Just Married....and loving it!

On the boat with Mexico in the background

Segway tour around Catalina Island
Enjoying our frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3
On the steps being pensive
Sam and Lizzie in front of the St George Temple

Hello everyone!

I talked with one of my friends today that doesn't Facebook and it made me realize that I should post some wedding pics for those of you who do not Facebook. We had a wonderful month long wedding starting November 7th, 2009 when we were sealed for time and all eternity in the St George Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony and I am so grateful to al those who traveled so far to make it to the ceremony. We had a wonderful dinner after catered by Cafe Rio, of course. After the dinner Sam and I headed off on a week long honeymoon. We started in the Venetian Hotel in Vegas in a suite that was a free upgrade. The second night was spent at the Trump Hotel. Then we drove to San Diego for a fun filled 4 day cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. We ended our honeymoon by spending time with his family in Arizona at my first NASCAR race.

We spent a week at home then drove up to Centerville. We had a wonderful reception in Bountiful where we surprised everyone by doing a Napoleon Dynamite dance in the middle of our first dance. And Sam surprised me by smashing the cake so hard in my face that i fell on the ground. It was so funny!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families in New Mexico. Then we had a great reception with our friends and family down here. We had a great time and are now enjoying married life. I will attempt to post more blogs and keep you updated throughout our marriage. Love you all!!!

I'm Engaged

I am SO excited to announce that the man of my dreams proposed to me on September 15, 2009. I will fill you all in on how very soon...

Happy Birthday, Dan

I am the youngest in my family by 5 years. When I was at home with my parents everyone moved out of the house so I spent the past 10 years practically as an only child. Last January I had the chance to move in with my brother Dan and his family. Before I moved in, I had kind of been in a slight depression. But I now feel that I am back to my normal happy self because of them and their love that they show for me. My brother Dan is an amazing guy. He is one of those people that knows how to make you feel special. He loves to call and tell funny random stories that just make your day. He remembers the little things and will call just to tell you he was thinking about you. He is an amazing father to his children and a fabulous husband to his wife. I look up to him so much! There are not many things that I have that I can give to him so I made him this video of his beautiful children. I love being able to have my brother in my life. I love you, Dan!!!

Sad that it had to come to an end!

Us enjoying the ferry ride to St John...
My sweet "hand bag"
Us after our Ecotour.... we are so cute!
Outside my favorite restaurant Romanos
Here we are with our desserts and our knot cookies....

This was seriously 4 of the best days of my life! Sam and I had a blast every second! On our last day we took the 45 min ferry ride over to St John. The ferry ride was so relaxing and beautiful! We got to see a lot of St Thomas that I have never seen. When we got to St John we found a taxi that took us out to Cinnamon Bay. While there we wrapped my hand up in a plastic bag by tying it as well as using hair ties to keep the water out. We had a football with us so we decided to play catch. Sam claims that he was the quarterback on his football team in high school and I claim to have been the quarterback sometimes when the boys would let me play in elementary school. The pressure was on. With those mad skills we had under our belts we played a sick game of catch. By the time we had finished we had a crowd and cheerleaders... ok so maybe we just had 3 old men clapping and cheering us on. after a SWEET throw by Sam and a SWEET catch made by me in the water, I noticed that i had ripped my "hand bag". That ended our game of catch. we did our best to patch it up and we went snorkeling. My hand was hurting pretty bad from all the salt water so i went back to the beach  and watched while Sam played catch with himself in the water. We had signed up for an Ecotour at Caneel Bay so we headed over there. on the tour was were able to Kayak, Hike and Snorkel. it was SUPER fun! While we were snorkeling Sam was making me laugh SOOO hard. he was screaming into his snorkel excitedly like the little kids do. he is such a riot. the hike was a little difficult because I forgot to bring hiking shoes so i was hiking in high heeled Crocs. Silly me! While snorkeling we saw a bunch of sting ray, a turtle (my favorite) and got to hold a sea urchin. on the way back to the ferry we rode in the back of this truck that was converted into a taxi in the back. what made me laugh was that it had this persian looking rug on the truck bed to make it look better. it was so funny cuz it didn't go with it at all. simple pleasures...

We were able to get showered when we got home and we got ready to go on a fancy date. Sam treated me like a princess all week and so to end it all he took me to my favorite restaurant on the island called Romano's. it is an italian restaurant and the food is always divine. I know the owner so he threw in some romantic dinner salads for free. the whole meal was awesome. we even got desserts! they gave us little cookies that are tied in knots. we took a picture and sent it to my mom saying that "we tied the knot".  Ha ha. It was the perfect way to end a perfect week. now we just have to wait 2 months to see each other again :(

Ups and downs...

Sunset at the top of the tram
Hmmmm, maybe next time i won't wear high heels bouldering...
The cutest people ever at the point look out
"let go fly a kite..." oh wait, that is us up there!
Getting dunked and loosing my bottoms in the process...notice the face and hands.... silly water

So today was another adventurous day in paradise! We started it out by eating chocolate chip pancakes. Our idea of going scuba scootering fell through so we went with the next best offer which was parasailing. We met at the dock and got picked up by the boat. Our parasailing captianeer was hilarious and helped us to have a great time. We had a great time up in the air. The view of the island was spectacular because we were up so high. The boat driver thought he was funny and he dipped us into the water twice. The first dip was just a little tappy tap but the second one dragged us for a little bit and it pulled off my swim suit bottoms a bit. SO funny! Try getting a wedgie out while being pulled in the air by a parachute... not that easy! After parasailing we went off and saw beautiful look out points of the island. At one of them i showed Sam where a private little beach where I was planning on taking him. it was overlooking Magan's Bay. on the way to it we stopped for shakes at my favorite Udder Delight where we made up a new shake and named it the Lizzie. Original huh? We were on our way to the little beach and i lost my way. i knew that i had passed it so i just decided to take him to St Petersborg point. It is a very rocky place with an incredible view and a neat little water pool. to get to the water pool you have to boulder over a few rocks. some of them are very pointy. as started to go down them i could tell it was going to be trouble in my high heeled Crocs. Sam could too so he said for me to wait til he got to the bottom so that he could help me down. I, being the stubborn person i am, said i could go down alone. next thing i know i have slipped and my hand had been jabbed into by one of the pointy rocks. it started gushing blood and we decided that i should go get it stitched. silly me! I sure know how to make everything an adventure. Sam had to drive on the other side of the road and it was so weird for him. We got to see the doctor and she said that it  was just minor and all i needed was to bandage it up a bit.  Nonetheless, we didn't let it hinder our fun.  It's just made our adventures even more just that...adventurous.  We went back to the town and I was able to pick up my two rings which were generously recoated with silver.  When we went swimming the first night the chlorine discolored them a bit.  Now they might even be more gorgeous than before.  I just love it!  

Our adventure then went to a new high yet again when the group of us went on the tram ride to a top view of the island.  We couldn't have picked a better time either.  The sunset was divine, and the view was more than expected.  We played a bit on the top and took some pictures.  I even bought a hammock which was made in Guatemala.  I just had to have it and really can't wait to find a place to use it.  Then we found a bbq truck on the side of the road, picked up some dinner, went back to the house, and tuned in to our show "So You Think You Can Dance."  What a day its been here.  It's had its ups and downs as you can see in a literal sense.  We went to huge heights in a parachute, and on rocks, and on a tram.  And yet, with a little trip to the family practice center we still made a possible "downer" just another "high"light to our day!  We are living it "up" in paradise. 

From the words of Lizzie and Sam

Lunch at Giggling Gecko...We are so hot right now!
Posing on our jet ski... we actually each had our own but we needed a pic and it was so much more fun to pose like this
Sapphire beach fun!
Now there is a REAL man... sporting the pink sunglasses. you know i love it!
Pensive thinking... to snorkel or not to snorkel, that is the question...

From Sam's perspective

WHAT A DAY!!! Lizzie is tied up right now and asked me to write about our adventure today.  It was beyond amazing!  Today was like living in a movie, or having a real life like dream, because it truly was.  The day started out with very little sleep from the night before, but because Lizzie is the most generous person i know, she got up early and took her roommates (crazy awesome girls) to work).  We then went to Sapphire beach and got a sweet deal on a jet ski trip.  We each had our own and just ripped up the ocean on these new, powerful jet skis.  The people here are so laid back and just seem so trusting.  They pretty much just gave us life jackets and told us to have fun.  And that's just what we did!  We even both fell of the jet skies to make the adventure complete.  Lizzie unfortunately lost her "pink" sunglasses in the process so we'll have to get her some new ones.  The adventure from the ocean on something so fun was just the way to start off a wonderful sharing time with someone so amazing fun.  We were able to see many of her favorite beaches and places from the view of the sea.  We were also blessed to just sit and visit on a picture perfect beach and play a bit in the water.  

We then changed gears and traveled the island by car, and by the way... they drive on the wrong side of the road.  It is still very odd to see cars zooming by on the right side and intersections are still just a trip.  The sights here are like none other.  The lifestyle is just fitting for what is seen.  I am very excited for Lizzie to be here and at the same time, very envious.  She took me to many of the down town shops and let me met many of her friends.  She is the talk of the island.  Everyone knows her and loves her here.  I even saw the pink diamond ring that she loves.  It's even better in real life.  

We then met up with the girls (roommates) again and headed to another beach and went snorkeling.  Holy shootskies... that is something everyone must do before they leave this earth!  Life is always better, down where its wetter, under the sea. :)  I saw a turtle even and a star fish!  We finished the night with an amazing pizza, oh and the crazy girls went and did their full moon party again tonight.  Lizzie will have to post something about that another time, i obviously didn't participate. haha. 

Its been a day in paradise!  Its not quite over yet either, time to watch a movie and maybe get a little sleep.  However, sleep might be a little unnecessary for such an adventure as the one we just started; we'll see.  I love being here.  It so amazingly fun with Lizzie!  We're having a blast.  I'm sure she'll fill you in on what I've missed.  Glad to be able to throw my two cents in on this amazing day.

-Sam McGee

My exciting life!

Sam and I after our swim at the Marriott
Right after I picked him up at the airport... the lights made our heads look weird
Fireworks from St John
Girls' Night out at Amigos

Wow there has been so much that has happened since the last time i blogged. My roommates and I have decided to start planning out the activities for the week at the beginning of the week. We are starting to do a lot of things. We went out dancing one night and had a very drunk lesbian hitting on us. We enjoyed the 4th of July on a yacht in a harbor as we watched the fireworks going on on the next island over. I had a lady come into my store at work that bought the shoes off my feel. she really liked them so she gave me $23 for them with exchange for her flip flops. She came back in maybe 2 minutes after walking out  and said that she "couldn't walk in them outside so she had to trade them back." Her husband was not very happy so my guess is that he got mad and made her give them back. so crazy! I guess the most exciting news in my life right now is that a guy from my singles ward in New Mexico decided that he would fly out to St Thomas to spend time with me. He got here last night. I picked him up at the airport and was waiting with a shell necklace to give him. I took him straight to the Marriott to go swimming in the beach and in the pool. We had a great time just talking and swimming and getting to know each other again. After we came back to the house and made no bake cookies and watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. After the movie we talked til 4 AM and decided to have scripture study in Spanish. when we finished the sun was starting to come up and he gave me a kiss. Oh yes... just for you folks am I giving the juicy details. he then told me that he had something for me in his bag. it was 3 fake flowers that smelled like his cologne. he brought that to me due to the inside joke that the song Lucky by jason mraz is our song. Listen to the song and you will get the joke. He is an amazing guy and we are having so much fun together. It is totally natural between us and we just get along great. We fell asleep for about 2 hours and now we are off on our first adventure.... jet skiing on the ocean! SWEET! I will continue documenting this for all of you interested :) I love you guys! Have a great day cuz i know that i will.

Long time no post!

Mmmm SushiWatching the sunset...toes loving the view
Best Friends Forever!!!
Big Thighs here we come!!!
My future ring...I said when I tried it on in the store that I hope that I have as much love for my husband as I have for this ring... hmmm, I think I might be in love with a diamond :)

Hey there! It has been forever since I have Blogged. We ended up not having internet for about two weeks then when we got it back I just didn't make time for it.  I have been doing so much the past month. I was able to go eat the BEST sushi I have ever had, go to St John, have a all night tour of this beautiful island and finish it off by watching the sunrise, had my first taste of alcohol by accident because I didn't know that Creme de Menthe was alcoholic I just figured it was a fancy way of saying that they were going to make my milkshake minty, went to Hooters and ate 2 plates of all you can eat wings then found out that every 5 wings has 789 calories in them, made Cafe Rio pork and salad dressing for everyone, went skinny dipping for the first time (don't worry, there were only girls there), tried my first Twix McFlurry after going to 3 different McDonald's to before finding one that was not out of ice cream, watched the sunset with my 4 best friends on the beach, went snorkeling for the first time and LOVED it, babysat drunk men and stopped them from jumping off our balcony while trying to escape our house, went on a date to in igloo(actually just to the movie theater but they run the AC sooo much that you literally freeze after only 15 minutes into the movie) and have just enjoyed EVERYDAY everyday! The mosquitos still love to bite me. the weather is still incredible! i have see some of the most beautiful sights. I have the BEST roommates! We laugh constantly! The other night two of my roommates wanted to see if they were princesses so they stacked up 5 mattresses and put a pea on the bottom. they didn't sleep hardly at all. I hope to have a funny random story tomorrow... i am sure that something fun will happen! 

Fun fun fun!us

Today was so much fun! I don't have enough time to elaborate but here is the gist... Started out great by being able to share my testimony on the examples of Nephi, Joseph Smith and Christ in my life. Sunday School was on the Plan of Salvation and Relief Society was on the life of Joseph Smith and it was all in Spanish. I felt like a missionary again! I loved it!!! They would say which scripture we were going to read and since I was using my mission scriptures i was able to turn right to the page because i still have them color coded by lesson and topic. It was wonderful! Also our manager who hasn't been to the whole 3 hours of church in YEARS came today and enjoyed it. after church there was a pot luck lunch at Lindquist beach but before we could go we had to go pick someone up. We got to his house and walked in and he was smoking a bong. SO gross but totally legal here in the islands. at the beach there were all kinds of people. one drunk gay man kissed me on the mouth, looked at my burned cleavage and tried to set me up with some guy he was flirting with. what an adventure. this beach was absolutely incredible though. the best one that we have been to. it was so beautiful. everyone was totally concerned for me and my sunburn though. whenever i showed any part of it they would all just look at me and start talking amongst themselves. i look like a lobster. so funny! but at least i am not in pain anymore. it was such a fun day full of lots of laughs and it is so fun being able to be examples to all the people here. they were all just sitting on the beach drinking and talking and we got the party started by playing football and frisbee and it got people more happy. we hope that they can learn from us while we are here that you don't have to drink to have fun. what an interesting day. i loved it! this place is crazy but i guess that is why i fit in so well.

Sick day

I was so ready to go to work and sport my new du but when i was in the shower i started getting super light headed and i thought that i was going to throw up. i got out as soon as i could and went to my room. i walked past my roommates and they told me how yellow my face was. I don't know what is wrong but i just can't stand for very long with out feeling light headed and shaky. So i took the day off of work. I slept midnight to 8am then showered and slept from 9 to noon. i woke up for a little bit then fell back to sleep from 1 to 4 and finally got up to eat. We are thinking that my body is just in shock from my sunburn. Lucky for me there were no ships that were in harbor so it was way slow at work and they didn't need me. So tonight I am having a movie night with myself. We had been planning all week to go to salsa dancing night at a local club but i don't think that would be the best place for me in my condition. Hopefully I will be able to work tomorrow. Being sick is no fun.

So I decided that i would post more pictures from our fun day so i can realize that being sick is totally worth it because it was so fun!

"Team Building"

The After pic...it was supposed to be last but i don't know how to change it around. Yay for still being new to blogging. Notice the crazy lines...The Before pic with my roomie Alyse
My friend the Iguana
The beach with St John's in the distance
Having way too much fun! 

So our boss decided last night at around 10:30pm that us interns needed a team building activity at Sapphire Beach today. He got us all out of work and we left for the beach instead of work today. There weren't any ships in port so it made for a slow day anyways. We got there and as i was walking to the beach i guess i dropped my sunscreen and all the other girls had was tanning oil. so i lathered up and layed out. we were there for a about 4 hours. it was a blast! We played football, some went swimming and some got their hair braided. I officially look like a tourist. it hurt SUPER bad for them to put it in but at least they will last a while. We had a great time and mad friends with an Iguana. he was super big! After we left the beach I was already in pain from the burn. when we got home we saw the damage. HAHA I hope this will be my last burn of the summer. We will see I guess. 

Tonight I made Hawaiian chicken and we are now enjoying it and watching so you think you can dance. I love my life!

Vagisil

Alright...So i bet you are all nervous by that title... don't worry, it is not as bad as you think. My mosquito bites have been driving me crazy and I am officially poor and have no money to go and buy stuff to take care of them. I was looking through my toiletries and I found an old tube of Vagisil. On the tube it states that it is an anti itch cream. PERFECT!! Just what I need. It is a bit unconventional but I thought that I would try it seeing that it is my only hope. guess what? It totally helps!!! I felt so silly carrying around a tube of Vagisil in my purse all day but at least I wasn't in pain. my purse is kinda small and today it seemed to have many things inside it today so it wouldn't close completely. On my lunch break i was walking to the warehouse to pick up my can of tuna fish and crackers. i was almost there when a VERY good looking guy asked me if i was one of the other intern's friends. i talked with him for a little while then i looked down and noticed that the Vagisil was on the top of my purse and completely visible. SO embarrassing. what a great way to make a good first impression. I think he totally wants me now. Moral of the story.... Use Vagisil for mosquito bites only if you have a large purse and if not leave it at the house... or just save and emergency fund to buy normal anti itch cream.

Day 2

So I totally forgot to tell you a funny story from yesterday. We got home from church and we had padlocked our front door. None of us had our keys because our regional manager was going to use them while we were at church so he could come in and use our washer and dryer. he accidently left them at home so we were locked out. Brian(our regional manager) showed us that there was a way to get up onto the balcony by climbing up onto it. it was pretty tricky but it was even more tricky since we were all in skirts. it was so funny to watch each of us girls try to climb up into the balcony. Guess you had to be there...

We were picked up by Brian today at 6:15 am and were taken down to the stores to have a tour. From the time i left the house til we actually started work I ended up with 10 mosquito bites on my legs alone. the bugs love me down here i guess... hopefully none of them have west nile :) We had our first staff meeting and got to meet everyone that works down here. there are 4 interns and 12 local employees. two local employees run the outlet store, 4 of us at the Del Sol Waterfront store, 4 at that Cariloha store and the rest are at the grand Del Sol store. it is so chill in the store. the people are SO nice. we had a blast in the store. i love talking to people and showing them our products. i love that our product sells itself so i can just be myself in the store and with the people that come in. We had a goal to sell $2000 in our store alone and we did it. it was fun reaching our goal and it will be fun to see if we can reach that goal tomorrow. We had so much fun that we were playing ball and frisbee in the store as well as joking around with the kids and adults. i loved it! I can't believe i will be paid to do this all summer. 

after work we went grocery shopping...HOLY COW is it expensive to buy food down here! i couldn't believe how little $83 could buy. 8 cans of tuna, a box of nila wafers, honey bunches of oats, ritz, trail mix, two bottles of salad dressing, jam, a bag of frozen peas and carrots and a bag of chicken tenders. thats it! CRAZY! i guess i won't be eating too much while i am here. at least it will help me look good in a swim suit. at the store we TOTALLY stuck out. we were the only white people in the store. it was sweet! and when i was being rung up i started to have a conversation with two of the baggers. they were deaf. they were so excited to have someone new to talk to. they went out of their way to help us with a ton of stuff. it was really neat at this store because the baggers always help you out to your car. it made me feel like i was in the good old days that i wasn't alive for. 

we were able to enjoy the bachelor and dancing with the stars while we had our dinner. It was Alyse's turn to cook tonight and she made taco soup. it reminded me of sister hoggan and the soup she would make for us in the mission. so great! Well I can't wait to start another day tomorrow...time to sleep!

One of the rooms that has a couch in it
My room with a view and my bed on the floor
Our jail cell living room
our balcony
The entrance to our humble aboad

Our Apartment

 This is our crazy shower/tub

FOAM PIT!!!
Alyse in our kitchen
We have 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, a foam pit to play in, living room, kitchen and a great balcony with a view! it is a great place that will be SO much cuter and cleaner when we are done with it.