Trip to FL Week 1

Our trip to FL this year was kind of last minute.  First, we had planned on going, then not...after some discussion...flying to Florida was the way to go...we could visit our family and hang out with our friends from TX the Carters.
We decided to stay for three weeks.  We arrived on Monday (18) night. The following day, we just hung out and relaxed with family.  On Wednesday, I took the children to the pool my brother Nephi works at. They had a lot of fun...although in the picture they don't look happy since they had to sit out of the pool for the Adults Only Swimming Time. 
This was the first time Arden dived in the pool too.  He did a swimming test, to make sure he didn't need rescuing, and after passing his test, he dived, oh, about 50 times. He had so much fun!

The following day, was my mom's birthday.  I wanted to do something fun, yet kind of different.  So, I made reservations to Bern's Stakehouse. We went with Abuelita, Tia Dina, Michaelle, Arden, Maya, Dad, Mom, and me. Although we arrived on time and had reservation, we had to wait a while, since it's harder to sit 8 people.   Of course, my hungry family was getting hungry and impatient. Nevertheless, they waited and we had a wonderful time. As always, the food was superb.  Michaelle ordered sushi as an appetizer and it was so good. Also, the service was great.  The children were getting tired, but we kept celebrating. 
We had reservations for the Dessert Room, but before we had our desserts, I made sure my family went on the kitchen tour.  They loved it...especially, my dad.
Then, off we went to the Dessert Room.
My mom got her mini "cake" and we sang to her.
Everyone, got to pick their own delicious treat.  Everyone enjoyed it. I thought it was so funny how my kids gobbled up their desserts, and after they were done, Arden said to me, "Mom, I'm tired, let's go home." We were barely halfway done with our treats. Since he liked the ice cream so much and my Abuelita and Tia Dina couldn't finish their ice cream sundae, Arden finished it off for them.

We arrived home from Tampa after midnight.  The following morning around 6AM I got up and drove back to Tampa to pick up Newel from the airport.  We had the chance to spend the morning together, since my mom had taken off from work to spend time with the kids.
Newel and I headed to the beach and hang out.  Once it started to get hot and more people were arriving, we went to a restaurant, where I had the best blackened grouper sandwich I had this entire trip. 
Then, we headed back home and picked up the kids and headed to Orlando. It rained the entire trip to Orlando, and we had some car issues. However, we arrived safe.
That night, Newel's friend, Amr, and his family invited us over for dinner.  They are from Egypt and they cooked for us a lovely array of Egyptian dishes.  I've never had such a good eggplant dip in my life! Even though I was supposed to be watching my weight, I couldn't help myself that night...the food was so delicious! Also, we had a lovely time talking to them and seeing their children again.  All of the kids just played so well, even though they barely knew each other.
We spent the night over HB and Karen's and the next day, we drove back to Bradenton. That afternoon, we met up with some of our old friends from FL.  It was so fun to see them again.  The Rosenbooms were so nice to let us have this party at their house.  There were other friends for Maya and Arden to play with, and they played so well. We're really lucky our children adapt pretty well to their surroundings.
The highlight of the party was when JP played his accordion and we sang along.  Everyone participated and just laughed.  Of course JJ was there, and the guys couldn't help touching him and teasing him...he's so homophobic it's hilarious. After the party, Tanya, Karen, and I went back to the beach house we had rented for the week we were going to spend with the Carters, but they hadn't arrived yet.  That night, the boys (Craig, Newel, HB, and JJ) went over to JP's house and hung out with him till about 3AM.  Then, they went on a 'walkabout' in some ghetto neighborhood, followed by breakfast at Denny's?  Anyways, the boys didn't sleep all night and they arrived to beach house around 7AM, showered, got dressed, and went to 9AM church to hear JP talk.
They were hammered by the time sacrament meeting was done, so some of the guys went back home to sleep.  Newel stayed for 11AM sacrament with the Spanish ward.  We met him there.  It was really nice to see a lot of the people we've known for years. After sacrament, we went to my parents' house for lunch.  Then, I headed back to Tampa to pick up my friend Abbey and her kids. 
Yes, there was a lot of driving and missing out on sleep, but we were having a wonderful time.  I was so excited to see my friend Abbey and her kids.