Maui

Dave and I decided to take a week out of the cold January weather and head to Maui. the flights were ridiculously cheap ($110. each from San Jose to Maui.) We used our Marriott points and also stayed at a beautiful resort in Makena and had a great time. We saw a lot of whales and some dolphins, turtles, wind surfers, kite boarders, and lots of flowers and sugar cane fields. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.
ALOHA to All
Christy

Sealed Forever

December was one of my favorite months of all time. Bryan returned from his mission in Ukraine. It is so good to have his good spirit back in our family. We had all the children here for Christmas which probably won't happen again for many years. We had Vitaliy and Spencer sealed to us in the Logan temple and the next day Tyler was married in the same room to Janalee Lnnghurst. We love her and are so happy that she is part of our family. We enjoyed all the festivities and being together with family during this special month. It gave me an added testimony that the plan of happiness really works. Times like this make all the hard times really worth it. This was truly a time filled with joy and the best kinds of joy come from family togetherness.

Half Moon Cay

Our last day was spent at a gorgeous private island Half Moon Cay. We have been another cruise line private island and this one was superior hands down. The White sand and blue water was breathtaking. We even saw a rainbow and relaxed to the max. I would highly recommend this place. AHHHHH

Aruba

Aruba
Dave and I have wanted to go to this island for a long time. Way before the Natalie Holloway and other disappearances. It was as beautiful as promised. The white beaches covered with powdery sand were very nice. We rode the city bus (surprisingly nice and clean) to the high rise hotel district and enjoyed Palm Beach. We felt a little more at home because there was a building that looked similar to the Logan or Manti temple. We then walked down the road to Eagle beach and enjoyed more time on the beach there. This island was FULL of geckos or a small lizard that looks like one. They were all over on our walk on the way to the other beach. When we saw the first ones we took a bunch of pictures but soon realized that they were not a rare critter in these parts.
We did some shopping and got the kids some souvenirs and enjoyed some Italian gelato. I know….we weren’t in Italy, but I guess it saved us a trip to Italy for a little while. We decided that Aruba is a place that is definitely worth the trip to see.

Haiti

Haiti
We didn’t stop in Haiti but we did go close to it and saw the Haitian fishing boats and the land a little bit. I was surprised with how much vegetation there is there. It also didn’t look very populated at all. We were probably on the side without much population. Here are a couple of pictures in case anyone is curious.

Bonaire
The beautiful island of Bonaire was very unique. We rented a car and drove around the island and saw a lot of amazing things. The beaches that we saw were not sandy but were full of white coral and so it was a lot like walking on bones and it sounded like pieces of china clinking against each other as we walked on it . I will post a picture of the coral beach. All the beaches we saw were like this. We did see some sand on one beach and it was the whitest I have ever seen. It looked like baby powder.
The island was full of wild donkeys, goats and flamingos. We were told that there were more flamingos than people there. They said that they fly to Venezuela (which is about 20 miles away) when it rains in Bonaire. They speak the native language as well as English and Dutch. They say Bon Bini which means “welcome” and if you think someone is cute you say ” Dooshi.” If we took our grandchildren there, they would be saying that all the time.
We saw some pyramids made of salt that were very impressive especially next to the gorgeous Caribbean teal water. What added to the color fest was a group of pink/purple standing ponds where the salt company was drying out the water to harvest the salt. The whole island is a nature reserve and is like a spike sticking out of the water and so the after a few feet the shallow beach drops off drastically which is perfect place for coral to grow and fish to congregate. Surprisingly Dave decided not to snorkel but we heard reports that the fish and coral were very impressive. The island was beautiful to see and had a light blue ring around it surrounded by a dark blue ring where the water got suddenly deep. So pretty! The salt trade was run by slaves before slavery was discontinued in Bonaire about the same time it was in the USA. They lived in little huts that were so small that you had to crouch to be inside. About 6 slaves lived in one hut ad they were not midgets. It was a very interesting place to visit. We had a wonderful day in Bonaire.

Colon Panama

Colon, Panama,
We only had a little while in Colon (pronounced like cologne ---the perfume) It was too dangerous to leave the confounds of the port terminal and so we sat by some little shops in the terminal and used the very slow WIFI and tried to soak in the culture a little bit.