The Adventures of Rhino, Laur Laur & Baby ShaKira

Peruvian Adventures

2010-08-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Ok here's a slight description of the title...a Whexican is what I call Ryan. As most of you know, he served his mission Spanish speaking in California. So...in a way, he thinks he's a Mexican...a big white one. The other half: the first thing we heard when we walked out of the Lima Airport (at 4AM), into the crowd of 300 Peruvians waiting to try to sell you their taxi was 'ohhhhh el gigante', directed toward Ryan. I've always known that we're slightly taller than most being 5'10", and Ryan being 6'5". They all thought Ryan was some kind of famous athlete from the States, they were in LOVE with him...but I was the abnormal mutant woman that everyone stared at with a blank face..so that ladies and gents that was the first time I've been able to see over a massive crowd of people. DEFINITELY a new experience for this chica.

Days One and Two in Arequipa, Peru

We got to stay in Arequipa with Ryan's cousin Swen, his wife Jenni, and their four kids Bryan, Jesse, Caleb, and Katie (my best friend in Peru).

We went to church with them the first day...guess what?? Spanish speaking. I'm not the best spanish speaker in the world, so I had to start church over. That's right folks. BACK TO PRIMARY. I re-learned all of my primary songs in spanish. Remember back in the day, they had those little cards with the pictures and words that helped you remember the words to the songs in Singing Time?? I never realized how much those actually helped until now. Next was Sharing Time...and I was lost once again. But hey, at least I can't say I didn't try.

That afternoon, we went to the Arequipa Day Parade. Ok, I thought the Kaysville Parade was long, but this one goes for 8 HOURS. No, we weren't there for the whole thing, but WOW right??

The next day Swen and Jenni's driver took us around Arequipa to show us the different things there: the volcanoes, the valley, the founder of Arequipa's Mansion, the Michell's Alpaca factory, where all of the best Llama and Alpaca sweaters, scarfs, gloves, and hats are made, and a guinea pig farm. YES. A guinea pig farm. REASON??? It is a delicacy. That's right people....you EAT IT. All i could think of was that G-Force Movie when I looked at these little guys. I wanted to open the cage and let them out. Next thing I know, we're at lunch, and my husband is eating it. I couldn't give him a kiss for a good 24 hours.

Puno, Peru: Home of Lake Titicaca and Juliaca, Peru A.K.A The Armpit of Peru

Isn't that the greatest name for a lake?? And I know ALL of you laughed about it at some point in 9th Grade Geography.

Ok, in all seriousness. Lake Titicaca was AMAZING. I think I must have been laughing to much about the name in Geography to remember how big it really is, and that it gets to be about 1000 feet deep! Isn't that incredible?? On Lake Titicaca, there are people who call themselves Los Uros, they live on these floating islands made out of reeds from the lake. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen! The island we were on was completely LDS. They have a nearby church that they boat to every sunday. The boy that explained the islands to us has two brothers on missions. Everyone on the island is TINY, and they wear the neatest clothing. They eat small fish and the inside of reeds as meals...i guess you could say it's our version of french fries and chicken nuggets (thats about how small the fish were).

Ok...if you ever go to Peru, I strongly advise you to stay FAR away from Juliaca. We had to stay there over night so we could catch our plane to Cusco the next morning. The hotel we stayed in was supposedly a five star suite. NO. Not at all. Our one star Super 8's are better. WAY better. It is truly the armpit of Peru...if not the world. No offense Juliaca. I will admit that they had one of the highest and most fun cement slides out of all the towns we visited.

The next morning we flew into Cusco to go see the best sights. Saqsaywaman (pronounced like Sexy Woman), The Sacred Valley, Pisaq Markets, and then...MACHU PICCHU!!! Yes...Welcome to the JUNGLE. It was absolutely breath taking! You always see it in text books, but it looks one hundred times cooler in person.

Peru was amazing...I'll post up more fun stories, but this is kind of a brief little outline of what we did.

Paz Fuera ~ Lauren

Hot Bliggity Blog

2010-08-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family! I haven't blogged in ages. Rhino...as well as MANY family members have been telling me I need to get my bottom back on this blog and write something. SO, now that I am done with my busy, busy work schedule, my beloved summer is over,we are done and back from our many vacations, and our very REAL reality kicks in...I finally have time to blog again! Aren't you few followers and readers happy??

Ok, here's the deal. We have lots of things to tell you all about...and lots of stories. We've been on SIX different ADVENTURES in FIVE months. So, you get what I mean by being busy. Don't worry, I'll slowly BUT surely get to all of them.

PAZ FUERA ~ Lauren

A couple of slackers!!!

2010-08-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

So I have decided I need to take things in my own hands and update our blog! It has been awhile since Lauren or I have updated it so we have lots to share with the world and our friends!! To be continued tonight......

2010: You Sly Dog You

2010-01-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

How on EARTH did 2009 go that fast?

I don't feel like I got a whole heck of a lot done. Yes, I got married...I love it. What could be better than traveling and hanging out every night with your best friend and husband? It's great! But by the time you get done planning your perfect wedding...it's over. Along with half of the year. Then you start real life. I can't believe it's almost been 9 months. YIKES. The downfall: I hung out with girls a total of MAYBE five times. Goal for 2010: Get a GIRLISH social life. Not that I don't love spending every minute with lover boy. It would just be nice to bring a little bit'o estrogen into life. Catch my drift?

I got a new job. I started at Delta Airlines six months ago, didn't that fly?? (get it?) And it seems like while I was in training, that took over my life. I'm SOOO excited, because now I can actually have a normal life and work life. I got a new schedule working mornings and having the weekends off now. WONDERFUL.

I also got to spend one more year with my wonderful Grandma Simonsen. She passed away on Jan. 3, 2010. It was so hard to see her go. She was in so much pain, so I know she's happy and getting a head start at raising my Aunt Emily and my twin Uncles that my grandparents lost when they were just babies. :)

Ok...enough of whining about how fast 2009 went. Bottom line: It was a great year and I loved it! I had lots of trials that I learned from. I fought with my husband...learned from that too. Or I guess I should say HE learned. I'm always right.

WHAT WE HAVE PLANNED FOR THE NEW YEAR:

We've got some SUPER fun stuff planned for 2010. I'm VERY VERY VERY excited.

FEBRUARY- We are spending our first MARRIED Valentines Day in Salt Lake. We are going to carry on the same tradition as last year: stay at a hotel (I get super good Delta discounts now.) for the weekend and go to the Grand America Valentine's Brunch.

MARCH/APRIL - I am hoping we'll make it to Disney Land one of these weekends. It all depends what Saturday Ry can get off and how flights look.

MAY - The first week of May we are spending our First Anniversary in HAWAII!!! :) yay.

Also in May - Ryan will possibly be moving for 8 weeks to Peru for his business internship. It's still up in the air. But we're hoping for May! He's really excited.

JUNE - My parents are planning some big vacation in June since Landon's life gets taken over by football the rest of summer. So stay tuned to see what that will be!

JULY - Ryan turns 23! He's going to be such a big boy! He really wants to go to New York, so maybe we can take a day trip for his big day.

AUGUST - I'M TURNING 21!! Woot woot. I'm finally old enough to drink and gamble. Just what every LDS girl loves to do on her 21st. JK. We are going to Paris for my Birthday. I'm even MORE excited for this! When I got hired thats the first thing we wanted to do. Is take the direct flight to Paris. So we decided that is going to be my 21st birthday present. Only because everything is SO expensive there. A lady I work with has the cutest Eiffel Tower necklace. So I have to go buy mine just west of the Eiffel Tower at a little shop called 'Le Tempe de Votre Vie'. (pardon my French.) Then she said that the BEST (and surprisingly cheapest) place to eat is at a little bakery and cafe called Le'Torte. And a cheap but VERY nice hotel called Premiere Class Roissy. So we'll eat some baguettes and chill for the weekend ALL for under about 300 bucks! How much better could that birthday get? And then of course we have to fly to Las Vegas one of those weekends shortly after my 21st so I can legally pull a slot machine or something.

Well...thats as much as we've got planned! Now that I'm done with my training I can arrange my schedule to travel more. I can't wait to see what else we come up with!

Lauren

Happy Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or whatever you so desire.

2010-01-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a Splenderificool Christmas and an Awesome New Year! Ry and I celebrated our FIRST Christmas and New Year as a married couple AND in our new place. It was fun, different, and unique all in one!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. Since we don't have 'Santa Believers' anymore, we waited until 12:01AM on Christmas Eve/Christmas to open our presents and Santa gifts. It was a cool new way to do it! The reason why you may ask? Cam had to work from 6AM to 3PM Christmas Morning and I had to work 3PM to 8PM. So...hence the 12:01AM gift opening!

The following morning. CHRISTMAS. We went to Ry's house. His little sister Katie is still in Santa mode, so we got a call at 6:30 saying she was up and ready to see what Santa brought. Cute. We opened more presents, ate some yummy breakfast, chillaxed, and had a jolly good time. Later that day we went back over to my parents and had Christmas dinner with mi familia before I left for work. ugh.

Christmas is absolutely my FAVORITE holiday of the year. I loved every minute of it, and I can't wait for next year! I hope you all had a great one too!

Lauren

Black Friday Adventures

2009-12-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

So...It's been a while?? Life has been crazy busy with the holidays coming up, and us moving into our CUTE CUTE CUTE little town house. Anyway..here's how our first holiday of the season went: TURKEY DAY!

We had a great gut stuffing time. I ended up not having to work, so our first meal was with the Mitchell Clan. We had a pretty tasty meal at the Ogden Country Club. Ry's cousin is the Chef there, so we had our own private dining room and everything. Next up, dinner with my whole famdamily. Of course there was lots of noise, testosterone and wrestling...a typical Simonsen party. We ate another delicious meal and then proceeded to my favorite part of the day...RELAXATION.

While relaxing, we looked through some Black Friday adds...now, I've never really done the whole 'wake up at four in the morning for a Furby', my parents have...but not me. That was until Ryan saw the R.C Willey add...and what did he see you might ask?? It was a LG Washer/Dryer set for $700! The same one that some of his old neighbors bought for $1500. Well of course we wanted it. But what do you do when there is only a limited quantity?? You end relaxation time and pack up your warmest blankies to go sit in line. Now this wasn't at 4 AM. This was at 10:30PM the night before. So...Lyssa (Ry's sister) and I had the first shift while Ryan went and got food. We made it for about 2 hours in the VERY below freezing temperature. Then Ry came back and let us go sit in the car to warm up. Before we knew it, it was 5:30 in the morning and Ryan came shivering up to the car. Poor little fella! He said "Would it be ok if you switched me for a minute??" OF COURSE I was ok with it. After all, I didn't plan on falling asleep for that long. So I sat while sugar butt warmed up his toesies. He came back after about fifteen minutes so he could start putting away our mini campground.

While we were planning our running sequence to get to our washer and finding the first salesman we saw, it was then that our perfect plan changed. The lady in front of us had a bigger Willey add than we had seen. That was when I saw my new brown micro suede sectional!!! :) So plans changed, I ran to my couch to see if I liked it, and Ry ran to the appliances salesman. Needless to say....I liked the couch, Ry got one of the three sets and we spent a good chunk of our money. Luckily we both have good paying jobs. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lauren

6 MONTHS OF MARRIDOM

2009-10-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

Please give us a round of applause....because come November 2nd, we will have survived our FIRST 6 MONTHS OF MARRIAGE. No...it's not a typo. It's true.

Here's what's been going on:

- We're slightly malnourished

- We finally got cable and Internet last week.

- It's no longer 105 degree's in our apartment...that may have something to do with the snow.

- We still have the same 100 ounce bag of Fruity-O's we've been trying to finish since May.

- Our second bedroom is contains a desk, empty boxes, a cat hut, and un-used wedding gifts.

- We re-arranged our front room, it's not exactly Ramona (my high school interior design teacher) approved, but I like it.

- We have hot water...sometimes. Better than never though.

- I broke both my arms and one leg.

- Ryan is still dealing drugs, and I'm still working flights with Delta.

- We drive each other crazy at least once a week.

- October fools. I was just kidding about the broken arms and leg thing.

- We've been on lots of fun trips together. And I can't wait for more.

Basically, marriage has been a walk in the park. Even if the park happens to be full of bees, thorn bushes, and sandboxes full of cat poo. So be it. We're still having the time of our lives!

Happy 6 Month Anniversary Ryan!!

-Lauren

Some 'Dam' Good Memories

2009-10-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

On our long journey back from Yuma, we had a drug dog sniff our car, ate some McD's breakfast sandwiches in a place I've never heard of, drove through a town called Needles, and last but not least...made a pit stop at HOOVER DAM.

Cute little Ryan wanted to stop SO bad. I wasn't a huge fan of the idea...after all...you've seen one dam, you've seen them all right?? Aside from my lack of interest in the dam, Ryan was so excited. So I gave him my approval to make the 'dam' stop. And after sitting in 'dam' traffic for an hour, we couldn't find any 'dam' parking. So we drove around the whole 'dam' place until we did. You can only guess how much fun we had with our 'dam' puns. When we finally found parking, we set off on our quest to get some 'dam' pictures. We had lots of fun walking around and our pictures turned out pretty cool. And yes, I was actually impressed at how 'dam' large it was. When we finally had enough 'dam' experiences, we stopped at the 'dam' concession stand and got our selves some snacks until we could make it into Vegas and find Ry another In'N Out. We did find one, but I feared for my life the entire time. GHETTO.

The whole ride home was super fantastical, except for when Ryan made me drive from Nephi to our house. I was trippin. I don't think I've ever seen that many 'animals' run across the freeway before.

-Lauren

Journey to the Center of the Earth with Mexican Corn

2009-10-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

So, the day after the reception. We went to church. Now...the ward there is a little different than i was used to. There were probably 15 people in the tiny little chapel, TINY. But a very cool and extremely QUIET experience. The reason I say quiet is because of Ryan. If any of you have been to church with him, you know what I'm talking about. If he has a bag of cereal and a coloring book he's just fine. Other than that, he's a pretty talkative boy.

So after we had our sabbath fix. We decided to head back into Mexico for one last taco run. After we finished our awesome mexi-tacos, Ryan saw a little man ride by on a vendor bike. You know…those little bikes with the food carts on the front?? Well this little man’s sign said, ‘ELOTES’. If any of you don't know what elotes are, it's corn on the cob, dipped in butter, mayo, a crumbly white cheese, chili powder and tapatio (a Mexican version of Tabasco, but hotter). I said no Ry…and before I finished my sentence, he started running after him. I knew the little guy saw him running behind, but he didn’t stop. After all….if you were in his tiny little shoes and saw a big white man running after you, would you stop and offer him some corn, or pedal faster?? Let’s be practical. ANYWAY, He didn’t catch him, and after standing on the corner for about five minutes to see if he could take a different street to cut him off somewhere I said, NO. I told him we would just start walking toward our car and see if there was another guy selling elotes somewhere. And sure enough, Mama was right. There was another guy just up the street.

Lots of people are worried about eating food in Mexico, I've never had any problems and I've eaten just about everything on a vendor cart. Including the yummiest lemonlimonade EVER! But that's not what I'm trying to get to. This guy had ALL the fixins' to make your elote the best possible. He pulled out the corn and started asking Ryan what he wanted on it, when he asked if he wanted mayonnaise, which Ry of course wanted. That was when i took a good look at his cart. There it was. The mayo. Just sitting there on the cart. Un-iced, un-chilled in anyway. Just sitting there in a big dirty plastic tub. I gave Ry the unnoticeable elbow, which he ignored. Probably not on purpose, but by pure excitement that his elote was almost ready. So i just waited until he paid the man his dollar. As we were walking away, before I said anything. Ryan said, "don't worry babe, the mayo's just fine. They put it in the fridge at night." Ummm. OK??? Like that's going to help. So I let him eat his 'death on a stick' as we walked toward the border.

Before we made our next dusty trek back to the Hancock's we decided to stop at....THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Yes, apparently Felicity, California is the center of our world. According to Kyle, you can levitate there. And they even have a big winding stair case that stops about 30 feet up so you can try it out. NO THANK YOU. And some how the church on the big scary sand hill gives some kind of power. The whole plaza looked like you were walking around in an M. Night Shyamalan movie. CREEP STYLE. So we took some pics of the Center of the World and got our butts quickly out of the horror film plaza. Might I add that we were the only two there?

We headed back to the farm and met the Hancock's for some quad riding. I've never inhaled and eaten that much dirt in my entire life. The plus side was, my skin felt UBER soft afterward. It's like getting a facial while having fun! After our long ride and exploration of Dome Valley, instead of showering after, the boys decided we should just jump in the canal. By the time this was decided, it was pitch black outside. I wasn't so supportive of the idea. Here's a couple of reasons:
1. What animals have died in there.
2. What animals have relieved their bowels in there.
3. What animals live in there.
4. What animals are going to come out of the dark and pop up behind me.
So you get the idea right?? All in all...I actually had a fun time in it. Apart from the minor abrasions and moss covered walls. More to come!

-Lauren

Road trip = Rockstars, Redbulls, and a whole lot of gummy worms.

2009-10-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

As you may know, hubby and I took a LONG road trip to Yuma. We went for our good friends, the Hancock's second wedding reception. And we had quite the adventure.

I got off of work on Friday at 4:30. Went and picked up Ry from work and set off on our 12 hour drive. Oh joy. We drove, drove, and....drove a little more. Stopped for some In 'n Out in St. Geezy. And continued to Vegas. Ok, I'll admit it. I fell asleep between St. George and Las Vegas, woke up long enough to fill up with some gas. And the next thing I remember, I woke up with a strong urge to relieve my pounding bladder parked in the middle of no where.

I asked Ry where we were, and he said "Welcome to Yuma babe!". It was 4 in the morning and I was not amused. Still needing to use the bathroom, I saw a house in front of me. Probably locked. To my left was dirt, then to my right....more dirt. And you'll never guess what was behind me...yep, dirt. I wanted to get up and squat behind one of the only pieces of greenery i could find, but Ryan kindly reminded me of the fact that Yuma had coyotes and wild asses (donkeys) roaming freely. No thank you. So we decided on just falling asleep in Kyle's driveway.

When we woke up, we immediately started getting ready for the DUNES. We spent a couple of hours there and played around. Drove to the Mexico border in the Rhino and didn't even get in trouble with border control. Wonderful.

After the dunes, we journeyed back to Yuma/Dome Valley and shared one bathroom with the 6 other people staying at Kyle's parents. Fun, fun, fun. We showered together to save water, got ready, and took a quick trip into Mexico before the reception for some delicioso TACOS. If you've never had an authentic Mexican taco, you're really missing out. I've got more Mexico adventures to tell, but maybe in another blog.

So we went to the reception...which was BEAUTIFUL, ate, drank, and were merry. And then left a couple of hours later to catch up on our sleep from the long trip the night before...well I guess Ryan had. Sorry babe!

-Lauren

Love, True Love

2009-10-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

In my whole 5 months of marriage. There are many days when I am completely and totally in love. And yet there are some days that i would thoroughly enjoy roundhouse kicking Ryan's butt. And yet . All in all....being married is the greatest thing to ever happen in my life. These are some of my favorite quotes I've come across since being married!

"Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful." - unknown

"Love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile." -Elizabeth Browning

" When you are in Love you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams. " - Dr Seuss

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident." -St. Augustine

"A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous." -Ingrid Bergmen

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." -Aristotle

"Thou art to me a delicious torment." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved." -George Sand

"My heart is ever at your service." -William Shakespeare

"Love is friendship set on fire." -Jeremy Taylor

"If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, I would have the whole night sky in the palm of my hand." -Frank Sinatra

"Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence." -Vincent van Gogh

"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it." -Ivan Panin

"So dear I love him that with him, All deaths I could endure. Without him, live no life." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

"Love is like a friendship caught on fire: In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." -Bruce Lee

"....A simple I love you means more than money...." -Frank Sinatra

"Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." -Mark Twain

"There is no remedy for love but to love more." -Henry David Thoreau

"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever." -Alfred Lord Tennyson

-Lauren

Lucious Lashes

2009-10-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Are your lashes getting you down?? Are they short, thin and lacking in volume?? Do you find yourself constantly applying multiple layers of mascara just to make them look like the ones in commercials? Well ladies....I have the solution for YOU! My mother in law bought me MD Lash for my birthday. And I am completely in love! Many of you know what I look like without make-up. My eyelashes were practically non-existent. If you look at them now, they are flourishing! I thought I was getting allergies. But I found out it was my eyelashes being so long that they were irritating my eyes. Believe it or not, I have actually had to trim my eyelashes. I never thought I would hear myself say that. Try it! Go to www.beautifii.com

Lauren

Eight Things That Really Happened, Will Happen, Might Happen, And I Want To Happen

2009-09-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

So...I've seen this Eight thinger-ma-jigger going around, and I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Eight Things I Did This Week:

1. Started MORE delta training.
2. Bought some Drain-O, and un-clogged a bathtub.
3. Ate a pork chop.
4. Bought a box of Fat Boys...ON SALE might I add.
5. Avoided hitting any critters on Legacy Highway.
6. Watched Ice Age 3. Quite funny.
7. Picked out my new replacement phone.
8. Cooked yet another pan of Mac and Cheese.

Eight Favorite Books:

Ok...this one was kind of hard for me. I have absolutely NO time to read so....

1. Harry Potter 1
2. Harry Potter 2
3. Harry Potter 3
4. Harry Potter 4
5. Harry Potter 5
6. Harry Potter 6
7. Harry Potter 7
8. If J.K. would've continued it would be Harry Potter 8.

Eight Favorite Places To Get Treats:

1. Jamba Juice: nothing beats a White Gummy Bear.
2. Cold Stone: Sweet Cream, Raspberries, and Pie Crust.
3. Yovillia: BEST fresh, make-your-own, parfait place on the planet.
4. McDonald's: One word: McFluzzy!!
5. Wendy's: Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosty
6. Rocky Mountain Choc. Factory: White Chocolate Dipped, Cinnamon-Sugar Carmel Apple.
7. The Crepe Place: The name already tells you how awesome it is!
8. Starbucks: Carmel Apple Cider or Sugar-Free Vanilla Soy Milk Steamer. Delicious.

Eight Things I'm Looking Forward To...or Hoping For:

1. Moving to Argentina.
2. Buying my own house.
3. Being a mommy! (Don't worry...not anytime soon, but eventually!)
4. My first anniversary.
5. Finishing school. Hallelujah.
6. Turning 21 so I can be a legal gambler. All I want to do is pull ONE slot machine in Vegas.
7. Starting my own show at Caesar's Palace. This falls into the 'hoping for' category.
8. My Hubby coming home from work tonight!

Eight Reasons I Like Myself:

1. If I'm upset i make faces in the mirror and start laughing. And....wah-lah, bad feelings gone.
2. I can now hit a golf ball without letting go of the club or hitting someone/something.
3. I love awkward moments.
4. I look forward to bad decisions. Because that's when i learn the most.
5. Because Ryan tells me to.
6. Because my hubby tells me I'm pretty.
7. What's not to like?
8. Because I'm a splendawesomoutastic human being.

Eight People I Want To Do This:

1. Ryan
2. Lando Pants
3. Cameron
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. If you want to, then DO.

You Know Me....You Know Me NOT!

2009-09-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days that I have absolutely nothing to do. My husband is out playing golf with my pops and brother and I am sitting, waiting, and slightly dreading to go to work. So, what do i do? I BLOG.

I was sitting at work one day, and as a get to know you, they had us write unique stuff about ourselves. Here's some stuff I came up with:

- 95% of my day involves music or has it playing in the background.

- I like to eat frozen string beans.

- My husband does great impersonations of the Gingerbread Boy on Shrek and King Julien.

- I could eat a whole box of Fruity Pebbles in one sitting.

- I'm a terrible whistler, but it makes me happy.

- I frequently find myself laughing out loud to thoughts in my head.

- I'm a Pat Benetar fanatic.

- Someday I want to have a shower with 3 shower heads.

- I pretend that I'm Pocahontas every time i go camping or see a river.

- I drive a Mazda 6 WAGON named Oscar. Look at it, a hot dog resemblance will come to mind.

- I used to fall asleep to the Delilah Show. Then i got married. That's a good thing. For my sanity.

- Despite my gaucho pants being old, tattered and slightly out of style. I still love and wear them.

- I've had 2 dreams that Beyonce and I were best friends.

- Imma gonna have red beans for dinner.

- I have tree climber feet. Meaning, I could easily climb a palm tree to get some coconuts.

- I used to make up songs about mermaids.

- And....I married the cutest boy in the whole wide world! :)

~ Lauren

A Lunch Date...In Phoenix!

2009-09-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

Alright....Ry and I had one more hoorah of summer before he started back to school and I started my REAL work. So we decided to use our flight bennies and go to lunch. In Phoenix. Probably one of the hottest places to go on that particular day, but we did it. It had to be at least 115 degrees outside, and we were walking around downtown. I now know why the streets and sidewalks were completely empty, aside from some homeless men looking for spare change and a few wandering business men looking like they were about to burst into flames in their, not so breathable suits. Anyway, we rented a car, drove our long 8 mile trek to the city and looked for some places to go. We found Chase Field where the Diamondbacks play, and the US Airways Center where the Suns play. So we settled on eating lunch at TGIFridays. The restaurant is actually a part of Chase Field. Half of the seats/tables are to watch the game. Sadly...there was not a game that day. But we still got to go walk around it after our delicioso (pretty sure that means delicious in Spanish) lunch.

Ok, so the food there was great. The water however, is a different story. Have you ever had a drink there?? So I know that it probably tastes normal if you're a Arizoninian. (I don't know what an Arizona native is called, sorry.) But come on people! Come to Utah...or maybe just Davis County....but honestly....YOU ARE DRINKING DIRT! Or something that looks like water and tastes like dirt. Ryan said he didn't notice a taste difference. But then i figured that was just because he lived in a lost portion of Mexico for two years, so I voted him out of the bad water vote. I'm not saying Arizona is all going to die or have dirt covered bowels. I'm sure its very purified. It's just the taste. Try it next time you go. You'll see.
So back to our lunch. We ate, drank the 'water', and walked around downtown Phoenix, Chase Field, and went inside the US Airways Center to see if we could get a look at it. But it was locked. And that was it! We went back to the airport, got on a plane, flew home, and made it back by 7 for Ryan's basketball game! How much more fun could you ask for??!

Ry, Ry in front of the Phoenix Suns' home court
Incase you're wondering why i look so disfigured in this picture, It's because i was trapped in the bathroom with a bloody nose. Yeah. Just my luck. We were the last to get on the plane. Oh well...story of my life.

-Lauren

Memoirs of a Cat Lady

2009-08-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

I didn't think it would happen so quickly. Yes, I did get married, I'm only 20, and I consider myself to have something of a social life. But maybe you can't put an age on your Cat Ladiness.Ry and I saw a free kitten sign and decided to stop. The fact that anytime Ryan or I see a cute baby animal, we try to make it one of our own. So of course we had to pull over. And without hesitation we each grabbed our favorite one and kept holding them. Then all of a sudden Ryan says, "Which one is your favorite?", well obviously the one I was holding, the gray and black tiger striped little girl. I ask him the same question, and I should have been able to answer that myself. He was holding the chubbiest black kitten you've ever seen, just laying on it's back. He said, "This one!! And I'm naming him Leon!" I replied kind of shocked, and all he said was "Happy Birthday! Grab your kitten and lets go!" So yes, my second and third birthday presents were two kittens, named Cleo and Leon! The cutest little kids you've ever seen. Leon eats more than Ryan, and Cleo is the pickiest little princess. But we love them!! And guess what? Being a Cat Lady isn't as bad as I thought. Mommy and Daddy!
-Lauren

The Mighty West Yellowstone!

2009-08-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

Alright so I thought I would give this another go and add my thoughts about the cabin trip this year. Since Lauren had training this year during our two weeks at the cabin we were only able to chill up there for one weekend. It was totally worth it though! My family was already up there so we meet them there and also went up with the Simonsen cousins. (Barb, Spencer, Coleton, Parker, Hunter & Andrew) It was a blast! We spent our first day going to Cliff lake. Doing some swimming and chill-laxing! It was awesome! We spent most of our time trying to gain courage to go off the rope swing! The water was freezing!!!!!! Katie was the first to go off but I was a close second! Coleton was the last and he screamed like a girl when he hit the water. It was hard to scream though cuz it knocked the breath out of you! It was a pretty nice day tho and a lot of fun. That evening us guys went fishing and the girls chilled at the cabin. The fishing wasn't hot at all and only my dad and I caught a few white fish. Pretty lame but still fun!

On day two the families split up and did our own things this day. The Simonsen's wanted to go into West Yellowstone to the park so they headed that way while we went into West to shop. My mom wanted to get some cabin stuff with my dad. Lauren and I wanted to get a christmas orniment for our tree! Something cool happened while we were there though! I was standing outside by myself and someone walked past that looked hecka familiar! So I ran inside to get Lauren to help me figure it out. We were walking the way they went when all of a sudden a car pulled out and he was sitting in shotgun. Lauren instantly said thats the guy from the Waterboy! And I was like oh ya Coach Klein!!!! Haha It was Henry Winkler! My parents knew him as The Fonz from Happy Days. We saw were he went and he parked right next to us! So we walked over there and asked for a picture. He was super nice and took a few photos with us! He even did the Fonz thing for my mom! haha After that adventure we went and took a Wild West family photo. It was pretty funny and the picture turned out awesome. The girls looked like hoochie mamas and the guys looked mean and like hard A's. It was a lot of fun! Another crazy story happened while we were there too! There was a bunch of black-hawk helicopters flying around and we didn't know why. We asked the lady who took our picture why and she told us that Pres. Obama was in the park today! We had no idea! She also told us that air force one was at the west airport and it was about to take off. So we ran out into the street to watch it take off. Sure enough it air force one took off right above us! It was awesome! We didn't take our camaras out tho so that was the only bummer! It was a good memory tho!

The last day we didn't do much. We kind of just relaxed at went fishing. Once again I was the only one to catch anything but still only whities. We did get all the girls to come with us though. Alyssa even did some fishing and she did catch a fish too! It was a lot of fun! After that we called it a weekend and had to get home for work.

Ryan

Summing Up Summer!

2009-08-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

Isn't the end of summer the pits?! Back to another semester of school, back to work, and shortly after that...back to the fall and winter. This is the part of the paragraph were a frowny face is deserved. So... :(....Anyway, let me tell you what's happened this August!

TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING

As you already know, I started my Delta training the first of August. It was the LONGEST two weeks of my life, but it paid off and now I'm a big girl and doing it all by myself! If you're at the airport between 6 and 10 PM I'll be there!

NO LONGER A TEEN

I had a great birthday. I've finally reached the old age of 20. YES. That means I can no longer be called a teen by my husband. Plus you know its bad when you're on your honeymoon, and the cruise ship leaves an add in your room about 'Teen Spa Day'. Yes, that really happened. I still hear about it. Ryan was so cute, he gave me a Roxy suitcase, and lots of travel sized containers. Of course because of our new traveling adventures ahead of us!

-Lauren

JULY - IN THE BLINK OF A BLOG

2009-08-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes.....where did July go??? I know what you're thinking, 'It's the end of August, and this girl's wondering where July is?' But YES! It went WAY too fast for me to even blog about it. We did a ton in July, so I'm going to share it with you in one post. Wish me luck.

4TH OF JULY

Ryan and I spent our very first fourth of July together this year. We did 'hang out' last fourth of July, but this one was way better. We went to the parade, lit illegal fireworks, ate some burgers and dogs, talked with friends and family, and cuddled under the Davis High firework show. What more could you ask for? We had a splendid Independence Day! :)

EVERY LITTLE 'TING IS GONNA BE ALRIGHT

For one of Ry's birthday presents, we went to the Kenny Chesney concert! We had a blast, even though we felt EXTREMELY out of place. I don't think I've ever seen that many 'red necks' in the same place before. I know its hard to believe, but in order to get a Bud Light in the stadium, you had to wait in a 100 person long line. I think we estimated it to be about an hour wait. Not that we were in the beer line, but we just thought it was a funny sight! Anyway, back to the Kenny concert. It was a pretty good group of performers. Lady Antebellum, Sugar Land, Miranda Lambert, and then finally Kenny!! You could not ask for a better concert! It was SO kick back. To explain the title of this section, Kenny's percussionist and steel drummer was a guy from the Whalers. Yes...BOB MARLEY songs. At the end they did a whole bunch of fun songs that weren't Kenny's and the Whaler dude came out and was singing Bob's songs with him! Fun, fun, fun.

MLS ALL STAR GAME

Ok...after Kenny Chesney, they had a one night sale on the MLS All Star Game tickets. So we went directly to the ticket office to see what we could get. The flyer said 'Best available tickets for $20 each', so we were expecting some seats in the BOONIES, considering any reasonable seat is $100 or more. But we were wrong! We got center field, 10th row tickets for twenty bucks each! They were 160 dollar tickets...so yes. We got VERY lucky!

The game was really, really fun. David Beckham didn't play, and they did lose by 2, but that was only because of the shoot out at the end. England's goalie was just too good for us. Other than that, I think we both had a great time at our first Major League Soccer game! Now Ryan's looking up World Cup tickets because he had so much fun. So just wait, you maybe reading a post about our Johannesburg adventures! :)

JULY 24TH IN MOAB

This year, we spent our 24th of July weekend hiking to waterfalls and cliffs, and running the river in Moab. It was Ryan's first time going back to Moab since he was just little, and now he REALLY wants to go back. Our first day we went on an hour hike to some really neat natural water slides. They are slanted water falls that are covered in moss. So, yes....they were very slippery. Hiking back up them was a mother. Right next to the natural water slides, was about a 30 foot cliff that Ryan spent most of his time on. Then when he discovered the rocks piled up next to the jump spot, he decided to try those out too. So then the originally 30 foot cliff, now became a 50 foot cliff. He said he hit the bottom pretty hard on that one. And he was right. His elbow still has a massive bruise on it. And let me mention, that through all of this, we were still waiting for our insurance stuff to go through. Oh joy.

On the hike back down from the waterfalls, I felt like I was babysitting. Never let Ryan, Landon and Coleton (my brother and cousin) go by themselves anywhere. I would take my eyes off of them for one minute and they would disappear to the top of another cliff or a big rock. And when I asked them what they were doing, i would get responses such as, 'we're exploring', 'we're playing king of the rock', or 'hold on, i think i just found a lizard'. Do you get what i mean by babysitting?? And sure enough, on one of the lizard responses, Ryan came running around the corner and asked...'can i keep him??!' He caught another lizard, but put this one in his water bottle, and was determined to keep it. So here was my reply, 'No Ryan, take the lizard out of your water bottle and put it back on the rock. I know what happened to your last lizard, and you're not going to fry this one in the sun like you did to lizzy. Ok? Plus...are you going to feed it? Because i'm not going to have crickets jumping around my house.' Then i got a frown and a 'fine, i'll put it back!'. Can't you see how much fun we have??!

After the hike we went to the Moab version of D.I. and Savers. But it was called Wabi Sabi. They totally had the most tree huggerish clothes you've seen. The only thing Ry wanted was a 2 dollar shirt that said ' Oh Crap, I'm 60'. Don't ask. I have no idea what he saw in it. But don't be shocked when you see him at the store and he's wearing it.

The next day we ran the river....SO fun! Ry said he had never run this one before, so he really liked it! Most of the day consisted of attacking everyone in the water, tipping rafts and getting pulled and dunked into the river. Doesn't that sound fun?? Ryan was really the one pushing everone out of the rafts. He did go a little far once. When he tried to push in Cameron, but instead of just Cam, he took in my poor grandpa, who only has one good leg and a knee brace. I'm pretty sure Ry wanted to pee his pants. Other than that, Moab was a really relaxing trip! We want to go back and hike the Arches in the Fall when its not 120 degrees outside!

We still have lots of stuff from August to tell you about, so we'll post it shortly!

-Lauren

Happy B-Day Lauren!!!

2009-08-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today is finally the big day for Lauren! She can finally tell everyone she isn't a teen anymore! haha Happy Birthday Babe! I love you and I'm the luckiest kid alive to have you! I hope you enjoy your birthday today and lets party hard! Love you!

Ryan

Welcome to Delta Airlines

2009-08-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

As many of you may know, I recently got hired at a new job. And it comes with a lot of baggage. (laugh, laugh, laugh) Yes...I am now part of the Delta Airlines Sky Team! So that funny joke I just made should make sense now. Juuust kidding.

I started training on Monday, and so far it's just been a lot of computer training about not letting people take hand guns, explosives, or anything potentially dangerous on the planes. (Imagine that) Other than that, we've been picking out our cute uniforms and learning how to use computer systems! I can't complain. I'm really excited to actually get out there and work! Plus...who wouldn't want to fly for free?! Ryan is already planning our first day trip flight. He's thinking either a trip to Las Vegas for lunch, or a trip to New York for the day. Apparently we get really good discounts on helicopters, so rather than paying a taxi 50 bucks to get into town, the helicopter can just drop us off! How cool is that?! I'll keep you posted on more of my job stuff to come!

- Lauren

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RY RY!

2009-08-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

OK....Ryan's birthday was on JULY 19TH. So...I'm a little late at wishing him a happy one, but better late than never right?! Well, my husband of 3 months is now a big bad 22 year old! I'm so proud. We've been kind of busy the past couple weeks with weekend trips, working, and my new job, so I haven't had a ton of time to do any blog-work....don't worry I'll get to it though! Even though I think Ryan should write some more. He is such a cute blogger! Anyway....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BEAR!

I Love You!

- Lauren

Nor-Cal Adventures

2009-07-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

I must say that Lauren is pretty good at writing in this blog but I thought I would give it a shot too!
So the last week of June we went on a family trip to Northern California (Nor-Cal), to visit the birth place of my father and my mission. We had been planning it out for a few weeks before but its funny how suddenly your plans can change! Our first night was spent in San Francisco at the Residence Inn. It was a pretty nice hotel and all we did was chilled and slept! The next day we woke up and it was our first full day. In our agenda we had plans to visit Vallejo all morning and after that head north to spend the night. Our trip to Vallejo was pretty interesting!!! My dad took us around to all his old ghettos and stomping grounds. We got to see where he grew up and went to high school. I thought it would be a pretty decent area but man was I wrong! It was the ghetto! He said it has changed a lot since he was there 30+ years ago. It was pretty dirty and not taken care of at all. It was still fun though to see where he lived! The only really cool thing we saw in Vallejo was my great uncle Sklepovich's grave! My middle name was named after him so it was cool to finally see it.
After our trip around Vallejo we headed west towards the coast again to continue or adventure. The road from Vallejo to the coast was pretty fun. It was through the wine country of Nor-Cal. Once we got to the coast again it was awesome! The fog was coming in off the ocean and the road was perfect. It followed the coast all the way up to fort bragg and the more north we went the more redwood trees we saw! Our plan was to spend the night in Fort Bragg that night but once we got there we decided to keep heading north and make it to Eureka for the night. Lets just say it was a lot of driving! On the way up though we found a bunch of fun places to stop and adventure in! We had crab and clam chowder on the coast and walked through redwoods in the forest! It was awesome! It was the first time Lauren and my sisters had seen redwoods so we stopped a lot! We even stopped at the drive thru redwood! It was this huge redwood tree you can drive through! It was a tight fit but we made it thru!!! After all our stops and adventures along Highway 1 we finally made it to eureka for the night. We didn't have any reservations anywhere so we kind of winged it. My mom wanted to spend the night at some hotel in Eureka we had reservations with the next day but her mind was quickly changed when someone was complaining of bed bugs in the lobby! haha so it was late and we had to find a place to stay! we were lead to the red lion hotel and decided that would work.
The following morning we got up eary and headed even more north! It wasn't in our plans but what the heck we are already here so lets do it! We drove up the coast again in search of a place to stay along the coastal beach! After a long 3 hours of driving and bugging each other in the car we arrived in a town called Brookings, Oregon! They had a best western that was right on the beach and without any hesitation we got a room! It was a pretty fun little hotel. We spent a lot of time playing out on the beach and swimming in the pool. We thought we would be able to swim in the ocean but that was a terribel idea!!! The minute the water touched your skin it was already numb!!! The water was freezing! I'm pretty sure there were icebergs floating! So we had to scratch that idea and move to the hot tube and pool! For dinner that night we went across the street to a seafood dinner! It was probably the best seafood on the west coast! I got a huge bucket of clams and was in heaven! I even made Lauren try some for the first time! She said she liked them but her facial expressions would say other wise! haha I even had an oyster shooter with my dad! It was awesome food and a fun little place to spend the night!
Our next stop was away from the nice 70 degree coastal weather and into the sacramento valley for a couple days in my mission! The drive from the coast into the valley was amazing! It was over the whole coastal mountains and through a bunch of redwoods. It was a long drive but we had some fun times in the car! The story that we will never forget happened along this drive but the only thing I can say about it is by a picture we took!
As we got further away from the coast and closer to Redding, California the temp kept raising and raising. Once we hit my mission boarder the temp was 107! Everyone in the car was complaining the whole time and I was loving it!! Lauren didn't even want to get out of the car! haha but she got lucky because we stayed in the car most of the time and I drove everyone around my mission! We visited all the small towns and a few families for the rest of the evening and called it a night. We spent the night in Chico and we were all pretty pooped!
The next day we went to church at my favorite spanish branch, the Yuba City Branch! No one but me understood anything but it was awesome to see all my old families and introduce my wife and family!! After our visit to the branch we drove around some more and headed to the southern part of my mission. No one really seemed as excited as me to be driving around all these small towns but I was loving it! After I showed them all my old areas I think they were ready to get out of my mission and the valley and head back to San Francisco. They couldn't stand the 113 degree weather like me! haha so we drove back to san fran for the night!
Our last and final day was spent all day in San Francisco! It was so much fun! We drove around downtown and everywhere! We walked around china town and let all the girls find their purses while my dad was in charge of driving the car around! Parking is impossible in the city! Once we finally did park we walked around forever. We walked up and down the piers just enjoying everything. I probably won't admit this again but I loved walking around holding hands with Lauren and watching her smile the whole time! It was awesome to see the golden gate bridge, alcatraz and so much more! It was Laurens first time in the city so I know she loved it! It was a great five day vacation and we couldn't have had more fun! We put 1300 miles on our rental car but every mile was a blast!!!!

-Ryan

One More Cruise Adventure

2009-07-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ok....we have one more cruise adventure to tell you about, and then we'll get on to the recent stuff. Our very last stop before coming home was Key West. Not my favorite place, but still fun. Like I told you earlier, they switched it to here because of the swine flu out break in Cozumel.

So, we wanted to get one more dive in on our cruise and this was the last place to do it. There was a HUGE storm there the night before...you could tell too. The boast was rocking like crazy the night before we ported. (Yes...because of the storm) When we got off and started walking toward the marina that morning it looked like a tiny hurricane had blown through. We made it to the dive boat and started heading toward the first dive.

Now I knew the night before was a rocky one, but this was a SUPER rockin' boat. The waves were massive. I thought I was going to wet my swim suit. I had already started thinking up an excuse of what my pee pants could be. Like a big wave that came up and splashed me...or somebody spilled their water on my seat. That's believable.

The water was a little colder here too, so they told us we needed to pick out a wet suit from the bottom of the boat....this is when i felt like i was going to ralph (vomit)...where...I didn't know. Why?? Not only because of the previously worn wet suits that looked like the person wearing it before me had a same bladder problem i thought i was going to have. But because of the vigorous rocking that flattened you to your butt every time you stood up. I couldn't keep anything straight. Or get on my urine stained wet suit. Ryan seemed ok....he handled the belly of the boat rather well. But he didn't have to stay down as long as me. He couldn't find a wet suit to fit him. Sometimes the life of a 6'5" giant isn't as great as it would seem.

We got to the first dive site, got on our gear, jumped off the VERY high boat ledge (scary) and into the ten foot swells. Once we got below the surface it wasn't too bad. But the visibility was TERRIBLE. You could tell that the dive would've been amazing, because there were a lot of really neat fish, but everything was covered in sand. CRAPPY. Did I happen to mention that it was sturgeon season?? Funny...neither did the dive master. A sturgeon is a fish that looks a heck of a lot like a shark when you can't see in murky storm water. I then felt like I wanted to wet my already wet, wet suit. We (or I guess I) finally had enough, so we went to the surface to get back on the boat. And this my friends is when the sea sickness hits you.

You're trying to take off your flippers but the waves keep taking you under. And then your husband tells you that there's a six foot barracuda under the boat and to put your mask back on and take a look. NO THANK YOU. Then you started to panic...almost dropping your dive goggles and half of your equipment into the 100 foot abyss below. You don't even try to clean the salt water mask boogers off of your face. You just decide to wipe it back into your hair and get out of the cloudy, stormy, unsafe ocean of deadly creatures. So.... after I got back on the boat with all of my body parts attached I sat and relaxed. Sea sickness free. Then I was the lucky one.

We headed off to our second dive, I looked at Ryan, and thought I was looking at a Canadian. WHITE. He was SO sick. That's when he made a trip back to the belly of the boat to the pump-flush toilet to...do his sea sick business. Poor boy! I wasn't complaining at all about not going on the next dive. Mostly because my dive buddy was practically unconscious with about five other divers. But don't worry he wasn't the only one. He WAS the only guy though. It was him and a bunch of girls! You better believe I made fun of him for it. So while I waited and watched my sick little husband, I tried to communicate with French girl who was on a road trip...well i think that's what she said...i wasn't quite sure. And a fairly large fellow from Tennessee. I'm pretty sure he was even harder to understand.

We finally made it back to land. I'm surprised Ry didn't start kissing it or something. But the first thing we did was go to a restaurant and eat. Very surprising. I didn't think he'd want to. But he did. And he ordered clams. Even more surprising! That just doesn't seem like the ideal post-sea sickness thing to order. Oh well, they're his bowel movements. We ate our very expensive meal (totally not worth the price), bought our Christmas tree ornament and started heading back to the boat...about 3 hours early. I'm sure there was a lot more to do on the island. But we'd had enough that day. I'm sure its a great place to do things on a good day! One day we plan to go back. So don't let me stop you from going! It's a beautiful island! :)

- Lauren

Can You Belize It??

2009-06-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, we saw this hat at the dive shop in Belize that said, 'Can You Belize It?' And we REALLY wanted to find a Christmas ornament that said it. Since that's what we want to collect as a souvenir from all of the places we go. We had no luck and ended up buying a surfing Santa or something like that. Anyway, kind of random, but I just thought of that when I thought of Belize.

On the fourth day of our cruise...you obviously already know where we ported. I absolutely LOVE Belize. This was our first dive day. I wish we could've seen more of the island, but the dive was amazing! Right when we got off the boat we wasted NO time. We spotted the first dive flag flying in the air, and started walking toward it. We asked when the next dive went out and signed right up. There was NO way that we were going to miss a dive in one of the top ten biggest reefs in the WORLD! :) So we set up our gear and waited for the other two guys that reserved spots on the dive. There were only five of us that went out. That was definitely the way to dive, hardly any people around! We took a 40 minute boat ride to our first dive location. Got our gear on, and hopped in. For the first time in the ocean!! I was super nervous, but Ryan was completely opposite. I thought he was going to forget his oxygen tank or something he was so excited.

On our first dive we didn't see too many tropical fish, but we saw about 5 spotted eagle rays which are probably the most amazing creatures to watch. Of course we had our under water camera and Ryan tried to chase them down. He got a picture of one, but not of the whole group. Dang. After our eagle ray experience we lowered down to about 80 feet and saw lots of shrimp, lobster and eels. Diving definitely feels like a whole new world. :) We took an hour lunch break on this tiny little private island. There were a bunch of construction guys building lobster cages and a stray dog that licked your legs. Our guide made us tuna sandwiches and some sort of spanish E.L Fudge cookie. After that we got away from the leg licking stray that ate my bag of chips and got back on our speed boat for our next dive. The second dive was really amazing! There were a TON of tropical fish and a group of about 8 eagle rays. You honestly can't beat a good dive!

We didn't do a whole lot more in Belize. Diving takes up most of the day, so we just walked around the main little town for a while until it was time to go back to the boat. Belize is a really unique city. The part we walked around almost reminded me of a jungle-ized Italy. It has all these tiny little water channels running between buildings so you can just pull your little kayak up to a shop and walk right in. If i could speak the native slang. I'd live there. But there is NO way in 100 years i could pick that up. I wish I had more to say about Belize, but we didn't get to see a whole lot above water. Maybe next time.

-Lauren

More Central American Adventures In Honduras!

2009-06-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Ok....you know about our Cayman Island stop on our cruise, but I thought I'd tell you a little more about our other stops and stories.

HONDURAS

On the third day of our cruise, we ported in Isla Roatan, Honduras. I wasn't sure what to expect. At first I was thinking it would be a little island. Maybe with some natives running around in loin cloths? Well...I was wrong. It was normal! There was even a Diamonds International and Tiffany's there. Not so primitive after all.

A lot of people on the boat were saying we were lucky our ship got to port that week. I guess there was an island wide riot the week before and no one was allowed on or off. SAFE?? No.

Anyway, Honduras was REALLY amazing. We spent about a half hour looking for a shark dive tour. And had no luck. That was a huge bummer to Ryan. After all, he'd spent enough time on YouTube looking at shark dive videos. But I didn't complain too much. This is when Ryan broke out his spanish...for the rest of the day might I add. It's a little bit frustrating. Only because they expect me to too. No, I may look like a Honduras native but I'm just a Utah/Canadian/Some sort of Indian tribe. So rather than trying to say 'no hablo espanol'. I just nodded my head, smiled and said 'Si'. Don't worry, Ryan is convinced to teach me spanish one of these years.

As many of you know, we both got scuba certified right before our cruise, so we wanted to find a dive. We looked for about an hour and found nothing. NADA. (That means 'nothing' in spanish. I think.) This is my favorite part. You probably could've guessed it though, because it involves baby animals. :) Yes. Ry finally broke down and let me go on the wild monkey and zip line excursion!!! Our first stop was at the reserve. There were wild parrots and monkey's everywhere. They did keep the spider monkey on a leash, but I don't blame them, he looked suspicious. Other than the awkward spider monkey, there were tons of the cute, playful, friendly ones! And my very favorite, the 5 month old baby! :) He LOVED Ryan, he fell asleep while he was holding him, then when the park ranger tried to take him off of him, he started biting the guy! I guess we were meant to take him home. Dang Customs.

The baby!

Feeding the monkeys!

This is the same baby that fell asleep on him!

And this is that spider monkey I told you about.

See what i mean?? Suspicious?? YES.

So after we spent a fun amount of time in monkey land, we headed off to the zip line. Always a fun adventure! We saw a TON of weird wildlife animals on the zip line. I tried not to look. I guess there is something about zipping through spiders and iguanas that doesn't appeal to me. So...when they saw the ten foot anaconda eating a lizard in the tree they didn't tell me. THANK YOU. Of course Ryan told me ALL about it right after. And of course I freaked out. :) We don't have any pictures from the zip line because Ryan forgot to bring extra batteries. Which I gave him lots of grief for. Because right after the zip line there was this thousand year old tree too. But NO camera to prove we saw it. And that was our first official married fight. About batteries. Now that I think about it...a really stupid one. But oh well...we've got to have some of those right?

So we would definitely recommend Honduras to people too! Not that I'm trying to be a travel agent in our blog. But its better than i thought. No riots, loin cloths or grass huts!

A view from the top of the city/town/village.

Stay tuned for some Belize experiences! :)

-Lauren

The Life of Newly-Weds

2009-06-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We're new to the blogging world. Yes, we've both had our fair share of Facebook over the past couple of years. But now that we're married, blogging seems like the way for us to go. After all, who wouldn't want to document their life?! (sarcasm)

We got married last month and so far, married life has been good to us. Take away the laundry mishaps (pink is the new white) and the toilet seat being left up, we're doing alright. I mean, how bad can things get after a month?? I can't wait for the next few.

We had an AWESOME honeymoon! We went on a 7 day cruise to The Cayman Islands, Honduras, Belize, and the Key West. If it wasn't for the dang Swine Flu, we would've ported in Cozumel rather than Key West. But, oh well, I can't complain it was still amazing. :)

CAYMAN ISLAND ADVENTURES

Our first day on our cruise was at sea, but the second day was our first port in The Cayman Islands. SO fun! We got on one of those boat excursion tours where they take you around everywhere. Which was definitely the stress-free way to go. Our driver only hit about 5 chickens on the way to our first stop at the Turtle Farm. Probably my FAVORITE thing that day. Ryan would say differently, but who wouldn't want to hold little baby sea turtles??! It was also mating season...which was definitely an educational experience. Four words: five hundred pound turtles. Yep.

Anyway, after the turtle farm, our drunk driver insisted on making a quick pit stop at the Cayman Island Rum Factory. Famous for their Rum Cake. It really makes you want to get back on the bus when you see your driver taking free rum shots in the gift shop. hahaha. So... After our five minute rum stop we finally made it (as the only sober ones might I add) to Hell. Hell, Cayman Islands that is. Yes...it's a City! It's only about a block wide, but it's complete with it's own post office. So we sent ourselves some post cards and were once again on our way to our next stop. A 30 minute boat ride to Stingray City.

Ok...I'll admit it. I was a little bit afraid of the stingray swim. I was fine until I got off the boat and saw a 6 foot black mass swimming toward me. That was when Ryan became my 'piggy-back' ride for the next ten minutes. Finally he got me a snorkel and mask so I could see them and before we new it I put on my 'big girl' attitude and held one. Snaps for me. So yes, I got used to them. Not as much as Ryan, who at the time was trying to catch every stingray that swam past us. But I did it! Then before we knew it, we got back to land, hit a couple more chickens and got back on the Valor. That was the name of our ship...incase you wanted to know.

So as you can tell, the Cayman Islands were a blasty blast. And I heard it through the grape vine...but if your a fan of pirates, rum and parties, you should take a trip there in November. Apparently the have a Pirate Week. And who wouldn't want to go to a week long Pirate Party?!

-Lauren

Baby Sea Turtles!

Kissing In Hell!