Christmas Break

This year HP mandated a two week break for Christmas. That means that we got to spend lots of time away from work (which we did not miss much) and lots of time with our families.

We started the break with the Salisbury family party in Logan. Even though we were late, we were right on time for dinner. We ate and chatted and then there was a Nativity program. People played the different parts and sang songs. I thought having the songs with it was really nice. Mark was one of the Wiseman along with TJ and Josh. They sang "We Three Kings." We did a white elephant exchange (the younger kids didn't quite get the idea, they didn't want the presents they got and couldn't understand why they couldn't get a different one.) We ended up with a puzzle and one of Grandma Marilyn's paintings. After the party was over we played games with Mary and Isaac and Kirk.

The next day Mark and I drove down to Vegas (because I thought that we should go somewhere exciting while we had so much time off.) When we got there we went to the Stratosphere. We went on the ride on the top that the call the Big Shot (it is like the Rocket at Lagoon.) Then we went to dinner at the Top of the World Restaurant also at the top of the Stratosphere. It was a revolving restaurant which was neat. We could look out at all of the lights. We stayed at Planet Hollywood. From our hotel window you could see the Belagio fountains. It was really fun to watch them from up high, though we couldn't really hear the music.

    

The next day we went to Hoover Dam. We went on the tour and got to down in the dam. While we were there, we stood above one of the 30' diameter intake pipes. You could feel the floor shaking. It was pretty cool. They also showed us the generators. It was cool to learn about how they had built the dam.

                                               

Near the dam they are building a new roadway with a bridge. While we were there, we saw them add one of the pieces of the bridge it was interesting too. It was amazing how high up the workers were and how tiny they were in comparison to the bridge.

  

 

After that we went the the Ethyl M. chocolate factory. You can watch them as they make chocolate and they give you a sample at  the end. They also have a cactus garden that we meandered through. Then we tried to find a Marshmallow factory and the Ocean Spray factory. We couldn't find the Marshmallow factory and Ocean Spray no longer does tours (but Mark slid down the railing for fun), so that was the end of our factory tours for the day. But there was an In-N-Out close by so we went for lunch. MMmmm.

 

Mark really wanted to see Avatar so we found a nearby theater (located in a casino) and saw it in 3-D on the Imax screen. It was really good. I think that it is Mark's new favorite movie.

That evening we went to the buffet at our hotel and ate a ton of food. It was very good. Then we did some walking on the strip. It is entertaining to see all the ways that they can spend money to decorate their massive buildings (and how big of a maze they can make them into.) Right accross from our hotel was the new development, City Center, so we walked through that too, and watched the Belagio fountains a few times too.

The next morning we did a little more wandering, grabbed In-N-Out for lunch again and then headed back up to my Mom's house.

On Wednesday we went tubing with Maddie and my Dad and his family at Soldier Hollow. There was a tow rope, so you didn't even have to walk back up. Wednesday night we went out to dinner with Mark's Grandpa Frank and his wife Mary. It was nice to be able to visit with them. I had never been able to just sit and talk with them before.

On Thursday, Mark and I finished up our shopping and help get things ready for Christmas. Grammy also came into town. For dinner we had the traditional candlelight pizza on China, watched the Grinch, read stories and then headed for bed.

Christmas day we opened presents and had breakfast. Mark got me a flash for my camera which I had been talking about for a long time (now I need to figure out the intricacies of using it) and HDR software which will be fun to play with too. Mark got the New Super Mario Bros. (he had been asking me to open it for weeks), a system to play his old Nintendo games on, and a disc retriever for Frisbee golf disks (no more wading in the ponds!) It was good to be home with family and I am glad that Grammy was there too.

That afternoon after dinner, we went up to Mark's sister's house in Clinton. The rest of the family had come down from Logan so we got to spend some time with them. Mark was glad that he was able to see his family on Christmas too.

We spent Monday with Sara and her family in Clinton. We had good breakfast, went swimming, ate pizza and played games. It was good to spend time with them just playing and relaxing. Thanks guys!

On Tuesday we went up to Logan to stay with Mark's parents. We went to the temple and visited Kirk at work. Mark helped his dad with his newest Lego project and we played games with Mary and Isaac.

On New Year's Eve the family went up to Isaac's parent's near Preston to join their celebration. There was lots of yummy food and we played a few games and banged on pots and pans with the kids. After that we went back down to Logan. The boys all fell asleep by eleven (Mark was feeling sickly.) The girls stayed up and talked until midnight. Then we did a few fireworks and went to bed.

The next day we played the game that Sara’s family had gotten us for Christmas, Agricola, with Mary and Isaac. Then it was time to head back to Boise. It was nice to be home after being gone for almost two weeks. We had a few days to get settled back in, go grocery shopping, and go to our first day in Nursery. We were teased about being called to Nursery, and then it happened. I think that it will be a good experience.

Currently Mark is working on converting the built in cupboards with shelves that are in the family room into built in cupboards with drawers. My next project is making drapes for the windows.  I am also going to have knee surgery on Friday.  Scary! Life presses on!

Married Life

When we got back to Boise it was nice to be home, though it was kind of weird to now live in Mark's house after all the time that I had spent there. We worked on unpacking all of the boxes that we had left all over the house and getting settled in. The next weekend we went down to Utah for Mark's niece Kelsey's baptism. It was great to be able to share that with her and to remember when I had been baptized.

We spent the next week finishing preparations for the Open House that was the weekend after that. This mostly involved getting the down stairs presentable (no more boxes and hanging pictures up.) Mark's parents and my Mom and Maddie came up for the open house. It was a pretty informal thing. We had lots of desserts (and some cheese and crackers), we put out the "nemo vases" for fun, and just talked to everyone. It was good to meet new people and to see old friends. I also got to wear my dress again. That Sunday was also our first week in our new ward. It felt kind of like going to the first day of a new school.

 

     

Kirk came and visited us in the middle of November. The boys played computer games together and they also put up our new blinds. Now all of the windows are covered. Yay!

On November 22nd there was the 7th annual Hymns of Thanksgiving concert. This was Mark's sixth year in the choir. His good friend Peter was also in it with him.They would go to practices together every Sunday and Thursday evening (Starting in October.) The concert was great as it always is. Clark and Sharon were also able to come up and go to the concert.

The next day was my birthday. After work we went out to dinner at Jonny Carino's and then the Olsen's came and had cake with us and opened presents. Mark got me a Hymn book and Children's Song book that will stay open on the piano without having to be held open. He also got me a bluetooth headset for my phone. It is great for driving or multitasking around the house (the only problem is that I sometimes forget to take my phone with me and the reception starts to get bad.)

 

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Salisbury's. There was a huge feast made largely by Sharon. We played the New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii with TJ, Kelsey and Kade and that evening we watched "Up" with everyone at Mary and Isaac's. On Friday I went and got one thing that was on sale (lamps for our room). I didn't go until almost 8 o'clock, but there were still tons of people. We spent the afternoon just relaxing and playing with Mark's family. Then we went and spent some time with my family. While we were there, we did some shopping, including a trip to Ikea where we bought an office chair and a train set. Mark and I also went to Temple Square to see the lights. We took lots of pictures. We even figured out how to get rid of the glare on the window in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. After that, the only problem is that the windows were dirty.

                                                  

 

                                                 

 

The next weekend in Boise we ended up furniture shopping. We had been wanting bedroom furniture and we found some that we liked for a good deal. It was delivered just before we left for Christmas break.

 

Married life thus far has been great. There have been some adjustments to make, but all in all good. My favorite thing is that I always have someone there. No more saying good night and then having to leave. It is so nice to know that we are a family and that we can work on building our family.

The Hawaii Honeymoon

After we left the reception, we stopped and cleaned off the car and then headed to an unknown location (at least to me). We ended up downtown at the Anniversary Inn. It was very nice and we even ate cheesecake as part of our breakfast the next morning (they really brought us rolls and yogurt and juice, but they had left cheesecake the night before.)

After that we returned Mark's tux and headed to Mom's to open presents before catching our flight. There were lots of presents and it took us about an hour going super fast to open them. We got lots of cool things, most of which were surprises (because we didn't register anywhere), and of course we got a few duplicates too. When we were done, we grabbed a quick bite and then headed off to the airport.

 
Following the guidelines of 'warm and with a beach', we had decided to go to Hawaii. First we went to Oahu. We spent two nights there.

Saturday:  The first day basically consisted of getting there, getting to the hotel and finding dinner.

Sunday: The next day was Sunday, so we walked to church. The building was a really neat, it had been built in the 1940's. While we were waiting for church to start people would come say hi to us, they said that they could tell that we were honeymooners. I thought it was kinda funny. After church and breakfast at IHOP we took the bus to Pearl Harbor. We went out to the Arizona Memorial and then we went on a tour of the USS Missouri. That night we walked a long the beach for a little and called it a day. The majority of our honeymoon we had trouble adjusting to the time change. We would go to bed super early and then wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday: The next day, we headed back to the airport to fly to Kauai. We got there, had a little bit of a hard time getting rental car, but finally did, and then started our sight seeing (with the aid of our new GPS courtesy of Krik and Ty.) First we drove to Wailua Falls. It was a pretty water fall that you could just drive to an overlook and see. After that we went on a boat ride up the river to what is called the Fern Grotto. It is a partial cave that has lots of greenery growing in and in front of it. During the boat ride and while we were there we were entertained with singing and dancing. While we were at the grotto, they sang the Hawaiian Wedding song. On the way back they had everyone dance. It was fun to watch Mark hula. Then we went and found where the condo we would be staying at in PoiPu was and got situated. We went and ate dinner nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday: In the morning we went to the grocery store to find some food for breakfast. On the way there we heard about the earthquake that had happened in American Samoa and the tsunami warning. When we asked the cashier they hadn't heard anything and didn't seem too worried. We were scheduled to go out diving that afternoon so we stopped and chatted with the guy at the dive shop, he hadn't heard anything either. We went back to the condo and ate our muffins and watched the news. They said that if anything would happen, it would be about noon. After that, we went on a hike on the NouNou trail. It was very tropical and had some nice overlooks along the way. While we were hiking, we got pretty warm and maybe a little sweaty. There were also lots of little yellow fruits along the trail. With the heat, it made them pretty stinky. We decided that as an alternative name, the trail could be called the “stinking fruit” trail. At the top of the trail/mountain, there was a very pretty view of the ocean. Scuba diving ended up being cancelled for the day because of the tsunami advisory. We decided to go up to the north shore for the rest of the day. On our way up, we stopped by L&L for lunch (we got kalua pork.) When we got to the end of the road, we went on a mini hike on the beginning of the Napali Coast trail. The cliffs were very pretty and it was a little windy. We didn't want to do a lot of hiking since we had already had a big hike that day. There was a beach at the end of the road called Ke’e beach. We went snorkeling and saw lots of fish. After that we headed back along the coastline. We stopped at Hanalei Bay and took pictures and built a sand castle. Then we had dinner at Bubba's Burgers and headed back to the condo.

 

   

 

      

Wednesday: Down by our condo, there was a blow hole named Spouting Horn. When the waves would come in, the water would blow out the top of it. It was fun to watch and listen. Then we went to Poipu beach. Since it was only 9am, we were among the first there. We snorkled and we dug a very large hole in the sand (big enough for both of us to sit in). We called it our hot tub. When the waves would come up, it would fill with water, which also often knocked down the walls. Mark made sure that we always fixed them though. After that we buried each other in the sand. We went diving with Fathom Five that afternoon (since it was cancelled the day before). They took us to two locations, Turtle Bluffs and Sheridan Caverns. On the boat ride out, things were a little choppy and I got a little sea sick. They threw me in the water as fast as they could, but I was a little panicky at first at went through my air kinda fast. Once we got down, I was ok. We saw some little sharks, eels, lots of fish and some sea turtles. When I came back up from the first dive, I started feeling sick again. That is when I fed the fish. (Apparently it is tradition to do so on your honeymoon in my family.) The second dive went better for me. There were a lot more turtles and cool caverns that we went through. All in all a good experience. After that, we hurried and cleaned up and then went to a Luau at the "Smith Family Tropical Paradise." They showed us how they take out the pig from the roasting pit, then there was a lot of good food and dessert. After dinner they had a show. They had all sorts of singing and dancing from the various Polynesian cultures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday: In the morning we went Scuba diving again with Sacred Seas. This was just a shore dive, no boat. That made me feel a little better. We saw some different fish than the day before and a school of fish that went darting (it entertained me). There were also so purple polka dotted shrimp that are apparently pretty rare. For lunch we found a Chinese place in Lihue using our GPS. Yay for GPS. Then we rented a tandem bike and road it along a trail that they have along the Coconut coast (8.5 miles round trip). We just got to enjoy the coast and the sights along the way. At the end of the trail there was a little bay that we sat in and enjoyed and took some pictures. After that we went back to the condo, did some laundry and took pictures of the sunset. Then we went to dinner at The Beach House restaurant (we had been told that it was excellent.) We got fancy drinks and Mark had coconut-crusted Mahi and I had pork chops. Everything was soooo good. We even found room for some carrot cake (with pineapple in it) for dessert.

  

Friday: We packed all of our things up, got L&L for lunch and then headed for Waimea canyon. We took pictures all the way up. We stopped at the visitor's center near the top and got some ideas on some shorter hikes. We finished driving up the road. The view was amazing. After that we decided to try a short hike because we only had a few hours before catching our plane. We hiked to Waipo'o waterfall. There was a little waterfall along the way. We think that we made it to the top of the big waterfall, but we weren't completely sure and didn't have time to find out. We grabbed a bite to eat and then went to the airport. We flew back to Honolulu and then on the red eye back to Salt Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another interesting tidbit about Kauai is that there are wild chickens everywhere. We thought that something was wrong if we didn't see any for awhile. Also, the car that we rented was a blue PT Cruiser. There happened to be a lot of these. Whenever we would pass one we would say "there's our twin." There was also a road that we went down quite a few times that had a lot of big trees planted on both sides of it. It was like going through a tunnel. Kinda cool.

  

 

When we got back to SLC on Saturday Mom and Maddie picked us up. We slept for a little bit (sleeping on a plane is not that great) and then we headed back to Boise so that we could be back in time for Mark to go to Priesthood. That was the end of our most wonderful honeymoon. Neither one of us would mind going back again some day.