WOOHOOO! We have now been married 1 year!

For our one year anniversary, Ryan had a vacation package that he had bought before we even met to the Bahamas. It was going to be awesome. We were going to be staying in Florida for 5 days and then get on the cruise ship to the Bahamas for one night passage. Stay in the Bahamas for 3 nights and then get back on the cruise ship for another one night passage. I had never been on a cruise ship, so I was a little nervous and excited at the same time. I'll just explain it as you see the pictures.

Here we are at the Marriott Hotel we stayed in Florida. We were in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for 5 days.

This is the view from our hotel.

Favorite thing that we did!! We went to Islands of Adventure where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located. So much fun!!  

We spent most of the time in Harry Potter World, but there was Seuss Land, Ancient Lands, Marvel World, Comics World, etc. Our favorite was the Hogwarts Castle ride, but loved the Dragon Ride, Jurassic Park Ride, Amazing Spider-Man, and the Hulk. (The Hulk has a cobra head, I think it's the craziest ride I have ever been on.) We spent most of the day there, long enough that we couldn't drive all the way back to Ft. Lauderdale. At first we were going to just sleep in the car, but I had nightmares of an alligator coming out of the swamp and attacking our car. So we went and found a place to stay for the night and then drove the rest of the way the next day. Better to not drive drowsy. We were super tired after a fun day at the park, so it was best to sleep. My feet hurt so bad!! 


The next day was horrible!! We wish we could have just skipped over this part. The reason Ryan got the vacation package was to of course from Ramada, so they wanted us to listen to their sales pitch on why we should buy into one of their timeshares.  We knew this ahead of time so we knew that we were not going to buy, but the guy was persistent and wouldn't give up. He kept taking us to all of these places. I think we met with him at 10 AM and we weren't done until 3:30. When he found out that I already had a timeshare (that I'm still trying to get rid of), then he tried to change tactics and we still said no. We could tell he was upset, but we had told him all day that we were not going to buy anything. We were so glad when that day was finally over. We stayed on the beach we visited that day for a while longer and then left. We tried to be honest, he just didn't want to listen.

This was apparently where a lot of celebrities keep their private boats. :)

Another view. I can't remember who's boat was behind us. Someone famous. :)

Different pictures while we were on the pier.

The bridge that goes back to the main land.

There is an island out there.

This was just funny! I used the bathroom and this was the soap that the gas station had for us to use in the bathroom.

On to another good day. We actually hadn't even planned on doing this one until we talked to my mom on the phone. I didn't even know about the Everglades and how cool it was to go visit it, so when she suggested it, we were totally excited to go. These pictures show what we saw there. Lots of alligators of course.

This is called the chocking tree.

This was where we went to dinner for the day of our actual anniversary (Aug. 6, 2011). It was called the Fish House. It was raining so much! We originally were going out to Key Largo (like in the Beach Boys song Kokomo) for the beach, but it was too wet. As we left, the sun eventually came out, but it was too late.

Ryan running out to the car while it's raining.

Now we are packing up to leave the Marriott Hotel and get on our Cruise Ship.

Here is our tiny cruise cabin. It is on the top deck, so in case there are any problems we can get out easily. Ryan understands my fear of water and drowning. So grateful for his thoughtfulness. I was already nervous enough being out on the water in the middle with no land around us.

Ryan's been on a cruise before, so he knew what to do and was totally at ease.

All you can eat food! However, according to Ryan it was not as good as the other cruise he had been on.

The buffet (it's closed now) but this is where we get to sit and eat. The pool for kids is behind Ryan in the above picture.

No land on the horizon! Only other time this happened was when I was on a bus crossing a bridge from Sweden to Denmark. That was pretty crazy to see water forever in both directions. This time it's a boat and not a bus.

Enjoying the sea breeze. It really was breathtaking and beautiful!

The sunset. Sorry it's blurry.

The ship.

Ryan showing me the safety gear on the boat. He just wanted me to know we were protected. :)

The name of our cruise line. Bahamas Celebration. (We later found out that it was a pretty crazy party Cruise) Ryan and I were pretty tame compared to the rest of the occupants.

At nighttime.

We stayed up pretty late.

Changed to leave the next day. It was just a night thing on the Cruise. I learned that we actually stopped for some part of the night. I didn't know that was what happened until Ryan pointed it out.

Getting off on the island. We are now in the Bahamas! This was why I needed my passport. That was a funny story.

We couldn't check in to the hotel yet, so where did we go? THE BEACH!! We learned very quickly that the sun in the Bahamas is a lot stronger than anywhere else we had been. We needed to put on sunscreen a lot more than normally. (We still got a bit red)

The beach is so beautiful! Love the white sands and the clear ocean.

Ryan was loving it

My model poses. :)

Ryan relaxing in the water. He loves to relax laying on his back in the water. One of his favorite things to do.

I think Ryan snuck in a picture here. :)

This is the Radisson Hotel that we stayed at on the island.

The view from our hotel room in the Bahamas.

Look a lazy river!

A blurry picture. Lots of palm trees. Love it!

Ryan decided to not shave during our trip. He said he was on vacation so he didn't want to think about it. He shaved it into a goatee in the end for fun. The sign below is to go with this picture. It was at the hotel because they were doing some construction, but we thought it was pretty funny.

They had a luau we could go to that we paid for. In the end it was another excuse for people to party, so we just stayed on the beach for most of the time. It was really a bonfire.

Ryan was excited at first for the bonfire.

Both of us relaxing. We were kind of laughing at the party girls trying to take model poses in their bikini's in the ocean.

Yes, we took a selfie of us relaxing on the beach.

Sitting in front of the bonfire. (Not really a great bonfire). I've seen better. The best yet, was in Sweden. :)

We stayed on the beach while the others partied.

This is a collage of when we went to Ben's Cave. It is the same cave that they used in Pirates of the Caribbean 4. It was pretty cool to go there. The bad thing was that it started to rain while we were there. Our camera got soaked and started to not work. It was such a sad thing, but these were some of the pictures we got.

We had a little bit of time before we got on the plane. (We had already come back on the cruise ship). So we took some crazy pictures by this park.

Oh my cute husband!

So we didn't take any more pictures after this since we thought that we were getting on the plane to go home. Nope! The plane was delayed because of weather in Texas and some mechanical difficulties (You never want to hear that), so it was just cancelled. They changed our flight to the next day and gave us a free stay at a hotel nearby. They even called a shuttle for us and paid for it. We also had a dinner voucher at the place we stayed. I had to call and tell my 6th grade team that I would not be there for a meeting we were supposed to have with our principal (he was moving some kids around). There's not much you can do when your plane is cancelled.

We had to get up early the next day and leave. At least we got to sleep on a Sleep Number Bed. That was pretty cool. I can never sleep on the plane, so it wasn't really relaxing. Of course Ryan slept. Eventually we got home and it was great to be there. I'll post later about us eating the wedding cake(s) from a year ago. Happy Anniversary Ryan! It's been a wonderful first year!

Happy Birthday to ME! (Yesterday)

Thursday, July 21, 2011
Today is  my birthday and luckily I am on summer break so I do not have to work, but my husband does. I was not happy about that, but he gave me a kiss as I was still sleeping in bed and told me to do whatever I wanted to do that day. Well, first of all I slept in. Then I went online to find a cake that I wanted to make for myself. I found this wonderfully decadent molten chocolate lava cake on my cousin's wife's cooking blog that was posted by her sister who is also my co-worker at Cherry Creek. I really wanted to make it and was going to go buy some ramekin's, but I didn't end up doing it. It was probably better because of what we were doing later. I decided that I wanted to try to cut my own hair. It wasn't an epic fail, but it wasn't the greatest. I found some tutorials on youtube and tried to do layers. One of them looked like the way they do it in the salons. Pull the hair back in groups up and cut straight across. The other one had me twisting my hair on one side and cutting it straight across and then twisting it again on the other side and cutting it straight across. I tried the traditional style I saw at the salon. I also trimmed my bangs. There was TONS of hair everywhere. Ryan told me I could do whatever I wanted. :-)

The rest of the day I took it pretty easy, but when Ryan got home, that's when I got to see what the surprise was going to be for my birthday. He brought home flowers for me which were so sweet. I was hoping for a Jimmer Fredette shirt from BYU because he's awesome and his number is 32 and I was turning 32, but they didn't have any left. Of course, we went to dinner which was at my favorite restaurant, Chili's. I was glad that I didn't have to go into the effort of making my molten lava cake afterall, even though I want to make it still, someday. 

Then we just got in the car and he started driving. He didn't tell me where we were going, but when we pulled into UVU, there were only a couple of things that we could be doing. Either there was a concert that I didn't know about going on there or we were going to watch the Orem Owlz play. Since I am a big baseball I fan, I guessed the latter and was right! He even got us tickets right behind home plate. He thought those would be the best for the action. Yes, it's very true. Not many people were around us so it was great. Here are some pictures from the night.

Beginning of the game - behind home plate

I guess I should be more specific. Not many people in front of us.
There was a cute old couple next to us. They were friendly.
So you can't see all of my hair, but the bangs are okay.

I love baseball!

The score in the top of the 8th. The Owlz are winning by 2.

Final score, looks like it was still 6-4 Owlz,  but it's fuzzy.

The conquering heroes.

Okay, there is my hair, but again, not a good picture. I think
I took a better one on my phone, but deleted it.

Okay, close up. My hair actually turned out fine.
What a fun night to be out with my husband. I love him!

It was a really fun game to watch and it was nice to go to a baseball game. I miss my Oakland A's desperately though. They are really fun to watch (when they are winning) :-) I wish we lived closer to an actual MLB team, but at least they have farm leagues out here. Play Ball!

Wonderful Year

I was just looking at my last blog post (which was last July) and just knew I couldn't go a year without writing something. It has been a wonderful year. I finished my 3rd year of teaching 6th grade and it was so much fun. After finally getting everything settled, it seemed that I wasn't so stressed and I could actually relax and enjoy having fun with my students while teaching them. I really do enjoy teaching the subjects in 6th grade. I feel really lucky since I love Ancient Civilizations, Astronomy, Microbiology, Math and the fun books to read for this age. I FINALLY finished the Lightning Thief series and am hoping they won't stop with the first movie, but will finish them all. I loved it and it is fun for my students to read as well since it is what I teach about.

It has been a wonderful year being married to my wonderful husband Ryan. He is everything I could've hoped for and more. He is so wonderful to me and my family. I really appreciated how good he was to go out to California for my cousin Melanie's wedding to her now husband Dan. We also spent some good time with my grandma Pauline and grandpa Walker for their 60th wedding anniversary. He was so sweet to them. I am so glad that he is in my life and will be for ever and ever.

I again, hope to be better at writing and will write more about the past year later.

Moving out of Deerhaven

Deerhaven was the name of the area I lived in before I got married. I had some wonderful memories there. I originally moved in with Cammie and Erin (2 of my friends), but they both moved out, I stayed and 2 other girls moved in that I did not know before. I was in the ___________ Ward and was leaving as the Family Home Evening Coordinator. My friend Michele had been the coordinator just before me and had told me (at first I thought it was a joke) that the only way to get out of that calling was to either move or get married. She had gotten out of it by marrying Alan. I didn't know what would happen, but I met Ryan rather quickly after I got the calling, so I guess it was true. :)

Here are some pictures of my room from Deerhaven. I loved my room and the way it was set up. I really loved what I had set up, but now I'm excited to redecorate with new things from the wedding. Here is what my room and bathroom looked like just before tying the knot with Ryan.

Bathroom pictures. I had my own bathroom and it was great!

I loved my shelf with all my lotions and body sprays.

Blue and white was my color scheme. The towels never were great, just for show. They always shed. The shower curtain was on loan from Erin. She made them. She's such a great friend. My new color scheme is green and white.

 Bedroom, black, white, and red. I really like this and thought it was very classy. My mom helped me make the heart pillows and the black and white board.

I loved the curtains (got them from IKEA) and that I put them up with a curtain rod. My red fuzzy has been with me for years (thanks mom!) so it helped with the decision of the color scheme.

The coats and my jewelry were hung on towel racks my mom used to have in her bathroom. I just painted them black. Yes, my wedding dress is in the closet. I LOVE my wedding dress!!

I thought the mirror was kind of fun. My landlord didn't when it didn't come off. Thank you to Jennica who moved in after me! She found a way to take it off for me. She was a friend in the ward.

This was the extra bedroom, which Erin and I decided I could use, but the closet was for anyone to use. The reason we decided I could use it was because she had the massive master bedroom. :)

The pictures I had hanging on the wall. I don't think Ryan will love the unicorn tapestry I got from New York.

The drapes and desk area. The flowers of course are from Ryan. I tried to dry them. (Didn't work in the end).

My bulletin board with my to do list. This ended up going to school for a Message Board.

A better picture of the flowers. Good thing I got some pictures before they were destroyed in the move.

I enjoyed my time at Deerhaven. We had lots of parties there, friends coming over, family home evenings, sleep overs, dinner groups, etc. There was a lot more to it, such as the kitchen, living room, and basement. It was two stories (three with the basement) and we had lots of fun there. I will miss it, but not too much. I am excited to be moving on to a new chapter in my life. Once we get everything out, I will leave all of my stuff at Ryan's parents house. Then I will stay there for a night before we leave for California to get married. We need to get out there early so that we can get everything else done before the wedding! I am so excited that the big day is finally here!

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
This is a big year! First of all, I've never had a boyfriend on my birthday. How lucky I am that not only do I have a boyfriend, but he is my fiancé! How wonderful is that! We weren't going to celebrate today on my actual birthday because Ryan is still in the middle of school and had a paper to work on, so we celebrated on July 23rd instead. We really just took it easy because we had been so busy with wedding plans, but we still went out to dinner. We went to Chili's and I had a wonderful 6 oz. steak with pico de gallo on it. Yum! He got me a CTR ring as a present, but it was the wrong size, so he had to take it back. He got a ring with little cubic zirconium's embedded in the sides (like my ring - except there were 4 on each side). I loved it!

Then we went to a movie after dinner.

Happy Birthday to me. I just love those bright blue eyes.

The family at Chili's

Jakers

Another picture, trying to get everyone in the shot. :)

I love my fiancé! He is so romantic.

The next day, Saturday July 24th, was the day I did my bridals up at the Utah State Capitol. (I will do a separate post on that). We went to dinner with Ryan's family for my birthday at Chili's that night. (2 nights in a row? Not complaining at ALL!) It was fun to be with the family and Ryan's parents got me some more things from my registry. Don & Mel gave me a baseball book called "Kiss it Good-bye". They have some fun family traditions and I am looking forward to being the newest member of the Peck family in 12 days!

Great News!

I should just face it that I am not a great blogger, but I need to post in order to let everyone know how excited I am to be marrying the man of my dreams in 29 days. This joy and happiness that I feel is so incredible and hard to describe, but it was worth the wait. I am marrying Ryan Gammon Peck on August 6th, 2010 in the Oakland, CA Temple. We went on our first date on January 23 which was a set up by my cousin Jason. They are in the MBA program at the UofU. It has been wonderful ever since. I definitely fought it a little bit at first. Those that are close to me will remember that the big deterrent for me at first was his height. (He is 6'1" and I am 5'2" :)


However, height definitely did not matter in the end. It was just so natural our relationship. There are a lot of things that played into why this worked out so well, but on my part I remember thinking that I was going to go into this relationship not hiding anything. I was going to be completely myself and if he liked me, then he liked me, but I was not going to worry about it if he did not. I was ready to find the love of my life and it didn't take too long. I am so grateful for who he is and his dedication to the gospel, his schooling, family, friends, and our relationship. We have set up another blog that I will be better at :) Tracy, my girl, helped me make it the best it could be. Thanks again Tracy. Click on the picture to follow the new blog, so please check it out. I will talk more about how we met and fun things like that on there. This is definitely another transformation in my life and I am loving it. Thank you to all for your love and support.