Jacksonville Jazz Festival

After the beach Tiffany, Lindsey, mom and I went to the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. It was free, which shocked my mom and Tiffany. When I think of the large scale of the festival, I don't see how they could contain it to make it cost money. I have been to a lot of festivals in this area and most of them are free. If they cost anything it is usually like $2-5/pp. This even took over a HUGE chunk of downtown Jacksonville. There were thousands of people in attendance. Most everyone brought their own chair with them, but you could also purchase a VIP ticket and there were chairs set up in front of the stage reserved for those people.

One of the stages

Tons of people attended the event

There were musicians playing at the Landing with vendors outside. There were actually vendors everywhere selling art, crafts, clothes, hair stuff, food, etc. You could walk from one stage to the next and have plenty to look at and purchase. There was a huge stage set up in Hemming Plaza and another a few blocks down from that. The first day they even used part of the FL theater for a jazz competition of some sort.

We walked all over the place and went to the FL theater. I had never been in there before. It was gorgeous! There was a ballet rehearsal going on and they let us walk around a little bit to see what it was like. I really hope to see a show there soon.

We parked at the convention center and took the Skyway (sort of like a mini-monorail) in to Hemming Plaza. Since we had 2 cars that was the cheaper route. Tiff was going to drive back home after we were done there. It ended up costing us $4 for the sky way, 50 cents each person, each way.

All sorts of people came - I don't quite get this one though

We'll see if Lindsey ends up being a winner of a new car!

For sure next year I will want to go again and spend more time there.

Memorial Weekend: Crescent Beach

I was amazed that I had a full weekend off AND the holiday, it is awesome how that worked out for me. My parents, and sisters came up to spend the holiday with us. We decided that Saturday would be a less crowded day at the beach then Memorial Day so we went to the beach.

Kelly and Mom relaxing under our tent

Dad chilling on a towel - the old school beach way

You can't hide corn from my mom - she will find it

My friend, Brianna has been telling me for some time how her favorite FL beach is Crescent Beach. It is about a 30 minute drive South from our house, the beach just below St. Augustine Beach. So we decided to go there. My friend Tiffany just moved to St. Mary's, Georgia from Alaska and she came and joined us. Brianna also invited her friend Christine and their family to come too.

Lil' Bryce!

Omar buried Christine's son in the sand, he loved it

Lindsey soakin' up the rays

We had a great time. It was perfect weather, sunny all day, but there was a nice breeze. Brandon brought his Emergency Essential Volcano grill and Omar cooked out hot dogs and corn. Christine brought the corn sort of pre-cooked. I never heard of doing this before, but it drastically cut down the corn cooking time. She microwaved the corn on top of wet paper towels for 4 minutes and then wrapped them in a beach towel for 5 minutes. Then you only have to cook them for like 5-10 minutes on the grill. It was delicious!!!

The Grill Master Omar

We had kites that the guys enjoyed flying, as well as brought soccer throw (the game you see people play at tail-gate parties often). It was a pretty beach, not the most beautiful I have seen in FL, but still really nice. We ended up parking the next entrance AFTER Ft. Matanzas. It was not crowded which was so nice. If you go to the entrance at Ft. Matanzas you can drive your car on the beach a little bit and park. With all the stuff we had that would have been much more convenient, but more crowded. We had to walk about 1/2 mile with all of our stuff through this preserve. It was cool though because we were able to see gopher turtles digging holes. I never realized that gopher turtles dig holes that over 345 other animal species enjoy with it. I love turtles!

Tiff practicing her soccer throw skills

Brandon in front of Crecent Beach

I was so proud of Omar. He has never spent so long at a beach. I think over all we were there for almost 6 hours. He really doesn't like the beach and he didn't complain too much. Next week will go to another beach when Nikki comes. I wonder which one.

"Against All Odds" Chuck Norris

A work colleague told me about this book he got from the library and let me borrow it on cd. I really enjoyed listening to his son's narration of the book, and think that maybe audio books might be the best way for me to "read" for the next while as I drive to and from work.

I was shocked at how much I actually enjoyed this book. Chuck Norris is one incredible guy! I really knew nothing about him. I don't even think I have seen one of his movies and have never seen a Walker Texas Ranger episode. Now, after learning about his past and his beliefs and values, I can honestly say that I want to see some of his stuff. He is someone that did not have an easy life, but truly God had plans for him. This book was entertaining and thought provoking. It helped me to think more about the importance of visualizing success and that we have to work hard for our dreams, they will not just happen. Now, I just need to figure out what exactly my dreams are because I know God has plans for me too.

Atlanta Temple Open House

I remember going to the Atlanta temple for a few years when I was younger with the Gunnels Family. It was the closest temple for us and so our families would go there for Thanksgiving and the adults would do temple work while us kids stayed at the hotel. We then would go over to Stone Mountain together. I remember I was so excited that the next year was finally going to be MY year that I would be old enough to enter the House of the Lord. I was so looking forward to our trip to Atlanta when we learned that Orlando would receive its own temple. I remember the Open House of the Orlando temple it happened when I was 11 years old and I was not old enough to help put the white booties on all the people that would go on the tour for the Open House. I remember feeling so sad about that.

That Atlanta Temple is one of the oldest temples currently and was undergoing extensive renovations which necessitated a close for a year. I had never been inside the Atlanta Temple.

My Uncle Marshall was finally released from ICU and had been home a few weeks when the Atlanta Temple Open House began. I thought it would be a great chance for Omar and I to go through the Temple and to bring my aunt and uncle through who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint. I wanted them to see what the sealing room was like where Omar and I were married and sealed for time and all eternity. There is something so amazing about the Temple of God, the Spirit there is indescribable and I hoped that with my uncle's recent experience that he might feel the peace and love of God there.

It was interesting how it all worked out. We had originally asked off work to go to my Uncle Marhsall's Surpirse 50th Birthday party in Hernando Beach the same weekend as the Open House. However, due to the unfortunate circumstances that occurred landing my uncle in ICU for 2 weeks, that celebration was postponed. I knew of the Open House and thought with us having the days off that it would be a perfect time to go and visit my Uncle and hopefully have both my aunt and uncle come with us to the Temple Open House tour.

Our tickets were for the first day of the Open House, April 9, and it would go on for a few weeks where anyone from the public could come inside the temple. Sadly, my aunt and uncle did not attend with us, but we really enjoyed our time at the temple. We also were able to spend time with both of my uncles as my Uncle Turner came up as a surprise for Marshall's birthday. We had a great dinner party for him and the next day we all attended Marshall and Dianna's church together where they recognize the miraculous recovery of my uncle. It was a nice weekend.

A Visit from the Spilsburys

I have to start this entry off by saying that I regret that I didn't bring my camera with me. I knew Megan would take plenty of pictures and so thought I would take a break. Now I have to ask that Megan will send me some of her pictures so I can include them. Because of this, I know there really wasn't any pictures taken of me and Omar with my nephews. Sad lesson learned.

Welcome to Florida
Omar's brother Eddie and his family came to visit Florida and Disney World. We were so happy that they were going to make time to spend time with us. We had yet to meet our youngest nephew, Tage, and had never been able to spend time alone with Eddie and his family to get to know them better. Last time we saw them was in Utah a year before, but I really didn't think that Jayden even knew who I was with everyone being there I never was able to spend any time with him.

They flew in and out of Jacksonville and Omar picked them up from the airport taking Tage straight to the urgent care center due to an eye and ear infection. The poor kid, the whole trip he was sick. It was so sad because you could tell that he totally wanted to be a happy baby, and finally the day they left I was able to get an idea of what he was probably normally like.

Omar cooked bbq ribs, corn, and beans for them that night. When I got home from work that night I was greeted at the door by Jayden who was yelling, "Tia Kate, Tia Kate!" Tia means "aunt" in Spanish. I was shocked that he knew who I was. Megan told me that they had a layover in Nashville and that Jayden was so upset because he thought he wasn't coming to see us. He refused to eat lunch and said over and over again, "I want to go to Uncle Omar and Tia Kate's House!!!"

DAY 1
The next day was kind of an R&R day hoping Tage would get feeling better. Omar and I took off Tuesday-Thursday for work. Eddie and the boys hung at home while Megan helped me with some decorating. We went everywhere it seemed and found some cute stuff for our great room (See the other post for more info about this).

That evening we had a groupon for this NY pizza place nearby that we had yet to try. We went there and at pizza and Stromboli.

Day 2 - Alligator Farm
Jayden wanted to see alligators and so we decided to check out our Alligator Farm since none of us had been there and they wouldn't have time to go to Gatorland. It was a great park, and was much better than Gatorland I think. We went to some of the shows, fed the gators, and listened to them. I have never heard their mating calls like they had while we were there. It was so amazing, the way they would grunt and it was so powerful that their bodies vibrated the water so strongly that it looked like it was raining the way the water would jump from the vibrations. One would start and the others would join in.

Alligator Farm has the first challenge course in the world over the zoo and Megan wanted to do it for her birthday. Megan is afraid of heights, never been zip lining, never been in a harness, no less knew what a caribener was. It was awesome being above the zoo and seeing it in a different light. There were places that clearly the public didn't get to see, but we did. I was shocked to realize how huge the park really was.

We did the smaller course since we didn't have time for a 2 hour course. It was great, I only wish that they had more zip lines on the smaller course. We didn't realize the majority of it was challenges. I will say that some of the challenges really were challenges. I was especially surprised that they did not have anyone up there showing you how to do it. They go as far as to to tell you that if you get stuck and they have to come up for you that due to insurance regulations you have to come down immediately! I was so proud of Megan for facing her fears.

We later went to Steak-N-Shake for lunch. Then over to the Outlets in St. Augustine where Megan and Eddie shopped for a few hours.

Day 3 - Beach Day
For Megan's 25th birthday she wanted to go to the beach. So the beach it was. There is no shortage of beaches here in our area, and so the question was, which beach? We decided to go to St. Augustine beach because there is a splash pad there and thought it might be fun for Jayden and Tage.

We packed up and went there. I have never taken SO much stuff to the beach before. We had a large canopy tent, 4 beach chairs, a huge cooler, 3 fishing poles, 2 kites, towels galore, a boogy board, and sand castle toys. We set it all up and Omar and Eddie went off fishing on the pier, Tage slept, and Jayden, Megan and I worked on a sand castle. Jayden later went boogy boarding and the tide began to come up.

Omar and I had been to this beach a few times and never had a problem with the tide, it was always low. There are rocks near the entrance and supposedly the tide would reach the rocks, but we had never witnessed it. The tide eventually reached the rocks with all of our stuff there. We realized we needed to move but if we wanted to stay on the beach we would need to move everything about a half mile down the beach. So we brought everything up to the grass near the splash pad. It worked out well.

We had been there for about 4 hours and Omar brought the kites out. He was going down to the beach to fly the kite and Jayden wanted to go. Omar told us that he couldn't fly the kite and watch him in the water (Jayden doesn't know how to swim). We didn't think it was a big deal and Jayden started walking down the steps to the water. A few minutes later I looked down at Omar flying the kite and Jayden standing on the steps trying to figure out how to get in the water. I didn't realize that the water was pretty much CHEST deep on Omar!!! The water had really come up and I was so glad that we had moved everything up, or we would have lost everything!

Jayden told us that his favorite thing was flying the kites. I was glad that we decided to buy them while on our anniversary for when Jayden would come. I don't think we will take people to that beach again in the future due to the tide.

We later went back home and I made Megan a banana cake for her birthday and the boys made tacos while Megan and I went back out shopping for my room. We came home ate and then decorated.

Leaving Florida
The next day they left for Orlando for 4 days where they went to Sea World, Disney, and visited the rest of the family in Orlando. They returned to both Omar and I being horribly sick from catching whatever Tage had. The next day they packed, we went and they bought a few last souvenirs, and took them to the airport. We had a great time and now we need to go and visit them in Arizona. I think that will be a trip for next year when Eddie can take some time off work again.

Decorating the Great Room

While Megan, Eddie, and my nephews were visiting I asked Megan for her help with finding me some curtains to get rid of the nasty white blinds that came with the house. Megan is really good at decorating and I am pretty "challenged" in that department. She helped me understand some fundamentals when it comes to decorating and to realize what my "style" is. I am a cultural decorator. I like things that have a story and that I am somehow attached to. One of those things is the Turkish rug Omar and I got while on our cruise together. The problem with the rug is that it is so hard to match with anything.


We were gone most of the day together which was a lot of fun to get to know here a little better. We came home to set everything up and realized that the curtains were too short and that there was no longer curtain. The rug was making it nearly impossible to find anything that would work for the room. Megan suggested moving the rug into my office and it actually worked. Afterall the inspiration for that room did come from the color of the rug.

So we later went back out to some stores another day and Megan showed me all the stuff she didn't mention before becuase it did not go with the rug. West Elm had most all of the stuff that we found for our room and now look at it. There is still some stuff yet to do, but it is not nearly as drab as it was before.

3 Year Anniversary - Charleston South Carolina

So our 3rd year anniversary was actually March 8, 2011. But my life has been super busy these past few months and I have slacked off in the blogging department (actually I am not just finishing this blog entry on 4/1/2012, you can tell because of the little details below). So here is all about our trip to celebrate 3 years of our married life in CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA!!!

This year Omar got me some of my favorite cupcakes as part of our cake tradition for our anniversary. These are made by a church member. We ate them while on our drive there.

Day 1 - We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel right on the main road in Historic Charleston. It was actually a really nice place to stay. We were hungry when we got there and went to find a place to eat. One of the places closest to where we were staying was Justine's Kitchen. It was very small and packed with people. We didn't realize that we were eating at a well known restaraunt in Charleston that has been feautured on many television shows. Needless to say it was delicious! Omar got fried chicken, which I don't like, but must admit this was just plain ridiculously delicious. Omar loved it and wanted to go and eat there again but we never got a chance.

Love the flowers on this tree

Such a neat house with porch

We had dinner at Husk one night. So yummy...

Other places we ate was Southend Brewery. We were told they have pretty good food from some people, but we were not impressed. One night's dinner was at McCrady's. That was the most expensive meal we have ever had in our life. $100/plate! But it was truly an experience. It was a 7 course meal using all sorts of techniques including stuff with liquid nitrogen. We figured for a once in a lifetime thing, why not? I took all sorts of pictures of it, but they are nowhere to be found!
Day 2 -

We spent a whole day at the Boone Hall Plantation. The admission where we got these tickets for free as well included a 30 minute tour of the house, garden tour, a tractor drive tour through all of the property, and there was a Black History self-guided tour too. It was really neat

Sweet Grass baskets are big deal in Charleston - but are not cheap!

This lady did an AWESOME job at her show representing "Gullah Life"

War was fought on this property

Day 3 -

This is the market square

We went on a historical carriage ride. 

PATRIOTS POINT

I don't know where all these pictures went also. I had a TON of them. Patriot's was really neat and took hours to explore and go through. It is a place where you can board a Navy Ship and Submarine. It was a neat self-guided tour. 

shopping 

GHOST TOUR

We went on a ghost tour of course. This one took us to the old jail as part of it

Day 4 -

We went to the Charleston Aquarium. It was really small and took us maybe an hour to go through it. We did this on our way out of town. I am glad we had free tickets to it because I would have been upset if we had paid full price.