Blaine's January Travels

Blaine was around for 3 of the 4 weeks in December due to the holidays. But he had to get back to his regular schedule of traveling in January. He was sent to Ohio and West Virginia the 1st week in January. He flew into Nashville Tennessee, drove to middle of nowhere Kentucky, and did an install there. This was the week of the big snow storm. Then he drove another 5 hours to West Virgnia but worked in middle of nowhere Ohio. When he arrived at his hotel, they had overbooked it. By some miracle, the only other hotel in town had 2 vacancies and they put him over there for the night. Throughout the week, he had to jumpstart his car several times because it was that cold.

Anyway, all those things were annoying but the worst of all that happened was the dangerous chemical spill in West Virginia's water supply. When Blaine first told me, I didn't think it was anything serious. I happened to turn on CNN and it was on breaking news. He couldn't drink, bathe, brush his teeth or do anything with water for 2 whole days. Bottled water was sold out in every store. Restaurants, schools, and basically everything shut down. He did have red spots on his body and was feeling more tired than usual - both side effects reported from the spill. But Blaine didn't experience any other side effects or health problems after that. For that I am so grateful! When I picked him up from the airport, he was one happy (yet smelly) man. He ran straight to the shower as soon as we arrived home.

He also went to Tulsa Oklahoma last week. The weather did get in the negatives, but it was a relaxing trip compared to his previous install. He went to a Thunder game where Kevin Durant scored 46 points against the Trail Blazers. Blaine said it was an amazing experience. He also went to the Philbrook Museum of Art. When he goes on installs with other consultants, he gets out more and actually does things other than work.

Blaine's been to so many airports and cities that we're losing count! I won't even try to keep up with it in 2014...

Some of the Best Things that have Happened in 2014 So Far

Papo turned 19! We're only 5 years apart, but it really makes me feel old. We went out to eat at Los Verdes for his favorite Colombian food.

My beautiful and talented sister got an awesome new job, complete with her very own huge office :) She was at First Coast Service Options as an auditor for around 5 years. She is now the new director of accounting for the Miami office of Church World Service, an international nonprofit organization that helps immigrants and people in need all over the world. I used to work for them before leaving to BYU. I'm really proud of her and know that she'll do great in this new capacity. 

Nina and Luna visited! Blaine only saw them once for a little bit. He didn't let me hold Luna the whole time we visited and she had no problem with that. Little Luna fell asleep right in his arms! But I was able to spend a whole day with them. We ate good food, walked around Lincoln Road, and shopped at Aventura Mall (what Nina and I do best - somethings never change!). We stopped at my place quickly so that Nina could see Rue and so that Luna could meet her. Luna got so excited when she saw Rue. It was adorable. I wish I could've seen them more, but it was so so good to see my best friend and the world's cutest baby girl. Seriously, she's adorable and behaved so well the entire time! 

I've decorated our apartment a little bit more. It's a work in progress but it has been a lot of fun.

Everybody loves Grandma Sepuvelda's painting of the D.C. temple!

I tasted strawberries and cream oatmeal for the first time and now I'm obsessed. I have to stop myself from eating it everyday for breakfast. It truly is one of the best things that has happened to me this year :) 

Uli turned 12. That's right. For his birthday, my aunt gave his room a makeover. When he left for school, my grandfather and I started taking things down and started painting the room. It was a big family effort but by the time he got home from school, he had a completely new bedroom. It was a total surprise and he loved it. His cowboy room was nice but it was time for a more mature look! At night, we went out to dinner at The Big Cheese - one of Uli's favorite restaurants.

Andrea visited Miami and after years of being friends, I finally cooked dinner for her. We also celebrated her birthday by going out to dinner at Crazy About You.

Abuelo turned 70. We all got together after church to sing happy birthday to him. He's so excited for his trip to Europe in February.

The dates for the Fort Lauderdale Temple were finally announced. The open house will start as early as March 29th! The dedication will be on May 4th and the cultural celebration will be the day before. We are SO extremely excited to have a temple so close so soon! It has been an answer to so many prayers throughout the years for so many people. Also, as I work with the young women, I will be heavily involved in the planning of the cultural celebration. They called me to help with the choreography and teaching of the dancing portion of the performance for our stake. I'm so grateful that we get to be here for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Blaine got his first bonus with DealerSocket. He has been working extremely hard (and I have missed him so much) so this bonus is well-deserved! We celebrated by going to a little Spanish restaurant right by our house. It was delicious! We will definitely be going back for more. So far, 2014 has been a great year! 

New Year's

For New Year's Eve, we stayed in Miami. We tried to make it up to Gatlinburg with my aunt and family, but it was impossible with Blaine's work schedule. Bruce's parents were nice enough to invite us over for dinner. Afterwards, they had a small party with friends and people from church. I realized that since we've been together, we haven't spent a New Year's in Miami. It has either been in Orlando, Delaware or Gatlinburg. So it was nice to ring in the New Year here being that we are now both calling Miami home.

I made this no-bake cheesecake. One of my 2013 goals was to make cheesecake.
Barely did it in time!  

Papo and Rue were partners the whole night.

For New Year's Day, we slept in as we went to sleep way later than we're used to. At night, we played glow-in-the-dark monster-themed mini golf with Bruce, Damaris, & my mom (she just watched). Of course, Blaine won but we all had some pretty good holes (and some hole-in-ones). The place played tons of 80s music and Michael Jackson, so obviously my mom and sister had to bust some moves. We had a lot of fun.  It was a great way to spend the first day of the year.

Christmas

Christmas was different this year. We had the tradition Noche Buena for Christmas Eve which is basically the only kind of Christmas that my family celebrates. I love it and its always a lot of fun. This year, Bruce's parents and grandmother joined us as well as some of my uncle's family that recently arrived from Cuba. There was tons of good food and the weather was perfect. We ate outside, had a mini fireside about the birth of Christ, danced a little and waited for Santa to come (Santa comes early for Noche Buena because he obviously needs to start a little early to get all those presents delivered in time ;).

Rue received a lot of gifts from family - can you tell she's spoiled?

With my beautiful sister!

Love her

These 2 are always next to the food.

So handsome 

Blurry attempt at a group picture

After Santa dropped off all the presents for Ivan in the backyard (something else weird that my family does), the adults opened there presents. It was really nice. We were definitely spoiled by the amount of gifts we received. But the best gift of the night was a surprise gift for my grandfather by my aunt and uncle. Once we were picking up all the wrapping, by aunt acted like she found one last gift behind the tree for my grandfather. He opened it and couldn't believe his eyes. She prepaid for him to go on a 16-day trip to wherever he wants to go in Europe. He even got a little emotional. My grandfather loves to travel. Ever since my grandmother passed away, he hasn't been able to travel internationally again. So he was beyond excited when he opened this gift. It was a pretty neat experience.

On Christmas Day, Blaine and I opened our gifts. I wanted to make a big breakfast, but Blaine woke up early and said that he would take care of it. He returned with 2 dozen donuts from no other place but Dunkin Donuts. He's keeping the Dawson tradition alive. Granted, we didn't even come close to finishing 1 dozen but it was nice starting and instilling family traditions from both sides of the family. For lunch, we had grandma Dawson's meatballs. It really made us miss her and miss all of the Dawsons in general. Christmas just wasn't the same this year without a trip to Delaware/Idaho! But we did have a great time opening our stockings and gifts. Blaine got me a really nice pet monitor (its a monitor for anything but I call it a pet monitor for now :]) so that I may check up on Rue when I'm out and about. We're trying to un-crate train her so this will help out with that. After we opened gifts, we went to the movies with my mom, Papo, Damaris and Bruce to watch Anchorman 2. It was a relaxing day and it was so nice to have Blaine not working for real (he is always working even on Saturdays/days off). 

Our Christmas tree this year - my mom made me those bows

Photo on our Christmas card

I was a little sad to see Christmas go so quickly, but I'm grateful for the opportunity we had to spend time emphasizing and thinking about the most important birth ever. Blaine's parents got me the prettiest Willow Tree nativity starter kit and I loved looking at it everyday. It really helped me focus on Christ and not get caught up in the craziness of shopping (I only went to the mall once for gifts - record breaking! So grateful for online shopping & amazon). We appreciate all the holiday cards, gifts and well-wishes sent. We hope you had a very merry Christmas!

December

Speech therapy has been very fun during the holiday season. There are so many cute activities and crafts to do and it gives me the excuse to read my favorite childhood Christmas books. The downside to the holiday season is that a lot of people cancel or no-show for their sessions but I didn't have the worst of luck.

Candy sleighs that I made for my kids

For my aunt's birthday, we went to Disney world with the family. Blaine and I got seasonal annual passes. I have been dying to get them ever since we moved here. It's definitely worth it considering how often we go. So it was an early Christmas present. We went to Epcot and Magic Kingdom. While we were at Epcot, Kim and Jonathan joined us :) Disney was awesome as always and it was nice to have the whole family there. When we got back, we got together to cut a cake and sing happy birthday to my aunt.

Dragon slayers :) 

It was a gorgeous day and evening

New favorite thing to eat at Disney - waffle sandwiches!

Turkey-leg enthusiasts 

Jonathan & Kim had never ridden Figment before.

We went to several holiday parties this year. My job had a company party that was very nice. Blaine was able to get to know my work friends better and also meet their boyfriends and husbands. We danced a little bit and talked a lot like girls do :) It was a lot of fun to hang out outside of our typical work setting.

Most of the north staff

The next morning, we went to a holiday fundraiser for Best Buddies that was sponsored by one of the dealerships Blaine works with. It definitely made us miss Devin and all of the Best Buddies activities we'd go to with him. It was at Gulfstream Park, a race track for horse racing. We went for free and ate at their delicious buffet while watching the horses race from the inside. It was a really nice experience. I had never been to a racetrack before.

We also had our ward Christmas party. The young women were in charge of decorating and it all turned out nicely. Blaine was part of the Christmas play/program last minute as a Nephite. Somebody didn't show and the bishop's wife asked him to fill-in. If you know Blaine, you know that he hates doing stuff like this  especially without any prepartion. It wasn't a big deal at all but he wasn't excited about it. I think he did a great job  :)

That Sunday, Ivan was baptized. Now everybody in our family is officially a member. Ivan had been preparing for a while to be baptized. We are so happy he made the decision to be baptized. 

I also went to watch Ivan sing in his school Christmas show. It was really cute. I love watching little kids perform. Most of the songs were Spanish holiday songs, which I thought was a little strange and also hilarious. But I guess that's one of the things that happen when you live in Miami.

My mom's birthday was also in December. My aunt and her are the same age every year for about a week. We took her out to lunch at a nice restaurant called the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant. She's always loved that place ever since we were small. I hadn't been to it in years. At night, family and friends came to her house to sing happy birthday. Blaine made it right in time. He had been in Puerto Rico again.

For the last mutual of 2013, we had a Christmas dinner with the young women and their parents. We had a good turnout and had a lot of fun together celebrating the real meaning of Christmas.

We went to the Trochez 2nd Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party (its official) this year. Dinner was delicious and we had a ton of fun in the photobooth. We took the sweaters off immediately after we were done because it was hot and no matter how many times we washed them, some of them had a weird stench to them (the mystery of ugly Christmas sweaters is real). Valentina and Oscar were nice enough to let Rue come and play with Millie (their tiny Yorkie) so she was part of the fun too. 

She's a little too big to be carried, but Blaine is in denial. 

Aren't these hilarious? 

the boys

the girls 

We ALMOST went to the theaters dressed up like this, but decided not to in the end. It was a great night with friends. We miss our Utah friends a ton, but we're so grateful for the friendship of the friends we're making here! 

We visited Orlando the last weekend of the year. Kristin and Kathy were in town. Kristin just graduated from BYU-Idaho so we went to P.F. Chang's to celebrate. She's now working in Downtown SLC as a digital marketing intern for Deseret Book Co., so I was so happy to see her before she left again. We're all so proud of her.