Trap & Suz's Blog

It's been awhile, but I'll do my best to make this interesting. :)   We had a great first year in Provo. Trapper loves being an MBA student and he enjoyed every opportunity for learning and fun that came his way...even if when I THOUGHT he was studying he was really playing Foosball in the lounge with his friends. He joined the Tech club, which took him to Las Vegas and Sundance for two different retreats, an intramural soccer team, which was rather amazing to watch, and an indoor soccer league. He also got to take a trip to Europe for about a week as part of an in-field study! I mean, the boy has had too much fun.  Who am I to stop him though.  In one more year, he'll be back to working full-time with people who he may or may not necessarily like. lol So, I figure I should just let him have the time of his life right now.  For Trapper's internship this summer, he is working for HP in Plano, Texas, so that is where we are right now.  

On April 18th, we packed up a few essential personal belongings, as well as the kids and Trapper's younger sister, Megan, and we said goodbye to Provo for a few months. Before Plano, however, Trapper and I thought it was long overdue that we had a cruise together. We booked one in Galveston, Texas that would be leaving for Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico for 5 nights total. One great convenience about this trip is that Trapper has a sister, Ashley, in Houston. Her and her husband offered to let us stay with them for a few days, as well as watch our kids while we escaped to our cruise. Thank you, Ashley, Derek and Megan!!

On the way to Houston, we stopped at a few fun places. 

I can't remember where this one was, but it made a lasting impression on us. : )

Our funnest adventure was the Grand Canyon. It was the boys' first time, and it was all they could talk about on the ride there. "Are we at the Grand Canyon now?" 

 

 Something else that was funny was that even before we left Provo, Jackson would not stop talking about Texas and how excited he was to go there. He kept asking on the road trip if we were in Texas, so when we finally got there and had stopped at a hotel that night, we told him we were in Texas. It did little for him until he looked outside our window and saw a pool. For some reason, it occurred to him then that we were in Texas! "We have a pool!! We are in Texas!!" He was very excited after that.  I guess Texas is the only place with pools. haha

Day 1: On April 23rd, Derek drove us to Galveston for what would be the funnest trip ever!

See? I'm thinking, "Funnest trip ever." This was before the ship left the port.

 Something we did not realize before we boarded was that you need regular nice clothes for finer dining and other activities. I assumed all I'd be doing was laying out and enjoying the sun. Hence, all you will see are scandalous tank-tops.  And the ship is actually VERY COLD! They run the A/C like you're in an igloo. So, don't just take a bathing suit. haha

It was a windy first night. 

 Every night we came home to a fun little pet! 

On the first day, we took a tour through the spa and fitness area and signed up for raffle tickets. Later in the day, they had everyone who'd gotten tickets to come back to see if you won anything. Some people won a free spa treatment that normally costs around $200, but I was lucky enough to  win a free BCA (Body Composition Analysis), which normally costs $30. Basically, it tells you how much body fat you have and how much of your body is lean and how much water you're retaining and so on. It was interesting! I'd rather have the seaweed spa treatment or even a facial, but at least I won something! Oh, and they made me dance for it in front of everyone when I won the prize. Embarrassing.

Day 2: Standing in the buffet line waiting for breakfast. And you could eat as much as you want! Some people walked away with two enormous plates full of food. 

Laying out under the sun.

We also did a lot of reading. Trapper read "The Girl with Dragon Tattoo" series and I read "Ender's Game."  

 We barely caught the sunset one night. Beautiful!

 At night when all the stars come out, they play movies on the big screen and you can cuddle under a blanket with your honey.

Day 3: Progreso

On the bus, headed to town where all the vendors wait to rip you off.

 Exhibit A: This man claims to love Texas and Americans, but really, what he wants is a BIG tip!

We ate tacos at this place and it was REALLY good, but somehow we ended up paying for more than we wanted. $7 tacos were really $10 and even though Mexico has no tax, we paid $4 for some phantom tax and THEN we had a pay this guy a tip! In all, it was about $28. Can you say "American tourist fools"?

One night while eating dinner, all of the waiters put on a dance show for us. It was really funny. A few brave souls even danced on top of tables and put on quite a risque show. When it was over, a couple of ladies went over and stuck dollar bills in one waiter's pants.

Every day, Trapper enjoyed one, two, maybe three ice cream cones! That's one nice thing about a cruise. You can have all the free ice cream you want. Yum. Oh! And see that shirt he's wearing? He won it....well sorta. lol We went to a seminar where the Fun Finds Shopping guy, Anthony, told you about all the great shopping places in Cozumel. One place he told us about sells sheets and towels and clothing made out of bamboo. He asked this question: Which husbands out there like to dress themselves? Meaning, you don't let your wife dress you. Trapper's hand, along with a few others, shot up. Anthony told Trapper to stand up and then made him an example of what not to wear and why you should let your wife dress you. lol He didn't look bad at all. He was wearing a ball cap and a "Billa Bong" shirt, but I guess compared to others, he looked a little more casual. Anyway, it was funny. But after he did this, Anthony pulled out this nice blue polo shirt and said: The first person that can reach my desk and can walk away wearing this shirt without cutting of "his circulation, can have this shirt.  Immediately, Trapper ran up on stage and held his hand out for the shirt. Anthony was like, "This isn't my desk!" haha It was pretty funny, but the crowd just said to give it to him, so Anthony gave in. 

Day 4: Cozumel. Waiting to go snuba.

Getting in a van with our group to go snuba. We weren't able to take anymore pictures while we were snuba diving. They had a professional come down to take a couple of pictures for us, so we bought one and then afterwards, when we went snorkeling by ourselves, we used our waterproof camera. Those have yet to be seen. Snuba was probably the highlight of our trip. It's a compromise between scuba diving and snorkeling. It's like scuba diving except you don't have an individual oxygen tank hooked to your back. Instead you're given a mask and a mouthpiece that is hooked to a long line that connects to a small boat. It is your oxygen tank, so you can basically go about 25 feet deep, but no more and there are other people that are using the same boat, so you swim as a group. Our excursion guide, Blas, taught us a few hand motions and then we practiced using our mouthpiece. Then we went down with Puerto (our snuba guide) and he showed us lots of cool fish. We saw squid, stingray, stone fish, star fish, eel, and schools of fish everywhere. The best part is when we got to swim through the school of fish. Puerto was motioning for us to come to him so he could show us something, so Trapper and I started swimming toward him. When we got closer, Trapper accidentally hit my mask and it popped off. I was pretty far under, so I panicked and swam up. I choked up a good bit of salt water and then started cursing Trapper's name. Soon after my guide came up and we had a good laugh over it. Then we went back down and I made sure to stay out of Trapper's way. haha  Other than that, I had a great time, and I hope I can do it again one day. 

 

After snuba, we walked around some shops and then we stopped at a little place to eat. Luckily, we learned our lesson from the first time, so Trapper made sure to pay for our food before we got it. We ate empanadas, and Trapper had a really yummy smoothie called "Sexual Maturity."  It was one of the many smoothies meant to be aphrodisiacs. 

Goodbye, Cozumel! 

Ribbit.

That night, we watched some magicians put on a show. It was pretty cool. 

Day 5: That day was the HOTTEST day of the whole cruise. I was sweating like crazy in this picture. The mini golf was fun. Trapper got a few hole-in-one's.

Not his hole-in-one. : )

Our waiters. I don't remember the guy's name on the left. He didn't do that much, but I hated to exclude him. From left to right is Parawata and Percy. 

Shuffle board! I stink at this game.

Another beautiful sunset! Oh, I almost forgot to say that one morning we got up early, put on our robes and sat up on deck to watch the sunrise. I LOVED IT!! I love our sun.

Like my face? Every time we take a picture, they say, "Smile!" I was tired of the simple smile pose.  Can't you tell I'm having fun?

 

Our last night on board the Triumph! We had such a great time. 

We also had a great time for the next few days being with Ashley, Derek and Megan. We played LOTS of games, and I think I lost every single one. It was still fun though. We went swimming and got Braden to finally jump in. Now we just need to figure out a way to get Jackson to overcome his fear.  We also went to the zoo and had a fun time watching the chimps play. Oh and I also got to see a cousin of mine that I hadn't seen for about 4 years. Woot!  So many things we got to do!! Now we're in Plano and we're getting everything settled in our apartment. In about half an hour we're going swimming in one of the little pools they have here. Can't wait!!