Caribbean Cruise 2012

As much as I enjoy Arkansas, I sure wish I were back cursing' the Caribbean! We got back from a wonderful week last Sunday and have way to many memories and pictures to share. We went with our friends the Edwards on a 7-day cruise out of Miami with stops at Cozumel, Belize, Roatan Honduras, and Grand Cauman.

Hope you're ready for photo overkill !! I should have broken this into multiple posts, but too late...

We left Miami and enjoyed an afternoon on the ship exploring. We quickly found the 24-hr pizza and ice cream stations. Oops.

Day 2 was spent at sea. It was a beautiful and hot day and we sailed along Cuba for most of it. The day was spent flying down the waterside (I even went--I think baby boy loved it--apparently it was against ship rules for me to go.) reading, journal writing, eating, napping and simply enjoying being together and away from work. Our first formal night was this evening and we had fun putting on our fancy clothes and eating fancy dinner (and desserts!!)

baby bump...or food bump...your call :)

Day 3 was our first port, Cozumel. We had a great day planned to go across on the ferry to visit the Mayan ruin Tul and tour it with a great guide. Due to bad ferry timing, we had to cancel the tour and spend the time on Cozumel instead. We made a quick new plan and visited a Mayan ruin on the island, drove to several beaches and snorkeled (part of the time during a tropical rainstorm). We could not believe how clear the water was and how colorful the fish were.

 In front of the San Gervasio Fertility temple...we don't need anymore blessings from the fertility gods right now, we already have clearly been blessed

 with the Edwards!  So glad they could come!! 

hey there, mr. fishy

Day 4-Belize
In the words of the locals it was in-Belize-able!! We had heard a lot about it being a sketchy 3rd world country, but despite what we had heard, we were blown away by the kindness of the people, the laid back feel, and beauty of the country. In belize the wives and husbands actually parted ways, and the wives worried that we would return at some point to them. The guys headed on a plane out the a great reef off the coast for a 2 tank scuba trip. I couldn't go due to being pregnant. Belize is known for its scuba and did not disappoint. Luckily colby was able to go being that he left his scuba certification card at home! A neighbor saved the day and went to our home and sent a photo of it to us. They saw sea turtles, colorful fish and coral, eel, and even a 6- ft long shark. Colby was brave (or stupid, depending who you ask) and actually touched the nurse shark!

Lurana and I had our own adventure and went on a cave tubing trip. We took an hour bus ride out to the jungles, hiked 45 minutes across rivers and through the jungle, until we got to a long cave with a river through it. Headlamps on, we floated through the beautiful cave and put through the rain forest. We did it primarily to be part of an organized group while our husbands left us, but ended up truly enjoying it and wanting to do it again. I highly recommend it!

 Glad this didn't turn out to be our last photo together--right before we split ways in Belize

 Coming out of the dark cave and out into the jungle

 The reef from the airplane

 Survived, and loved it!!

Day 5- Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. We were blown away by the beauty of this island and can understand why so many retire here. We had a great stay here. We took a taxi to the West End and went snorkeling at Half Moon Bay. We saw eel, lobster, flat fish, hundreds of variety of fish, jelly fish and an octopus. On our second trip out, the water got rough and most of us ended up with some type of battle would from our fight with the coral. The worst past was Jared discovering his pockets of his swim trunks, which initially had their drivers licenses, ship cards and cash, only had $20 remaining after we got out. Thankfully we made it back to the ship as our taxi driver pulled a quick one on us and claimed he broke down and we would have to pay a lot more for his friend to take us. Luckily we were able to work it out and get back safely. Because we had to be on the ship by 3, we had an afternoon to sit out on the deck and enjoy the ocean view and breeze.

 eel...

 and jelly fish...

 and octopus...oh my!

the remains from the pocket...we now call the "donation" the honduras stimulus package 2012

Day 6- our last port, grand cayman. Once arrived, we scratched our plans to reef hop and snorkel and opted to go swim with the sting rays. This was a great decision that none of us regretted. It was an unreal experience to touch, feed and hang put with the rays. Our boat took us snorkeling after the sting rays. When the trip ended, we skipped the drop off at 7 mile beach and went back to explore the 75 year old ship wreck of the Cali. It seriously was so neat. It was about 50 yards offshore and 20 ft deep and maybe 50 yards long. The shipwreck itself was breathtaking and it was fun to see all the coral and fish that now live their. There were some huge fish that in the distance looked like sharks! Eek! Luckily they weren't. Since we didn't have to wake up at any specific time the following day, we lived it up that night--too much food, comedy shows, card show, dancing and more food...

Jared and Lurana kissing the sting ray--apparently this wins you 7 years good luck

okay, this picture doesn't give our (our meaning the girls) "shark scare" much justice.  I guess it did look like a fish...

Wreck of the Cali

Day 7- final day and day at sea. We slept in a bit then spent the day out on deck on the slide, reading, napping, playing mini golf and trying to get tan since I had worn SPF 50 all week. We had a great morning but had our afternoon interrupted by a rainstorm. We stayed out as long as we could but eventually went in.

All in all, it was a great week with too much food, perfect conversation, memories not to be forgotten and an overall perfect trip. My belly grew and I'm not sure how much was from the food and how much was the baby... :)

Congrats to the perhaps 3 of you who made it to the end.

It's a ...

BOY!! 

We are so excited. It was so surreal to have our ultrasound today and see our little guy. It was our first ultrasound and makes everything seem more real. I suddenly feel such a connection to our little man and I can't wait to meet him! From the ultrasound, everything about him appears to be healthy, thankfully.

Isn't he so cute?  We sure think so.

First stop post-ultrasound was to the mall, and, of course, I couldn't resist picking up a few cute tops. I can't believe how many cute boy things there are. I joked that our pocketbook could be in trouble if we have a girl, but it may be just as bad with this boy.

We really couldn't be more excited. Now we just have to think of a name. We don't have any boy names picked out! Feel free to share ideas. :)

Perfect Sunday Afternoon

On top of being able to watch Conference this afternoon, we were able to sneak in an afternoon walk over at Crystal Bridges, an area with a new world-class museum and gorgeous trails. We rarely get our Sundays to spend together with Colby's Branch Presidency calling, and it was a beautiful day.  In fact, it was almost too hot, at 87 degrees!  If it's this hot on April 1st, we may be in for a long, hot summer, and a pricey air conditioning bill.

We enjoyed our walk through the trails talking together and enjoying the beautiful area.

Sidenote of the adventure: A first happened today--a complete stranger congratulated me on our pregnancy.  Apparently I really no longer look fat, but do look pregnant.  Good news for me.  Bad news is that this is only the beginning of the growing.  I am halfway through the pregnancy this week.

Here are a few photos.

Look at that babe. Sorry ladies, he's taken.

Baby belly. For your viewing pleasure. And a sexy face, just to pretend that I still am. Ha.

I spy a blue-bellied lizard.  Thanks to my wonderful new lens, Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 (new since Christmas--should I admit this is the first time I have used it? oops. But i LOVE it.) I was able to capture it.

Caution, you may need to put on your shades as to not be blinded by my white legs.  Hopefully a trip to the Caribbean in 2 weeks will change that up a bit. 

Love Today

As I have been preparing for General Conference, I took a moment to reflect on some past talks that have impacted me. I love the talk by Thomas S. Monson from April 2003 titled "In Search of Treasure." In it he mentioned that we need to:

1. Learn from the past
2. Prepare for the Future
3. Live in the Present

I think it is so easy to get caught up on all the could haves, should haves, and wished i had dones that it is good to have the reminder to simply learn from the past, but more forward.  As I look forward to having our little one join us soon, I find myself wanting this current time to pass quickly so I can meet baby Heiner.  But, as counseled by our loving prophet, I need to "live in the present,"enjoy now. He later stated that "if you put off everything you could do today, tomorrow you have a lot of empty yesterdays."  How true is that.  Once again, a reminder to make each day count.  Now to me, part of that is learning to enjoy each day and learn to love what happens, good or bad.  Treasure the good.  Learn from the bad.  Enjoy it all. 

As I look back through the day today I realize that it wasn't really a red-letter day by any means, but I find myself really having enjoyed it.

So why did I love today?


It could be one of many things...


I got to sleep in until 9:30.  Forgot to set the alarm.  Oops.  A few extra zzzs probably wasn't a bad thing.

When I woke up I had a great night with great friends to reflect on.

I was in a baking mood so made crumb cake muffins for a pre conference snack/breakfast.

Colby came home from cleaning the church and made crepes filled with fresh strawberries (even after I told him I was fine having cereal)

I got to spend several hours of the day listening to General Conference with the hub.

While watching said conference I got to paint all 20 of my nails with my new favorite polish, SinfulColors in Hazard and one of Colby's who was resting his foot in a dangerous position--right under the polish brush.  Don't worry.  It didn't stay colored very long. Maybe 3 seconds. Ha.

I was in a cleaning mood which meant I wasn't dreading laundry and it was all quickly washed and folded.

Since the baking mood was lingering, I whipped up a batch of homemade wheat bread.

I got to go on a walk through the neighborhood with Colby.  Despite the cramp in my leg and allergies I was suffering from, I loved the walk.

My "I ate too much for lunch" belly is starting to actually look like a baby bump and I am feeling it move around more frequently.  So surreal that there is a child growing in me.

Since said bump is growing, my stomach is seemingly shrinking so I got to slurp down a simple green smoothie for dinner.

I didn't put any make-up on or do my hair.  Hello, when was the last time I could say that?


...but I think it was simply the combination of each little thing all compiled to make a great day.


It is amazing how when you have the right outlook on life, a seemingly mundane day can be a fabulous one.  Here's to learning to live more in the moment and love life.

Boy or Girl

One of the fun things about working as a buyer, is we see all kinds of new item submissions.  A buyer I work with has had this one below presented a couple times and needed someone to test it.  Seeing as I am pregnant, I was the perfect candidate.  It supposedly will predict what the gender of your baby will be.  So based on this product, I am going to have a...

BOY!

But, then again, the print after the 10 steps of direction reads "We recommend that you wait until your healthcare provider confirms the gender prior to painting the nursery pink or blue, or making other financial or emotional investments into your gender result."

So there you have it.  Straight from the inside the box.  I will not be putting too much confidence in this result (especially since we were told the default response is Boy).

Rather, we will wait until April 4, 1.5 weeks, until our ultrasound tells us!  We can't wait to know.  

Boy or girl....What do you think??

On my way home

It has been an amazing week, but an utterly exhausting one- physically and mentally. Pregnancy symptoms are fading away and I am finally starting to feel more myself. I've spent the last 8 days in Florida for work preparing for and presenting at Walmart's annual year beginning meeting. For the meeting we plan and set a floor with merchandise representing our top priority items and projects for the 3800 store managers to come see and interact with the buyers. After they are there a few days, they all head home and several hundred high volume suppliers come for a supplier summit. After being to the meeting, i should edit my comments from saying i was in florida to i was at the orange county convention center. We truely didnt see florida, except for the night we got lost on our way to dinner in a rental car. Days were spent on a cement floor from 6-11 when we got home from dinner. That would be 6 in the morning to 11 at night. Sleep a little. Get up. Walk like a zombie to breakfast and do it again. Because tall departments participated in this show, there were plenty of tasty food samples to make my belly grow. I am officially squeezing into a select few pairs of pants but can't decide if it's the baby or the samples of Cadbury ice cream bars or baked potato skins.

I am flying over Illinois right now ready to land in Chicago and jump on a flight home. I honestly can't wait to get there, see Colby ( and talk him into a nice foot rub), sleep in my own bed, and eat breakfast from my kitchen. Not sure there have been many other moments where I was so glad to be home and so ready for a weekend.

Couldn't be Happier

We couldn't be happier to announce that the Heiner clan will be expanding this August.  Well technically, I am already expanding. 

Baby Heiner will join our family with a due date of August 22.  

Keep us in your prayers as we head into this new adventure.  We are thrilled and extremely grateful.  We heard the heartbeat for the first time a couple of days ago and it was such a neat experience.  Words truly can't explain how we felt that first moment of hearing our little one. This really is happening, finally.

Christmas with the Heiners

{better late than never}

We had a great Christmas season this year with mom Heiner and Kellen coming to spend a week with us. We had to work one of the days, but were able to enjoy many days of relaxation, travel, eating way to much and catching up. The first day they were here we headed up to check out the church history sites near Kansas city and stopped by Joplin on the way. At the end of the trip, I found myself reflecting more on the many blessings I have in my life. While its not perfect, I do have a roof over my head (unlike many in Joplin) and religious freedom. I am always amazed at what the early saints had to endure. Mom Heiner loved seeing independence, liberty jail and Far West.

We tried to make Christmas eve as lively as we could and enjoyed a study of Luke 2 followed by some hilarious rounds of a Christmas version of minute-to-win-it.

Christmas morning was a great time to be together and celebrate the many blessings we have and remember the birth and life of the savior. While I missed being with my side of the family, I was grateful to be as to use FaceTime to see each of them, including Brad who is serving a mission in Washington.

Of course the fun had to come to an end eventually and we found ourselves once again just the two of us wishing we lived slightly closer to family and able to spend time together on a more consistent basis.

And here is the photo over-load... (all photos from my phone, excuse the quality...)

My husband is the best

No. Really. I'm normally not one of those "I have the best life" bloggers, but my husband just made my night. As I prepare for two cookie exchange parties, I came to a panic mid recipe when the just-purchased-yesterday ground ginger was nowhere to be found. The hubs not only searched our house for it, he quickly put on his shoes and grabbed the keys to head out the door to the nearest Walmart. I guess he could tell it was one of those nights. To me--that equates to amazing.

And for you viewing pleasure, my flour, salt and baking powder mixture waiting for its friend ginger to join.