Cruisin The Caribbean With My Hansen Family Cont...

Ok so here are some of my favorite pictures from my family's vacation, mostly because I got lots of group photos (which normally never happens!!!) I also don't think my family has been all together with spouses in over 2 years!!! My family all met up Thursday morning and loaded ourselves into Tony's Trusty Transportation van and made our way to our Carnival Fun Ship. We spent most of the day chilling on the ship and eating of course:) Here we are below ready to go and super excited to see our cruise ship!The next day, Friday, we stopped at Key West, our first port of call. At Key West my family went all out and took a private catamaran to Dolphin's Playground to watch some dolphins play and then we went and snorkeled on the reef.
A sweet family photo, I think this one above is my MOST favorite from the entire trip!!!
Me with my siblings!!! We all had such a great time catching up and just getting to be with each other.
Snorkeling!!! The coolest part was seeing a HUGE barracuda super close to me (like 2 feet away close!)
My whole family saying cheese together....group pics make me very happy if you can't tell!!!

Scottie and I in front of our cruise ship at Key West (above). US below....we used the ships props and took a pic of us in front of the ship??? Which one do you think is real? LOL
Formal Night- Since our family cruise was in honor of my parent's 30th wedding anniversary we thought it would be appropriate if we celebrated! All of my siblings and I pitched in and got my parents a personalized picture of the Salt Lake Temple. That is where my parents were sealed for all time and eternity 30 years ago:) This is picture of them with a picture of the picture. We didn't bring the actual 20x30 picture on the ship....it would be too big!!!
Our second port of call was Cozumel, Mexico! Here we went and checked out the Mayan Ruins at Tulum. This place was so cool, and it was so fun for Scottie and I to compare these ruins to the other ones we saw on our last cruise in Costa Maya. Tulum was huge and and had a breath taking view of the ocean!!! Seriously the Nephites/Lamanites couldn't have selected a better location for their city.
Tulum was so great because you could actually envision how the city actually looked when it was inhabited. Our guide said the pathways/roads were even in the exact same spot as they once were originally.
Of course an O-H-I-O picture was needed from a place with this amazing view!!!
We ended our Tulum experience with a very brief and I mean brief (right family!!!) drip in the ocean.
After we got back from Tulum we had a little bit of time left to explore Cozumel and Scottie decided he wanted to be a little bit adventurous and suggested we swim in the No Swimming area. Austin and I decided to be rebels too and joined in the fun:)
In front of our cruise ship...a pretty amazing picture huh?
On the last night of our cruise my family watched the sunset together. It was really beautiful.
After we got back to Miami, we still had the whole day to spend together was a family before our flights brought us back to reality...so we decided to hit up South Beach. It was a relaxing and fun way to end our vacation.
April, Me, and Jill (my fun sister in law)
Here is my family once again in front of our Trusty van. This time the party is over and we are saying goodbye at the airport. We had such a great time together and I am so grateful to my parents for giving us this amazing experience. Some of my favorite parts of the trip were the sentimental things we did together like; the nightly family devotionals, secret pals, and church together on Sunday. My Dad said " I have learned that when we feel the spirit, we will make commitments and be willing to keep those commitments. It is interesting that you bond with those that you are having those spiritual experiences with. I think that is why it is so important for couples/families to constantly be having spiritual experiences together." I couldn't agree more with him and I am grateful that my parents worked these spiritual experiences in, so my family could feel the spirit and bond together. Here's to a wonderful vacation!!!

My AMAZING parents took my family on a Caribbean Cruise; it was in honor of my parent’s 30th wedding anniversary and for our family reunion!!! We all had a wonderful time together and created many great memories that will last a lifetime for us. Detailed pictures and explanations will follow soon, but for now this huge slideshow will have to work. There were 6 of us taking pictures so I had to choose from over 600 pictures….literally.

Crusin The Caribbean With My Hansen Family

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Scottie's 28th Birthday

Happy Birthday Scottie Jay!!!

Scottie's had a Birthday shout hooray! One year older and wiser too, Happy Birthday to you!!! Yep that is right Scottie is 28 years old...only 2 more away from the big 30!!! So this year Scottie had to be on call on his actual birthday :( sniffle sniffle (I think I cared more than he did LOL), so we started celebrating his birthday over the weekend. We went golfing, out to Roosters, and had presents of course!

Here is Scottie looking so cute in his scrubs! I love how the green brings out the green in his eyes. He laughs every time I make him take a picture while he is wearing scrubs, but I just think he looks so hot, and I can't help myself. Plus it reminds me that he is going to be a doctor soon!!!

The 7th was Scottie's actual birthday and since he had to be at the hospital all day I planned a little surprise for him. I decorated my office (since he doesn't have one of his own yet) and got balloons, b-day cake/Brownie, and Wendy's lunch for him, and had him report to my office during his lunch break (glad I work on campus!!!) Once he got there he found me waiting for him with all his surprises.

Blowing out his birthday cake!

This year Scottie insisted that he get to sit in the birthday circle on the couch and since it WAS his birthday I went along with him, and let him open his presents on the couch.

Scottie with his candy loot!

Look at his face below...isn't that priceless! I just love that I got this moment on camera:)

Opening gifts from his Parker Family!!! Thanks Mom and Dad P.

Roosters....A causal, fun, joint. We have been trying to go to this popular Columbus Restaurant for a while now, but every time we go they have an hour wait and we DON'T want to wait. This time we waited...it was for a special occasion.

Scottie said this is his new favorite place to get wings.

Golfing at Wilson Road Golf Course. We now have a fun, romantic, and hilarious story to share together about this course. Long story short...while we were golfing we got stuck in a rain/hail/lightening storm. We got drenched, loved it, kissed in the rain, and called the clubhouse so they could come rescue us with a golf cart. Best part of the story...we still got rain checks even though we were 3 holes away from being done!!!

Look at those storm clouds a brewing!!! It really was beautiful though.

Well there you have it! I am so grateful Scottie came into this world 28 years ago, so I could meet and marry him. He really is the love of my life...if you can't tell:)

Jordan's Graduation & A Road Trip

My Brother in Law graduated from Medical School, and to celebrate the special occasion my parents flew out. They arrived in Columbus, OH Wednesday night. Upon their arrival they took Scottie and I out to eat at Cheesecake Factory! Man alive I love that place. Then early the next morning my parents and I loaded up into my beloved Blue Thunder and started the 10 hour road trip to Missouri (where Jordan was graduating from). We enjoyed all the graduation festivities there and especially loved getting to spend time with my sister's adorable kids. After the graduation on Saturday my Mom and I dropped Dad off at the St. Louis airport (he had to get back to Washington) and then we made the long journey back home to Columbus. Where my Mom stayed for a couple of extra days!!!

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While my Mom has here we made sure we had lots of fun! We went to the Franklin Park Conservatory and posed with Butterflies, made breaksticks (they turned out great!!!), went to CiCi's, and I even took my Mom to one of my graduate classes. My of my favorite part of our road trip was getting to have 20 hours alone with my parents to talk about life!!! It was nice to get them all to myself:) Congrats Henderson family on Jordan's Medical Graduation.

So I uploaded my pictures using shutterfly and didn't realize it was going to put them in a slideshow...so here are some of the explanations for the above pictures.
#1 Parents smelling a bush-Have you ever heard the saying "stopping to smell the roses?" Well that is exactly what my parents were doing, and I couldn't stop laughing out it!!!
#2 Jordie eating pizza in bed-Yep this is what we did while I babysat...ate pizza in bed. The three kids and I had a blast together Friday night, while the Parents were at the Graduation dinner.
#3 Dad playing with Jordie- Dad would always play this game with us kids growing up "give me 5, on the back side, in the hole". It was so fun to watch him play it with Jordie.
#4 Mom and Me- On the road trip home Mom took me out to eat at the Cracker Barrel. It was fun to go out just the 2 of us.