Cruise..FINALLY

So as most of you know we lucky to go on a cruise a few weeks ago. We went with Emily and Weston some good friends of ours We went to the Carribean and had so much fun!
Many of you have been asking and asking for pictures...sorry for the delay but I had some problems loading. Figured it out and here are the posts from the cruise. Just remember.. you asked for pictures...you got pictures! THERE ARE A TON! I had to break them down..so enjoy the next 3 posts they go as follows:
-Ports
-Random Cruise Fun
-Formal nights

PORTS!

We had so much fun at all our ports!! The water was beautiful, the sun was shining, the sand was SOO soft, and I was with Nolan and good friends. It was so relaxing!

1st STOP: Bahamas, Half Moon Cay

This was by FAR my favorite port. I have never seen anything like this in real life, I thought it only existed on T.V. It was the bluest water I have ever seen! The boys went snorkeling and Em and I soaked up some rays and swam. It was amazing!

The boys were so funny in their gear. I think they look cute!

He is getting pumped up in case he sees a shark!

Playing in Paradise!

Mini palm trees.

2nd STOP: St. THOMAS

St. Thomas was interesting...I was totally enjoying the blue water and swimming, until I look down and see what we thought was a stick..A MOVING STICK..with a pointed long nose. It looked like a snake with a sword fish nose! I was out! It freaked me out and I was not going to be swimming next to snake things! So we went over to another beach and it was pretty and we had fun playing in the water and enjoyed some great pizza on the beach.

I didn't get a ton of pictures here...but look at how pretty the water is!

Me and my man!

3rd STOP: PUERTO RICO, SAN JUAN

Puerto Rico was Nolan's favorite port. He loves the old cobble stone city feel. In Puerto Rico we walked around the old city, and shopped and did some sight seeing. Nolan got quite artistic with the camera here and took TONS of pictures of the city. And lots of black and white photos.

Loved this sight. Old architecture. Kisses. View of the rain forest.

This was a cool plaza that entertained the boys for awhile. There were tons of pigeons and a crazy man who walked up to me and said "don't take your clothes of here please!" I quickly rebutted and said "I'M NOT!" He then he said "do you have a husband?" (I was getting nervous) Then at that very second Nolan came to my rescue FAST! I gave him an attitude and said "YEP, and here he is!"

I LOVE THIS PICTURE-by Nolan Poulson

Yea it was weird to have Christmas lights on these little trees. There was no snow, just beach, and Heat, and what do ya know..Christmas decorations..WEIRD

The small streets of Puerto Rico

Mr. Jolly Belly Man

The children teasing the pigeons.

Nolan is all about authenticity. He is interested in getting the "real experiences" of different places. That means eating and authentic places...NOT HARD ROCK.

Nolan found a stand on the side of the road and decided to give some Authentic Puerto Rican food a try. He got this sandwich that looked nasty..HE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! He made me try it and I have to say it was pretty good! Yet another reason he loved P.R. so much!

4th STOP: GRAND TURK

OH YEA.....WE GOT JIPPED and didn't make it to Grand Turk! Are you sensing some anger in my voice? Just a little? We were SOOO disappointed we weren't able to go to our last port. We got an announcement on the speaker "Due to a medical emergency on board we are turning around and returning to Puerto Rico. (this is about 4 hours after leaving P.R.) We didn't think anything of it...about 4 hours later another announcement: "Due to the hours lost we will be missing our port to Grand Turk." Yea, it was a huge disappointment. We were planning on doing para sailing and maybe some jet skiing there. We were looking forward to this our whole trip. But I guess someone was in need and hopefully they are o.k. because they made thousands of people miss their port. :)

Over all we had a great time and it was SOO nice to spend 24 hours a day with Nolan! I already miss those sandy beaches and blue waters when I look outside to the snow.

Random Cruise Fun

These are our fun times on the boat, and other random happenings aboard the Carnival Liberty! Our boat was so fun, and we enjoyed good weather and lots of laughs.



At the miami port getting ready to leave

Being crazy in Miami..Nolan's face is priceless in this pic.

Em and Jan....Bad

Miami--So sick of traveling!!!

My husband..making me laugh as usual.

We hung out with Mickey in the arcade

Me and Emily got FORCED literally into dancing at dinner...

Ok..so Nolan became Mr. Entertainer on the Carnival Liberty. He participated in many volunteer events and HE ALWAYS got picked. This one was a production by some break dancers..He got the nickname.."white boy" from this one. ( i will try to post the video of him dancing..it is HILARIOUS...)

We loved getting our towel animals! We got FIESTY about this one.

Our favorite thing..laying out!

We played mini-golf on the ship, it was FUN! I was the worst golfer out of all of us! This is Nolans Hole In One SHOT!!!

Pullin a move on the Green

My Cheese Ball of a husband, is going to kill me for this one.

Ok..this picture is not a waterfall, we enjoyed great weather the whole trip. This was after a GREAT day in Puerto Rico. We were all inside getting ready and Nolan took a walk outside and found this random pounding rainstorm. This is the rain pouring of the deck!! Perfect timing!

This picture does not do justice..this is nolans crazy sunburn!!

Once again, Nolan the entertainer on stage during a hypnotist show. Weston joined him this time. It was a all a joke, its not real. However, nolan got called up to be a main guy, and so he had to pretend that he was hypnotized, it was funny but wierd that people actually believe in it.

Drinking our fancy drinks. I think Utahns are one of the only people that get pictures of drinking stuff that comes from a bar. "Non-alcoholic please"

Catchin some rays on LIDO DECK!

Just wouldn't be a vacation withou some Pina Coladas

You can tell they aren't really into, "layin out"

Such a pretty view from the deck.

Our Buddies!!!

The Fabulous 4

Formal Nights

Formal nights were fun we had a great time getting all dressed up and fancy....
Seriously I have such a handsome husband

I was getting sick of taking pictures

YOu can dress them up but you can't take them out... me and Emily started putting spoons on our noses, the boys weren't too good at it.

Shh...don't tell but the spoon is actually falling in this picture..Nolan just couldn't do it.

Once again, he is just so cute!

The girls

The guys

Princess and the Frog

Celebrations

Please enjoy the next two posts! Sorry I have so much to post about they seem a littel scatter-brained and I know some of the words are spelled wrong but i was trying to hurry, and I was getting a little A.D.D. about blogging. SO ENJOY! -Nolans BDAY & Laurens Shower

Nolans 25th Birthday

November 8th was Nolans 25th birthday!!! I can't believe my sweetheart is 25!! I was excited for his brithday and wanted to do my best to make it special. Nolan is awesome at making my birthdays special and I never feel quite up to par next to him. So I surprised him with a special dinner invitation while he was at work. When he got home I made him a special dinner and decorated our little place!

My sweet birthday boy!

SUPRISE!! (he just got home from the gym)

Cheese cake bites for dessert.

The candle lit dinner.

It was a fun to celebrate and have a special night together. I hope he liked it and I just wanted him to know that he is loved and that I am so grateful for him.

THEN...

We also threw a party with the Payne family. I wanted it to be fun once again and I feel like this party went over very well and we all had a blast. Here is what we did...It was a 'Night at the Movies' I gave Nolan tickets and through out the evening he had the pleasure of handing them out to people who he felt deserved them. Here are some examples:

Mom: she got tickets for cooking and amazing dinner

Dad: for helping with dinner

Shanna: for beat-boxing and entertaining the family to tears of laughter

Ali: for beating her boy at shooting

Staci: for answering a trivia question about Nolan

Nolan at Dinner with his "you are special today" plate. This is a tradition in the Payne home.

Kissing the birthday boy!

Then...We played NOLAN PICTIONARY. All the words were about Nolan and we had teams take turns drawing them and earning tickets for each word that was guessed. We also played the "left and right" game to a story about NOlan. We passed around envelopes with secret numbers of tickets in them. Whatever envelope you ended up with at the end of the story is your gift. Then with all your tickets you could purchase: enterance into the MOVIE and you could buy your treats and popcorn with the tickets you won through out the night! Nolan chose the movie Ice Age 3. We had so much fun!

I was SOOOOO excited for Nolans gift this year. He has been wanting a Grill ever since we were married. I new I was getting him a grill for almost a year! My dad helped me pick out a nice one and the whole family went in on it with me. HE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! I don't have a picture of it but I will post one soon because he can't stop grilling! It's great that he cooks a lot and he can't stop talking about how much he loves his grill. WE SCORED WITH THE GIFT!

His denver broncos wrapping paper. He got a grill cover too!

Nolan LOVES to rip open presents as fast as he possibly can
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY MAN!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Laurens Shower

My best friend Lauren is having a baby girl in December. So of course we have to celebrate! I threw a shower for her and baby Avery (hopefully, I want her to choose this name) She has been such a good friend to me and I wanted to make this day special for her because we have been talking about having babies since the day we met! I am so excited for her and can't wait to see the little doll!

All the GIRLS

The table

And centerpiece

The party favors

and GIFT TABLE

She got tons of cute stuff for her little girl, and I honestly CAN NOT wait to see her tiny hands and face! CONGRATS LAUR!