Resistance is Futile

I totally caved. It was a valiant effort to be sure!

Ode to Carie

Carie

I think I have some of the most amazing people on the planet as friends. One of them is Carie Skinner. Her husband Mark and my husband Jeff were friends at BYU before either of them were married. If I remember right Jeff was Marks best man at their wedding. On our second date he brought me to their house. Carie and I clicked instantly. When they lived in Vegas for a short time we would stop in for visits on our way to and from Utah. Then when they moved to southern CA we went down and stayed at their house more weekends than I can count.

Carie and I share a love for reading, clothes, home decor, running and so much more! They moved from southern Ca at least 8 years ago. I haven't seen her since then. I don't even know if Jeff and Mark have spoken to eachother, but Carie and I have kept in touch. She talks about as much as I do, but is way more interesting, incredibly well read, totally classy and so much fun to be with. I am always anticipating her next blog posts, usually I feel validated by them, knowing that I am not the only person out there who thinks and feels or does like I do. Often I am inspired to try my hand at something new, a latest attempt to give Martha Stewart a run for her money. Always, I am charmed by her writing style and clever mind. I would that I could have half of her wit.

A day or two ago she had a post that has stayed in my mind. I love the idea of each of us having a default setting, and like Carie, I would love for mine to be open delight. I have copied and pasted her post onto mine, for those of you who don't want to follow the links. If you are willing to venture out, check out her blog from my column to the right.

(Below is Carie's Post)

A few months ago, I read "The Middle Place" by Kelly Corrigan.

I think about the following quote all the time. The author speaking of her father:

"I think people like him because his default setting is open delight. He’s prepared to be wowed—by your humor, your smarts, your white smile, even your handshake—guaranteed, something you do is going to thrill him. Something is going to make him shake his head afterward, in disbelief, and say to me, “Lovey, what a guy!” or “Lovey, isn’t she terrific?” People walk away from him feeling like they’re on their game, even if they suspect that he put them there."

I want my default setting to be open delight.

POSTED BY CARIE AT 4:09 PM

Going Green

A few weeks ago I bought a green wig, deciding on a whim that I would wear it wherever I went on St Paddy's Day. Last week when Haley and I were talking about going skiing and choosing a day, Wednesday was the only one that worked for both of us. On Monday it dawned on me that I would be skiing on the Irish holiday. I decided I'd wear my wig anyway and decided to head back for the green boa. I texted Haley last night and asked if she would join my crazy antics. She responded "TOTALLY!" I was thrilled, and headed back to Target for a matching get up.

I thought it was so interesting that because we obviously werent taking ourselves too seriously, we were somehow more approachable. Everywhere we went everyone had something to say, at the very least we got a HUGE grin.

People called out to us from the chair lifts as we would ski below them, and they would look up and wave as we rode the lift up the hill. We heard it all today, lots of "Happy St Patricks Day"s and tons of "LOVE the boas ladies!", we were offered drinks in the cafe, and hit on more times than I care to remember. I blame the latter on the massive amounts of alcohol traditionally consumed on this holiday. Regardless, it was the most entertaining St Patricks Day I've had to date!

Outrageous clothes make for fun days. We were rock stars today. Tomorrow I'll happily go back to my regular old self, but just for today I had fun going green!

St Thomas Virgin Islands

St Thomas is beautiful. Talli couldn't get over how much it looked so much like Okinawa Japan where she grew up. The gorgeous beach in front of the dive club was the backdrop for many a photo and had us all ooh-ing and aah-ing.

The staff at St Thomas Dive Club were more than patient with us as we figured out just what everyone needed and which people were doing what on the boat that we had at our disposal for the day. We had 2 certified divers, Jeff and me, and two taking Intro to Diving, Jason and Jeremy, and 5 snorkelers, and one just along for the ride.

When the cool chick behind the counter, Jenn Kerr told us she was going to be our dive master for the day we were thrilled.

She taught Jason and Jeremy the basics of Scuba Diving as the boat sped us off the coast line and out to a little out cropping of land a little ways out.

We all geared up and jumped into the gorgeous water.

Aaron

Aren't the masks the cutest? So flattering too... Ha!

(Talli, Jeremy, Jenn, and Jason)

Jenn had Jay and Jer do a few skills and made sure they were comfortable with their gear and then the five of us were ready to do some diving!

(Jen, Jay, Jeremy, and Jeff)

It is hard to explain how different scuba is from snorkeling. You feel like you are in a totally different world. It is calm and peaceful when you are deep in the ocean. Moving takes almost no effort. It must be a little similar to being in outer space in that way. I often roll over and look up at the people snorkeling above me and think,"they have no idea what they are missing out on down here!" I was so excited that Jason and Jeremy were going to experience this with us.

Jeff and Jason

Jason, Jeremy, and Jeff

Jenn was an incredible instructor and both of the guys were at ease as we explored the wreck site we were diving. It was pretty dang cool!

Jeremy and Jeff

Jeff

Jeff

We also saw some interesting little creatures down there. We even saw an octopus. Jeff tried to touch it and it inked him! Here is a picture of what his fingers still looked like a few hours later...

Jenn Kerr

Jeremy

Jeff

While we explored the wreck below our friends snorkeled above us and did a little exploring of their own.

Tara

Phil

Talli

Haley and Tara

By the time we had finished diving, all our snorkeling friends wished that they had taken the intro course with Jeremy and Jason. I can't wait for them to see what all the fuss is about!

When our time with St Thomas Diving Club was up we were ready for some lunch!

We found a great place called Jen's Cafe!

It was such a cute little place and the food was awesome!

After lunch we still had some time to wander around downtown and check out all the little shops.

We came across all kinds of goods for sale from Rolex watches to the incredibly bizarre. Talli and I ended up finding some really cute sun glasses.

It was almost comical how many times we had to fight off all the Taxi drivers offering to take us back to the ship. I am certain I can say without exaggeration that we were asked if we wanted a taxi a minimum of 50 times!

It was such a relief when we finally were ready to get on one that we would be left alone for a few minutes. Here we are in our "Taxi".

We watched from the ship as the sun set over another perfect day.