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Honeymoon (last half)

Puerto Vallarta!  We spent one day (Thursday) in Puerto Vallarta!  I wish we could have spent two because it was amazing and beautiful here.  We got off the boat, Kevin talked to some guy (had no idea what he said)  but then we were off on an adventure!  We ended up going on a tour of the city, and then they dropped us off at an incredible park where they had swimming and zip-lining.  It was such an awesome experience.  It started off very hot and very very humid, then it started to pour rain when we were in the rain forest, which made it even more of an adventure.

The zip-lining was incredible!  I even went upside down while the guide spun me around.  The park was where they filmed the movie Predator, so everything was Predator themed.  They even had one worker dress up, hide in the rain forest and jump out and scare you.  I screamed so loud.  Added to the excitement, I suppose. If you ever go zip-lining, just make sure you break.  One lady in our group failed to do so, she hit so hard, let go of the handle bars (#1 rule), and hit her head pretty hard.  Good thing we wear helmets!  I'm pretty sure she kicked our guide and hurt him too.  

We also ended up at a tequila tasting tour before we stopped at the adventure park.  We now know how tequila is made and that Jose Cuervo is not good tequila!  In case you ever need to know.  We felt out of place.  We told them we were from Utah and they understood. :)

By the end of the day we purchased a couple of bracelets, some cokes, and a sun to hang up in our house.

It's so beautiful here!

Look at this place!  

I want to live in Puerto Vallarta one day.  Or at least go back here again. 

Kevin going down the slide (made out of rocks, but it didn't hurt at all)

After going down the slide, in the rain, in a rain forest. 

See me?  Plugging my nose going into the water.  Kevin is twisting so he doesn't land on me. 

This was our last 'off the boat' day in Mexico, and I was sad to leave.  These places are so beautiful!  I really can't say it enough.  The last two days we spent relaxing, eating, and more relaxing.  We had SUCH a great time!  (P.S. Mexico has some nasty huge bugs)

Every night they would turn down our bed, leave us towel animals  and two pieces of chocolate.  The elephant was my favorite. 

Chocolate Extravaganza!  There really is way too much food on cruises.  gluttony, anyone??

How could we not?  We each had a bite of each one and called is good.   We waited in line forever, so we made it count!  

I can't believe it's already over!  I am very excited to get back and start putting together our place!  See you back in SLC!

Honeymoon

WE'RE MARRIED!    Once I get all the pictures back I will do a post about that.  In short, in was wonderful and everything was a blur of emotion, fun, and excitement.   

I am currently in Long Beach after a week in the sun on a Cruise.  We had such a great time and I am feeling sad thinking that I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I wanted to blog soon so I wouldn't forget all we did and because I am excited :)

The day after we were married, we flew out to Long Beach to stay the night before we boarded on Sunday.  We woke up the next day, got ready and took a taxi down to the port.  I've never been on a cruise before and the whole boarding process was tricky.  A lot of people fit on a cruse ship!  We finally got on, got settled and went to our first fancy dinner.  It was very nice to have nice meals all the time and not have to worry about the price.

The next day was our first day at sea.  Nothing much to report.... until Tuesday.  Which was our first day in Cabo! We got off the boat in the morning, took a water taxi to Lover's Beach.  The other side of Lover's Beach is Divorce Beach which has crazy big waves.  The water in Cabo was wonderful!!  After the beach we walked around and Kevin bartered and we got a plate, a little bowl, a sundress for me, and a headband type thing.

Divorce Beach

We bought a mango from this nice man. 

Enjoying the mango

Beautiful Cabo!

We had two day in Cabo!  The next day (Wednesday)  we woke up and decided to walk around the city more.  Kevin bought a hat, and we walked all around in the HEAT and stopped at a little bar and got some water and chips and salsa.  Then we walked around to the beach.  This is the most beautiful beach I have ever been to.  Calm, warm water, nice sand, perfect temperature.  It was perfect!

At the bar, it was SO HOT!

Showing off my Cabo headband

My Spanish translator at the best beach ever

Up next.... Puerto Vallarta!!

1 Month to Go!

Yep, one month until we say 'I Do'.  Yay!  The home stretch is finally here!  Now it's time for all the last minute details!  I am getting very excited!

Also, I just finished by second week of teaching at Wasatch, and I'm in the midst of my first week teaching at CBT.  I gotta say, 3 jobs is hard so far, it's too much.  I'll see how the next little while goes, but I'm already stressing quite a bit.

Good teaching moments so far:

It is really sweet when the little ballerinas come hug me (too tight and they fight to get closest to me).  It still cheers me up after they've been so noisy during class. (An hour twice a week with 7 year olds trying to teach them ballet technique.  What????)

Making fun (in my head) of the super uncordinated 9th grade boys.  I love that they're moving their hips like I tell them and they're actually trying.  They're a little talkative, but when it comes down to it, they do everything I tell them to; even if it's doing a figure 8 with their hips.

Having a sweet little 7th grader come up to me and tell me that she loves having me as a dance teacher, asking me about my wedding, and asking if she can already call me Mrs. Bowen.  So sweet.  Way better than the looks of confusion/boredom/horror I get from some of them.

Being asked to be interviewed for the school paper by a very articulate 9th grader. 

I have the CUTEST intro to jazz class.  They are going to be a blast. 

Teacher Time

Today I had my first meeting as a real life teacher!  It got me so excited.  I have a nice sized dance room (with weird mirrors that only cover half of one wall), but it's still great.  I get my OWN huge office along with my own shower and my own bathroom.  So I can work-out in the fitness room after school, and then take a shower.  It really is the best.

My meetings today were alright.  Most of the stuff they were talking about doesn't apply to me because I'm a dance teacher and will not be the one who gives the students standardized testing.  So a lot of the time i was daydreaming of choreography and planning what I wanted in the performance in November.

I can't wait to meet my students, decorate my office a little bit and get this year started!!

Spiritual Post

In my last post, I titled it 'Being Engaged is the Worst.'  Well, I wasn't completely kidding.  So far it has been super hard on me.  I have never felt more temptation and fear from Satan that I have in my entire life.  (and not in the way you're probably thinking.)

Long before Kevin and I officially became engaged I knew it was the right thing to do.  I prayed, we prayed and I felt so good about it.  I felt the spirit, I felt happy, and I felt I was on my way to the happiest life.  A little while after we got engaged however, I began having these doubts.  I would pray and expect immediate answers and feel darkness and sorrow and confusion.  There have been many times where I have been lost and not knowing what I should be doing.  I have been having a hard time discerning the spirit of the Lord with Satan's power.  Tonight was one of the worst times.  I was trying to search for answers and not finding anything. I decided to get on my computer and go to LDS.org.  I typed two searches.  One was 'prayer' and one was 'satan'.  These are the first two talks I clicked on.

 http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/07/how-to-pray-and-seek-answers?lang=eng&query=answers+prayers

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/03/cast-not-away-therefore-your-confidence?lang=eng


All at once my fear and doubt were gone and I felt the true and good spirit.  Absolutely everything I needed to hear was in these two talks.  Satan does not want families here on earth.  From now on I am going to take it as a compliment that he's trying so hard to destroy my future family; because it's going to be amazing.  As I go through the final month and a half through my engagement, I will be reading these talks more and more often.

Kevin has been so great.  He has never wavered and has been so supportive over my moments of temptation/doubt/fear.  I can't wait for October 5th to get here!

Being Engaged is the Worst

......Ok, it's not really, it's actually pretty great.  I've just been super stressed lately with wedding planning, thinking about starting to teach junior high, remodeling, wedding planning, trying to learn the cha cha and the waltz, wedding planning, freaking out about starting to teach junior high, and oh yes, wedding planning. However, I did get our engagements back which I love! It made me realize why I'm putting myself through this stress and that it will all be worth it.

In other, non-wedding news, our kitty Jax has started catching flies.  Our little bug catcher is growing up so nicely.

Beach House Injury

Per request, I am going to blog about my little injury that happened in California.  I was going upstairs after a nice, relaxing day at the beach, walk into the beach house, turn to close the door and my toe got in the way.  Stupid door!  It hurt way worse than usual so I looked down to see my big toe nail hanging on by a thread.  My first instinct was to put it back and pretend it didn't happen.  A second later I realized that was not possible so I asked the people upstairs to get me a paper towel.  Apparently I didn't sound panicked, but I sure felt panicked.  Once I told them my toe nail came off and I saw my brother and sister coming to my rescue I began to freak out more.  I started shaking, and once I hopped up the stairs with brothers help I started to feel very light headed.  It was very terrifying to see my toe nail lying next to my foot instead of on my toe.  and it hurt really bad.  My brother in law Mark cleaned it up (bless his heart because my toe was disgusting) while my other brother in law Mark documented the whole thing.

I was hot, then cold. Hence the wash cloth on my head and blanket.

In shock.  you can see straight up my nose.  Ignore that. 

Ouch

It came off all in one piece.  Impressive, I guess.  

Clean-up

This was the next day.  Still disgusting.

Now my toe only hurts a little and is starting to heal!  I'm a little nervous about how my toe nail will grow back, and I hear it takes a few months.  I hope by  my wedding it will at least be semi-normal!