Christmas Time!!

We have been married for four months!! It is crazy how time goes by! We have been living in Paul Housing in a little one bedroom apartment. I will get pictures up soon I promise!! We also have our first Christmas tree! It turned out really good although it is fake... we got a gift certificate to Real Deals in Burley for our wedding and I had no idea what we would spend it on so we bought a tree and some ornaments and good stuff like that. It works out perfectly!

We will only be in our little apartment for another week and a few days and then we will be moving to Rexburg. As we were trying to find a small place to rent in Rexburg we began to get really frustrated because everything is so darn expensive. Plus every place we called was already full for the Winter Semester (and we started calling in October!). Then one of Damon's friends said that they live in a mobile home and in the long run it saves alot of money, so we looked into it. Damon looked at every aspect and decided that if we could find a good deal it would definitely be worth it. So we started looking at them online. We found a really nice looking one and they had several offers so we had to go that week to check it out. There was a short list of homes that we also wanted to look at. On the way to Rexburg we decided on the price that we would pay that would be a super good deal. The first one we went to was not all that impressive and I was slightly worried. The next one was a ways out of Rexburg and it had to be moved but he had said that he was willing to go down some on his price. This one was wayyyy better! It was newer, nicer, the walls were actually straight and it was quite a bit less expensive! When the guy was showing us around he told us the amount that he would be willing to go down to... it was exactly the price we decided that would be a super good deal!! We were definitely interested! We had one more to check out. It was a year older than the one that we liked and from the pictures it looked nice but possibly not worth how much they were asking. After we left we pulled over and said a prayer that we would make the right decision! We felt very good about the home outside of Rexburg! We just have to move it into a mobile home park, which we found a place open in a really nice neighborhood and as incentive to move in, we get three months of free lot rent! I will get pictures of that up too as soon as we get there!

For those of you that didn't know we sold our car on Thanksgiving! So now we are back to driving the Cadillac, which actually died while I was driving it but Damon was right behind me and saved me...it was right next to his parents house. Damon changed the alternator and now it works again but his pickup is done for. But we might be going and getting a pickup in Utah tomorrow.

With Christmas so close I just have to say how grateful we are for all of our many many blessings! Life is so great when you are living the gospel! We are so grateful for all of our friends and family! We love you guys!!

Florida

So while we were in Florida, we spent some time basically everyday at some point hanging out on the beach. The water was so warm I was very surprised! There was just one problem...there were lots of jellyfish! We had gotten some snorkel gear so that we could go out to where there were some little coral reefs. (I think they were man made). But we didn't make it very far because I really wasn't a huge fan of swimming with the jellyfish. I got stung on the back of the leg once and it stung for a while. We put on our goggles and stayed right next to the shore, Damon saw a crab and there were these really cool little white fish that would swim up right next to your fingers until you moved and then they would dart away. They were fun to watch! You could also see huge dark spots while looking at the water. So we put on our goggles and took a peek and it turned out to be a huge school of fish swimming around that was cool to see as well. The water was super clear and really blue-green, it was pretty! Well I guess it was only clear until about Wednesday though. We were there while hurricane Irene was passing through. I think it passed by on Wednesday evening, or Thursday but it was about 150 miles off the coast so we only saw fairly strong winds and rain for most of the day. After that the water was not clear anymore and there was some really strong currents and rip tides. But we still played in the water a little and had some fun. We also made a giant face in the sand it was awesome and we could see it from our room until the tide got super high and washed it away.

Also before the hurricane we talked to a local lady that said there was some awesome snorkeling around this little island that was between the main land of Florida and the island that we were on. The little island was called Peanut Island. The lady said that there was a ferry that would take you across and back. So we drove around and found the place where the ferry was and had an interesting conversation with the guy that drove the ferry. He said he would feel bad taking our money and dropping us off on the island because there was jellyfish like crazy over there. He even showed us a video he took of a bunch of jellyfish floating past. So he told us a few places that might be cool to check out and maybe snorkel if the jellyfish weren't bad. He said that the jellyfish had been there almost three weeks and he said it was like an epidemic and he didn't know what this world was coming to. The people around there were really friendly and talked to you like thy had known you forever! So we took his advice and went to find those places he told us about. The first place was a little Sea Turtle Museum. They had all this information and then you could go out back and see the turtles that they had found and were rescuing. Next to each turtle they had a little plaque that had the turtles name and what what wrong with it and what they were doing for treatment before they released it again.




Then there was a beach back behind that place we took a walk and looked around. There were reports of jellyfish there too.

So after that beach we went north a little farther and found a little place where the water came into a little pocket. We were swimming around there but there was nothing to see. On the way out of this little pocket I looked around and saw a big jellyfish heading straight for Damon on a current. I grabbed him and he jumped out of the way. Instead we went to the next beach over and played in the waves for a while. There were some surfers there and it was fun to see those guys catch the really big waves that were starting to come in from the hurricane.
Our Florida adventure included going to Walmart a few times of course, I mean what trip is complete without Walmart either before, during or after?? We also went and ate at a couple of places. A homeless guy came up to us and asked us for money. It was crazy. Then of course we spent time in the resorts pools and hot tubs! It was an amazing trip! The Saturday we come home was an extremely long day but it was definitely great!!! I would recommend Oceana Palms for any Florida trip! Gosh it was AWESOME!!!

The Honeymoon!!!

As most of you know, we went to West Palm Beach, Florida for our honeymoon! It was so awesome!!! We left Sunday night for Salt Lake City where we stayed at Damon's cousin's house and left our car there. They took us to the airport!! This was my first time flying! We went through security and waited to board. Take off was so cool! That is a different sensation. We had a long layover in Houston, Texas and then flew over the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We picked up our rental car...

Which was a 2011 Ford Focus. It was super nice and got really good gas mileage. From there it was about an hour drive North to West Palm Beach where our resort was!!!
Now we had very high expectations for the place that we were staying but holy smokes! Pretty much everything exceeded our expectations!!!
This is the resort we stayed at. There was 20 floors and we were on the 15th. You can see our balcony, 15th floor on the left side of this picture. Our villa was AWESOME!!
Gosh it was absolutely amazing!!!! I will post some more pictures and things a little later!!!

In the Beginning

The few days before the twentieth were rather hectic, making sure that everything was all ready to go including Damon and I! Finally the 20th of August came! Damon and I drove to the temple together and went in to get ready!! I had been endowed four days before so it was just the sealing. We were able to sit in the Celestial room in the temple for a while before the sealing. It was so great!! Then the sealing ordinance itself was awesome. Damon was finally mine forever!! Then came bunches and bunches of pictures (once I get them I will post the really good ones for you all to see)!! After all of the pictures there was the lunch in the canyon! It was super good food and a beautiful view!! We had a while to relax before the reception. The reception turned out fabulous thanks to great family members that were willing to come and help out! Great cake, awesome decorations and fabulous company.

We opened our gifts the next day with our families and then took the stuff that we needed to our apartment so we didn't have to keep eating out of tupperware with teaspoons! We got a ton of great stuff that will be extremely nice to have and we are so grateful to all who came and supported us! We are sooo blessed!!!