Anniversary Trip

For our one year anniversary, we wanted to take a big trip somewhere we had never been. We had talked about it for 6 months and never seemed to quite get around to booking. We thought about Ghana, Cook Islands (too expensive) Europe (too cold) back to Thailand? Well a month before we were to leave we still hadn't decided. We were originally going to go on our honeymoon to Dominican Republic but Russ changed it last minute because he had heard it was too rainy in November. I thought it was worth the risk so we booked a week in the D.R. We were able to do lots of fun things. We crossed off one of my bucket list items and swam with dolphins! I LOVED it. We also took a boat ride out to an island called Saona Island one day, sea kayaked, snorkeled and vegged out by the pool. I think I will have to break this trip up by days, I love pictures too much! We stayed at a nice little hotel a couple hours away from the airport. Flying in was so beautiful and green! There were little fires all over the island when we first flew in. I still don't know what that was about. We found quickly that we should have paid better attention in high school Spanish as NO one spoke English. On our 2 hour drive to our resort, I tried really hard to remember enough to talk to him. I was able to find out his name, his birthday, where he lived and how many kids he had. I didn't think "Where is the library" was very appropriate for the time, but that's the only other thing I remembered how to say. We arrived at our hotel and the party began. Our view from our room

We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool, watching people do aerobics and zumba. One day they even invited us to play soccer on the beach. It was fun. All the guys on my team were from Italy so there was little communication with me.

There was a cool little bar in the pool that Russ had many non alcoholic Pina Coladas. I have a feel the bar tenders hadn't had many request for that from a man because they would always ask him about 3 times if that was for sure what he wanted.

I am next to certain 90% of the people staying at our resort were Italian. All the locals either new Spanish, or Italian. Everyone we met were Italian. Russ and I wanted a little break from the pool and decided to go play some ping pong. I love ping pong! We get so competitive! There were 2 tables next to each other, and on the other table, was a cute little Italian kid and his dad (who I thought was his grandpa). After he and his so finished their game, the guy asked me if he could play Russ. Of course he asked this in Italian so after I gave him a blank stair and shrugged my shoulders to say Im sorry, I don't understand...he did the motion on a ping pong swing and pointed to Russ and pointed to himself. The next thing we had folks was a REAL ping pong game between Russ and the Italian and he was GOOD! Little dude wanted to play with me, so I taught him some English.. "Ready? Set? Go!" It was so cute to hear him try and say it.

There was a cool dock just outside of our resort. To get there though, you had to pass all the beach vendors. Luckily, they didn't speak any English at all. They would start speaking Italian and we were like...we don't know that either! Makes for a quick escape!

After narrowly escaping the shops, we got to the dock. We loved it out there. There was hardly anyone ever there, and Russ loved to snorkel around it. I loved the peace and quiet to read. Every half an hr or so I would jump in the ocean and swim around and cool off and go back to reading, while searching for the blue fins to make sure he hadn't been eaten by a shark.

Look how perfect this beach is. For some reason we always luck out with vacant beaches.

Russ would come in from snorkeling just as the sun was going down. He could snorkel all day.

We would walk to the end of the dock and Russ would practice his dives. Thanks to shark week, I no longer like to swim in the ocean after the sun goes down. Prime shark feeding time.

I love being out as the sunsets and still being warm. You don't get that too often in Utah.

We would walk back to our resort, just as the sun was almost down and get ready to feast. This is longest blog post. I started this post the first of December, and since our Internet is so darn slow, I give up after uploading ever few pictures. Back to our trip.. The food at our resort was very mediocre. Why I made myself sick every meal stuffing my face with just ok food is beyond me. We finally discovered that if we went to the lobby first thing in the morning, we could make reservations for nicer restaurants, also free. Best thing we did.

The next day we were laying out by the pool. We would lay out for a half an hour, swim for a half an hour, go eat, and repeat the process. One of the hotel entertainers came over and invited us to play soccer on the beach. They had made two teams of all hotel guest, all of which didn't speak English. I was on a good team made up of mostly Italians. It was a lot of fun playing bare foot on the beach with strangers. Those are like all of my favorite things at once...my hubby, soccer, beach! After a very hot sweaty game, we headed back to our little spot for a cool off in the ocean.

We walked back to the prettiest sunset!

This is the most awful picture of me, but that night we went to a dinner we had reserved at one of those restaurants where the chefs cook in front of you, and you eat Miso soup and they throw shrimp in your face...anyway, this couple next to me fought the entire time and the wife was SO mad. It was so uncomfortable because we were all sitting so close. The second they finished their meal the woman was up out and the man followed timidly behind.

We decided the next day to go sea kayaking. We were both so excited and saved it for a day we didn't have anything so we could be out as long as we wanted. We got our kayak and started paddling out. We took a couple pictures out in the ocean the first 5 minutes we were out

We paddled far out into the ocean and the water was so clear and felt so warm. We decided to rest up on the paddles and just relax and see where we floated. Russ suggested we paddle a little closer to shore as we drifted further out to sea. He said, "Chels, Im getting fat!" Me, "Russ, you are far from fat." Russ, "No seriously, Im like in water back here". I look behind me and started crying I was laughing so hard. Sure enough, he was totally sitting in water and I was out of the air! We laughed and laughed and decided to start paddling in. And then paddled faster and faster as Russ kept getting further into water. We go on shore like 15 minutes after left and tried to drag the kayak on shore and it was HEAVY. That's when we realized, Russ is not getting fat, the plug on the boat was out and the boat filled with water! It was so funny, and we laughed so hard we decided we would just leave that experience at that.

1 Yr Baby!

So so crazy to think we have already been married a YEAR! Time has gone by seriously so fast. I cant believe its been a whole year. We had so much fun looking back on the day and remembering what we were doing at that exact time during our day. We were so lucky to have had amazing weather for our day. Although it was a little cold, it still didn't look like it was November! We had a really fun anniversary. We woke up and had a quick breakfast and went a bought ourselves a new computer! We love it! We then went straight up to the Cliffs Lodge and spent the day at the spa. Russ planned everything so I thought it was really sweet of him. Checking in at the Cliff Lodge, they give you a robe, slippers and send you on your way to the pool, hot tub, sauna, tea area with the most amazing views and comfy chairs. We were really lucky because for a good amount of time, we were the only ones out at the pool and hot tub!

Its so fun to be outdoors surrounded by these beautiful mountains, walking around in a robe and dipping in the hot tub! After, we went to dinner down town at Flemmings. It was a great anniversary! November 3, 2011

We came home, watched our wedding video and ate our leftover wedding cake. It was surprisingly delicious!!!!

I feel pretty darn lucky.

Halloween!

I had so much fun this year preparing for Halloween. Its just a fun time of year. I love the feeling in the air around fall. Its such a welcomed time after a hot summer. This year, I did a lot of baking around the holidays. I was recently called into young womens in our ward and love it! I made the YW witches fingers and had them over for hot chocolate and a firepit.

This year for Halloween, I didn't have as much time to prepare for a costume as I usually do. Thankfully, I had the trusty back up Minion. Last year, my friends and I made these Minions for Halloween. They are pretty much always a hit and Its so fun to see something you made from scratch! My mom was kind enough to store it in her basement since I don't have as much space. I went to get the costumes for me and my coworkers and forgot just how big they were. It was hilarious to watch people watch me drive. My head is literally against my window.

We won our Halloween costume contest at work. It was awesome!

I was so so proud of my mom this year for dressing up. It was fun to go shopping together and meet her early in the morning to do her make up. She looked awesome! She hate dressing up so it was kind of a big deal.

My nieces and nephew came and trick or treated at my work, How cute are they?!

I was holding my niece Millie, and she said, "Hey Bubba, Im a strawberry! But with a hat!"

When Russ and I were dating we would go to Halloween parties the night of Halloween. Last year we went to my parents house for their annual chili and apple cider. This year, I really wanted to hand out candy in my own little house. So I came straight home got my candy all ready and thought it would be fun to bake while I waited. I made some mummy cupcakes

I waited and waited, and no one ever came :( Dang trunk or treating!! So we ran down to the basement, pulled out an old costume and headed to my parents house.

Ugliest, most unflattering costumes ever huh? After looking at this picture it made me want to always obey the law for many reasons, but mostly so I wouldn't have to wear one of these ugly outfits. She had amazing food for dinner. I then made homemade donuts for the first time!

My little "Brace Face"

On 10-11-12 Russell finally bit the bullet and got braces. He has a long journey ahead with a painful jaw surgery scheduled for about a year into the braces to repair and bad/painful bite. But,he will have straight, white teeth at the end of it. Heck of a deal. They had to put bite blocks in his mouth which prevents him from biting completely down.
His favorite soup I make in the fall is Cha Chas Chicken Bean Chili, so when he got done I had a big pot ready for him...he couldn't even chew the beans- We had to put his bowl of soup in the Magic Bullet. Poor guy, he is going to be so skinny. There is always Jamba Juice...

You cant even hardly tell he has them on right? He said he is just now waiting for his voice to start cracking again.

Weekend with the fam

I hate how easy it is to get behind on blogging.
Especially during this time of year when so many fun things are going on!
Russ spent most of fall hunting. Between him being gone hunting, and my busy season with work, we didn't see much of each other at all.
One weekend while he was out hunting, I went along with my family to Bear Lake for the last time of the season. I thought Labor Day weekend with Russ would have been the last time but I was pleasantly surprised we made one more family vacation of it.
And the weather was PERFECT! There was no one around and we did lots of fun things.
I rode up with my parents and met my brother and his family from Idaho in Bear Lake.
When I stepped out of the car, I noticed my sis in law Kami and I had the same hair, same earings, and same glasses. Good taste Kam ;)

My nieces and nephews all call me Bubba, until this dude came along. He calls me Bubby. I loved seeing him and having him run to me with arms open yelling, "Bubby!"

My sister and her family met up us up there shortly after. I love it when we can all get together. We played on Russ's longboard

Had some good old fashion Bear Lake Pizza

And had a movie night

The next morning and gathered the kids in my parents room and gave them all Mustaches. They thought it was hilarious. I told them they all needed to run out to the adults and yell, "We mustache to the beach!". It was so cute and I loved watching them all help each other and chose with mustache they wanted.

The water in Bear Lake is always freezing, but the toward the end of September its really cold. My siblings still swam in the lake but I stayed back with the kids and played in the sand. Sometimes, cold water just isn't worth it.

After the beach we had a friendly game of soccer. What a perfect field right? Mei, Oaks, Me, B and Cody played while the rest of the family cheered us on.

We worked up enough appetite for a picnic and a nap!

When you only have a couple of days, you need to pack them in with fun! We then headed to the pool. I have some seriously brave nieces and nephews. My job was to catch the wild ones that wanted to go down the slide but couldn't swim. They were going backwards, upside down....

I was at the bottom waiting for Oaks to come down when she stopped herself just before hitting the water. She then stood up on the bottom of the slide and did a standing flip into the water. She's nuts!

Mom and Kaysie

B, me, and all those crazy kids. I loved when I saw this picture, it looks like there is a random head coming out of the water.

That night, my mom popped some popcorn and had a big movie night with all her grandkids while the adults all went and played an indoor tennis tournament. The drive home the next day was incredible. The leaves were perfect and we were all eating a raspberry shake. Doesn't get much better than that! Plus, shortly after I got home, there was a hunter at my door! Who would have ever thought I would marry a hunter? I sure didn't!