Christmas Visitors

After my trip to California (see previous post), we had a few visitors come to stay with us :) Jerry and Bev flew in on Thursday evening, and we were able to enjoy the holidays together. On Friday, Kevin and Jerry went to play golf at the Biltmore Hotel, which I believe is the oldest golf course in Florida (built in 1925). Bev and I ran a few last-minute errands to get ready for the weekend festivities.

That afternoon, we headed towards the beach for a nice dinner and harbor cruise. We ended up eating at Chophouse Miami, and it did not disappoint. We all ordered churrasco steaks with chimichurri sauce.

After stuffing our faces, we headed to Bayside to catch the harbor cruise. It was a little chilly, so we opted for the ship that had the option of indoor seating. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed the views of Star Island and the "exclusive" Fisher Island (that had ferries going back and forth every 20 minutes, hahaha). The homes were beautiful, but it made me realize how ridiculous some people are, like the guy who planted $10k palm trees from Africa around his entire property. What a waste of money!!

Christmas day we had the missionaries for breakfast, which included belgian waffles with "dip" eggs on top, bacon, and orange juice. One of the Elders was able to skype with his family, and then it was time for our call with Elder Clark :) I was really excited to talk with my little brother, and we had a great conversation. The time went by much too quickly, but he will be home before we know it. After our chat with him, we opened a few presents and headed up to the new house to look at the progress. We hit the movies while we were up there, and saw "The Tourist". I enjoyed it, but the boys thought it was too predictable.
The missionaries came back for Christmas dinner after we found out that their dinner appointment had fallen through :( We decided to go for a Mexican-inspired meal, featuring lime-cilantro chicken and black-bean salsa as an appetizer. Although it wasn't really the traditional Christmas dinner, I figured we needed a change since we were eating steak the day before, and the day after Christmas as per Kevin's b-day request. It was really nice to have the missionaries over and it made me really think about my brother.
After the Elders left, Kevin and I had to buckle down and finish our talks that we were giving on Sunday. We stayed up till almost 2 in the morning, then woke up at 7 to get ready for church. Right as church was about to start, we lost all electricity and Kevin turned to me with a huge smile and says, "Happy Birthday to me". Hahaha. He thought he was going to get out of speaking, but that was not the case. After about a minute, the power went back on, but would go off again every 10 minutes. When the power went off as I was speaking, the Bishop handed me a flashlight, and I attempted to carry on as if nothing had happened. Let me tell you how weird it is to give a talk in complete darkness. I did tell the audience that I felt like I was telling campfire stories!! It was very interesting, but turned out alright in the end.

I then headed to Young Women's for my last meeting! I was released last week from my calling, and although I knew it was coming since we are moving soon, I was still super sad to say goodbye to my girls. I made them a little handout with a note attached (which Bev helped me put together), but I totally lost it when the YW president asked me to share my testimony with the girls. The good news is that I know I will see them around because we are going to be in the same Stake when we move, and I was called to be in the Stake YW presidency :) So, I am looking forward to those adventures.
We really had a nice visit and it was fun to have company for Christmas. Thanks for a great trip :)

Going Home

Due to Kevin's crazy work schedule around the holidays, and the fact that he is unable to take any time off, I headed to California by myself for 6 days. And what a lovely time I had :) Of course, I wish Kevin could have been with me, but I really enjoyed the time with my parents and sister Kimberly. I flew in super late Thursday night and was greeted by my Dad. We enjoyed chatting on our car-ride home, and our talk somehow turned into us quizzing each other on the Articles of Faith, haha. (Note: this is not completely random. I was talking to him about the talk I had to give the following Sunday on the new mutual theme-which is based on the 13th A of F.)

Friday morning, Kimberly and I headed down to my mom's school to help with her class party and see my mom in action. Everyone wore their pajamas and they were having a ball. Kimberly was in charge of holiday bingo and I was in charge of helping the kids make greeting cards. The kids were adorable. But not as adorable as my mom doing the 12 days of Christmas song. Here is a little snippet for your viewing pleasure :)

That evening, we headed to the ward Christmas party, which turned out really nice. It is always nice to see familiar faces and to catch up with some of the people that I admire and respect so much. Saturday, we ran a few errands, went to lunch at my favorite place, and headed home to make a yummy dinner of tomato bisque and panini sandwiches. Unfortunately, I started feeling sick as we were preparing the food. Long story short, I think I had the flu for a day and a half, and I was REALLY sick. Luckily, my parents took such great care of me while I was ill. It takes a mother's love to stand by me and just wipe by face in between bouts of throwing up. Not my favorite day and a half, but I was grateful for how my parents cared for me. I was thankful that my Dad was willing and able to give me a blessing that night when I was feeling like death.

The last few days of the trip were spent doing holiday things, like making salsa for the neighbors, stuffing and mailing Christmas cards, puzzle-doing, shopping, eating, talking, laughing, and crying together. I love my family a whole lot and look forward to the next time I get to see them. Unfortunately, I took about 0 pictures from the weekend because we were either too busy, or one of us was sick. (Note: After I got over the flu, Kimberly came down with something for almost 3 days.) I did, however, take a picture of the fam when they got home from Church, which I unfortunately had to miss due to my sickness!

Key Largo Half Marathon

This is almost 2 months late, but I figured I would blog about my first half-marathon. My friend Daleth and I had been training for almost 6 months, and we ran the Jewish Fish Bridge Run in Key Largo back in November. Our goal was to complete the whole race without stopping, and we accomplished our goal (with one pit-stop to use the lovely porta-potty along the trail). It was a beautiful trail over the bridge and up Highway 1. It was amazing to have the ocean on both sides of us as we ran, and I only felt slightly worried when I saw a sign that read, "Crocodile Crossing-Next 2 miles." Daleth commented that hopefully the crocodiles would eat the people in front of us first, haha.

I had told myself that I didn't care about the time we got as long as we ran the whole thing, but when people with white hair passed me, I felt a little ashamed. I still was happy to accomplish my goal, and we ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 48 minutes, which is roughly a 12.8 minute mile. Needless to say, we didn't win for our division, but it was a lot of fun to participate in something like this. People told me I would get addicted to running, which I don't think is the case, although I did enjoy the exercise and friendship I developed.

The picture is from when we picked up our race packets, and I still need to get the rest of the pictures from Daleth!! I am sure there are some nice sweaty pictures of us at the finish line :)