Zion

We went down to Zion over labor day weekend. We went with some friends and had to pack our pads and chairs on top of our SUV. We had to fill up gas 3 times on the way down. We got lost because of bad google directions so we were wandering around for 45 minutes at 01:00 in the morning, finally found out where to go and got there at 2:30. We didn't bother to set up our tents we were too tired! Here's a picture of our first night at Zion.

Summer of Sutherland's!

Well Casey and I are a little behind in all the technology things! We just got the internet and looked at our family's blogs. Ours won't be as impressive, but we'll have fun doing it! Just for a little update, Casey is working as a Corrections Deputy at the jail. He comes home with some pretty crazy stories. He finds the "drunks" to be especially funny. He really likes his work and for the most part, it's not that dangerous so I'm happy! Casey loves to go shooting, and is always trying to coax me into letting him buy another gun (he already has two, that's enough right?). He is planning on going hunting with some friends this season. If he gets anything though it's going home with the friends because we wouldn't have a clue what to do with it! I am finally getting a little more comfortable with my job as a Labor and Delivery RN. It's really fun to help with the birthing experience of so many new moms! I'm finally working the same shift 7L (0700-1900) which has been nice. Since I now have a little spare time between work, I've taken up quilting table runners and also making jewelery. We've had a good summer with good weather most of the time. We've been on a few vacations as well. We are picture taking gurue's so there's lots of pictures!

This is us at white pine lake.

These are two different waterfalls from two different canyons. We like to go hiking occasionally (when we're in shape!). This is a picture from a cave we hiked to

Cruisin!

We saved up for one big vacation this summer. August was our two year anniversary and we decided to go on a cruise! This is our ship, The Enchantment of the Seas. It was huge! They had tons of shows to go to, pools, drinks galore, and way too much food!

Just some pictures of us and of the boat. It was very nice. Our room wasn't as nice because it was the cheapest one they had, it was nice though.

Food Food Food!!!

You would not believe how much food they had on the cruise! We both gained some weight from eating constantly! Casey gained at least 5 pounds. It took a little bit of getting used to when we got home because we didn't have endless amounts of food. They did amazing carvings, most of them are made out of watermellons! We watched an ice carver carve a horse out of a big ice block with nothing but a chisel in about 5 minutes. It was really neat!

Stingray City

To answer your first question, these stingrays are not like the stingray that killed crocodile dundee and they are very used to having people around. This sandbar that we're on is out in the middle of the ocean but it's only 3 feet deep and its a huge sandbar. It took me a little while to become comfortable with the stingray swimming all over, touching my leg or swimming up onto my side. It was kind of scary when Casey wanted to feed the buggers. They had a bucket of kalamari to feed the stingrays. The stingrays mouths are on the bottom and they can't see what they're eating. They just suck up whatever they can smell so we were told to tuck our thumbs in when feeding them. After you fed them and had squid juicies all over your hand, you were told not to rub your hands on your stomach or your bumb or anything otherwise you could get a "stingray hicki" that would last for weeks! This was probably my favorite excursion of the trip. And yes, I held a stingray!

Cozumel & Xel-Ha

Xel-Ha was an awesome place! We only had three hours there though, we could have easily spent the whole day there. There was a lot to see and do. We went snorkling for most of the time we were there. We saw quite a lot of neat fish. We had complimentary virgin smoothies which hit the spot because it was hot! You can see that this park was pretty crowded. A lot of the people there spoke different languages, German, French and who knows what else!