Southern Caribbean Cruise: Grand Turk

Our first stop was Grand Turk. Omar and I had been there before and liked it. I think now I would be okay going to a different port in the future.

We did the same excursion we did last time but this time they took us to different spots along “The Wall” and “Horseshoe reef”. I didn’t like these stops as much as the last time we did it.

 “The Wall” everything was too far away – last time we went there it was a coral wall that protruded much higher and closer to the surface of the water.

Horseshoe reef section we went to this time didn’t have as many neat things to look at. However it did have a nurse shark which was pretty cool to go down and pet.

After our excursion we still had a few hours left. We thought it would be nice to go downtown and check it out. There was a hop on/off bus that would take us to multiple places around the island and was $20/pp. We thought with the amount of time we had left it wouldn’t be worth it. We went and looked at the taxi fare and it was so high. To go to downtown would be $20/couple.

We tried to negotiate with them but they told us they can’t negotiate because they are government set rates. We gave in and did the taxi to downtown.

Little did we know we were basically tricked. The downtown area had a few huts that sold some cheap stuff in them and that was it! Extremely disappointing. I think next time if I go there I will probably do the hop on/off bus.

buying conch fritters in the downtown

Houses right next to downtown

All of downtown!

dancing at Margaritaville

You can see the rates for each stop below.

Total Cost of this Port of Call = $140

Southern Caribbean Cruise: Fort Lauderdale and Embarkation

We planned this vacation back in January before we knew we would be going to Honduras and Europe this year. We went with the Warner family back in October to Costa Rica and we jointly chose to go on a cruise together. Omar and I have always wanted to cruise with other people. The itinerary was really cool. 8 days long – 3 of them sea days and our stops were Grand Turk, La Ramona Dominican Republic, Curacao, and Aruba.

We were going on the ship Carnival Breeze which is the newest ship. Carnival has received a lot of bad press recently do to some different incidences, but we have never had any issues. Due to the bad press it helped us to have $400 of onboard credit, which I didn’t complain about at all.

We drove both cars down to Orlando so we could drop of our car at my parent’s house while we were gone. I was going straight to an event for a week following the cruise for making President’s Council for work. We then drove down with the Warners to Ft. Lauderdale where we got a great deal on a hotel room.

Ashley and I went to go find her some swim suit coverups across the street from the hotel while the boys relaxed. We asked the locals what there is to do and it was interesting because quite a few of them would say there is nothing to do in Ft. Lauderdale. We finally received the suggestion to go to Las Olas  where there are restaurants, art galleries, and boutiques sort of along a riverfront.

We ate at Rocco’s Tacos. It was really good, but the service was bad.

Omar and Ashley

Jeron and I

Me and Hubby

We drove down the beach at Fort Lauderdale and then pretty much crashed for the night. 

The next morning we woke up and drove around Miami and South Beach a little before heading to the port to board the cruise ship. 

This ship is really nice and you can tell that it was new.

Our first sea day Ashley and I received a really nice massage – it was a fully body massage, facial, and some other things. It was wonderful. 

General Conference - 183rd Annual

We celebrated the 183rd General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am proud to be a member of this great Church. Every 6 months we are able to listen to God's mouthpieces on the earth. I like to make note of some of the things that stuck out to me from the sessions that I was able to listen to. There is 10 hours of Conference - I was able to watch Saturday and Sunday Morning sessions - 4 hours of it. Omar also attended the Priesthood session for 6 of the 10 hours. I will have to catch up on the other ones later. 

Saturday Morning Session

President Monson  (President and Prophet)

• 2 new temples announced - Cedar City, Utah and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Since the change with the missionary age over 65,000 missionaries now - and 20,000 who have been called and 6,000 more in interviews with their bishops. 58 new missions created. Encouraged to donate generously to General Missionary Fund of the church. 

Boyd K Packer (Apostle)

• He is 88 years old now! He is such a cute old man - that poem sounded like it was a farewell poem 
• Discussed how Priesthood 
• Faith is a real power and not just an expression of belief - there is few things more powerful than the faithful prayers of a righteous mother. This is interesting because I was just talking about faith earlier today with my friend Allison Schreiber and how it seems like such an overused term a really undefined thing - faith. 
• Separate the difference between the sin and the sinner. Tolerance is a virtue - but when is exaggerated it becomes a vice. We need to be careful of tolerance that we don't exaggerate it and become swallowed up in it. 
• All of us have the light of Christ when we are born - what we do with that light is our test in mortality.

Dean M Davies (2nd Counselor Presiding Bishopric)

• Temple construction look at any type of calamity or weather catastrophe that might come - they are built on very strong foundations
• Daily prayer, daily studying of scriptures, weekly partaking of the Sacrament and participating in Priesthood ordinances are what should create our foundation - if we don't participate in these we will have a weakened foundation
• Paul in the Bible also refers to our foundation 
• These items should come to us as naturally as breathing and eating! If that is the case - I have a lot of work to do for it to be more natural for me

Elaine S Dalton (Young Women General President)

• Nice testimony

Craig A Carden (Quorum of the 70)

• he doesn't excuse us in our sins or condone us to return to our past sins. he is able to forgive sins on earth too not just at the final judgement. 
• the Lord verbally told Joseph Smith that he was forgiven multiple times even though he had not completed any grave sins. this is a good example of his willingness to forgive 70x7. 
• the Lord wants to forgive

M Russell Ballard (Apostle)

• The power by which the heaven's and earth were created is the Priesthood
• that same Priesthood power is the same power Christ used to perform miracles and other things during his mortal ministry
• The man cannot fully utilize his Priesthood without a woman. 
• analogy of the tomato plant - we can become like a wilted tomato plant drifting away being spiritually malnourished. we can come back with light and power of god in our life like the tomato plant comes back with light and water. 
• never realized his great grandmother is Mary Fielding Smith

Elder Eyring (Apostle)

• When we serve Him or follow the call to leave our families to serve Him it will cause our families to become closer to Him. 
• the scripture he shared in D&C about Hyrum and Joseph's family was one that helped strengthen me on my mission.

Sunday Morning Session

Dieter F Uchtdorf (Apostle)

• Often we feel we are surrounded by darkness - He will illuminate the way and help us out of the darkness
• Turn your heart to the Lord

Neil L Andersen (Apostle)

• Put your missionary tag somewhere that it can be seen
• Pray for missionary opportunities

Rosemary M Wixon (Primary General President)

• To speak to a child's hearts we must know a child's needs
• Choose a time of the day to disconnect from everything and reconnect to each other

L Whitney Clayton (Presidency of 70)

• Watch and Learn how to have a happy and eternal marriage
• Practice patterns of faith (sacrament weekly, FHE weekly, honest tithing, personal and family scripture study, etc.) - they don't pick and choose which ones they should do like a buffet
• Repentance - have honest self-examination to repent and improve
• Respect - don't treat others as 2nd class partners - each have an equal vote - cooperation - not negotiation - forego personal entertainment and electronics to share in home roles - work side by side 
• Transparency - no secret - make all decisions about finances together
• Fiercely loyal to each other 

L Tom Perry (Apostle)

• "Obedience to law is liberty" - why does this ring true to us? Look back to our Pre-mortal life
• Victory of the war in heaven was a victory for man's agency
• Each choice is a choice between liberty and eternal life or captivity and death
• Coveting has been far too common way of life
• We shouldn't pick and choose which commandments we follow

Thomas S Monson (Prophet)

• Be obedient and do it willingly

Nikki Time

Kelly was nice to drive me back to SLC after my time with her. We met Nikki North and her husband Jeff at a restaurant she had heard about that is on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives called Moochies. They are known for their steak and cheese sandwiches and also their meatball sandwiches. The place was tiny and we managed to get a seat. The line runs out the door to this place. Kelly and I shared half of each of the recommended subs and we both agreed that we enjoyed the steak and cheese a little more. But they were both good. Kelly headed back to Logan and I spent the rest of the afternoon with Nikki and Jeff.

Nikki and Jeff spent the night at the Anniversary Inn Salt Lake City to celebrate Valentine's Day. They told me that you can walk through all of the crazy themed rooms from 1-3pm each day for free. I thought - well we have nothing else to do so why not? We went to both Inns and walked through about 30 different rooms - these rooms are DECKED out! It was pretty fun and cool to see.

This creepy painting was in one of the closets

Every room had awesome tubs

Following that we walked around Jordan Landing some and also saw a Trader Joes. Neither of us had ever been there before so we thought - let's check it out. It was really interesting - a lot like Whole Foods. Then we met Sarah Squires around 4 pm for some ice cream at Maggie Moos. I have never been there before which is odd since we have them all over the place here in Florida.

I really have a great time with Nikki - I wish they both lived closer to us.

Pre-Valentine's Day

Omar isn't in to Valentine's Day. He has never done anything for me for it. A few days before Valentine's Day and our trip to Utah he sent me these flowers at work. I had to record it because he made history!

Super Bowl XLVII

Omar's team is the San Francisco 49ers. He was sure since the beginning of the season that his team would make it to the Super Bowl When they went to the NFC Championship game in Altanta GA to play against the Falcons he went. He knew there is no WAY that we would pay those outlandish ticket prices for the Superbowl even though it would be a dream come true for him.

Luckily one of our friend's wanted to go with him and so Jeran and Omar drove up to the Championship game and had a blast!

When they won the Championship game Omar announced we would have a huge Super Bowl party...and that is what we did. We had quite the crowd and a nice spread of food. I would have pictures of the party except that I forgot to put the memory card back in so all the pictures I took were for nothing. LOL

Guests: Total of 21 people at our party!
My mom, dad, and sister Kelly.
Ashley, Jeran & daughter Kailee
Allison, Aaron Schreiber and their 4 kids
Jason & Carolina Ortega and their daughter and Carolina's sister Alejandra
Allison Mabus with her husband and son

Food: Omar grilled rib peices and chicken legs, I made won ton tacos and got shrimp rings. People brought meat and cheese dips, fresh pico de gallo, and yummy yummy cupcakes.

Although the 49ers didn't win Omar was happy with how they played and we all had a good time. I guess there is always next year.