Caribbean Cuise Part 2 - Cuise day and Cozumel

Our first day on the boat was completely at sea, so we managed to keep ourselves occupied by rock climbingDodge ball. This quickly ended when a ball flew over the net and drifted out to sea. The guy in charge was pretty upset about it, but hey, dolphins play with those types of things right? :)
We spent a lot of time playing games in the game room. I spent 60% of the cruise in sweats. another 30% in a swim suit. Basically I put on real clothes so they would let me into the dining room.
We also celebrated some birthdays!

Holly found some weird statues around the ship.

Our 3rd day was spent in Cozumel, Mexico!
Brian, Holly, Courtney, John, Dustin, Annie, Grant, and I went on an X-rail tour that took us out to swim in a sinote. They said to wear clothes we didn't mind getting a little dirty. little did we know...
Maria and San Juan - they told us we could put whatever name we wanted on our name tags
Juanita and Pedro
Dora and Diego
Surprise! we got to hold various animals they had lying around. Literally. Two snakes lying on the grass, sneaking up on a turtle, while a hawk looked on behind us.
Holly holding one of the free-range snakes
Chameleon!!! That thing had weirdy pinchy toes! (Dear Jenny, we have spent too much time on chat today. How do I know? I just used the word 'weirdy')
We got to take a picture next to this eagle. They said it's the eagle on the Mexican flag. It was intimidating. Brian had to reach out and touch the eagle's feathers after the picture was taken.

Because Brian touched the eagle after the picture, the eagle became untrusting of the next group to take a picture with it - Holly and Grant. The eagle would not take its eyes off of Holly the whole time she was standing behind it.
Our little group, notice how we are still semi clean? White shirts were a BAD idea that day...what were we thinking Annie?!
Courtney and John getting ready to head out. You have to be awesome to ride a dunebuggy
Holly drove for 3.5 seconds before she wrecked her buggy. Grant drove the rest of the way
First of the group to head out!!! our buggy had issues making left turns. It took both of us to turn it at times


Here we are leading the group out into the wilderness!less than a minute later we tried to turn left, ended up veering right, and drove our buggy up a tree. It took a while for them to get us moving again. Everyone had to wait in a line behind us and think bad thoughts about us for holding up the excursion. It wouldn't be the last time we wrecked either...
They told us we would get dirty. They told us it would be bumpy (mexican butt massage to be exact) What they didn't tell us is that we would be driving through puddles and end up completely encrusted in Mexican mud (our guide referred to this as a 'mexican facial')
This is the last time we wrecked. We somehow managed to high-center our buggy on a tree stump. It took many tour guides to push us off the stump. Thank you John for documenting this and laughing at us for 5 minutes straight.
Meanwhile...
The rest of our cruise group decided to hire a cab and tour the beaches in the area. Their pictures look pretty, but as far as I can tell finding a leftover nativity on the beach was as exciting as it got. Y'all missed out!
After driving through the mud we ended up at our destination - a sinote (spell check?) which i guess is an underground lake that connects to the ocean. It was pretty awesome! It smelled like sulfur though and had a colony of a zillion bats living in it. Some of the guys did a high dive into the lake. I just used the little ladder in.
These were our little excursion friends. The ship lost their luggage and gave them a credit to buy clothes/essentials at one of the stores. This equaled toothpaste, a pair of cargo shorts, and a dress. Their only pair of clothes ended up getting completely covered in mud by the end of our excursion. We felt pretty bad for them.
Eventually Brian convinced me to swim into the 'bat cave' which is an inner cave with no light and a zillion more bats. No one could see except when someone's camera flash went off, so no judgement on people's facial expressions or proximity to others.
I was clearly unimpressed at this moment. Pay attention to mustachio next to me. We have no idea who he is and I don't remember ever seeing him during the excursion.
Brian was caught off guard as I apparently made a move on mustachio behind him.
Then they told us to get close and smile for a picture, So Brian grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him. Somehow mustachio got between us. Or it was mustachio that grabbed my arm. We don't know.
Don't swim in the dark is the moral of this story.
Just when we thought we had seen all the random animals we were going to, one of the tour guides pulled a baby alligator out of the brush and let us hold it on our way back from the caves
remember when I started out with a white shirt and tank? :( they are no more

When we got back they let us 'shower off' with more dirty-ish water and we all decided our shirts were toast so we bought touristy ones from a nearby shop. They gave us chips, queso, and coke
Then we walked around for a while and found the most delicious tacos in the history of tacos. They happened to come from the back of some guy's blue chevy pick-up. It was all very authentic :)Us in all of our cozumel shirts in front of the ship before we got back onboard
Later, it was formal night so we all got dressed up and practiced our fake smiles while we waited for our food. Smile with the mouth, never the eyes :)
Then I grew 6 inches and Brian felt threatened by it
Then we hung out in the hot tub
Thats not a tan on my arm, thats where my "mexican mud bath" stained my arm. It looked pretty convincing though.

Caribbean Cruise Part 1

This February we got to go on a western caribbean cruise with some of my extended family and it was a BLAST!!! So glad we got to go with family! It made it so much more fun!
We left bright and early saturday morning! We all look so happy to go!
Some of us ate breakfast
Dustin and Annie look side awake and ready to go. Can't say the same about me.

We flew from SLC to Houston TX. We took cabs to Galveston Island where we stayed the night.
My mom and her two sisters that came with
We walked around the beach, went to Murdocks - a building i saw ripped to shreds a few years earlier the last time i was in galveston for hurricane clean-up, and we walked to CVS for some last minute supplies. The next day we got the tags on our suitcases and killed some time waiting for the taxis to the dock by walking around the beach. Brian had an extra tag and wanted to make sure everyone, including me, knew who I belonged to

So i put a tag on him as well, thinking i was being super clever. It was a good plan until i realized I put one of his tags on him instead of mine...it was a good attempt.


Brian climbed down to 'touch the gulf of Mexico'. ew. I was sure he was going to fall in. This is him having a 5 year old moment, and me having a 'my mother' moment.We boarded our ship and took some more pictures
Here we are leaving -

We have pictures of my dad doing this exact pose from every vacation we've ever taken
Courtney and Annie kissing the Bingo Seal

October/November

Things have been crazy!
We flew out to Arizona to help Holly move to Orem (to an apartment found by yours truly I might add! you're welcome!) The night before we had our own little pre-adventure when I forced my mom and Brian to apply a demi-color to my hair, because I was not about to walk into Tiffany & Co in Scottsdale with unblended roots. They were troopers and did a pretty good job! We flew out bright and early the next morning. I hate flying. I really really hate flying. And that body scanner that I always have to go through.
Anyway, we landed and went to go pick up our rental car which was definitely a Lincoln Town Car - Mafia Edition. The thing was black and black leather, had a glove compartment that could easily accomodate your tommy gun, and a roomy truck that could fit 5-6 bodies comfortably. We were pretty embarrassed to drive off in it. After some light packing and planning we all piled into the Godfather-mobile and drove out to Sedona to see the beautiful scenery and have old gypsy women read our futures.
We decided to pass on the gypsies and take some weird-angled pictures next to the garbage can by the public bathrooms...we were really tiredI really don't remember why or how we took this picture. I'm just surprised my dad didn't make it any of the other 5 shots I have of this exact pose.
The next day the guys went golfing at some ritzy place they were definitely not dressed for and we headed off to Scottsdale to shop and pick up cupcakes from Sprinkles for later. (yummy!!!) I'd like to take this opportunity to start a petition to bring Charming Charlies to Utah.
Seriously.
We should all write letters to get this accessory shop here as soon as possible.
After meeting back up at Holly's apartment for a cupcake break and some light packing, we went out for even MORE shopping. Poor Brian thought he had gotten out of it, but no. He at least got rewarded by going to Lucille's for some tasty BBQ after. Sooooooo good!!!
The next day was moving day. The moving truck got picked up, the boxes got loaded, and we were on our way by early afternoon. Brian and I were the lucky drivers of the Budget and took advantage of our chance to be truckers!
Ok, so 44 oz cokes and junk food was as trucker as we got, but we had planned on hats, sunflower seeds, and walkie-talkies. We drove to Vegas that night and Holly got her first taste of sin city. Pretty much all that happened was that I got us lost in Ceasar's Palace and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Whoo-whooo!
The next day we drove to Orem and unpacked the truck, then Brian and I headed off to Riverton for our first 'slow move-in' weekend. We couldn't move from Provo until the last week of October, so we decided to spend weekends at the house trying to get things semi-ready for us to move in. We are living in the basement while finishing it, which is its own little adventure. In the 2-ish months we have been working on it we have finished the outside entrance, framing, wiring/plumbing, insulation, and as of tonight I officially have drywall on the ceilings and 2 large walls. I talk about all that like I actually had some part in it. I didn't.
Our goal (which I was reminded of by Brian's falsetto rendition of "If you like Pina Coladas" from the chair behind me) is to be finished with the basement by our cruise in February, so we are double excited for that vacation!
Speaking of Brian, while I was packing I took the opportunity to go through all of Brian's boxes that have been packed since before we got married. The contents of one box were pretty interesting -

a LARGE flashlight with dead batteries

Bullets


Fireworks


Equipment for 5 different sports(not pictured - one sad looking mostly deflated volleyball)


one sock


construction books


dryer sheets


an unopened disposable camera


full camo


a hand-crank flashlight


a plaster replica of his upper jaw (who keeps these things?!!)



one 2002 olympic sockstrange, since Brian was in Brasil during the olympics



2 functional calculators and 1 nonfunctional



a knife, 2 sets of keys, a wrench set, tape, and, of course, Mardi Gras beads


hand warmers


wooden pen in wooden box


floss, naturally


A sticker from the 2007 playoffs


and, last but certainly not least, a single use drug test
when asked about this, Brian claimed he was saving it to test me

I don't know why these items were all kept in the same box or what he could possibly be saving them for. Living in the woods to escape arrest? World-wide epidemic? Breakdown of civilization as we know it?? Zombie Apocolypse???

I don't know, and I choose not to think about it anymore - especially that drug test.
Whatever it is, he's prepared.

chugging along

I am awesome at posting. Maybe if there were something exciting to post about I'd be better.

So pretty much we're just slowly making our way through our time here in Provo. Its an exciting life. I asked Brian if there was anything exciting that happened that we should post about and after a lot of thought he told me that nothing exciting or good ever happens to us. Little melodramatic there Bri, but true.
Its been life as usual around here, Brian has been working, I've been going to school. I've been trying to rack up as many hours as possible so I can graduate by the end of August. This means I've had to help out with a couple of Design Team events, exhausting but so much fun! Two weeks ago I got to go to the South Towne Expo for Women's Night...Pampering...whatever they called it. We were there doing hair, make up, and nails. Needless to say we met a lot of characters, one of which being Mary from TLC's 'Sister Wives'. She came with her sisters and mother, and man alive they were a hoot! (also fun to spy walking around to different booths. so weird to see them out of their...natural environment?) They also had some amazing booths that we got to walk around in their spare time. My favorite was a place called M.Bellish'd. Google them. They have super cute watches, belts, and a hat that I NEED (and yes, the all caps was neccessary). All the booths had such good deals! I want to go again next year, and actually bring money to spend. They also had a zumba class that funny Judy, the teacher in charge of the design team, forced us all to participate in. Forced as in grabbed us all by the arm and dragged us over. Train wreck, let me tell you but soooo funny. They also had a pole dancer (WHAT?) that was demonstrating moves strictly for exercise and trying to sign people up for classes. Judy made us Zumba, so we made her pole dance. Oh that Judy...Somewhere there is an incriminating picture of all of us around a pole.
Last week i agreed to help out with a fashion show last minute put on by the Head Start Foundation. They have a yearly fundraiser to benefit the many awesome programs they have going that help children from low income families go to school. This was the first year they decided to include a fashion show in their fundraiser and it was a huge success! It was also a great experience for all of us!!! We got to work on professional models and some super cute kidos who got to represent Head Start. This year they were raising money for their new Magna facility, and we were able to help them raise over $20,000. Such a fun opportunity and an amazing cause. Loved it!

Besides that life has been pretty ordinary! We've just been working, schooling, and watching enough animal planet to make me terrified of at least 8 states and 12 different countries. Word of advice - do not watch 'Infested'. I can never live in Oregon now, Never. Arizona is also ruined for me. What is it about these shows that pulls me in? Who's the nerd that is super-geeked-out-excited for the 'Whale Wars' premiere coming up? That would be me. I love those crazy hippies! Also 'River Monsters'.
Well thats a lot about my embarrassing T.V. obsessions. Good talk everyone...and by everyone I mean mom. (Love ya Nanners!)

Sentimental

I am not often a sentimental person. When I have sentimental thoughts, I don't often share them. Maybe I'm evolving as a human being, maybe being surrounded by constant chemicals every day is getting to me, but here goes -
A couple weeks ago I was sitting at the front desk running tickets back to the clinic floor and I was thinking "Holy crap! Tomorrow I will have been married for a year!!!" In all honesty it feels so much longer than a year. Brian and I have seen each other on an almost daily basis since September of 2007. When I met him my first thoughts were, no joke, "he doesn't look as old as he is" (he was 26 at the time)
My roommate Jenny and I quickly became friends with him and his roommates. We pretty much did everything together. We watched Lost and Prison Break, watched random movies, went swimming at the hotel one of my roommates worked for, supported them in their basketball games, we were even in the same FHE group that we tried to get out of on a weekly basis since most of our activities involved 'Catch Phrase' or '2 Truths and a Lie'. From the first week of knowing Brian I knew I wanted to be his friend. He is just one of those people that gets along with EVERYONE. He was really one of my best friends. I knew I could trust him and that he'd do anything he could to help me if I needed it because thats what he did for all his friends. Our relationship slowly evolved to what it is today. Even though a lot has changed, most of the time I still feel like I'm over at apt 46 hanging out with my best friend.

So a couple weeks ago between running tickets and greeting guests, I was thinking about how much and how little has changed when I had a thought that made me have to fight back the tears pretty hard. Right before I packed up and left for college, my bishop had me come in for a little interview. We talked about where I was going and how my life was going to change, all the normal stuff. Then he asked if I was dating. I said that I wasn't at the moment and to my surprise he said was happy with that. He told me that I didn't need to be dating right now and not to stress out about it. He told me to just do what I knew was right and things would work themselves out. His exact words were "some day you'll find someone and you'll love to hang out with them, and he'll ask you to hang out forever." At the time I thought this was incredibly sappy and an awkward way for the bishop to try to use teenaged terms to better relate to me. I didn't really think about it again until now. That statement, which I shrugged off at the time, ended up being entirely true and, I believe, inspired. As sappy as I still think it is, I'm so grateful it worked out that way. I can't imagine it working out any other way for me. I don't think I could have handled it any other way. I really did get to marry my best friend.

Lately,

We haven't had internet since the last time I posted. Now that we do, I've been told to get on top of this. So i dug around in our still packed boxes (Don't judge me, its only been a month) in our spare bedroom that I affectionately call 'the crap room' and found the camera cord so I could download some pictures.
Since July or August, we finished our master bath, downstairs bath, and decided that it would be a great idea to work on the kitchen too. We found renters in October and moved to Provo Halloween night (how appropriate, there's nothing more horrifying).

First off, the master. Oh my goodness....luckily this one went relatively quick thanks to help from Brian's parents. We had such a love-hate relationship with this bathroom. The slate was a nightmare to put in, but we liked the look of it. The paint was scary too. In all of our bathrooms, Brian made me choose the paint color. I wanted to do something different, so the first time I had to choose paint for the main bathroom, I decided to go with a bluish color-
We liked the way it turned out, so we decided to go for another dark color in the master. We chose a white vanity and I loved the way this green looked with it. It took a couple weeks for the green with the slate to grow on me though. All our potential renters LOVED the color when they came to look at our house so I feel validated. :) You can't really see the slate in this picture. I don't have a good one because of the glare off the glass shower door. Not a good idea by the way. not so fun to clean those...

Next we worked on the downstairs bath. This is where I screwed up on the color choice. We went fairly cheap on this one and it went in faster than the rest so, other than the paint, I look at this one as a massive success. I wanted a gray tone in this bath, but the paint I chose turned out to be lavender. Luckily our renter has daughters that think it is awesome.Next up was the kitchen. We debated back and forth for about 4 months whether or not to even touch anything in the kitchen, but one day I got it into my head that instead of replacing our cabinets and making everything expensive, we could paint them because I thought they were hideous and if we are being completely honest here, they did not fit with the rest of the house anymore.

*** This was probably a day after we got back from our honeymoon, hence the boxes, flowers, and chaos***
This seemed like a really good idea, and in no way do I regret doing it, but it was an incredible amount of work and took longer than I care to remember. There was a good 2 weeks where I developed a nervous twitch because all of my cabinet doors were off and open to the world. I cannot handle that. Doors are ALWAYS closed in my house. It's my OCD. That and lights being left on, like the one I just noticed in my kitchen.
Anyway, we had a real struggle trying to find a paint that would cover the wood smoothly and be durable enough for everyday use. 3 primers, 4 paint options, and too many days later we decided on a nice light cream color and borrowed the always amazing paint sprayer from Brian's dad.
We never intended to touch anything other than the cabinets, but then we realized that the sink was terrible and the faucet leaked, and the lower oven didn't work, and the one oven that did function was so small I called it 'the easy bake' from day one, and the stove was malfunctioning...so it ended up being a bigger project than we expected. Then we realized that the counter was the same hideous powder blue that the old toilet seat in the master bath was, only with some bonus burn marks and various permanent stains. In the end we bought a new sink and faucet, new double ovens, a new stove, and we put marble on the counter tops.
Ignore the dumpy fridge. We traded that out later for a less dumpy looking old fridge.
I have several favorite parts of the finished kitchen. The marble tiles I was so against because of the grout lines turned out to look amazing! The stove we got for less than half the price and those glorious double ovens that both work and actually heat to the right temperature brought me endless joy for the short time I had them. I love the way the black outlet covers look too. My favorite favorite thing is the beadboard around the bar though, probably because it was my idea and the color turned out amazing AND, again, it was MY idea!!! Thats exciting because I rarely know what I'm talking about when it comes to these things.
I'm really proud of the way it turned out and how little it actually cost us to do. It isn't exactly what I'd want in a kitchen, but looks million times better and I'm sure it helped us secure renters within 4 days of advertising.

We did a ton of stuff to this house now that I think about it. We pretty much gutted the enitre main level. There's all new carpet, paint, hardwood floors, and tile. Outside we moved 15-20 yards of dirt the previous owner was stashing for an unknown and unfulfilled purpose, tore out bushes, laid 900 sq. feet of sod in the backyard, planted grass in the front, planted flowers, painted the garage door, and tamed the wild rose bush that was growing 15 feet up into the tree next to it (no joke. it was terrifying).
We miss it. Here are some pictures of a couple rooms I missed today:
We couldn't have done it all without help from both of our parents! It was a lot to take on and we are really proud of the way it turned out!!! And after all that work we were still happy to leave. Our commute was terrible. With Brian headed to Lindon and me to Provo, and with all the construction on I-15 and an icy winter looming in the distance we decided it would be better, cheaper, and life-preserving to move closer. So we found us a gross little apartment that met our two requirements: W/D hookups and an extra bedroom for all our stuff. It isn't really so bad, just different. Especially when we see little things like outdated outlets and weird extra light fixtures that we could fix so easily if it was our property. It is nice to have everything contained in a small area. I swear there were areas of our Riverton house that we never used and set foot in twice. The worst thing - my lovely carpeted bathroom with no outlets. I know it's a generational thing, but really? Who thought that was a good idea?!
Other than that we are adjusting well to being in happy valley again. I switched my school schedule to get done faster so I go until 10pm 3 nights a week. Brian uses that time to play basketball or watch games without me rolling my eyes at him. We are excited for Christmas and looking forward to our 1 year anniversary. :)
I've heard that doing a remodel is a difficult thing to put a marriage through. After 9 months of continuous remodel in our house, I'm feeling pretty good about the future! Now if I could only get him to close cabinet doors...