Vacation Pictures

So here is a recap from our trip:

Day 1-

We left Salt Lake and headed to Orlando. After a long day of flying we arrived there and spent the evening at Downtown Disney, walking around, eating and shopping.

This is Jeff at the Lego store in Downtown Disney. Apparently there were over 4000 Lego people on the wall behind him, all of the different...

Day 2 - DisneyWorld

We woke up early and headed to DisneyWorld. It was a long and hot day, but it was awesome. We started at MGM Grand to ride the Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror. Then we moved to Epcot Center and ended the day at the Magic Kingdom. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a great day to kick off the trip.

This is us at the Rockin' Rollercoaster

We met Chip N'Dale at Epcot Center

Day 3 & 4-

Sunday & Monday were pretty uneventful, we boarded the ship, got settled into our room, and then the ship left port and headed to Haiti. Monday was a day at sea so we had a chance to just relax and get settled into our vacation.

Jeff as the ship was pulling out of port

Day 5 - Haiti

We got into Royal Caribbean's private part of Haiti, Labadee. We went and laid out on the beach for a little while and then we got on the boat for parasailing. I think parasailing was my favorite thing we did on the whole trip. It was such a rush! We sat on the back of the boat and were attached to a big parachute. When the boat started going we just starting floating into the air. I think they said we were 400 - 500 feet over the water. It was crazy! I loved it!

Parasailing

As we arrived in Haiti

Day 6 - Jamaica

Originally we hadn't planned to do anything in Jamaica but we decided that morning to go and tube down the White River. It was hilarious! We got on this little bus with this crazy old Jamaican driver who I could have sworn would kill us, but we got all the way to the top of this mountain and then we rode the tubes back down 3 miles to this amazing little ranch. It was a lot of fun and beautiful. It was a cool way to see the scenery. I will say that Jamaica is totally like the stereotypes that we all see... lots of "ya mons" and "no problems"

This was Jeff and I floating down the river

Jeff at the ranch that we ended at.

Day 7 - Grand Cayman

Of all the places we visited, Grand Cayman was the most like home. They all spoke English, and there were places like KFC and Dairy Queen. It was a lot of fun. We rented some water runners on this day and took them out to a place called Sting Ray City. It is crazy because you get off your waverunner and stand on this little sand bar in the middle of the ocean with stingrays EVERYWHERE. There were coming at us from all angles, it was kind of scary at first, but then it was mostly just cool.

Jeff kissing a stingray All 4 of us at Sting Ray City Amy holding a stingray

Day 8 - Mexico

We started off our day in Cozumel by sleeping in. After all the excursions we had done we decided to take it easy and just spend the day shopping. We got off the ship for a little while, toured some shops ate real Mexican food, went in search of weird local stuff from Jeff's mission and then got back on the ship and took a nap.

I don't think this needs an explanation

Day 8 & 9 - Day at Sea & Kennedy Space Center

Saturday was the last sea day on the ship. We spent most of the time staying out of the sun and nursing our sunburns. We also saw all the things on the ship that we hadn't seen yet. Its amazing how you can live on a ship for 8 days and still miss things. On Sunday we debarked from the ship in the morning and then headed to Kennedy Space Center to tour until our flight left in the afternoon. I was a little skeptical about the Space Center but it ended up being really cool. We got a VIP tour and there is a shuttle on the launch pad right now waiting to go up on May 31st so we got to see it.

As you can see, we had a great time, but I am very glad to be back to the real world and to be able to see family and friends again. If you ever get a chance though, I would highly recommend a cruise, it was the most relaxed I have been in a really long time :)

Graduation

So, we are back from our trip, and WOW, it was amazing! Once I get all our pictures put together I will make sure to post them. This post however, is dedicated to graduation. I was sure that with all the extracurricular activities I would never finish, but I did, and I have the proof!

My parents and my sisters flew back down from Washington, my grandparents came and Jeff's parents came. It was nice to have so much family supporting me.

Just in case you wonder why I am in different robes, because I am still on the Board of Regents at the moment I got to wear the blue doctoral Regent robes. I also got to sit on the stand for both commencement and convocation, which was quite cool. I did feel sort of bad because awarding a degree to a Regent is not a common thing and some very nice people at UVSC had to work extra hard to find out the proper protocol, but I am sure glad they did because it was an awesome day!

This is the actual convocation ceremony

Me and Jeff, one more year and its his turn

Me and my parents

One of the best things about graduating... CAKE

I'm Out of Here!!!

Apparently I didn't make good on my promise to post pictures of our new place, but Jeff is in the process of moving everything on our home computer to his new laptop, and I promise I will work on that soon. Well, I am officially a college graduate (again), and it feels fantastic! Although it will feel even better tomorrow when I step off a plane into warm and sunny Orlando, Florida. As an incentive to get Jeff and I through the last semester we booked a fantastic trip way back in September. We leave tomorrow morning and head to Orlando, we are spending all day Saturday at DisneyWorld, and then Sunday we are boarding a cruise ship for a trip around the Caribbean. We stop in Haiti, where we are parasailing, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Mexico. We will be gone a total of 10 days, and I can barely wait! We are going with some good friends of ours so we are excited to share this with another couple. I am hoping everything goes smoothly and that we have good weather because I really need some time to relax and recharge after the last semester. I can't wait to tell everyone about it! Bon Voyage!

This is our ship!