Disney Cruise

Here is a great picture that can explain the whole trip. This is what it looked like everywhere we went. There was never a boring minute because there was always someone to do something with.

This is where we stayed the first night. It was right in the airport which made it really easy to leave in the morning to get on the ship. It was so pretty and we were all the way on the tenth floor. Here is what it looked like from our balcony.

I finally found time to write about our Disney Cruise! It was so much fun and it was nice to get away from everyday activities and treat ourselves everyday to ice cream. When people say that you eat a lot on a cruise, that is a total understatement. I felt like all we did was eat and swim or other water activities. There wasn't any cleaning, work, or just the little things that consume our lives everyday. We went with Spencer's whole family, all 36 of them. This was a Christmas gift from grandma and grandpa Gygi. Everyone has been counting down the days and it was finally here. Since they had been on a couple in the past they knew exactly what to do in order to make the best of our time. We made sure to carry our swimming suits with us so that we could get straight into the pool while we were waiting for our other baggage. Everyone has been telling us about the Aquaduck slide that goes outside the boat and then comes back and circles around. It was really fun and the best part was we remembered our suits so there was a short line!

There was always something to do on the ship. It is a tradition to go to the shows at night. They were so cool. One my favorites was the comedy night with Alfred and Seymour. I laughed so hard! One night we found them and asked if we could get a picture with them. They told us that they might me coming to Utah soon. We both would love to see them again. Most of the time we hung out in the D lounge, this was a place for the whole family. We played a lot of games and won every time we played because the size of our family we had everything that we needed. It was a fun way for me to get to know the family better. Our favorite thing was bingo! Spencer's uncle won three different times! It was fun for me to just go and watch. Then there was a baby race, it was so funny to watch. Most of them just sat there but one little boy knew what he was doing and went straight to his mom. Who would think of an idea like this? 

 Here is a picture of the big ship. This is the new one that they started doing in January of this year (Dream). It was the biggest ship that I'd ever been on. We were on the the tenth deck at the back. We had a balcony that made it fun because we opened it so that we could be connected with the rest of the family. Everyone could come and visit without having to leave their rooms.

After the cute sailing away party, and traveling through the night, our first stop was Castaway Cay. We were woken up with the boat trying to dock, man was it loud! This is Disney's own private island. It was a relaxing place to:  swim, snorkel, build sand castles, ride bikes, play volleyball, and last of all get a nice sunburn. It was fun to go snorkeling and see all the big fish! I hadn't ever been in such clear water where I could see so deep. I wanted to go and touch them but the salt water in my mouth wouldn't be worth it! They really fixed this island up with a nice white sand beach. On our bike ride we were able to see the rest of the island and it wasn't that pretty in the middle where they hadn't done work to fix it up. Not a lot of people actually see that part of the island though. We also stopped here on the way home also but we were all a little more tired the second time around and most of us just sat and enjoyed the great weather.

Our second stop was Nassau, the biggest island in the Bahamas. We were told that there was a lot of great shopping on the island so that was the first thing I wanted to do. It reminded me a lot of Mexico with cheap stuff that you can usually get for less if you just pretend that you don't really need or want it. Here it was in one big white tent with spots that they rented that went clear to the ceiling of the tent, it was really tall! Spencer got three great traveling shirts to add to his wardrobe, he loves his traveling shirts. I got a magnet, my favorite thing to do is find the most unique one out there that I won't see on any other fridge. I think I accomplished my goal, we found a flamingo and it is way cute and unique for sure.

haha.

After shopping it was off to scuba diving. It was Michelle, Christina, and my first time. We got on a bus that would take us to the place where we would do our first dive. On the way there Jason said, "Well we're not in Kansas anymore." The guy behind him started to laugh and said, "I'm from Kansas!" We all laughed for awhile about that. How often does that really happen? What he meant by that was they could take us where ever they want and we would have no idea. We were in a foreign land and just had to trust others. It was about a 40 minute drive and I never got used to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road. It was weird....but we got there in no time and then it was time to dive! Our first one went down to 90 feet. There was a coral reef wall that went from 6 feet to 6000 feet. There was no end. Michelle was funny to watch, she just wanted to touch everything and keep going lower and lower. Our second dive was by a plane and boat crash. It was neat to touch all the coral and see what would happen. One of them that the guide showed me attached onto your hand. It felt so weird. Spencer's favorite were the things that looked like little christmas trees. Now I want to go diving again. There is so much to see underwater, it is like a whole new world.

This was such a fun trip! Thanks grandma and grandpa for all that you do for us. You guys are the best!

Road Trip to Seattle and San Fran

Where to start? Well first of all sorry that this post is so late but I still want to post it on the blog because we had so much fun! Thing have been crazy since we moved here to Salt Lake. There has been a lot of things to get done. For some reason I thought that things would slow down once I graduated but that never happened. I will explain that more later. Now I will tell you about our trip. I have been telling my best friend Kellie since she moved to Seattle that I would come and visit her and I finally made it. We were going to take a trip to New York but that will have to wait until we have a little more money. It was so great to see Kellie and what it is like in Seattle. It seems like such a cute place to live and there is a lot to do. If you know us we tried to fit in all in one day so we could see as much as possible. 

Here is a great picture right before the ferry ride that we took to a cute little island. As you can see in the picture it was a windy but very pretty day. I was happy that it didn't rain on us. 

This is Spencer trying to throw me in the fountain but I was successful in not getting wet. He thought that he was being so funny because I just wanted a cute picture so I wasn't even expecting it.

We got in a little shopping before we went to Kellie's favorite Mexican restaurant. It tasted really good after a long day of walking around to see the whole city.

These were probably our favorite two things that we ended up doing. Here is the public market there was a cheese festival going on and we love cheese. We were able to try a lot of new types of cheese by just fighting our way through the people. Lets say there was a lot of gross ones but also some good ones. It worked out perfect that we were there on the right weekend.

Then there was post alley. This is where you can find the famous gum wall. We all decided to make our addition with Kellie's gum in her magical purse that can hold everything. There was so much gum and you can see gum forever! I thought it was a neat idea, whoever thought of it was a genius. We will for sure go here next time we are in Seattle.

The last thing that we did was stop to see the Fremont Troll. It is under a bridge and is the most random thing ever. It was just something you have to go and see so you can say that you did it. 

 Thanks Kell for showing us around! Let's just focus on this part of the trip and not the last couple of hours. We will have to come again soon. Then we left that same night to try and get to Cali. We spent a lot of time driving those first two days but that is what you do when you are young and crazy. We drove through the Red wood Forest and some of the trees were bigger than our car. They were so big and they looked fake at times but I don't think you could make a tree that big even if you wanted to. We made some fun stops along the way and took some funny pictures. 

Our first stop in San Fran was seeing the sea lions. There were so many that were all just sitting there. Some of them were even playing king of the hill. It was funny to watch. I think we could have stayed there all day and I would have been happy. 

Then we went to China Town and that was probably the scariest thing of the whole trip. I felt like I was in China for real there were so many people going so many directions. I don't ever want to go back there again. We got lost trying to find our way back but we had some good laughs along the way. We are really good at pretending like we know what we are doing.

We got back just in time to go on our tour of Alcatraz. If you break the rules in prison then you got send here. It was impossible to escape and if they did escape they didn't have anywhere to go. That didn't stop them from trying. There was a lot of interesting stories of what happened for the few years that it was open. I don't know what makes someone become that angry that makes them only want to do evil but I am grateful that we have places for them to go when it does happen.

The next day we went and saw all the normal tourist sights like the curvy road, the houses that looked like they were from Full House (one of my favorite shows), ate sourdough pizza, rode the cable cars, ran into some Germans, and finally went on a tour at the Giants Baseball field. I learned a lot about baseball and also spend some time being confused about what they were saying. I just sat there and nodded like Joey does on Friends when he has no idea what is going on. Good thing I have Brian and Spencer to explain things to me afterwards.

On our way back to Utah we stopped at a way sweet hotel! This was the view out our window and it was so peaceful after being in the big city for so long. There were even little birds that had just been born. I love being in the nature but still having a bed to sleep on. It was perfect! Thanks Heidi and Brian for putting everything together for us. The trip turned out a little different than planned with a few unplanned events but we just worked through them together. We had a great time and look forward to our next road trip. Does the mall of America sound good to you guys?? 

Cancun....I love warm weather!

I know a lot of you have been asking about our honeymoon... Here is just a few pictures to show you how much fun we had. It was so great to have time with just us two, no cellphones, no work, no computers, no family (as much as I love you guys), no friends, no one to tell us what to do or where to go, and best of all no more wedding plans! I keep telling people if you can make it past the engagement then they are set.

 Our first night we stayed at the Hilton, not to be confused with Hilton that is downtown in Salt Lake. It took us a minute to find the right hotel but we eventually found it. This is us the next morning at 4 a.m. getting ready to catch our flight. It was going to be a long day....

 It was worth it once we got to the hotel. We were VIP guests and our room was on the 12th floor. It was so much fun. This is a view from our room. We could see all the rooms and all the restaurants, no need to wait in lines, we could see if there was a wait no need to go downstairs to check. The name of our hotel was the Great Parnassnus and there was a lot to do everyday. The best part about it was it was right on the beach, perfect place to relax.

 Our first activity was mini golf. Don't worry Spencer beat me as usual. He loves his golf but it was really fun! Good news is I only lost by 3 strokes. We decided to play the course backwards to make it go a little faster with all the other people that decided to play at the same time as us. My favorite one was the one with the lighthouse but Spencer ended up getting a hole in one instead of me. Well I guess at least some one did right?

 The most romantic part of our Honeymoon, besides the fact that we were in Cancun all alone, was the dinner that was brought to our room. Room service but better. We had our own waiter to bring us whatever we wanted. They decorated our whole room with real rose pedals and put them all over the floor. My first time ever walking on rose pedals. I loved it. But I think the thing that made the night something that I will never forget is when we told the waiter that we don't drink wine and we would rather just have Pepsi. Then once he left the room to get our salads Spencer opened the fridge and a bottle of wine fell out of it and broke all over the floor. Then it was a race to clean it up before he came back. Don't worry we got done way before he got there and he had no idea. My thinking is one less bottle of wine that other people have to drink. Oops!

Our first adventure was para sailing. It was my first time ever and I never really thought it looked that cool but it was way fun. One of the best parts was going out on the wave runner with the Mexican going as fast as he could. He was loving the big waves and getting us all wet. When we got all the way up we were able to see pretty far down hotel row. If you ever get the chance to do this I would take the offer.

This was right below our hotel, one of the prettiest days on the trip, nice and sunny!

Our next adventure takes us to this island. I don't know how to say it in Spanish but I like to translate it to the "woman island" It you look at this picture sideways you will see that she has a head and legs and her arms are out in front of her. Kind of cool right? We spent a whole day here doing all kinds of fun things while we were waiting to swim with the dolphins. We went on a zip line that went over the ocean. (Don't worry my brake decided not to work and I ran straight into the boy that was trying to help me. He kept telling me to pull down on the brake, I was but it wasn't working. The first thing that he said to me was hey beautiful! I think that is all that they know to call women. Then we went snorkeling, laid out on the beach and in hammocks, and went on a bike tour. If you ask Spencer about it, it was a bike ride because it only lasted about 5 minutes. haha.

This is us on the very tip of her head. It keeps breaking off more and more every year. In a few years this part of the island won't even exist.

          The best part of the island was swimming with the dolphins. We got to kiss, play ball, get pulled by their fins, and get pushed on a  buggie board by them. Who knew that dolphins were so strong and smart? Spencer even got to play with the baby dolphin that they were training for a little while. Just by doing some simple hand motions they know exactly what to do. This was for sure the highlight of the trip!

This was a funny story. We were looking at all the restaurants at the hotel and we came across this one. Who knew that we would still be able to find Germany in Cancun. We knew that we had to get a picture because we couldn't order anything there, too bad it wasn't a real restaurant but what can you expect it's Germany they love their beer.

Okay here is the chicken story that you are all dying to hear about. So we went to a cirque show that was put on by our hotel. They wanted to start out with something to get everyone excited, the announcer asked for three big white men to come and help him. Spencer was the first and only one to raise his hand, he was a little excited because we hadn't been able to participate in the drinking games all day, finally something he could do. When he got up there, he then found out that he would have to pretend to be a chicken and take his little brother (a lime) back to the nest. The goal was to hold a lime in between your knees while making chicken noises and get it to land in this cup and have it stay there. Two out of the three men were able to do it, Spencer and the guy from Mexico. Now it was time for a dance off. If any of you know Spencer he will tell you how much he loves to dance.......here is the sweet video! Oh right, and Spencer did end up winning and got a sweet T-shirt! He loves his shirts from trips so I am sure that he will be wearing it a lot.

This was a boat tour that we got for free through the hotel. It was part of being VIP for the week. We had no idea what it was when we signed up for it. We said a free tour? Why not? It actually ended up being really fun and we talked to some interesting people, one of them even had a tattoo of a German flag. That is always a good way to start a conversation! After we got back from the tour we took turns making each other mermaids in the sand. That is a must when you got to the beach! 

We finished out the trip eating breakfast at the nicest restaurant in the hotel. It was on the 10th floor and they only served food in the morning because you can see the beach really good through the windows. You can kind of see in the picture on the right. The nice little waiter even brought me a flower to put in my hair.

Last day at the hotel, just waiting for the shuttle.

We had a great time in Cancun and it was so nice not to worry about anything. We just had time to spend with each other and we never had to say goodbye, we were together all day, everyday! I love Spencer so much and can't wait for the many adventures that we will have together. 

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Well first off this is Spencer.  I am not very good at this so this is just a warning.  I am writing this because Jan wants me to and she is doing her homework right now and I was going to but forgot my backpack at home.  I truly did forget it though.  It is nice having a break from all the work Ive been doing with the end of school coming up.  Anyways on to the title of the post.

So for Thanksgiving Jan and I went down to St. George with my family.  We left on Wednesday and it all started out with Jans' car not starting because she had ran out of gas.  So she had to have Heidi come and rescue her.  It also had been snowing a ton so the drive down for her to Salt Lake was slower than normal but she got to Salt Lake safely.  Meanwhile I was trying to get my family ready to leave for St George and none of them were helping.  My dad was coming down later that evening with Jason and Christina (my bro and sis-in-law) so he wasn't there.  My mom was trying but she still couldn't lift much from her surgery and well my little brothers were doing absolutely nothing.  Not even wanting to pack.  Fortunately my sister Michelle was trying to help.  She was getting them to pack and bringing stuff out and trying to help me and my mom.  I was very frustrated by the time Jan got to my house though and I still had a lot to pack into the suburban. 

After we finally managed to get everything loaded we left just as it was starting to snow hard again.  Going to make the drive great.  The drive started out ok.  I was driving and well it wasn't to bad at first.  But after about a half of an hour I decided that we really needed to pull over and fix the car.  The problem was that the windshield wipers were not working PERIOD.  So I could not see because all the other cars were throwing salt and mud on the windshield making driving difficult.  Now this would have been easier if it had continued to snow, but it had snowed enough to make the roads wet and then stopped.  Leaving me with nothing to wipe the salt and mud off.  So I pulled over and cleaned my windshield and we grabbed some lunch. 

We continued driving and I only made it about 20 miles before the windshield was bad enough that I pulled over and cleaned it again.  I figured this was going to be a long drive.  This time though my mom ran in to buy some windshield washing fluid because it was low as well and I figured its probably frozen but this may help.  This did help for a little and I was able to clean my windshield although only temporarily.  Another issue arose though the cashier took a picture of my moms' credit card that she used and so my mom called and canceled her credit card. 

Anyways the rest of the drive I couldn't really see.  It was like driving through a blizzard and fog at the same time.  Occassionally I would try throwing some fluid on the windshield while driving because I didn't want to pull over anymore though.  BAD IDEA.  So from time to time I pulled over on the road and splashed the windshield so I could make out where cars were on the road.  I still ended up getting us to St. George in 4 1/2 hours though.  I love speeding.  :) 

In St. George we went swimming that day and that was a nice relief.  It was still cold down there although we definately had it warmer. 

Thanksgiving we went to this restraunt called Switchbacks.  It was a nice buffet and who doesn't want a buffet on Thanksgiving.  Umm that was good.  We also had a turkey bowl.  Thats always a must and was fun.  We won of course.  This was the day that we also got a newspaper with all of the ads for the coming evening.  We went through all the ads and figured out where we wanted to go and when.  Most of my family thought we were nuts for going and in the end they all were jealous and wanted some stuff we got, but we will get to that later. 

Black Friday.  The day where people see lives flash before their eyes over sometimes small issues.  I basically was a first timer though because I don't like shopping and I don't like waiting in lines.  It wasn't all that bad though.  We started out by hitting up Walmart at midnight.  Man some people there can be freaks about legos and DVDs and things that weren't that big of a deal to fight over.  I didn't like it at this point because I just didn't see the point of fighting over such small issues.  Jan came out victorious though.  She found and got her crock pot.

Later that morning, at 3 to be exact is when KOHL'S was opening, and don't worry we had been in line for over an hour and had good spots.  So when we were allowed inside we took off looking for some presents and things we wanted.  We met towards the back of the store and jumped in line.  A long line at that.  The line wasn't moving at all forever and Jan just kept shopping.  I stood in line and she went about finding more cool deals.  I eventually had my turn and found some stuff.  We left there and went to Radioshack because my brother wanted something there and we were going to help him out (since we were awake already).  So we waited in line there too because it didn't open until 5:30.  When it opened fortunately there weren't too many ahead of me and we got in and out quick.  We went home and got some sleep, but then my mom wanted to go and saw what we had and was jealous so she wanted to go see if she could find some stuff too.  So we went back.  Back to KOHL'S.  We later went to vistit my grandparents the Hafers' and saw their new house.  Afterwards we went to the temple and that was a nice experience as always.  That night the Jazz beat the Lakers though :) and Boise State lost in overtime :( it was a good game at least. 

Saturday my grandparents, the Gygis', had rented out this place where we all came together for the whole day with all the aunts uncles and everyone.  I ended up spending a lot of time building a puzzle and Jan went and looked for engagement clothes.  I went at the end and looked at what she had found though.  The BYU and Utah game was on as well.  Good game.  Started out rough though with neither team really playing. 

Sunday we packed up and came home.  Once again a long drive because this time it had even snowed in St George and the roads were really bad and we had to go slow the whole way home.  It took us forever, but the windshield wipers worked.  It was a good weekend.  :)