Graduation Celebration Cruise...part 3

Sixth Stop: DOMINICA

• Shopped around in the heat and found some cute jewelry, little girl dresses (that Tyson wouldn't let me get), and some baby turtles that I desperately wanted to take home with me.
• Met up with our excursion people and hopped into the wonderful "Wacky Rollers".
• Drove on the left side of the road past some cool scenic points and neat forest.
• Wound up and up into the jungle mountains to see the waterfalls.
• Saw bright yellow land crabs.
• Drove to a natural spring-type swimming area with waterfalls.
• Jumped into the freezing water and swam through caves that they filmed the part of Pirates of the Caribbean when they were inside and rolling in the big round balls made of bones.
• Almost went through the waterfall to see the other side when the first lady went and almost got sucked under...which is why we were wearing life vests!
• Was glad I didn't have to refer to my lifeguard training and do CPR.
• Sat under a warm natural spring.
• Ate fresh mango, pineapple, sugar cane, and coconut as we dried off.
• Had another formal night and got all dressed up.
• Took picture at their photo-booth things but didn't like any of them.
• Had a nice dinner and saw another comedian.
• More ice-cream and outdoor movies.
  

Seventh & Last Stop: ST. THOMAS

• Walked around the city and looked at cool jewelry I couldn't afford.
• Taxied over to a local scuba shop and rented some snorkel gear.
• Dove to the bottom a ton to find some more cool shells.
• Found out that I'm WAY more of a fish than Tyson is (much to my disappointment). Maybe one day he will like the water more, I know that at least our kids will love it!
• Taxied back to the cruise ship for me to find a St. Thomas souvenir.
• Bought a cute picture frame to document the whole cruise experience & some adorable jewelry that have a stone they find in the Dominican Republic.
• Relaxed by the ship while staring at some iguanas sun bathing on the rocks. Then watched some crazy person pick up and play with the iguanas!
• More ice cream... then the token Cruise PiNa Colada. You gotta have at least one of those on the trip!

So overall this trip was such a blast! We definitely needed the vacation from the stresses that law school provided and this was the perfect solution that we recommend to all of our friends. I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful husband who loves to travel as much as I do! So cruise on my friends...cruise on!

Graduation Celebration Cruise...part 2

Fifth Stop: GRENADA

• Forecast: rain...again.
  
• Took myself forever to figure out what to wear and how to do my hair in this 'ultimate' humidity, knowing that I was just going to get rained on again.
  
• Ate a great breakfast.
• Met up with our group for our excursion.
• Drove up incredibly steep hills higher and higher into the mountains with a bus of fun people.
• Listened to our tour guide and found ourselves walking sticks so we wouldn't trip and fall all the way down the mountain.
• Learned about the local wildlife and crops/spices they grow on the island.
• Watched Tyson get super excited about buying spices that were grown here to take home.
• Saw some adorable homes scattered all around.
• Slipped quite a few times on some steep parts (I swear I was using my stick).
• Watched Tyson slip a few times which made me feel a little better about myself :)
• Ended up at two huge waterfalls that were gorgeous.
• Swam around a bit and watched our guide do flips off these very tall waterfalls.
• Asked Tyson if he would let me jump off, and he said no...
• ...then it started POURING, so experienced our first jungle rain outburst.
  
• Hiked back and paid $1 each to get our feet washed off of all the mud from a local.
• Practically almost died as the driver swerved in and out of these crazy windy steep roads back down the mountain (It was like driving in Mexico all over again!)
• Stopped at a local store where they sold their spices and awesome ice-cream which made Tyson's day.
• Saw a gorgeous rainbow which made the rain totally worth it.
• Got cleaned up and went to probably the funniest comedy show I've ever seen.
  
• More ice-cream and movies on the big screen.
  

Graduation Celebration Cruise...part 1

When Tyson and I were married and he started Law School, I kept trying to think of something we would both LOVE to do to celebrate when he graduated in 3 years. Obviously we thought of a cruise because we both love them. We booked through Princess Cruise Lines which was quite a bit different than Carnival (we used on our honeymoon)... to the Caribbean!

First Stop: SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

• We flew into the day before we needed to embark so we could enjoy the city.
  
• Checked in to the hotel that was literally right on the beach!
• Took a bus to a really cool fort that has been on the island for forever.
• Almost paid the $10 to tour the inside of the fort and then decided against it and walked around it instead.
  
• Watched people having fun flying kites.
• Made Tyson do a cart-wheel which I caught on the video camera.
• Ate amazing food.
• Took a ton of pictures of the cool skinny rainbow colored streets.
• Stumbled upon a preforming group that did a bunch of different cultured dances.
• Walked and talked along the beach that night.

Second Stop...well kind-of stop: DAY AT SEA

• Slept in really late and had every intention of seeing the sunrise from our balcony (which we got upgraded to for free).
  
• Took pictures to document our free upgrade balcony because that probably won't happen again...ever.
• Bought the $29.99 per person soda refill-thing because we figured Tyson would for sure drink that amount of soda for the both of us. So worth it!
  
• Tanned and watched movies on their HUGE projector that they played movies on constantly. It was awesome because you could swim in the pool right underneath it if you got hot, now that's my kind of tanning!
  
• Realized that they didn't do the towel animals on your bed so took a picture in front of the fruit art sculpture instead :)
• Ate free soft serve ice-cream and didn't feel any guilt about it!
• Walked around the ship to see what fun things they had and set up most of our excursions.
• Ate a really nice formal dinner and met our awesome waitress from Africa.
  

Third Stop: ARUBA

• Took a tour bus to take us all around the island which was WAY cheaper than booking it through the cruise! This is highly recommended my friends.
  
• Saw my first all natural forming bridge.
• Took pictures of the rock piles all over the place not realizing what the heck they were for.
• Found out that the rock piles were *seven wishes* where they believe that when you stack 7 rocks on-top of each other you get 7 wishes...or one wish...one of those.
  
• Made my own pile of rocks and made a wish.
• Drove to an abandoned mine and made Tyson climb up and pose in one of the windows for me.
• Realized that Aruba isn't everything that The Beach Boys made it cracked out to be. A little let-down.
• Felt like I was in my desert-y home town because of all the cacti.
• Ate fish & chips at a cute outdoor restaurant.
• Searched for some cool shells in the ocean while swimming...then to find out that my sunglasses ended up on the bottom of the Arubian ocean never to be found again.
• Got rained on as we took the bus back to the cruise ship.
• Watched and laughed Tyson eat octopus that night.
  

Fourth Stop: BONAIRE

• Slept in.
• Almost got in with a group going out to sea and snorkel.
• Ended up going to a local shop to get gear, and snorkeled at a good section of the island.
• Kicked Fire Coral and ended up with some stinging bumps on my ankle that stayed for about a month...only really hurt for an hour...battle wounds!
• Saw a sleeping sea turtle which I really wanted to touch but Tyson wouldn't allow it
  
• Watched Tyson almost get attacked by some huge iguanas and have the hilarious ordeal all on video.
• Bought a cool carved coconut-husk thing.
  
• Gambled that night a lost $20. Tyson lost a whopping $30 thanks to his lack of self control on the nickle and penny machines ;)
• Ate more ice-cream.
• Watched more movies on the big screen.
  

Graduation Gifts

As graduation approached for Tyson I kept thinking of what I would get him as a gift. I ended up getting him a bunch of nice dress shirts for work (I know...boring), but some cuff links that I loved. Can I tell you that I was shocked how expensive cuff links are? They were the Love Knot ones, pictured on the left and I had to have them...just for him.

I was thinking about everything that we had been through these past three years and thought that I kind-of wanted a graduation gift also. I know that doesn't sound very traditional...for the person who is graduating to give the spouse a graduation gift, but I felt that I played a large role in being there for him these last 3 years. I halted my schooling after we got married and he swept me to Cleveland where I worked full-time so we wouldn't have to take out even more loans than we already needed to. We then moved to DC that first summer for his internship and I continued working while he was in school so we could go on trips together and enjoy life pre-kids and before he had a career to spend most of his time getting great at. I also wanted something to have for a long time to remember all of those adventures we had while he was in law school. I told him what I had been thinking, and he got me this gorgeous pearl necklace!

Exactly what I was thinking, he read my mind again.

Oh how I love my husband! I will cherish them forever.

Tall Ladders!

While we lived in DC we went to 2Amy's and as we were driving back we were practically surrounded by these huge firetrucks. We were able to see them use their very cool very tall ladders. Tyson was like a kid in a candy store. Could you imagine having to climb those things?!
You won't see that in Utah!

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Out with the old, and in with the new

OH! Just as a side note - I am posting from my first self-owned computer, a new Dell Inspirion laptop that I got so I could work from home. No more using Tyson's 5 year old computer. I absolutely love it!

updates...

Weekend in the city

While Tyson had finals awhile back I decided to go into town because it was a beautiful day that I just didn't want to waste at home. I was able to walk by the monuments, dip my feet in the fountain at the WWII Memorial, read a great book and fall asleep on the lawn. It was great and I'm greatly missing everything out on the East Coast!

Only in Utah!

I saw their infomercial when I was in St. George and was literally sitting on the edge of the couch with my mouth wide open... THE... ENTIRE... TIME! Hold onto your shorts gals, this is totally true!! And it can be yours for ONLY $19.95!


Ummm....so ya seriously?! Can some of my Utah friends try to explain this to me?! And those of you Not from Utah I'd be interested if you've ever seen this in any other state (being advertised on public television). Maybe I don't get the gist of it but from the look of it their hair is already teased BEFORE they add the 'Bump It' to their head.

Wow....all I can say is wow.... Oh, and also that my last Utah post is totally justified!
And if I have any friends out there that use this thing I totally won't judge....much :)

hmmph....

This is how I've been feeling lately because of the lack of husband in my life currently. Ya I know...so sad! He has been leaving at 7:15 am and gets home at 10-10:30 pm every night...LAME. You'd think that he's like studying for a freakin' Bar Exam or something like that... geeze!

Well my friends that's kinda exactly what he's doing, and he still has about 2 more months of it before I will have a hubby again. Oh well, at least it's not me! If it was I'd probably last a day and be so overwhelmed with that and having to work as well that I'd end up calling it quits, and sit in front of the TV in my jammies with a tub of ice-cream for a week straight...then the ice-cream would get all melty and then I'd have to figure out something else to do with my life.

Needless to say I am SO proud of Tyson for all of his hard work even though I never get to see him anymore. I'm really excited that I don't have to be the "Shugga Momma" in the relationship anymore YAY!!!

So while he's studying to be a certified Lawyer & working part-time I'm working from home, watering the flowers, doing laundry, attempting to blog, unpacking all our crap into the basement bedroom, getting dry cleaning done, looking for my future car...which is hopefully is not so far into the future, searching for a home, and searching for my dumb camera charger which has gotten itself lost in the shuffle (hence the lack of cruise and graduation pictures). So ya we're both pretty swamped. I've been able to spend a LOT of time with the in-laws and I'm just hoping that they aren't taken aback by my quirkiness or random strange thoughts that just pop out sometimes. Oh well, I guess it makes life more interesting.

We are now Utahns... at least Tyson says I should claim it...

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the complete lack of blog posts lately, we've been a little busy with life at the moment, and we still need to find me a car. Right now we are living in Utah at Tyson's parents house and getting settled. I'm working from home which is wonderful, and Tyson started his bar courses last Monday. He says that there is a TON of information he will need to learn, but I know he will do great and pass on the first shot!

The move went smoothly (at least so far), our truck is supposed to come on Tuesday so we will get that unloaded and see how everything ended up. It will be nice to have the rest of our things that we're missing currently...including my camera charger (hence no pictures).

Here are a few things that have been strange to me lately (and more to come I'm sure, I'll make sure to capture some of this on my camera for next time):

1. Kids work EVERYWHERE! - Seriously at every restaurant, car wash, mall store and even WalMart you will see high school kids working which I am really not used to but honestly think is awesome. Good for them!
2. Holy crap the hair...the hair... - I mean I always knew that some people that lived here had interesting hair. Hundreds of colors on one person's head, but I really think that Utah is the number 1 consumer of Hair Spray in the United States. I also think that some of these girls don't have mirrors at home, and if they don't then shame on their hair stylists!
   
3. The mountains - I have only lived here for about 8 months of my life but the minute I left the state to move somewhere else (Cleveland of all places), I missed the mountains. If you've never been to Utah, you need to because it is one of the most gorgeous states to visit. Right by our backyard we have snow capped and completely green gorgeous mountains. If California didn't have the beach and palm trees, I would rank Utah as possibly the prettiest states to visit.
4. Everyone is super friendly! It's interesting how you can ride the metro every day and not realize that strangers don't talk to each other and that's totally normal...well in Utah they do, and a lot. I kind-of like it.
5. Facial hair - okay so are beards back in style? Literally on the drive back from the airport I saw at least 2 HUGE men, driving crazy old or crazy lifted pickups with amazing hair on their face that I didn't think was possible. Well I knew it was possible but never thought someone would do that to themselves!
   

Blog posts to come shortly:
Cruise, Selling of our poor car, Family comes to visit, Graduation, The big move to Utah of all places, Dropping little brother to MTC for his mission, Visiting with old friends & Crazy girls with hideous haircuts!

Tonight we are heading to St. George to have fun, play golf, and lay out :0) Here's to a great HOLIDAY WEEKEND!

p.s. Tyson says I should claim Utah when people ask where I'm from...I'm adamant that if they ask where I live I'll say Utah but I'm still from California! I mean I was born and raised and lived 18 years in California, and less than 1 in Utah, so I'm not really from here right?! I mean nothing against Utah or the people that live here, but I'm a Californian. He then asked when I will 'Claim' myself as being from Utah. I said the day I live in Utah longer than California... so when I'm 41 and you ask me where I'm from I will proudly say "UTAH" :)

THE LAST FINAL

Today was Tyson's last day of school for the rest of his life. It was really weird realizing that he was officially finished with school... Forever. To be quite honest it is really overwhelming because we have come so far since we got married and I will miss all of our East Coast adventures.

Here's Tyson and his "Finals" beard...he thinks not shaving brings him good luck.
We have had so many wonderful experiences these last three years and even though we've had many ups and downs I am so glad I was able to experience this with Tyson and didn't marry him after he was done with his education. We knew each other for 8 months before we were hitched, and two weeks later he started law school at Case Western out in Cleveland. It was the furthest East I'd ever been and to be completely honest I hated Cleveland with a passion...hated it! I think it was the weather that got to me the most with two feet icicles hanging from our windows in the winter and the temps not even going above zero for two weeks. There's also the fact that it snowed a crap load and I pretty much didn't see the sun for three months straight. I almost totaled our car multiple times while driving to work in the ice-storm aftermath. Despite all of that we did have some fun times out there, meeting great people in our ward and seeing things I've never seen before.

Now we can look back at the days as newlyweds in Cleveland and just laugh... and secretly make the vow that we'll never live in that place again.

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Here are some Cleveland Experiences I will never forget:

-Driving across the country to Cleveland and stopping in some sketchy places like Gary, Indiana to get gas. Imagine being two young college kids with a car full of stuff and Utah licence plates going into one of the worst crime-infested cities in the country (un beknownst to us). I swear we were almost shot, but I can say that I am a survivor of that bathroom break!

-Moving into our first place which was an adorable little duplex in University Heights.

-Learning that my husband hates putting together things, and will swear up a storm until it's done. I must admit that we do have a few pieces of furniture that are a little off-kilter, but that's ok with me. Tyson didn't want to let me reassemble it...I think it might have to do with him losing part of his manhood or something. I dunno I don't get it.

-Going to DC for the first time (for me), with my wonderful hubby being my tour guide and showing me all of the things he loved about the city making me love it just as much as him!

-Learning how to actually drive in the snow.

-Shoveling the show for the first time. To be quite honest I kind-of enjoy it.

-Having our first Valentine's Day as a married couple sitting on the couch with our delivered Chinese watching movies and just laughing together. I didn't have to work and Ty didn't have school because of the huge blizzard that day.

-Going to Niagra Falls in the winter.

-Celebrating my 21st B-day!

-Seeing Amish Country for the first time.
-Going to my FIRST Bronco's game.

Then we were off to DC that first summer so he could work at a lobbying firm. We were so excited to live in that wonderful city and wanted to take it all in and experience as much of it as possible because we had no idea Tyson was going to transfer to GW. It was fun subletting a tiny apartment in downtown DC. When we got the acceptance we were thrilled to say the least!

While I worked at my job Ty was apartment hunting. He came up with a few he really liked. One wasn't really what we were looking for and I asked him why it was on the list. He said it was possibility because the lobby had fresh cookies daily for their residents...yup...that's my hubby! We ended up choosing a different apartment which led us to be in the wonderful ward that we're in right now, and that we will miss so much.

I always tried to be the one that gave Tyson all the support and motivation he needed. It was hard because I'm kind of high maintenance when it comes to attention and I know it was hard for him to juggle his time between me and school but he was good at making sure I was taken care of and at the same time getting great grades. Tyson is amazing in all that he does and it was no surprise to me that he would give law school 100% which he did. I am so proud of him and everything that he has accomplished.

He printed out his offer letter that he got in an email instead of telling me over the phone. I was asleep when he got home and he woke me up and put the folded up email next to me as he changed into something nicer. I was irritated because I thought he was just throwing the contents of his pockets onto me. I unfolded the paper and started to read. It said your normal rejection line that we've heard from hundreds of firms and I was overwhelmed because this meant we were at square one with the job hunt...again. I kept reading thinking of how Tyson felt about this whole thing when I came upon the paragraphs that stated they would love for him to join their firm and the tears came gushing out without any way for me to stop them. I honestly didn't think I would cry when he found something but that's just what happened.

This whole experience of job hunting has been a roller coaster with it's ups and downs. I've had so much stress on my shoulders and so quickly it was all gone! I'm glad I was able to help Tyson apply for jobs but it is very overwhelming trying to be the strong one and comfort him when the rejections would come in the mail. I am so excited that we found something and that we will be closer to family. After I bawled for awhile I got ready and we celebrated by going to Carlyle. That whole night we talked about how fun it will be living in Utah but how we will greatly miss living in DC. We even wrote a long list of the things we still need to see. I know a lot of them won't be crossed off but we're planning on for sure coming back to visit!

It's amazing to me that he is almost done just because I feel like these three years have lasted a really long time, and that he would be in school forever! Tyson says that the whole experience flew by for him. It was the last semester that really flew by for me but now it's done and a celebration cruise, graduation, and a move to Utah is almost upon us! To be quite honest I always thought we might end up in Utah after maybe 10 years after law school was over, but never thought it would be so soon. I'm kind of hesitant to move to Utah and I'm not really sure why, I mean I only really lived there for 8 months out of my whole life. Tyson says that Californians just have a biast against his precious state. I've just really loved diversity and having friends of different faiths my whole life, and I'm nervous that I won't really get that in Utah unless I search high and low. I'm also not a fan of snow and cold weather...not a fan at all.

In spite of all of this I can say that I am excited to be closer to some family so when we have a family we won't be across the country while raising the little tikes. I'm also excited to be closer to Cali to be able to see my family more as well. And I do like building snowmen and sledding so I guess snow isn't all bad. Taking into account all of the places I have resided I can honestly say that DC has been my favorite place to live and that means a lot coming from a die-hard, born and raised Californian. I will never forget living out here and will cherish all of our DC memories forever!

A tid bit of DC memories:

-Subletting a tiny apartment downtown and discovering we had a few mice living with us.

-Seeing the White House (my first), and all the monuments. I didn't understand that when Tyson talked about 'The Mall' he meant the stretch of DC with all the monuments.

-Riding the metro, and telling Ty that I never want to ride it alone - good thing I got over that!

-Eating crab freshly caught from the Atlantic Ocean, and going to the Atlantic Ocean.

-Really truly experiencing a DC Fourth of July which included an evacuation of The Mall because of a tornado warning...which made us get a great spot right on the Lincoln Memorial steps when they let us back in.

-The first time I stepped outside in DC humidity and almost couldn't inhale it was so thick!

-Listening to the president speak in person at Arlington Cemetery.

-Experiencing the Cherry Blossoms and their grandure.

-Going to New York City which was a blast.

-Training for and finishing the DC marathon.

-Starting up Girls Night with some great friends, a lot of whose husbands are also in law school...and staying up into the wee hours of the morning just hanging out.

-Seeing the look on Tyson's face after each semester was over because it was just one more hurdle that he successfully jumped over!

So here's to reminiscing about some amazing memories we've had in DC these last few years, and here's to many many more memories to come.

Good ol' 23

I turned the ripe young age of 23 this year and had a blast despite the fact that I was unable to celebrate it on the day with my husband. He was in the middle of finals & he had one the day after. The day before a bunch of girlfriends and I got together and had fondue and birthday cake to celebrate three of our birthday's because they were so close together.

On the night of my birthday, which also happens to be Earth Day, I opened the gifts from the family and Tyson... while he took pictures. As you can see, I think he wanted some attention at some point that night and took the camera to himself.

Thanks to my great DC friends for celebrating with me. And thank you husband for spending what time you could with me on that day and eventually celebrating by getting Thai food and took great effort to surprise me with a second birthday cake so I could blow out candles and make just one more wish. You make me feel so special, and thanks to you, I had an amazing birthday!

Happy Happy Birthday

So poor Laura has had to endure three birthdays in a row of not having a husband on her birthday. Year after year she has been a good sport and celebrated her birthday the next week. Hopefully after this year, she will finally get her birthday back!!

But aside from showing how great Laura has been with what was put in front of her, I wanted to say how grateful I am to have a wife that is always so caring and just wants to help out wherever she can. She is the perfect fit for me because she is so laid back and always wants to have fun. I have really enjoyed having endless adventures with her as we have traveled across the country from Cleveland (Laura's fav place to live - jk) to DC and now back to Utah.

Happy birthday hunny. I am so grateful that I get to have you in my life.

DC in bloom

Tyson and I went on a date night to the Cherry Blossoms last week. I got off work a little early (LOVE my job), and he was done with class. We hadn't seen them at all this year and I was really worried that they would be all gone because of the rainy weather lately and the peak season was past. We took the metro over to the Jefferson Memorial and saw a few sparse trees attempting to still hold tight to their blossoms. As we walked up further we realized there were more blossoms still there than we originally thought. It was a gorgeous day, and I am so glad we went when we did to see the blossoms at their last stages. We took a few shots and kept walking around to take it all in. It was kind of sad and surreal to think how this will be the last time we will see these gorgeous blossoms for a very long time, but we feel really lucky to have experienced them at all. Here are some of our shots.

When we were walking back to the metro we were starving and opted for a vendor hot dog. After she gave us the dogs she said it we owed $10! Are you kidding? When did those prices go up, I've never had a hot dog on the mall for 5 bucks. I thought she was crazy but we paid up and they were actually pretty good which made me feel a little better about the steep price. We took the metro to the Pentagon City Mall and people watched while we shared a malt and fries. It was fun to be able to laugh and joke around with each other without any stress. I haven't had enough Tyson time lately with finals coming up so I'm glad to have that whole afternoon with him all to myself. Thank you Tyson for the wonderful date night, you're the best! Good luck with your last finals!