A Little Monkey Business- Roatan

Our first two days of the cruise were spent on the ship!  The sky was blue and despite it being windy it was still warm enough to lounge in one's bathing suit and soak up some sun.  Lots of food was consumed.  I am sure I ate my body weight in Indian food while the children enjoyed the endless ice cream.  On our third day, we arrived in Roatan an island off the coast of Honduras.  We choose to go to a monkey sanctuary.  This was our only family excursion as the girls were really just too little for many of the other activities the other destinations offered.  We learned about the history of Roatan, it's culture, and the boys can't wait to go back as it is one of the best dive locations in the world.  The monkeys were pretty cool.  Addy and Avery could have passed on them, but I thought they were pretty sweet.  An added bonus was learning about pirates and going to the insectarium.  The later kind of gave me nightmares as I saw some pretty large spiders.  Yuck! On another note, by the time you read this, it will be 2015!  I can't believe how quickly 2014 went by and I know from looking at our calendar 2015 us going to fly by too!  While this year we have been greatly blessed it has also been filled with challenges: Roman's heart surgery, Avery's eye surgery, adopting a child who has lived her life in an orphanage and teaching her that she is safe and now a part of a forever family, broken arms and clavicle, dental visits, but if you were to ask me would I trade one minute I would say absolutely not!  I was reading in a book the other day on how to come closer to Heavenly Father and it said when we pray that we shouldn't ask to be delivered from our challenges, but instead, we should pray to Heavenly Father to help strengthen us to endure our challenges that we may rise about them and gain wisdom.  It gave several examples in the scriptures of bible leaders who gave us this example.  May 2015 bring you and your family happiness and joy!  I am so grateful for all those who take the time to read my blog, for your comments and wisdom, and I would even go so far as to say friendship.  I consider you a part of my family.  I pray for you and your families and I celebrate right along with you on your triumphs.  Happy New Year!