Hughes Family: October 16, 2013 – October 31, 2013

October is pretty much all about one thing… Halloween. And I guess that’s okay if you like Halloween, but it’s not one of my favorite holidays. Too much candy, crazy costumes, piles of pumpkins and enough Halloween themed events to make your head spin (which would be very appropriate, given the holiday). Ah well! I’m a party pooper… what can say?

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Fall is underway and winter is visible on the horizon. Leaves change, leaves fall, children are at play. Leaves gone, cold comes, inside the children stay.

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Chloe dressed herself up as a zombie quite a few times this month. Here are a couple of highlights from her newest game. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, Mike received his Bear award.

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Cornbelly’s! The kids love their annual visit to this backwards celebration of corn stalks and hay. There’s always plenty to do- slides, mazes, paintball, wagon rides…

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hot chocolate, caramel popcorn, the corn box (like a sand box, but with corn!) and so much more. The adults usually hit Cornbelly’s as well but I was sick this go around. Next year!

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The Sabins held their annual Halloween party- it keeps getting bigger and better each year (eventually they will have to move to accommodate this party). In addition to the usual outrageous decorations and exciting activities our generous steam punk dressed  hosts provided a Waffle Love truck and Rachel took family pictures of the attendees! Our little one was very grumpy and this year we retired early, but come 2014 we will be back with an unholy vengeance.

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This year the kids decided to buy some fancy higher end pumpkins. The ghost pumpkins were really cool, but this green one (Mike’s) turned out to have skin that was about two inches thick. It was so difficult for me to carve that I ended up not even doing my own pumpkin.

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I think all the kids had fun going out trick or treating. This was the first year that Chloe really understood what was going on (although she didn’t really notice when all her candy disappeared). Mike and Claire ate everything you see here, while Gabe opted to trade out his candy for cash (“I don’t want to get sick” he wisely said).

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Fran gets pretty festive for Halloween. Nail decorations and special spooky treats abound-pumpkin shakes, ghost toast, swamp smoothies, seaweed octopus soup and dry ice beaker brew (I wish I could cram more pictures in here, but there’s only so much room).

It’s funny to me that the month of November isn’t overshadowed by Thanksgiving. I guess it’s just not that cool of a holiday (it’s certainly got nothing on Christmas). I leave you with the text of this wonderful internet meme that I’ve seen a lot lately: Black Friday – Because only in American do we wait in line and trample other for sale items one day after giving thanks for what we already have.

Hughes Family: October 1, 2013 – October 15, 2013

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Every morning Fran makes a veggie juice concoction and each morning I drink it. I think it actually might help! I just want to publicly thank her for taking good care of me. Biggest Looser is starting back up today and I’m pretty sure that will help jump start my health efforts.

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Chloe turned two this past week! We don’t have giant parties for the little ones (we wait until they ask), but she still got a cake and some fun presents. Below is a video of her blowing out her birthday candles. Do you think she knows what’s going on?

Mike is about done with football for the year. He’s spent most of his time as a lineman (usually offensive tackle). His coach says he’s come a long way and he’s doing a great job. Here’s a video from one of his last games (he’s number 50):

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For FHE we went and picked out some pumpkins (I think Macey’s is a good place to get them). This year they had some decorative pumpkins which piqued the interest of the kids. Part of me likes carving pumpkins (possibly next week) but another part of me wants to scream and throw them at people I hate.

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Last weekend we took a quick trip to Moab for some biking and sightseeing.  We started our trip by discovering we had the wrong size hitch for our bike trailer which put us an hour behind schedule (and the bad weather didn’t either).  This was our first trip in the Yukon and the kids were pretty much glued to the TVs. Fran navigated us up I-15 to extend the road trip since the ride was so wonderful (this is sarcasm).

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We opted not to rough it this time around and stayed at the Aarchway Inn. The room was spacious and well maintained (three queen beds!). The hotel property was also very nice and included a giant playground, a parkour course, picnic areas and lots of open space (some mud too… the kids loved it).

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Hotel highlights: Mercilessly raiding the vending machines, hotel breakfasts and a splendid dip the pool.

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Biking didn’t go quite as we’d hoped. Getting the bikes & helmets adjusted took more time than we expected. And then only about 1/4 mile into our trip disaster struck. We hit a cluster of thorns that ended up popping seven of our tires. We were able to temprarily fix most of the tires and managed to make it another few miles down the path (which was beautiful) but ultimatley we had to cut our biking excursion short. I guess we’ll have to go back to bike another time.

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On the way up to Moab I requested that we try to find good (tried and true) food to eat. Fran assured me that we would be relying on Trip Adviser and that I was in good hands. Our first day in Moab Fran said we were going to eat at the Mandarin Szechuan buffet. Once we had tried the food it was clear something was very wrong- it ranks among the worst buffets I have ever tried. Fran confessed that she hadn’t checked Trip Adviser. She had seen the Asian buffet, got excited and made an “emotional decision”.  It was bad food, but I have to say I think my wife is pretty cute!
Our next meal was at Zax (4/5 starts on Trip Adviser). It was better than Szechuan, but over all the mean was only so-so (really dry pizza). I guess you can’t necessarily trust reviews either. 
What say ye Moab travelers- where should be eat next time?

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On the way back from Moab we decided to trick the kids and made a detour to Dead Horse Point. Man, what a view! I found a good place to hang off a “cliff” for the obligatory “I’m about to die!” picture. If this had been real I’m pretty sure my kids would have stepped on my hands.

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A lovely family picture.

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And a lovey panoramic view from the edge of Dead Horse Point. If you haven’t been here before it’s worth the quick detour.

Arches opened back up while we were in Moab. It would have been fun to do take a quick drive though the park, but the kids weren’t up for it. All in all I think we came away with a lot of good memories of trip that didn’t go quite right. Next time will be better.

Hughes Family: September 11, 2013 – September 30, 2013

Ah… the gaps in my blogging are getting bigger and bigger. Each time I commit to writing bits of the blog posts as I go. But I never seem to have the time (or maybe it’s just a memory issue… I forget). I may slow things down even more with the holidays approaching. I know I say it every year, but this time I might mean it.

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We went and got family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. We’re still trying to figure out where this blond kid came from…

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Here’s a shot of my offspring. There’s no prouder dad anywhere than me.

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Claire had her 8th birthday this month! She invited some friends over and the they went to In ‘n Out (assisted by my lovely wife and I) and then…

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… back to the house for cake and a party. I don’t have pictures but after the party Fran took them down to the Provo Beach Resort for a ropes course adventure.

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After driving around our work truck for awhile it became apparent that I would need something a little larger. I decided to get another Tacoma (there will be a separate post about this… someday). I think I’ll name him Truxton.

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Recently the kids had their annual school fair. Because the weather looked bad they had it inside the school. Apparently it was crowded, claustrophobic and loud. One of the moms said “I hope my kids love it as much as I hate it.” The kids did have a good time romping around, getting their faces painted and winning prizes. Chloe got a cute face flower too.

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Usually for our dates we go to eat and see a movie. The past few weeks there hasn’t been anything we wanted to see so we’ve been organizing our warehouse, our garage and trying to get “important” stuff accomplished. On one of our dates we decided to try the Blue Lemon (Fran had eaten there once before). We both got fettuccine alfredo and honestly is was maybe a 4/10- just super bland. The soups we got were actually really good but I don’t know if we’ll give it another try.

Some good news:

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I recently mentioned my ticket I got for having no insurance. Our insurance company wrote a letter explaining what had happened. Although overly beaurocratic, in my opinion,  Lehi city was nice enough to dismiss the charges against me.

And some very sad news:

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1981 ~ 2013
Our loving son, brother, uncle and friend, Thomas Lee Allen, passed away in his sleep on September 19, 2013. Tom was born to Silja and Lee Allen in Little Rock, Arkansas on July 5, 1981. He moved to Provo ten days later with the family. Tom was active in scouting and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. After finishing high school he attended UVSC until going on an LDS mission to Birmingham, Alabama. He then entered the aviation program at UVSC. Professionally, Tom was an expert watch repairman and received top awards in sales. He was also a VP of Operations for a successful internet start-up. Tom enjoyed being an uncle, flying, hunting, fishing, camping, and BYU sports. He traveled widely with his family and friends and got along well with people wherever he was in the world. He loved his family and friends who were a very important part of his life.

I want to add a bit more here too. The picture on the right is from when Tom helped me go pick up a Corvette in Miami Florida. We flew in, picked up the car and drove the 2700 miles back in two days. There was no better road trip companion than Tom. The hours flew by and we had a blast cruising through the county. Yeah, Tom got a ticket and ran over a rabbit but that was just how he did things. I have so many good memories with Tom and even though we had a falling out in later years I will miss him more than words can say. R.I.P. buddy.

And that wraps things up for this stretch.

The Curious Misadventures of King Quincey

This is story my brother wrote a couple of years ago. I came across it in my email and decided to should put it up for the world to enjoy.

The Curious Misadventures of King Quincey
by Greg Hughes

King Quincey stood up from his noble seat and, with a wave of his royal fingers – each sporting kingly rings of authority featuring all colors of the rainbow – had one of his slaves hobble closer.

“I will see this bizarrely emaciated peasant now.”

The slave obeyed and the great doors to Quincey’s throne room creaked open, and from them came a hobbling man of undesirable attire. Quincey could tell a beggar from a mile away as soon as they got up close; they always smelled of manure and had an unsightly look about them. They were always asking for things, too. This older peasant was no different.

Quincey looked down at the man. “You have requested an audience, and I now grant one to you peasant. Speak quickly and with purpose.”

At first, the older man struggled to begin, but did so upon the slanting of His Highness’ curled brow. “Your eminence,” began the man, “my family is starving and no work can be had. We have tried everything, but I appeal to your glory and kindness to help your followers this one time. We desire no more than two loaves of bread.”

King Quincey looked hard into the man’s eyes and then, with an angry voice: “Two loaves of bread. Two!? Do you believe bread simply comes forth from ground? You make a mockery of this throne old man and I will see it dealt with. Guards!”

Four armed guardsmen immediately rushed to the scene.

“I will have this old coot stay here – fetch wife and children so that he may see spirit separated from body by means of quarter as warning for such unreasonable demand.”

The guards turned and left, and the old beggar took the ground in tears, screaming at the height of lung. Finally, when he could scream no more, Quincy began to laugh through his own tears.

“I got you!” Quincy laughed.

“What?” replied the beggar through tears.

“I totally had you going. Man, you should… oh man, had you seen the look on your face. I can’t even – did you think I was serious?! Everyone needs to have a sense of humor about these things. So, uh… what should I put you down for? Three loaves?”

Hughes Family: August 21, 2013 – September 10, 2013

Behold the mundane activities that make up our lives. Will my kids ever look back and read these posts to see that, all things considered, their lives weren’t as bad or unpleasant as they remembered?

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Fran bought some kind of super dooper orange press. The kids have been drinking a ton of fresh pressed orange juice. Lucky kids. I’m still waiting for someone to hand me a glass.

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Next Fran bought a giant box of bananas. We cut them up and she popped them in a dehydrator so we could have banana chips. Yum (not really). Lots of fruity stuff going on over here. But whatever makes her happy is fine with me.

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We decided to thin out our movie collection. We ended up with a pretty good sized pile of movies we were never going to watch again (a lot of them were duplicates from our Blu-ray migration). We sent the kids outside to sell them and told them they could keep whever they made. Lemonade stands eat your heart out. They made a few bucks and we were happy for them but mostly I was glad the Lehi Flasher didn’t show up.
Gabe was upset that he didn’t get any of the money (he opted not to help with the movie stand) so Fran put him to work cleaning. All the money earned was quickly wasted on junk. Long live American consumerism.

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Fran and I hit up a movie (Paranoia- only so so) and decided to sneak in some tacos. I don’t know if you have to sneak food into the Megaplex Theaters (there’s not actually any sign prohibiting outside food), but my gosh it was exciting when those tacos emerged from the recesses of Fran’s giant food smuggling sized purse. Yum.
In other news Chloe has started potty training! She’s not quite two and that may be why she’s not quite getting it.  Number one is going pretty well, but number two is always an exciting adventure. Fran has more patience than I do. If I had my way my kids would wear diapers until they went off to college.

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The other night I decided the kids and I should make robots to beat up (this was one of my favorite things when I was younger… lots of undiagnosed issues, I’m sure). All the kids got a robot and some punching lessons (Mike demonstrates here). I had roles of duct tape on hand to repair holes, tears and instances of dismemberment. Later I made the kiddos some cardboard weapons to use on the robots (and each other). A hammer, an ax, a dagger and sword all meted out massive amounts of damage and destruction and good time was had by all.

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I confess that I’m not a huge fan of most games to begin with… but playing against kids can be mind numbing. I don’t find my kids numb my mind too much if we play the right games though. I’m always down for some memory, chess or Jenga (I think we’ll be ready to try Monopoly soon). I can also withstand about ten minutes of making towers for Chloe to knock over.

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I took the kids to see Percy Jackson (pretty good!) because they were super excited about it (in fact I can’t think of anything they’ve been more excited about this year).

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It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been pulled over (surprise!). On Labor Day we had a small window of time in the early morning and decided to head up to American Fork canyon for a quick hike. About two minutes into our journey we got pulled over. The reason? No insurance. I didn’t realize the police could tell if you had insurance or not by scanning your plate. But no worries- it was a simple misunderstanding. Right? Nope. We didn’t actually have an insurance card in our Yukon and the policeman wasn’t able to confirm through Allstate that we had insurance. Long story short: It turns out we didn’t have insurance. As soon as we bought the Yukon Fran had called to add it (and remove the vehicles we sold) but our local Allstate company dropped the ball and didn’t make any of the changes we requested (hopefully we’ll be able to get that all sorted out). Unfortunately this stop took so long that we had to turn around and go home.  Perhaps fate intervened and stopped us from taking a fateful trip into the canyon that day? Who knows.

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Fran and the kids temped fate later by actually making it to AF canyon and taking a hike (everyone survived). I can’t remember what I was doing- handling some problem, probably.

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Mike has football games every Saturday now. Fran usually goes up at the start and I try to hit them toward the end. I’m not a big fan of football and I have to say that watching Mike’s team play doesn’t help. I’m glad Mike seems to like it though.
For our date Fran and I went to the new warehouse and took some time to organize our junk. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- I love those Costco shelves.

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Erin and her clan rolled into town for the SLC Comic Con. On Sunday we all went and ate with my parents. Doug brought out his impressive R2D2 (it pretty much does everything the one one in the movie did sans flying) much to the delight of my kids (particularly Chloe).

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Ah kids… who else covers their faces (and bodies) with tiny stickers? Who else wants to race a box down the stairs? Who else eats hazelnut peanut butter in the bathroom and then hides the evidence under the sink? I love these little people.

Hughes Family: August 2, 2013 – August 20, 2013

Oh man- these past few weeks have intense. Personally intense, that is to say. I’ve been handling a lot of stuff. I am tired…

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We started off the month by breaking our bed. I wish I could say that we were doing something exciting (yeah, you know what I mean) but the fact is it just collapsed when I hopped onto it. You can make fat jokes, but we’ve had this frame for a looooong time and it had developed some cracks where the wood joints are. Later that night Mike broke Claire’s bed while he was jumping on it. Two beds, one night. Long story short- most of us are sleeping with our beds on the floor for now. It’s actually kind of nice…

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I spent some time fixing the dent in my Camaro fender. This was my first foray into auto body work. I bought the replacement part, had them paint to match and spent an afternoon fitting it in. Even though there was a small scrape on the front fender I opted to just touch it up instead of replacing the entire bumper. My insurance deductible is $700 and this cost me less than half. Overall I have to say I think I did an excellent job!

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The kids enjoyed their last few days of summer by going to… somewhere with water. I’m not really sure where this is. Judging by the Astro Turf I’d say it was Seven Peaks. They appear to be trapped in some torso bubble with handles.
In honor of the summer’s end we built a massive fort in the living room. This required nearly all the couch cushions, pillows and blankets we could find. We used two fans for ventilation. The kids all slept inside the night we built it and it survived nearly three days!

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Each Sunday one of the kids “helps” Fran cook dinner. This is Mike making some Thai soup. Fran said he actually got into it and did a great job. I had some soup and I can vouch for it’s yuminess. I feel like this picture needs a caption: “You want me to help? Okay, but I’m putting in some booze.”
And this is the children floating around at Libery Land. Or Trafalga North… or whatever it’s called now. Tip: Little kids (i.e. Chloe) can’t do anything at the park. Live and learn.

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Mike had his first football game. He looks so tough (and cute) in this football uniform. He’s a little apathetic at times, but he’s a good blocker and made a great tackle during one of the plays.
School started (tee hee!) and our oldest three are now in school all day (bwah ha ha!). So far they all seem to be enjoying their new classes. It’s crazy how fast they all grow up.

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One of the things that’s kept me super busy is trying to sell my cars. Maintaining / fixing everything has been a huge source of stress for me so I decided it was time to purge. Right now I’m in limbo- I’m really sad to see these cars go, but I’m hoping when the dust settles I can regain some sense of control.
Ode to the truck: You never let me down. You were always there for me. We moved little things, we moved big things and every time you moved me. Thank you old friend. 
Ode to the Camaro: You looked great, you drove well. A little slow, a little hard to handle, but that’s just your nature. We had some good drives and you will be missed.

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This one pains me more than the others. This is, in my opinion, is the sexiest car I have ever seen, let alone owned. Each time someone shows interest I want to cancel the auction, tell them it’s not available, tell them to go away. But I know what I have to do…
And the Vette… Still at RaceCo. I need to get it running. It’s the one car I might keep. But even that’s in the air right now. In nothing there is freedom. Do I sound crazy? Maybe I am.

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I don’t see a good segue into the fact that Fran got a Yukon. The kids are old enough now that we thought maybe they could handle something a little nicer than our minivan (jury’s still out). We actually went up to Idaho to get this beauty (sorry we didn’t have time to vist Erin!). This is a pretty sweet ride. You ever had your butt cooled by your seat? No? Come on over.

I’ve spent a few evenings hanging out w/ the guys too – The Jorgensens are back in town for August so we have gotten together with Andrew a couple of times. Just like the good old days. Somehow we ended up watching Catwoman the other night. It hurt us all pretty badly, but the bond between survivors of events like these is strong.

 

Hughes Family: July 25 2013 – August 1, 2013

It’s been a long time since Fran and I took a vacation together. We had planned something for our 10th anniversary, but Chloe altered our plans a little bit. But for our 12th anniversary we decided to splurge a bit and take a trip to Sandals Grand in St. Lucia.

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The first leg of our flight (about four hours) took us to Georgia where we spent the night at a Marriott. The next morning our second flight (another four hours) took us to the St. Lucia airport. We went through customs, gathered our bags and settles in for the 1.5 hour drive to Sandals (next time we’ll take a helicopter). We stopped along the way to take in some of the beautiful views of St. Lucia’s coast.

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The Sandals Grande Resort is awesome. It’s a little dated in terms of decor, but nearly everything on the grounds is well groomed and beautiful. We opted for a private rondoval suite.

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The rondoval was awesome- everything inside was immaculate. We had our own private patio with a plunge pool, jacuzzi, hammock, and outdoor shower. I was surprised at how functional and fun such a tiny pool ended up being. The beach was just a minute’s walk out from the rondoval. The fine white sand was peppered with beach chairs, cabanas and various trees. The water was a gorgeous blue and complemented by the mostly sunny skies.

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We spent a lot of time lounging in our beach cabana, the plunge pool (it was fun to just float) and we played in the sea (I had forgotten how salty it is- yuck). The weather was nice the entire time. It rained a little, but it was always warm tropical rain that passed after only a few minutes.

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The food at Sandals was good, but not great. They have eight different places to eat and I think we tried five of them (including the complimentary room service). One thing we noted was the small serving size of the meals, which was just fine with us. On our anniversary we tried Sandal’s premier dining experience at Gordon’s (which is at the end of a pier). It was excellent until they brought out the main entree (we ordered veal over risotto). It was huge and while it was okay, it was disappointing compared to the rest of our meal. But the atmosphere and company were excellent 🙂

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I could have lounged and read for the whole trip but Fran is the adventurous sort. We went kayaking a couple of times and she wanted to climb the peaks on Pigeon Island. I obliged- it was a good hike with some great views. At one point St. Lucia was  fought over by the French and British and there were some cool military relics to look at and a lot of interesting history behind them.

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The is the Sandals resort as seen from the top of the highest peak on Pigeon Island. If there had been a zip line down to the resort from the top it would have been perfect.

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Our rondoval came with two butlers, Benedict and Clynns. They made dinner arrangements for us, booked our cabanas, brought us drinks and food and made sure we were having a great time. They even poured a bubble bath for us and decorated the room!
I haven’t been out of the country as an adult so it was cool to get a stamp on my passport!

It was so wonderful for me to be able to reconnect with Francoise in a more intimate setting (no kids!). I only have two regrets: I wish I had applied more sunscreen and I wish I hadn’t walked into a pool with Fran’s phone in my pocket (we lost some trip pictures). Overall it was an incredible (and much needed) vacation.