crandall's take caribbean!

Its been such a fun couple of weeks! So much family time, way too much food and lots of laughter! Family really is most important, its so evident the more time i spend with our families and with my sweet Hunter.

Two weekends ago we left for Houston to board on our Caribbean cruise with Hunter's family!! Markel served her mission in houston so that night we went to one of her favorite members house and ate tinga with them (my favorite mexican meal). They were so entertaining! Reminded me so much of the good ole mission days. We left the next morning to get on the ship. The start of our fun adventure!

The first two days were on the ship, so we got to explore a lot! We sun bathed almost all day, ate pizza and shakes, watched movies, went to the gym (sickening). Those two days felt soo long. I only got sick one night then after that it just felt like i was always wobbling haha. I was so ready to get off the ship and see the beautiful countries we were stopping at! Oh, we did have to stop for an abandoned boat filled with cubans who had been stranded for a month in the middle of the ocean! The captain called the mexican coast guard to come get them! Kinda crazy.

The first day we had off the ship was in Roatan, Honduras. A little island off of Honduras. Seriously so pretty. We found a local who took us all in a van on a tour of one end of the island to the other. It was so crazy to see the peoples every day life there. There would just be kids walking down the street all alone, or little tiny houses on the side of the road. It made me very grateful for the place i was raised in. The island was so historic and cute! We did some fun shopping in the little markets on the way as well! They took us to a beach just to relax and we also did a little snorkeling. Hunter and I found a starfish! Hunter was so nervous to pick it up thinking it would bite him hahaha I finally convinced him and we both held it! That was pretty much the day there, just fun and relaxing!

We woke up early the next morning to get off on the island of Belize! And you better belize we had a good time ;) (their favorite saying there). Belize was for sure the most sketch place we saw. Not very developed at all. We looked at the shops a little bit while we were waiting for the excursion to start. And we went into the city with a random local guy. It was...different. Very very dirty and old. He took us to this lady on the side of the street and we got some local food from her. We met another guy named Justin who was obsessed with hunter's hat!! So hunter made a deal that if he would get him this drink from there and water bags that he would give it to him. And he did! ha it was cute. :) Then they took us out 30 min into the ocean to a private island. It was gorgeous!! The water was so so blue an the sand was pure white. Literally in the middle of the ocean. We did snorkeling and it was so cool! We saw quite a bit and just snorkeled our way back into the island. It was so cool to be out there! On the way back we saw like 15 dolphins!! So rare and so awesome that we actually got to see them. They were just jumping around the boat and going all over the place giving us a little show :)

Our last stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. I just love Mexico. They had really good shops too! We again got a local to take us around (much cheaper to go through locals instead of the ship) to some ruins and another beach. On the way to the ruins he told us the whole story and all about the mayans! We spent some time there, took ourselves on our own tour haha, saw a snake, tons of iguanas and the best part is- well two- hunter got a new wedding ring that is black coral, and Alexis and I got little baby mexican dresses for our baby girls when we have them!!! Seriously we were dying they were so cute. Kelby and Hunter didn't even complain about it so they obviously loved them too :) After the mayans they took us to a resort to go do more snorkeling. It was AMAZING. We jumped in the water literally into a sea of fish! Hundreds were just swimming around us! We saw so many different kinds. It was so so cool! Probably the best snorkeling we did!

The last day on the ship we stayed up late messing around, ate more treats and food, played games and watched movies! The next morning we slept in until 9:30 then went and got some breakfast. Then we went back to our cabin (sleeping on a ship is the best cause its soo dark!!) and slept until 2:30 in the afternoon. It was great. The cruise was seriously so fun!! I just live for experiences like that. I am so grateful i married into a family that i can love so much and be surrounded by such fun amazing people!

here are a few of the hundreds of pictures we took...