So Erin is the cutest little girl! Not last weekend, but the weekend before I was at home trying to finish packing up the last of my stuff in my room. I ended up having a packing buddy. Erin decided she wanted to “help” me. She was in my room playing with my stuff animals. Of course I had music so there were times she was dancing with the bear. It was too cute, I couldn’t resist some pictures.
This last week I got really sick. It started with a mild sore throat. However, day the pain drastically increased until after like two days it hurt too bad to even swallow my own spit which is hard to not do. So Jake, being part of the ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) clinic at the U of U found some time for me to come in. I met with Dr. Wilson who was really good. Turned out I had Peritonsillitis which is an infection by the Tonsils. He said I had a cist full of fluid that was pushing against my tonsils or something like that. Although normally the cist ends up with a sack around the infection that keeps out the antibodies. However, we had found it before the sack had formed which allowed me to take Antibiotics to fix me up. Although if it didn’t get better by taking the antibiotics I would have had to go back in where they would have drained the infection by pocking a knife into the cist and letting the fluids drain. Yuck! I am glad the medicine worked.
So our first event as a married couple was attending Jake’s work Christmas parties. It’s put on by a couple of the bigger doctors and it was a very fancy event. The dress code was business casual, but there was a string quartet and the caterer had things like shrimp and Alaskan King Crab. My favorite dish was a turkey on a orange glazed roll with a cranberry salsa. It was delicious! They also had an amazing desert called banana foster that was to die for. The only funny thing was that they served the food in martini glasses. Other then that there was not much to the party. Just sitting and talking. Although it was awesome to meet all of his colleagues.
The next day was his family’s Christmas party. It was at his sister’s house and we had a lot of fun. They had a buffet of different foods such as pizza bagels, pasta salad, chicken fingers, cheese balls, chips and candy. It was fun to just have a casual type dinner and people would just snack as we were different things. Although we had to prepare everything and one of Jake’s nephews, Trey, really badly wanted to open presents. So while we were getting everything ready he just started going around telling everyone that it was time to come in and open presents. After all the guys (who were working outside) came in we realized what he was doing and had to turn the guys and kids away. After we got the food ready we went in and opened presents. Then Jake’s mom had gotten everything ready for us girls to paint a really cute stocking holder. It’s a pole that says “The North Pole” with upside down candy cane’s that hold the stockings. They are so cute and now I need to find time to finish it. Because the day was so warm and there was no snow on the ground we ended up painting outside meanwhile the guys started playing soccer or football. I was too preoccupied to notice exactly what they were playing. Finally when it got too cold or dark outside we came inside and played games.
Both were fun and now I can’t wait to play with the Cranny family.
Both Jake and I had a dream to go to Hawaii so what better place then Hawaii for our Honeymoon. We had used my Skymiles and Hotel points for flight and hotel. Then we used the money we would have on Hotel and Flights for fun. We stayed in The Marriott Resort and Spa on Waikiki Beach. It was a nice hotel and the concierge desk was the best that I had even seen. They were able to give us ideas and deals on what to do around Hawaii. One of the deals was a bus that took us on a tour of the island with stops at Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation and the Polynesian Culture Center. That was a lot to do in one day but it was a fun day.
We began the day at Pearl Harbor and went out to the sunken Arizona and looked around.
After Pearl Harbor we went to the Dole Plantation, but since we only got 10 minutes we just had some Pineapple Ice Cream and walked around a little bit. There is a bit to like they had a maze and stuff. We just didn’t have time to do anything. At the plantation there were some amazing trees with colors on them. I’m not sure if they were painted, but the tour guide said that the trees do it naturally. As we were leaving we saw the Pineapple fields that went on for miles and miles.
After that we had lunch at a shrimp farm off the road where I had a hamburger haha. Jake had a chicken sandwich we weren’t really in the mood for shrimp. Next we went to the North Shore and saw some amazingly large waves. It was beautiful on the North Shore and if I go back to Oahu again I’ll probably stay on the North Shore.
Then the tour guide took us through the Town of Laie which is apparently 90% Mormon, according to the tour guide. He also made a stop at the landmark Hole in the Rock which was on these beautiful cliffs.
Finally we ended the day the Polynesian Culture Center. This is honestly where we spent the majority of the day. I loved the Polynesian Culture Center which to me is a Pacific version of Disneyland. The entire place, of course, had the Polynesian theme. The entire place was so clean, just amazing. The tour guide also helped us in the Polynesian Culture Center. He knew the best timing to catch the shows and he would give us a few minutes to do stuff in between. We started in Samoa where the Fire Dancer had a show. He was so funny and the best show by far. Then we had a few minutes to walk around. After which we went to the River Parade thing. It was pretty cool, the had these stage boats and the dancers would dance on the boats. I really enjoyed it, but we were in the back and it was hard to get good pictures. Each country had their own boat, but I only got pictures of three as I realized my camera was dying and I didn’t have a way to charge it for the res of the week.
After the river we saw a show in Tonga and Aotearoa which is New Zealand. They showed drums in Tonga and Aotearoa showed us this amazing thing with balls on ropes. I forgot what they were called. I really enjoyed that show. After that we had a few hours to eat and walk around until the final show of the evening which is the main event. Since the Polynesian Culture center is because of BYU they have an optional tour to take you around BYU campus and the Hawaii Temple. Since the Temple was closed we figured it might be the only time we would get to the temple so we took the tour. The temple it beautiful and I wish we would have gotten the chance to do a session.
After the temple we ended the day watching “Ha, The Breath of Life” which is a hour and half show which includes all the different cultures. It was really good! People should definitely go see it if they are ever in Oahu.
That ended our second day of our trip and definitely the busiest day of the trip. The next day we decided to just hang out at the Hotel. We did go down to the beach again but that was all we did the third day.
Wednesday we decided to go Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I enjoyed the bay except it was pretty murky in the water. Although I did not see one boring fish, they were all colorful and so pretty. I was sad I did not see a Turtle. We only snorkled for a couple of hours and then went back to the Hotel.
So when we first decided to go to Hawaii we really wanted to go golfing. However, all the courses we were looking at were like $150 to $300 a person to golf which was a bit too much. Plus it would be hard to get our clubs there. Well on Thursday we were looking at some brochures and found a golf course that would be about $60 a person to golf including club rentals so we went. It was fun and we saw a mongoose pretty interesting creature. To me it looked like a mix between a lizard and a fox. I didn’t know what it was at first and it just looked so crazy.
Friday was another relaxing day.
This is going to be a long post, but how can it be short when it's one of the most defining moments of my life. On November 12th 2010 I married Jacob Allen Taylor. We wanted to and were worthy to get married in the temple, but Jake had already been married in the Temple and so we had to go through the cancellation process. Unfortunately we did not get the cancellation in time so we had a civil ceremony in the Stockton Church House. I am lucky to have such talented friends and sisters who helped me to get ready. Here are a couple pictures of them helping me get ready.
One of the great things about having a civil ceremony is that the little girls got to walk down they aisle. They all looked beautiful in dresses that my wonderful mother made for them. I can’t believe how old they are getting! Then we had Rashelle and Travis walk down the aisle as well.
After all the girls, Rashelle and Travis walked down the aisle I got to be walked down by my father. I love this picture of me and my dad because one I looked beautiful :) and second I love my dad and am glad he would hand me off to my husband.
We had our Bishop from the singles ward, Bishop Huffman, officiate. He was new as the singles ward bishop, but he had been bishop before. However, it had been a long time since he was able to officiate a wedding. He did a good job. Of course he talked on the importance of making it to the Temple, which I completely agree then he had us hold our right hands as he married us. The one funny part was he forgot to tell the guests to sit down and he went through the whole getting married in the Temple schpill while the group stood.
The ceremony was beautiful, short, but very beautiful. I think it only lasted 10 minutes top which is not a bad thing. The first picture below is our first picture of our first kiss as a married couple. Then there’s a picture of us right after the ceremony and finally the last couple picture is one of the pictures that we took out side before the reception.
We were able to get a lot of different pictures between the ceremony. However, there was a lot going on between putting the kids, putting the finishing touches on the hall and getting the food ready that we were not able to get a picture of both sides of the family together. Either his family was not there or mines was not. However below we have a picture of the two different families.
Then of course I had to get a picture of me with my sisters, I’m just sad that Andrea’s missing from the pictures. I almost want my mother to make Andrea a dress, then we’ll take a picture of her in the dress and photo shop it into the picture. A lot of work I know, but totally worth it. Then I also love this picture with me and my nieces. We’re missing the really little one’s: Eve, Abby and Kaylee.
After we took the pictures it was time for the reception. Because we are lucky enough to live in a small town we were able to get the church for both Thursday and Friday so we could decorate the house. We spent ALL day Thursday decorating. One of the ideas we had was to take plastics and lights and hung them by rope to make a tent like ceiling. We had some issues with the ceiling and tried to come up with a way to get the ceiling to stay up better, one being put a post in the middle to give a little bit more support. This post actually ended up being one of my favorite decorations of the hall. The colors were green and purple with yellow accents. The centerpieces were pretty. We took antique looking watering cans and put white and yellow daisies with purple and green ribbons. I had pictures everywhere, on the post table, on each table and few large ones on easels. My cake was another one of my favorite parts of the decorations. My cake lady did a beautiful job I was very happy with the cake.
With so many pictures it was hard to try and find a good picture during the line part of the reception. However, I found this really cute picture of the Bear and Erin. She has such pretty brown eyes and the little crumbs on her lips is adorable. Then there’s little Erin peaking around. Also during the line our photographer took pictures of our ring and bouquet. The last picture is an adorable picture of my new niece Tessa being held by Jake’s dad. I thought it was a cute picture.
After the line we cut the cake. Jake said that if I smeared the cake in his face he would do 10 times worse and since I didn’t want cake on my dress so we were nice when we fed the cakes to each other. However, he did get a little on my nose. After we cut the cake we did the bouquet toss which was caught by Katelyn. Finally we did the garter which was caught by one of Jake’s nephews, I think it was Dylan.
The final part of the night was my favorite part of the day and I have to give a special thanks to Evan for making it possible. I decided a long time before that I wanted to have dancing at the wedding and then when Jake said he wanted to dance also I knew I had to make it happen. I had talked to Rashelle and she said that Jason had some good speakers so I thought if I put a playlist on my iPod and then we use their speakers we could make it work. However, about a month before the wedding I was talking to my friend Evan and he offered to be my DJ at the wedding and so I said yes. It was the best thing too because it would not have been the same without the DJ he did an awesome job. I still gave him the playlist, but he did a good job on the order.
Here’s mine and Jake’s first Dance. We danced to Blue October’s 18th Floor Balcony which is our song.
After that we had the Daddy Daughter and Mother son Dance. I chose the country song I loved her first to dance to this song.
After these two songs he played random songs that either were country swing, waltz, fast tempo and line dances. It was a great time and there were tons of cute pictures of people dancing.
It has been so long since I blogged and that’s due, mainly in part to the many things that happened this last month. Now I have a ton to catch up on. The first thing I’m going to blog about is my Bachelorette Party. Jenny did such a great job, I had a ton of fun! We went to Wendover and stayed at the Montego Bay Casino. It was just me, Jenny and Courtney, but we know how to have fun. When Jenny and Courtney picked me up Jenny’s car had been decorated with all these signs saying things like girls night out and last night.
Then they made me wear a toy tiara with a veil, a pagent banner saying Bachelorette and a necklace with a huge diamond ring.
After we checked in Jenny and Courtney kept the theme of the night going by decorating the room. They had balloons, a banner that read Bachelorette party and a game, Kiss the Stud. Like pin the tail on the donkey but you have sticker lips that you have to place on the poster.
The rest of the night we played. We went swimming until the pool closed. Played around in the hotel, took lots of pictures. Then we walked around the casino, we played a little bit of slots and then for Jake I played Roulette, put some on Red, which I lost, but I did win else where. I ended up with like $40 in winnings. Then we found a Lounge type area that was playing music so we danced for a little bit. Then after being tired and used to going to bed earlier we decided we’d call it a night.
The next day before we left we played kiss the stud.
