Kyle and Lisa Frei Family

We packed our bags and loaded everyone in the car and drove to Las Vegas friday night. I could tell from the drive down that this was going to be a vacation that we would be laughing and talking about for years to come. When we are all together we are pretty fun!

We flew on the red eye flight that left Las Vegas at 11:00 pm. I can see how the night flights have got that nickname! I can't sleep on airplanes and so yes I have some red eyes and dark circles. 

We landed in Miami at 6:30 am. Everyone was so tired that they just crashed on the airport floor. I can't sleep on the floor either! 

We had a five hour layover in Miami and then finally we were off to Curacao!

We landed in Curacao at 3:00 pm. Wait, did I say landed? I meant to say that we dropped, caught a little more air and then rolled into Curacao! Ha, we need Scott here to adjust all of our backs and necks. It was a pretty rough landing. My boys were laughing about it and saying, "now that pilot has whip swag". 

We all piled into the terrist (inside joke) van and drove to the resort. I took a few photos on the drive. I love this quaint little island and I always want to document everything so that I never forget what it looks like and the fun we have here.

Chase finds something Korean everywhere we go.

The best place to get fresh crab. And yes I will be food blogging it when we go there. 

The people know DeeAnn and Jerry  so well that they all come running out to great them. I love these people. 

The good ole van. We had ten people in it plus all of our luggage. It makes us all laugh because when ever we go around a turn the tires squeal and we can always hear someones head bump the window. After we were all unpacked we took the scenic route the grocery store. Yes, that means that we kind of got lost. Ha, the grocery store is always really entertaining because they usually can't speak English. When I went to pay for our groceries my credit card would not work and they could not tell me why. So I tried another card. It would not work either!! And they still could not tell me if it was declined or if it was their machine struggling with the conversion. So I tried a third one, and it didn't work!!!!!! Finally Kyle tried his and it worked. My credit card companies had blocked my cards because of suspicious use, even though I had called all of them and told them where we were going and to not block my accounts! It wouldn't be that big of deal if they could just tell me this in English. After we got back we all crashed! Except Chase and Zack. They went out to see if there was anything fun going on or any girls to hang out with. They were back really fast. So I guess as Hunter would say, they have no swag.

On Sunday we got up way to early to go to church. It started at 9:00 am so that would be 6:00 am for us. We are still feeling the jet lag. Going to church is one of my favorite things to do on vacation. I love to attend foreign wards especially. The spirit is always so strong in these little wards and branches. The people are always so humble, kind and welcoming. The surprising thing about attending church somewhere else is that my boys always get up and get ready with no resistance. They want to go! Today when we got to Sacrament we were so fortunate to have the area seventy speaking. He gave an amazing talk. I was so grateful to have the missionaries there so that they could translate for us. When Haden handed me his headset that we hear the translation through he said, "wow that was such a great talk". That boy is to wise for his age. During sunday school and relief society we did not have translation and I have no idea what they said. Sunday school was in the Papiamento language and relief society was in Spanish. I did understand a few words like repent, faith and Jesus Christo. Every time that I am in Curacao I tell myself that this is the year that I am going to learn Spanish. Ha then I get home and there is not enough time.  Even though I could not tell what they were saying I still loved it and it is interesting to watch and listen and try to understand. The spirit speaks in a universal language and I could feel the spirit so strong today in this little branch.

 

The sun is so bright here. Especially around light colored buildings. That is why most of the buildings and homes in Curacao are painted a bright color. It was so hard for everyone here to keep their eyes open without sunglasses for the photo.  I told them to stand next to the church because it was shaded. One of the missionaries agreed and said yeah we don't want to look like Asians! HA it only worked on one photo! All of the other photos looked like the one below.

What a beautiful end to our first full day in Curacao!