Okay, okay, okay.. look at me! I'm getting better at blogging! At least my blog posts come every few months instead of once a year now.  :) We are back from New York and I didn't post once.  I guess I will try to talk about our experience briefly, although we could probably talk about it for hours.  We started out Blake's summer internship with a fun week in Charlotte, NC for his training.  Wells Fargo put us up in a beautiful hotel and that is where I spent most of my time.  We ended up meeting some really cool interns and although people thought it was weird that Blake was married, (most interns AREN'T) most of them were pretty cool about it once they got to know us.  I feel like most of them thought we were going to be weird because they knew we were Mormons, but Blake has a charming personality and won them over after a few short days.   By the end of the week of training we were sad to part with some of them! Most of the interns were staying there in Charlotte but a good portion of them went off to different cities around the U.S., like us.  Wells Fargo was kind and even bought me a ticket to Carowinds... North Carolina's Lagoon! haha.  That was a fun day, and although I ran around with a bunch of men, I actually ended up having a good time.  They were nice to let me tag along.  On the weekend Blake got Sunday off.  We were really excited about this, we knew once we got to NY that his days off would be far and few between.  We decided since we hadn't seen much of the city that we would rent a car and go drive around Lake Norman.  Lake Norman is beautiful.  People have BEAUTIFUL houses there right on the water.  It's seriously gorgeous.  They walk out of their back doors and hop in their boats and have a gorgeous day out on a gorgeous lake.  I could get used to that.  I chose about a million homes that I wanted there.  That turned out to be another great day for us, we were together on our adventure, just the two of us.

soooooooooooo! as many of you know, we came back from our cruise to the caribbean and were home for a day and left for disneyland with blake's brother and sister-in-law and our cutest neice and nephew.  we were so spoiled the month of may.... i'm not complaining.  it was the best time ever..... i l-o-v-e disneyland.  how can it be so wonderful? it just is.  i loved being there with my little niece, rian too. at first she was afraid of everything, but then she got brave! the funny thing was that she was terrified of the slow dark rides like pirates of the caribbean but then she loved roller coasters.  by the end she was begging to go on the biggest roller coaster there.  haha, but she wasn't tall enough.  i loved this trip, and i wish i could do it all over again... being with blake for like 2 weeks straight with no work or school wasn't too shabby either, in fact it was uhhhmazing!

(Before any of you read this, I must apologize for how LONG it is!! I mostly did it for myself, so I could remember the memories....But it is stinking long!!)

Ahhh! As I mentioned in my last blog post, my parents took Blake and me on the most amazzing cruise to the Eastern Caribbean for our Graduation celebrations!!! It was seriously SO freaking fun.  I loved being with my parents.  I'm way lucky to have such great parents.. They are like my best friends, they are so easy to be around and so freaking FUN.. !! So of course, we had a blast.  We flew into Ft. Lauderdale, FL the day before our cruise and stayed in a hotel that night.  We got up the next morning (which was mothers day) and went out for some yummy Mother's Day waffles.. at The Original Pancake House.  It was seriously great.

(this pic shows the lucky Mother's Day treat) Happy Mother's Day Momma!


They gave us Mother's Day Flowers (even though I'm not a mother) And you can tell that me and my mom think we are really funny when we get together....

Next, we went to board our ship... I kept having anxiety because I didn't have a passport and I was using my birth certificate and license instead.  Everyone was being really mean and teasing me and every time I had to show it to someone I was having major panic attack freak outs.. haha.  But I made it on the ship, and it was Partying from then on!!!


Our first stop was to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.  I loveeeed this place.  It was a private island that Carnival owned.. and it was BEAUTIFUL.  We walked way far away so that we could be alone and the beach was breathtaking.  The sand was perfect and white, and the water was oh so blue! We mostly laid out, but we did go snorkeling a little, and my Dad and Blake had tons of fun playing frisbee.










The next day was a ship day. Which is always fun. We laid out.. danced... and watched a lot of other funny people dance.  Blake, I am also very proud to say, won the ping pong championship upon the Carnival Glory and did bring home a lovely medal and trophy.. :)  We also loved playing mini golf.. which i lost at every time. FREAK!

 As you know, (if you've been on a cruise) the night life is the best.  I loveddddd eating dinner every night and going to the shows and events that they always had going on.  We liked to play cards at night too, which was also fun since we could have unlimited soft serve while we played. PEOPLE GET FAT on cruises.. It's just a fact. And not only do they get fat, a ton of already fat people go on cruises.  I seriously felt good about myself while we were there.. I can't believe how out of control these people are!! They go hogwild on the unlimited food... which is NOT a good thing.





The next day we went to St. Thomas... OOOO la la. This was the prettiest island ever!!! We got off the boat and finally found a tour guide (whose name I already can't remember) but he took us around in his ENVOY and we just lived the life! He took us on this scenic tour, and took all of the pictures we wanted.  SCORE!!









 Our next stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico! This was a popular stop for our family.  We all loved it because of the ancient castles that were there.  We also found a coach store which doesn't hurt! Blake loves seeing ancient buildings and landmarks.  We need to travel more! I'm sure the world has so much more to offer. 










 Our last stop was in Grand Turk... I was getting really depressed by this point, knowing how close to over my cruise was.  I love having all of the attention from my parents and Blake.  It's just how I am okay.. If I wasn't so obsessed with my sisters and brother, I'd wish I was an only child! But I love them too much for that!  Grand Turk was kind of a drag.. It had been stormy so there was a lot of yucky crud washed up in the sand... which made it hard to lay out!  We finally found a quiet place to set up camp and my dad and Blake had a great idea to go snorkeling, so Blake and Pops go swimming out, and swimming, and swimming, and swimming, and swimming, and swimming... you get the idea?  Pretty soon they are about a mile away and all we can see are these faint tiny pink and white snorkels in the distance.  Turns out, the water was like a shelf and was only like 4 feet deep the whole way, but my mom and I were FREAKING out!!! Suddenly, we see the storm clouds rolling in and coming closer and closer as our men go further and further.. NAUGHTY men!!! Of course they don't even come up to see that there is a gigantic storm coming in, or that they are forever away.  My mom and I were saying horrible things, so mad at them.. thinking about how they were dead when we didn't see their snorkels for 20 minutes... after about hmmm an HOUR... these geniuses decided to come back to shore.  And before they did a massive storm hit.  Thank you lovely gentlemen.. for keeping your wives safe and dry while we waited for you on the shore. (As you can see, the horrible storm cleared up after about an hour.)






We finished up our cruise with a lovely day back on the Carnival Glory.  Good times, we watched the hairy chest contest.. and even got some mad shuffle board games going.  It was for sure a good time.  And the last formal night of course, where my mom got her hair done at the Carnival Salon haha.. My dad was lucky enough to win that for her at the spa raffle.  She wasn't particularly excited.











... And then it was over right after it had just begun.. :) But it was amazing. Thank you parents. I love you.


For extra viewing enjoyment: We got hyper and took pictures of the pictures that the professional photographers were trying to get us to pay mucho monies to buy! Plus- We had a blast taking them, and we should probably be models, don't you think?  Oh and some of them look distorted because the picture was bent while we were taking a picture of it... haha.  Don't judge us, we had to hurry before the security guards busted us.