Milwaukee

I had a few days between the end of finals and when spring classes started up again and since I found a great deal on a ticket to Milwaukee, I couldn't resist going to visit my sister and her cute family for a few days.

 I was so excited to finally meet my niece, Charlotte, who was born last October!

And of course, I couldn't wait to little Eliza who I hadn't seen since last June - she has grown up so much!

We made our first stop at the Milwaukee Zoo - which, surprisingly, is one of the best I've been to. They have every kind of animal you can think of! 

We loved being able to watch the tigers and all the other big cats up close! 

We also made a trip to the Harley Davidson museum in downtown Milwaukee. And despite not being a huge Harley fan, I really like the museum! A must see if you're ever in the area.

 They had motorcycles on display from all the way back in the early 1900's. 

This was the first Harley ever built - all the way back in 1903 - pretty amazing that it's even still intact! And the white lines on the floor show the size of the first shop where they built the bikes. 

Of course, Eliza was thrilled when she spotted the PINK motorcycle. 

And again when we found the pink Harley gear in the "kid's corner" - she even got to play on her own play motorcycle! haha.

Dan was able to take a day off from school to drive down to the outlet malls with us.. where we spent way too much on clothes!  But on the way we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory and got to sample lots of new flavors. 

However, I didn't dare get close to these. In case you can't see the picture.. some of the worst were moldy cheese, rotten egg, booger, canned dog food... you get the idea. 

But Aaron was determined to try every yucky flavor -- and he definitely did. Ew! 

Another favorite part about Milwaukee is that they have awesome malls with every store you could ever want... including H&M (my favorite)! Marissa and I had so much fun shopping together - which doesn't happen every often. And Eliza definitely had a good time entertaining herself by trying on all the pretty bracelets. haha. 

We were so happy that Aaron was able to fly out with me as well - even though Marissa and Dan have lived in Milwaukee for about two years, this is the first time he could come to visit! He had a great time playing uncle for the weekend (and yes, Charlotte smiles like this all the time - so cute! ).

I had such a fun week having no homework and being able to relax and be with my family.  It was so hard to leave especially since class started the next day, but I knew Nick was getting pretty lonely back in Provo :)
 Thanks Dan and Marissa for letting us stay with you all week - can't wait to see you again in August (or hopefully sooner)!

April, Finals, and Busy Weekends

My posting activity pretty much describes our free time in the past month. It always seems like the last three weeks before finals are the busiest of the whole semester! The good news: we survived. The bad news: we started school again this week! But we figure another 6 weeks of spring semester won't kill us... right? 

A little bit of what we've been up to....

One of my best friends, Jo, is getting married in a few months and I got to help Emily make some treats for her bridal shower. Chocolate covered strawberries are a favorite! 

Jo's getting married in the D.C. Temple, but they're also having a reception on Oahu, where her Fiance is from. I'm secretly hoping that I can use that as an excuse to get back to Hawaii soon :) We're so excited for you, Jo!

As I mentioned before, Nick has been busy with the Air Force ROTC all semester. Despite the early morning workouts twice a week and lots of work, he really loves it. I think it would kill me.

 We got to attend the end-of-semester "Dining Out"- which means we got to get all dressed up - and Nick had to buy me a corsage! 

I don't think I've worn one of these since high school, but it matched my dress perfectly! 

Let's just say I was introduced to a whole new world of military etiquette that I never even knew existed! But it's always fun to get dressed up for an event. 

And...a special thanks to our good friends Mike and Alisha. Mike's been our home teacher this year and has been helping Nick with the ins and outs of ROTC since the beginning! 

 Nick's favorite part of the month - he finally got the road bike he's been dreaming about for the past year. We can't wait for the Utah weather to stop brining snow so we can actually get out and bike together! 

1 year!

Even though it happened a year ago, we still remember it like it was yesterday! Sometimes I wonder where the entire year went -- it seems like it just slipped by so fast. I guess time just goes quickly when you're loving every minute of it :) But when I look back, I realize that we've really done a lot this year, and have been A LOT of places. It's been such a fun adventure!

We decided to start a fun tradition and stay at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake for the weekend. We stayed there the first two nights of our honeymoon, and couldn't wait to go back after we left. It's probably one of our favorite places in Utah!

And another reason why we love this hotel is that they definitely go the extra mile. When we booked the room, we mentioned we were coming back for our one year anniversary. We got to our room and found this on the table...

And yes, it was delicious. They also gave us a bottle of sparkling cider and an upgrade to an executive suite when we go back next year. I'm already looking forward to it! 

It's not everyday that you get to eat a white chocolate swan :) haha

Other highlights:

We love the spa! The cozy pool lounge chairs and the classical music puts me to sleep every time.

And another part of the hotel that never ceases to amaze me is the venetian chandeliers that are literally everywhere you look. I think you appreciate them more when you've actually seen someone blow the glass that it takes to make them. It's incredible!

We had a wonderful time and it was a much needed break from our normal weekend routine of studying! 

Platinum Cruise

Cruises definitely top the list of my favorite vacations and this one definitely didn't disappoint. 

We started off with an overnight stay in Ft. Lauderdale. Nick's siblings were able to drive over from Naples to visit for the night, and they actually got a hotel room just down the hall from ours. It was so much fun to hang out with them... and we loved that they snuck the wiener dogs in, too :)

 Casey was so nice to bring Nick a birthday cake so we could celebrate a week early together! 

When we boarded the ship in Miami, the weather didn't look too promising... lots of wind and jacket weather. boo. But we ended up spending the first few hours exploring the ship and of course, testing out the food, which was obviously Nick's favorite part! 

The second day of the cruise was a "sail day," and luckily the weather cleared up so we were able to spend some time in the sun on the deck. 

That night was formal night. We had a great time laughing at all of the people getting their portraits taken with the cheesy backgrounds around the ship. To each his own I guess. We decided to just stick with the stairs.... haha. 

And MY favorite part of the food was the chocolate melting cake.  I had one every night of the cruise. Yum!

Our first stop was on the island of Grand Turk - The beach was absolutely incredible with the clear blue water, but my other favorite part is that the ship was docked just a few hundred feet off shore!

This was definitely one of the best beaches that I've ever been to. So beautiful!

Leaving Grand Turk

Dinner on Wednesday and watching Angels and Demons on the deck afterward. 

Unfortunately, on Thursday they cancelled our stop at Half Moon Cay because of a bad weather warning. They claimed they tried to find another port but couldn't... but we have a theory that they just wanted to make more money off of us by keeping us on the ship :) We had a relaxing day though, and we got to get a few extra hours of sleep. And luckily there was a great sunset. 

On our last stop of the cruise we were so lucky to have one of the owners of Platinum take us to the Atlantis resort near Nassau. It was absolutely incredible! I told my family that they totally have to put this place on their list of places to visit. 

First of all, the entire place is almost like a giant aquarium. There are so many amazing collections of fish, dolphins, sharks, stingrays, and so much more. 

Stingrays and a giant grouper

Rumor has it that Michael Jackson used to own the 6,000 sq. foot suite that connects the two towers of the hotel. They say that celebs like Michael Jordan, Oprah, and more have stayed there with the tab of about $25,000 a night. Drop in the bucket, right? 

Beautiful beach at the resort

The pyramid in the background is the famous water slide that they advertise in their commercials -- it takes you through a glass tube through a giant shark aquarium!

The Platinum Wives

The Guys

The yacht harbor... what a life!

At first, I thought our ship was pretty big. However, we came back the port and saw this ship. It's the biggest ship in the world - the Oasis of the Seas. It was practically dwarfing ours! To put it in perspective, our ship is about 11 stories.... the Oasis was at least five to six stories taller than the Destiny. 

While our ship was pulling out of the pier we got to see the inside of the Oasis, complete with two huge outdoor screens, full-size rock-climbing walls and room balconies that actually look in to the middle of the ship. It's incredible! I think our next cruise will have to be on the Oasis :)

What we've been up to lately....

Well, it's almost midterms and it still seems like we're trying to find our "groove" for the school year -- hence, the grim blog posts. However, here are some of biggest life events lately:

Nick has been super busy this semester since he joined BYU's ROTC. He hasn't "officially" signed with the military yet, but he thought he would try it out this semester because they offer some great dental scholarships. He's been going to physical training about three times a week at 6 am. As you know, I'm definitely not a morning person, so most of the time I don't even realize that he leaves in the morning. However, I'm assuming he enjoys it or else he couldn't have the motivation to go every morning :) haha. 

Ironically, the job market for me over the past nine months seems like it has either been feast or famine. For some reason, over the past month I've been offered three new jobs! I only kept one of the BYU jobs that I was offered because the have a policy that you can't work more than 20 hours on campus per week. I interviewed for a position as a Student Ambassador for the BYU Comms Department last September -- but they emailed me a few weeks ago letting me know of an opening for a paid position. It's only a few hours a week, but we get to do a lot of fun event planning and alumni outreach. 

Nick has been with OrangeSoda pretty much ever since it was established a few years ago -- he took a break for about a year for summer sales, but has been working there ever since September. He heard of a job opening in their SEO department last week and had me send in my resume. I met with them for an interview last week and got an offer letter this Wednesday! I started work on Friday and realized that I will actually be seeing Nick more now that we both have jobs than when we didn't. haha. 

But, the best news of the month -- we leave on our cruise a week from today! Vacations are always much more exciting when "normal" life gets really hectic. We will actually be on the exact same ship that my family and I were on six years ago when we went on our first cruise. I'm pretty much counting down the hours...