Journey to Chicago

After we returned from Florida we had a couple of days to get all of our stuff packed to move across the country. I was so excited to start such a crazy adventure. The reason we moved out to Chicago was Colin got a job with a consulting firm and he was scheduled to start at the end of May. The plan was to drive Colin's car out to Chicago. All we really had to pack were our clothes and wedding gifts. We had absolutely no furniture. We didn't even have computers because both of our laptops died a week before graduation. All of our stuff would not fit in his car though, so we ended up renting a U-box from U-haul. All we had to do was go to the nearest U-haul in Littleton and fill this storage unit with all our stuff. They then shipped it out to Chicago.

We had a few hiccups in our journey. The first one being that the car wouldn't start the day before we left. We tried to jump start it a few times but nothing was working. I was freaking out because I thought it had died for good (its a '95 Buick Skylar so this was a possibility). Colin then had the great idea to put a gallon of gas in the tank and see if it would start then (This was not obvious at first because the fuel gauge said we had a quarter of a tank left). We put in a gallon and it still did not start. For some reason Colin thought we should try another gallon, so we went back to the gas station and bought another gallon. It started!!!! The stupid thing was just out of gas. I made my mom swear not to tell my dad about the whole thing. I knew he would not let us leave if he found out. She didn't tell him and we left the next day!

We split the drive into two parts. The first day we drove 8 hours to Omaha, Nebraska. It was also Colin's 23rd birthday. I felt so bad because it had to be the worst birthday ever.  We ate at Applebee's to celebrate his life and then spent the night in an extremely ghetto motel.  

The next day we drove another 8 hours and finally got to Chicago!! We had no problems along the way. The drive was horribly ugly and boring, but I am glad we made it safely.

Disney World

Two days after our Colorado reception we packed our bags and flew down to Orlando to spend a week in Disney World with my family. My family is in love with all things Disney. I had not been to Disney World in about 4 years, so I was excited to go back! Colin had been to Disney World a few years ago, and lets just say he is not as in love with it as I am. We still had a wonderful time in the happiest place on earth! ;)

 My mom bought these hats for us. I got Colin to agree to put it on for one picture. This is the picture. 

We spent four days at all the different Disney parks. My favorite park is Animal Kingdom because I love animals I guess. 

 One of the highlights was when Tamsen and Colin auditioned for the American Idol Experience at Hollywood Studios. 

I got to sit in on both of their auditions. They both did a great job but neither of them made it. I was still a proud wife/sister. 

We also spent two days at Universal Studios which is like 20 minutes from Disney World.

The best part of Universal was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! 

The butter beer was delicious!! 

One of my favorite parts of the trip was at night my sisters would come into our room and Colin would do magic tricks for us. We also played poker with my sisters and they were way better then me. It was a great time and I am sure we will have many more Disney adventures throughout the years!!

Wedding Reception

Hello again blog world. It has been weeks since I have spent some quality time with you. This is due to the fact that I am so dang lazy when it comes to writing on this thing. Oh and my precious lover decided to post an extremely embarrassing video of us singing together. Anyways, I have decided to spend my day off catching the world up on our lives. Unfortunately that means going all the way back to May and giving brief descriptions of all the exciting things we have done since then.

The first major event that needs some attention is our Colorado wedding reception. What a long time ago that was...May 5th to be exact. There are many things about that day that should never be remembered. Like the fact that I spent the first half of the day ordering my army of decorators around as we prepared for the reception. This army included my mom, my three sisters, Colin, and other amazing family members that randomly showed up throughout the process. Once again I was possessed by a demon known as the bridezilla!! Despite my craziness, we were able to prepare a lovely reception!

Here are some pictures of our work. 

    

We had such a great time at the reception. So many lovely friends and family were able to come and it was so great to be able to catch up with everyone.

Some of the most memorable moments were:

Cutting the cake:

I dominated. 

 

Throwing the bouquet: 

On my first try I accidentally hit my grandma in the face.

Luckily she survived. 

On my second try my sissy Tamsen caught it. I hope what they say about catching the bouquet is true...

and Dancing!!

Dancing is something Colin and I didn't really plan for at our wedding because Colin hates to dance. 

To my surprise my family decided to break out the moves. I was so happy. 

Me trying to convince Colin to dance 

 I had such a great time and I am so grateful for everyone who came!

Little Talks

Hey everyone. I finally decided to contribute to our wonderful blog.

So I am sure that most of the people that read this (all 5 of you) know that I like to play the guitar and sing. I do not claim to be especially good at either, but I do enjoy it. Andrea, despite having more natural aptitude for music in my opinion, does not enjoy it. For the longest time, I have tried to get Andrea to sing with me to no avail. But recently she finally mustered up the courage to do a duet with me. In turn, I am showing my appreciation to her by posting our efforts on this blog (she will probably never sing with me again).

The song we did is called "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men. I love this song. With so many songs today lyrics generally fall into two categories: 1) blunt and obvious (and usually dirty) like most Pop, Rap, and Hip Hop or 2) abstract on the verge of meaningless like a lot  Indie or Alt. Rock music. Because of this emphasis on melody over meaning, I have a special appreciation for artists that put time into creating meaningful lyrics.

"Little Talks" is a love song between a couple with a twist. The husband is dead. His widowed wife is old, lonely, and delirious. The lyrics are posted below the video.

"Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men


I don't like walking around this old and empty house
So hold my hand, I'll walk with you my dear
The stairs creak as I sleep, it's keeping me awake
It's the house telling you to close your eyes
Some days I can't even trust myself
It's killing me to see you this way

'Cause though the truth may vary
This ship will carry
Our bodies safe to shore

There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back
Well tell her that I miss our little talks
Soon it will be over and buried with our past
We used to play outside when we were young,
And full of life and full of love
Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right
Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear

'Cause though the truth may vary
This ship will carry
Our bodies safe to shore

Don't listen to a word I say
The screams all sound the same

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry
Our bodies safe to shore

You're gone gone gone away
I watched you disappear
All that's left is a ghost of you
Now we're torn torn torn apart, there's nothing we can do
Just let me go we'll meet again soon
Now wait wait wait for me
Please hang around
I'll see you when I fall asleep

Don't listen to a word I say
The screams all sound the same

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry
Our bodies safe to shore

Grand Cayman

Day 4: Grand Cayman Island

To finish off the epic honeymoon posts, we end with our visit to Grand Cayman Island. What a beautiful place. We had such fun times there. The first part of our excursion was a stop in Hell!! I can't remember if it is an actual town or just a street, but they made a big deal of stopping at this gas station-type building so we could take pictures with little devil statues. It was ridiculous but made for some great pictures.

What in Hell? (Am I allowed to say that?)

Seriously?? Why is Grandpa dressed up as Satan? IDK!!

Colin has a better face for Hell then I do.

 After we left that strange little place we headed off to the sea turtle farm. I absolutely loved it.  At the turtle farm they raise and release sea turtles back into the wild and we got to hold some of them! They were so funny. When you pick them up they start flapping their fins so hard that it hurts your hand like crazy. In order to calm them down you gently tickle under their chin. They immediately calm down and let you hold them.

Here is one freaking out 

Just tickle their chin and then they love you. 

They had little baby sea turtles. They were so cute. 

After we played with the sea turtles we headed to a boat that would take us out to Stingray City where we would get to swim with the stingrays!! Now let me remind you that Steven Irwin was killed by a stingray so I was a little nervous about this. 

Again no pictures of this amazing adventure but here is what they look like from the boat.

Those are the huge creatures we got to swim with. Stingray City is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean where all these stingrays live. They have a billion tourist come and see them every day so they are well adapted to humans. We got off the boat and the tour guide helped us hold them. We even got to kiss them and put them on our backs. It was so scary, but really amazing. I am so sad that I didn't get any pictures with them.

I need to take a few moments to show you one of our tour guides. 

This man was crazy. I am not even sure he was a man. I swear he was part fish or something. We were in the middle of the ocean and the boat stopped. This man jumped off the boat and dove down to the coral to pick up this... thing. He then proceeded to cut it up and tried to feed it to the rest of us. He also brought up a starfish. Luckly he didn't try to feed that to us.

Look how blue that water is and how white that skin is. Oh yeah baby!

What a great adventure we had. I will never forget all the amazing experiences we had together our first week of being married. Some other notable things that happened were Colin participated in a karaoke competition. He won a medal, along with the other drunk participants, so that was pretty awesome. We saw almost every comedy show and most of them were hilarious. We went to a magic show and I was brought up to help, but I could not understand the magician's Indian accent, so I ruined his trick. We ordered room service every night so we would be sure to gain at least 5 pounds. But the most important thing was that I had the opportunity to spend time with the love of my life and start our amazing journey together!

Honduras

Day 3: Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras 

What an incredible time we had in Mahogany Bay. We went snorkeling and it was by far the scariest/coolest thing I have ever done. Let me give you a little background on the whole snorkeling situation. 

I am deathly afraid of water. Despite having taken years of swimming lessons while growing up, I am sad to admit I can not swim. I secretly think I can swim, but when I get into the water my anxiety takes over and I just sink or awkwardly doggie paddle my way to the edge of the pool. So when Colin suggested that we go snorkeling, I was sure I was going to die. The other thing about me is I love fish. I love to look at fish, especially tropical fish, and I love to watch the wildlife shows about the ocean. So I knew that despite my fear I couldn't pass up this amazing opportunity. 

When we came off the cruise ship we got onto this boat with about 30 other people all going snorkeling. I looked around and the average age of the people on this excursion with us must have been around 65. It was the best sight I have ever seen. I knew that if these old people (please don't be offended if you are 65 and I am calling you old) could survive then I could. It took about an hour to get out to the reef and when we finally got there I was so scared but ready.

 Here we are in our lovely gear. (Notice my huge life jacket)

Unfortunately I didn't have a waterproof camera so I don't have any pictures of what we saw down there, but let me tell you it was awesome!!! There were so many colorful fish of all different sizes. The coral was beautiful and really deep in parts. The coolest fish we saw was a barracuda!! The only reason I know that it was a barracuda is because the tour guide told me. If you don't know what one looks like here is a picture. 

 Holy crap right!! 

Scariest thing ever. It was pretty far down but still really cool that we got to see it.

Turns out with flippers and a huge life jacket I had nothing to worry about. I did not want to come back to the boat. Colin really enjoyed it as well and he would dive down which is just too crazy for me. It was such a fun experience and I hope to go a million more times in my life. 

Remember all those old people I told you about? Talk about party animals. On the way back to our cruise ship there was an open bar which meant a bunch of drunk old crazies. They were flashing their "goods" to everyone and taking pictures and singing songs. It was seriously hilarious and so disturbing. Overall our experience in Honduras was one to remember! 

Belize

Day 2: Belize 

The second port we stopped at was in Belize. Belize was one of my favorite places. It was nothing like I expected. Most of the people there speak English and it is a nice mix of a lot of different cultures. The country has a very interesting history and I really enjoyed driving through the city listening to the tour guide as we drove out to the excursion location. 

In Belize we went kayaking. What a great experience!! We were put on this little kayak and were led out into the jungle. This is what I saw next to our kayak before we got into the water.

Sketch!!

 Don't worry, that is the only scaly friend we saw on our kayaking adventure. What we did see a lot of were bats. They would fly right over our heads and try to kill us. It was awful. Despite the evil bats this was such an amazing sight. I mean look how awesome that is!

The hardest part about kayaking was steering. It was so beautiful that both Colin and I struggled to pay attention to the river in front of us. Most of the time the river was so small and we had to dodge branches and fallen trees.  It was a great team building experience.

 

This was our tour guide. He picked a fruit off one of the bushes and let us eat it. It tasted so bad but I ate it and I am surprised I didn't die. 

After we were finished kayaking we were able to go swimming in this nice pool area. I guess the area that we went kayaking in is part of a large resort owned by a family and they offer a lot of different excursions like mountain biking and horseback riding.

 

 We had such a great time!