white sand + turquoise water + sun = PARADISE

This post has the potential to be ridiculously long.  A lot of exciting things have been happening at the Hill house, and I haven't written a blog in what seems like forever.  I'll do my best.

A few weeks ago, my parents took Joe and I on a cruise to paradise to celebrate my graduation from BYU.  At least it's what I always thought paradise looks like.  This sign from a beach in the Bahamas pretty much sums up our entire trip:

So true.

Of course, when I woke up vomiting the very day we were flying to Florida to board our cruise, I thought I would spend the week with the toilet and my pillow... but luckily it was just a 48 hour bug and I slept it off while we were still just off the coast of Florida.

The week in a nutshell... 

1. We walked a mile or so up the coast to Governor's Beach on Grand Turk.  There we got our first taste of the beautiful (and salty!) Caribbean.  Joe and I did a little snorkeling and mostly just laid out on the beach!

2. Next was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  With its old cobblestone streets, brightly colored buildings, and historic forts from the Spanish-American War, we loved walking around and exploring everything there was to see in Old San Juan.  They even had a Ben & Jerry's! 

A fort on the tip of Puerto Rico.  We walked all the way to the edge of this fort.

And here's the path that led to the bottom of the fort.

The view of San Juan from my parents' balcony.

3. Next up, St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands where we took a crazy (quite positive we almost died several times...) taxi ride over the mountain to where we went on a kayak, hike, snorkel adventure. 

Post-kayak, pre-snorkel!

Some crazy rocks we found while on our "hike" (more like a short walk).

Ready to get back on the Eurodam!

4. Finally, we stopped at a private island in the Bahamas owned by our cruise line, Holland America.  It was hands down the most beautiful beach I have ever been to in my entire life.  We really thought they must have put the sand in a blender or something to make it that soft and fine.  Not that I've ever seen a blender big enough to do the job.  But anyway, the beach was waist deep for a good 100 yards or so...and not too cold (I got all the way in, so for those of you who know me that's saying something).  It was a great way to end our tropical vacation!

Yes, that's my dad doing a back float behind me ( :

Of course in between stops there was any combination of eating, sleeping, reading, getting sunburned, and more eating.  We sure had a great time and can't wait until we're rich (and old... rich probably won't come until then) and can do stuff like this all the time!