The next day was FLORIDA!!! Woo-Hoo! So, people kept asking me how the whole Florida trip came about and so...let me start at the beginning. Last October after our ward Halloween party, we were all hanging out at our house. Me, Yulissa and Carmen. The idea of going to Florida was brought up to visit Ludi, our old Relief Society President who just retired to Florida with her husband, Cliff. Carmen's husband, Jared, and Ben were both there, and they both TOTALLY agreed to it. I don't think that they thought that it was going to really happen, so they were all about it. Well, the next week Ben went to Phoenix for work, and Carmen called me and said that she found good tickets and asked if she should get them. And I said YES!! I called Ben later that day and told him the tickets were bought and he, of course, thought he could have found a better deal, but he had to deal with it! :) ha ha. He had already said yes! As the months went by, I didn't think about it much and it didn't really seem real. Then it was here and it happened and it was so amazing! So...we headed out and of course, had to take a photo pre flight. I was feeling pretty embarrassed the week before, telling people that I was going to Florida. Like who gets to go to Florida for an extended weekend with no kids and just girl friends, ya know. I knew that it was good for me and it was a break I needed, but I felt guilty leaving, and especially because I pawned off my kids to a lot of my friends to get through Thursday, Friday and Monday. But it all worked out and my kids were well taken care of by my wonderful friends and husband and I got to go enjoy a weekend free of whining and pestering! :) It was heavenly!
These two ladies are the best! We had such a great time. Starting off with the flight. Well, this flight was wonderful up until the last 30 minutes or so landing in Denver. Denver, I tell you is cursed! I can not stand that airport or now the air above the airport. It was the worst turbulence any of us have ever been in. It was literally like a roller coaster. And the motion gave me a huge headache and we were all feeling sick and gross for the rest of the flight. But here we are, pre- nausea...
Anyway, we finally made it to Orlando at about midnight. And we were kind of punch drunk at that point and saw this guy sleeping in a box and we just couldn't figure it out! THEN we realized that he was fake and couldn't wrap our heads around it! :) ha ha
And FINALLY we were with Ludi! :) It was so much fun to see her finally. I forgot how fun she was and sweet and warm and loving! I just love all of these ladies so much!
Ludi's sweet note on her board...
That first night we stayed up until 4 am chatting!!!! It was so much fun! We were so hungry when we got into Orlando because we hadn't eaten in Denver because we all felt sick, so by the time we landed in Orlando we were starving and made Cliff take us to Taco bell at midnight. Little did we know that by the time we got to their house, an hour and a half away, she already had an entire meal ready for us, so of course, like most hispanic women, made us eat again! :) She played the piano for us, and we chatted and laughed and ate most of the night! And, being with 4 hispanic women, we had lots and lots of delicious food!
The trip was a good mix of relaxing time hanging out at their house and chilling and getting out and seeing fun things. The first day we slept in and stayed close and went to the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge and went on a little boat tour. It was nice and short and close and free! :)
An alligator just chilling at the beginning of the tour:
It was really pretty and swampy and we just floated through the everglades...
We were still all pretty exhausted and so just went back to the house and hung out a bit. Cliff made us a delicious steak dinner and we GORGED ourselves. But it was just such a wonderful evening. Perfect weather and great conversation. It was wonderful. Ludi's sister, Judith was visiting them for a few months and so we got to know her and hang out with her, too!
We went to bed early that night so that we could play hard the next day.
The next day we headed over to Daytona beach. Ludi packed hats for all of us, so we had to humor her and wear them for a photo! :) I love that woman! It wasn't the sit on the beach and bask in the sun type of weather. I didn't think that Florida ever DIDN'T have that weather (if that even makes sense). It was a little windy and still a comfortable 75 degrees. But the water was FREAKING cold! We had a delicious picnic lunch on the beach while Carmen and I tried to get a little sun. The others huddled under the umbrella's to stay in the shade. We were making fun of Yulissa for being a grandma.
Our beautiful umbrella model:
My very first time in the Atlantic Ocean! Woo-Hoo!!!
Carmen and I sent a few pics to Jared and Ben together, and Ben had sent back a text asking where our topless pics were, and so we sent him back this one of Cliff being topless. It was pretty funny! It ended up being an inside joke all weekend.
So while I was playing on the beach, this was the picture that Ben sent back to me showing how his weekend was going. ha ha. Can't say that I was missing this. The kids yes, the whining and attitudes, NO! :)
Since it wasn't the greatest beachy weather, we decided to head north to St. Augustine. The oldest city in the US. On our way, we stopped and Cliff and Ludi bought us blizzards (they really treated us like their daughters all weekend) We also realized it was the year anniversary to the day of Yulissa's divorce being finalized. HALLELUJAH! We had to cheers to that and snap a pic. I am so glad that she isn't with that beast of a man anymore!
I thought St. Augustine was pretty cool. There is this old Castillo there from the Spain conquistadors. We brought along my selfie stick, and apparently I need some major help in using the thing. All of our pictures turned out like this: ha ha
Then we walked around cute downtown St. Augustine. It was so quaint and charming. I loved it. It was like the weather of a perfect summer evening here in Spokane and we just enjoyed window shopping and spending time together.
We passed this pizza place that claimed to be the 2nd best Pizza in the US according to some CNN report. We HAD to stop and try it and I'm so glad we did. Carmen was the driving force behind stopping, and we were unsure weather it was going to be worth the wait or not, but it TOTALLY was. It was seriously the best pizza I've ever had! We had to rub it our husbands faces that we were eating delicious pizza.
Apparently this is a bad word or saying that I was totally clueless about. They just stopped and had me take their picture. Ben had asked me before I left if I was going to feel left out because Ludi doesn't speak English very well at all, and I told him no, that I'd be fine with the Spanish that I know. But he was right. I didn't feel left out, but there were definitely more moments that I thought where I had to stop the conversation and make sure I was understanding everything! :)
Since it was an hour and a half to two hours back to their house that night, we decided to stay in and relax the next day since it was Sunday. Ludi, Carmen, Cliff and I went to a flea market the next day. Poor Yulissa, I didn't realize her migraines were so bad, but she was struggling with them all weekend, which I guess is a pretty common occurrence for her. I LOVE flea markets. I love trinkets and cheap jewelry. And boy did I find some. I came home with some treasures.
That afternoon, Cliff made us yet another delicious dinner. Shrimp fettuccine something or other. It was divine! We chatted and had a wonderful afternoon together. Ludi and Cliff have some friends who are looking to retire in Florida, in their community. So Cliff has been looking at houses for them. He really is the nicest guy! Anyway, we all wanted to go on the house tour, and so we all did. It was so fun! We just toured their neighborhood looking for houses, and looked at this one house on the inside. Cliff introduced us as his daughters. He never had any kids of his own, but he is the sweetest old man, we all just fell in love with him!
Yulissa, for some reason packed like 50 coats to go to FLORIDA!!! We were all laughing at her. I mean, I thought I was an over packer, I am an over packer, she is a great packer, with everything else, she was spot on and totally conservative, but then had like 50 coats! :) Also, those were the sweet bunk beds we stayed in while there. It was so much fun. Carmen had a single twin and Yulissa and I on the other wall in the bunkbed. I got the top because I am not a pee-er in the middle of the night. Apparently both of them are, so they had to have easy access to the bathroom. It was so much fun all being together and staying up late every night talking and laughing. We all shared so many stories from our lives and just loved it! It made me feel like being in college again! :)
That night we went on a walk at sunset and it was so fun! We just chatted and it was beautiful weather out and we were in great company, Judith came with us. She is Jehovah's Witness so we didn't know how she would be with just us. But we were able to talk about everything; religion, jobs, families, Carmen told us how her family came to the US (illegally) but then became citizens. Yulissa shared with us her psychic story from when she was in the DR last summer. It is CRAZY! This man knew so much about her life and what she was going through. He saw a man in her future, so we're on the look out for someone who makes her feet tingle! :) I told them the story of my mom calling one when I was in HS and he said that I would marry someone who would go bald at a young age, and at the time I thought it was going to be my boyfriend, Tim Burningham! :) ha ha
It was the perfect Sunday evening walk. I am so blessed by these women my life!
That night I got another text from Ben about how his Sunday went. HA HA This is what he had to deal with at church....sucka.....
The difference between my weekend and Ben's weekend:
The next day, Monday was our last full day in Florida. We weren't planning on doing anything Disney related because we didn't have a lot of time and you have to have a lot of time to tackle Disney World. But Yulissa really wanted to go, so we decided to do Downtown Disney, which was fun. It's just outside the entrance, and just has shopping and eating. But still everything Disney. We did a little boat ride tour.
And, of course, got sucked into doing all the touristy things...
I just love Cliff and Ludi:
I took these for Tucker. Amazing Lego sculptures.
Downtown Disney was where we were sitting when we heard the news of the death of Ludi's nephew in Colombia. We knew it was going to be any day and we almost felt bad for being there with what was happening with her nephew. But she told us that it was a great blessing that we were there to keep her distracted and then have love and support after he had passed. She had gone to visit him a few weeks earlier, so at least she was able to say good bye. :(
After downtown Disney, we went to this great little Latin American place that Carmen found. Luckily we had Carmen, she was like our tour guide. It was SOOOOO good. Everyone was able to have great food from their country. Ludi had Colombian food, Yulissa had Dominican food, and Carmen and I actually shared a few different things. Both of our favorite was the Cachapa. It was SO good. I definitely need to learn how to make them! They are from Venezuela.
Our real reason for going to Orlando on Monday was to hit the outlet malls. Victoria Secret, North Face, Ann Taylor, Express...lots of goodies. I went a little crazy. This dude tried his hardest to sell Yulissa a hair straightener. He was a little bitter when she told him that she wouldn't buy one that he quit half way through her hair! :) ha ha. She had half straight half curly hair for the rest of the day. I may have gone a little crazy shopping at the outlets. I had been so good with my money up until this point. But the shopping was just so great! :) ha ha. The issue was getting it all home! :) I had to borrow space in Yulissa and Carmen's bags. :)
Two more photos I got from Ben on Monday:
He bought a new TV table for the basement while I was gone and they had roasted Marshmallows on Monday night. I was starting to miss those little turds! :) ha ha
It was seriously the best weekend with the best friends. So much fun laughing, eating, making new friends and sharing our lives together. I'm go lucky to have forever friends like these ladies. From Yulissa's 50 coats to Carmen always 'having an oil for that' to them always having to translate for the whitey (me) in the group. From Cliff and Ludi living on De-Puti street and Ludi needing 'Bo-ne-les' chicken and Cliff's call from Un-kon to being Cliff and Ludi's daughters on home tours. From our Sunday walk sharing our psychic stories to the roller coaster of an air plane ride that will forever give me anxiety over turbulence, we shared so many fun times and memories. So many delicious meals and late night chats (even the one about Yulissa's rich future husband) :) From celebrating the year anniversary of Yulisa's divorce to being there for Ludi during the loss of a loved one. To Ludi yelling at Siri to find us a place to eat and watching them be so in love and sing love songs to each other. The trip was the best!
I had ordered myself a new swimsuit before we left in hopes of being able to lounge by their pool. I was so bummed when it didn't come before we left, but of course, it came while we were gone. I didn't end up needing it anyway, since we didn't get to lounge by their pool. (they hadn't turned on the heater) and the ocean was so cold. But I had to send them a pic when I got home and it was there for me. I'm still up in the air on weather I like it. I guess that's the risk when you order a suit online.
I had gotten this one in Florida at VS. Can't tell which one I like better. Good thing I have some time to figure it out!
I also came home to this. A note from Taylor's primary teacher. I was so proud! :) :)
Back to reality it is with a little more patience than I had before thanks to my little get away. I have the best hubby ever for supporting me in things like this and holding down the fort. The kids were, of course, in heaven with him since he is clearly the favorite between the two of us!
