The Honeymoon

Beware of REALLY long post and LOTS of pictures!

Jim and I thought long and hard about what to do for our honeymoon. We thought about Disneyland, multiple different cruises, or maybe even just a week in Rocky Point. I'm here to tell you my friends, we had the BEST honeymoon ever! We got married on July 29, had another reception in Utah on August 6, and then on Sunday, August 8 we headed to the airport for our red eye flight to Atlanta and then connect onto Miami. We decided that a cruise was the best bang for your buck. When we first walked out of the air port this is what happened...

It was such bad humidity that Jim's glasses fogged up!

On Monday, after traveling ALL night and being exhausted, we arrived on the boat, at lunch, and we were ready for a nap. We were finally allowed to get in our rooms and this is what we found...

I was pissed. I was soooo pissed. There was a card on my bed that said something to the point of we are glad you decided to honeymoon with us, please join us for a honeymoons celebration... You would think someone would use their head for this one. But we got it sorted out after we took a nap.

This is what we came back to after dinner the second night.

We then left the Port of Miami and headed for Key West, Naussa Bahamas, and then CoCo Cay (a small island owned by the cruise company). It. Was. Amazing.

This is leaving the Port

Leaving the port

That night we just hung out on the boat and went to a show and had dinner. Dinner was always interesting at our table. Somehow, and I have no idea how, we got stuck at a table with 4 people that we had NOTHING in common with. The other 4 people were at least 30+ years our seniors, and from Canada. This made meal time a little dreadful for me, but Jim always seemed to keep up with their conversation. Anyway...

Our first stop was Key West. It was soooooooooo cool! I HIGHLY recommend going there some day.

It was raining while we were there, but I still had fun.

A Lady walking by was so kind to give me her poncho which was wet on the inside and out. Needless to say we found somewhere else that sold dry ones.

After we bought poncho's we found this "little" gem outside the art museum. Yikes!

We made a quick stop at the Key West Toy Factory, it was pretty cool.

And took a train tour of Key West! This was probably one of my favorite things we did! I fell in love with this place and am seriously considering moving there!

Of course, we ate such good food the whole time! This place was called Two Friends, or something like that. They had the best french fries and a really good sandwich. I'm sure Jim's fish was good, but fish is gross so he can be the judge.

Being in KEY WEST you have to order KEY LIME PIE. Duh. It was good. I'm not a Key Lime Pie fanatic and neither is Jim, but when in Rome...

We sailed all night and morning from Key West to Naussa. We arrived at 1:00 pm and we were soooo excited to spend all day trying to figure the place out. We knew we wanted to go to Atlantis, and also see a lot of the town. We we did, and this is how...

SCOOTERS!!! So fun, so scary! They drive on the other side of the road!

Yes, we had twin helmets. Blah

After a small scooter tutorial in a very small ally, and a man trying to twist my wedding ring off my finger, we were off for 3 hours to see what we could find! And we found great things!

A nice resort with a nice beach, opposed to the free pubic beach that I was a little scared of

We found Atlantis! Absolutely Amazing!!

Coolest fish tank ever! (don't mind the wet bathing suit)

I tried to get a picture of him and the giant sting ray

We ended up walking IN the exit to the aquarium, so we got that for free.

Star fish!

We did a little shopping :)

This street was so cute! and full of great shopping!

And we found our next house! It's pink!

It was so fun! I was a little scared driving around on scooters, but it really was worth it!

The next, and last day of the cruise we went to Royal Caribbean's private island CoCo Cay. It was so fun! We did a little snorkeling (not so fun, well I just can't handle the water in my ears) and a kayak tour where we got to hold star fish, and we saw a bunch of sting rays swimming below us. We don't really have pictures of that because well, we just don't. But I do have this little gem...

Yes everyone, that is my husband. What a hunk.

After such a fun relaxing time on our honeymoon we knew it was time to come home. On Friday we got back to Miami and were off the boat by 9:00 am. Our flight didn't take off until like 7:30m, so what is there to do in Miami when you are sun burned beyond belief, exhausted, starving, and ready to be on your way home? I'll tell you, eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then take a boat tour of the harbor. It was fun actually, I just wish that we were able to enjoy it a little more. It was really really sunny, and very humid so for us it was unbearable to be outside.

BONUS! By the time we are done with all that it's time to head to the airport and get home! But the airlines had a different plan. Our flight was delayed before we even got there, and then delayed twice more due to them having to change a part on our plane. Once we got on the plane we found out it was delayed yet again due to the weather in Atlanta where we were suppose to catch our connecting flight to Phoenix. We missed our flight and because our original delay was due to maintenance Delta was so kind to pay for a hotel room, and 6 meals at any airport or our hotel for the two of us. We were finally settled in at 2 am in Atlanta and up at 9 and to the airport to catch our flight home. It was a nice little extension to our honeymoon... NOT! But we are still married, and it was still the best vacation ever!

My poor exhausted husband after delay #1 in Miami.

Thanks babe for the AWESOME honeymoon!! Let's do it again!

Our Wedding Day!

I just want to say that July 29, 2010 was easily the shortest day of my life. I was having SO MUCH fun all day with my friends and family. I can hardly remember anything that was happening and after looking at some of our pictures I am starting to wonder if I was even in the same place! My mom and dad have been AMAZING through the whole process and gave me the wedding of my dreams. It was perfect! Jim's parents were wonderful as well. We had a nice luncheon between our wedding and the reception. It was sooo good and both Jim and I were amazed at how hungry we actually were when we got a chance to sit down and eat. Both of our families were such good sports through the heat and the rain. My aunt and uncle were gracious enough to open up there beautiful home for our reception. It was perfect! The decorations, food, flowers, company, and even the weather could not have been better for us.

We were so spoiled to have ANOTHER reception in my parents backyard. Again, my parents worked so hard all summer to make sure that it was absolutely amazing. The day of the Utah reception we were setting up and my mom had all of the neighbors helping as well! I am so so so so so greatful for everyone who put any time into helping me or my parents or Jim's parents. Our wedding was perfect. I can't get over it and I love to look at our pictures. I haven't received the CD of all our wedding pictures from our wonder photographer yet. BUUUUT she did send me a link to a little video she has put together for us. I'll share it with you guys. Jennifer was amazing! I loved working with her and I would do it again in a heart beat! She's amazing! Also we had a great videographer who was willing to work for us last minute. He has sent me a teaser to our video and I'll share that as well. He just had a baby so I understand that it will take some time. Chris was awesome to work with as well and he worked well with everyone that was there. I only have things from Arizona, but I know there are great things from Utah to come! We had awesome people up there as well and when I get those I will post a little bit more in detail about it! Thank you thank you thank you everyone!!

Our pictures: http://jenniferweems.com/slideshows/Jim_Kensley_Wedding.html

and our video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC27diRn0I4

Help?

Ok Blogging world, I need some major help. As you can see, my background is no longer in existence. One day it's there, the next it's gone. What happened to it? I thought I was getting so good at this blogging thing, but apparently not. I went to change it to something really cute and I did so successfully. Then, assuming I was smarter then I am, I started to mess around with the new customize your background setting. I don't know what I was thinking when I clicked "apply to profile" but I regretted it right away. I had my cute background with some nasty birds on top of it. So then I freaked out for about an hour, googled everything I could, tried to explain to my clueless husband what had happened and finally gave up. I finally got it to go back to the "original settings" or whatever, the water mark birds were gone (yay) but my cute background, and pictures in the side bar were as well. When I went to add it again the edit html settings tab was COMPLETELY different. I added it to the only box available in the tab and viewed my blog and all my post had disappeared and my blog was turned into a cute background and only a cute background.

What am I missing?! How do I fix it?! I have probably 3 or 4 different blog posts that need to be updated but I refuse to update them to an ugly embarrassing blog.

HELP!!!

5 Days

...until I change my name

...until months of planning and hours of tears come to an end

...until I no longer check the "single" box on legal documents

...until I have 3 nephews

...until I no longer get to sleep in the middle of my bed

...until I have to share things I've never shared before: toothpaste, a bathroom, a bed, a closet?!

...until my parents proudly cut my off

...until I can't pull the "I'm not a grown up yet" card

...until I have to drive more then 5 minutes to meet my girls for lunch

One week until eternity with my best friend begins

and I couldn't be more excited

The Little Gingerbread House

On Sunday Jim and I went to church at my cousin's ward because she was blessing her sweet little baby Preston. He is the cutest thing ever, and he is such a good baby. He makes me want a baby (but just a little bit). I'm currently on a kick where I don't want a baby for a long long time. But it changes weekly a little Preston helps with that. ANYWAY, as we were sitting enjoying the company of my family my cousin (well really my cousin's cousin) Billy asked us if we found anywhere to live yet. I probably rolled my eyes and said in a stern voice "no" because I'm so sick of looking at townhouse after townhouse. Without even hesitating he said "you know you guys can live in our rental house. I don't know what kind of condition it's in. The renter moved out on Friday and I'm getting the key's from her tomorrow and I'm going to take a look at it". I was a little excited, I didn't want to be super over joyed because as things have gone so far, something bad always seems to happen when we find a great deal. So I asked where it was because I thought it was in Maricopa. He said "Nooooo it's on like 16th street and Roeser, between Southern and Broadway". For any of you who know Phoenix you are now shaking in your skin. This part of Phoenix isn't the nicest of nice area's, I mean it's not Gilbert or Ahwatukee by any means. In fact it's down right terrifying. Just last week we were driving around down there looking at some really cute town houses. There are some really nice cute little neighborhoods down there, but the surrounding areas are pretty scary. I knew He wasn't talking about the house being in one of the scary area's because it Kati had lived there for about a year and a half before they got married. She wouldn't buy a house in the sketchiest part of town. So of course we said we would LOVE to take a look at it as soon as we could and get it all cleaned up so we could start taking some things over there.

So on Monday I had to work until 5 and after work I went to Jim's house. He kept reminding me to call Billy so we could go see it. I didn't want to be pushy but I finally gave them a call. Billy said we were more then welcome to come get the keys and take a look around at the house. It was in a lot better shape then he thought it would be. There wasn't any electricity or water and the upstairs carpets need a little lovin', but nothing that we couldn't handle. I was so excited!! We went out the their house and chit chatted for a little while, and I peaked in on the babies as they were sleeping. They have such cute little twin boys Mark and James. I love them They also help make me want babies sooner, but still we are A LONG way from that. We left and were on our way to our new house on Chipman street. This is what we found (ok so I may have taken these pictures the next day, but it's still the same)

Our little Gingerbread

This is from the front door looking at the stairs and the great room, there's more sq. feet in the right of the picture. I don't know what to do with it all!

The Kitchen. After I saw the house I went a little crazy and bought tones of cleaning supplies, minus the mop. They left that behind for us :) grooooooooooooosssss. I consider myself to be a little bit of a clean freak. I'm sure you've gathered that by now seeing how much I hate camping

The surprise in the over :) it smelled pretty dang sour

I think it was chicken, Jim thinks it's beef. Either way it was left in there for who knows how long, and look at the inside of the oven! What am I suppose to use on that!?! Anyone!?

This one is the best. Like I said, the power has been off since Friday. On the bright side, I'm happy it's Safeway brand?

My camera died after this picture was taken and I'm a little sad because me had a lot more surprise leave behinds!

• In the garage there is a ton of black and white pictures on the wall of small children maybe the age of 6? I said I want to leave it up. It's great (to laugh at)!! Jim said no. In fact he probably said hell no.
• In the master bedroom a toilet bowel brush on the floor and some cleaning supplies in the bathroom (I don't think they knew what cleaning supplies really were).
• In the hall closet some sort of camo bed skirt? I didn't pick it up, but there's something in there.
• The first bedroom upstairs had shoes and a belt on the floor
• The third bedroom was missing the door, the closet doors, and the shelf in the closet. Don't worry, I found them in the garage a little later along with the pantry door.
• The upstairs bathroom is in the worst possible condition ever. It looks like a little boy, maybe even two or three, decided to stand there and just go to the bathroom on the floor, on the walls, on the counter, sink, mirror, you name it and they peed on it. Ok I'm not sure if it is actually pee, but it's a bathroom, what do you expect?!
• The faucet in the kitchen is broken... off. (see the picture of the curdy milk)

I love our little Gingerbread house believe it or not! In a few weeks we can have things looking really good! I enjoy cleaning and when it's my own place I really don't mind at all! I'm so excited to get things going! Jim just let me know that we have carpet cleaners coming tomorrow from 2-4 and the electricity will be on sometime today. Now I just need to figure out how to get water and we will be good.

I can't thank Billy and Kati enough for letting us live there! and for such a GREAT price, free!! It really couldn't have worked out any better then it did. We owe you guys so much! and here is us PROMISING that we will leave it in MUCH MUCH MUCH better condition then we found it!!! You have my word!

A Little Wedding Prep

It feels like forever since I last updated our blog. We have been really busy! We are only 28 days away from the wedding and I feel like if we decided to put it on tomorrow we would be in good shape! Buuuuuuuuuut to let you in on a little of what has been going on in our lives...

For starters, I got a JOB! That's right everyone, your screen in not foggy, you don't need to get your eye's checked, I got a JOB! I work at Nordstrom in the T.B.D. department at the Scottsdale and so far I LOVE it! Well, I've only been to two and a half days of training in a classroom and I haven't been on the floor yet, but I still like it. Today was suppose to be my firs day on the floor shadowing but I all ready had to call in sick. When my mom came down to visit a few weeks ago she got sick, then Paisley, then Winter, then Jim, then Casey and even Rowland who was out of town. They all had the same problem and I was feeling pretty special that I had avoided it. I was wrong. Yesterday morning around 3:30 I woke up and ran to the bathroom. Trying to be a good sport about just getting my job and not wanting to miss training I made Jim drive me up there yesterday. I told Mary (the lady in charge of training) about how I had been sick all night but felt like I needed to be there. She told me right away it was ok to be sick and that if I needed to leave at any point it would be fine. So after being there for an hour and two trips to the bathroom her and I both agreed that my manager would have to teach me what I would miss. I felt really bad about being drama all ready but one girl in the training class was sick for the first two days of training and that made me feel better.

On a much lighter and FUN note... Last week I went to Utah for wedding stuff. Ok maybe I went just to get my hair done, and my teeth cleaned, a little shopping and if we got a chance to have wedding fun then that was a bonus. And we did! It was so much fun! I got to meet with the lady who is doing our cake and let me tell you, it is going to be DELICIOUS!!! I saw all the things my mom had bought for our wedding and they are all so cute! I am so so so so excited! Seeing everything together made me so anxious!

Also while I was in Utah some of my mom's friends/my friends mother and young women's leader put on a shower for me!! It was so sweet of them! I know Tauni is really busy but she was so gracious an offered to put it on last minute. This is the only thing that I actually got a picture's of while I was there.

Here is the amazing food! Ahh It was delicious!

Brooke and I. She was the first to get married, now me! WEIRD!

These girls are seriously the definition of my childhood!

Kenzie was so sweet to come down from Logan! Thank you girl! and Krista, I love you!

Brooke, Mari and I. The wind really adds to this picture

Oh Annie. How would we have survived YW without you?

These three FABULOUS ladies are like second mothers to me! THANK YOU!!!

As you can see the shower was so fun! I was so happy to just sit and talk to everyone. We had a great turn out! I need to thank Tauni, Annie, and Kay. You guys are amazing!! Everything was wonderful and I couldn't have asked for anything better!

Happy Little Campers

By now I think everyone has figured out that I hate camping, and being dirty. I'm pretty sure it consumes all of my blog posts. But despite all of that we went camping! It was cold and dirty, but it was fun! We went with Jim's really good friend CJ and his wife Savanna. CJ and Jim and very much alike in that they like to camp, and Savanna and I like to shop and be clean and complain about being dirty. You can see where this camping trip is headed...

We left Sunday afternoon and headed up to Payson. We got there and picked up some last minute things for dinner and continued on our way to... well I have no idea where it was. We past a town called Pine, and I think another small town called Strawberry. I thought we were almost there, but nope. We drove and drove and drove to "the rim" or whatever and then we were off the pavement driving on rocks. After about 20-30 minutes of a miserable drive off road we finally found somewhere to camp. When I jumped out of the car every memory of girls camp came back to me. The pine tree smell was enough to remind me that I REALLY REALLY don't like camping! But Jim loves it so I was all about being a good sport.

the boys set up the camp while Savanna and I watched. I really had no idea how to help! It was really fun watching the boys gather the wood for the fire, and then they even let us "help" them chop some of it!

Look how strong my man is, just throwing some logs around... no big deal

Here's Savanna showing the guys how to really chop some wood

The boys taking a break from all their hard work

As the night went on we grew hungry. We planned on eating some hobo dinners and we were all very excited about them. The one time I've had a hobo dinner before it was amazing! I expected nothing less especially since I had to sleep in the dirt later. As CJ was preparing dinner he realized that they forgot the tin foil!! When we had stopped earlier Savanna and I were assigned to stay with the truck and make sure nothing was taken. We were both NOT ok with this but somehow we "trusted" out men to take care of us. We should have made them stay with the truck. Needless to say I was upset and so was Savanna. We were about an hour from the nearest town! AN HOUR!! CJ and Savanna jumped in th truck and headed back and Jim and I set up the sleeping arrangements. About 10 minutes later they returned. They stopped to ask some of our fellow outdoors-men for some tin foil. We didn't have very much but we managed to get everything in there... kind of.

Here's CJ taking care of our dinners, before he stapped a huge whole in the side of ours :)

In the mean time while dinners were cooking I had a flash back. I sat next to the fire trying to stay warm and I look at Jim and what did I find him doing? Cutting down a very small tree, and then carving it! When Jim and I met he had spent the whole night carving what I like to call a savage stick. Because of that stick I started talking to him. It was cute to sit next to him as he made me a roasting stick, opposed to another savage stick.

Jim with his small tree...

That turned into a roasting stick

Putting the roasting stick to work!

As we waited for dinner to cook Jim decided that roasting the potatoes with a slice of onion was the way to go! Turns out that Potatoes aren't that good alone... or roasted on a stick with an onion. When we were finally able to eat our dinners they weren't that good. We all ate it and were very very disappointed. I like to think that it's because the girls didn't get to do the shopping :)

Later we went spot lighting. I've never done this before but it was WAY fun! We drove around for about 45 minutes and didn't see anything and I just wanted to go to bed, but then we saw two elk. I was ok with that and didn't really feel like we had wasted our time. As we kept driving we saw in a little meadow about 10 more elk. It was way cooler then the first time. As Jim moved the spot light across the meadow we saw another set of eyes, but they were lower to the ground and moving really smooth and slow. It was a mountain lion!! It had been stalking the group of Elk and started to run back into the forest. We were all super thrilled, I've never seen grown men more excited about anything in my life! We drove for about 10 more minutes and turned around. As we approached the meadow again all the elk were still there but the mountain lion had taken off, or so we thought. He had moved to the other side of the meadow and was STILL stalking them. I felt bad for the poor elk. They had no idea they were about to get eaten. We got back to our camp and we were all tuckered out.

When we woke up in the morning Savanna and I were ready to be city girls again. We tried to hurry up the boys and get everything packed up so that we could use flushing toilets again. That wasn't exactly the case... As we cleaned up...

The boys played guns (I love CJ's outfit)

All in all, the weekend was fun! We needed some time away from real life and just kind of "relax". If nothing else we had a great time with our friends! Thanks CJ and Savanna!