I am jumping ahead because i Love golf!

I now have an official GOLF handicap! I am very excited to report. Mr Williams has documented my strokes each time we play and without question I am counting them all... Yes even the implosion holes. I realize that I have jumped ahead to September when I have not even finished blogging about July. I will try try try to catch up!

JILL WILLIAMS Riverside CC Womens	USGA Handicap Index 23.5 As of 9/15/2008
Utah Golf Association Revision Date: 9/15/2008 NAME JILL WILLIAMS CLUB Riverside CC Womens LOCAL # 1060 EFFECTIVE DATE 9/15/2008 SCORES POSTED 4 ASSOC # 12374552 USGA HCP INDEX 23.5 1 110C 96C 115C 112 99 6 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 11 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 16 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

Hangin in New York with the girls!!!

It takes just a couple of the old college friends to get me out of my comfort zone
well lets just say that I rode the NY subway for the first time in my life. I have been going to NY for 20 years and never did I see the need to travel in this way so naturally the girls were there to hold my hand and photograph this historical event. What a blast we had!

We laughed.... we cried... we saw Jersey boys and Mary Poppins and Patti & I saw Grease too.

ANS was already in NY for the annual DM Days convention that was fun as always. The girls showed up after it was over. We ate at Butter.. see below



I am not sure that we should have been un-supervised in our NYC adventures. I am certain that next year we will have a chaperon!


We were a party of five so taking a taxi was troubling. So Pam would hide from the cab driver and then when we got in, she dove onto the floor of the cab so that the driver did not know we were 5 in the car. We laughed from stop to the next and could not contain ourselves....


From Pam on the floor to Jen in front with the non-showered transportation specialist we were humored non-stop!

Our Adult Playground--- Las Vegas

Mine and Jerry's favorite place to go when its couples time is Viva Las Vegas! Our pace to eat, drink and be merry. This time flown compliments of Patey Air. The most luxurious way to travel. We had a great trip and went to shows "Jersey Boys" and "Phantom of the Opera" Even though Jerry, Mike and I all fell alseap during Phantom. Chandra managed to stay up for the whole show. I really tried but when you have a big meal.... See next picture of the lobster I attempted to consume how was it avoidable? A quick nap and I was ready to rock n roll at the poker tables.


We got a special treat this time and experience a cabana at TAO beach. This is a very interesting place to people watch and boy did we ever!! And getting some great sun as well.


Acknowledging my age I gladly recognize that this kind going... going.. going.. is reserved for Vegas I could not imagine living this pace in my real life.

Alex Says Good Bye to Junior High!

Alex has closed a pretty big chapter in June! He now looks to High school next year and says good-bye to a good friend Drew who is moving to Virginia. (pictured left) Jamie (pictured right). Alex has many good friends at school but these two will not be returning to Waterford. He seemed to weather Junior high pretty well but, what about High school??? He is such a great kid!

Ok so I may need some technical support

Clearly I have issue with posting photos! as I have one on top of the other and cannot seem to figure out how to have three photos in the same blog without this happening. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free..... Greg comes into town for his annual burning man festivities and this year delivered some rather happy news at the family dinner table! He is fully committed to Kristie! or otherwise known as affianced. ( i am sure that I have mispelled that one) We are so happy for them. We (Grammer-Williams family) have grown to love Kristie she has a great personality with Broadway talent to match. She is currently performing in King Lear as the evil daughter Gonora (not to be confused with Gonorrhea) Congrats again!!!

Oh wait there was a surprise too!

Oh and yes Jerry had to throw me a little surprise birthday party too! Complete with you will never be able to blow out these candles candles. Although Mr Williams decided to share the surprise information to the girls and when I got home from work I said that I was changing my clothes to go to Riverside for dinner. Sam became very upset and said "Mom you do not know that we are going to Riverside!" I said yes I do we always go every Wednesday! She stomped off very mad repeating yet again that I did not know we were going. It was very fun to see the worlds of Jill colliding from ANS team to family and kids to college friends and the ever so fabulous Utah county fabulosity! You know who you are!

Jill turns "40"

It seams that I am always apologizing for tardiness and inconsistencies of my blog. So what if I am a quarterly blogger. Deal with it!!! So the big trip was to be in St Thomas with Lil sister Patti and Michael her fiance. It was a great time of fun and food and of course sun and sand! Turning forty has been just lovely.....

Isn't She Pretty!

Sofie Anne Williams Unwrapping the birthday gifts!!!

SOFIE TURNS "4"

She has been quite patient but Sofie cannot "get Big" fast enough. The day came with a little mermaid cake and a trip to Fat cats for bowling and Pizza. But the real Ta-Doo was scheduled for later in the week.

Fast forward to Los Angeles- American Girl-- "Tea Time". Samantha and Sofie picked out their first American Girl doll. (both with red hair) Then the dolls got a hairstyle and off to tea we went. Alex and jerry in tow although i have no proof (photo) because Alex did not want anyone to know that he was there. Jerry too. The dolls sipped tea along with us and we little cookies. What more could a 4 year old girl ask for? Nothing

Part Two

What a sad sad little lobster......
If you have not noticed yet we at the Williams home take our food eating very seriously. In most cases our much needed R&R is food centered. Ok and maybe a little wine too... on with the show I hope I don't have too many tangents. So our adventures at Disneyworld soon wrapped up and onto the Disney Cruise we went.

I must speak of the Disney cruise if I may. Ok so let’s start with the concierge level. Not sure how much more this cost in the room category only Jerry knows but the only advantage we saw to this extra expense was that when we checked into the dock we had a separate line, or no line if you will. Then we were ushered to an area where we could make reservations of any kind. That and a daily fruit selection or cookie was it. Nothing to be had here.

Rooms great were with an add on room- good (scale 1-5) 4. Food quality below average (scale 1-5) 2. Ok--- first day needed some lunch and ended up on beach blanket blah blah… food here is inedible. I am not kidding this is not Jill being a pain in the ass this was BAD!!!! At this point- the beginning I was hunkering down for a long painful 4 days. But then wait a light at the end of the tunnel….. That nights at dinner on the wine list—by the glass--- Cakebread Chardonnay. Ok people I can deal with this situation when I can have cakebread chardonnay. It is true I can overlook many things and bad food is a big one but I can. First night dinner at Palo’s adults only. It is their nice dinner (so fancy) We dropped the kids at the oceaneer club and off to palo’s we go. The server that night was from Bosnia and quite fabulous. I was trying to figure a way to bring him home in my suitcase. He could be the new William’s house manager. Ok I am getting ahead of myself.

The jaunt to Nassau was great we toured around the island and ended up at Atlantis for lunch. I will return to the Bahamas. I like this place. Dining room night #2- holy shit those are the words that come to mind. Loud screaming babies. Ok I am really trying to have compassion here. My babies have screamed bloody murder on many occasions. But the symphony of babies screaming was a lot. Ok not enough that a glass of cakebread could not take away. Maybe they could have a screaming babies section and then every body else. Just a thought. The show that night after dinner was fabulous. Characters, music and princesses. The only thing. The next day was the Disney island castaway cay. I liked just getting off the boat and being on the beach in 5 minutes. That was good. We get settled on the beach. Wishing the concierge fairies would surface again and show us the way to the roped off concierge area. But no this does not occur. We are left to our own resources.

The next thing we know at waters edge the girls are having there photos taken 100 times actually according to Sam it was 99 times. But this was something to be minimized. Maybe it was just little girls in bathing suits posing that got to us. The next thing we know we are told that it will rain hard in 30 minutes and we see these dark looming clouds close by. We decide it is lunch time and we pack it up. Little did we know that rain to follow would be of a torrential nature. We actually had to laugh because it was so crazy. We waited the storm and then got on the ship earlier than usual because of the storm. This was the last day and basically the end of the trip and we were all pretty tired so a couple hours of sun we were all good.

Williams.....Orlando.......Springbreak 2008

Sunday morning a flight direct flight to Orlando. Landing in the evening arriving at the lovely Dolphin hotel much to Mr Williams chagrin. As the room was old and run-down but no options for change were available. But we were on Disney property so we did Disney world and then bolted to the womb- The ritz carlton. From there we went to Sea world and Universal studios. Prior to leaving the dolphin we enjoyed the fabulous restaurant Shula’s. For those that don’t know Shula’s It is named after the Miami dolphin coach and he has a fabulous restaurant.

I enjoyed for the first time a 28 ounce lobster tail. You say really how big is this? Well when I spent the better part of my college serving Australian lobster tail at the oyster bar and they were on a good day 12-14 oz. And frankly those were huge. I struggle to even come close to those days. Well my friends I have been screwed for life for this lobster tail at Shula’s was 28 OZ.. shit. I needed a photo of this and did take one.. See attached.

Disney world one side bar. The rides we are all use to at Disneyworld may take you multiple parks to get to at Disneyworld. Matterhorn- No Indiana jones so this could very well be screw job #10. Isn’t the $75 per person we are paying enough? No they need another entrance fee.

Fast forward to The ritz-carlton what were we thinking to begin with. Our family dynamics are changing every day. With Alex, the resident teenager we struggle or chuckle when he still is recognized as a child. When he gets handed the child menu we quickly ask for him to get the adult version- or we just share our own. But tonight at the grill in the hotel Alex requests his beverage. I believe a coke (rated PG in our house) with what appears to be a shot glass sippy cup. Small and with a large bendy straw. Much to Alex’s horror. Jerry and I laughed our asses off and Alex took his steak knife or maybe it was his fork high and brought it down.

(see photo #2) This was the same night as Maine Lobster SNAFU. Clearly you can compare the two lobster photo’s and see for yourself. The tiny lobster however at the bargain price $52 was exactly half the size of a fork? The photo does not lie nor distort. Shula’s 28 oz was double the cost of the Ritz---- but really the shula’s lobster fed three of us. Maybe 4 if you count what Jerry ate. We sometimes want to use our blob (this is not a typo) to critique our travel experiences. Sometime people assume that when you stay at 5 star properties you don’t get the crazy service stories. But this is clearly not the case. When we blob or blog whichever, about our travel experiences you must know that we are grateful to be able to travel in magnitude that we travel in. I mean please do we really have the nerve to bitch about the level of service at the Ritz or the Four Seasons? Well you are right we are very grateful that we can travel in the level that we do. But we do and we do a lot and we should have expectations when you are coughing up the dough per night to stay here. We have a few of our favorites. Like when staying at the Parker in Palm Springs and being told to go get our own damn drinks. Thats up there. The trips not quite over yet so more to come....

Getting out of town

Christmas Day........ Jerry's much deserved martini!

After the gifts were open and the stockings raided we got in the car and headed for Plam Springs with a small pit stop in Vegas. We had Christmas Dinner at Jerry's favorite Steak Place Delmonico's. We left a foot of snow back in Provo and started towards the sun. The kids had a great day of circus circus before our final jaunt to the desert.

The teenage years.... They have begun. Pure torture to be forced onto a merry-go-round with his little sisters.

So I am making up for lost time....

This was the year of "Alex". He scored. Although the last few years have been about the two red-heads this year Alex was the big winner. From guitar hero to technology stuff that I cannot identify these items to name a few put a big smile on his face.







These were a few gifts that escaped the early un-authorized gift- unwrapping session.

Christmas Eve 2007

Traditions are meant to change and this year we breakfast-ed with the Shepherd's followed by a wonderful evening with the family- and Patti too. The kids are genuinely dis-appointed when their Christmas eve gift is only PJ's. Every year its the same thing don't they remember from year to year? although Samantha last year through a major temper tantrum over this very tradition. Are all tradition of a somewhat torturous nature? I believe so. In the Shepherd home this dog-pile was 9 deep. Oxygen was in short supply near the bottom of the pile. But none-the-less this tradition was strictly adhered to on christmas eve.