Our Anniversary Cruise

For the first time, this isn't Rachal posting on the blog.I've heard about cruising for a long time now - both from Rachal and other friends and family. Everyone always says how wonderful it is, and it's really nice cause you can just sit back and relax, and enjoy the beautiful places you go. One of the underlying tones that every comment I've received has, is FOOD.
We left SLC on Saturday and arrived at LAX about 2 hours later. Andrew picked us up, and we went home to their place to see Erinn, and Eliot. We went out to eat at Don Antonios, and had some awesome food - except my enchilada tasted like a cigarette, but it was replaced. We stayed the night there with A&E&e and had a really great time. Everytime we get together it feels like we all grow closer, and have more fun each time. Sunday mornin' rolled around and it was off to the ship.
Day 1 - we check in and make it up to our stateroom, (a rather large prison cell, with nice amenities) we had an interior room, which was bigger than I expected it to be. We unpacked all of our bags, used all the space provided to store our luggage and by the time we were done the room felt like it had doubled in size. Once we got unpacked, and took care of some business with the front desk, we were on search for food. I didn't know what type of food to expect - but I was expecting to find it everywhere. We did find it everywhere, I wasn't even hungry and we ate. We decided to wander around the ship to familiarize ourselves with the place and see where we might want to spend some time until we went to our orientation for evacuation. After the small speech was over it was almost time for dinner so we went back to the room to get ready for our first meal.
At dinner we met our waiter, Yen from Colombia and his assistant, Michael, from the Phillippines. Both of our waiters were very nice and professional, a bt awkward, but still fun to be around. At the end of our meal, we met their boss when he stopped us from getting up and leaving after dessert. He rushed to our table and shouted, "BREAKING NEWS!! BREAKING NEWS!! you must sit back down" so we sat down and didn't know what was going on. As we sat there he informed us that he knew it was our anniversary and that they would like to sing us a song. It was "Happy Anniversary" to the tune of Happy Birthday.
Day 2 - At Sea. This was a little bit of a colder day and we ended up walking around the ship, hot tubbing, and just letting it sink in that we were away from all of our stressers and it was "us" time. It felt like an overcast day at the beach. We finally had the chance to sleep in, and relax. We made a purchase this day, and it was one in which we weren't planning on doing - but it definetly worked out perfectly.
Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas. This day turned out to probably be the highlight of our trip. The first purchase we made the night prior to Cabo was to go and swim with the dolphins. Rachal had been talking about this since I've met her, and said it has always been something she wanted to do. I thought it would be fun, but didn't think it would really be worth it in the beginning. We showed up to the Cabo Aquarium and signed in. As we were waiting for our group to be called, we saw 5 or 6 dolphins jump out of the aquarium a good 20-25 feet. It was so cool to see them jumping and playing around. They called our group and gave us the little orientation of how to touch them, and how to hold on when they tow us around the pool. The water was FREEZING at first, not very tourist friendly, but I guess it's their house, not ours. We met our guide, Abril, and our dolphin for the day, Andi. she was an 11 year old female and was very calm. Once we got in the water Andi swam around us letting us pet her and bumping into us moving us around with ease. Next, came time for Rachal to be the first to get a kiss, give a kiss and dance with Andi in the water. It was so cute to see her face light up when she was in the water doing something she's always dreamed of. Then it was my turn - Andi kissed me on the cheek, then when I turned my head, her tongue was sticking out!! I've never thought about a dolphin having a tongue, obviously they would being a mammal, but it just never occurred to me until it was almost poking me in the face! After we both got dolphin kisses, we jumped back in the water, and Andi turned on her back allowing us to grab her pectoral fins, and go for a swim. She towed us around in a circle, making sure we had smiles on our faces for the pictures.
Once we left the Aquarium we walked around Cabo a little more. We tried to wash our hands in a bathroom - to our dismay there was no running water. We kept on walking around, and found another one of Rachals dreams. A Lion cub that you could hold! We payed the few bucks and went into the booth. At first they handed us a little boy named Charlie, but he became hungry while we were holding him, and started to claw at our arms and we had to give him up. They then handed us Miua (Mee-ah) who was a 2 month old little girl with the fattest belly. No doubt she just ate and would't be looking for 'finger food' we held her for a few minutes while we got a dozen pictures and completed our animal exerience in Cabo. We ate at some random restaurant on the street that was really tasty, and then we went back on the ferry to the ship.
Day 4 - Mazatlan. This was probably our least favorite stop on the trip. Away from the beach, there really wasn't much to do without taking a taxi into the city and shopping areas. Everyone sells you the same junk in every city, and it makes you wonder, why would I want to buy this stuff? It was really sad however, to see 4,5,6 year olds trying to sell you candy and toys.
Day 5 - Puerto Vallarta. This was another one of the purchases we made on the first day - we signed up to go into the jungle area and go on the ziplines. We boarded a boat at first, then into the back of a big army-like truck with 12 other people and headed an hour away to our destination. We unloaded and after our shpiel they give everyone, we harnessed up and headed up a few paths and then down the first zip line. We zipped down 11 lines, and repelled down 2 trees. This was so exciting, being able to see the area from a perspective right in the middle of the greenery. We saw lots of the different parts of the city on our truck ride to and from the location and it looked like what I had expected.
After we returned from the Zip Line adventure, we changed and had lunch on the ship. We ventured out again into the city by taxi to find a beach and relax and find some quiet place - which apparently is unheard of when a group of vendors see a young white couple, we must have money. Everyone called us "Hey Honeymooners" which I thought was fun, but weren't into the services they were offering.
Day 6 - At Sea. This was the warmest day we had at sea leaving Puerto Vallarta. Everyone was on the pool deck. It was hard to find a good chair in the sun. Between playing pool games with other guests, I was the errand boy getting up to get drink refills for my sweet, when there were no drink-servers around.
Day 7 - At Sea. This day was just like the first day leaving LA, very overcast, and much cooler than the rest. We spent a total of about... 5-6 hours in the hot tub all day, getting in and out, and just munching on snacks, and getting back in. It felt like being a kid in the summer when you have nothing to do, but spend time with your best friend just being bums. The extensive hot tub time was just to ensure a negative pregnancy test at the end of the trip, incase any of you were wondering. :)
Well we're back to Pleasant Grove now, and real life sucks. I was really getting used to being messy, eating when and what I wanted and always having a clean room. I guess life goes on. It was a perfect interruption to our busy schedules and we are already looking forward to our next cruise to the Caribbean over Christmas. The days are counting down until I can put on another 7 pounds.... yah.

One Year!!!

I am so excited to go on such a fun cruise vacation and I can't believe we are leaving tomorrow! I think we will grow so much closer being alone together for a whole week without the stress of school and work. I cannot believe we have been married a year! The time has gone by so fast!!! I have enjoyed every bit of it!! It is so weird because even though the time has gone by fast I also feel like we have been together for so much longer because of how close we are and how strong our relationship is. I feel like we have learned a lot about each other this year like which buttons not to push and how we both communicate differently. It hasn't all been easy but it has all been worth it. I am so glad that we've still got eternity to go!

Spoiled Rotten On My Birthday!

This year was definitely one of the best birthdays I've ever had! Kevin insisted that I take myself shopping in the morning so of course I did. He had also left me a note with an address on it and a time to be there with no other information but he had laid out sweats for me to wear and said that it would take a few hours. So, a little nervous of the unknown I headed off to find the address around noon. I soon arrived at Massage Envy. I went inside and the girl at the front desk asked "Do you have an appointment?" and I said, "I think so...". It turns out that Kevin and had called in and scheduled me for a TWO HOUR massage and he made sure to get the most requested girl there for me. It was heavenly and much needed! He even took care of the tip so I didn't have to worry about a thing. It was very relaxing and I was surprised at how well he had planned out the day for me so far...considering he never plans out anything. As if this wasn't enough he still had something planned for dinner and all he told me was to dress up and that it wasn't my favorite food but that it would be fun (which was just a lie to throw me off!) We ended up going to the perfect place...Ruth's Chris! Yumm! It was so delicious. They told me to pick a dessert for my birthday and that it would be on them (Kevin made sure to tell them it was my birthday when he called to make the reservation haha). I decided to go with cheesecake. When it came out we realized that it was literally a cheese CAKE, a round cheesecake verses a slice with lots and lots of crust all the way around, my favorite! Between the two of us we could only manage to get half of it down because we were so full so that means leftover cheesecake today! Although we did manage to take about 5 handfuls of the yummy Andy's mints from the front desk on our way out. Yesterday was so perfect, it couldn't have been better if I had planned it myself. Thank you Kevin!! I am so lucky to have the best husband in the world!! I can't wait to have dinner with Kevin and Bal on Friday too!! It's a party all week, woo!

Fall Is Here

Finally my favorite season has arrived again! I know that now that it's hear it will be over before I know it since we have so many fun and exciting things to look forward to the rest of the year! Yesterday we went for a family drive in our new Subaru up through the canyon and through Park City. It was such a beautiful drive! All the leaves on the trees are changing colors and there were lots of bright red, yellow and even pink trees. About halfway through the drive we stopped and threw a blanked down and got out our cute picnic basket (Thank you momma Smith!) packed with non other than Subway sandwiches and had a little lunch. Aspen loved running around in the woods. It was such a nice relaxing day. On our way home we stopped at our cousins house and visited with them for a while and ended up staying for dinner. All in all I'd say it was a successful Sunday. Today we are back to school and work and running errands, but I am counting down the days until our cruise! Woohoo! I've been waiting for this vacation for a long time. I am still hating work. The reps are so rude to me on the phone and I have to babysit them and make compliance complaints and correct them when they try to do something shady. My boss is also a Nazi. I am learning to deal with it though. I'm glad to have a job, goodness knows they're hard to find in Utah especially with this economy. Tomorrow is my birthday oddly enough. It doesn't feel like anything special at all...I guess that means I am getting old. I am excited that I will finally be able to say that I'm not a teenager anymore. I have been thinking about that a lot lately and I've started to realize how old I really am getting. I cannot believe that Madi will graduate this year or that my little Chloe will be the only one at home next year and she will be going to Stake dances this year and dancing with BOYS! It's a little scary to have everyone growing up and knowing that there will be so many changes in the next few years, but change can always be good and I'm excited to take it all on and enjoy it.

Family Time

This week has been an awesome one! My mom and sisters and family friend Becca all got to Utah on Sunday. We have been able to see them multiple times this week and it has been so fun! We went and saw the divers at the Myan, went to colormemine, hiked Bridal Veil Falls, went to nickel city, and tons more! It has been a blast! We are looking forward to another week with them. We are going to Lagoon on Tuesday with all the Harsh's and floating the Provo river on Friday. We also got to spend some time with the Smith's while they were in town this weekend. I got to meet lots of my new aunts and uncles on the Smith side that I had never met before at a family picnic on Saturday. We also visited with Andrew, Erinn and baby Elliott and also Whitney and Phil at the picnic. Earlier that day (luckily I was able to get my shift covered...by some miracle) we were able to go for a fun drive and to lunch with Brad. What a fun weekend! We are so blessed to be surrounded but such great relatives and be able to see our immediate family so often. It has been such a fun week!
This week I am starting something new...eyelash extensions! I am so excited! If you know anyone that is interested please send them my way :) It's nice not having to worry about mascara and curling your eyelashes :)

Long Weekend

It was our first ever nephew's baby blessing last weekend and after a couple crazy miracle shift trades last week, it worked out so that we could go! We were so excited for a last minute mini vacation and to finally meet the cute little guy. The blessing was really awesome. It was so fun to watch Kevin participate in something so special and "family related" for the first time. After the blessing we had a picnic at the LA temple and visited with everyone. Then Kevin and I took off and drove around Beverly hills a little bit. We saw the house that Michael Jackson was living in when he died and that was kind of cool. We actually did a lot of touring while we were in Cali this time. We went to San Diego one day so that I could see the area and eat at Ruby's for free for the 2nd time this trip! We also toured LA and saw the hollywood sign and a few of the more touristy beaches there. While we were in LA we got to have dinner with Andrew, Erinn and baby Elliot. It was nice to visit with them before all the family came into town for the blessing. It had been a long time since we had last seen them. It was a fun vacation touring around California but I think both of our favorite parts of the vacation were just relaxing together at the beaches close to his parents house. We were just able to talk and relax, it was nice. But like always, the trip ended to soon. We ended up with an extra passenger on the ride back to good old Utah. Our one-eyed dog niece Ella is going on "vacation" to live with Erinn's parents. Transporting her was the least we could do for Andrew and Erinn since they helped make it possible for us to be there for the blessing. We are so grateful for such a wonderful family. Thank you to Andrew and Erinn for helping us out. Thank you to Aunt Val for watching our dog for over a week. Thank you to Aunt Debbie for letting us stay at their house in St. George so we could split up the drive and also for making us a gourmet breakfast!
Although the vacation is over and it's back to work we are glad to be home with Aspen again. We missed her way too much!

Kevin's Birthday!

It was Kevin's birthday last weekend! It was the first time we got to celebrate one of our birthdays together, even though we dated for a year before getting married. So that was really exciting. I was able to save enough to get Kevin what he really wanted, a grill! He was very surprised (I gave it to him a month early too so he could use it all summer). On Friday we went to dinner together to celebrate and then on Saturday we had some friends over to BBQ and play games. It was a really fun night! I can't believe Kevin was only 24 when we met and I was only 18, now he's 26 and on his way to 30! Just kidding :) It has been fun having this time together and I can't wait for the many more birthdays together that are still to come!

Cougar Ranch

Ricks Family Reunion

WOW! What a big weekend. I can't believe we had 60/63 people there! It was so great to see everyone and just relax for a few days in the great outdoors. We are so lucky to have such a great family. Kevin had fun shooting with the boys and I had fun catching up with my mom and sisters. We also went for a couple fun rides on the 4 wheelers. My favorite parts of the weekend included capture the flag, roasting marshmellows, sharing the freezing cold cabin with everyone, going into town to get drinks with my girls, the devotional on Sunday and just spending time with everyone. I am so grateful for such a wonderful fun family that supports each other. Thanks to everyone that helped out with cooking, getting the Cougar Ranch ready and everything else!