Primary Program

Our 2010 Primary Program had the theme I Know That My Savior Loves Me.  I linked a video that shows some of my favorite pictures of Jesus.  I can just picture all of the children sitting at Jesus' feet.  The leaders helped the kids present their parts and songs beautifully.  Katie sang a solo for the 7th verse of Follow the Prophet and I was amazed by how lovely her voice has become.  She didn't even seem nervous at all.  The whole primary signed two of the songs that they sang and everyone had a speaking part.  Our ward here has ASL missionaries and they are teaching ward members how to sign.  We have several hearing impaired members and I love watching the translations of talks and music.  The whole meeting was wonderful and ended to quickly.

May Trip to Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica

This May Troy and I belatedly celebrated our 15th anniversary.  Lee and Bonnie came to stay with the kids and we were able to take a much needed week long vacation sans kiddos.  JetBlue flies directly from Orlando to Montego Bay, so our flights were nice and short.  When we arrived in Jamaica, we were taken to the Sandals lounge for some snacks and drinks while we waited for our ride out to the resort.  The drive was 1 1/2 hours of windy, narrow mountain roads with some crazy drivers.  I was glad to leave it to our driver and enjoy the scenery.  I was lucky enough to sit in the front row so I didn't get too carsick.  The resort was gorgeous and very clean.  My favorite thing about Sandals is their all-inclusive is more inclusive than most:  scuba, snorkeling, water toys, glass bottom boat rides, food, and transportation to and from the resort.  We were able to learn how to sail a Hobie Cat (SOOOO Fun!!!), take a sea kayak to the reef and peddle an aquatrike.  They also had a free couples' massage class.  The food wasn't the greatest, but one meal stood out as the best.  It was a steak/prawn main course with a cherry creme brulee - WOW!  I had that meal 3 times :)  They also had a crepe restaurant, so of course I went there often.  One day they had chocolate covered strawberries there too, but I checked back after that and they never had them again.  There was a man on the beach who made the best jerk chicken served with delicious rolls.  One night they had a chocolate buffet that was fun to try.

Our Room



The View from Our Balcony





This Peacock is Very Forward (He hopped up next to me to share my food!)



The Wedding Spot





Conch Shell on Glass Bottom Boat Trip



Jellyfish Held to Avoid Stinging

Giant Startfish Everywhere



Chocolate Buffet :)



We came home with mosquito and sand flea bites and decided we'd rather go to our lovely Florida beaches, but for fun activities and relaxation Sandals was great.  We had rain daily, but it was usually short and then the weather was more comfortable the rest of the day.

We had a wonderful time and will go again... 

Maybe next time we'll try Beaches which is for families and not just couples.

Katie's 10 and LOVIN' It

For Katie's birthday, we spent two afternoons at Epcot enjoying her favorite things.  She got a birthday button to wear, so she heard "Happy Birthday Princess"  lots and lots :)  The kids were excited for their first trip to the international soda fountain and each picked their favorites.  Tuesday the 19th Expose was in concert and I wanted the girls to get a chance to see them perform.  Alyssa thought the concert was amazing, but Katie thought it was okay.  Tyler listened to them for a little bit, but...

my phone was more entertaining to him :)

After riding Mission Space, they have a fun game for the family to play.  We've played it several times before, but earned our highest score ever this time.

They only have room for four players up front, but there are support stations behind them where I played too.

We got FastPasses to ride Test Track since the line there is quite long.  Everyone except Tyler can go in the single rider line, so we save the fast passes for him to be able to ride with me.  Trying out the cars on the way out is fun.  We took pictures on Tuesday and then they had different cars on Wednesday.

This GMC Acadia was the favorite!

We only have three more years until our next driver gets her permit.

We stayed at the park until closing because the kids were having so much fun, so Katie got to enjoy the fireworks before we left.

On Wednesday, Katie, Jared, Tyler and I went back to Epcot and the kids spent most of the time playing Kim Possible around the World Showcase.  We also enjoyed watching the Chinese children's acrobat show. They are AMAZING!

This link shows My Favorite Trick!  I took a video but my hands shake too much, so I found the video of the performance on YouTube.

I went to 38 Special's concert too but only knew one or two of the songs.

We are really into all the freebies that you can get for birthdays, so she is still celebrating by using her coupons.  So far she has gotten a free meal at IHOP, and free ice cream from Cold Stone and Baskin Robbins.  She still has a free meal from Tucanos and California Pizza Kitchen to use before the end of the month. 

On Saturday, she and I went garage sale shopping to use her birthday money.  She bought a cute blue and brown Vera Bradley purse for $5 and was also given a free purse that was missing its strap.  That shouldn't be hard to replace.  She also bought some gum, a beautiful dress, and cute gray school uniform shirt.  She also bought a digital camera a few weeks early and has been enjoying it.

Puerto Rico Fun and Not So Fun

Last Friday was a day off school, so we headed down to Puerto Rico early for a chance to tour Old San Juan before Saturday's JetBlue final 10 year celebration at the Conrad Condado Hotel.  Unfortunately, I left my cell phone at home and was kind of lost without it.  It's funny how quickly new technology becomes a normal part of daily routine.


I slept quite a bit on our flight down.  The kids watch the new Karate Kid movie and really enjoyed it.  I am loving Orlando.  It is so nice to fly from here!  Our flight was only 2 hours and 20 minutes.  We had Even More Legroom (EML) seats (a full 38" pitch) and I was in heaven.  Even though I'm not tall, I enjoy being able to walk past the person next to me without almost falling into their lap.  When we landed, it was raining and I worried about our plans for walking around OSJ.  Thankfully the weather cleared up by the time we got to Charlie's to pick up our minivan.  We stopped by Panaderia Espana Reposteriafor a late lunch and shared some sandwiches.  The best one was Alyssa's pastrami.  I want to go back again sometime and buy something different.  They have lots of yummy looking desserts I decided to skip this trip. 

After trying to bid on Priceline for 2 rooms, I gave up when I couldn't get them cheap enough.  I decided to look for a place to rent on VRBO.com and ended up with a 1 bedroom apartment with free parking for $99/night and only a $45 cleaning fee.  It was in between the airport and the party and had a high chain-link fence across the front of the property with a gate that had to be locked and unlocked every time we came or left.  I can't imagine living in a place where crime is so prevalent.  The little courtyard in front of our room was very pretty and we could hear coqui frogs calling at night.

After getting cooler clothes on, we ventured out to OSJ and found a parking garage near El Morro.  Thankfully we did bring our GPS which helped immensely!  There are so many one way streets in San Juan. The kids were so excited to see the huge expanse of lawn to play on...  Next time they want to fly a kite.

We spent so much time walking around the grounds, that we didn't leave much time to go inside.  Troy, Doug, Jared, and Tyler toured inside the fort for about 40 minutes before it closed at 6 pm.  

The sunset was beautiful to see and the wind made the temperature enjoyable.  We'll try to plan more time when we visit next time.

All this walking resulted in huge appetites for dinner.  We headed to Mojito's Restaurantbecause it was #13 on TripAdvisor and not too pricey.  Wow - YUM!!!  There is a parking garage right across the street with $3 parking after 6 pm.  The waiter told us that it was the first night they had been open in 8 weeks - Lucky for us!  It is low season right now in PR and lots of places are closed.  We ordered a shredded beef mofongo (mashed plantains formed in a bowl shape filled with meat and veggies), skirt steak, and steak with onions for entrees with sides of black beans and Mojito's rice.  Everything was so good that we cleaned our plates and ordered seconds :)  For dessert the 7 of us shared a coconut flan and guava cheesecake.  They didn't have any tres leches cake that night, so we'll have to try that next time.


We stayed about one block from Parque Barbosa and three blocks from the beach.  All of us enjoyed the beautiful slightly cool water on Saturday morning.  They don't have any way to wash off the sand which is a change from Florida.

The JetBlue party was scheduled from 12-4 pm for the whole family with another adults only party from 7-11 pm.  The Conrad Condado Hotel was a gorgeous setting for the party with pools and a waterslide available for the kids when they finished eating.  I had a Nestle la Frutta popsicle (Caribbean Mix Fruit bar variety) that was full of fruit and my favorite of all the treats.  

Doug watched Redbox movies back at the apartment with his brothers during the evening party and the girls came back to the hotel to play with one of their friends, Nicole, who flew out from Utah for the party.  Dinner included whole roasted pigs and everyone had to pose with them.

I didn't get the "Wear Black" memo :)

After the party, we took Doug out to El Churry (recommended on Man V. Food) for a late dinner since it is only open from 7 pm to 4 am.  We grabbed a couple sandwiches and headed back to the apartment...  Still lots of fun, huh?

Did I mention the scary drivers in San Juan?  I had posted on Facebook how glad I was not driving due to the narrow streets and reckless drivers...  So on the way home, we were hit by a car driving in the opposite direction.  The Lord blessed us that no one was injured and our minivan had pretty little damage.  The other car wasn't so lucky.  We waited until the police came and then they called for help because they couldn't speak English.  The other car's occupants lied about the accident which is worrisome because sometimes insurance will believe their insured's claim despite a police report to the contrary.  

Before our flight on Sunday, we headed over to Pinones just past the airport (How do you get a tilde for the n?) to get a bite to eat.  I wish I had more cash left.  The food is cheap and tasty!

The rental car company immediately charged the whole amount of the damage to our credit card when we returned the car later.  Fortunately, AmEx allows you to dispute the charge so that you don't have to pay for it while the insurance companies get the information they need to resolve the claim.

Since it was dark we couldn't see all of the damage to our van, but the impact left marks from the passenger door to the taillight.  The total damage to our vehicle was about $860 - Grrr!  :( 

During the flight home, we had EML seats again :)  Even better - JetBlue played Toy Story 3 for free.  We hadn't seen it before (other than Doug, that is).  I LOVED it!  I'm such a crybaby sometimes and was bawling at the end.  Troy was just laughing at me.

Doug is Here!

We used a positive space pass (that is a confirmed ticket) to fly Doug out to visit because there was no way to get in and out of SLC standby.  He got here on the 13th and gets to stay until tomorrow morning.  It has been fun to visit and show him around the area.

When his flight came in on Wednesday morning, I picked him up and took him to Troy's office for and early lunch.  Then we came home so he could sleep for a bit.  That evening we all went out to dinner at Anh Hong for Vietnamese food and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Our old favorites are the spring rolls and peanut sauce as well as their pho (beef noodle soup) and bun (noodle salad).  We have been visiting this restaurant for at least 10 years and love it still.

On Thursday Troy took the day off and the three of us went to Cocoa Beach while the other four were at school.  The water temperature was cool but not bad at all.  We enjoyed playing in the water and watching the lifeguards practice rescues.  Our weather has been lovely lately and sitting under the umbrella listening to the waves was perfect!  For lunch we headed back to the Simply Delicious cafe for a quick meal before heading back home to meet the kids.

Inside Wonderworks looking at the ceiling

That evening we celebrated all of the birthdays since we could all be together for the first time in months.  Our family tradition has been to go out to dinner, but this year we decided to try a dinner show.  We went to the Outta Control Magic Comedy dinner show at Wonderworks (the upside down building that you may have seen on TV)  and had a fun evening with Doug and Jared chosen from the audience as participants on stage.  There was another family from Utah there that night and two of them were chosen to participate as well.  Small world!  Jared was given a magic trick to bring home and he was so excited!  The dinner included popcorn, salad, pizza, drinks, and cake.  It wasn't great, but the experience was terrific.  I think the salad was my favorite part of the meal.  Thanks to Groupon for making the evening more affordable!  We were able to buy four of the tickets for $14/each and the other three kids were able to use a coupon from Wonderworks' website.

Troy's Birthday Date

This year we decided to go out as a couple to celebrate Troy's birthday and it was fabulous!  After work, we went to Epcot to see Air Supply in concert and enjoy some dessert from around the world.  Our first stop was the Coca Cola's Cool Club in Innoventions where you can try free sodas from a few countries.  This was my first visit to this shop and won't be my last.  The kids will LOVE it!!!  The flavors available are:

• Krest Ginger Ale from Mozambique
• Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica (My favorite!)
• Beverly from Italy (YUCK!!!!!!!)
• Vegeta Beta from Japan
• Kinley Lemon from Israel
• Lift Apple from Mexico
• Smart Watermelon from China
• Mezzo Mix from Germany

My favorite treats of the night were from the first stand we stopped by called Desserts and Champagne.  We tried the Dessert Trio which included all three of their dessert offerings.  

• Strawberry Angel Verrine (layered dessert not unlike a trifle)
• Pear Streusel Pudding Cake
• Dark Chocolate Sensation

The concert was at the back of the park, so we were able to check out all the different menus as we circled the park and tried the tasty Caramel Ginger Ice Cream.  Our last dessert was Chocolate Milk Creme Brulee which was very bland and disappointing.  At least the caramelized sugar on top was good...  

The concert was so fun and we were able to get seats that were more comfortable than most of the benches.  Air Supply played four of their top five songs (Lost in Love, The One That You Love, Even the Nights Are Better, and All Out of Love).  It was fun to listen to the love songs with my sweetheart :)  The lead singer, Russell Hitchcock, still sounds great but Graham Russell's voice wasn't as good as it was.

After our visit to Epcot, we headed to Benihana in the Hilton by WDW for Troy's $30 gift certificate that Benihana emailed for his birthday dinner.  The meal was hit and miss.  Our meat was fabulous!  Troy had scallops, prawns and lobster tail and I chose the filet mignon.  The lobster tail was my favorite.  We sat next to a family from Australia and had a great time chatting with them.  The chef wasn't as entertaining as some we have seen, but he did make a Mickey Mouse head out of the rice :)  And instead of tossing shrimp to people to catch in their mouths, everyone got a shrimp appetizer.  For dessert, they brought Troy a delicious sherbet.  The staff also took our picture and sang two birthday songs for him after bringing a candle for him to blow out.

It was nice to celebrate with just the two of us.  I love you Troy!  Thanks for spending a fun evening with me :)