Grand Cayman-- Part 1

Thursday night we took the red eye on Jet Blue and flew into JFK.  After a few hours we boarded another plane and traveled the rest of the way to our final destination....GRAND CAYMAN!!  

There are six of us.  Skylar an Sarah, Brach and Kendra, and Rick and I.  After arriving and picking up our vehicles.....two jeeps and a well used mercedes convertible we stopped for a much needed bite at the Embarcadero Yacht Club.  We enjoyed eating a bunch of appetizers.....pizza, oxtail ravioli, wahoo ceviche, coconut shrimp, and a salad for me:)  We enjoyed all of it!

After driving to the East side of the island and getting settled in the Morritt's Tortuga Club Condos and taking a quick dip in the "quiet pool" we headed out for some local cuisine.  We had read on trip advisor that Miss Vivinne's was a 'not to miss' place.  We loved our food and experience there.  Rick had the grilled grouper and I had the stewed chicken with rice.  Fried plantains were on our plate too:)

The next morning we got up early for our morning walk.  We love being together!

After our walk it was time to hit the infinity pool.  Normally this is a very crowded pool but at eight in the morning it was completely empty!  This pool overlooks the beautiful Carribean Sea.

After a breakfast in the room we knew our first full day was going to be a laid back one.  The kids had told us that they just wanted to hang out at the beach so that's what we did:)  We found a nice little spot just outside our room and planted ourself for most of the day. Right off this beach is a plethora of animal life in the water.  Beautiful coral and an abundance of beautiful fish!  We all (well most of us) enjoyed taking time to get some reading in!  Rick was in the water most of the time and Brach was in his room finishing up some homework assignments.  After a while he joined the other boys in the water snorkeling.

After lots of hours on the beach we headed over to the pool to clean the salt water off.
 While we were there we got some smoothies at the swim up bar:)

That night we got to have dinner at the Eagle Ray Cafe.  Good food with good company!

Sunday we got up and left by 9:00 to travel to Georgetown to catch a 10:00 church block.  It felt like we were in the mission field again!  Lots of new members and a good spirit there!  After church S&S went there own way and B&K joined us at a local park for some pb and j sandwiches and snacks.  The boys and Kendra enjoyed chasing chickens and iguanas!

After lunch we parted ways and Rick and I headed up to the northern most part of the island.  I got to sleep while he drove and saw the sights:)  After we returned to the condo it was Rick's turn for a nap. He found an empty hammock outside our room and got some shut eye:)

That night was really enjoyable!  We girls prepared a fun mexican meal in the kids' room. We made fajitas, rice, beans, and salad.  I ate waaaay to much cause it all tasted so yummy!  We also made a cookie pie and topped it with ice cream for dessert!

After dinner we were able to spend about an hour reviewing Elder Oaks' General Conference talk on the family and the proclamation on the family to the world.  We had a good experience talking about each aspect of that talk and sharing our feelings on what it means to us in today's world.  I love these moments when we can talk of spiritual truths and become closer as a family!  

To end the night we played a couple of games of big boggle (Skylar creamed us!) and a couple games of mormon bridge (Rick and I tied:)

It was a great day!!

Monday we left the condo by 8am to drive up to the north shore (Kai Bo Resort) to catch our boat ride for the morning.  Big Chris, our guide, picked us up on the dock and we rode out to Stingray City to feed the stingrays.  I think we were all a little bit nervous but after a few minutes in the water with them we got a little more comfortable.  Big Chris brought some squid to feed the stingrays and we had a fun time doing that!  There were some really big ones that came right up and kind of crawled right up the torso.  Pretty crazy!!  Rick was able to get video of it on the go pro!

After spending about an hour with the stingrays Big Chris fired up the boat and drove a few hundred yards over to the reef.  This reef was INCREDIBLE!!  It was chalk FULL of beautiful coral and all kinds of fish and water creatures!  At the beginning, Rick took some squid out to feed the fish.  These fish were VERY aggressive though.  Rick got bit twice and me once!  I wasn't even holding any bait and one still bit me.  They had some sharp teeth and while mine was not too bad....Rick's drew blood!  From that point on if that particular type of fish came close to me I would just punch my fist at them and that kept them away.  All the other fish were non-agressive though:)

While we continued snorkeling we got to see THREE lion fish.  These ones were not the normal orange and white but were black and white.  Just incredibly beautiful!!  I had never seen black and white lion fish before.  Also, at the very end we got to see a HUGE green moray eel hiding under a rock.  We never saw his face but his body was BIG!  

Our last stop of the day was at Starfish Beach.  It was a beautiful calm beach on Rum Point that had starfish hanging out in the water.  We enjoyed spending a little time there relaxing in the warm  and shallow water.

Me and our guide, Big Chris.  He was quite the character.  He had a very strong Caribbean accent and was a little difficult to understand but he was a pretty fun guy to spend our morning with:)

For lunch we met Brach and Kendra at Captain Herman's fish fry.  Lots of yummy food!

After arriving back to the condo we took a nice long nap and then while Rick did some more snorkeling on our beach I updated my blog:)  We all decided to have dinner on our on but somehow met up at Ivan's Bar and Grill just above the lobby.  Rick and I shared a salad and nachos.  Delish!  

Our Cayman trip is half way over!  What a great time it's been so far!

How To Host a Murder

On Friday night Rick and I hosted our first "How to Host a Murder" party.   Skylar bought this game for me a few years ago and we have never played it.  A few weeks ago he said, "Mom, when are we going to play the murder mystery game.  I decided that this was as good a time as any so I issued invitations and the rest is history!

The game is made for a group of eight characters and it was hard to whittle down to just eight.  I had thought that Kendra and Rick could just come dressed in a fifties costume and observe.  Well it turned out that Kallie got sick that night so Kendra was able to play Kallie's part and Rick still got to observe (with a little babysitting on the side:)

I invited Mark and Taryn, Justin and Julie, Kallie, Jenni, Skylar and Sarah, and Kendra and Rick.  (Brach was busy working on their house:)

I wanted to host a dinner along with the game so we had appetizers at the beginning just after everyone introduced their characters.  I served a relish tray (made by Kendra) and a cheeseball and crackers (made by Sarah).

After round one and getting into the game a little bit I served up dinner.  We had individual meat loaves with baked potatoes and green beans.  Everyone loved getting into their part and throwing out clues around the table.  

After round three I served up dessert.  (Costco pumpkin and apple pies with ice cream)  At the end of the game everyone got to say who they thought was the culprit!  We had a lot of laughs as everyone was trying to get their clues out each round!  

We liked it so much we may do it again next year!

LITTLES HALLOWEEN PARTY

Last Monday night we had our second annual grandchildren Halloween party!  Safe, Scout, Henry, and Haivyn all came for a party and sleepover.  (Charlie and Merik are still too small to join us:)

We started out with dinner of mummy dogs, ghost cheese slices, chips and strawberries.  After dinner the fun began with prizes from grandma.  The kids each got a bag of "prizes" that I bought from the Dollar Store.  From Halloween rings to stickers and paper to whining ghosts and witches.  the kids had fun playing with there little toys.  Next we pulled our baking skills out of our hats and decorated sugar cookies and doughnut hole mummies.  The kids did a great job of decorating faces on their pumpkin cookies!

Next was grandma's favorite part......Hide and Seek!  Oh my goodness!  These cuties are so good at hide and seek.  We all took turns hiding and finding.  This was just super fun!  The only accident was when Henry and Haivyn's heads collided as they were running to the couch:(  After a little consoling we got back down to business hiding and finding!

Next was bath time!  Grandpa took the boys and grandma told the girls.  Not much playtime in the bath because we were all looking forward to  MOVIE TIME!!  We were excited to watch Homeward Bound with the kids and while Rafe was the ONLY one who sat through the whole thing we tried to keep everyone corralled in our bedroom while they half watched half played.  

Next was bedtime.  I took Scout and Henry and played in Henry's bed and told stories of when I was little.  (Rick was doing the very same thing with Rafe and Haivyn in our bedroom).  I would tell a story and the kids would come up with their version of the same story I just told them.  It was totally cute.  They both wanted to "tell a story" and it even got a little competitive between them.  At times with both of them getting a  little snooty saying, "It's MY TURN to tell a story."

Well, after we got our stories out I sang a couple of songs and BAM they were out!  Me too!  I fell asleep getting the kids to sleep and woke up when Skylar and Sarah got home!

What a fun tradition we have started with out littles!  It's only gonna get funner as they get older!

Half a Century

On the 19th of September I passed a huge milestone.  I turned FIFTY years old!  Rick threw a small party with our kids and a few neighbors to celebrate.  We started off with some catered bbq from Dickey's.  Smoked turkey and bbq ribs with loaded potatoes, mac n cheese, and green beans.  We all had our fill of food and then headed indoors for present time.  I got a couple of new exercise outfits which I have been enjoying.  I also got some new lotion and some autumn candles!

After presents we had cake and ice cream.  Costco chocolate cake which is SUPER yummy!

The next day was Sunday so after our morning of church then choir practice and a few visits to ward members we hopped in the car and headed to St. George.  The trip was uneventful UNTIL.......just a 1/2 miles from our exit we got rear ended by a vehicle while traveling SEVENTY FIVE MILES PER HOUR!!  We were pushed into the left lane.  He knocked us pretty hard and we were lucky that our little car did not roll!  The vehicle did not pull over and so we followed him as we called 911.  

The person was driving very erratically and thankful there were no other cars too close.  He really could have killed someone and actually we came to find out later that at one point five different people had called in to report that he was driving Southbound in the Northbound lanes!  

Long story short the police were able to pull him over and as far as we know the driver was using some very heavy medications.  The good thing was that he had up to date insurance and our car is now getting fixed.  Here is picture of some of the damage to our vehicle.  The trouble is that when the convertible is opened it will not latch.  Rick told me yesterday that there is a possibility 

that our car may be considered totaled because it would cost too much to fix the convertible.  We will see.  

We really have enjoyed this car so much the last two years and will feel really bad if it can't be fixed.

After getting to the house.......around 10:30 we got right into bed because we knew that our morning was gonna be early.  We met up with Kelly and Deanna's house and drove the two hour drive to Lake Powell.  We had been planning since June to do another Lake Powell trip.  It has been seven years since our last one.  We were hoping that more family would join us but that didn't work out:(  We met up with Garrett and Shari and their girls in Kanab before launching into the water for the day.  We had a nice breakfast and then drove the rest of the way to the Lake.  

We enjoyed the whole day playing on the sand and in the water.  Garrett, Shari, Rick, Deanna, and I did some water sports (even though Shari is 7 months pregnant)  Skiing, Kneeboarding, and wake boarding.

Toward the end of the day we took a drive up to see Glen Canyon Dam from the water.

After staying the night in Page (and enjoying some Mexican food while we were there) we got back on the water.  The second day was a little more rough because of the winds but we still had a good time sightseeing around the lake.  We got to go into a beautiful canyon, (I can't remember the name), docked, and then hiked to rainbow bridge, and the found some Indian ruins.  It was a full day of boat riding and a nice time with Kelly and Deanna.  We really appreciated the opportunity we had to be with them and spend time on their beautiful boat.

That night we drove back to St. George.  We enjoyed the rest of the week at the house.  A few highlights were seeing Newsies at the Tuacahn Theater,  playing a round of golf at Red Hills and of course playing in the pool and spa!

The coarse was being reseeded so this was the first time we walked the whole way.  We generally like riding in a cart.  We had fun though and enjoyed some beautiful weather.  It was a wonderful week and we really enjoyed our alone time together.  It was a good way to spend my birthday week!