Walk on the ocean

We had lots of fun line dancing on the pool deck, and listening to all the cool live bands they had on the boat. We even made it to the spa to get massages, and I even ran 13.5 miles during the week. Try running on a boat! It's not as easy as it sounds. And don't forget shuffleboard! Neither of us was very good, but you can't be on a cruise ship and not play shuffleboard.
We had lots of fun excursions. Our first island stop was Aruba, where we rode on the super-fun banana bus. Just picture a huge black bus driver, open windows, a multi-colored banana bus, and some jammin' tunes...good times. We rode the banana bus to a pier where we got on a pirate boat called the Jolly Pirate. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We rope swung off the pirate boat into the ocean, and they took us out to some cool snorkeling spots, including a sunken shipwreck. Here we are at the helm of the ship enjoying the "hammocks".
Later that evening as we were wandering around Aruba, we came across a local festival, where we got to experience some live music and dancing. I love all the bright colors of the Caribbean! We also made friends with the steel drum band player, who promised to mail us a CD of his band!
Our next port of call was Curacao. This town was so stinkin' cute! I love the colorful waterfront buildings. We went mountain biking with Hank and Frank and searched all over for a music store.
Here we are in St. Maarten where Caron is getting a lesson in steel drummage. We also went kayaking and snorkeling on St. Maarten and got rained on. The snorkel guide brought fish food so all the fish were swimming right around us...very cool.
Our final island stop was St. Thomas where we got in touch with our inner pirates. I am related to Sir Francis Drake, the pirate himself, so it runs in my blood! Here we are at Blackbeard's castle. With all the pirate paraphenalia I bought, I will have to throw another pirate parrrrty soon.
Also on St. Thomas, we went to Maegan's Bay Beach, which apparently is one of the Top 10 beaches in the world, according to National Geographic. It was simply lovely. Mr. Maegan, who owned the land, refused to let anyone build there so it would be open solely for beach use.

So there you have it. Fun, sun, indulgence....loved it all. Now it's time to start planning my next vacation! P.S. Check out Caron's blog for her version of the adventure!

One single word

I would just like to say that in exactly 72 hours from now, I will not be scraping snow from my car, or trying to locate my wool socks, or sipping hot chocolate, or even wearing a coat. Instead, I will be wearing my super cute new swimsuit, I will be lathered up in SPF 30, laying in a lounge chair with a good book, and drinking pina coladas in the luxurious Caribbean. Let the countdown begin cuz soon I will be here...Is blogging a trend of the past? Just wondering since it seems that people have jumped off the blogging bandwagon.

On another note, I was reading on Ali's blog the other day, and she issued a challenge to come up with one little word to describe your vision for 2007. She said she started this tradition last year, and her word for 2006 was “play”. Everything she did that year, she kept that word in mind, and it really changed her vision on the everyday things of life. This got me thinking. What one single word would I choose to describe an entire year? Well, I’ve come up with one. LIVE.

By this I mean things like:
-Live life to its fullest
-Live up to my potential
-Live in the present
-Live each day with no regrets
-Enjoy everyday living
-Make my life what it was meant to be
-Live in accordance to the covenants I’ve made

I read this quote the other day that says, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” I’m a big dreamer, but I’m not always a big liver. That is, one who lives--not an internal organ. :) I sometimes find myself living in the past or in the future, and not wholly embracing the present, so I'm going to try and work on that. Anyway, what would your word be?

Happy New Year times 3

Happy New Year and welcome to 2007! I would like to report that I had three successful New Year's celebrations this year. I spent the actual New Years Eve in St. George because it was my grandpa's 80th birthday party. So, the day before I left, I had a celebration here in West Jordan. It was great fun, complete with maracas and a drum and fireworks. Then we got all decked out for Gramps' party. We were the only table of young'uns there. Everyone else was at least 70 years old. They didn't play bingo or shuffleboard or have any festivities, so we entertained ourselves by making a Davey bird and a Davey pinata.
Then we had a Honky Tonk murder mystery. Dan, Dan the preacher man was the killer. What part of 'Thou shalt not kill' does he not understand?
Then we had the traditional countdown to midnight, and toasted with Martinellis, frolicked about the neighborhood in celebration, and made a ruckus. Then we got a brilliant idea. We got in the car and drove across the state line to Nevada. (They are an hour earlier in the time zone situation) So we could do it all over again. Here we are at the Casablanca casino in Mesquite. We got there just in time to see confetti fall from the ceiling and hear all the noisemakers, and then get kicked out of the casino about 3 minutes later because we had brought minors in with us. It was great fun.
Anyway, it's time to make my New Year's Resolutions. This year, I have big plans to:

1. Run a 1/2 marathon.
2. Learn to swim.
3. Take guitar lessons.
4. Get up on time in the morning to actually have a decent amount of time to study my scriptures.
5. Throw more parties.
6. Find a way to consistently use my Spanish.
7. Apply for graduate school.
8. Give away a Book of Mormon.

So, there you have it. I'm well on my way to becoming a better person in 2007. If you could all check up on me once in awhile to make sure I'm sticking with it, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and good night.

VACA 2006, Round 2

We had yet another successful round of VACA 2006. This time we became a little more well acquainted with the central most point of downtown SLC. Some of my favorite highlights were: oatmeal-flavored taffy, our personal belhop, gleaning good luck from the wedding tree, X20, the elevator situation, the missing recommend, hidden pathways, extra lemony lemonade, 'Are you alone?', and nudging.

I'm a superstar

So we had our ward Christmas party last weekend, and we had a white elephant gift exchange. I thought it would be hilarious to bring this T-shirt I got at work that says, 'I'm a scrapbooking superstar!' It was from our big Scrapbooker of the Year contest. Anyway, I was so hoping that someone with a sense of humor would get it....and seriously I couldn't have asked for a better recipient than Garrett. He opened it up, took one look at it, and exclaimed in delight...YESSSS! He then proceeded to put it on and wear it for the rest of the night. It was perfect.

This weekend, we went to the Texas Roadhouse for Scott and Laurie's birthdays. They have one of the best restaurant birthday celebrations I've ever witnessed. When we told our waiter that we had some birthdays, he wheeled out this giant horse saddle mounted on this wooden rolly thing, and made them sit in the saddle while the whole place gave them a big Yee-haw! It was fabulous.

P.S. I have officially dropped out of "the club". Those who need to know will understand what that means.

P.P.S. Today I received one of the best compliments ever that totally made my day. Someone called me an "elf at heart". I love it! She was talking about it in reference to this contest I'm running on my website at work where people tell us their Christmas "wishlist" of scrapbooking supplies. Then I pick a winner and grant them their wish. Fun! I love trying to make other people happy and doing festive little behind-the-scenes things, so if that makes me an elf, just give me some pointy little shoes and call me Trixy.

2006 in review

Here is my annual Christmas newsletter. 2006 has been quite an interesting year for me. A lot of cool stuff has happened, and I've had a lot of cool opportunities, but it has also been a tough one for me. I'm grateful for all the opportunities in my life--both the hard and sometimes not-so-enjoyable ones, as well as the happy and exciting ones. They all make me who I am, and help me to see who I can become.

Still have some work to do

Your Travel Profile:

You Are Extremely Well Traveled in New Zealand (100%) You Are Very Well Traveled in the Western United States (63%) You Are Well Traveled in the Southern United States (54%) You Are Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (43%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Australia (25%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Canada (20%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Latin America (13%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Southern Europe (13%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Western Europe (7%) You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%) You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%) You Are Untraveled in Eastern Europe (0%) You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Midwestern United States (0%) You Are Untraveled in the United Kingdom (0%)

How Well Traveled Are You?

This is no surprise, but I've still got a lot of work to do!

Tis the season

Here are some pictures of the annual singles ward outing to Temple Square. It's one of my very favorite holiday traditions. When I was in Argentina, everyone told me I had to go and enjoy it every single year since they would never be able to. I feel so blessed to live so close to church headquarters. It really does provide a lot of blessings that I take for granted. My friends in Argentina would give anything to come and experience Temple Square first-hand. It reminds me of when my friend Nicole from Hawaii came to Utah for the first time. I took her to Temple Square, and she took one step inside the gates, looked around in amazement, and the Spirit just hit her, and she said 'The church is true'.

Yes, it is and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.


This is one of the ornaments we made at work to decorate our office Christmas tree. Every year during the first week of December, we do the '5 Days of Christmas' at work, where we do festive and creative things like make ornaments and Christmas cards. (We gotta use up all the free paper they keep sending us! :)

Thief!

So yesterday I discovered that someone had broken into my dad's truck that I've been driving while my car was in the shop. They stole the stereo. The truck was just sitting in the parking lot of my apartment complex. Stupid thieves. So now not only did I have to pay $800 to fix my own car, I have to buy a new stereo for my dad's truck. At least it wasn't a very nice stereo.

Other than that incident, I am very happy in my new place. Loving it. That's all. Have a nice day.

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling...

Happy December everyone! I just love Christmastime. Even though I hate the freezing cold, it's one of my favorite times of year. I love all the fun traditions...some of my favorites are:

-Going and seeing the lights at Temple Square
-Getting and decorating a Christmas tree
-Ice skating at Gallivan Plaza
-Making gingerbread houses and Christmas cookies
-Curling up in a cozy blanket and watching some Christmas classics like It's a Wonderful Life
-Walking in the falling snow
-Playing Risk with my bros and sisters on Christmas Eve
-Going to Granny's on Christmas with all the cousins
-Dad's tortilla Christmas morning breakfast
-Going to Christmas concerts and listening to Christmas music
-Playing in the snow
-Sitting by the fire with a yummy cup of hot chocolate or herbal tea
-Finding the perfect gifts for all my loved ones
-Driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

Speaking of Christmas music, what are your favorite Christmas songs? I love them all, but some of my favs are:

-Sleigh Ride
-O Holy Night
-What Child Is This
-Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
-Away in a Manger
-Winter Wonderland