Surprise! Happy Birthday Momma

A couple months ago I decided I wanted to surprise my mom for her birthday! I missed my dad's birthday a couple weeks ago, and Mother's Day, so really is was about time.

The flight from SLC to Long Beach is just a hop, skip, and jump. My dad picked me up at the airport and lucky for me, my grandparents were at the house too. My mom was happy to see me, and I think was satisfied that she finally figured out "why your father was acting so weird the past couple of days." Moms, nothing gets past them.

We all went out to a movie at this super primo movie theater.



The seats are in pairs so I got one all to myself. It was pretty much the best way to watch a movie ever Too bad the movie was super weird.

Afterwards we went to this deli across the street. So. Much. Food. Good thing we all like leftovers.



Next we went to this new-ish cake place that mom had scoped out before.



Hooray for trying new places.

Here is the birthday girl with her cupcakes.

I love birthdays and the opportunity it gives us to feel so grateful that we have amazing people in our life. I am grateful for my mom and what a wonderful human being she is. She is smart, funny, and very creative. I love that she always likes to try new things. As I grow up I love to see how I am becoming like her, and how I hope to be more like her. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA!

America!

I have a lot of blog catching up to do, but this being the start of my 2nd full day back in the good ol' U.S. of A, I thought I might as well blog about the present!

Yesterday, my first full day back, was fairly uneventful. Ross hasn't started studying for the Step yet, so we just hung out and ran errands with Ross's brother, Mark.

It's a weird feeling being back in that, it doesn't feel too weird. I joked at the airport, "It's just like riding a bike!" It doesn't feel bizarre, it feels normal. That is, normal and cold. The air is so dry and cold. Everyone keeps making fun of me because I am always over dressed.

As part of my uneventful day Ross and I took a walk to a local Family Dollar. They have them all over here in Utah, but I have never been in one. As you might imagine, it is a little bit like a Walgreens and a Big Lots. The store location was closing, so everything in the store was marked down.

I am a bit of a wanderer. I like pointlessly walking or browsing. Ross and I browsed for a little bit and picked up some things we needed, and didn't needed.

One thing I have been looking forward to is how inexpensive groceries are in the U.S. Not only could I probably not find some of this stuff in Grenada, but if I could it would be pretty expensive. I got all of this stuff for less than $25 bucks! I was so excited. Obviously so excited I felt the need to take a family portrait of it all together.

Ahh capitalism!

Back In the U.S. of A!

NOW we are for reals.

Knowing that we would most likely volunteer for standby, I guess I never seriously entertained the thought of actually getting on that plane and leaving. We kissed out sweet hotel room goodbye and headed to the airport.

Since we were already checked in we got to stroll right up into the business class line.



Don't mind if I do! My friend Karla checked us in and I almost completely lost it knowing that this meant goodbye forever. Ross and I quickly headed over to security so I could at least cry in front of a dozen strangers.

Ross and I hung out with his cool classmates before we anxiously boarded the plane. I gave Karla one last tearful hug and headed out on the tarmac.

I absolutely love this photo I took of our friend Ida. She is so dang happy to be headed home forever!!



It was on my STBL to take a photo out of a plane. What better time than my last views of Grenada?

I was right over the plane wing, but I still like the pictures.

Once we landed in AMERICA we headed straight for food. Any food. We ended up eating at Corona Beach Bar in the airport. Once we all got our food we took a fantastic photo that I need to track down.

We all look so happy in the photo. I love it. What a welcome to America!

See Ya Lata- Hold that Thought

As many of you know, Ross and I planned on flying out of Grenada Saturday, May 17th. You know, along with every other person in Grenada.

Friday night was really weird; packing up and putting the finishing cleaning touches on the apartment.

Ross cleaning off the top of the closet

All our stuff from the past two years was packed up in 4 bags, 2 carry-ons and a couple backpacks. I was pretty surprised but all the bags were comfortably under weight. In the morning my fantastic friend Erin gave us a ride to the airport. As we were leaving Lance aux Epines I saw a SGU school bus. That wasn't so weird, but it was awesome to think that I would never have to wait for, miss, or ride one of those ever again. As Erin drove down Maurice Bishop Highway, windows down and fresh Grenada air blowing on my face, something so normal felt surreal, "This is it."

Ross and I planned on flying out that day but not really. Long story short, American Airlines consistently overbooks their flights (particularly at this time of year) and they offer vouchers to travelers who "give up" their seat and travel on standby.

I have an amazing, absolutely incredible friend who helped us out. It really could have been a disastrous morning what with my travel reservation made in my maiden name, a couple false alarms, and re-booking our tickets. My friends sure aren't making it easy to leave this place.

Ross and I decided to give up our seats and fly standby. This meant we would stay an extra day in Grenada. It's a pretty sweet deal, they give you American Airlines voucher money, a food stipend, and put you up in a local resort. Also, they provide your transport to and from the airport in a nice taxi van.

I was blown away by the service of the staff at Dodgy Dock, the resort we stayed at. The room was far better than I could have hoped for.



The room had two levels and gorgeous views! I thought the decor was pretty cool too.

The second level had a bathroom with a walk-in shower with jets! And another pretty view.

I think our favorite feature was the AC though! I thought we might go to one of the pools they have, or venture to the beach, but we just relaxed inside. I honestly don't know why we have never traveled like this before. It was awesome to be packed and moved out of the apartment, but have time to decompress and say a couple more goodbyes.

The best part was that our original itinerary had a 24 hour layover in LAX, so we arrived at our final destination in Utah at about the same time had we not taken the voucher. It was a truly beautiful last day in Grenada, and it made the upcoming full day of travel a breeze.

RDR Apartments: Our Home

Now that I am sitting here, not living in my apartment - completely moved out, I figured it would be a great time to post pictures of my apartment. Backwards as always!

I was talking to my sister Jen and she reminded me that I never showed her pictures of my apartment. Since I spent the day packing and cleaning and leaving, I figured the apartment was finally in a state my mom would approve -CLEAN.

Jen, here you go!

This is a picture Rissa took when she was visiting in December.



We live(d) on the top floor, center. We got that romantic Romeo & Juliet balcony.

One of the reasons I love this apartment is that I feel really safe. When you go up the stairs, there is a locked gate to the second level.

Ross in action opening the gate door, and our front door, #8.

Here is the view from our front door. Everything is so dry.

The front door opens up to my small kitchen. To the right is a small couch covered in luggage. The the left is a table and a couple shelves. My least favorite thing about the kitchen is the lack of counter space. My favorite thing is there are 4 windows.

Heading back to the bedroom, you can see the door for the bathroom on your right, the bedroom straight ahead. This picture is from the hallway, looking back at the kitchen/ front door.

Here is the bathroom, empty but clean. The cute towels and shower curtain were all packed up and gone by this point. The best thing about this room is the BATHTUB! It is not very common for apartments to have bathtubs here in Grenada, so this is nothing short of a miracle/ gold mine. Definitely a huge selling point for me. 

The second best thing about the bathroom is this funny little electric razor charger.

Next the bedroom. Once again, all packed up and pretty plain. No more pretty afghan or red sheets. Through that door is the balcony, as you can see pictured on the right. With the awesome magnetic mesh to *try* to keep out bugs. 

Another view of the room from the balcony door. From this angle you can see back down past the bathroom to the kitchen.



It's a bit small, but very cozy. This might be my favorite home I have shared with Ross. The owner/ property manger is the best. Very flexible, super fast to fix things, and even better -pre-emptive. Every once in a while she will send a handyman around to check things out, or a plumber to clear the drains. And at least once a year she sends a guy to spray for cockroaches. I got a little emotional as we left, remembering all our good times in this apartment in the past year.

But alas, it is time for a new chapter, and I am ready. :D

Pack, Clean, Repeat BREAK!

As you can tell from my previous post, packing and cleaning, cleaning and packing has been the bane of my existence. Ross and I are sooo close to being done. I can just feel it. Because Ross and I have a terrible track record of amicably packing and moving, I built-in little breaks. The breaks were designed to help us get some fresh air and enjoy our last moments in this beautiful country. 

After some Friday morning packing we headed to the ever-classic Grand Anse beach. 

The beach is a great photo accessory - it always makes you look great.

I love our tan lines. You can tell we have desk jobs. ;)

I took a ton of photos and a couple videos. I'll miss this being our backyard, but I just have to remember that getting to hang out with Ross in the warm Caribbean waters wasn't every day life, but a nice perk once in a while. 

After some beach time and swimming we decided to get some lunch at Umbrellas, a restaurant on the beach. I ordered a virgin pina colada of course. I got into a bit of a habit of ordering them every once in a while if we went out. I am happy to say I found the BEST one on the island. I am sad to say I found it on my second to last day on the island. Haha. 

As Ross and I were staring out at the amazing view from our table, we laughed to ourselves. Grand Anse was the first beach we went to, and Umbrellas was the first restaurant we ate at. Funny how life so often comes full circle like that. 

Our friend Ethan met us and later we took a classic beach pic with him. 

We will take as much beach time as we can get! But for now it's back to packing. 

Half Way There

It is DONE! Finally official, Ross has completed and passed his first two years of medical school. As his classmates were joking, "We have the "M" of the "M.D." The Basic Science (classroom) years of now a thing of the past. 

I had this plan to meet Ross outside the lecture hall after his last final, but as always I was running late. So instead he found me up at the Office saying a final tearful goodbye to my co-workers. After that awful experience was over we headed down to the 5th Term/ 3rd Year party. SGU rewards the students with beer for purchase.

In front of Taylor Hall, you can see the tent and crowd of people over to the right

Ross and I opted for alternate beverages, but joined the party with big smiles and sighs of relief.



I have never seen a happier group of people in my ENTIRE LIFE. I took pictures with some of Ross's classmates that adopted me even though I'm not in school. Carolyn on the left, Ida on the right.

You could feel the tension from the students just rise up and evaporate into the hot humid air.

Our friend Ethan took some photos of us and I love how happy Ross and I look!



Seriously, just check us out!

Ross with our friend Ryan.

Bye campus! See you again -never!!

Somehow we got recruited to take a picture with some of Ross's classmates. We weren't planning on it though, so we arrived unprepared. I felt bad about it, but I think they were all just excited to be done. No one cared that Ross was in a t-shirt and flip flops.

Lizzy took the photos and thanks to her talent they turned out great!



Best of all, we got a private photo shoot.

Thanks a thousand Lizzy! You are so awesome to share, they turned out great despite our unpreparedness.

These Petersens won't be "Beyond the Sea" for long!