Love, Life, & Games of Chelsea & James: September 2016

April 1

James and I took Nala Goose on a walk together today. I love when it's the 3 of us! In the evening I babysat Brooke~we almost read half of the huge Curious George book together! I loved it because it took me back to my childhood. She always asks me, "Did your dad draw this one?" Haha she's so smart at 3 years old! I think she owns some of the books my dad illustrated, and others she borrows from the library. She LOVES Curious George though! We made up a dancing game called Cha Cha Cha (she made it up). So.Much.Fun!

Scary Face

April 2

Rain rain go away! James and I walked Nala in the rain before and in between watching the two sessions of General Conference. Of course we loved all the talks. Crispy M&Ms were involved (childhood tradition), Rhodes rolls, and fajita soup on this rainy spring day. In the evening James attended the Priesthood session and brought the Chapman Chocolate Chip Cookies he made (different from Chelsea's Chocolate Chip Cookies). Meanwhile I prepared my young women lesson.

Her favorite spot.

April 3

The Bergesons invited us over for breakfast before General Conference! Their tradition is to make Monte Cristo sandwiches, and let me tell you they were SCRUMPTIOUS! I brought Rhodes cinnamon rolls, the Lehnhofs brought a breakfast casserole. Ashley Levin brought leftover chocolate cupcakes from Odette's birthday yesterday and a fruit platter (Adam was working). The Bergeson's newly finished basement is GORGEOUS! Love it. The weather was freaky. It would snow, then melt in the sun, then snow, then sun, then snow, then sun, etc. etc. ALL DAY. Every hour I'd look out the window and there'd either be snow flurries coming down hard, or bright sun with no snow on the ground like a normal spring day. Weird. We loved watching General Conference with full bellies. Nala was very glad we were home and we spent time with her and walked her in between sessions. We absolutely LOVED Elder Holland's talk, "Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders Among You." SO powerful, as always. After General Conference was over, we took Nala on a walk, ate leftover soup, and I was motivated to move some boxes around in the basement after seeing the Bergeson's basement. Nala was afraid to go down the stairs but once we carried her down she went upstairs just fine. Nala! :)

Remi enjoying a cupcake.

Bath time!

April 4

James and I both exercised to the 21 Day Fix Total Body Cardio. James studied and I journaled and read scriptures while Nala napped on me. It snowed again today. Really Rhode Island!? It's nice having James home this week for the vacation week he took.

Nala loves the snow!

April 5

I had three nightmares last night. What in the world!? One involved taking Nala and escaping from bad people chasing us, another involved one of my best friends being a murderer and I had to take her kid away and escape, and the last one involved a shooting at the Walmart and my bishop was shot :( It was a scary night for me! Thank goodness they were all nightmares and not real. The morning was brighter once James and I both exercised doing the Upper Fix this time. We were both super sore from yesterday's workout. We did some healthy grocery shopping, we played with Nala, we watched shows together, read books, and ate steak and asparagus for dinner (I LOVE asparagus)! At Young Women's we had a "Chopped" Activity. The girls were divided into two teams and were instructed to make pizza and cookies with the ingredients given to them. It was fun to watch them under the pressure of a timer ticking away the minutes to make the food. I saw Bishop there and I told him about my nightmare. He laughed, I'm glad he's in good health!

They found some old sour cream (not expired) in the fridge & added it to the cookies because we forgot to provide eggs haha! They turned out pretty good!

The judges liked the sour cream cookies!

April 6

Today marks the day the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized 186 years ago. It is also the day (but not in the same year) we believe Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the Savior's true birthday although we celebrate it on December 25 as Christmas. So on this day James and I decided it'd be appropriate to go to the temple. We woke up early and exercised-Lower Fix, walked Nala, packed wraps & strawberries for lunch, and drove to the Boston temple. I was able to do five family names to perform initiatory ordinances. Then we both did a family name for the endowment ordinances. It was a wonderful day but also very long. I love James with all my heart. I'm so happy we went to the temple together on his vacation. We came home and played with and walked Nala. The weather was so sunny and nice. James studied and I made chicken and veggies for dinner. A great day!

Boston temple.

April 7

We were so so tired from our long day yesterday that we both slept in. It rained all day long but I took Nala on a short walk in the morning before it started pouring. I did the Pilates Fix while James studied. Nala was a bit crazy being inside all day from the rain. I tried reading my book but didn't get very far, so instead I filled the car up with gas, went to the Dollar Tree and grocery store. For lunch I didn't enjoy my salad, but for dinner I made these amazing pork carnitas! SO TASTY! My dessert included strawberries and a healthy no bake cookie. James and I watched Insurgent together (my second time seeing it, his first time). We put Nala to bed, I finally got to read my book!

Spring bunny!

April 8

I babysat the Carbone boys this morning! I went to Book Club afterward and we discussed 1776 by David McCullough. I didn't finish the book, but for a history book it was very well written and very interesting! Only a few of us were there this time, and we enjoyed to-die-for clam cakes, New England clam chowder, pasta salad, baked potatoes, delish apple crisp, and chocolate chip caramel bars, all American food! When I got home at 3:00 I wanted to take a nap but exercised instead. The Cardio Fix about killed James and me! Seriously we both felt like throwing up, but we didn't. I walked Nala to the library and I got the next book for book club, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. James and I went to Kohls. I bought a new pillow (contour for back sleeper), a mint jacket, and I exchanged my new shoes for a smaller size. Then after a trip to Stop & Shop, we made chicken stir fry for dinner. We loved watching Sherlock Holmes: The Abominable Bride. Seriously so good! Nala was adorable falling asleep on me!

April 9

Woke up and did the Dirty 30 exercise from 21 Day Fix! We took Nala to puppy play time at the Petco. Nala was unsure of all the puppies chasing after her. She kept running away and hiding. She mostly went up to the dog owners and let them pet her. The last 10 minutes she finally started sniffing some of the other dogs. She loved playing with the kids who were there with their dogs. After dropping Nala off at home, James and I saw Divergent #3: Allegiant. I brought my healthy no-bake cookies as a treat. The movie was pretty good, and it was nice that we had just watched the second one as a reminder. From there James dropped me off at Not Your Average Joes, the restaurant where I celebrated my friend Kristie's new baby on the way. It was fun to have a large group of women there, and I got to chat with Kristie, Tami, Ashley, and Lindsay as they were the women sitting closest to me. I ordered a chicken and pineapple pizza and Tami shared her peanut butter oreo ice cream dessert with me! Bobbie & Bri gave me a ride home and I was greeted by hubby & Nala!

This little boy fell in love with Nala!

Left to right: Tami, Linsi, Ashley, Trisha, Alysa, Bri, Bobbie, Crystal, Kristie, Ashley M, Me

April 10

Today was Fast Sunday. James and I went to ward council together, and I taught the Young Women lesson about the restoration of the gospel, Joseph Smith, and the First Vision. I bore my testimony after listening to the EFY Praise to the Man Medley song and I bawled! Like ugly cry! It was so good! James also gave a lesson in Elder's Quorum. After church our home teacher Brandon came over with the missionaries, Elders Koontz & Stevenson. We had so much fun talking with them! After they left we took Nala on a walk and we had pineapple pork for dinner. Sounds good but it really was not my favorite at all. Then I went to the Bishop Youth Discussion at the Bentley's house. Bishop made yummy "celestial" cookies (white chocolate chips and butterscotch). I loved talking with the young women and participating in this event. I came home to sweet James and Nala and I did the Yoga Fix to unwind after a long and busy but wonderful day!

Gives me chills every time!

A log she found!

April 11

James and I did Total Body Cardio today. I had a Young Women Presidency in the morning. I took Nala for a walk then my visiting teacher Susan came over. Nala loves that! Then I spent the whole day getting ready for our trip while James was at work.

I LOVE flatbread pizza!

Her favorite squeaky toy.

April 12

This morning I did the Upper Fix. I got tons done for our trip tomorrow. I worked on Young Women stuff and transferred iPhone pictures to the computer. James and I took the Focus in to the dealership to get fixed, and I dropped him off at the hospital for work. I did laundry, made flatbread pizza for lunch (fav), made chocolate chip cookies for Young Women, made wraps for the plane ride tomorrow. I cleaned the kitchen, walked Nala, and talked to Pete on the phone. I got everything ready for Nala's pet sitter (the Lehnhofs), and gave Nala a bath. I dropped Nala off with Bobbie (sad for me), Nala was so excited to play with the kids! From there I went straight to the Young Women activity, which was organizing the church library. We had tons of books to sort! We had a combined class presidency meeting and ate the cookies. It was weird coming home to an empty house! I missed Nala! I talked to mom Chapman on the phone while I packed for vacation, and I started watching Once I Was a Beehive on Netflix (so great!). I picked James up from work at 11:15pm, we finished packing, then went to bed just after midnight. We probably got 3 hours of sleep tops...

Upper Fix done!

Yoga mat burn.

April 13

We woke up at 4am to be picked up by Brother Welles at 4:30am! Our flight was at 7:15am from Boston, and we made good time. No problems with our flight, love flying Southwest! We flew to Kansas City, then to Nashville (out of the way for us but the flight was cheaper). We ate our strawberries and wraps when traveling to stay healthy. We rented a car, checked into our hotel at the Inn at Opryland and changed rooms a few times to get a quieter spot (busy week for them). I like that the hotel has a gym and nice indoor pool and that it's right across the street from the Opryland Resort where James' medical conference was. James and I went to The Pharmacy for an early dinner. The place has cute outside picnic tables with lights hanging from the trees. The burgers were VERY good. We shared each other's burgers, The Mission City burger and Farmhouse burger with sweet potato fries. I recommend! The couple sharing the table with us snapped our picture. Next we went to Fond Object, a record store with vintage clothes-we had some laughs. We took a picture across the street in front of the I Believe in Nashville sign on the Mitchell Delicatessen building.While driving through Nashville we passed by our church building! We drove through all the greenery and back to our hotel to walk over to the Opryland Resort. This place is HUGE and GORGEOUS! We walked through all four atriums and explored the largest hotel that doesn't have a casino in the US! We loved the indoor gardens! The hotel reminds me of The Venetian, Bellagio, and Paris hotels in Vegas all combined into one! In the lobby we sat opposite a man talking on his cell phone and because of the dome we were under we could hear bits of his conversation! Which means he could hear us too. We walked in a cowboys/angels shop and snapped some pics. We were so exhausted so we walked across the street back to our hotel, got in the car to pick up some healthy breakfast options at Kroger which were hard boiled eggs, strawberries, and string cheese. Glad our hotel has a fridge. Together we planned the following day, then watched the Big Bang Theory! Great start to our Nashville trip!

Mission City burger with guacamole & pico de gallo.

Farmhouse burger with egg & bacon.

Tree lights.

"Baby blanket Sweater"

"Sax offender"

Poor James got pooped on by a bird.

Cute house!

Another cute house!

Cross off our bucket list: Kiss under a waterfall.

The guy to the left of the sculpture could hear our conversation across the dome!

Walking across the street back to our hotel.

April 14

James went to his first day of the medical conference at the Opryland Resort, it's nice he could just walk over. I slept till 9, ate my 2 hard boiled eggs, exercised on the stationary bike in the gym for 30 mins while reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, then did the Pilates Fix in my hotel room, then James came back at 1pm. We ate lunch at The Pancake Pantry. This place is famous in Nashville, celebrities even go to it! There's always a line at least an hour long wrapped down the street, UNLESS you go at 1:45 on a Thursday (they close at 3:00). We got our food in less than 10 mins, and we were SO happy with our experience. We loved their well-known sweet potato pancakes with cinnamon cream syrup, chocolate chip pancakes, and banana bread pancakes. Even their hashbrowns were extremely tasty! Just for your information, you can order single pancakes if you want to try more than one, and you can also order half-orders. Such a good idea if you want to try lots and not be stuffed or pay a lot for it. My mouth is watering just typing this. I want to go back! We loved it that much! That's saying something because James doesn't even really like pancakes that much! Next we went to the Parthenon replica near Centennial Park which is right next to Vanderbilt campus. It was so green and pretty! It started to rain, so we hid out underneath the Parthenon columns and took "jumping" pictures! Once the rain stopped, we dove to 12th Avenue South. We parked right in front of Draper James, Reese Witherspoon's lifestyle brand store. The store is full of southern grace, charm and class. The place smelled amazing, all the clothes look like Reese Witherspoon wears all of them, and the retail saleswoman offered us sweet tea as we ~~shopped~~ window-shopped which we politely declined. Next door is the famous Sprinkles Cupcake shop and Cupcake ATM!!! YES it is so cool. YES we paid more to use the ATM then to walk into the store to buy a cupcake. YES it was worth it. YES the cupcake was that good, and YES I recommend it! James and I split the chocolate buttercream cupcake. We browsed Summer Classics-an outdoor furniture store, Imogen+Willie (an old gas station and Gwyneth Paltrow has been here), MODA Boutique, and our favorite, White's Mercantile. We seriously browsed this store for 30+ minutes. It has everything cool for both guys and girls. It's a an old former gas station, opened by Nashville songwriter and Hank Williams's granddaughter, Holly Williams. It's a general store for the modern tastemaker. It has really cool gift ideas. After walking the streets we walked through Sevier Park and stumbled upon an old historical house, Sunnyside, that stood between Union and Confederate lines during the Battle of Nashville in 1864. It started sprinkling raindrops so we ran back to the car. We waited it out a bit and then got out and walked down the street to Edley's Bar-B-Que for dinner. We loved the brisket nachos, the brisket tacos, and the pulled pork sandwich, YUM! We weren't hungry for any of it, but it was so good we ate it anyway! Haha. The baked beans were really good as a side, but we didn't like the cornbread, chili, or potato salad all that much. And we had heard that the macaroni and cheese side wasn't good either so we didn't bother. After dinner we drove to Love Circle. It had a fabulous view of the Nashville skyline. We watched for squirrels and bats too because we are dorks like that. We saw a helicopter land at Vanderbilt hospital. We watched the cloudy sunset together and saw the lights of the Nashville buildings all come on. It was a romantic way to end the day.

Got my exercise on!

Water for dogs

April 15

I got to sleep in while James was at the medical conference. I did the Cardio Fix in the hotel room and almost died! It felt good to exercise though. I ate my healthy breakfast and watched Fixer Upper on HGTV. When James was done with lecture we drove to Hattie B's, because apparently they have famous Nashville hot chicken for cheap but when we got there around 2 the line was down the street and it was a 2 hour wait. We were starving, so we decided to go to Mas Tacos instead. It's right across the street from The Pharmacy. I got the fried avocado taco and tilapia fish taco. James got the fish taco and chicken taco. We split the chicken tortilla soup which we heard was amazing and it was! Different kind of tortilla soup with a strong fresh cilantro tasting broth. This place was a hole in the wall, and only takes cash. It was very popular, lots of people were eating there! After lunch we got ice cream at Jeni's Ice Cream. Holy Crap. It was SO yummy. I sampled the brown sugar butter brickle, savannah buttermint, honey milk chocolate with almonds, and the peanut butter chocolate. We each got 2 half scoops, peanut butter chocolate and honey milk chocolate with almonds for me and black and white cookies for James and the peanut butter one for James with a waffle cone wedge. We wanted to go back to get more as soon as we finished our scoops! From there we drove to the pedestrian walking bridge and walked over that. We could hear someone warming up in the amphitheater, it may have been Bryan Adams! After crossing the bridge we walked down to Broadway Street and heard all the different country artists playing in bars and restaurants. We stopped in the candy store and got a free sample of freshly made pralines! Mmm. It was just enough to satisfy me after browsing all the delectable chocolates and candy! We saw the Johnny Cash museum, but we didn't go inside, same with the Ryman auditorium and the Hard Rock Cafe. We went back to the hotel exhausted and relaxed for about an hour. Then we took the free shuttle to the Grand Ole Opry for the show! We saw several country artists play, but our favorites were Jimmy Wayne, Lee Greenwood, and Montgomery Gentry!!! We loved singing along to God Bless the USA at the end with Lee Greenwood. James had seen him before singing that song at a scout camp when he was younger. We absolutely LOVED the experience of going to the Grand Ole Opry for the show. We would do it again in a heartbeat! We were starving when the show got out so we went back to our hotel and ate at the BackStage Grill restaurant there. James got a burger and I had brisket sliders. We shared a chocolate cake as we enjoyed the country music artist singing for us. Good day. P.S. Nala turned 5 months today!

James' view at the conference.

Fish Tacos yum!

Yummy tortilla soup!

Batman building.

Country music lovin!

Montgomery Gentry!

Happy 5 months Nala! Playing with Finn.

April 16

Happy Birthday to Piper! She's 17 today! We got up at 7am and James took me to the Nashville airport. Hugs to James, then boarded the plane. My Southwest flight to Tampa was good, and I met up with Mom and Pi in the airport. We took a taxi to the cruise terminal and boarded the Carnival Paradise! We calculated that this is Mom's 20th cruise, Piper's 11th, and my 8th! Crazy awesome! Once on board we had a nice lunch-salad and pizza for me! Then we went to the safety drill. Then to the gym and did some minor exercises while we waited for the spa raffles (they wouldn't let us use the machines while they were setting up for the raffle so we stretched on the floor and did planks and leg lifts and crunches and stuff). We waited forever for the raffle and of course we didn't win. So we went to the room and it was decorated in birthday stuff for Piper's birthday! They even delivered a special chocolate birthday cake to her from the specialty shop. By the time we got to the room after the safety drill and spa raffle, it was time to get ready for dinner in the dining room. Our servers were so nice! Wayan was the head waiter, then Rayen (or something like that?), and our favorite, Vlodomyr. He was so nice and it was only his 2nd week on the job! We tried guessing his age (he looked 16 18, but he was really 24). For dinner it was just the 3 of us, no one else at our table. I had the fruit, spinach & artichoke dip, salad, and cream of broccoli soup for appetizers, then a taste of the macaroni and cheese (gross) and brisket with mashed potatoes and veggies for entrees, then the Carnival melting cake of course for dessert with ice cream and hot chocolate. Piper also got a small birthday cake and our servers sang to her! Of course I didn't finish eating all of these things, I mostly tasted each of them and ate some things more than others. After dinner we walked around the shops, checked out the library, went out on the deck to sea the ocean in the dark (scary to me), then went bak to the room to play Dominoes. We had fun singing and being silly, and we ate candy while Piper ate her birthday cake. Happy day!

Walks in to find her decorated room!

Melting cake is the best.

April 17

We woke up at 9am, and had a lovely brunch in the dining room. We shared a table with 2 ladies from Boston and two young boys and two young girls in middle school from Georgia. I had an omelet, turkey bacon, and chocolate chip pancakes (again, didn't eat all of it). After breakfast we found a great spot on the Serenity deck for adults to lay out and read our books. After a while we moved to an outdoor table on the deck above Serenity that was half in the shade and half out to read and eat lunch. I had salad, pizza, and a couple chocolate ice cream cones. At 4:00 we decided it was time to go inside and get ready for Formal Night. While Piper was in the bathroom getting ready Mom and I decided to do some plank holds and stretching. Before dinner we got our photo taken then we headed to our table. Three young ladies were at our table this evening, they requested to be moved because their old table was very rude to them. They are the nicest young women (between ages 27-34)! Man-Man (pronounced Meh Meh) is from China, Summer is from Egypt, and Magda is from Chicago. They all work together as teachers and are good friends. It was their first time cruising! It was so fun to talk with them. They are seriously the sweetest. I had the fruit, scallops, chips and guacamole salsa, alligator fritters and a couple of shrimp and duck with asparagus and potatoes. For dessert I had the melting chocolate cake and ice cream of course. We went to the 80's Pop to the Max show. The singer/dancer crew wasn't nearly as good as the crew on the Carnival Freedom James and I were on last May with our med school friends. It was still entertaining to watch though. We got back to the room and I was surprised to see a free $50 voucher to the spa! I'm so excited! That never happens! We ate candy and played Five Crowns, then chatted and went to bed!

April 18

We woke up around 8:45am to rude people swearing outside our door. I walked out calmly (and sleepily) and put the "Snoozin" sign on the door and the people were RIGHT outside our door! What the heck people, there's nothing to be upset over, you're on a CRUISE for crying out loud! I could tell they were looking at me but I didn't care. We put sunscreen on all over and ate breakfast at our spot, the best spot on the whole ship if you ask me! I had an omelet and fruit. Around 11am we got off the ship and went to 7 Mile Beach and Calico Jack's in Grand Cayman. Mom bought us tropical smoothies and I loved my strawberry banana. I connected to the free wifi at Calico Jack's to find a photo of the haircut I want on my Pinterest because I'm going to show it to the Spa ladies! I tried calling, FaceTiming, and texting James, but it didn't go through. We loved wading in the clear blue ocean and we saw fish and even a white sand crab burying itself in the sand. We layed out under a shady tree away form all the beach people. After a few hours we got back on the ship and ate lunch-salad and pizza and ice cream and a cookie or two. Then I went to the spa and got my hair done with my $50 spa credit. Emma from Scotland chopped of 4-5 inches! It was SO needed (I hadn't gotten my haircut since January 12, 2015)! I LOVE my new hair. It is still long, but with lots of layers. We went to dinner, and the ladies were at our table again. We loved laughing at the cute bread waiter Vlodomyr from Ukraine. He asked if we wanted pepper on our food when no one at our table had their food yet! He was a little embarrassed but very good natured. Then the servers danced for us and Vlodomyr had a ruffled shirt and looked so awkward dancing to "Low" by Flo Rida haha! It was great. My food for this evening included salad, fruit, chicken fettuccine alfredo, salmon, fried shrimp, apple pie, coconut cake, and of course the melting cake. Yum! We went to the show-The Britts! It wasn't our favorite but a show is a show right? Back in our stateroom we played Five Crowns, ate treats, and watched Dancing with the Stars! Meanwhile Nala is at home chewing on her sticks...

Haircut!

April 19

We woke up at 8:45am and got up to the Serenity Deck under the umbrellas (because we were sunburned) with our breakfast. We read our books all day long laying out in the shade on the ship while everyone else was off the ship exploring Cozumel which we have seen a ~~thousand times~~ many times and will continue to see many times in the future. It was 100% relaxing! We ate lunch up there too and ice cream cones of course. At 5pm we got ready for dinner. Our lady friends joined us and we loved the conversation with them. I had the frog legs (I've had them before, it tastes like chicken), Mom tried them for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. I also had fruit, green bean salad, and a bite of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and mac and cheese and fried fish and shrimp. I was SO FULL so I didn't eat much of it. I had a perfectly well done melting cake for dessert. After dinner we picked out our favorite cruise picture of us taken by the photographers on the ship. We decided to skip the Hasbro Game Show (been there, done that), and went back to the room and watched San Andreas on TV (good movie) and ate snacks (KitKats). Much needed day of relaxation after being sunburned!

Frog legs yum.

April 20

We woke up later at 9am. Mom reserved us chairs on the Serenity Deck and we ate breakfast (I didn't eat until 11 because I was still full of the fried food from last night). We read our books. I had salad for lunch with fruit and fondue and ice cream cones. I finished my book! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is 500 something pages and I finished it in a few days. It is SO SO SO good! One of my favorites. I didn't want it to end! I started my next book, a beach read, Sweet Salt Air. We got ready for dinner and I ordered the crab cake (not my thing), asparagus vichysoisse (chilled soup yuck), penne with scallops, shrimp, and calamari, mahi mahi and meatloaf (loved those), and for my last dessert on the ship, TWO orders of melting cakes with ice cream. I didn't finish them, but they were heavenly. We took a group photo of our table, and we laughed at our servers doing the chicken dance and macarena. The show tonight was Epic Rock, and it was THE BEST ONE! I LOVED 80's Pop to the Max on the last cruise, well I LOVED Epic Rock on this cruise! We had all the songs stuck in our head afterward and we kept singing them all crazy like. We were hyped up and so we watched Big Bang Theory on our stateroom tv to calm down haha. So fun. Meanwhile back at home Nala explores the woods with James.

This looks like the back of Spencer's head NO JOKE!

Magda, Me, Pi, Mom, Man-Man, Summer.

April 21

We woke up at 8:30am, packed up and had fruit and Special K for breakfast at our favorite spot on the ship. We were practically the last ones of the ship. The cruise port kept our luggage safe as we walked over to explore the Florida Aquarium right next door to the cruise terminal. We loved watching the cute river otters play and being fed by the trainer. We were grossed out by the alligator, snakes, and boa constrictors, especially the one who was just fed a rabbit and the huge bulge was showing in its long belly! We liked the lemurs and looking at all the different fish. We were pretty tired after the aquarium, and we walked along the shops looking for a restaurant for lunch. We chose Precinct Pizza, which was a great choice! We loved the fried ravioli appetizer, and the BBQ chicken pizza and Hawaiian Pizza. If you order by the slice, it's pretty much the same size as a 10" full pizza and it's less money. In the end I"m glad I got the 10" so I could save half of it for dinner. We checked into the Hilton hotel by the airport. Mom and I layed out by the pool for an hour and talked about cruises and family stuff. Pi and I watched another movie with The Rock in it (Dwayne Johnson was in San Andreas), Disney's The Game Plan. It was time for Mom and Pi to leave for the airport. We had such a wonderful time! After they left I showered and got ready to travel home. I took the free shuttle to the airport and flew home Southwest to TF Green Airport which is only 15 mins away from our house. James was working overnight, so Brian Lehnhof picked me up from the airport. I snuck in the house without seeing Nala because I wanted her to sleep. I'll see my two loves (James & Nala) in the morning!

I spy a crocodile eye.

That huge lump inside is an eaten rabbit.

Lemur.

April 22

I spent the day getting used to being back home. When James woke up (he slept during the day because he's working nights), I showed him my haircut, yay! We went to the beach at Goddard Park with Nala and she loved the trails there and the beach. The water was too cold for her, so she stuck to the wet sand, but when she came across another older dog, Randi, she followed her into the water up to her calves! So cute.

April 23

Grocery shopping day. I took Nala to puppy play time too. She played with a bigger dog named Nala a little bit, but she was mostly still shy with the other dogs. I made pumpkin turkey chili for the ward chili cookoff. James and I went to the ward chili cookoff and met the Quinn family who just got baptized today! Sarai, the wife, made these delicious mint cookie balls! Bobbie Lehnhof won for making the best cornbread (I voted for hers and didn't know it was hers because it was so good). My chili didn't win, but I thought it was pretty tasty, thanks to Dad for the recipe! It was so nice to catch up with people from the ward and to spend time with James. Everyone noticed my tan (thankfully the sunburn turned into a tan haha). To me vacation wasn't long enough but it was nice to be back among friends.

She spent some time hiding under me.

April 24

Sunday morning-ward council. James came straight from work to church in his scrubs. He was SO tired (been up since 4pm the previous day), and he had to teach the Elder's Quorum lesson during the 3rd hour of church. Bishop Mease taught the Young Women lesson about the restoration of the Priesthood. Only McKenna, Eva, Bri and I were there because it was spring break for everyone else and they were out of town. After church James slept and I relaxed and played with Nala. I made chocolate chip cookies for us and James went off to work another night shift.

James spent some time when I was on the cruise clearing out some trees & brush from our backyard.

More sticks for Nala.

April 25

I met at Bri's house for our Young Women Presidency meeting at 9am. She made German pancakes with coconut almond syrup (YUM). After our meeting I did laundry, went shopping, more laundry, walked Nala, and made my dental and eye appointments. James woke up after working the night shift and we took Nala to puppy play time. It was a smaller group with smaller dogs. She was still shy and she peed 2.5 times! Just walked in the middle of the floor and went haha. It was fun to see her interact a little more though. For dinner we had fish tacos and we watched the Big Bang Theory together. Then James went to work at night again!

The laundry pile after vacation was a JOKE!

Fish tacos yum.

April 26

I did laundry and ate breakfast, then did the Total Body Cardio AND Upper Fix exercises, then cooled down by walking Nala. For lunch I had a turkey lettuce wrap. James woke up so exhausted, poor guy. He ended up falling asleep on the floor with Nala haha. I finished putting the laundry away, cleaned up the kitchen and dishes, then made turkey burgers and sweet potato fries for dinner. For mutual we had the combined activity for the young men and young women-Standard's Night. We played this game, "Princess or Prophet?" where they guess who said the quote, a church leader or a Disney character. 5 points if you guess princess or prophet, and an extra point if you can guess who said it. The youth loved it! Then we played a similar game but with clips of popular music and clips of church leaders voices. The standards we talked about in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet were Entertainment & Media, and Music & Dancing. It was a successful evening!

So tired after exercising!

April 27

I did the Lower Fix this morning for exercise. I had a healthy breakfast and healthy lunch-yay! James had the day off but went to the cadaver lab because it is required. He was gone pretty much all day, so I ordered a pizza from Piezoni's-not healthy. When he got home we walked Nala together through the woods at the end of our street. She LOVED it.

Nala LOVES the dishwasher, mostly licking all the dirty dishes clean.

She's hiding under the blanket.

She goes in her crate to get a treat.

April 28

I didn't exercise until after noon today because the oil guy came and I totally forgot all about it! He cleaned up our furnace and Nala was wanting to play with him because he kept coming up and down the basement stairs. After he left I did the Pilates Fix and the 10 minute abs exercises. Then I walked Nala. Nutrition for today was pretty good until I went out for dinner at Gregg's Family Restaurant with Robin and Ashley-doing my visiting teaching! I ordered a California wrap with french fries and then the Hasbro Giving Cake-which is a DELISH chocolate peanut butter cake, and 10% of money is donated to Hasbro Children's Hospital. It was good visiting with them. Nala was so cute today but she accidentally scratched the corner of my nose and made me bleed, so that wasn't fun. Good thing it is in the crease where my nose and cheek meet so you can't see the scratch. Nala!

Bananas & cinnamon on whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter.

Done with Pilates!

Hasbro Giving Cake!

Ouch!

April 29

James had the day off! I did the Cardio Fix then walked Nala of course. I cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for the day and then it was time to babysit Logan for 2 hours or so. Then I took Kaylee, one of my young woman, and her sisters to dance class. I paid bills while James did yard work all day. He and I had an early dinner at Panera-I am in love with the Chicken Cobb with Avocado salad there. James had the Thai salad and clam chowder. Odd combination but both good. We love walking around Dave's Marketplace afterward just for fun. When we got home we took Nala on a walk through the woods, then made healthy No-Bake Cookies. We started watching Captain America: Winter Soldier to realize we both had already seen it haha. So we started watching Avengers: Age of Ultron, but James had already seen it and it was over 2 hours long and it was late so we stopped it and went to bed. We'll finish it another time!

So pink after cardio!

To save or not to save her teeth?

Avocado egg salad with cottage cheese & carrot sticks.

Logan

Favorite Salad!

Woodsy

Studying hard. She takes after her dad. haha!

April 30

I exercised, then walked Nala this morning. I took her to puppy playtime at noon at North Kingstown Petco. There were two other dogs there, one super scared and the other super energetic. Then I took her straight to the Warwick Petco for puppy playtime there. She was howling a bit but she recently lost some teeth so I think she was feeling sensitive. But then the last 5 minutes of class she started howling and interacting with the other female beagle puppy that was there! Then she started playing with the rest of the puppies. It was so cute! This was her first time playing with a group, before she'd just kind of hide and not play. Yay Nala! I went to Dollar Tree and TJMaxx to finish up Meaghan's bridal shower gift. James worked of course.