You Me Aruba 🌞

 To celebrate 23 years of knowing each other, we decided to fly to Aruba. Going to Aruba right before Christmas sounds like a brilliant idea until I had to figure out how to get everything done before we left. I had one little freak out around the beginning of December but then regrouped got everything done. It was amazing. 🌴 🌞

We took the red eye from Vegas to JFK and on to Aruba. One of the first things we saw on the island are these crazy green iguana-looking lizards.

We drove up to the northern side of the island for breakfast the next day.

We found the California lighthouse on the north end.

We climbed a steep, historic, spiral staircase to get to the top.

We went snorkeling that afternoon on a catamaran. We looked around a ship wreck from WW2. It was more interesting than the fish!

We found a little Christmas festival in a town called Savaneta.  We ate some authentic Aruban food from street vendors.

Our first night there, we had dinner at a restaurant and dessert came with a golden berry on top. It's also called a cape gooseberry. They were so yummy that we found a grocery store and bought more of them. Kind of like a blueberry texture but more tart, almost citrusy. 

We found nearest LDS branch and went to church on Sunday.  

Then we rented a motorcycle and headed toward the windward side of the island. It's very windy over there! The plants struggle. We found some caves and an old gold mining building. The waves were crashing really big on that side from the wind. 

Also some turbines on that side. Of course, beautiful sunsets.

Aruba is a Dutch colony and so there's a huge Dutch windmill and we went to go look at it.

The next day, Merril had signed up for a scuba excursion. After I dropped him off, I tried to decide what to do and found a butterfly habitat.  

There were lots of really pretty shells on the beach but you're not allowed to take the shells or the sand home so we just took pictures and then the long flight home through Chicago and into Las Vegas.

We got home at 3:30 a.m. I helped in Mark's class the next day at 10:30 a.m. Now just a few more days until Christmas! I'm really excited!

About Aruba: Aruba is humid but not tropical. The island's native side is covered with tall tube cactus and thorny desert looking bush/trees. The hotel side has lots of palm trees planted and lovely flowering bushes.

 There's an interesting assortment of cultures in Aruba. It has a lot of Dutch influence because it's a Dutch colony but it's so close to Venezuela that there's a lot of Spanish speakers. The native dialect there is Papiamento. Papiamento is a creole language that's a blend of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch. But everybody learns Dutch in grade school and then I guess everybody learns English because there's so much tourism in Aruba. The mission president's wife said all the kids learn English from YouTube. LOL. 

There's a lot of fish to eat but everything was deep-fried. Fish and all meals seem to come with a side of fries, or deep fried polenta, or deep fried plantains. Where are the veggies on this island? The water is treated at a desalination plant and so all of the water that comes out of the tap tastes like reverse osmosis. It was delicious and very pure. 

Aruba was a great little place to visit and now Merril and I have ticked South America off our continent list! Merril's ahead of me. He only has Antarctica to get! I still need Africa and Antarctica!

First Snow

 It actually snowed a little bit in December! Mikayla and Mark begged to stay home from school but there was not a lot of snow. I told them they could play in the snow for an hour and then I would drive them to school.

There was just enough to make a teeny, tiny Snowman. Lovely first taste of snow.

Santa and Jack

Jack went to Leighna's ward party and found Santa! I don't know if he delivers new dirt bikes.

 

Jack's Auto Competition

Jack has a auto shop class. His teacher announced there was a auto tech competition between the high schools and said Jack had a good chance of winning. Jack and Owen turned in a super fast time on the oil change and tire rotation. They missed a couple of things on the inspection. They took 3rd place!

The whole fam was there and it took a while so goofing off ensued. Mark and Mikayla played with this pole and some roly chairs. There's another competition in the Spring. Now that Jack knows how the competition works, he really thinks he can win in the Spring. 

 

A Tree for Me Please

I love real Christmas trees. I love finding them with my family. Off we go! We unnecessarily stopped at the BLM station in Fredonia. Now permits are purchased online. We still posed with Smokey the Bear.

Mark wanted to help chop down a tree!

We got one for us and one for Grandma Campbell.

After we decorated the tree, Aunt Rachel was in a craft fair and I bought this ornament from her. She said people were interested in a Christmas tree ornament on a Christmas tree. I was drawn right to it!

Thanksgiving 2022

Starting off Thanksgiving with exercise. I'm thankful that my body recovers and gets strong. I'm grateful that my family likes to be strong too.

We had Thanksgiving at Grandma Campbell's house. She and Grandpa are down in Tucson at Megan's house because she had a baby girl named Madeline! 

 Mom and baby are doing fine!

We spent time with Jared and Emily's family. Their girls made this huge charcuterie board!

We ate all the good things and played a few card games.

Maxine is down in Buena Park with Sister Jones for Thanksgiving. Right by Knott's Berry Farm. 

 

Baja 1000

I've repeatedly asked when is the Baja 1000.  Merril has informed me that the Baja 1000 will be the weekend before Thanksgiving for the rest of his life. Never plan on him. This year instead of just watching, he wanted to race it. A bunch of friends jumped on the plan. They've been prepping for a month, maybe longer.  And now it's time to gooooo!

Two teams of riders were participating. Ryan, Dillan, Wade, Merril, Shawn, and Darryl. 

Sponsored by Lovesac, of course.

They were having a good time taking beauty shots on the beach.

And all the other dumb stuff that goes on when you group a bunch of friends together.

 They started the race with Merril and Shawn on leg one. They got to the checkpoint and switched riders. Wade and Darryl took off on the second leg. After a technical bit turned into a sandy wash, Wade was going very fast and hit a rock. He ended up dislocating and breaking his hip a little bit. He was airlifted out. He was taken to a clinic in San Felipe. Merril dropped out of the race to make sure he was being taken care of. They ended up driving him in an ambulance to Mexicali because they couldn't put his hip back in at the clinic. They reset his hip in Mexicali but decided not to do surgery. They life flighted him back to St George Regional Medical Center for surgery. 

Wade's going to be okay but it's going to be a long road of healing and recovery. This took two days. By the time Merril saw him off, the race was almost over. Merril drove back to Ensenada to the finish. The two teams finished! Merril is a little sad that he didn't get to race more of it but knows it was important to help Wade. He's jonesing to ride solo next year.

Merril was able to hitch a ride home on a plane. He got home quick to see me. 😍

 

Tigers Got Talent

Juliet made it through the preliminaries for Tigers Got Talent and moved onto the finals! She played Dumb Song by John Schmidt. 

Juliet won the judge's choice in her category! Her friend, Nathan, sang with a quintet and won the people's choice.

Juliet was super excited! She received a gift certificate to Classic Sports, Pick Me Up, Coral Cliffs Cinema, some candy and some soda and a $50 check!

She was so cute and really hammed up her performance. She sat on the piano keys at the end. She did so great! 

 

How is my Daughter 20!

Maxine turned 20 today! I can't believe it's been 20 years since I became a Mom. Juliet asked if it made me feel old and I can honestly say no. It hasn't felt like 20 years. It's felt shorter than that. We talked today and she was going to eat sushi for lunch and a member was going to make birthday cheesecake for them to go with dinner. I love that people are taking care of my girl when I can't!

Sema and Joshua Tree

Merril went to the SEMA Show in Las Vegas and also needed to set up a radio repeater by Joshua Tree National Park and decided to take Mark and Mikayla. 

Trips with Dad involve a lot of driving in the truck. When they get out, things can get a little silly.

They found sculptures.

They found a rock called skull rock.

They found a pond with some ducks and fed them Fritos.

Mark said he climbed all the way up a mountain and it was hot to help Dad set up a radio repeater. Mark said there was a coat up there and he did parkour. Mark and Mikayla had a great time. 

My pals!

I love to get together with these ladies! Friends who lift me up and are fabulous examples to me. People who help me build my testimony in Jesus Christ. Love Val, Sara and Laurie.