One Month Down!

So, today makes it officially one month since Josh and I were sealed. I can't believe how fast the month flew by- half of it was spent relaxing and enjoying the sun on our honeymoon and the other half was spent getting our house all situated. Everything is finally starting to come together and it's actually feeling more like a home everyday! Josh and I wanted to celebrate our 1 month mark at the temple- it's so important to keep going often so we can remember the blessings the temple has in store for us. I'm so excited to be married to my best friend and I'm so excited for what the future has in store for us!

Well, enough mushy stuff... I'll continue with our honeymoon...

Day 5- Puerto Rico! This town was crazy! Our cruise ship docked right in the middle of downtown Old San Juan. They were on the last day of their annual 9 day Art Festival so practically everyone from the whole island was downtown walking around looking at all the vendors and all the fun things they had made. There were about 200 vendors and thousands of people everywhere. In the middle of all the chaos, there was a big stage set up and Puerto Rican bands and musicians were blasting the music- you could hear it throughout the entire town! It was fun to be in the middle of all the authentic festivities and to hang out where all the locals were! Josh and I walked around for a while, did some exploring and some shopping. We then decided to take a carriage ride through the town so we could see some of the highlights. We saw the capitol building, many of their cathedrals, some old historic buildings, and the St Christobol Fort. We really enjoyed doing some sight-seeing in this town and we were exhausted after just walking around for a few hours! Puerto Rico was one of our later ports so we didn't even leave until 11:30 that night. The cruise ship put on a bbq and dance party as we left and it was fun to see the city all lit up while we sailed away!

Day 6- St Thomas, US Virgin Islands--- This stop was one of the highlights of our vacation! We had heard that St Thomas was known for it's amazing beaches- Magen's Beach is one of the top 10 beaches in the world. We decided to make the day a lazy beach day, but we did want to either go snorkeling or jet skiing. When we got off the ship, we found a taxi driver who said he'd take us to whatever beach we wanted to go to. He informed us that Magen's Beach doesn't allow any type of water sports so jet skiing would be out. He did recommend another beach to us that was known for their amazing jet skiing so we had him take us there. He dropped us off at a beautiful resort where there was an amazing beach and you could see St Johns, Tortola, and St Criox in the distance. We were able to find a guy with a couple of jet skiis and he let us go out for a couple of hours. He gave us a map of the islands and said we could go wherever we wanted to. We went down the coastline of St Thomas and found a bunch of beaches and coves that were amazing. We then ventured out towards the other islands and were able to find small, unpopulated islands that were gorgeous! It was fun to be chillin on a huge beach with no one else around! After our jet skiing was over, we chilled on the resort's beach for a few hours. It was absolutely amazing!

Day 7- Tortola, British Virgin Islands--- We had another amazing day on this island. We had booked a "swimming with the dolphins" excursion and I was so excited for it! Tortola was a short day so we had to get off the ship early and head right to beach where the dolphins were. We booked the most interactive session we could because I figured if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right! There were about 8 people in our group and we were able to swim around with the dolphins and pet them. We also had a chance to hold on to their dorsal fins and had them pull us and we also had 2 dolphins push us through the water by our feet. I have always wanted to swim with the dolphins ever since I saw that Full House episode where they went to Hawaii and swam with them there. Pathetic, I know, but it has been my dream! :) I haven't been able to scan in our pictures yet but as soon as I do, I'll have more pictures of us actually in the water swimming around and playing with the dolphins.

The fabulous HONEYMOON!

So we've finally gotten the internet working and I can finally upload our pictures and give updates on our adventures. I just got our wedding day pictures back yesterday and haven't had a chance to go through them all, so the wedding day update will come later. I'll start updating on our honeymoon day by day and we'll see how far we get...

DAY 1/2: The honeymoon actually started on our wedding day. Right after the wedding dinner, we hopped into Matt's hot Mustang and drove straight to the airport. We took the red eye that night to New York City. We were both exhausted but it's always so hard to sleep on a plane- especially when you have what feels like a thousand bobby pins poking you in the head! Anyway, we finally made it to JFK airport at about 6 am, hopped into a taxi and headed to the port in Manhattan where our cruise ship would depart. We'd never been to NY so even the taxi ride was exciting. We were able to drop our luggage off at the terminal around 9 but wouldn't be able to board the ship until after 12. So, we decided to walk into the city. Times Square is just a couple of blocks from the pier so it was perfect. We walked around and tried to familiarlize ourselves with that CRAZY city! We decided while we had time, we should try to get tickets to Wicked (I wanted to see it so badly) for after we got back from the cruise. We found a ticket vendor, asked for Wicked tickets either Friday night or Saturday matinee and the guy practically laughed at us. He said tickets were sold out for almost the next 2 months. I guess I didn't realize what a hit the show would be. We had to pick an alternative which was Mary Poppins and were able to get really good seats for Friday night. I was a little bummed, but I knew either show would be awesome. We walked around a bit more but were so tired we decided to return to the terminal and wait in the line that was forming to board the ship. We waited in the freezing cold terminal for about 2 hours when we finally were able to board. We were at the front of the line which was really nice and made for a quick check in. Instead of exploring the ship, we headed to our room where we crashed for the next 5 hours.

our airplane ride
When we woke up, we realized we were moving and looked out on our balcony. We had the most impeccable timing ever because this is what we saw! It was the first time either of us had seen the Statue of Liberty and I'm so glad we were able to see it! A couple of minutes later and we would have totally missed it.
We got showered up and ready for dinner and did some exploring. Josh had never been on a cruise ship before so it was fun to show him around. Our ship's layout was the exact same as the ship my friends and I went on last year for spring break so I knew my way around everywhere.
After some good food and a couple of shows, we returned to our nice room to crash once again. You don't get much sleep leading up to the wedding and then a red eye flight and time changes don't help much either!
Day 3: Our first full day on the ship was a sea day. I LOVE SEA DAYS! I love sitting around on lounge chairs soaking up the sun and drinking a (virgin) pina colada. You don't get much better. That night was our first formal night. Josh and I didn't realize how matchy matchy we were until we were already at dinner. Oh well, haha. Anyway, we shared a table with another couple and ironically enough they were a couple from Layton who had just gotten married and were on their honeymoon, too! They got married on Tues. They were a nice couple- a little weird though- and their names were Michelle and Roger. We were definitely surprised to get paired up with another couple doing the exact same thing as we were!



That night was the final game in the Jazz/Rockets series and Josh didn't want to miss it. We found out what time the game was going to start and spent the night in the Sports Bar watching other games and waiting for our team to play. Just as the Celtics game ended and it was going to turn over to the Jazz game, the satellite picked up some soccer game in like Mexico and automatically changed to it. Josh was so sad! I'm surprised he didn't start crying. It sucke cuz we spent the whole night waiting for the stupid game to start and then didn't even get to see it.
My favorite towel animal is the elephant.

Day 4: 2nd day at sea... YEAH! We made sure to lather up on the sunscreen (of course), but we spent the entire day at the pool. I love how you can feel the caribbean sun getting warmer and more intense as the day goes by.

We're Back in ACTION!

Hey everyone... so it has been a while since I've been able to post anything! So, it's official, Josh and I are finally married!!! We had an amazing wedding day (I couldn't have asked for any better), and our honeymoon was the most fantastic vacation ever! We were go- go- go for 11 days straight and when we returned to Utah we were exhausted! Then it was a few days of visiting the families, celebrating my birthday, and packing the rest of my belongings to head up to Logan. We're officially in our place and are pretty much settled in and it's starting to finally feel like "our" home! We don't have the internet yet, but as soon as we do, I'll post pictures and give better updates on the wedding day and our adventures on the honeymoon. The game plan now is for me to find a job-- I'll die of boredom if I don't find one soon! Well, I'm running out of time on my library computer so... until next time!....