BFF Road Trip

It had been about a month or two since our last visitors had come through, so the "visitor exhaustion" had worn off (it's a real thing people). We were so excited to have our bff's come to town for Easter! It was my first year being completely in-charge of Easter din and I was super excited. This Loaded Mashed Potatoes casserole dish was the favorite this year. So delicious! 

We did some fun things around here including the jet ski tour on Marco Island. It's one of my favorite things! It's an hour and a half jet-ski tour where we saw dolphins, manatees, sharks and flipping huge tarpon that somehow were as big as dolphins! 

We then just decided to tour Florida. We stayed in Ft Lauderdale for a night, snorkeled in Boca, did South Beach for a second and then made our way up to Orlando for a day of Disney. 

Speaking of Disney, Tower of Terror is my all time favorite ride. My record happened a few years ago where we rode it 13 times in one day. Mom & I did a close second with about 11 times last December (I was proud of her). We were a bit disappointed that Hollywood Studios only had about three big rides to offer. Definitely not my favorite park, but TOT treated us right. 

So Shaun is a saint and always waits in character lines with me (what is up with people not loving pictures with characters?? It is a MUST). He keeps us all laughing, when it was our turn SJ walked up to Minnie and whispered in her ear:

"Follow my lead, I'm getting you out of here..."

If you know me, then you know that my favorite food is basically candy. 

So it is safe to say that I probably had just as much fun in the park as I did at Goofy's candy shop!

The walls are just full of it. Yes please.

It was such a great week to spend together not having to worry about school or work.

Also, three cheers for good friends who make great road trip companions!

False Alarm

When we first moved here we thought we would go to the beach at least once a week. That lasted about...a month. We don't always make it to the beach as much as we want but I feel like we have gone a lot lately and it's been wonderful. I just love where we live.

a juicy-juice and a sandy bum. what a life

"bye ball!"

This is my buddy Cam. He decided to pull the fire alarm at our church when we were over there the other night. The fire department never came and they didn't answer when I called so I had to quickly call 911 to get ahold of someone to come turn the alarm off. I felt bad calling, they always sound so panic-y (always like I call them all the time haha!). I can't imagine the emergencies they have to deal with on a daily basis.

operator: what is your emergency

me: hi it's actually not an emergency, we just had someone pull the fire alarm and we can't 

get it turned off 

operator: okay so a pole is on fire?

me: no somebody PULLED the fire alarm..

Some fire peeps finally showed up, passed out some hats, turned the lights on for us and showed off the huge hose. It was great the kids loved it. We just then had to make it clear to never do it again ha. It actually was a blessing that Cam pulled it because we found out our church's fire alarm isn't even set up properly which is why the fire department wasn't notified immediately. 

I don't know who was more excited, the kids or the sister missionaries :)

 Speaking of those darn cute sister missionaries. We lost another goodie a few weeks ago. They do such hard but great things with the best attitudes.

#bigthingsin2015 

This year is the year. I have always thought of taking my love for pictures to the next level. I finally gained some courage after I took my sisters bridals in the fall. I am going to start up a small little photography situation (see?! I can't even call it a business, just a situation haha). It's terrifying and if I ever think about it for longer than five minutes, I start doubting it big time. But I just have to hold onto the pure joy that I feel when I take pictures for people. It's literally a high for me. I am going to start out very small and take it as it comes (if it even comes). There is just so much room for an amateur like me in this area. Right now I am in the process of making a blog for it but I am still brainstorming a name. 

I was so excited when my friend asked me to take pictures of her kidlets. They each have their own personalities which makes it crazy a blast! And I'm obsessed with that little babe, it's ridiculous. 

Mr. Speedo

Yep. I knew that would happen. Right when I say I need write more on this blog, here I go again posting pictures. But I wanted to document our Christmas card of 2014. After I searched high and low for a sled in Florida (I even got laughed at), I had to come to terms with a boogie board. I was gone for most of November and December so I dragged SJ to the beach right after Halloween to get these taken. He was a saint. I am sure the beach walkers that night didn't know they were going to get some good entertainment.

"Woah, you guys don't waste any time" 
"Merry Christmas? What about Happy Thanksgiving?" 
We even had some people ask if they could take a picture of us.

 Listen people, it was worth every weird look!

But in order to get that perfect shot we had to take a lot. And by a lot, I mean..a lot.

Some people were so nice and went around the crazies in front of them. But only some...

A 'Merry Christmas' from Mr. Speedo was the highlight of the night

Dashing through the SAND..!
Love, The Johnsons

Meet The Parents

One of the reasons I love Florida is...THAT PEOPLE WILL VISIT YOU! Obviously our families will come visit us anywhere we live but Florida makes the long flight worth it I think (ha). SJ had his big national sales meeting up in Orlando all week and my parents were wanting to escape the snow. I say it was a win-win (although we missed Shaun our entertainment). I loved this one-on-one time with my parents. They had been here a few times last year so we were trying to do things they haven't done yet. That included an overnighter in Key West. I love Key West! The drive is long gorgeous, you feel like it is a vacation because you are far enough away from home, so many AMAZING places to eat, and the town is just CUTE (except at night when the homeless drunks come out).

We haven't been able to find a place that tops The Parrot Key Hotel. They have these adorable little villas. The contrast of the turquoise and white colors are my favorite. The grounds and pools are gorgeous as well (no I don't work for them--just like talking about their hotel apparently).

We went to the Hemingway house while we were there. When Shaun and I went last year we passed on this so it was cool to see. I love old historic houses that they haven't changed or restored yet (so the Georgia plantations treated me well!!). The backyard/pool area was adorable. There were cats EVERYWHERE. I guess Ernest Hemingway loved them and had a bunch that would roam around, so they continue to be everywhere. Even on his bed. I hate cats but I was just so amazed at how many there were. People probably thought I was some cat lady because I kept taking their pictures (no really, I hatehate cats. I don't even know why I'm posting them on here).

We tried Pepe's cafe which is the oldest restaurant in Key West. And let's just say it LOOKED like the oldest restaurant in Key West. The food was surprisingly good though. 

Speaking of food, I wanted to write these down somewhere so I know the next time I go there. 

My absolute favorite places to eat are:

-Duetto Pizza and Gelato (the nicest Italian family owns this place. Highest rated Gelato)

-Paseo Restaurant (no idea that I would enjoy Caribbean food this much. Famous for their corn on the cob which they cover with so many different delicious toppings) 

-La Creperie (very charming little french crepe cafe. Their crepe's are huge)

-Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe (chocolate covered key lime pie. And we even tried all three key lime pie shop's while we were there so we know what's up!)

Front St.
Key West

Bonita Beach

Marco Island

Marco Island

Merry Missionaries

Sister missionaries are so close to my heart. I don't know if it's because of my desire to serve years ago (before I met SJ of course) or my amazing sister who served in Albania. But basically they are just awesome. And these two, stellar. They were talking to me about how they needed some pictures for their Christmas card--which I take any opportunity to take pictures these days (that is not a joke. our friday night dates consist of Shaun standing there while I take photos). Considering that I am in Utah up until Christmas, we did some real quick before I left. One of the more hilarious hours of my life. Now here's hoping that they both aren't transfered by the time I come home. 

Week in The Bahamas

Well it's been about a month since we got back from our Bahama cruise with the Thorpes. It was a DREAM. I am so glad that we are finally taking advantage of these last minute cruise deals living in Florida. Super last minute-spontaneous trip, which is the best way to vacation I think (at least until kids come anyway).

I make it a goal to get lots of footage on these adventures so I can add music and have a compilation of DVD's of our Florida adventures. Here is one I made from the trip.

We stopped at Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. 

Grand Turk: We rented a car (which was difficult to drive on the different side of the road) and drove around the small seven mile island. We stopped to see a lighthouse. In back of the lighthouse there was a cliff where you could look down and see an awesome beach full of conch shells. We were very determined to get down there. We found a path that led us to the side of the beach but you had to make your way through water to get to the place we wanted. I was a little hesitant since I am such a worry wart and the tide was getting higher as it got later in the day. But I decided to go for it. It was beautiful and we felt super adventurous {haha}.

Half Moon Cay: This is an island that is owned by the Princess Cruise line so it was a very small deserted island that only had the other ship guests on it. I felt like I was living an episode of survivor. Although it was paradise. The water was incredible, turquoise, clear and amazing. The Thorpe's knew some friends that just did that same cruise so they told us about an amazing snorkel place that was very secluded. It was mine and Shaun's first time snorkeling where we didn't just see one or two tiny fish. It was incredible! The bright colored fish and sting ray were beautiful. On our way back to the ship, we had to walk pass the rest of the tourists. It was so loud and crowded, I was so happy we had ventured off on our own and stayed clear of the "water park" atmosphere.

Nassau: This was an island that actually had a big population of people. It was a big tourist city. We took a taxi to a port where we jumped on a tiny boat. That boat took us to an island just off of Nassau called Blue Lagoon. It is a privately owned island that has a huge ropes course in the water and paddle boarding. It also is where we did our interactive dolphin excursion. It was definitely worth it but probably a once in a lifetime thing. I was surprised once the dolphin was up in my face, how ugly I thought the fish was. Not to mention how much it smelled! It was cool though and we got to feel like real dolphin trainers as they pushed the balls of our feet as we flew across the water. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to balance on the dolphins but it somehow worked out! Jodi and Drew were able to watch us and take a few pictures which I was grateful for.

I think other than the island hopping, life on the ship was the best part. It was so fun to eat whenever we wanted (THE 24 HOUR PIZZA BAR--YES!) and have entertainment all the time. While Shaun was doing karaoke one night, the music director saw him and asked him to compete in the ship talent show. That was probably the number one highlight. He was hilarious! And got to do his thing in front of all the guests. We got off the ship wanting to get back to our homes and our own beds but the next week we were begging for another cruise. I think we are converted to the cruiser way of life!