Jetlagged Chris

Chris got home from an overnight flight from Colombia after spending the week going from one meeting to the next.  He was exhausted at 10 am when he got home and laid on the couch for awhile taking phone calls.

We had a date planned with our friends:  Burnhams, Adamsons, and Savages.  Chris made it through dinner at Hacienda Jalisco, then games and treats at Burnhams.  After winning the game, he move to a comfy chair and ottoman and proceeded to sleep for the next hour or so as the rest of us chatted.

Small Miracles in the Temple

I volunteer in the baptistry at the Fort Collins Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints every Wednesday.  As I came to the temple today and opened the drawer containing all of the family file names, I noticed that some of the female names were Korean and written first in Korean with the English translation below.  As we proceeded through the afternoon, we had a couple of young ladies come to the temple to participate in baptisms.  The first young woman was given about 16 Korean names.  We were amazed to find out that the brother who came to help in the Baptistry served a mission in Korea and had no problem pronouncing the names.  In fact after a second sister arrived at the font the brother said, "Oh, these have English translations below the characters."  He had no problem reading the Korean characters. 

I had given the second sister 11 names and then felt impressed to see how many more Korean family file names were still left in the drawer.  Nine.  I removed the names and as the brother and young woman were finishing up with the first 11 names, I said, "I have nine more Korean names.  Would you be interested in and willing to finish them?"  Both of them agreed.  Small miracles indeed.

Amy's New Roommate

Having a room to herself couldn't last forever.  Amy's new roommate, Giulia Borges, a very recently returned missionary from New York, arrived in Idaho last weekend.  Giulia is from Brazil and like Amy, loves elephants, is relatively tidy, and likes flowered clothing.

Amy has another roommate, Camilla, who is also from Brazil and those Brazilian girls know how to have a good time.  Amy says they are making food all of the time and often offer to share.

Diligent Babysitter

When we left on our cruise, our friends the Savages shared the funny sign their 17-year old son posted on the fridge.  He was helping to watch his siblings while his parents were gone:

If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem.

Makes me smile every time I think of it.

Misha's Date

The Stake coordinated a Priest/Laurel date night for youth from Loveland to Estes to Longmont to the Firestone area.  They created the pairing and then had the young men call their "dates" to arrange a time to pick up the young woman they had been paired with.  A number of families in the area hosted these youth--at least five couples.

Misha and her date, Porter, traveled in to the Stake President's home for their date.  They made homemade pizzas and then played games in the basement afterward.  While Misha might not have felt that she was a match to Porter, she met other young men and women with whom she had a connection.

Porter lived in Estes Park and drove down to pick up Misha, drove back in to Longmont, drove Misha back home and then had to drive back to Estes Park.  And according to Porter's dad, the roads going home were not great.

Misha texted us after 10 pm to say they would be home around 11 pm.  We got a text a short time later, "Scratch that.  Be home later but before 12." I am glad that she had a great time.

No Snow Day

My alarm woke me up at 5:10 am which meant that school had not been cancelled.  The school district usually called at 5 am if school was to be cancelled.  There was a lot of snow in the driveway as we arrived back from dropping off Amy at the airport last night, so I skipped my usual workout and added layers on layers to my body before heading out to shovel the sidewalk and driveway.  We got at least another 8 inches.

Chris exercised first before starting up the ATV to come and help.  As I was only partly finished the driveway and needed to be done soon to take Kristen to the bus stop, he was a welcome sight.  His words as he came up the hill on the ATV, "I have come to help you."  Hooray.  My knight in shining snow pants.

I finished up my part of the driveway before coming in to the house to get Kristen off to school.  We were running a couple of minutes late.  Fortunately, the bus was just about to our house when we got to the bus stop, and we didn't have to wait ten minutes for the him to catch us on his return trip.

Getting Amy Home

It snowed all day on Monday.  Amy found out on Sunday that Makayla wasn't planning to leave Colorado for Idaho until Tuesday morning.  She and Chris quickly started looking for flights back to Idaho Falls.  She was booked on a flight leaving Denver just after 7 pm.  With the snow, her flight was delayed.  Chris and I took the opportunity to shovel the walks and driveway before leaving.  We had about 3-4 inches already.

We didn't too much all day but it was just nice to be together as a family. 

Kristen opted to stay home from the trip to the airport, but we left early enough that if we were going slow, it wouldn't interfere with getting to the airport on time.  The flight was even further delayed with the storm so we stopped at a Ruby Tuesday's by the airport for dinner. 

I was just hoping that Amy's flight wouldn't be cancelled.  She was packing her pillow and a blanket so she could potentially sleep in the airport if she had to, but my worrier mom heart wasn't thrilled with that idea.

We dropped Amy off at the airport and Chris got a text shortly after that she had met up with one of the girls in her Communications class and they were going to be on the same flight.  Her flight left even later with all of the snow and having to be de-iced but finally arrived in Idaho Falls after 11.  Her friend Bryce and his cousin Will were so sweet to wait around to pick her up.

On our way home from the airport, we made a quick stop at Costco for milk, groceries, and gas.  We were one of the few customers in the whole store as they were close to closing for the night.  As we continued on home and were about five miles from Firestone, the snow picked up in intensity and Chris was driving about 40 mph on the freeway.  We made it home safely, though hoping that the next day would be a snow day!

A New Do

Amy had the foresight to schedule a hair appointment while home.  She added a little color and couldn't resist the opportunity to have her curls blown out for a couple of days.  It was beautiful.

She Came Home

Amy has been dying to come home for the President's Day long weekend for weeks now.  Almost every conversation was how she could get a flight home.  She was persistent.

When Chris and I were on our cruise, we had Savannah Vavla stay with the girls.  She had been planning to get married in April but decided to move up her wedding date to February 17 and forego the reception.  On Thursday morning (the 15th), the thought popped in to my head that Savannah's sister, Makayla, who was a student at BYU-I would probably be coming home.  I suggested to Amy that she should ask.

Amy was thrilled to find out that Makayla was indeed coming home AND she was leaving that night.  Late.  They were leaving after 6 pm and wouldn't arrive in Colorado until after 3 am.  Makayla agreed to bring Amy home and Amy was excited to surprise her sisters.  (That would have happened if she hadn't sent a location-stamped SnapChat to Misha).  Still, Kristen was surprised and thrilled.  We were all happy to have Amy home.

She arrived around 3:30 am.  I didn't sleep well and remembered to turn off the alarm around 1 pm since Kristen had set it.  I got up around 2:30 am to unlock the front door.  And the dinging of the door alarm at 3:30 am had me out of bed and hugging on my Amy girl.  She changed from sleeping in her bed to sleeping in the basement to make sure she surprised her sisters.  Misha was on to her though, but kept the secret.

Can't even tell you how much good it did my heart to see that girl.  She is just doing so well and is happy.  Makes me happy.

Almost History-That Whole Space Time Continuum Thing

Kristen had her first middle school play performance on February 14th.  The play, Almost History-That Whole Space Time Continuum Thing, followed time traveling tv hosts back through history as they made a mess of history.  It was clever and well-acted.  Kristen was Ms. Wood, one of the tv host's history teachers from middle school who came up with a solution for going back in time and fixing things.

Kristen has spent that past couple of months auditioning, preparing for, and practicing the play in anticipation of these two nights of performance.  Misha and I attended the first night together, bringing flowers from Chris.

The second performance was held the next night and it was a dinner theater.  Misha had to work, but I attended and enjoyed salad, pasta and meatballs, and chocolate cake for dessert.  The play participants were our servers and very attentive.

Valentine's Morning Surprise

Sometimes Kristen takes forever to get her self in to bed.  She is quite the night owl and when she doesn't have to get up for school in the morning, she is awake until long after I am asleep and then sleeps in the next morning.  I wish sometimes that I had that skill of sleeping in. 

On the night before Valentine's Day, I was trying to scoot her off to bed in a timely fashion but finally headed off to bed myself and let her do whatever it was she was doing.

I noticed her creation the next morning when I woke up.  I came in to my bathroom to get ready to exercise and as usual worked to get dressed in the dark.  I noticed something funny as I passed by my sink.  When I turned on the lights to make a closer inspection, I was greeted with this:

I thought that maybe Chris worked with her to put it up since he was out of town, but she came up with it all on her own.  She also put a sticky note heart on her bathroom mirror for Misha.  Sweet girl.

Heart Hair

Kristen requested my services on Valentine's Day to help her with a hair style she found on Pinterest.  I finished my workout a little early so that I could help make this beautiful creation.

Cruising with Friends - Day 10

What a lovely, lazy morning.  And a beautiful view to boot!

Chris and I rolled out of bed at 9 am.  That is some awesome sleeping in for me.  We got ready for the day and then headed down to the restaurant for breakfast.  The Hilton at Cocoa Beach was located right on the beach, so we found our way out to the beach directly after breakfast.  We had only gone a short distance when Maria texted requesting a blessing.  She was experiencing a bout of vertigo and wasn’t doing great.  

Chris and I immediately turned around and walked back to the hotel and on to the parking lot.  Maria and Rafer were staying at the Best Western about two miles away.  Rafer and Chris gave Maria a blessing and since we had the latest check out time at 1:30, they loaded up their stuff and headed back to the Hilton with us to spend a relaxing morning on the beach.

Rafer and Chris hung out in the water, until Rafer got brave enough to do some body surfing.  Maria rented a lounge chair and umbrella and spread out to enjoy the cool breeze.  

We all opted to get food at the airport, so while Chris and I headed up to our room to pack up our bags around 1:15, Rafer and Maria spent a few more minutes lounging.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze getting all of our luggage in to the trunk of the Impala, but we managed all but one suitcase that found a home on the seat next to Maria.

We had to fill up the rental car and stopped at two gas stations where they had inflated the price of gas by $2 per gallon.  Outrageous.  We kept looking and found a Wawa station more reasonably priced.  Not knowing what the lines at the airport were going to be like, we opted to find food there after checking our bags and going through security.  Chris and I both had pre-check and offered to take Rafer and Maria’s extra bags.

We found food and made our way to the gate where we were boarded right away.  I worked on blogging while trying to hold my arms by my side in the middle seat.

Our luggage pick up took us probably twenty minutes longer than it should have.  My bag must have been one of the first off the baggage carousel.  They workers there pulled it off the carousel thinking it had arrived with an earlier flight.  We stood waiting for it until Chris thought to go and check for it.  So nice to arrive home and hug our girls.

Savannah Vavla had stayed with the girls for the week, and though they had a great time together, she was ready to be on her way and the girls were ready to have their parents home.

Cruising with Friends - Day 9

Our last breakfast on the cruise and we found a few friends to enjoy the experience with.  I was beginning to feel a little better and Chris had found some Advil Cold and Flu tablets for me to take.
They made a big difference.  I was still pretty froggy.

We learned on our previous cruise, that walking off the cruise ship with our luggage was the easiest and fastest way to disembark.  There was a bit of a line, but it didn’t take us more than 15 minutes once we were in line.  And the immigration lady said my favorite greeting, “Welcome home.”  Chris and I both thought that Rafer and Maria were already through customs and were surprised to find Maria waving at us from a different line.

We ran in to Grant and Alena Anderson (new friends from the cruise) outside the terminal.  They had planned to go to the the Kennedy Space Center for the day.  We told them we were headed there as well and would be happy to have them come along.  Rafer and Maria were driving with us and then another couple, Tiffani and Dave Judd, were going to join as well.

Chris went ahead of us to Hertz to pick up the rental car, and we arrived a short time later.  Rafer and Maria’s room was ready at their hotel, so while they got settled with their luggage, we drove over to our hotel.  We were only able to leave our luggage in storage for the day.

Kennedy Space Center was a lot more fun and interesting than we had anticipated.  We started on our first tour before lunch time and with the bus tour and buildings to see, we spent the entire day touring the site until closing time at 6 pm.

And we saw alligators.

Chris was the unofficial leader of the group and found a place for the eight of us to go for lunch.  When the wait there was too long, we moved further down the street to Jazzy’s where we spent the next couple of hours eating and talking and laughing.  Rafer was loving his crab legs.

Tiffani and Dave dropped Maria and Rafer off at their hotel and we simply drove across the street. Alena and Grant headed off to Orlando since they had an early morning flight.

Cruising with Friends - Day 8

Today was our second seminar day while at sea.  We were all better friends and enjoyed the camaraderie of the day.  I was feeling a little better with each passing day, but definitely not 100%.  Our seminars went from 930 to 11:30 with a one-hour break for lunch and then started up again at 12:30 until 2 pm.  Following the seminars, Chris and I headed back to our room to rest. Chris actually slept today while I read my book. We had a closing social with our group at 5:00 pm and enjoyed hearing some of the favorite moments from the cruise followed by a short slideshow of pictures from the week.

I wouldn’t say this was my favorite dinner.  I ordered gnocchi with bolognese sauce and broccoli on the side.  The entire dish was so salty that I couldn’t even eat it.  After dinner we switched seats so that the men could sit and chat and the women as well so that we weren't yelling quite as much or talking over each other.  These ladies were all fast friends.

As we were leaving the dining room after sitting and chatting at the table for about an hour, Chris tucked some money in to Maricar’s hand, our Filipina waitress.  She waited for me to scoot out from the bench seat and engulfed me in a huge hug.

A few of our friends also gave her a generous tip for her service throughout the week.  We hoped that it would help her as she was saving to return home to the Philippines to be with her daughter.

A bunch of the guys made their way up to the bowling alley for a fun game with the ladies continued their conversation while cheering the men on.  Chris won!

My final stop for the evening was at the Bliss Lounge for karaoke.  A bunch from our group were up there, some even signing.  I only lasted for a short while though as I started coughing and couldn’t stop.  I waved my goodbyes and headed back to our room.  I really had just wanted to go to bed, but I spent the next hour packing up to leave in the morning.  Chris came to the room about a half an hour later and started his packing.  I was happy to sink in to bed with a cough drop tucked in to my cheek.

Cruising with Friends - Day 7

Cozumel and the Amazing Race.  Jamie Adamson had asked around a couple of months ago for ideas from friends who had been to Cozumel before for recommendations on their favorite excursions.  The Amazing Race was the choice.  Our whole group of eight signed up and met up with the Alonso at 11:15 am at the Parroquia San Miguel Arcangel Church in Cozumel.  We formed two teams with our eight—The Warriors and The Savages.  Chris and I raced with Jamie and David, and Maria, Rafer, Kirsten, and Mark were a team.  

This temporary henna tattoo held a clue from the Amazing Race.

The Amazing Race was a blast.  We found clues at a local market, at the museum, at a sunken ship in the harbor, as well as others.  And we won!  We had a lunch at the restaurant where we crossed the finish line and then shopped a little.  There wasn’t anything that we wanted but David and Jamie were able to find some mementos for their kids.

I was pretty hoarse to begin the day and after running and pushing myself hard, my throat was shot.  We walked back to the boat.  I opted to not race up nine or ten flights of stairs and we took the elevator up to the 15th deck to get ice cream.  Chris and David went on the slide and then hung out in the pools for the rest of the afternoon.  I just couldn’t do it and opted to relax and nap for the rest of the afternoon.  It was much needed.

Our evening entertainment included Cirque Dreams Epicurean with dinner.  The food was so so.  Everyone got the same thing but it was red meat and shrimp, neither of which I enjoy.  As one of the waitresses noticed that I hadn’t eaten much she offered to bring me some chicken.  It was food, but very thoughtful of her.  The performance was ok.  Maria was called up on stage to perform.  She was brave.

We hung out in the Bliss Lounge for awhile watching the karaoke.  Kirsten Savage wanted to participate, but the list was full by the time she went to choose a song.  I headed to bed early while the rest went dancing.  It was a bummer not being healthy.

Cruising with Friends - Day 6

I was feeling recuperated enough on Wednesday morning to get up and join our group for a day in Grand Cayman.  We had an excursion planned to Stingray City followed by two snorkeling opportunities.  I surprised myself and everyone else by feeling good enough to go.  We had to meet up at 8:15 am to tender to the island and then take a charted boat out to the sting rays.

As our NCL guide was directing us off the ship to our tender, she was trying to encourage us to hurry.  Chris called back, “Chop chop!”  (Meaning hurry).  The guide, not a native English speaker said, “I don’t know what he say chop chop, but do it anyway!”

It was a lot windier and choppier on the water than the last time that Chris and I made this same excursion.  The challenge was to avoid getting knocked over by the waves, or at the very least swallowing a mouth full of water.

Trying to photobomb Rafer and Maria.

While the rest of the group snorkeled, Jamie Adamson and I opted to stay on the boat and chat.  I didn’t mind.  I wasn’t feeling up to par and enjoyed just relaxing and talking.

Our ship left port rather early at 3 pm, so after a short shopping trip and buying some shirts for Kristen and Misha, we headed back to the ship.  We chose to eat at the buffet for dinner to make time for the comedy performance we were scheduled for.  We saw Titou: Comedy Magician and Illusionist.

Some of our group attended the Howl at the Moon Dueling Piano performance and enjoyed it until 11 pm when the two players started to get raunchy in their jokes and song choices.  Our group got up from the first and second rows and left.

Cruising with Friends - Day 5

I woke up in Jamaica the next morning and just could not get out of bed the nausea was so bad.  Chris went down for breakfast without me and many in our group headed off for excursions.  Having been to Jamaica twice already, and not having any excursions planned, I was happy to not feel as though I was missing out.  I suffered with nauseousness all day long.  I took some medicine and ate some chocolate strawberries that had been delivered to our room the night before.  That was about all I could handle.  I watched Beauty and the Beast.

Chris spent the morning exercising and then opted to check out the area directly off the ship.  He didn’t stay off too long as many of the vendors and locals heckled him.  He did not have a very fun day.  Neither did I.  I honestly tried to throw up a couple of times but just couldn’t.

Maria and Kirsten stopped by to check on me after dinner.  So grateful for good friends.

Around 9 pm, I asked Chris if he would find me some ginger ale.  I drank it and then drifted off to sleep.  I woke up around 10 pm and realized that I felt a bit better with my nausea, head ache, and body aches.  

Cruising with Friends - Day 4

This was our first full day at sea and first day of seminars.  Unfortunately I woke up not feeling great at all.  I was nauseous with body aches and a sore throat.  My sleep had been interrupted all night long with chills and body aches.  Chris texted Rafer in the morning requesting help to give me a blessing.  Rafer and Maria showed up with meds and essential oils.  Though I wasn’t feeling great, I sat through the morning seminar until I was finally beginning to feel a little better.  I didn’t have much for breakfast, just a granola bar and some apple juice.

I was feeling better enough at lunch that I was able to eat some food and chatted with friends.  The seminars that we were attending were taught by our friend Laura Brotherson who was a family, marriage, and sex therapist.  At lunch, we chatted about ways to improved our relationships with our spouses.

After the afternoon seminar, Chris and I returned to our state room where I promptly fell asleep and slept for well over an hour.  Chris relaxed until dinner when we had a formal night.  My new shoes were a hit.  Chris and I were late in arriving so instead of sitting with our group, we sat with Dave and Tiffani Judd (we met them on the last cruise) and Grant and Alena Anderson.

Our friends from Oregon brought fun prizes and Bunco for as many in the group to play as wanted.  There was probably half our group participating.

The joke among our group, especially David and Jamie Adamson, was that they were going to enjoy 1st dinner, 2nd dinner, etc.  So after Bunco, we didn’t find any good music and instead opted for some ice cream (2nd dessert) and good conversation.  We chatted until almost midnight.