Sunday, August 31, 2008

Ana's Quinceneria

Hermana Rivet and Maru waiting for the quinceneria










The Quinceneria Ana enters with her chambelano (I think that is what they are called)




the decorations
I helped set-up the cake - Omar thought I was going to drop it. It was tres leches (3 milk) with a pineapple layer - yummy!
2 of my ovejas (lambs - that is what they call the young women at church sometimes) Natalie and Ali
Omar with 2 of the hermanos (brothers) waiting to party!

So Omar and I went to our first Quinceneria together. I had never been to one before. Basically in Spanish culture they celebrate a sweet 15, not a sweet 16. People of all classes celebrate this - the rich and the poor. I find that in American society there really aren't sweet 16's anymore. It is just a regular birthday party that you call sweet 16. Quinceneria's are typical full blown out bashes. They are like weddings - a party line, people dress nice - the quinceneria is always in a wedding type dress, there is a huge cake, food, decorations, band, etc. This one was a little more low key, but was fun. I have a attached some pictures. My camera battery died when the Quinceneria finally came out, we need to buy an extra battery to have on hand. That seems to happen a lot.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I got home late Friday night and was starving. Omar had also just gotten home and he said he wasn't hungry because he ate 6 cookies at a home he visited. How healthy! I decided to make a bbq chicken pizza. I even rolled my own dough. Omar said it sounded gross and I committed to make half for him to eat some other time with regular sauce instead of bbq. I made the whole thing and took a couple slices of my part. I went back to get some more and Omar had eaten the rest! He thought that I was done...he admitted I was right that the bbq was better - I was so sad...that pizza was scrumptious!

My beautiful chicken pizza
Omar stealing some chicken (see the difference in sauce - the top part is the bbq and the lower is the marinara)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Young Men Young Women Beach Activity

Our youth activity this past week was a trip to the Jacksonville Beach. It was supposed to be combined with young men and young women, but really it ended up being just young men. I had no idea that we had that many young men in our branch. It was fun. I created the games that we played on the beach and boys will be boys - things got pretty physical.


Our 3 legged race turned brutal when Omar with the other young women's leader battled it out with the youth!

< This was more of wrestling than 3-legged

The balloon game even became a wrestling match

Down right fun

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Wallis Family Reunion

Megan, Aunt Mary, and Ben


















The Wallis Kids




Dianna, Turner, and Margarett
Ben and Megan













Laura and Aunt Mary
Dianna with the food prep.
Everyone (without Dianna)
(everyone with Dianna)
Omar & I
The Wakefield & Spilsbury Family










We finally had a Wallis family reunion...almost everyone was in attendance. All but Charlie, Diana, and Kelly. It was fun. We drove to Cape Caneveral/Cocoa Beach area to a little condo place that Dianna and Turner had rented for the week. It wasn't real long but it was nice that we could all come from different areas and talk, eat, and just enjoy one another. Here are some pics.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

A wedding, a bbq, and a church talk

We thought this weekend would be to just relax and enjoy the Olympics. Oh no...Omar was asked by one of the guys who works with him, and one of the members from our spanish branch (congregation) to be a groomsman in his wedding this weekend. He was asked on Thursday and the wedding was on Friday (08/08/08 our 5 month anniversary too)! We were planning on going to the wedding anyhow. Who can resist a spanish wedding (boda)...always amazing food and great dancing. Those weddings last forever! They did not introduce the party until about an hour and half after the wedding was supposed to start. The wedding started at 6:45 and ended at midnight! Later on Saturday Omar barbequed for some of our spanish friends and we got home about 11 PM to make sure our talks were prepared. We talked about charity in the home. I was very proud of myself and how well I spoke in Spanish. What a blessing.


Way to celebrate our own 5 month anniversary (to the date) to go to someone else's wedding celebration










!aye que guapo!
the male wedding party
the ring exchange
Omar with the female bridal party
the food was so yummy...and I guess the server

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Youth Conference 2008- The Dance

I think at times the adults had more fun than the kids. I was teaching everyone all sorts of dances and having a blast!
The Jiminez family
Maru, her husband and President Mauraman (in the middle)
Some of the youth from the branch having fun
Some of my camp girls from the Stake

The Big 2-5...Kate's Birthday!

St. Andrews State Park. Omar & I ate a picnic lunch and swam in the water.
Still part of the park. The park was mainly just waterfront. There was a little hike (more like a stroll) through some palms around this lake (called Alligator Lake) - we figured their were no gators since the path takes you right to the water.
Saturday night sunset.
Omar and I enjoying the outdoors, while we waited close to 2 hours to get seated for dinner.
This was the outdoors area where we ate dinner. It was a restaurant called "Pineapple Willy's". We had looked online to all sorts of places and this one supposedly had really good bbq ribs. We were driving around town and the lots were completely full. We were going to go back to get seafood somewhere else when a front row spot came available. We figured it was fate.
We invited 3, 19 year old college students to eat with us so they wouldn't have to wait for 2 more hours. Our table was huge! It was quite entertaining. They took our picture and they told the waiter it was my birthday. This was my ice cream treat.
Omar and I on the water taxi to Shell Island. It is part of St. Andrews State Park. We kayaked around part of the 7 mile island, ate lunch, and snorkeled. My legs got barbecued out on the open water. We were going to kayak the whole island from the Bay side to the Gulf side and around, until this old man scared me when we were probably 1/2 done tell us that we would become a "Coast Guard statistic" if we went on the gulf side because there were many boats that would run over a small kayak and there are tons of hammerhead sharks that come up to his fishing boat. Needless to say, we turned around.
This is a sand bar...there were plenty of party places around the island. Supposedly it is very good for shelling (collecting shells) we didn't really experience that...maybe it was because we got exhausted from the sun all day.


So we decided to go on an adventure for my birthday (July 20)! We both had never been to Panama City Beach Florida. It was a 4 hour drive one way. I worked in the car on the way there and back (The Miracle of Internet Air Cards). Good Ol' Omar did most of the driving (I drove maybe 1 hour). We stayed at a Hampton Inn at a fantastic rate for that area. Hotels there (even cheap ones), not even on the beach, are over $100/night. We payed $40/night (gracias suegros). We spent the 1st day at St. Andrews Park. Boy were we shocked when we went out to the water. It was purely disgusting. This was supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida. We were shocked when all we could smell was sewage. When you walked up to the water you just saw this brown muck washing up onto the shore from the waves. It was seaweed. It was hilarious watching people walk up to the water and look in wondering if they could brave the first few feet before getting to the crystal clear water. We ate at a Restaurant and enjoyed our night as well. The next morning we woke up early and took our water taxi to Shell Island and rented Kayaks there. We were able to see jellyfish (not so exciting), lots of little fishes, crabs, and 2 white-spotted eagle rays (some of my favorites!). We had a great time and I got fried (Omar got tanner). The sun killed me and we basically slept most of the evening. We went and bought shrimp to take home with us and left early the next morning for home. It was a fantastic birthday! I am a 1/4 century old now.