes you think about life in a more eternal perspective.  Little petty things that we think matter seem so insignificant.  We learned of James' passing last Friday night.  The next day we left for Sandy since Jill was blessing her baby.  When we got back home on Sunday we visited James' parents.  It was crazy going from a celebration of a new life - to the grief of losing another.  My heart hurts for the people he has left behind.

This quote by Elder Nelson was shared at James' funeral.  "The only length of life that seems to satisfy the longings of the human heart is life everlasting.  Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the deepest expressions of pure love. It is a natural response in complete accord with divine commandment: “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die.” (D&C 42:45.)Moreover, we can’t fully appreciate joyful reunions later without tearful separations now. The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life."

I am very grateful that Heavenly Father allows us to love in such a way, and that he has provided a plan for his children.  The gospel is everything.