Warm December

I have to apologize for the gigantic gap in blogging. There are only 2 reasons for this: 1) I don't feel like there has been anything necessarily exciting or eventful in our lives in the past 6 months other than working and school and 2) I'm simply a slacker.

Something exciting DID happen this month though, so of course, I'm blogging about it... and semi-bragging about it, which I hope isn't too snobbish. Like I said, it isn't every day something is worth blogging about.

Last week, Mike and I flew with our friends Chaz and Megan to Florida to hop on a cruise ship bound for the Western Carribean. It really didn't take a whole lot of convincing to book it since we started planning it last winter and mind you.. we live in Logan. It was not a hard decision at the time.

To start off the vacation, we drove down to Vegas (way cheaper airfare out of Vegas) to hop on a red eye to Florida.

Here is Mike planking by our gate. 

We got into Florida at 5:30am, ate breakfast at Chili's in the airport (kind of random) and hung out at the airport until 10am or so since we couldn't get on the ship until 12. We tried taking naps on the floor in the freezing baggage claim for a while to pass the time, but it was a tad difficult. Once we could board, we grabbed a taxi and headed over. My favorite part of the taxi ride was that the cab driver had the windows rolled down and it was WARM! It felt amazing.

The rest of the trip was amazing. We visited the Cayman Islands where we swam with sting rays and snorkeled. The next day we went to Falmouth Jamaica where I had the worst massage of my life by a hairy legged Jamaican woman on the beach, where Chaz was offered a joint for $20 and where we ate Jamaican jerk pork and chicken at the BEST restaurant ever called the 'Pork Pit'. After Jamaica, we went to Haiti which was so incredibly beautiful and fun. We were able to play at a water park and lay out on beach chairs. It was by far my favorite stop.

Now, prepare yourself for a plethora of photos.

Mike taking a selfie while jumping off a trampoline at the water park.

Chaz and Megan

The Pork Pit.... aaaaahh. So yummy. 

I'm standing like a weirdo, but my tummy is happy.

The Dodge Ball Champions focusing in. Mike and Chaz even got medals.

If only all gyms had this view. I made sure to go to the gym while the ship was stopped, otherwise, it would have been a 2 minute workout before I called it quits. 

Soaking in the 83 degree weather and the sunshine.

Usain Bolt's High School

Mike, Chaz and the Jamaican who tried to sell Chaz the joint.

Haiti

Jamaica

Once we got back to Ft. Lauderdale, we had 12 hours to kill before we caught our flight back to Vegas. Because of that, we dropped off our bags at the airport and took a free trolley into downtown Ft. Lauderdale. We walked down a fancy street with all types of restaurants and shops for the rich folk. We saw people just willy nilly driving Ferrari's, Bentley's, etc, around to run their morning errands or to grab their coffee. I'm pretty sure a Mercedes to them was the equivalent to a used Toyota for us. It was crazy. 

After walking around for a while, we went to a yummy place called YOLO for lunch and made one final stop at the beach. It was 74 degrees when we left Ft. Lauderdale.. in DECEMBER! I decided while sitting at the beach that I think I would be content with living in Florida. I would gladly make the sacrifice. Wouldn't you?

 

Michael Angelo

If you need someone to cut the corners in the hard to reach places of your home, Mike's the man for the job.  

Painting Christian and Shelbie's new house

Powell 2013

At the beginning of July, we had the chance to go to Lake Powell again with my side of the family. This year was very fun and didn't disappoint.

We almost weren't able to go due to some issues with the engine on the houseboat. Luckily, my dad was able to get a mechanic to work on the houseboat and the day before we left and they were able to make the repairs. We were all super happy about it! If we wouldn't have been able to go to Lake Powell, my dad had a cabin at Bear Lake lined up. We would have been fine with that, but honestly nothing can compare to the water and weather at Lake Powell. It is a place like no other.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip.

Brock (he is the biggest sweetheart) and my dad.

Mr. Berry and I 

Double skiing with Erin 

Erin and Brock

Mike slalom skiing for the first time. It only took him a few tries till he got the feel and was up and going in and out of the wake. He is a champion! 

Smores night! As you can see, there were a lot of us.

The last night we were there, there was a huge double rainbow. You could see the entire thing from side to side. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't fit the whole thing. 

Once again, it was the perfect vacation! 

Christian and Shelbie's Wedding

This past Friday was Christian and Shelbie's wedding. It was a perfect day. All of my siblings were able to fly home for the wedding which made it really fun as well.

I can't believe it, but I hardly took any pictures of Shelbie and Christian. I'm awful!

Trent and Erin

Kyle and Annie 

Chelsie, Angie, Brooke 

Christian and Shelbie with my Grandpa Merrell at their wedding luncheon 

The forever long line at their reception. This was the length of the line from 6-8:30. There were so many people who came to support Christian and Shelbie and the entire street was a parking lot.  

Seeing Christian get married was a special experience. As many of you may know, Christian was adopted to our Family when he was 5 years old. I can't imagine what our family would have been like without him or where he would have ended up if my sweet mom wouldn't have found him in his orphanage. He has touched so many peoples lives and has made all of us better people because of his influence. 

When Christian was adopted, he was sealed to our family in the Logan temple. I don't remember very much of it since I was only 4 years old, but my whole immediate family was in the temple that day and we all promised each other we would all be back again. Friday was a special day because we all kept that promise and were able to share that with each other.

Shelbie's Endowments

Last Tuesday night, we were able to go to the Brigham City Temple for Shelbie to receive her endowments before she got married to my brother Christian this past Friday. It was a sweet experience to watch her go through the temple.

After that, my dad took Mike, Brooke and I to Maddox for our birthday dinners (from back in May). It was delicious!

They are the perfect fit for each other.  

 I caught Mike checking out the stone at the temple, after which he proceeded to tell me what type of rock pieces were in it. Geophysics major much? I don't know many people who think rocks are awesome, but someone needs to think so right? :)

Utah Summer Games

Last weekend I went down to Cedar City with my friend Melissa to play in the Summer Games volleyball tournament. I had the BEST time! Our team was thrown together with random people from all over and it turned out to be awesome!

We went undefeated the first day and lost a game the next morning, but we were still put into the gold division for tournament play. Our team was awesome at staying pumped and not getting down if things weren't going well. We didn't end up placing in the top 3, but I still had a blast and loved our team. We have all committed to next year.

This is Laura's daughter whose legs were many shades darker than mine. I thought it was hilarious.

Shelly (she was amazing), me, Laura, Cheryl, Mo, Chanda, Kristie 

 

Welcome Miss Rebecca Fae

My sister-in-law Michelle had her sweet baby girl, Rebecca Fae, in May.

I was lucky enough to be able to throw her a shower in the middle of April with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law at my apartment. Here are a couple of pictures of the decor. I'm dumb and didn't get any pictures of the people who were there which was the most important part!

It was a fun afternoon and I had a blast planning for it.