"We had a Ball"

When I said goodbye to my parents and sister last week my dad kept saying, "We had a ball." It really was a lot of fun. We spent just shy of two weeks together and it definitely was quality family time.

Get ready for a really long post with tons of little details (mainly for Asialene and Simon since they weren' t here for the visit) so if you have an hour or two enjoy the photos and stories of our family visit...

The lost luggage was sort of a fiasco (poor Em had to wash her clothing daily and soon referred to her outfit as her "uniform" since she wore it so many days in a row!), but all worked out in the end. I blamed Delta Airlines for losing the luggage in Atlanta, but when I heard my dad's side of the story my opinions changed. They flew from Salt Lake to stay in Atlanta for one night and then fly out to Grand Cayman the next day. Well, he said that since he's older now and the bags were heavy he left the bags in Atlanta and figured they would make their way to Grand Cayman somehow. With all of his "million miles on three airlines" talk you would think he would know that this was not a very good idea!

Thanks to our good friends Jeff and Kieren, my family stayed in a nice condo very close to where we live. The Wilson's were in Utah for the holidays and were kind enough to give of their home for a couple weeks.

After the weekend of Christmas while David went back to work, we developed sort of a daily routine without realizing it. It went a little something like this:

7:45 David dropped me off at their place on his way to work
7:55 I did the dishes from dinner the night before, made hot apple cider to drink
8:00 Drank my apple cider and watched Saved By the Bell
9:00-9:30 Everyone woke up, I'd make breakfast, we'd take our time getting ready for the day
11:00 I took a cat nap (I don't typically take naps, so this was funny that I kept falling asleep at the same time for several days in a row).
12:00 We would drive to my house, my mom would call Delta and be put on hold for a while to find out that the bags were still lost, my dad would go out to the pool to talk to anyone that he could find (he went crazy if he was cramped in our apartment too long without having some stranger to talk to).
2:00 Finally got started with the day- beach, shopping, etc.

Highlight: My dad and I took two walks just him and me. First was at the beach when they first got here. The sun was just about to set and we walked up and down Seven Mile Beach talking. He kept bringing up how he missed living in Florida in his younger years when he was in the Navy Band. I love hearing his stories.

We would go in town to shop on several of the afternoons. My mom, of course, took plenty of pictures. Em bought a bunch of Del Sol t-shirts for her home teachers, and my dad thrived off of the busy tourist environment. He LOVED being in town and LOVED talking to all the random strangers.

Highlight: My dad was actually a Del Sol employee for a day. He wanted to work with David the entire trip, but didn't end up actually doing it until day before they left. It was really cute how he worried about what to wear, what time to come, etc. Then it was even cuter when I asked how it went and he said, "It was Utopia."

Please note how gorgeous my mom is in the top right picture. She is turning sixty years old and doesn't even need to dye her hair. She has a few gray pieces, but that is about it.

I also love the picture of my dad reading my Pride and Prejudice. He was reading it for a while which was pretty funny considering I only see him reading the newspaper, CNN.com, forwarded emails (the dumb ones that tell you to forward to a million people or you'll have bad luck), and his almanac (for entertainment purposes. When he's watching one of his beloved black and white movies he always wants to find out the dates of birth/death of each actor).

Highlight: Going to Rum Point as a family. This is my favorite beach on the island. When you step out of your car you feel like you just stepped into paradise. The water is calm, a gorgeous blue color (and very clear), white sand and hammocks between all the palm trees. I also love the drive to and from Rum Point because the scenery is more of the actual island more East of where we live and work. We listened to the Beatles, ate snacks, stopped to take photos, and saw a huge iguana get run over by a truck (my dad felt so sorry for the little guy. He and Em are HUGE animal fans).

One day as we were walking in town my dad spotted a plastic bag with two shirts left on a bench. He turned it in to the nearest jewelry store, but made sure to give his name in case anyone did not come back for it. Sure enough, my dad was the lucky guy who got two shirts for free. One was a souvenir shirt from Hell (there is an actual town named Hell). When Emerald told him it wasn't very nice to wear a shirt with a bad word, he said that he was going to wear it to the car show. He goes to a classic car show every Saturday night. Many of you might have seen him at the local Sonic Drive Through for a milkshake after. Well, the people at the car show would be described as smokers, mullets, and cut off shorts. Those are the type of people that would love my dad's new shirt.

Highlight: Hanging out with Em. She and I still bicker sometimes as sisters tend to do, but being able to spend almost two weeks with her was very special. A rooster woke her up every single morning, which annoyed her at first. Emerald has sensitive hearing and can wake up with the tiniest sound. So, at first she was mad at the rooster. My PERFECT mother changed the situation when she said the rooster was serenading Emerald. Em then named him Henry and would say, "Good morning Henry, good night Henry," for the rest of the trip. Now that they are gone and when I see a rooster (wild chicken are everywhere) I think of Emerald and Henry. A hilarious side note: Henry took the weekends off. He did not cockledoodledoo on Saturdays or Sundays, but would start back up on Mondays.

Highlight: I loved spending time with my mom and dad also. My mom is really into the Heritage Maker/blurb/snapfish books right now. One of our wedding presents was a credit to make a book, so my mom and I finally finished it while she was here. She is so good at computers it amazes me! She also helped me tailor the missionaries' pants, played with my hair whenever we watched TV, and went along with everything and anything everyone else wanted to do. She's so easy to please!

My dad was so fun as well. He absolutely loved the island. He was so interested in our lives. He would constantly ask David about work, about the surfing, and me about the branch, about work, about piano lessons. He LOVED getting to know all of our friends and the branch. It must have been because of the holidays and everything, but we so many invitations for dinner parties, a bonfire, even a cocktail party hosted by the pageant committee (you all remember the pageant, right?0 and my dad enjoyed every second of it. He talked and talked and talked and everyone just loved him. He's even going to come back here in April all by himself. David will put him to work and I will feed him all my leftovers. One more thing I love about my family is that they will eat anything! They make me feel like I am a gourmet chef with all of their compliments on my meals. Plus, they will eat anything. All the food I would have wasted or that would have sat in my kitchen for months was enough to please them. I literally spent less money on groceries the weeks they were here than when it is just David and I!
I was so sad to say bye to everyone. It was a wonderful time and I still miss them!