a last minute trip

 Last week we decided to take a unexpected trip up to Orlando for a couple days.  A couple of our interns really wanted to go and it amazingly worked out with the work schedule.  So we went.  It was really fun.

 On the drive up we stopped at Robbie's so the girls could feed the the huge tarpon. (same place i wrote about in last weeks post)

We left Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Orlando at about 1am Wednesday morning.  All of us crashed right away.  A few hours later we were all up and ready to hit up the parks.  We went to Universal Studios.

  We were there all day.   A whopping 12 hours! Whoot Whoot!  10am-10pm baby.  It was a long and fun filled day!

Thursday Chris and I got up early and went to a session at the temple.  It was really wonderful.  After the session we were asked to do a couple of sealings.  It's been a while since we have done sealings and we had a very special experience.  

I have been in a really great mood ever since.  I even had a couple people at church comment that I was "glowing" (and no I am not pregnant).  But I give all the credit to being able to go to the temple.  

The rest of the day I opted to take advantage of the fabulous outlet malls, while the others went to Universal Studios again.  We headed home late Thursday afternoon and were back in Key West around 1am Friday morning, and not so ready to be to work 7 hours later at 8am.  

Needless to say we didn't get a whole lot of sleep, and kudos to Chris cause he drove the whole way both there and back.  He has gone to bed pretty early every night since. 

It was a short trip filled with fun activities, memories and people. 

Happy Easter!

 I know most of you will probably think these are a little ridiculous.  But I couldn't help myself.  I had to take a couple pics of Zu in her Easter dress.  She is just so stinkin cute!

National Cheese Fondue Day!

 April 14th, The Melting Pot was celebrating National Cheese Fondue Day.  In celebration of this event they offered everyone a free cheese fondue appetizer for two.  I heard about this and thought it would be a great idea for our weekly date night.

There isn't a Melting Pot in Key West, so we drove up to Miami for the day.  It was nice to get off the island for a little bit.

On the drive up the keys we stopped at Robbie's in Islandmorada to feed the Tarpon.  I heard about this forever ago and I have always wanted to do it, but we hadn't yet for one reason or another.  Robbie's is a restaurant at the marina in Islandmorada.  There are all these tarpon that hangout right off the dock.   We bought a little bucket of fish for a couple of bucks, then held the fish off the end of the dock one at a time. These huge Tarpon jump out of the water and grab the fish right out of your hand.

This was actually really cool.  At first I kept dropping the fish every time they would jump up at me.  I know they don't have teeth and if there mouth hit my hand it wouldn't hurt, but the idea of it freaked me out.
Here are a couple videos of our experience.

When we arrived in Miami we went to my favorite shopping mall.  I must say I have been really good and had NOT bought any new clothes for officially 2 months.  That is a long time for me.  I had to break my no purchase streak though, I found a few items I just couldn't resist.

Then we went to our reservation at...

 It was so good!!  We shared the cheese fondue, and got a couple entrees.  I wish we would have had room for dessert because that is what I wanted the most, but we were both so extremely full there was no way I could have eaten another bite.  All those rich cheeses and sauces fill you up to quick.  I had to make Chris promise to bring me back soon and next time we will only order dessert.

We grabbed a red box to watch on the drive home.  We watched Hereafter with Matt Damon.  Wow, this movie was right on the verge of horrible.  I wouldn't go so far as to say it was horrible, but it was not good at all.

But it did help to pass the time and we got home safe and sound.  We both had a really fun day.

Birthdays...

Turns out that the end of March and beginning of April had a few birthday to celebrate. First, was the Birthday of Relief Society.  I know this is not a typical birthday one would think of celebrating but we sure did.  I think it is a great idea to get all the sisters together and celebrate the day that the Relief Society became the organization it is today.  We celebrated the event with a Book of Mormon Murder Mystery Dinner.  This is sort of like the game of clue.  Everyone plays a character and at each course of dinner a new clue is handed out, everyone reads there clue and discusses who they think the murderer is.  At the end of dinner we relate the mystery to a story in the Book of Mormon.  It was a huge success.  Lots of fun!

 The tables looked awesome.  We used all black and white decor.  We had bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping, and pink lemonade to drink.  The first course was salad, second course spaghetti with meatballs, and third course was cake and ice cream.  This activity required a lot of planning but was well worth it.

At the end of the activity we had each table guess who they thought the murdered was, and then the relief society presidency read a narration relating the mystery to a murder in the scriptures.  The story can be found in Helaman chapters 8 and 9.  We also showed a short video clip on what is means to be a member of relief society and what the relief society stands for, to end the night.

Second, birthday was Becca's our intern.  She turned 20.   This girl loves her birthday more than anyone I have ever met.  She was quite the entertainment with her spastic excitement, and the pure enjoyment that it was her birthday.

I got her that fabulous tiara, and her birthday sash, which reads "birthday princess!!"  She loved all the attention.  We ate dinner at Run Barrel on the roof.  It was perfect, they had pretty lights, and live music, and the guitarist gave her lots of special attention, including a free CD and a kiss on the check, which she loved.   After dinner, we walked around town, then headed back to the apt. for cake.

Third and final birthday was also for one of our interns, Cami.  She Turned 21!  Bec and I made her this fabulous chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake from scratch.  It was so delicious!

I also got Cami, her own tiara and birthday princess sash to wear around.  We had dinner at the Bistro, we brought the cake with us and ate it after dinner.  Then we all walked around town initiating Cami into 21 making her do a list of 21 embarrassing things.  Examples include; collecting $21 from random strangers, giving out 21 lei necklaces, singing I'm a little teapot to 21 strangers, and hugging 21 random hot men.  It was a hilarious evening and made for a very late and memorable night.