Monday, October 19, 2015

Honeymoonin

For our honeymoon, we had the wonderful opportunity to go on a cruise from Long Beach California to Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico.  I have been on a couple of cruises before but this was Jared's first cruising experience and it was a success! We both absolutely loved it :) On Monday morning we flew out of Salt Lake City into Long Beach California on a small plane that you had to board from the stairs outside of the plane.  I have flown a lot since I was 4 years old but this was the first time I got to board from the outside.  I know most people would prefer to board a plane through the boarding bridge but I just love trying new things so this was very fun for me! **quick side-note.  My dad is an electrical engineer for JBT and his whole objective every day is to make the boarding bridges connect to the airplane, so it's kind of ironic that I got so excited over not having to use something involving my dads job haha. My dad is just too good at his job and has made it so I never needed to experience less than the best.** Anyways...our flight landed around 10 am but we couldn't board the cruise ship until 2 pm so we took our taxi over to the boarding dock and just relaxed until it was time to board.  On our drive over, our driver was extremely friendly.  We got talking with him and he got extremely sidetracked and almost drove us to Disneyland instead (I wasn't complaining ;)).  I am so oblivious with directions but Jared caught on right away and decided to put our destination in his gps before saying anything to our driver but once he figured out for sure we were going in the wrong directions, he ended up saying something to the driver who apologized and turned around.  He told us he had taken the people previous to us to Disneyland and just got in auto-mode to go to the same place.  It was funny and added to our trip.  Good thing Jared is so good at directions because I probably wouldn't have noticed until we were actually at Disneyland.






As we were standing in line to board the cruise, I received an email from Utah State letting me know that I needed to pay my tuition by Wednesday. Through all of the wedding planning and partying, I had totally forgot.  It wasn't too big of a deal because I could pay online or over the phone, but I was a little short on the amount I had in my account.  I had talked to Jared before we got married and he had agreed to help me out since I wasn't going to be paid until September for one of my jobs.  So Jared and I began scurrying to figure out how we were going to get money transferred from his account to my account before our ship set sail.  After trying to figure this out for 15-30 minutes, all of a sudden Jared was like "wait, why don't we just pay the whole thing from my account?" At first I felt bad like I was borrowing so much money from Jared so I told him I would pay him back as soon as we got back...then all of a sudden it clicked.  We're married now...this isn't my money or Jared's money...this was OUR money... haha we both kind of laughed because we hadn't realized this quite yet.  Neither one of us had a problem with it, it was just new.  So we called Utah State and used Jared's card to pay my tuition and all was well and we could get on with our cruisin! 


^Our perfect room^

^the fun slides on our ship^


^us as we board the ship^




^Our stop at Catalina Island.  It was such a beautiful little island.  We decided to go parasailing-which was crazy because I'm terrified of heights! But it was so much fun! We were 250 feet up in the air, holding hands above the bright blue ocean.  It was fabulous! Our smiles say it all.  We also enjoyed an afternoon swimming in the ocean and walking around the beautiful island.  





^Our second stop was in Ensenada Mexico.  We kayaked to La Bufadora blow hole.  We had the absolute best view and had a wonderful experience.  We were exhausted by the time we were done but we managed to stop for some street tamales, candy, a street tostada, and some shopping.

^Our 1500th ice cream cone of the trip.  We absolutely love the unlimited food options :)
 
^Can you spot me??^
^Oh there I am :) Jared had a difficult time finding me^

^Mini golfing on the ship^
^Ice cream cone building contest...Jared didn't know what he's up against and was slightly embarrassed of my skills.^ 



^After our fabulous cruise, we rented a car and drove up the coast to our great friends wedding at the Oakland California temple.  It was a beautiful drive and great time with Jared as always ^

Sunday, October 4, 2015

the BEST day of my life...so far...

I went to bed around 11:00pm I believe...Alyssa and Ellen were sleeping over and we also had the Merrill family staying with us (Greg, Dee Dee, Ashlee, and Scott). It was quite the party :) I love being surrounded by family and friends! I had a little bit of a difficult time falling asleep and I woke up bright and early at 6:15am to get ready. After my shower I blow dried my hair, plucked my eyebrows and was ready for my cousin Whitney to come and do my hair and makeup. I was all dressed and ready to go to our wedding bruncheon by like 9:00am except I couldn't find my bow (it's the same bow I wore for my baptism).  But I didn't want anything to stress me out or get in the way of the day so I decided we could just run through my apt. to make sure it wasn't there and if it wasn't then we could just head over to the bruncheon and I would be fine without it. So we drove up to Logan and the song "best day of my life" by American Authors came on the radio which was perfect because I really thought this day would be the best! We got to my apartment in Logan and I did a quick look through to find my bow and wasn't able to find it so we headed over to The Coppermille for our bruncheon.  
Jared and I stood at the door greeting everyone as they walked in.  We had so many loved ones there which was so special.  After greeting everyone they opened up the breakfast buffet.  We had crepes, sausage, eggs, bacon, fruit, yogurt, muffins, etc. a very nice breakfast selection that was unlimited. While we ate we watched our slideshow video that the Walkers made for us of our pictures from our lives up 'till our wedding day.  It was so much fun to reminisce through the video with all of our friends and families. Then so many people shared so many wonderful things about Jared and I which was so sweet to hear.  We seriously felt so loved.  I wish we could've had every single person we were close to at that occasion but with some schedules and limited space we had to make some difficult decisions in picking and choosing.  
After the bruncheon, Jared and I hopped into the limo that Jessalyn and Adam had there waiting for us and they chauffeured us to the temple. (The limo is actually the vehicle they use at the Walker mortuary to drive the families of the deceased to and from the funerals).  As we were driving to the temple, Jared and I were talking about what we did the night before (our last night as single people). I told about my fun night at olive garden with my old roommates and the time with friends and family. He told me about how his brother Garrett, cousin Seth and Garrick came up and stayed the night where they sweated to death in our lovely apartment and watched "horn porn". Ha ha I was in shock when I heard those words come out of Jared's mouth and got slightly concerned...he noticed my worried look and began to explain that "horn porn" is watching footage on trail camera's of deer and elk that they have been spotting and that they'll have the opportunity to try and hunt. I was relieved and glad we were still able to head to the temple at that moment.  He is such a tease.  
When we got to the Temple we went in and signed our marriage license and went our separate ways to get dressed.  My mom got to be there with me which was very special.  I went in and put on my beautiful temple clothes that I would be married in and I noticed "Cameron" or the penny was still with me in my shoe which was perfect, then I went out to meet up with Jared.  I guess while Jared was getting dressed the man in charge of Jared noticed Garrett (Jared's twin brother) in the chapel not dressed in his temple clothes and about had a heart attack. He went up to Garrett and said that he needed to take him back to get dressed.  Immediately Garrett knew he was mixing him up with Jared and so he pointed out that Jared had Just walked in and was ready to go in the right clothing.  This happens all the time to these boys but it's funny to now say that I "almost" got married to the wrong twin.  
We had the opportunity to sit in the celestial room together and talk with our sealer.  Then he took us into the room where our family members and close friends sat waiting for our sealing.  It was such a beautiful room, filled with a lot of love, and a beautiful spirit.  We couldn't help but to feel so happy and loved.  Our sealer told us some more things (that to be honest I don't really remember because I was so caught up in the moment) then he sealed us for TIME AND ALL ETERNITY with beautiful words I will never forget.  Then we had the opportunity to hug everyone that was in the room with us. I did great without crying until I hugged my brother A.J. I felt so much love from him that I couldn't help but cry.  
We went back to change out of our temple clothes and into our wedding clothes.  Jared in his handsome suit and me in my perfect dress.  It was so much fun getting dressed in the Brides room and feel so much happiness and love being there with my mom.  As I was pulling out my slip to wear I found my bow in the bottom of the slip bag!!!! (After our bridals, my mom had returned that slip to the place we rented it from and like a week later she went back to rent it again for my wedding day. They have a few of each slip so we weren't guaranteed to get the exact same one each time we rented it but lo and behold, it was the same one and it contained the bow I had been missing and searching for all morning!!! How incredible is that?  After we got dressed, Jared and I met up to walk out of the side door together.  It was a very exciting experience.  We walked out to see everyone that was there to support us in and out of the temple.  
After a few hugs, we went over to get our picture taken with everyone.  After a ton of pictures, everyone left and Jared and I got a few more fun pictures of just the two of us.  After we finished up with those pictures, we headed in the limo to our reception location with just a few stops a long our way (at our apartment to make sure Jared's luggage had all been taken, and the gas station to grab a drink to help us make it through the rest of our long and adventurous day).  The limo was decorated for the occasion and had some words on the outside that said something like "honk for kisses".  Well Jared and I didn't notice that for the longest time and weren't quite sure why everyone was hoking at us the whole drive.  Don't worry, we got some kisses in there to make up for all of hose honks. Also, Jared's family had provided us with a cooler full of awesome snacks that we weren't afraid to dive right into. 
When we got to our reception, my cousin Whitney took me into one of the available rooms to help me freshen up.  Then we went out and ate some food that my mom had bought for us.  Jared and I just basically kicked back and relaxed while everyone else was running around getting our decorations set up and ready for our reception.  Every time we tried to help we were told we were suppose to just be relaxing, so we decided to listen to the orders.  
Our reception began at 7:00pm. It was set up beautifully with baby's breath on all the tables, balloons here and there, pictures of Jared and I everywhere,  our jenga piece sign in table, our video playing on a projector, the serving area with ice cream and soda to share with everyone and us standing with our parents around the water at the end of a bridge that everyone walked over to come and congratulate  us. I absolute loved every second of it.  We had people coming up until exactly 9:00 so it was kind of hard to break away and do some of the things we wanted to do, especially because it was getting dark.  We were able to cut the beautiful cake that my Aunt Lizzy and mom made-which ended up being extremely delicious, then I danced with my dad to "I loved her first" by Heartland (when I was like 16 my dad came home from work with a song that I had to listen to and he said he dedicates it to me- this was the one) then after, I danced with Jared to "I don't dance" by Lee Brice, following the dancing we were sent off by a hundred balloons being released.  I wish I would've said my goodbyes and thank you's to at least our parents, but we got so caught up in the moment we just got into our limo and were off.  
It was weird to not be there to help clean up everything.  But we rode the limo back to my parents house where we both changed into something more comfortable to head to our hotel in.  Jared's family was so kind to book us a nice honeymoon room down in Salt Lake.  We stayed in that room for two nights because our cruise didn't leave until Monday afternoon! We had a great time resting because we were so exhausted from the wedding excitement. We watched a shark week which was kind of ironic since we were leaving the next day to set sail on the home of the sharks... haha but it was a lot of fun.  We also spent a good hour opening ALL of the cards we received at our reception and had fun counting up the money, checks, and gift cards.  Our family members and friends were far too kind and generous with what they gave us.  We definitely appreciate every last gift, card, and presence at our reception.  Thank you!