Yes, we are still alive...

So I have to start this off by apologizing for the lack of information in the last little while, basically all summer. In the past the summer was always known for being lazy and enjoyable, and while this summer has been enjoyable I can definately say it has not been lazy. Between my family moving to Washington, work and other things I have barely had time to breath, let alone keep this up to date. But, I do apologize and promise to make more of an effort (I hope).

Here are few of the highlights since my last post:

Over the 4th of July Jeff and I took a road trip up to Yakima to visit my family in their new place. We spent a few days in Yakima, and then we all drove to Seattle, which is about an hour and a half away and spent the 4th there. We went to a Mariners game, visited Pike's Place, rode the Space Needle and ate some fantastic seafood.

Kris's Mission

So I guess you could say that the biggest change for our family recently was Kris leaving on his mission. He went into the MTC on Wednesday and will be serving in the Hungray Budapest Mission. It is crazy how much he has grown up over the last few years, and we will all miss him a ton, but we know he is where he is supposed to be.

Other than this not a whole lot is going on, Jeff recently started a new job with SOS Staffing as their on-site manager at the Provo Nu Skin. He seems to really like it and we were glad he found a job that will be flexible with his school schedule come this fall. Also, we got rid of our Altima and upgraded to a 2008 Toyota Highlander. I am definately spoiled :)

Well I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer and keeping cool. Keep in touch. We love you all!

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!

17 Days

Alright, so as you can probably tell by the little countdown on our blog page, I graduate in 17 days, and this semester has been more work than any other semester in my 5 years (I know it should have been 4) years of college. It is INSANE, but I am starting to wind down with assignments and rev up for finals. I am trying really hard to stay motivated and not to think about the trip we are going on a week after graduation, but it is rough. Let me tell you, if I thought I had bad senioritis in high school, this is ten times worse!

Anyway, I took a ton of pictures of our new place, because I keep having people ask me about it, and lets be honest, I totally love it! However, they are on my computer at home, and I am currently at work, so I will have to post them next time I am on the home computer.

So, I got this tag from Amber, so I figured I would give it a shot.

My Love and I
Where did you go on your first date?
Well after Jeff blew me off, (not once, not twice, but three times), we finally went and had dinner at Diego's Taco Shop in Provo and then we went to go work at the UVSC Western Dance

How long have you been together?
We have been married for a year next month, and we dated for 8 months before we got married

Who eats more?
Easy... Jeff

Who said I love you first?
I think I did, but it was kind of a mutual thing

Who is taller?
Depends on what shoes I am wearing... but technically Jeff by like 1 inch.

Who sings better?
I don't know... we never sing.

Who does the laundry?
Jeff, only because he runs out of clothes way faster than I do.

Who pays the bills?
ME!

Who mows the lawn?
We are putting in our yard right now, so once its done Jeff will for sure

Who cooks dinner?
Wendy's... No, I enjoy cooking when I have time, but if its BBQ, it is Jeff

Who drives when you are together?
Jeff, I hate driving

Who is more stubborn?
That is a toss up, we are both pretty stubborn

Whose parents do you see the most?
Probably Jeff's since they live closer, especially since my family just moved to Washington.

Who kissed who first?
Jeff kissed me first.

Who proposed?
Jeff

Who is more sensitive?
That would be me... I don't know if Jeff has a sensitive bone in his body. Just kidding, he has gotten a lot better, but I guess that is what happens when you grow up with all brothers.

Who has more friends?
I hope Jeff, because I don't have many anymore

Who wears the pants in the family?
We both do on different things.

Lets see... I tag Kara, and Stephanie (Mostly because Amber already tagged Annie, but I second that tag)

Midterms & Elections

Wow, February just slipped away from me before I even knew it! We are now into March and I can't even seem to catch my breath we are so busy. Midterms are finally wrapping up, and you would think that after five years of college I would be able to handle midterms, but this semester was brutal! Also, Jeff is currently in the middle of running of Executive Vice President of UVUSA. It is a little bit of deja vu for me, but I am really excited and proud of him. We are in the thick of things and will find out tomorrow night the results. Yesterday was Jeff's 25th birthday, and I can't wait until all this is over so we can finally celebrate! We also got a new camera, and as soon as I figure out how to upload the pictures I will post some more :)

Valentine's Day

I warned everyone that I might not be very good at keeping this thing up to date, but that is mostly because #1 - we don't have much going on in our lives right now, and #2 - we don't have a workable camera that isn't part of a cell phone. This makes it hard to document our lives at the moment. However, I do have to tell everyone about my fantastic Valentine's morning. So Jeff and I decided that we had a $10 limit for Valentine's this year, this pretty much limited what we could get each other to a card and a candy bar. Well I went to bed last night after I had reaffirmed with Jeff that he had not spent more than his limit. He assured me that he hadn't done "much" for today. Well I woke up this morning and I could see a red note taped to our bedroom door, so I got a little suspicious. I crawled out of bed (late of course) and started to walk down the hall towards to kitchen. The whole entire apartment was covered in paper hearts, each one he had written on it some reason why he loved me. It honestly takes a lot to surprise me, but man he did a good job this morning. He would kill me if he knew I was posting these pictures and telling this story, but he is just such an amazing husband! Anyway, I am hoping that is the extent of his Valentine's Day because it is already leaving me looking incredible inadequate with my card and my candy bar, but knowing Jeff I am sure this is not over yet...




These are the hearts all over my house... taken with my cell phone, so they are not that great

And in case anyone was wondering about my tulips, this is what they look like now... after only two weeks and in the middle of winter :)