The Much-Requested St. Croix Photos

Okay - so here are the much-anticipated photos from our trip. I blame blogger - which has been very tempermental for me - and my three tests due this week for the delay. Anyway - enjoy... we sure did!

Traveling... with much anticipation:

We would like to give Sarah a big thank you for lending us the first season of West Wing for our travels. We totally missed that bandwagon when it was on t.v. and now we are incredibly hooked.

Because we used frequent flyer miles Chad and I ended up leaving a day earlier than the rest of the group.

Okay so what do you get when you flight gets in too late to charter a flight? You end up spending a night in the Puerto Rican airport. We knew it was going to be an adventure that night - so we expected it - but by 3 a.m. and zero sleep I was almost in tears.

This is how we spent most of the night. Chad watched movies and I read my People Magazine sporatically mixing in school books because I felt guilty that I wasnt using the time wisely.

Seriously - mini weiner dogs in the vending machine. Can you think of anything more disgusting. Not even at 5 a.m. when we were getting hungry from our night guarding our belongings did this even begin to look appetizing. Imagine eating these and then seeing your charter plane the next morning:

Yeah - tiny plane = very scary. On the up side - every seat was a window seat. We saw great views of Puerto Rico and St. Croix as the sun came up.

Eating Out: It is really amazing that we dont weigh 700 lbs. after going on this trip. We ate an ate and ate. The food was awesome! (Thanks to Loni who didnt let us go astray when it came to restaurants)

One day the girls had the chance to have lunch alone while the boys were scuba diving. It was a lot of fun.

We found a really good ice cream shop that we ended up visiting twice on the trip

Most Eastern Point of the U.S. Territories:

James and LaRee

Chad and Emily(we visited here twice. This is a pic of our first)

Ben and Sarah

fun group shot

The Lobster Hunt:

Heading out full of hopes of catching lobster. They had one spear gun and gloves. Lonnie said that would be all they would need. It was some pretty rocky water but they were successful. Somewhat. Chad caught one - but just grabbing it before it got away(nice job!) and Lonnie - our seasoned professional - caught the rest, but he wanted the glory to go the boys.

The Drinking Pig - that's right - I said drinking pig:

No worries mom - the pig only drinks non-alcholic beer

F.Y.I - LaRee knows how to hold her liquor.

Okay - this pig is large. He was about 7 feet tall on his hindlegs. Really freaky. I ended up just chucking it into his mouth. That's what you do. Dont open it - just put it right in. The pig drinks and spits out the can. Here is video of it (it isnt us in the video - but you'll get the idea) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBwdzv0TKA

These pigs (there were three of them - but this one was the most active) love their beer. They were so excited. I was excited to keep my distance for their snapping jaws.

One of the funniest pictures of the trip. The pig is actually smiling. James and the pig had a great relationship.

The girls snokeling:

Sarah, LaRee and I all agree that this is our favorite picture of the trip

Heading back from Buck Island after a long snokeling excursion. It was a lot of fun.

This is a parrot fish that we saw at Buck Island. We also saw a turtle, squid, baracuda, and the "Dori" fish from Finding Nemo - among others. It was really incredible. I am usually afraid of fish - but oddly enough I wasnt this time. I think I was preoccupied with trying not to bash into coral.

See - my eyes are the size of golf balls. Blame it on the coral.

The Guys Scuba diving:

If you ask any of the guys this was their favorite part of the trip. Since this was all of their first times they went down to 45 feet. They loved it so much they signed up again for the next day. They have all vowed to get certified within the next year.