I have been an AWOL blogger of late and I just couldn't bring myself to blog about Christmas in February - so, I am moving forward. Maybe I will sort through all the photos and make a post about the holiday's later...
After a very busy holiday season filled with wonderful time with family - we then hosted one of our Russian returned missionaries. Mark Illarionov came from Kzan, Russia to visit family (living back east) and friends (in the west). Mark stayed with us for 4 days. We took him to the MTC for dinner and the devotional, made a day trip to Manti for a special temple session and we hosted an Open House for him which turned out to be a mini-missionary reunion. He was thrilled to see his former mission companions and many others that had served with him. It was fun to be with our missionaries again and meet their wives, girlfriends and even some of their children.
This photo shows some of those that attended.
Mark is standing next to me in this photo with Adam Larsen, Andrew Bressler and Hal. How we love those young men and women that we were privileged to serve with!
Also during Mark's visit, Michael Nielsen and Alex Finlinson came for a lunch of Russian Borscht.
Family Cruise with Hal's Siblings and Spouses
During the last week of January and first part of February we enjoyed a family cruise.
Roy, Dixie, Patty
Paul, Cynthia and Hal
The night before we boarded the ship, part of our group went to a seafood restaurant for dinner. This was a noisy, crazy place where everyone was given a mallet (for cracking crab) and every time a birthday, anniversary or any celebration was announced (and there were plenty of them) - everyone in the restaurant pounded the table together for 10 seconds (or more) to recognize the event! At first all the noise was annoying but once we got into it, it was fun to wait for the next announcement and pound away!
Karma, Mike, Hal and Patty
Once on board the ship - we of course went directly to the dining room for lunch!
Thumbs up for the delicious lobster that was served for dinner the first night aboard!
After 2 days at sea, our first stop was St. Thomas followed by Dominica the next day. This lush, green island was an interesting port with hot springs, crafts made by the native people and beautiful mountain peaks. I think this was my favorite stop!
Back in the 1980's Dominica was severely damaged by a hurricane. This school bus was flattened when a huge tree blew over on it. Fortunately, no one was in the bus at the time!
Hal's friend from teenage years (and friend of all the Mickelsen family) Jim Cook and his wife Louise joined us on the cruise. Jim is full of fun and adds life to any party. Here he is wearing the hat to dinner that he purchased on Dominica.
The next island we visited was Barbados. Here we took a short tour of the island with Larry&Linda.
The following day we stopped on beautiful St. Lucia. This photo shows part of our group plus a dog that Paul befriended!
Looking down on the harbor where our ship was anchored in St. Lucia.
Back Row: Roy, Cynthia, Linda, Wayne, Patty and Karma
Middle Row: Dixie, Paul, Larry, Ann, Hal and Mike
Front Row: Matt, Ramie, Louise and Jim Cook.
Our whole group!
We held Sacrament Meeting in the Ship's Chapel on Sunday and took photos after church.
Our last stop was St. Maarten. We sailed on the Norwegian Sun!
How glad we were that it was NOT the Carnival Triumph!!!
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| I love the beautiful blue color of the Caribbean ocean!! |
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We enjoyed a great cruise with lots of time for family bonding! It was smooth flying on our trip home until we flew into the Salt Lake Valley. There, we circled the airport for 45 minutes waiting for an opportunity to land in the fog/inversion. After a hard "bump down" landing, it was back to the reality of winter with snow, cold and smoggy air - but the trip was worth it!
