Days 4, 5, and 6...and maybe even 7

Sorry for the delay, peeps. Since returning we've hit the ground running with swim lessons, birthdays, etc. So I may recap everything else here in one post so I can move on to other things in blog world!

After our sea days we spent the next 3 days making stops at various islands. Our first stop was in St. Maarten and we decided to REALLY venture out and visit a butterfly farm! Boy it was good times. No really, its was very fascinating seeing all of the different types of butterflies. Who knew. My animal loving oldest daughter didn't enjoy it so much because apparently butterflies are scary. I couldn't believe her reaction to them but I guess we all have our things. After that we walked around St.Maarten and did some shopping before heading back to the boat to swim and eat, of course! The next day we went to Puerto Rico. We did not have an excursion planned but we did get off the boat to walk around and do some more shopping. That didn't last too long because the kids wanted to swim so back to the boat we went. You'd think they liked that thing or something! Next day was the kids favorite day by far. We went to Labadee, Haiti. This is the stop where we are tendered in so we had to get up bright and early so we wouldn't miss our excursion. We decided to do a water park(ish) excursion and I'm so glad we did! It is an area that is roped off in the ocean that has lots of water toys to play on. It was only an hour long so Brian and I took turns playing with the kids. Adiah wasn't old enough to do it so she hung out on the beach and played with the sand and floated in the ocean. Its what she wanted to do anyway! I got the first 3o minutes and Brian took the last 30. Natalie quickly decided that ocean water burns her eyes and she needed to wear goggles. After that she was good. When that excursion was done we went to the other side away from the water toys and found a quiet beach area where to kids could explore for shells and play in the sand. Natalie also had been asking all week if one of her souvenirs could be getting her hair braided. So she got it done in Haiti. People, she still has those braids in. And its scary when she asks me if we could find a place in Midlothian that could do it for her when these come out. Eek. Luckily we did all of our pictures for the formal nights on the boat before the braids! Whew! She does look really cute with them...I'm just sayin', is all. So I guess I'll do one more post about our vacation with some random fun pictures we took through out the week. And if I can get my video to cooperate I'll try and post some of that too. Thanks for hanging with me through all of these pictures!


In St. Maarten, on our way to the butterfly farm

A view from our bus going to the farm. Its kind of blurry but I was snapping fast so we could get a picture of our home away from home. The Liberty!

I won't bore you with too many butterfly pictures but these were my favorite. See that circle on the wings? Its so if a predator see it and want to eat it then it will think its an animal with large eyes. Isn't it amazing how God thinks of all of those details? But when it flys, its wings are blue on the inside.

Look at this huge thing. Have you ever seen anything like it? It was the size of my hand.

We were encouraged to try and get one on our finger by dipping it in the punch they gave us and sticking out our hand. Ridge was determined to get one!

And he did!!

Adiah just wanted to drink her punch. There was no butterfly catching for her!

In Puerto Rico. Here, my butterfly fearing daughter, didn't mind at all having 4 birds perched on her for a picture. We were totally duped into doing this but we didn't mind. Emily loved it!

On the ferry in Haiti

I was informed by Natalie that I must hold onto my head band and cover my nose when going down this slide. I wasn't doing "see no evil, hear no evil". I was just following orders.

My girls were on this iceberg and the boat was directly behind them(obviously). Our room was either the top or 2nd from the top on the right hand side.

This is what Adiah wanted to do all day. Just float.

Brian and the girls took a water camera out there and stopped to pose for a self picture.

Ridge had a total blast playing with Brian out in the water. I love this kid!

The girls really loved playing on this water totter. I couldn't get on it to save my life.

Our boat

Natalie said it really hurt to have her hair braided by these ladies. They were digging the comb into her scalp and pulling really hard. She was trying to focus through the pain here. Oh what we'll do for beauty.

The finished product!

These are the pictures we bought from our first formal night. This one turned out the best, I think.

I HAD to buy this one. You must click on the picture to enlarge it and look at Adiah's face. I laugh every time I look at this. They were trying very hard to get her to smile and this is what she produced.

My sweet kids!