Fort Lauderdale, FL

For a little post spring break trip this year me and two friends went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was AMAZING!!!! So much fun! We were there for about a week... Tuesday to Monday. I have class on Monday so we had to plan around that. It went by as always... too fast but it was a great trip.

Tuesday 3-17: St. Patty's Day, travel to Florida. Amanda & I didn't plan to dress up like twins, but turns out everyone commented on it all day long. Us with our little red headed leprachan.

Wednesday 3-18: It was raining so we toured Ft. Lauderdale a little bit and then did what we do best, made some music videos ;^) We went out dancing later that night at a The Roundup! It is huge and I am pretty sure everyone in FL country dances. It was crazy to see all the different types of people line dancing that I would never see in dancing in UT! We loved it!

Thursday 3-19: We hit the beach! And we hit it hard! ;^) Kj & Amanda got fried and although I don't think I got any color, I must have. We played alot of volleyball and played in the ocean for quite a while. It was really fun. We hit our knee's laughing so hard several times that day. Loved it, loved it, loved it! Then we went to Cici's all you can eat pizza (not really too yummy) and then bowling!

Friday 3-20: Again, we hit the beach. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Had just as much fun as the day before. This time, we added in frisbee! Then we went to the NCAA tournament in Miami and watched the U of U game against Arizona. It was fun cheering for Utah but they really didn't play too well. We stayed and watched the Cleveland game against Wake Forest and that was such a good game! Go Cleveland! So many great plays and players!

Saturday 3-21: We woke up early, ate at the Waffle House (so good!) then went to a HUGE swap shop place where there are basically lots and lots of shopping vendor's and oh my! We spent a lot of time there but didn't really get too much. We aren't good barginer's so we gave up. We went to the Everglades and went on an airboat ride to see the alligators out in the wild. I love airboats! I wanted to wrestle the alligators though or something to make it more exciting. But the guide said no touching them at all! :( We went to an alligator show afterwards and I held a baby Alligator and pretended to kiss it but never actually did. Afterwards I was like, Stupid! I will kiss a giraffe and let it put its tongue in my mouth but I didn't actually kiss the gator!? LAME! So now my new life goal is to kiss a alligator since I had my chance and missed it!

Sunday 3-22: We went to Stake Conference, which was amazing and then yes... we laid out on the beach.

No More Mexico

I was supposed to leave for Mexico today but because of the drug war going on at the border I have to stay home. :(

When Mike & I were in the airport leaving for New York I was watching the news and the US Embassy came on and started talking about the war in Mexico. They started talking about American's being kidnapped and the cops being killed and everything that was happening. I hadn't really known any of this was going on before. The US Embassy said they advise all students who are traveling there for spring break NOT to go. I probably still would have gone but I honestly felt like this was in part, an answer to my prayers.

I went to NY and 4 days after returning home, today, was supposed to fly to Mexico for 10 days and then a day later fly to Florida for a week. At first I thought that I could totally handle all the vacationing but as it drew closer I was double thinking my plans. I started wishing that I could stay home from one of the trips and decided it should be Mexico. So I prayed that I wouldn't have to go. Now I know that my prayers did not cause this war and I definetally didn't want every other student to have to stay home as well, but as thankful as I was that I no longer am going to Mexico, I am sad as well. It would have been another amazing experience. I went last year and volunteered at an orphanage down there and this year we were going to build a house and visit the orphanage. So I am sad, but I will hopefully be productive and get school & work caught up before I go to Florida.

Anyways, in an end, I pray that God will watch over all the innocent people involved in this war and that communities and citizens will be guided in what to do to find safety.

Here are some pictures from my trip to Mexico last year and some of the kids from the orphanage we volunteered at, I am so sad I won't be seeing them again this year! :(

Me and two of the girls that I became inseparable with: America & CharvaliaMe and Charvalia hanging out during play time & spending time together. She had the cutest little attitude. I loved it. She kinda acted like me. Haha.A few days after we had been volunteering I was with America when they got called in for dinner. She got up and started to run in and then she stopped, ran back to me, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and turned back to run inside. It was the sweetest thing in the world I thought. America was more shy & quiet but so loving and lovable!

During play time we would bring out the babies who were around 12 months to 18 months old. When it was time for them to go inside we would start taking them back to the house and just realizing they were headed back to the house, they would start crying! It was awful. There just weren't enough caregivers for the kids so if the babies weren't with us they had to lay in their cribs. The man who ran the orpahange told us the children's stories and they are horrific. I could never imagine in my wildest nightmares the things that these kids have been through and had to witness. So as hard as it is where they are, I know they are loved and in a much better place than where they were. Oh yea... I forgot how when I was working I stepped on a couple of rusty nails. They went into my foot and I had to actually pull them out... NOT a good experience. They told us to be careful of lice and not let the kids play with our hair, but uh... EVERY kid kept wanting to play with my hair and I just gave in. This little boy was one of my favorite's. He concentrated so hard on doing my hair and then would come to my front look at me, squint, and then walk back around and change it. He did this over and over until it was perfect.With the pigtails, the hat, and the sunglasses, he decided I was complete! YAY!

Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Like I said in the post below I was able to go to NY to see Ben become a Bar Mitzvah. It was SO SO SO SO SO good to see the family and to be able to spend time with them during this special time in Ben's life. I loved nannying for them and wish I could have done it longer. They are special kids and a special family that will always be close in my heart.

The Bar Mitzvah was a huge event and reminded me a lot of a wedding. LOL. True though. It is what I always wanted my wedding to be like with the party celebration instead of a typical reception. It was busy, special, nice, traditional, and when party time came wild and oh so much fun! This was what the Bar Mitzvah entailed:

Friday night:

Dinner at the Adler's

Saturday:

Bar Mitzvah Ceremony

Lunch

Dinner & Rock Climbing/Dance Party

Sunday:

Brunch

It was a full weekend event but it was AMAZING! The events were great, but like I've said, nothing beat just spending time with the family!

Here are some pictures from the festivities of the weekend...

Ben, Me, Emma, & Sam -- Awe!!!! They have grown up so much! They are SO CUTE!

The kids and the UT nannies, in chronological order. ;^)

Us Utah girls with Jodie.
Ben's Bar Mitzvah cake - that he designed!

He actually lit a candle and gave a cupcake to special people who have hard big impacts in his life. He gave one to his mom, dad, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, friends, and... us baby-sitters!

They rented a rock climbing gym where we spent the whole night rock climbing and dancing to some great music. It was so FUN!!!

NEW YORK!!!!!!!

The family I used nanny for invited me out for Ben's Bar Mitzvah. I baby-sat Ben 4 years ago! I love him so much! I love the whole family! So there was no way that I was missing it! It was so good to see them! I nannied in 2004 and then went back again in 2005 and nannied over Ben's 9th birthday so it has been a while since I have seen the family and they have all grown up SO MUCH!!!! It was so fun to see them and it really made me realize that I shouldn't go so long in between seeing them. But I guess life gets busy right!?

So I flew out Wednesday morning and got to NY Wednesday night. I went with Mike who has never been to New York before so we did A TON of touring and sightseeing. Mike got a hotel in the Financial District of Manhattan and I was planning on staying with my friend Mikell who is a nanny 30 minutes out of the city. At the last minute staying at Mikell's fell through. ACK! I was going to visit some other friend's Sheena & Jason Larkin and they are SO NICE they said I could stay at their place which thank goodness was only like 1.5 miles from Mike's hotel... PERFECT!!!! It was SO MUCH FUN to see them! I totally forgot how great they are too until we saw them again. They are both so nice and so funny! They are one of those perfect couples that you love to be around! Since Mike & I had plans every night we were there plus Sheena & Jason were really busy the only time we actually got to "go out" with them was Wednesday night when we got there. We went out for some NY style pizza. It was so good and again... just so fun to catch up and talk. They are going to stay in NY because Jason has gotten a job with a firm there in the city - which is AMAZING given the economy and job market so kudos to Jason! That is HUGE!!!!!!!

Mike and I kept very busy so here are some things that we did:

Wednesday -

walk around Manhattan Financial District

dinner with Sheena & Jason

chill & watch "Top Chef" with them

Thursday -

Battery Park

Going inside the Statue of Liberty

Look at Ellis Island

Watch some AMAZING street dancers

Eat a hot dog on the street
Tour NBC Studio's

Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe

Phantom of the Opera on Broadway

Times Square at Night

Friday -

Tour of Rockefellar Square

Top of the Rock

Chinatown

Walk Central Park

Time Square in the day

Some amazing park I don't know the name of - but we LOVED it!

Bar Mitzvah Dinner

Walk the Brooklyn Bridge at Night

Saturday -

Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah Lunch

Picture's at house with family

Bar Mitzvah celebration dinner, dance, rock climbing PARTY!!!!!

Sunday -

Bar Mitzvah Brunch with family

I felt like we did alot in the time that we were there. We did some more little things but those were the main highlights.

This is inside the statue of liberty, looking up at how it was constructed.

On the NBC studio tour we were two of six people. At the end they ask for volunteers to be a anchor person and a weather person. Nobody else volunteered so Mike and I did both. I was the anchor person and Mike was the weather man. LOL. It was a fun experience.

Sheena & Jason suggested that we walk the Brooklyn Bridge at night. We did and it was BEAUTIFUL! Just looking at the city all lit up was incredible! Like all of NY, pictures just can't do it justice!

We got a tour of Rockafellar Square and went to the top of the Rock (the top of the Rockafellar Center) and we were actually the only two on the tour. It was really interesting and we both liked it alot! The view at the top of the rock was amazing although Mike kept telling me to not climb on the fence because it made him nervous. ;^)