Stranded in South Carolina...the music continues!

 Yep....we were stranded!  On our way home from the cruise, we dropped Reed off in Georgia and stayed for a while visiting and ate dinner.  Then headed on home.  Cal had a youth meeting to go to in preparation for summer camp and was presenting and heading up a leadership class.  In South Carolina we were driving in the I-95 and cruise control stopped working for me.  I thought that was really weird.  Then other things started shutting down on the dash board. Even the headlights eventually went out.  Thankfully there was an exit right there.  I felt like God was blessing us the entire time.  The exit happened to be right by a gas station and a hotel.  We went to the gas station in case we were in our vehicle overnight.  I tried to see what the hours were and the Chevy kept acting weird.  Then it quit working.  We just sat, talking about what to do.  Lee felt like it was the battery or the alternator. After about 5 minutes or so he tried to start it again and it started.  He drove across the street to a Hampton Inn. Right before turning in, the Chevy shut down again. Another blessing, there was a little downhill into the parking lot.  Lee coasted it in and we found a parking spot right there. Lee got us a room for the night. It was about midnight before we got into the hotel room.  The next morning Lee called a tow truck and got it towed to Advanced Auto Parts as they could do a free check on the battery and alternator.  While he was there, and found out the alternator was bad, a mechanic happened to be at the store buying stuff.  He was interested in Lee's problem and said that he would put in the alternator for us!  WOW!  Another blessing from God! He had to run an errand, then came back and installed the alternator.  Lee asked him how much he could pay him.  The guy just said. oh just $20 or $30.  Lee only had $20 and asked him to wait so he could go to the ATM to get more money.  The guys said no, don't worry about it.  He helped us out because he didn't want us to get ripped off by a local mechanic.  It was such a blessing!  I was trying to figure out how we would get home and mainly Lee so he could work on Monday. I couldn't find any rental car companies and looked into flights home.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  It was a relief that about 11am we were on the road back home! 

At the hotel.

While Lee was off with the tow truck we had breakfast.

On the way home Lee suggested we drive by the Richmond Temple to see its progress.  Always love seeing what's happening to the Richmond Temple!

Life keeps on going!  Haley had a Spring Jazz concert which was really fun. She plays the keyboard in Jazz. 

A frog we saw outside one night. So fun!

Elder Naylor and Elder Svedin at the Petersons house. 

Shanna made some meringue cookies one night which were yummy.

Haley finished a puzzle that we bought her for her birthday one year.  It was so complicated!  I'm impressed she finished it!

Another concert!  Shanna had a spring choral concert which we also enjoyed.  It's fun going to the different performances. 

This spring there were A LOT of track meets!  You'll be seeing lots of pictures!  I enjoyed going to the track meets and seeing Shanna and Cal perform.  They each did pole vault, high jump, and hurdles. 

Eva came over one night for games and dessert.  The guys had something that night...can't remember, but we had a fun evening. 

And more of the big project in the front room!  We got rid of the thermostat on that wall (you can totally see the patched area!) and put it in the closet.  Then added an outlet inside the closet for the wifi router. I was so excited about it all!  It was awesome getting rid of the computer desk and adding the new outlet. 

The new outlet in the coat closet.

Wifi router is in the closet!

I took pictures of a picture my grandma Ruth gave me.  The picture is ruined...maybe I can digitally fix it and print it off.  I cut out the letter and saved it. 

Elden used the Shrinky Dink plastic to make a little Calvin.  I baked it in the pan on the wrong side.  It left a mini Calvin mark on the pan. Too funny.

A picture before the new outlet was installed.  We just had the wifi router thing on the ground for a couple weeks.  And the ping pong table is out! 

Clark's mission plaque came!  Well, it came awhile ago but it was damaged so Lee sent it out to get a replacement.  It's now hung up at the church!

Lee and Haley made shelves for her room!  They cut the wood, sanded and stained them and did a coat of poly on them.  Then hung them. 

For Cal's youth training that he was supposed to do, but couldn't because we were stranded, he had a puzzle activity where a group of people had to put puzzles together.  We got the puzzles out and did a race seeing who could get them done the fastest. We then switched puzzles and did it a second time.  I was pretty slow at it!

I love these messages from President Nelson. So true!

Bahamas Cruise Part II

Our second day we docked in Nassau. Cal and Reed were up till about 2am or later.  We did out little routine of getting water sent to our rooms, plus breakfast items for lunch, then after getting ready headed to breakfast, then left for the day.  The ships' docks are right there connected to the town, which made it really convenient to get off the ship.  We had to wait for our driver to pick us up as we were renting UTVs to drive around town. Cal and Reed took the opportunity to nap.  We weren't sure when the people were coming, but thankfully another family was renting from the same company and they had cell service and called them. 

And we were off to explore Nassau!  Lee ended up paying for international cell service so we could use GPS on his phone.  It was interesting to drive on the left side of the road. I must say it was pretty easy for me because I was just following Lee.  The guy who showed us how to use the UTVs gave the comment, right side is suicide. This will come in handy when we drive in Ireland and England this summer. 

We drove around town and then went to the Queen's Staircase. I thought there were some off roads we could go on, but we didn't research it or plan our time out to do that activity. But someone at the rental place said there weren't back roads to drive on...but I am sure there were. 

Always fun seeing old churches. 

My brother recently started working for KPMG.  I thought it was fun seeing an office in Nassau!

Made a little stop at a beach. 

We stopped at Fort Montagu to walk around and eat lunch.  

We also booked some jet skis to ride around in the ocean. We were supposed to meet them at Cabbage Beach.  We finally found it and had to pay a toll to go over a bridge, which was fun but we weren't expecting to use up cash we had on hand. Then these people showed us where to go to park on Cabbage Beach and we probably didn't have to but I tipped them as well.  Lee then found out at the jet ski tour had been rescheduled and wasn't at Cabbage Beach anymore.  It was at Fort Montagu! Crazy. So we went all the way back to where we had just been. 

The jet ski ride was fun. I thought they would take us around the edge of the island and point stuff out to us.  Clark and Lee did a jet ski tour in Key West and did that.  This one was still fun. They way things worked out Reed ended up getting his own jet ski. At the end when it was time to go back, for some reason Reed didn't get the message and drove far away from the beach. I chased him down with Elden and FINALLY caught up to him to say it was time to go back. 

We stopped and bought ice cream.  There were very few things I purchased on the cruise (outside of the cruise fees). Ice cream was one of them. 

The ship we were on--the Norwegian Sky.

Cal and Reed doing sudoku.

That night we scheduled to eat at a grill place to get burgers.  The kids had an activity and we ended up just eating wherever. Lee and I did stop by that place.  The burger wasn't very good...neither was the nacho cheese sauce.  We didn't really eat anything there. 

Love the big windows to see the ocean.  The ocean is so huge!

We then met up with the kids for a Broadway spotlight melody thing.  A group of four people sang a sampling of Broadway songs from different plays. We were really excited about it.  Especially when we got there--they started with Les Misérables, then Phantom of the Opera.  They were really good! Then....it went south.  We didn't even know the other plays they were singing songs from. They were inappropriate for sure.  It was awkward because most of our group was on the front row and there weren't very many people in the audience.  But I just thought, I need to do something-they are my kids and I can't just sit here letting them and me listen and see inappropriate music and dancing. I went and got them and we left.  They were confused why we left, they thought it was going well. Haha. 

Love looking over the dessert menu! After the failed Broadway event, we went out for dessert--which we had planned on all along anyway. 

Then more fun at the hot tubs, Entourage and ice cream!

A glow dance party was the event that night.  They got these fun glow sticks in a mini white "pool noodle". 

The last full day was at the private island Norwegian Cruise Line owns, Great Stirrup Cay. This morning we didn't need to order breakfast items to our room because they had food on the island for lunch. Another early morning!  This was the only day we needed to take a tender from the ship to our destination. 

First up, zip lining! 

I was going to book us a private cabana and so wished I would have.  I originally decided not to because it was pretty expensive.  Either $300 or $600 or something. But once we were at the beach I SO wish we would have!  The beach was super crowded.  Plus the worse thing about the whole trip was the attire, or actually the huge lack of attire the women were wearing.  We found out that the ship we sailed on tends to attract college students on spring break.  I feel like that was the majority of the people.  They were great and all, no complaints about any rude behavior or wild partying.  But their clothing choices were horrible.  Even at the beach some mom were wearing horrid stuff.  Ugh.  SO wish I would have booked a private cabana!  I even asked that morning, but of course they were sold out. Next time I'm for sure booking a private place. Even Cal and Reed saw some inappropriate dancing at a 18+ party/karaoke thing on the island.  

The water was beautiful and most of us went snorkeling.  Haley, Reed and I were able to see things they sunk on purpose like a giant skull, an anchor, some mermaids and one more item that I can't remember. That was fun. We also rented paddle boards and then these full body floats. There was another extra expense. 

After zip lining Shanna realized she forgot her swimsuit bottoms and Cal never even wore his swimsuit because he didn't want to go swimming.  I should have brought it.  He does this often and almost always wishes he had brought his swim suit. So Lee went back to the boat to get the stuff, which took awhile.  Haley was going to go along to get her camera I think, but then she couldn't find her room key.  Thankfully it was in Elden's bag I think. I put it in someone's bag when we went zip lining.  That took extra time to figure out that Haley couldn't go with Lee. Lee found us after lunch.  Lee and I found the taco shack and I went with him to the buffet. 

A couple nights ago we met PJ's parents (PJ was in the Entourage group). Then last night I saw his mom and asked if we wanted to meet up for dinner.  The kids had a table together and then we adults and their little girl shared a table.  

After we took a few pictures and the kids had fun doing another scavenger hunt, playing games and receiving awards. Elden won the Smash Brothers tournament and Reed the best dance. Shanna won something too but she can't remember it right now. Lee and I also took a walk on the open deck.  We did that a couple times. One evening we also sat by the pool and played a game with Haley and Elden...I think it was Elden!

We then picked out the photos that the cruise people took.  We had a BIG photo credit and should have taken advantage of it more, but we didn't.  We had to get a minimum amount of photos so we just ordered multiple copies of a random photo.  Look at the photo bill!  Gasp!  Thankfully it was all free for us. They delivered our photos later that night or the next morning. 

Mix was the Entourage director. She's from the Philippines.  It was fun to talk to some of the employees here and there. Like the ones at the private island stay there for a few months at a time just living there and working. Every time anyone walked into the buffet area you would get your hands sprayed with hand sanitizer.  The ladies manning that post would say: "washy washy!" or "healthy healthy"!  It was very cute. The staff on the ship was awesome. Very nice and attentive. 

Our last morning arrived!  *Cry*.  I had heard that you leave your luggage outside your room the night before, but then I found out that there an option to just take your own luggage with you, which I loved.  So that morning we packed up, had breakfast and took our luggage with us. We got off the boat very quickly and went through customs really fast. 

We then waited for the shuttle to pick us up.  It was funny, a taxi driver told us that we should wait in this certain area.  We called the parking garage and they told us a different place.  But the taxi driver said that guy didn't know what he was talking about and that we should go to the place he said.  Well, the taxi driver was right, not the person at the parking garage who should have known! We found the place and made it to Chevy.

We then headed up to Georgia to drop Reed off.  We stopped at Culvers for lunch and then hung out at Lois's for the evening.  We left about 7 or 8pm to head back so Cal could get to a training he was a part of for Young Men.  But this happened in South Carolina...next post...