Happy Holidays

Christmas is just 2 days away. I finished the last of our Christmas shopping last night and am thrilled to have a somewhat quiet and low key holiday this year. Rather than spending extravagantly, we have kept Christmas rather simple:

Rather than shopping for friends, extended family, coworkers, and neighbors, we have made a significant donation to The Road Home in honor of our loved ones. The Road Home is a private non-profit social service agency that assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County and along the Wasatch Front. Their mission is to help people step out of homelessness and back into our community. Especially during the holiday season, I reflect more frequently upon our many blessings and am often grateful that we have enough (shelter, food, necessities). If you too would like to donate or would like more information about The Road Home, you can visit their website here.

We are not doing much shopping for each other this year. Rather, we have planned a trip to New York to be gone over the new year. Rodd has never been and it has been several years for me so we are very much looking forward to a get away before the semester starts up again for me and things get crazy again! This is how we prefer to do Christmas, free of 'stuff' and full of memories! I will try to post daily of our adventures and I'm sure Rodd will be posting about all of the wonderful food! We are just a little bit excited. :)

We get back from NY and I start school again within a matter of days... How time flies.

We are so grateful for all that we have been blessed with: wonderful friends and family (including our 2 ADORABLE cats: Belle and Achilles), health, safety, opportunities, education and learning, experiences, and each other.

Happy Holidays!

Recommitment

I have decided to recommit to keeping our blog updated. This is not to be confused with a 'New Year's Resolution'! There are too many stigmas associated with that. I do not need a new year to commit to being or doing better.

I have decided to take a different approach this time around, although I have not quite decided what that will be yet...

Rodd has also started a blog of his own. He has wanted to start a blog and decided this week that he will write about the places we eat at. We are always trying new places and he enjoys sharing those experience with others. I will check with him to make sure that I can share it and probably post that later this week.

I look forward to the fulfillment that writing and sharing life experiences provide. :)

Time for a Vacation??

We want to share the love.

We have a membership with a vacation club in the Caribbean. It is at the Lifestyle Holidays Resort in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. What's great about a membership is that we can use it as often as we'd like and we can let anyone use it, we just have to book the reservation. I have listed the prices that we are able to rent the following spaces for:

Stays can be any length. All-Inclusive. Inquire for any time.

Studio (sleeps 2) $ 43/Night + All Inclusive Fee 47.50/Person/Day.

1 Bedroom (sleeps 2-4) $ 54/Night + All Inclusive Fee 47.50/Person/Day.

2 Bedroom (sleeps 4-6) $ 61/Night + All Inclusive Fee 47.50/Person/Day.

*Penthouse (sleeps 4-8) $100/Night + All Inclusive Fee 57.50/Person/Day.

*Villa (sleeps 6-12) $157/Night + All Inclusive Fee 67.50/Person/Day.

*Suite-like with additional features: Personal pool/hot tub, accommodations fancier. :)

** Children 3-12 are 50% of All-Inclusive Fee. (3 and under are free)

The fee for All inclusive is mandatory. This covers all of your food for each meal. It's practically all you can eat, unlimited food/sushi/drinks on the beach (all day) and reservations at one of their seven fine restaurants each night. There are two parties you can go to during the week stay: One Sunday night, one Thursday night. These include food, entertainment, dancing, etc. Also, there are activities all day long at the resort (if lounging on the beach all day does not suit your fancy...) including entrance into Ocean World one day. I will be receiving a more comprehensive list of activities available and which are included. There is also transportation to and from the Puerto Plata Airport (POP).

The All Inclusive fee may seem a little steep but it's worth it. This resort really is amazing and the food is fabulous. Some have considered staying at another resort. If you chose to go this route you can, but to come over to Lifestyles as a guest you will be charged a guest fee of $80/person/day and will not be VIP. (Limits where you are able to go in the resort. This ends up being more than just making a reservation!)

Click here for information on food and restaurants (menus), videos and pictures, additional basic information.

Rodd and I have made a reservation for September 14th - 21st (Wednesday-Wednesday). Anyone/everyone is welcome to come. Let me know if you interested and we can look at options for stay. You are also welcome to invite others to come as well. We are booking a villa. The first to let us know they want to come can stay in the villa. The rest can book another accommodation and either come hang at the villa, meet up at the beach or to explore, or do your own thing... :)

I have a blog post in 2008 from our last trip with pictures and details about what we did. Week three is when we stayed at Lifestyles in Puerto Plata. Take a look, it was a blast and so interesting.

Also, of course, Rodd and I intend to leave the resort some days to experience the country itself. You are welcome to come with us or stay at the resort. As you can probably imagine, inside the resort is very different from the country itself. Things outside the resort are very affordable and the culture is... fascinating and very humbling. I came home last time with a great appreciation for shoes on my feet and food on my table... and electricity. It is quite the experience.

Flights to the Dominican Republic tend to be fairly inexpensive. Rodd and I have found tickets tend to be about $500 round trip, depending on the time (of course). All accommodations are great and nice. Short walk to the beach, food is great, WARM and BEAUTIFUL.

We are able to inquire about stays in other areas throughout the world. These tend to be a little harder to book, but I can always look into that. The price for stays will always remain the prices above regardless of location.

Let me know if you'd like for me to look into any availabilities. All I'll need is:

1. Where you'd like to stay.

2. Dates of Travel (check-in, check-out) FYI: Resorts tend to have stays Fri-Fri, Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun.

3. Which accommodation you'd like.

4. How many guests there will be (ex: 2 adults, 2 children)

I can inquire to availability and get back to you within a couple of days, usually.

I'm a Belle person... :)

So... sad to say that we are not high maintenance dog people. Max and Maddie were cute and a lot of fun but could not mesh with our busy schedules. So... We got a cat. :)

I have to say she is by far the cutest cat I've ever had. Belle stuck with the bell on her collar. I selfishly wanted to know where she was at all times to keep her out of trouble. She has since learned now to take her collar off and is bell-less... but I love the name. She is truly a bratty little princess, as Rodd would probably say.

Ugh, I love her. We got her just before Halloween and she was about one month old. She is now nearly 5 months old! Crazy how time flies.

Hello Minneapolis!

We had some flight vouchers from our trip to the Dominican Republic last year and decided to go out and visit Rodd's Uncle Craig out in Minnesota. He even took the week off for vacation to hang out with us and show us around! The vouchers paid for all but most of our flight and we stayed with Craig and he drove us around so we got to spend our money on all of the fun stuff!! :)

Wednesday: We flew out from SLC to Dallas/FTWorth, then on to Mlps/St. Paul and were there by 330pm. Craig picked us up at the airport and gave us a quick tour of the area.

Thursday: St. Paul Temple, St. Paul city tour (St. Paul Cathedral!), Minnesota State Fair!!!

Friday: Mall of America, Sushi for Fish Friday, Rodd wins a BYU game Flyaway to New Orleans!

Saturday: St. Paul Temple, Rodd Finds his sock :), St. Paul and Farmers Market, Summit Avenue, Mary Tyler Moore's house, St. Catherine's University, Tour of the lakes (11,248 over football field), Rode Street Car, Target Center and Field.

Sunday: VFW Church, Fort Snelling and National Cemetery( Perpetual Care), feed the ducks, Cadillac Dealership.

Monday: Lake Minnetonka, Trolley boat ride, Tonka Toys.

Tuesday: Flight to Chicago, plane flooded... 2 hr delay, on to SLC. BED EARLY :)

Pics to come.

New Additions

We have recently added to our small simple family...

Max on the left, Maddie on the right. They are Pekingese Pomeranian. We adopted them from our sweet neighbors who are moving. They have been really great since we got them Thursday and we are loving having them around. :)

Summer Yard Projects with LOTS of help!

We have the most wonderful friends in the whole world. We mentioned some projects we were hoping to get done this summer and they were over the next afternoon to help us!! What a blessing they are in our lives. :)
We finally got rid of our ugly rose bush in the front yard! (and the neighbors rejoiced)
Then the stump in the back yard...



VICTORY! Wow, we've been waiting so long to get working on the yard and the end is in sight! Then another friend came over with a bobcat and made it look like this:


It looks great! Thanks again to everyone that has helped!! We count our blessings every day for the wonderful people that we have been surrounded with. We once said to each other, "How did we end up in such a great group?" They heard us and said, " You're damn lucky".
Agreed.