Gordon was invited to join "The Academy". It is a big deal. He had to be recommended by his boss and the president of Intermountain had to write a letter of recommendation for him and then he had to be accepted. The first conference for The Academy was in Florida. We had heard from another doctor that it was a tough group and they felt really uncomfortable there. I had already bought my ticket or else I might have bowed out right then and there. Well I decided to go and make the best of it. I invited my dear friend Brandi (who was the stake primary president I served with) and one of my most fashionable friends to help me pick out clothes to wear while in Florida. After going through my closet she declared "You have nothing that you can wear." So we went shopping for non-mommy clothing because apparently I have none. We pulled together enough outfits for the welcoming evening, the Lily Pulitzer night, the Black and White night and for the day activities which included cooking school, shopping, walking, water aerobics, Kentucky derby hat making and snorkeling. I am not a huge shopper but Brandi and I found some really great things. I really wanted to make a good impression. I hate fitting a stereotype and when you are a Mormon, stay at home mother of 7 people stereotype you and its nice for people to see that Mormons are normal (kind of) :). We stayed at the Ocean Reef Resort in Key Largo, FL. The Obamas just spent spring break at this resort. Gordon and I flew from Salt Lake to Los Angeles to Miami. I saw the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean all in 6 hours. It is incredible! The Ocean Reef Resort is very exclusive and to get in you mush present ID and they check on the register to make sure that you are a registered guest and then you are given a pass for just the days that you are registered for. We had a really nice room. I had a full kitchen, living room, bedroom, dressing room, bathroom, and deck. Gordon was gone every day from 8 until 5. We would meet for dinner and not get back to our room until 10pm. The first morning Gordon left and I was scheduled for a walk with the other spouses. We met and I realized how nice people are. I had a wonderful time talking and getting to know ladies from all over the country. While we were walking the head lady points to me and asks how many kids I have. I said 7 and everyone looked at me in disbelief. Then she says "7 times 5 is 35. So 35 lunges right here." I apologized profusely for having so many children. It was a really nice ice breaker. Everyone knew me as the lady with 7 children. People talked to me about my kids and I was able to talk about James' prospective mission call and him serving a mission for our church. It was such a great experience. One day during lunch I shared the plan of salvation. Not because I wanted to be preachy but because they kept asking me questions. The last evening we had dinner with a great couple from Philadelphia and the gospel came up again. It was wonderful. People are so curious about Mormons. It's nice to be able to answer some questions and clear up some misconceptions. I did snorkel for the first time in my life. That was an adventure. I am so afraid of open water and the water was so choppy but Gordon held my hand and we saw the most beautiful things! We went twice this trip one on the first day and again on the last day. I was sad to come home. I forget how hard I work. Every day is really hard but caring for the kids makes it all worth it. We drove back to Miami Saturday morning for our afternoon flight to Denver and then Salt Lake. We got our car checked in and got to our gate and then our flight was canceled- because of a broken toilet. At this point I was ready to get home. I just thought "What if we all wear depends? Can we just get home?" But instead we stood in line for 2 hours got our flight rescheduled for the next day and got booked into the Marriott with meal money. I just wanted to get on a treadmill and run. So that's what we did when we got to our room, got changed into running clothes and ran away all the stress of a canceled flight, a mission call that was delivered that day and I wasn't there, and kids that were taking care of themselves (not too stressful. They are really good kids). We caught our flight the next day and got back to Provo just tin time to open James' mission call.
The first night. In the dressing room.
Lilly pulitzer night. Her style is wild and crazy.
Making a Kentucky derby hat after doing water aerobics and before snorkeling so I didn't bother with make up and hair :).
On the boat. Snorkeling
Me and my hat that got left in Florida. I didn't want to wear it home.
On the boat to go snorkeling.
