St. Croix, Virgin Islands!

OK, the lucky streak in my family has finally caught up with me! On June 5th (Saturday) around 7:00 AM, I called into KBULL93 to try and win "Eclipse" movie tickets. *Quick side note, I usually don't try for things unless I really want it!* Anyway, I was the right caller and won my movie tix! YAY!
So the DJ says, "listen Monday morning at 7:15 for your chance to win a trip to the Virgin Islands..." Then after being on hold he says, "actually listen at 8:20 for the trip." OK, so Monday comes around and I thought 8:20 was a weird time to do a trip, so I was listening at 7:15 just in case. Sure enough, the trip was given away at 7:15, only to someone else! DANG! So I called Jared to tell him we weren't going. I get going with my morning and randomly at 8:20 I hear my name on the radio! I wasn't paying close enough attention to really hear what they were saying it for, but I guessed if you hear your name on the radio, it has to be a good thing, right?! Anyway, when I called Jared I was pretty much freaking out so he didn't really understand what was going on!! :)
Once I got all the details, they said we were leaving that coming Friday! WHAT?! I just won a free trip and I don't have to wait forever before leaving? SWEET!
So we took Zack to Jared's parents house Thursday night because our flight left SLC at 11:45 PM. We got to NYC (That was torture, for anyone that knows my previous struggles getting to NYC!) at 6:00 AM. Left NYC around 9:00 AM and flew to St. Thomas, arriving about 1:30 PM. Waiting there, we took the smallest plane at about 3:00 PM to St. Croix, and getting there around 3:30 PM. LONG day of flying and waiting!


ANYWAY, once we got to our hotel, I was in heaven! Our room opened right up onto the beach, and it was gorgeous there!! Friday night we were so tired that we went to a little pizza place they had, walked around the hotel area, and ended up falling asleep by 8:00 that night.


Saturday we decided to take a taxi to a town there called Christiansted. It was so interesting to see how different things were there. So beautiful in so many ways too. Lots of different colors of buildings (totally run down), laid back people not in a hurry to go and do all day, and just plain amazing ocean views!


Later that afternoon, we were able to go sailing on a sunset cruise. WOW again!! The people we were with were a little less than fun (MAJOR drunk!) but the water and sky were breathtaking. After sailing, we went back for a little swimming in the pool.




Sunday we decided to go snorkeling at Buck Island (I guess it was made a National Park too.). That was easily the highlight of our whole weekend! The beach literally was out of a magazine gorgeous. The water felt like a bathtub it was so warm and calm, and the snorkeling was the coolest! I don't even know how else to describe it. All I can say is if you are ever in the mood for snorkeling, and you want a good place to go, THAT is the place!



Jared did a little snorkeling with his wallet! Oops!!

Monday we came home... only that was the longest day ever! All the flights were delayed, and we didn't get home until 1:30 AM. Ugh... I'm good to go on the flying for a little while :)
YAY for a free trip though!!!!

Memorial weekend

It's becoming a tradition very quickly... anytime we have an extended holiday weekend, we most likely will be found in St. George! No complaints here though!!!

We went to George Thursday afternoon with my mom, and almost instantly Zack got sick. BUMMER PART OF THE WEEKEND. Anyway, we hung out at Amanda's house that night and mostly just visited. The best part about her house is that she has a perfect little backyard that we just sat outside and talked. Perfect weather to go with it too, until those dang sprinklers turned on on us! :)
Also that night, Josh and Amanda were "sharing" those really gross, nasty jelly beans. Jared graciously took the black bean, which could have been either black licorice or skunk spray. He got the skunk and seriously he smelled terrible after that! I went with the one that ended up being pencil shavings. In comparison to skunk, it seems so mild, but I am here to tell you that I will NEVER eat another trick jelly bean again in my life! Just chewing that dang thing, the texture actually turned into pencil shavings!! Needless to say, I was awake a lot in the night feeling like I was going to throw up.



Ugh, onto better things! Friday, Amber and her kids came. While everyone was at work, we took Zack to the dr. to make sure he didn't have anything major going on (since he was having some really high temperatures, coughing, runny nose, throwing up, etc.). It was nice to hear that he had broncitis, but not fun because there is no meds to help it go away faster. Oh well, he's better now :)


Saturday we did a little swimming, shopping, golfing (Jared), Pizza Factory (a fav!), and visited Beck at her new job, The Sweet Tooth Fairy! YUM! Busy day.
Sunday we did church and then that night had a picnic. Monday we mostly hung out until we decided we should head home again. Hardest part about the weekend... time always goes so fast!




PS - Zack was in LOVE with Charlie!! He would run around the house constantly saying "Arlie, Arlie, etc." It was so cute. Then Tuesday morning when we were home and he woke up, he immediately was looking for "Arlie". Then on Wednesday when I heard him wake up from his nap, he was calling for "Arlie" to come! So cute! He loves Chars! wink, wink!

Spring is here

This summer looks to be a fun one for us! With Zack getting bigger and wanting to be a big kid, we find ourselves trying to let him explore a little more. We went on a picnic one night when Jared came home from work and let Zack feed the ducks. He was so funny trying to chase them around! He also loves the playgrounds too!


We also took him to Gateway (OK, it was for me to shop.) and let him try the water fountains. Although he just stood by and watched so he wouldn't get wet, he still loved it!

And then we've also gone and walked around Temple Square to see the tulips and other spring flowers in full bloom! All I can say with that is WOW! I am always amazed when I go onto those temple grounds and see how beautiful and peaceful it really is! Oh, and it was fun because we were walking into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building as Elder Oaks was walking out (we actually shared the same door). Hahaha! Fun start to spring for us!

New camera

Thank you tax returns... despite the large sum we had to pay towards Jared's car (a car accident, repairs, oil change, and tires for my car), we were still able to buy the camera we've been wanting for awhile now. So be patient with me while I attempt to know how to work it (until I can take some classes to refresh my memory!), and maybe we'll get some fun pics that actually look decent once in awhile!

Jared turns 30!

Happy Birthday to Jared on April 7th! He hit a big 30 years old this time around, and we tried to have a little fun for him! On his birthday, Zack and I went and visited him at work in Park City and went to lunch and then walked around the outlets for a little while. When we got home from that, I had decorated the house with some balloons and crepe paper and made him some key lime cupcakes (so delish!!). I think he had a pretty good day...
Then on Friday the 9th, I had planned a surprise party for him! Needless to say, that was an adventure. I can't even recall how many things I came up with to try and distract him, or make him think we were doing something else, etc... but wow, did it feel good to finally have the truth out!!!
About 5 minutes before we were leaving for the clubhouse, some of our neighbors came to our house (thinking the party was there) and luckily they were quick on their feet and he didn't suspect anything even then. So anyway, I told Jared that our next door neighbors were going to babysit Zack while we went to a movie, but that they were filling out some papers at the clubhouse (in order to sell their house), so we needed to drop Zack off there. Easily, he went along with it.
Jared was genuinely surprised! We had an awesome turn out, with lots of family and friends. I was so greatful for everyone being there and for their help to make it so happy for Jared!

Happy Easter!

Easter is always a lot of fun for me, and this year was even better (I can only imagine what next year brings!) because of Zack's excitement. The saturday morning before Easter, we went to Smith's for an egg hunt. It was perfect! They had age groups separated, so it was nice for the little kids to get stuff too. They blocked off the aisles and scattered candy all up and down (they even hid some plastic eggs in the food on the shelves!). Needless to say, when it was time to start, we let Zack run in, and he immediately grabbed a piece of candy and started opening it! Nevermind the hundreds of pieces surrounding him, he just wanted one (Don't worry, we ended up getting more than we needed!).


Then on Sunday, we enjoyed General Conference and had our own little Easter fun. The Easter Bunny left little baskets for each of us too. That night, we had some of Jared's family and my mom over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. It was a lot of fun!

The Zoo

At the end of March, Zack and I went with my neighbor to the zoo. We had a really fun time. We saw lots of animals and rode the train (Which I thought the train ride was a little short and lacking, but that's just me!). Zack really seemed to love everything... but I think his favorite were the monkey's!