Puerto Rican Paradise!

Wow, It's been a while since I last wrote! We just had spring break and my best friend Vicki and I headed out of Utah and hit up beautiful Puerto Rico for 8 days. (April 10th-18th) We went with Vicki's Brother, Scott and friend Leanne. We were able to stay with a friend of mine who lives in Puerto Rico (Jorge Hernandez). Jorge and I served in the same mission.

Puerto Rico was incredible!! Some of the trip highlights included the following:

*A sand dollar throwing competition on the beach. All was fun and games until my hand had a hit and run with Vicki's sand dollar.

*Going to "Las Justas" (The track/dance competition of all the universities). Puerto Ricans are certainly spirited. You would have thought we were at the world cup and not a cheer/dance competiton by the way they cheered and celebrated.

*Salsa dancing in Old San Juan. I danced with this 70 year old grandpa. It was great.
*El Murro

*Attending church in Spanish and singing all the beautiful hymns in Spanish.
*El Yunque rainforest.

*Collecting beautiful shells as well as finding a "Concha garden" full of beautiful concha shells.

*Kayaking in the bioluminescent bay at night on the Island of Viequez. It was incredible to see the plankton light up like that. It was like swimming in a magic glow stick!

*The Island of Culebra. We spend 2 days here. This was by far my favorite part. The island was amazing. Small unspoiled environment. White sand beaches, crystal clear turquoise warm water, beautiful reef and snorkeling, hiking, palm trees, etc. We practically had the whole island to ourselves. There was no one on the island. At almost every beach we went to, we were the only ones. Even the huge popular beach (flamenco) had only a handful of people on it. It was the perfect time to go. We snorkeled, drank pina coladas, hiked, explored, etc. I even saw a baracuda and picked up my first star fish. We hadn't planned on spending the night on this island, but once we got there we knew we couldn't leave, so we made friends with the life guard on the beach who helped us get a place to stay and a good deal on our rental car extension. We didn't have anything for sleeping over. It was a great adventure. We stayed at this cute little place called La
Hammaca. It was so great the whole thing.

*The boat trip to Monkey Island. We called up Captain Paco who for $40 took us out for the day on his tour boat to Monkey Island. It was such a blast. I got to drive the boat, that was exciting. The girls tried some fishing off the back of the boat. We became our own concha/maraca band and jammed to the music. It was a blast. Paco was so fun. We got out and snorkeled and collected TONS of starfish off of the ocean floor and put them in the boat and got pictures with them. We snorkeled over a ship wreck and that was pretty cool. There were tons of fishies. Then we parked the boat just off the shore of Monkey Island. There are 1,200 monkeys on the island. They use them for scientific studies. We saw HUNDREDS of monkeys. It was so cool. What a memorable, incredible experience.

*Pina Coladas. I learned to LOVE these. Everywhere we went we were asking for Virgin Pina Coladas. It turns out that Puerto Rico is the birth place of the Pina Colada. We drank 9 or 10 while in puerto Rico. As soon as we got back to Utah, we went to a latin market and bought the stuff to make our own at home.

*On the day we were to come home we missed our flight by 10 minutes. After a lot of drama and tears and a threat to have to pay a $568 penalty, we finally got a flight out later that day on a better airline with only 1 layover and it didn't cost us a penny.

The whole trip was incredible!! I'm sure I've said that like 3 times. I wish you could have all experienced it too!

"Miss Carrie, will you marry me?"

Today was back to the old grind after a long (yet far too short) weekend. But just when I thought I didn't want to be back at work, one of my students goes and does something to make me smile.

Today, seven year old Cameron (the knight in shining armor pictured on the right) came up to me at the end of math and said, "Miss Carrie, I want to ask you something." I leaned down and he whispered in my ear "Will you marry me?" Which was followed by a big smile and a sparkle in his big blue eyes.

I laughed and said "Cameron, I think you're a little young for me...maybe in 10 years." Then I said, "well, let's see, how old are you?" He stood up straight and said, "I'll be 8 this year" (His birthday is not for another 9 months ;-) I said, "Well, I guess 10 years is too soon. How about 20? If you still want to marry me in 20 years, Cameron, you're on."

He smiled as he bounced away and said, "Great, I'll start planning the wedding rehearsal"..."and the cake"..."and the ring." I asked what kind of ring he would get. He then responded "I don't know, I probably won't even marry you...you're too old for me."
The whole conversation made me laugh and I remembered why I love working with kids so much.

Weekend of Love

What do you get when you stick two crazy girls in a car to Las Vegas on Valentines Day? You get the Road trip of love, followed by the weekend of Love.

Vic and I drove down to Vegas for the long weekend. We officially termed it the road trip of love because of several reasons.

First, we both wore red and valentine's apparel. Second, we ONLY listened to love songs on the whole trip down. It was amazing. Third, we only were allowed to eat pink, red, white food. (And some brown for chocolate). Fourth, we brought with us some items of love including the following: One heart to heart conversation game. One magic "Date Ball," The book "Mars and Venus on a Date," and we placed gel hearts on Vicki's car windows. On the way down we stopped off to visit our friend Jason in St. George. It was fun. Great times.

I can't tell you how great it was to get away from the grey skies and snow of Provo. I have to remind myself that I chose to live there. Vegas has been sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60's.

We enjoyed our time shopping, eating, working out at 24-hour fitness with Vicki's sister, reading, running errands, and going to the stratosphere and Bellagio water show (my personal fav).

Last night after going out for Thai food with the Porters, we went down to the strip and rode the "Big Shot" on the stratosphere. It was nuts. I have never screamed harder on a ride before. They shoot you up in the air and when you look out all you can see are city lights below you. Talk about a rush.

Today has been such a relaxing Sunday...first one of those in a while. That pretty much sums up the weekend of Love. I hope yours was equally exciting.

Hinckley Challenge

http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/index.php?clear=true

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days to honor President Hinckley who lived 97 years. My room mate went and bought us two cheap copies and we have embarked on the adventure. This time I am looking for the theme found in 3 Nephi 27:27. Characteristics of the Savior. If we are to be like Him, we must really know Him.

This is so you can monitor my progress with me:

Life is Good!

We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet!

On Sunday January 27th "Our Prophet" passed on to the other side of the veil. He will be missed greatly. I will always remember "My Prophet" who has guided me through my adolescence and helped me to follow the Savior. I am profoundly grateful for his life and example.

At his passing, some of the members of the Quorum of the 12 said of President Hinckley: “We will miss his wit and his wisdom, his leadership and his love. However, we cannot but rejoice in his reunion with his beloved Marjorie, with his parents and other family members who have gone before, and with the prophets of God, both ancient and modern, among whose eternal ranks he now stands. As the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles we echo the voice of the Master, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant. … Enter into the joy of thy Lord.’ ” I second their statements.

This is a Video tribute to him. It contains some of my favorite memories of President Hinckley. His testimony of the savior given in his conference talk titled "My Testimony" and it also contains the video clip from the time I went to General conference in October 2006 and everyone stood in reverenced awe as we cried our way through the hymn "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet."

Winter Pleasures

Today was the best December first that I ever did have. Picture this: falling snow on a beautiful
winter day; a beautiful Christmas tree all lit up in the corner of the living room; a digital fireplace
crackling on the television; Christmas music painting the air with Christmas nostalgia; a
"coco-motion" brewing creamy hazelnut hot chocolate, pumpkin waffles, and a fantastic group of
dear friends. Does winter get any better than this? I attest that it cannot.

Just to continue the December dream day we went out with a group of friends and experienced
what we like to call "Snow-boating." It is when you tie a rope to the back of a car and sit on a sled
and go for a joy ride in snow filled parking lots. It was a blast. These are the moments life is made
of. I love simple pleasure Saturdays.