Honeymoon Decision

The poll has closed and a final decision has been made.  Thank you to all five of you who voted (ha)- and sorry to anyone who's votes got erased by the virus.
The results left us with a tie between a trip down the California Coast and Hawaii.  We debated whether we should just flip a coin, or whether we should just surprise everyone and go somewhere no one would expect... like Japan...

But the winner is...

If anyone has any suggestions on the best islands, the best beaches, must-dos, or what you always wished you could do in Hawaii, let us know!!!

This is what happens...

When you take 15 credits while planning a wedding...

Ready... Set... SLOG!

So in preparing for my half marathon that I plan on running this summer in Rexburg, I signed up for a 5k.  That's only 3.1 miles, but it was for BYU cancer research!
I talked Sarah and Cassidy into doing it with me.  They loved it!

That morning we barely made it out the door on time.  This is us driving like crazy down to the marathon, dodging neon orange cones lining the roads on the way.

Read, set, GO!  The sound of the gunshot made Cassidy scream and grab onto Sarah.  It was pretty great.  After she got over the shock, we all started jogging... well it was more like slogging.  So close to the start it was hard to move in the tight-packed herd of runners.

Even thought it was cool and overcast, Cassidy started getting a little too warm for her long sleeves.  So Sarah helped her out of that situation... while running...

Why did only one mile feel like 3?

We made it eventually!  We stuck together pretty much the entire race until the very end.  We all finished within a few minutes of each other- all pretty exhausted, as you can see from this picture.

WE FINISHED!

Dates At Gunpoint

Roy made dinner, like he usually does.  After I finished the grilled cheese sandwich I told him I needed to grab something out of my car and I would be right back.

I didn’t come back.

Instead, Sarah walked into the kitchen with a ransom note:

First Roy texted me, “Are you ok?”  

Maybe the ransom note was a little too convincing?  J  I just answered with, “Aaaah!”

So he arrived at the McDonald’s at 7 on the dot, just as the note instructed.  Unfortunately, we weren’t ready for him.  

This is Andrea, Shellena, and I all dressed up to kill.  But my accomplice’s husbands were a little late, and we’d been hoping that we could capture them all at once.  So– we sent Roy out to the parking lot to wait until we were ready to make our move.  Finally, when all of the guys were there we pulled up our hoods and pounced on them.  Kenny had thought it would be a good idea to bring air-soft guns (he had received a similar ransom note) but that idea kind of backfired on him.  We took the guns from them, blindfolded them, and used the guns to coax them into the back of my car.

We three girls crowded up into the front seats.  I drove, Andrea navigated, and Shellena kept our captives quiet.  She was pretty threatening too. 

She shot Roy right in the leg to prove she was serious, haha!  It wasn’t fair that they could all speak to each other in Portuguese and make escape plans.

They almost succeeded once when we stopped the car in the middle of nowhere to throw them off as to where we were going (or maybe it was actually because we weren’t doing so hot on the navigating part of our plan…) they almost locked us all out of the car!

But eventually we made it to Jump On It.  It’s basically an auditorium made of trampolines, including the walls.  Way fun!

When I asked Roy how long he thinks we were at Jump On It he said, “Well… I think it was two hours to get there and one hour actually there.”

Yeah- we were pretty pathetic miscreants.

But still we had a blast.  On the trip home we agreed not to blindfold them and just went and had some pudding pie and watched a movie. 

Fun friends and fun date nights!

The Dress

With Mason safely shipped off to the MTC already stuffed with farewell letters and packages, Mom and I were able to turn our attention to other matters before she went home to Tucson.

Lynn wasn’t about to miss out on wedding dress shopping.  My awesome bff flew up to Salt Lake just for the occasion.  Sarah also joined our hunting party, so I had two of my girls with me to help me zip up, hold the trains, and give me opinions.  Of course, I wish that all of my bridesmaids could have been there, but they are currently working or going to school in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Idaho.

The four of us were totally stoked and ready for anything.  Dad and Roy escaped at the first opportunity and went to the movies.

You know the little girls that dress up in their mom’s old dress and dream up exactly what hers is going to be like when she grows up, maybe talking it over with their friends at slumber parties? 

OK- I missed out on that little stage of life.  I walked into the first store without a single clue as to what I wanted my dress to look like.  White… that was the only image I had in mind.

Roy, on the other hand, definitely had ideas.  One night before we went searching he sat me down with a wedding magazine and pointed out all of the aspects of wedding gowns he hated: too stiff looking, weird ruffles, too many sparkles…

So with my lack of gown taste, I was pretty much looking through the dresses trying to remember everything my fiancé told me.  Mom was quick to correct me on that logic.

“When it comes to clothes, guys don’t really know what they like,” she told me.  “He’ll love whatever you love.”

What I “love” definitely isn’t at Latter-day Bride, where most of these pictures were taken.  My cousin’s wives, Jessica and Natalie, found their dresses there a few years back and they were gorgeous!  But for some reason I wasn’t having much luck.  Cookie-cutter necklines just weren’t my style.

But these cupcakes were!  Between the four of us we pretty much dominated both trays.  They were amazing!  

We had visited our photographer earlier in the day.  On our way down the hall to see him Lynn said from behind us, "Take a photography picture!"  I don't think Mom and Sarah got it...

Our photographer recommended a smaller place called A Bride Beautiful, which was in south Salt Lake.  We girls had a hilarious time hitting dead ends in our attempt to find the tiny store.  Googlemaps wanted us to drive through a wood fence…

Eventually we found the little place.  None of the dresses had sleeves, but there were in-house seamstresses who were all experienced in making gowns Mormon modest.  We are in Utah, after all.

When I walked out of the dressing room in the first gown, I watched Mom, Lynn, and Sarah’s faces light up and mouths drop open in unison. 

Yeah… we found the dress in one day.  We rock.

It wasn’t that easy, though- there were two more dresses from that same store that we fell in love with.  In the end, though, we all knew that the first one was totally and completely me. 

When Dad and Roy showed up after watching Blind Side, Roy was banished to the parking lot.  Call me superstitious, or maybe I just like torturing him… but I’m not letting him see the dress until the day of.

Dad was so excited to make the purchase!

We celebrated with giant milkshakes before Mom and Dad left for the airport.  I can’t believe what incredible friends and parents I have!  It was such a perfect day.

1st Glimpse of Newport

Beautiful!  It's such an awesome town!  

This post is long overdue, but I only just now got the pictures.

Several weeks ago Roy and I traveled to his hometown for his grandmother’s wedding reception.  She's so cute.  When I first talked to her on the phone before we went up she said, "I never thought I'd be twitterpated at my age."  

We left Provo on a Friday along with our friends Kenny and Andrea McAffee, who are always down for spontaneous adventures.  We didn’t leave until 3:30 pm because Andrea and I both had classes until then.  It was a quick drive up to Burley, Idaho where we met up with Kirsten, Roy’s older sister who lives in Rexburg.  In her spacious 4runner we made the rest of the 17-hour drive to the Oregon coast. 

Driving for 17 hours straight can make people a little crazy.

At around 9 a.m. I finally caught my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.
Newport is nestled right up against the beach.  In fact, it's a short walk down the Buckmaster's street to stand at the edge of a sheer cliff that overlooks the ocean and an  lighthouse.  Picturesque, no?

Newport is a fishing town, but in the summer it's also swarming with tourists.  That's why they have so many little shops and things like "Ripley's Believe it or Not" and aquatic museums, etc.  Kirsten used to work at The Whale Center where people go to spot whales and learn about them, etc.  I definitely want to go back and do that sometime.  

Without stopping for more than a brief moment to meet Roy's extended family and then scarf down some amazing pancakes his Uncle Jay made, we rushed off for the whirlwind tour of Newport.  


The highlights:
 - Walking out on the jetty, which keeps the gigantic waves from getting into the harbor.  The further out we went the huger the boulders became.  Some of them were slippery from the water crashing up onto them.  We managed to stay dry, though, and checked out some starfish that are as big as basketballs!!!

- Went to an old structure called the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, which was built in 1871.  There's a self-guided tour of the living quarters, which was connected to the lighthouse.  Supposedly the place is haunted.  A teenager disappeared there some decades ago.  Creepy.

- Drove all around town to see where the Buckmaster's went to church, where their old houses stood, and where they hung out when they were growing up.  That includes hiking up an overgrown path to this little forgotten burial plot.  They were probably old fishermen, most of whom died toward the end of the eighteen-hundreds.  

- Sprinted through the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

- Ate at Mo's and tasted their famous clam chowder. 

- Ran out on the docks and checked out the wildlife, which has no problem just hanging out in public.

See if you can find the pelican.  

- Played at the beach

Of course, to Roy and his family this is all just normal and no big deal- but to me it was a sweet vacation that I look forward to taking frequently for the rest of my life!  


But the next time I breathe salty Newport air will be July 21st, when I arrive for our WeDdInG!  Being able to see Roy's Aunt Sue's reception hall all done up for his grandma's wedding was a happy coincidence.  Thanks to the family– like poor Kelsey (his little sister) working out in the rain putting up lights– the place looked wedding-perfect.  I can't wait for ours.  It's going to be amazing.

I <3 Newport!

Viruses

Our blog was badly infected.

I guess that's what I get for not paying enough attention to it for so long.  So after almost two days of trying to figure out how to kill the little virus, I just decided to make a new blog.  Can you tell?  It's identical to the other one (URL and all) except I've lost things such as followers, honeymoon votes, and reader comments etc.

Sad.

Lesson learned: check up on the blog more regularly.

P.S. The "Wedding Party" link is set up