Millar Moments: TWO TRIPS TAKEN AND TWO BIRTHDAYS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

The first trip we took was to St. George to welcome home our granddaughter, Aubrey, from her mission. She came in on Friday, the 15th. We had to wait at the airport for an extra half hour as her plane couldn't land due to weather conditions. When it finally landed, the airport officials had the three returning missionaries wait until everyone else had deplaned. He then had the missionaries come into the special waiting area one at a time. Aubrey was last. It was so fun to witness all the hugs and tears of joy from Ryan and Katie and the rest of her family.

Because Aubrey had been traveling for 24 hours, it was decided that Ryan and Katie would take Aubrey to the stake president to get released and then home to relax and sleep. We wouldn't see Aubrey until later on Saturday so we went back to our unit at Worldmark. Todd and his family arrived after Aubrey landed so we met them at the Worldmark where we had secured a unit for them. When we were all settled in, we went to dinner and to the Alumni Creamery for ice cream - a must whenever we're in St. George. We then came back to the condos so the girls could swim in the pool, despite the cold weather. Paul and Todd and I stayed in the hot tub with Lincoln while the two girls swam in the big pool and then warmed up in the hot tub. (Kailee opted to just watch from the sideline.)The girls had a great time and were determined to swim again the next day.

The next day, we took Todd and Kailee and family to a park for children called Thunder Junction. We had visited this park on one of other trips to St. George and knew it would be a fun place for our grandchildren to play. We were right. They loved it, sliding, and spinning, and swinging on the many playground toys there. We even rode on a train. The whole park has a dinosaur theme which was also exciting for the kids. We were there for over two hours.

On the little train ride that took us around the park
to see more dinosaurs.

Later in the day, after going swimming again at the condo, we left for Ryan's home. We went earlier than the Thompsons so Todd and Kailee could see Ryan and Katie's new home. I was a nervous wreck the whole time because of their pool that is right outside the back slider doors. Todd and Kailee's children cannot swim on their own. All worked out ok as Grace took Avery and Aria under her wing and watched them carefully. We had a nice catered dinner from Costa Vida and were able to visit a bit with Aubrey and the Thompsons. It was a fun packed day, especially for Aria and Avery and Lincoln.

Sunday was Aubrey's homecoming talk. Their sacrament meeting wasn't until 1:30 so we had lots of time in the morning. The kids took advantage of it by playing on the playground equipment at the condo.

Aubrey's talk was wonderful. One could tell how important her mission was to her. She bore a powerful testimony of missionary work and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were so glad we could be in attendance to hear of her experiences of spending 18 months in Argentina.

Such a happy family to all be together again

Todd and Kailee left right after sacrament meeting to retune to Lehi so their daughters wouldn't miss school on Monday. We had dinner at Ryan's, visited for a while then left for the Worldmark to pack. We left the next morning so we could get ready for our next trip to Florida.

On Thursday of that same week, we packed again for a 10 day vacation to Florida for a short cruise and to see Jon and Mindi. We took the red eye flight to Orlando and waited a few hours at the airport for our transfer bus to the cruise ship. We have wanted to sail on one of Royal Caribbean's large ships so we booked a four day trip on the Allure of the Sea. It could handle almost 6000 people and definitely was a big ship. The weather was stormy when we boarded the ship and as a result we were not able to go into our first port of Nassau, Bahama. We just stayed out at sea avoiding the storm.

Sitting in the Central Park of the ship

The main street on the 5th level

The next day we ported at the private island of Royal Caribbean, Coco Cay. We went to the adult beach and lazed around on the beach chairs in the sand. The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed lots of sun. We avoided the other part of the island with its water slides and other activities designed more for families with teenagers and younger children. We enjoyed the relaxing nature of our 'Perfect Day' at Coco Cay.

The ship we were on was enormous so we got lots of exercise walking to where we needed to be. The food was good and the entertainment was amazing. We watched the full length production of Mama Mia, done as good an any Broadway production. We also were able to see a high diving show and an ice skating performance. We were very impressed with all this. The only draw back was the amount of people we were always fighting to get where we wanted to go, especially trying to get in an elevator.

Our ship is on the left. You can see how much bigger
it is from the other Royal Caribbean ship next to it.

Mama Mia

The high diving show

The ice skating performance

On Monday the ship returned to Port Canaveral where we boarded a bus to take us to the Kennedy Space Center. We loved seeing the displays, especially of the Apollo space program. These were the missions that were apart of our generation's achievements. The size of the space ships were amazing. We also toured the center for the Atlantis shuttle space program and again we were blown away by the engineering genius that had to have taken place to accomplish such an amazing feat as to return a space ship back to earth to be used again. After spending several hours here, we were taken to the airport where we rented a car for the duration of our Florida vacation.

The building where the space ships were built

The actual computers used to launch and monitor
the men of the Apollo program while in space

The capsule that returned the men to the earth

An example of the size of the space ships launched
into space in the Apollo program

The Atlantis space ship

We had reserved a Worldmark condo unit in Orlando to spend a few days there. The first day, we drove the International Boulevard and ate a late lunch at Bahama Breeze, one of Todd and Kailee's favorite restaurants in Orlando. The food was great. The next day, we drove south to Wild Florida for an airboat ride on the headwaters of the Everglades. Our hope was to see some alligators in their natural habitat and that we did. It was an amazing ride. We had purchased a half day pass which included lunch. We watched a couple of shows, one with alligators and the other with exotic animals. Both were interesting. It was an enjoyable day ending at Dairy Queen for ice cream then Mod Pizza for dinner.

We got a kick out of this sign along the roadside

On the airboat

One of two alligators we saw

The alligator show

An armadillo - one of the exotic animals seen

Paul's favorite-an exotic snake (not)

A chameleon

The swamp area with hundreds of 'knees.'

An albino alligator

Thursday was a lazy day of washing clothes and packing before going to a movie, Arthur the King. After the movie and another lunch at Bahama Breeze, we took Deon and Gary to the airport to fly back home. We stayed one more night and then drove to Ponte Vedra Beach to see Jon and Mindi where we spent the Easter weekend. They took us to a candlelight concert, an air boat ride, and to St. Augustine. We also enjoyed seeing their community and the home they had purchased.

The home Jon and Mindi purchased

Jon and Mindi are already planning on how
they will update this home, which is typical
of what they do.

The view from their back deck

An alligator in the pond

And a Snapping turtle

This beautiful bird drying himself off after diving
in the pond

Friendly duck coming to greet us on their deck

Our second airboat ride - this one in a totally different
kind of flora - old overhanging trees instead of reeds

Our driver and guide

We saw many turtles sunning themselves

An alligator

As osprey with a fish in his talons

In St. Augustine, this was once a high end hotel
until it went bankrupt soon after it was built due to the
difficulty getting to St. Augustine back then. Now it's a college.

A beautiful old church

The old narrow streets of St. Augustine.
Here we found pizza for a late lunch.
It was sold by the slice - 6 slices costs of $50.
They were asking $5 for a bottle of water that
was selling every where else for $2.
Good pizza but truly a rip off.

The St. Augustine fort built in a four pointed star shape

The beautiful St. Augustine harbor

On Sunday, after church, Jon and Mindi drove us around
Ponte Vedra Beach to see his office, and Carly's
school. They, then, took us to this beach which
is only about 2 blocks from their home.
They love to ride their electric bikes
along this beach.

The two birthdays celebrated this month were Nathan's, our grandson, and Kailee's. Even though Nathan turned 12 in February, we couldn't do his 12 year old birthday time with 'Ma and Pa' until March. Ryan brought him up on the first Friday night of the month and then, on Saturday, we took both of them to a BYU basketball game. Nathan is an avid fan so this was an exciting thing for him to be able to do. It was even greater because the Cougs won. Sunday we went to church and had an early dinner with Todd's family before Ryan and Nathan had to leave for home. Their trip home was marred by lots of snow. They ended up having to spend the night in Fillmore as the roads were snow covered over the passes in and out of Beaver. We were relieved when they finally got home Monday morning.

Watching some basketball with Pa

At the game

Playing Connect Four on Sunday afternoon

That Sunday was Kailee's birthday. Ryan and Nathan had to leave right after dinner so they didn't get to have cake and ice cream with us. Of course, I made a German Chocolate cake for Kailee as that is her absolutely favorite cake.