St Lucia!

I know, I know, it had only been about a month since our trip to Florida and we were off again! This time, we headed to the BEAUTIFUL island of St. Lucia! This trip was a reward for those who did the best in the sales department at Josh's office. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know some of the people that he works with, and I have to say, they were all so fun to be with.
We left the kids with Josh's parents for the first few days and my parents the rest of the time. (Thanks so much to all of you!) Before we left, the kids found this puppy stuffed animal in our house. His name is Pepper. They decided I needed to take Pepper on the trip to keep me company. I told them I would take pictures of Pepper doing fun things on the trip with us. With that being said, here are some pictures from our fabulous trip.

Here is Pepper on the airplane. St. Lucia is a wonderful place, but it is very far away. We left at 1 a.m. Utah time, flew to Atlanta, had a three hour lay over and then flew 4 1/2 more hours to St. Lucia. Then, we had to take a 1 hour bus ride to our hotel. Pepper and I didn't sleep very well on the airplane and we were very tired by the time we arrived.

Here is Pepper taking a much needed rest in our hotel room. The flight really wore him out. We stayed at one of the Sandals Resorts. It was really nice, and all inclusive which was an added bonus. The food was really good and it was in a great location.

Here is Pepper in the sitting area of our hotel room.

Finally, here is Pepper getting some sun on the balcony of our room. Isn't that a beautiful view?

Look at this handsome guy! I have to say, one of the best parts of this trip was watching Josh relax. He has been so busyand stressed at work for the last six months. I really haven't seen him slow down. The hotel's internet service was down the whole time we were there, so he wasn't able to do any work! We spent two days of our trip sitting by the pool or the ocean, just relaxing and reading. It was heaven.

Here are our feet. :)

One of the best things about St. Lucia is the people. They were so friendly, and warm. We loved getting to know about them and their culture. One night at the hotel, they had a street party. There were fire blowers, dancers, guys walking on stilts, all sorts of delicious food, and this guy. He had buckets full of coconuts and used this giant machete to cut them until the milk came out. It was amazing to watch. (Neither of us were huge fans of the coconut milk.)

On the second day of our trip we went on a land and sea excursion. This was a great way to see the island's villages, rain forests and mountains. One thing we learned was that St. Lucia has been experiencing a horrible drought. The sad thing about that is that the hotels on the island have the first priority for water. Many of the homes there have no access to running water.
The people have to hike sometimes miles from their homes with buckets to find drinkable water. It made us feel horrible everytime someone offered us a drink of water, knowing that they probably go home to a house with no water.

These two mountains are called the Pitons. If you see pictures of St. Lucia, you usually see these. They are quite amazing.

On the sea part of the excursion, they gave us the opportunity to snorkle.

This is such a great look!

Don't we look relaxed? Isn't that a beautiful sunset?

Another great thing we did was go horseback riding. I hadn't been for such a long time and I thought this would be a great chance to do it again! Our guide's name was Dennis. He was great. He gave us all sorts of information about the island and about horses. We even go the chance to ride Josh's horse bareback into the ocean!

Our last day was probably our favorite day. I went and got a massage while Josh slept in. After lunch, we rented this cabana and stayed under it until it started to get dark. We both read our books, sipped on fruity drinks, took naps, jumped in the water-it was pure heaven!

St. Lucia, thank you for being so good to us! I hope we have the chance to come back and visit you someday!
If you are ever looking for a great place to go on a relaxing vacation, I would highly recommend this place!