*Finally...*

I guess it's safe now to say this to the whole world....I hope, anyway. I always thought I would be so excited I wouldn't be able to hold it in (which, I am...in a way), but it actually makes me a little nervous. Maybe I'm just afraid of jinxing it. It took 3 years ya know!! But, I'm so, SO happy to finally say that I have a different reality now -- I'm pregnant! YAY!!!! We prayed and waited and cried for this for so long. I was so afraid of what it might take for us to be parents, but it all happened on its own. I think I just needed to be a little healthier, which I was. And that did the trick!
So, today we went to our second doctor appointment and heard the heartbeat for the second time. That will always blow my mind! I was a little sad we didn't get to do an ultrasound, because I wanted to post a picture of the wee one now that it actually looks like a person instead of a dragon, but oh well. I guess it's good that our doctor didn't feel that it was needed, since everything sounded healthy! I'm at 12 weeks now, and we set up our next two appointments, the second one being the BIG one....the super fun ultrasound where we can hopefully find out what brand this little person is! Then I can go shopping.... :) Wahoo!!
Matt and I are so dang excited!!!! He's going to be such a great dad, and I can't wait to see it!

*Island in the Sun*

We are back! What an adventure....the southern Caribbean is beautiful, even when it is suffering from a major drought, like right now. Some of the islands were really dry and dying, but still beautiful. St. Lucia actually made me a little sad, it was so dead! Seriously, pray that they get a little rain!
Every island was beautiful in it's own little way, but I'm pretty sure I could live on St. Kitts or St. Maarten. Especially the French side of St. Maarten....it's so beautiful, I've never seen anything quite like it! As far as adventure goes, Dominica was my favorite. We had awesome activities planned for when we were there, and it was so lush and tropical...we did a hike through the rainforest to a waterfall that we got to swim in. It was amazing!
So, on to picture show and tell! Please be warned, there are LOADS of pictures coming your way!

*St. Thomas*

We rode a skytram up to the highest viewpoint on the island. What an incredible view! They have a little restaurant up there, and we sat up there and enjoyed a virgin pina colada, and it was so delicious! When we first docked here, it was a little overcast, but by the middle of the day the sun had burned off the clouds and it was hot!

*Dominica*

This is where we did our hike through the rainforest. It was incredible! Matt and I both agree that Dominica was the prettiest of all the islands we stopped at, as far as vegetation. We did the long hike to Middleham Falls, and then stayed there and swam for a while. Matt actually lost his wedding ring while swimming there. That sucked, but it's a pretty good story! I mean, if you're gonna lose your wedding ring, that's the way to do it, right?!

After the hike we drove to another location and went swimming in this tunnel thingy. For those of you who have been to Zion NP and know what the subway is, imagine swimming through that, and climbing up mini waterfalls, and then jumping back down them. It was amazing! I don't have any pictures of that because my camera isn't waterproof, and we didn't think to bring our dinky disposable one that we bought for snorkeling and scuba diving. Yeah, we were kicking ourselves the whole time!

*Barbados*

In Barbados we rode on a catamaran ( I freaking LOVE catamarans!) out to a particular spot where sea turtles naturally spend a lot of time, and we went snorkeling with them!! It was one of the coolest things ever! It was so neat to look down and see a sea turtle swimming around a foot below you.....so close you could reach out and touch it! So cool..... This was the excursion that we felt like the biggest, most boring sticks in the mud on the face of the planet. On some excursions they give you unlimited alcohol after your swim. This was one of those. Everybody on the boat was getting totally smashed, and then you have our little group that doesn't drink, and we were more boring than the 70 year olds!! Seriously....I hate experiences like that! Oh well, at least I remember what I did in Barbados, right?! hahaha!

*St. Lucia*

For those of you who watched the Bachelor, this is the island that the last few shows took place on. It doesn't look as good now as it did then! This is the place that seemed to be the most affected by the drought. Whole mountainsides were completely brown and dying. It was so sad! The only place that didn't look dead was the botanical garden that we visited, and that's probably because they have sprinklers there. Still, it was so pretty.

This is a shot of the Pitons. They are probably the most popular and most photographed site on the island. They're quite magnificent to see. The picture is really hazy because there were lots of fires burning on the mountains. I think they were controlled burns to get rid of a lot of the dead plants, but I can't be sure. The town you can see is called Soufriere.

*St. Kitts*

In St. Kitts Matt went scuba diving with his mom and his brother, so we had different experiences of this island. I thought it was totally beautiful. It isn't very big, but it has some of the most stunning views. The rest of us took a taxi to a beach, and pretty much spent the day there. It was awesome. In that top picture you can see the Atlantic ocean on the left, and the Caribbean sea on the right. And there's an 8 million dollar mansion at the top of the hill there. Anybody want to go in on that with me?? haha, right!

*St. Maarten*

We mostly just toured through this island. It has a very rich history, and it's very unique since it is split into two different cultures-- French and Dutch. In this picture we were at a viewpoint that you can see 3 different nationalities. To the left is the Dutch side, to the right is the French side, and off in the distance on the horizon to the right is the British island of Anguilla. It's only about 20 miles away from St. Maarten. The French capitol of Marigot is absolutely beautiful. It's definitely prettier than the Dutch side, and they seem to have their crap together a little better than the Dutch. It was so interesting to me to see how split this island really is. Both sides have their own power plants, their own governments, they even have different currencies. It blew my mind! I mean, the island isn't very big at all, so it's incredible that they have chosen to have such differences. I imagine it could get pretty annoying trying to make sure you had the right kind of money when you went to a store. Sheesh! I loved it here though. I totally want to go back sometime.

This is in the harbor on the french side in the town of Marigot. There was a HUGE yacht anchored out there, and I found out later that it was Janet Jackson's yacht. Seriously, it was incredible! There was only one thing I didn't get to do here that I really wanted to, and that was to go to the french bakery. We ran out of time! Matt told me we would come back someday and then I could eat my fill of french pastries. I'm totally ok with that. ;)

Sad to go home!!!!

It was an amazing trip. A trip of a lifetime, in fact. We are so lucky, and have so much to be thankful for. Life isn't all sunshine and roses, but we have so much. Vacations are awesome, but it always sucks when you have to come back home and face reality. I mean, I have to fix my own meals, AND clean up after myself, AND make my bed?! It sucks!! It will probably be quite some time until we get to go on another trip like this, so we soaked it up as much as possible. Thanks to mama Holly for making this possible for us! We love you!!!

And friends, don't be jealous! Come with us next time, we would love it!!! :)