My turn on the Love Boat!

So as a young girl I watched "The Love Boat" every Saturday night. My mom would line my 2 sisters and I up in front of the tv to put pink sponge rollers in our hair that we would sleep in all night so that we would have curly pretty hair for Church on Sunday morning. So as a little girl with a weekly date with the Love Boat (I really wanted to be Julie McCoy) I could not help but dream about going on a cruise someday. When I got married I told Jake that a cruise was big on the dream list before our 10th anniversary. Well here it is the 10th anniversary of our engagement and I am going on a cruise. Yipee!
We leave a week from today. We are actually going with people from Jake's company and everyone's store that met its goals within the company is going. The best part ever is that my sister in law Valerie, and her husband (Jake's brother) Jed are going too. Val and I are good friends and our husbands have been known to be fun haters in the past, so when they are being poopy, we leave our husbands in their cabins with free room service and Val and I can go have fun. Plus my wonderful sister and mother in law are coming to take care of the boys so I know they will be happy and well taken care of while I am gone.
I seriously don't remember the last time I have been so excited! I must admit I have stayed up way too late, way too many nights, reading cruise reviews and happily planning with my sister in law about what we will do and what we will wear. I know that our rooms will probably be so small that we sleep on our suitcases and that I will probably gain 10lbs from the buffets and that I probably won't be able to actually kiss a dolphin but for right now I dream in ignorant bliss! So watch out Captain Stubing and Gopher and Doc- Here I come!

Bratty Beehive

So I was a bratty Beehive....and a bratty Mia Maid.... and pretty much a bratty Laurel too. In fact, at one point in my Young Womens career I even had a leader call me up and tell me that she was going to call the Bishop and ask for a release because of me. Didn't help matters much that the Bishop at that time was my dad.
I did have fantastic leaders in Young Womens and ones that I will always remember and love. So ever since I have been out of Young Womens, which I really think was just a few years ago but my current lack of coolness reminds me that it has indeed been 16 years?!?, anyways since then I have always thought that it would be really fun to work in the Young Womens program. Well it finally happened a moth ago and I was called as 1st Counselor for Young Women here in our ward in Puerto Rico. And of course out of years of waiting for this opportunity of course I would be called at the time in my life where it would be the most out of my comfort zone.
I am in a different culture and still struggling with the language. Especially teenage girls talk so fast that I swear that half the time I have no idea what they are saying and I know half of what I say makes no sense to them. Most of the girls come from broken homes and have some real issues that they are struggling with. Over the past month I have wondered if I could ever earn the girls trust or respect.
Well today I had my first celebratory breakthrough. I had 2 Laurels (ones that refuse to come to our weekly mutual) call me up today and ask me to help them make some chocolates for a school project. Looks like there may be hope for this bratty beehive after all....

Love this island!

On Saturday afternoon we went with some friends to the center of the island, near Adjuntas, up in the mountains to a forest area. We stopped at a little shack and had some awesome ribs, arroz con gandules, batata and lots of other good Puerto Rican food. Then we hiked through a beautiful forest. The boys also found some little caves that they were pretty excited about. Nearby we found a stream that emptied into a little swimming hole area with a little waterfall with big boulders for the boys to climb on. My little safety monitor Jett always surprises us at how adventurous he is and he climbed up the giant rocks and jumped off and also did the rope swing. Luke and Tommy just had fun throwing rocks in and a few at eachother.

Tommy doing dishes

So I am doing the dishes and Tommy wants to help so I pull up a step stool and give him a scrub brush and some bubbles. I left him for a minute to change the laundry and I come back to this...





I guess he decided to climb into the sink and finish the job. Not sure where this kid comes from.

My favorite thing about Mexico

Here are a few more of favorite things from our Mexico trip. First the market. This is a huge tourist trap where the Tzotzil Inidans come down and set up their tents with all of the textiles, jewelry, wood carvings etc that they have made and try to sell as much as they can. It is pretty amazing and you could spend hours going through all the tents and trying to decide what to buy and bargaining down to a good price. We also saw some beautiful waterfalls, one of which we even got to walk behind. Of course my favorite thing in all of Mexico is my parents. They love their mission and I can see how much their missionaries love them. They work so hard and go the extra mile everyday. I could not be more proud of them!

Naturally selected out of the Mayan gene pool

So how many of these indians actually died from step climbing related injuries? That's what I wanted to know as I climbed up these pyramids that were pretty much straight up and down. The steps were so narrow that I had to climb up sideways (granted I have big feet and some of you size 6's probably would have been fine!) My kids were up at the top in no time and once I reached the top it was a pretty awe inspiring. You can't help but sense the incredible amount of history and civilization that happened thousand of years ago. Coming down was the scary part!

Most spectacular thing I have ever seen?!?

Agua Azul. Even if you have never even eaten at Taco Bell you can probably translate this. But just in case, it is means blue water. On our last day of our trip to Mexico my parent took us to what I think is the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. The pictures don't even come close to how pretty this is and how blue the water is all the way down this river. I live in the Caribbean for crying out loud and I still have never seen water as pretty as this! Of course my four boys (3 sons and husband) had to jump in! To top it off we got to sit alongside and eat some of the best tacos I have ever had in my life. Incredible site- definitely took my breath away!