Paradise

Our trip to the Great Barrier Reef and Green Island has been absolutely wonderful. Since Green Island is a rain forest, we were a little worried about all the rain. Luckily, it rained at night and early in the morning, so our days were filled with sunshine! Since we forgot to buy an underwater case for our camera, our underwater pictures of the reef are not developed yet. Hopefully they will show at least a little bit of the amazing things we saw. The kids were fabulous at snorkeling and were even the last people back on the Reef King (our boat) when leaving. We swam with so many beautiful fish and even a couple of black tip reef sharks. You could hear Arik yelling under the water, "shark!, shark!". At first I thought he was in trouble, but eventually I just learned that he yelled each time he saw something that amazed him! The coral was so huge and beautiful and everywhere. Back at the island, the coral wasn't as large, but the fish were! We saw more sharks, swam with turtles and lagoon rays. Definitely a trip of a lifetime. Afterwards, I told Colby that staying on a small tropical island and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef was the best "40" birthday present I could ask for.... even with the kiddies along for the fun :)

Cute picture of Annika & Arik in their stinger suits. Even though they say the Box Jellies aren't out at the reef, we still wore them. It was also nice not to have to worry about sunscreen the whole time we were snorkeling.
Tanner windsurfing for the first time. He loved it!

Sunset on the beach! So beautiful. We had been snorkeling all day and were headed to dinner. My cute dress was compliments of Green Island Resort. The airlines lost my luggage and then the resort didn't get it to me when they said, so I got to shop in the gift shop for something to wear.
Officially the "Great Barrier Reef".