Tuesday I went to work and got off around 5 pm, hopped into my silver Honda Civic and drove the 4 (but I made it there in 3 hrs. 15 min. and I wasn't speeding) ride to the Orlando Airport... I got to the airport about 30 minutes early for his 10 pm flight and I got rained on, so I went into the bathroom and redid my hair and talked to Laurel on the phone while I waited... Then he got here! I was soo excited to finally see him after over a year! We got back into my car and I drove him over to Knevil and Nigel's house (two of Devon's converts)... they were sooo hospitable to us! We didn't get there until around 11 pm and they went out and got us pizza and were practically shoving soda down our throats... They are from a country in Africa... I can't remember which one though :( I left their house around 2 am to go stay at my brother Tommy's house about 20 min. away... He is awesome... He gave me a tour of his new home and we talked for a bit then I crashed...
Day 1: This was the Orlando day... I went a picked Devon up for a tour of the Orlando/Kissimmee area... it was probably our busiest day... Fist thing in the morning we went to visit Chris, who was different but awesome in his own right... He lives along an old grown-ver gold course and he has taken over a hole or two and turned them into "The Sanctuary." His goal is to become a professional golfer and until then, he studies his scriptures, takes care of the Sanctuary, and practices his golf... I hope that one day he can achieve that dream... after hitting some balls around with Chris, we headed over to Ann-Marie and Shannon's (her son) house in Kissimmee... Ann-Maire moved to the US when she was 15 from Haiti... She is one of the most amazing people I've ever met! She was so warm and welcoming and she made awesome Haitian food for Devon and I! They coned me into playing the piano for them, and she Shannon played some pieces that he wrote himself... they were really great... he is so talented! Once we left their house, we went and visited the Mission President and his wife... I want to be like President's wife... she is very friendly and talkative and knows how to present herself in such a kind and caring manor you just can't help but feel comfortable! It was kinda awkward being there though, just because RM's usually don't bring girls over to the President's house unless they are serious, and Devon and I are far from that! but overall I really enjoyed meeting them... Once we were done there we headed off to Downtown Disney! We just walked around and looked at the shops and even rode the ferries that Disney provides for those who are lazy (like us!) to walk back to the other side of the area... My favorite part was the Lego store... I'm an ubber nerd for sure, but I just love Legos! After Downtown Disney, we went to The Herndandez's home... I've never see Latin red-heads, but I got my fair share, and they are one of the coolest families ever... Sister Hernandez captivated me not only with her spaghetti, but also with her novel she is writing... I seriously think I was drooling with my mouth gapped open and she was telling me about it... I CAN NOT WAIT till it is published... we spent some time with them, watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from their yard and then headed back off to Knevil and Nigel's house to watch Taken... after that I went back to Tommy's to crash... I was EXHAUSTED!
Day 2: Woke up... went to pick up Devon.... Drove to Daytona beach! I was sooo excited about going to the beach because I hadn't been much this summer since I've been working a lot... I mad us drive with all the windows down and the sun roof open (I think Devon got a little burnt on one arm because of the sun shining in through the sun roof).... I just loved being at the beach! We stopped at Wal*Mart on the way there and got some snacks and a frisbee and hit the beach... I immediately ran out for the water... something about it just drags me in... We threw the frisbee around and I'm pretty sure I was horrible and Devon probably thought to himself ,"Why even try to throw it to her?!" but hey I enjoyed it... then we went out into the water, but I remembered my fear in the Atlantic of murky water and not being able to see what you're swimming with when you go aways out, so we decided to take a run on the beach and went down to the rocks along the Ponce Inlet... We decided that we were too cool for staying on the board walk, so we ventured way out onto the rocks and sat out there and even got to see a school of dolphins swimming... it was gorgeous... Then we headed over to The Koffee Kup restaurant to have lunch with the Daytona Elders and Grandpa... I'm pretty sure Grandpa has a past in the mafia, but that's just between us! He was hilarious though! I'm trying to convince him to take me to Europe... who knows! After lunch it started to pour, so we booked it over to Bernadette and her hubby's house and talked with them for a while... They have such an energetic son! He made me smile! Once we left there, it was off to Leesburg! We showered off at my parents house and then decided to go dancing with the older folk of the Villages... too bad we got there at 9:30 pm on a Thursday night... the dancing stops at 9... so we drove alll the way back to Leesburg and went to go see the G.I. Joe movie (which I personally thought was awesome!) then I drove all the way to South Leesburg (I hadn't been out that way in over a year or two) to drop Devon off at the Aldriches... 
Day 3: We went and played pickleball and Tennis out at the Plantation with the Aldriches... I totally forgot about the most frustrating thing in Central Florida... the retirees... I didn't bring any tennis shoes with me on the trip, so I was on the court in my flip flops and an old lady had a fit, so we had to get off until she left... Ahhhh the joys of living in the number one retirement destination in the world! After some racquetball sports, Devon and I went to visit the Wilson family who were very welcoming like always... they made us sandwiches and gave us chips and such for our, whit I thought would be long, trip to Tampa... It really only took us an hour and 15 minutes from the Villages exit off I75... pretty amazing huh?! If anyone thinks we were speeding we totally weren't and Devon was the one driving... In Tampa (technically Brandon) we got to hang out with Devon's sister Aubrey and her two AWESOME! kids, Madison and Hyrum... Madi is just sooo fun loving and quickly became a god friend of mine, especially after making me a pretty sweet necklace! Hyrum is just so quiet and sweet and his cute little eyes just make you melt! I loved playing with them and running around the house... Madi even let me paint her nails to match mine! It was so sweet! We made homemade pizza and watched a bugs life with the Coopers, and I even got drilled by Aubrey's hubby, Corey... I had to think of his name... we just called him Coop :) After the movie I was exhausted so I knew I should hit the road... It was really sad seeing Devon leave and really sad saying by to the Coops because they are just the best... but I had a blast on this trip and despite all the driving, it was totally worth it because of the precious souls I got to meet... I'm grateful that Devon was willing to share those people with me because I learned something from each of them and it was a great testimony of how each of us is a child of our Heavenly Father and that each of us, no matter how different, have a purpose on this earth... Thanks Devon for sharing that week with me... it was awesome!!
The song goes: All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all. Each little flow’r that opens,Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings. The purple-headed mountain, The river running by, The sunset and the morning That brighten up the sky. The cold wind in the winter, The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden, He made them ev’ry one. The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows where we play, The rushes by the water We gather ev’ry day.
A few weeks back I was sitting in my cubicle at work on a hum-drum Wednesday when my friend SAM! (yes you ahve to put her names in caps with an "!" because when I say it I can't help but say it with total excitement... if you knew her you would too) called me up and wanted to know what I was doing that night and the next day... I told her that I had to work, but I wanted to know why? She informed me that our friend Andrew and her were driving to see our other friend Blake who had gone back home to Navarre (right outside of Pensacola) for the two weeks between summer and fall semesters... I told her that if we could be back in Tallahassee by 7:30 am on Friday, then I could take Thrusday off and move those hours to Friday... Then it was decided... we were headed to see Blake, and we were leaving at 9:30 that night! Mind you, and I didn't realize this until the trip began, that Navarre is a good 2 1/2 - 3 hours away :) ...
We got on the road around 9:50 that night, landing in Navarre around 12 am Central Time... Blake's mom was up and cooking up a storm in the kitchen... I felt really bad because I had gone out with the missionaries before we left and the girl we taught made us this big southern dinner that I ate on my way to Navarre... I was stuffed! So she saved the food and we ate it for breakfast... Before bed the gang decided to go down to Blake's dock on the bay and watch the remains from the metor shower the night before... well I was tired and I pretty much fell asleep out there like 10 minutes into it... I was then woken up by SAM! at like 3 am and she told me that they were going inside to watch a movie, so I got up and went with them... I'm pretty sure it took me only 5 minutes to fall asleep during the movie! This time I woke up to Blake's dad, Spyder (how awesome is that! his name is totally legit!) telling us that we needed to get up and go out to the beach because it was beautiful and that SAM! was missing from our camp out in the living room... Blake and I decided to go find her... she was in Blake's childhood bunk-bed (way to ditch us in the middle of the night and leave us on the couches!) so Blake and I decided to get into the bunk and cuddle her awake... I honestly was amazed that we all got onto that top bunk and that it didn't collapse on us... According to Spyder, it was a miracle! Once we got SAM! and Andrew up, we were off to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in the Jeep!
We drove back to Blake's house for some burgers and got to see the sunset on our way... It was spectacular! The missionaries in Blake's home ward came by to visit and I was sooo excited because two of the three elders had served in our singles ward so it was nice to catch up with them... Well our plan was to leave Navarre at like 10 pm Central/ 11 pm Eastern time so we could make it home, get some sleep, and then I could head off to work in the morning, but we decided to stay in Navarre until 3 am, then wake up, drive home, get straight into my car and go to work... Luckily it was casual Friday, and I got to sleep in the back of SAM!'s car, so it wasn't so bad... honestly, it was one of the most fun, spontaneious things I have done since moving out! I loved every second, and I loved getting to know that crazy group even more! I LOVE THEM!
We left Tallahassee after I got off work and started our 7 hour car ride... I brought my laptop and some chick-flicks to watch because I thought Natalie would be riding in the back with me, but David made her drive the first half of the trip (to the Okahumpka turnpike rest stop!... thats home! I mean half way for this trip was a trip home for me!). However we did find other ways to entertain ourselves... we decided around Lake City to play the alphabet game... Pretty much took us allll the way to Ft. Lauderdale, in fact the school "Z"one by David's house, to end the game and find our "z"... I was actually surprised at how fast the trip went by... I really enjoyed getting to know Natalie and David better... 
Once we got to Ft. Lauderdale, Natalie, David and I ate some delicious Honey Baked Ham with his family while we waited for the rest of the group to get there... Lance Anderson, Kristin Ladle and Ben Pope weren't leaving Tallahassee until like 6pm so they were like at least 6 hours behind us, and Chad McFerrin and Sara Renion were driving over from Tampa... I MISSED Chad and Sara... They were home from Tally for the summer and Sara is awesome... Chad is leaving for his mission to the Las Vegas, NV missions in a couple of weeks, so this was our last time to get to see him... Pretty much the other Tally kids didn't end up getting to David's parent's house until 2 am because they used GPS and evenutally hit a police road block in Ft. Lauderdale and had to have David come and use his dad's police badge to get them through...
The first dive site was where I got my bearings... I had to learn that for once in your life its ok to be a mouth breather... in fact, if you try to breath through your nose when snorking you might die! Once I got used to that and the fact that I wan't going to drown and that there was sooo many people for the shark, that I KNEW would attack me, to choose from, I started to reall enjoy being in the water... On the second dive site, there was a statue of Christ that they had put down in the water in the 1940s and it stood about 20 ft. tall and was about 30 feet under the water... it was sooo cool because you're snorkling around and the all of a sudden BOOM! so see this statue, and you think that you've discovered some hidden treasure... then you see the hundred other people looking at it too... still though, it was one of the coolest things ever! I even got gutsy enough to dive down and touch the hands like all of the Catholic people were doing on the trip! haha The hands were about 10 feet under, and even though you can dive into a pool 1o feet under no problem, diving down to that was a little difficult and the pressure about kills your ears! I got a rush from doing it though, so I did it three more times! At this dive site I also got to swim with a sea turtle! It was probably my favorite part of the entire trip, getting to swim along side it for like 10 minutes...Then on the last dive site (we got to do three total) there was an underwater cave that you could dive into (about 15 feet under)... when you dive through the cave and come out the other side, you swim through a school of minnoes... you know the fish from Finding Nemo that make the shaped and stuff... well Chad, Ben, and Natalie were all gutsy and craz enough to do it... I know I couldn't have... they said that their ears were totally killing them... 
We had a blast to say the least, and my mom would totally be proud of how good I was at constantly putting on my sunscreen... I NEEDED to day in the sun... working inside all summer has made me ghostly white which is weird seeing that I'm usually abnormally tan during the summer... That night we decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory in Ft. Lauderdale... We didn't end up eating till about 11 pm, but it was soo worth the wait.. the food was great... the entertainment was great (that would be Ben Pope trying to get our woman chef's number)... and of course the Cheesecake was to die for! Needless to say, we all went home stuffed!
Sunday morning we all went to church in David's home ward... It was really cool because their ward is so racially mixed... I mean there was probably 1/3 hispanics, 1/3 african americans, and 1/3 whites... I've never seen it like that... usually the wards I've been in are almost all whites with a few others mixed on it, but it was really cool to get to see... Lance got to practice his Portugese and the rest of us got to talk to one of the elders serving there who was from Montreal and was in Ft. Lauderdale speaking Creole... It was tight and he was a pretty cool guy! We came back to David's house to rest up before we drove home again... There was a coconut tree in David's backyard, so we all decided to try some of the coconut water (no, not milk... this was water, and it tasted like crap!) and we also decided to eat some of it... eating it was ALOT better than drinking it... Then while we were chilling, I asked David's mom if she had a map so I could see exactly how far south we drove... she cracked out this atlas of the US and I literally fell in love with the thing... I was sooo facinated by all of the maps and stuff to the point where she gave it to me because she had another one... lets just say that the atlas entertained me for the good first half of the car trip home, which went by surprisingly fast too... 
