A Day With The Kids

So Josh and I both had the whole weekend off (something that will probably never happen again) so we decided to make it a fun one. Josh's brother, Spencer, had said he wanted to come up to see us and decided to bring Nate along (Josh's other brother). They called us Saturday afternoon to tell us they were coming and I told them they should call up my little sister Katie to see if she'd want to come, too. A couple of hours later, they all showed up at our front door. We decided to go to this place in Logan called the Celebration Center. I'd heard of it before, but had never been... it's one of those places that have go carts, slick tracks, mini golf, climbing walls, and bungee jumping. It also has some proto-type high thrill rides that we were pumped to do.

One was called the Sonic Boom. It's a 370 foot tall free fall (supposedly the tallest free fall in the country) and doesn't have breaks. Basically it's air that stops you. It's kind of like the Rocket at Lagoon, but about twice as tall and twice and fast. This ride freaked me out! This is us BEFORE the ride (that's when I was smiling still).

A video clip of the ride.


The kids... Nate, Spencer, Katie
They're bad to the bone...
Me and Katie... Laura is in Europe so she missed out on the fun...
Nate and Spence on the Sonic Boom...

The Sky Sling. Another crazy ride. There are 6 seats on this ride- 4 are harnessed and 2 aren't. Basically it's like a giant sling shot that shoots you into the air at 2.5G. I don't know exactly how fast that is, but Katie and I were freaking out. The unharnessed seats tilted back and forth and you were basically betting your life on a seatbelt. I can't imagine getting up the guts to do that- but Josh and Spencer loved it.
Screamin Swing.... WAY FUN! You swing like 65 feet above the ground at like 50 miles per hour. We did this one over and over again.

Mid Air!

My oh-so-attractive husband...
Mini Golf... Nate rocked us all...
Rock Climbing... Spencer, Nate, and Katie....
Josh, Nate, and Liz...

After hours at the Celebration Center, we were hungry and headed back to our place. We barbequed up some yummy steak with mashed potatoes, rolls, and veges. Our parents should be SO proud! The boys also had a fun time taking our scooter out and about in the neighborhoods. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to the kids so they could head back to Murray.

Josh and I spent Sunday at our new ward (which we really enjoyed) and lazying around at First Dam. It's about time the sun is coming out and making it warm enough to lay out, read a book, and take a lazy Sunday afternoon nap outside!

The Last of the Honeymoon Adventures!

Day 8 & 9- Sea Days... So after our adventures in Tortola, it was time to head up north again. We spent our lazy days at the pool, in the casino, participating in the ship's activities, eating, and sleeping. After dinner on our last formal night, Josh "forgot his chapstick" in the room. We headed back to get it and much to my surprise, Josh had them decorate our room and had roses and chocolate covered strawberries for me. What a sweetheart! I didn't know he had it in him! :) I loved the flowers and was so sad that I wasn't able to take them off the boat!





We both can make a killer monkey face!

I love the Gala Buffet! They usually have one on the last formal night. Basically it's a midnight buffet (like we need to be eating any more at this point!) but this time they go all-out! I especially love the ice carvings... this dragon was quite impressive!
This chicken was one of my favorites!
umm... can anyone say... heart attack?!
I love the Game Show Network... on the very last night of the cruise, they hosted "Sea Fued" which was a spin off of Family Feud. I rock that game so Josh had me go on stage to participate. Our team dominated... thanks to me... the two guys to the left of me hadn't ever heard of the game! Pathetic!
We were patiently entertaining ourselves while waiting for the show to start! This was our ugly face competition.



Day 10- Hello New York! So it sucks to wake up the last day of your caribbean cruise to cold, rainy, and windy weather! We were so excited to spend some time in NY before we headed home but this weather didn't make the city quite as inviting as we had hoped. Our hotel was right in Times Square but we weren't able to check in until later in the afternoon. We were able to drop our luggage off though, they handed us an umbrella, and we headed out to do some rainy sightseeing. Josh instantly decided that he didn't care too much for New York City. He hated all the chaos, all the people, all the "up and coming" rap and r&b artists trying to get us to buy their cds, the shopping... everything. Haha... what a guy. Despite all his complaining, I made him follow me around to all the different shopping districts in the pouring rain. He was a good sport, but I can read that boy like a book. By the time we were able to check into our hotel, we were soaked from head to toe and were definitely ready to change and get ready for Mary Poppins that night. Oh yeah- an important detail I forgot to mention earlier-- one day while on the ship, we met this super nice couple at breakfast. They were from Long Island and were talking to us about the plans we had for when we were going to be in NY. I had mentioned that we were going to see Mary Poppins (even though Wicked had been my first choice). He then tells us he is the head accountant for a company that runs about a dozen of the theaters in NY. He tells us that they are over the Gershwin theater (where Wicked plays) and tells us he has access to house tickets if we wanted them. UM, FOR REALS?!?! I got so freakin excited! He said he'd have to email his secretary who would get a hold of the box office and check that Sat afternoon matinee (that was the only show we'd be able to go to since our flight left Sat night) to see if they could get tickets. A couple of days later Herb (yes, that was his real name) found us and said that everything was all set to go. I wanted to give the guy a kiss I was so excited! To go from not being able to see the show to having front and center tickets was amazing! Herb and his wife Maddy were so nice to us and we are so grateful that there are such wonderful people out there who will go out of their way to help strangers! Ok- back to Friday... we checked into the Time Hotel, showered up and got ready, and headed to a restaurant that Herb had recommended to us. It was this little Italian restaurant called Da Rosino and I thought it was yummy! After that we headed to the Mary Poppins show. Can we say amazing!? I know it wasn't my first choice, but I absolutely loved it! I highly recommend it to anyone who is able to see it! We were exhausted by the end of the day and all Josh could do was complain about all the people and the 'umbrella dance.' Since it was pouring rain, everyone had their umbrellas (big and small) and Josh kept getting frustrated at having so many umbrellas in his face and people dodging each other and using their umbrellas as shields. It was definitely bed time for him.




"Spectacular" is right!




Day 11... Our last day in Times Square. It finally had stopped raining on our last day in NY. We headed out to do a little more shopping and sightseeing before Wicked started. We found the NBA store and it was practically the highlight of Josh's NY experience! It made so he was a little more patient with me when I wanted to keep shopping! We ate lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner- it's a restaurant where all the servers are Broadway hopefuls. They wait on you and take turns singing to everyone. Our server dedicated a song to us for our honeymoon. How sweet. Shortly after lunch, we headed to the theater to see Wicked. It was amazing! I loved every minute of it and would see it again in a heartbeat if I could! Again- I highly recommend seeing it if possible (but plan ahead! haha). After the show ended, it was time to get our luggage and head to the airport. Josh was relieved to be leaving the big city with all its people and traffic, but I told him I'd be coming back again (even if it is with all my girlfriends). Our flight got us home just in time to spend Mother's Day with our families. It was nice to see everyone again and talk about the wedding and the honeymoon. The next day was my birthday and we spent it packing my stuff up, loading up our cars, shopping, eating at Tepanyaki, watching the movie "Ironman" and driving up to Logan. It was a crazy and eventful 13 days but we loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Wicked? Yep, that's where we're headed!

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!....