Reminiscing Cancun

Almost two years ago, three of us decided to live a little and go on a trip to Cancun, Mexico. Since I didn't go anywhere this week and have no pictures, I thought it would be fun to look back on our great trip in August 2007. I went with my wonderful sister, T'liese, and our awesome friend, Cassie. We had a great time, spending a week on the beach and soaking up the sun. It is a rough life, but we managed well. I also spent my birthday there, and it was one of the best I've had!

Ironically, one of our favorite topics on the trip was the marriage discussion...who, where, when. We all wondered when it would happen to us! Now we are all happily married!

Brother's College Graduation

My brother graduated from ASU this week with a Bachelor's in Finance from the W.P. Carey School of Business. We are quite proud of him! My parents came in from Nephi and my sister and her son flew in from Salt Lake City. We met at T'liese's house on Wednesday night after everyone was finally here. She made us a delicious dinner of Chicken Tikki Misala, my favorite Indian food. Homemade naan bread? Yes, please! I hadn't seen some of these people since my wedding over six months ago, so it was nice to catch up. We opened Mother's Day presents for my mom (we all chipped in for some shopping money for her to get some new outfits while in town), and Father's Day presents (we bought Merrill a handheld GPS so he doesn't get lost in Nephi ever again!).

Thursday morning, we met at Tempe Marketplace to shop with my mom. She had lots of critics and supporters, and we were able to find her three beautiful new shirts and a pair of jeans. Now she is probably the hottest mom in the state! Graduation started at 1:30 PM, but we were there early so Jeff could line up with the other graduates. Thanks to his wife's family, we got VIP parking twenty feet from the stadium and pretty good seats for the event! It was too far for quality pictures when he crossed the stage. After graduation, people headed home to change clothes, then went to Megan's parent's house for homemade Mexican food provided by Jeff and Megan. John and I swung by to pick up Don on our way to the mansion. The kids swam while the adults ate and talked...mostly ate.

Friday, we met at Jeff's house so the kids could swim. I dropped Charloe and Corban off at the airport Friday afternoon, regretfully. We didn't want to see them go! After a day in the sun, we headed to southern Phoenix to a restaurant called Pan Asia for some sushi. I had a yummy shrimp tempura roll that I am craving again already! John had a Chinese chicken dish. It was my parent's first time trying sushi, and I would call it a success. There certainly is little opportunity for quality sushi in Nephi! Then most of us went to T'liese and Joe's house to chat for the rest of the evening. We've been looking forward to this visit for so long, and it's always tough to finally see it come to an end. My parents and brothers, Parker and Kip, hit the road back to Utah on Saturday morning.

It was a fun week with everyone in town! Congrats to Jeffy for finally getting through!

8 Cities, 5 States, 1 Day

It was a busy work week for sure! I got to see some cities I hadn't visited before, and we even had a killer day that started at 8:00 AM Eastern and ended after 1:30 AM the next morning! I get my money's worth every once in a while!

We left Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on Monday after their workday was complete at the office and flew to Milwaukee. Luckily, we could make it non-stop even with four passengers. Early the next morning, we flew to Boston and ended that evening in Teterboro. KTEB is the business airport that all the private airplanes fly into for New York City. Although we ended up having most of the day off, we weren't sure when we were leaving. So we camped out at the airport all day, just in case Joe called to leave. Sometimes he gives us an hour notice, but mostly it is about ten minutes. Keeps me on my toes. Wednesday evening we flew to Pittsburgh, my first time there!

Killer Day began early. We flew from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Baltimore, Maryland to Richmond, Virginia to Blacksburg, Virginia to Danville, Virginia back to Richmond, Virginia to Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina to Opa Locka, Florida. It was actually a very fun day, but it was long. I was so tired when I finally crawled into bed at 2:00 AM! Good job security!

We ate Cuban food for lunch before heading to the airport on Friday afternoon. Opa Locka is in south Miami and was new to me. We usually fly into Ft. Lauderdale on the north side of Miami. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to explore because, again, we didn't know what time we were leaving and had to be ready. We lucked out and left at 3:00 PM for home! After a stop in Waco, Texas for fuel, we landed at 6:00 PM in Phoenix.

It was a fun week at work, but for some reason particularly tough to be away from John. I missed him constantly, and no doubt that made the week seem longer than it usually is. It was nice to finally get a hug from him. I have this next week at home for vacation since my little brother, Jeff, is graduating from ASU. Most of the family will be in town, and I don't want to miss out on that!