As promised

I think I may have gone overboard on the amount of pictures, but hopefully they upload ok. Also, just wondering if any of you who took pictures could send me some via e-mail--I think you all took some my photographers missed. If you send them, could you send them in a high resolution so I can print them? Thanks!
























This was supposed to be a picture of us with our nieces and nephews. Now, it may appear that I have some really old nieces and nephews, but really, we just had a couple of stubborn kids who needed their parents' help. my favorite is little Natasha who is pouting as hard as she can.






Here's what the boys thought of the whole ordeal.

More honeymoon

Well folks, we're going to travel back in time a little and finish posting pictures from our honeymoon. Then, if you're lucky, we'll post pictures from our wedding.

Here are some pictures from the Mayan ruins we visited. It was pretty enough, but they wouldn't let us walk up them.



ROYCE'S COMMENT: And for Ryan (and all other hidden Mickey enthusiasts like myself) here is Tulum's hidden Mickey. For any of you that want to find it in case you ever go to Tulum it's on a giant rock near one of the entrances to the ruins-the one closer to the water hole with no water.

ROYCE'S COMMENT: Here you can see the lizard/dragon that attacked us. We gave him an apple to throw his interest elsewhere.
HEATHER'S COMMENT: I literally jumped three feet when that thing started crawling towards me.

The next day, we headed to Belize for some amazing cave tubing. Unfortunately, we did not have a water proof camera and therefore couldn't get any pictures. If you ever go on a cruise and stop in Belize, you should definitely do this. It was a lot of fun--the hike in was easy and shaded, and then you jump in a river and tube through really nice caves (complete with headlamps so you can see).

Here's our one and only picture from Honduras (actually, that's not true. Royce took some pictures of me on the beach, but we're definitely not posting those).
And finally, how about the grand buffet. Pretty amazing creations.

And just for the record, all of those are completely carved from food, done on the cruise ship.

Happy honeymoon.

The last week or so

So if you're a reader of this blog, you've already heard about our crazy escapade to New York. But lest you think we've just been negligent bloggers, let me update you on all that we've been up to.

Friday, May 16--Had an open house in Texas. Spent most of the week painting and cleaning to help parents-in-law get ready for it. Though I didn't know most of the people there, my good friends Rich and Jeanine and their family came all the way from Oklahoma, and my friend Rachel, who lives in Texas, came too. I felt loved!

Saturday, May 17--After a spur-of-the-moment idea on Friday to possibly go to New York either the next day or next week, I touched base with my friend Lindsay via e-mail to ask if we could come. Saturday morning she had written saying basically, Come! We looked at flights (we can fly stand-by, for a price, because Royce's dad works for American), chatted with Lindsay on the phone, and were on a flight by noon. Are we crazy?

Saturday, May 17 through Tuesday, May 20--Hung out in New York with Lindsay, Blake, and Garrett. Had a wonderful time! I lost my voice on Saturday, unfortunately, so it made talking a bit of a challenge. But if you know me well, you know it takes a lot to get me to shut up. So I just continued to strain my voice, but that's the way it goes. More details on the trip later (probably pictures mostly).

Wednesday, May 21--Recuperated, and tried to get a bit organized. Our living room and dining area were full of the presents from the Texas open house we never got unpacked.

Thursday, May 22--Headed to in-laws to do some laundry, and then packed the car and headed with Cynthia (mother/in-law) to St. Louis for an open house (Royce lived there until his mission). Spent approximately 11 hours on the road and got into St. Louis pretty late.

Friday, May 23--Helped set up for the open house in the Relief Society room. Picked up more family from the airport, ate, got ready, and had yet, another open house. This was the only one where Royce knew almost everyone. Lucky for me, there were two couples there who came just for me. Two of my favorite couples from my mission showed up! I sent open house announcements to people from my last area because their temple is St. Louis, so I thought it just might be possible.

Saturday, May 24--Hung out with Royce's parents and the Lower's (the people who hosted us). Saw the latest Indiana Jones, and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, but loved every minute. Took Royce's parents to the airport. Went to Ted Drewes (friends from the Nauvoo trip, you should remember this place). And then went to one of the coolest "museums" ever. I really can't describe how fun it was. When the girl was telling me what it was on the phone, I was a little skeptical.

Me: "So what do you have there?"
Her: "Well, we have like slides, and things to crawl through, and we have a circus at 9:00. And if you don't like that stuff, we have a ball pit."

A ball pit?

Me: "So, is it mostly for kids?"
Her: "The later it gets, the bigger the kids get."

Despite my skepticism, we went (Royce had always wanted to go as a kid, but never got to because it is a bit pricey. $12/person, or $10 after 5:00 on weekends). It was worth it. Their website doesn't really show how cool it is. I liked Royce's description--it's like a giant chutes and ladders. There are a crawl spaces that lead to who knows where everywhere. There's a giant whale part, an outside part, a really dark part (I didn't like that one). I was really nervous to climb through these little tubes, especially the twisty ones that had big drops below them, but it was so fun. We felt like little kids, running around and exploring every little corner of the place.

And yes, I do realize that I spent as much space writing about that one event as I did about the rest of the days combined, but I'm still so excited about it. It was great! Pictures will come.

Sunday, May 25--Royce and I drove home. Thank goodness for electronic entertainment that makes the drive go by faster!

Monday, May 26--Memorial Day! We spent Sunday night at Royce's parents to save gas, because we really needed to do laundry by this point. And there, we get to do it for free! So I woke up early, did laundry. We had a late brunch with his family--crepes, bacon, and smoothies! Saw Iron Man. Played croquet in the backyard with the parents! (Let us know if you want to play--we have a set now!) Had some holiday-appropriate dinner, and played a competitive game of Canasta, which Royce and I royally lost!

Monday, May 26 9:30 pm to the present--Royce started feeling sick, leading to a nearly sleepless night for both of us. He's finally sleeping somewhat peacefully on the couch. Poor guy. What's a young newlywed wife to do?

So here I am. I've been enjoying the downpour through the thin slots of my balcony blinds as I've been writing this. Our parking lot was a river that is slowly dissipating to a puddle. It was pretty amazing. Once I post this, it's off to organizing and putting away more stuff, because did I mention how we had two open houses and I haven't even put away stuff from the first one?

At least I think I'm off the hook for thinking up something for dinner.

This should satisfy you all

Royce's Note: Sorry for the delay in posting this post. Heather had it all ready last week sometime (probably Thursday) and then I wanted to add a photo, but Heather didn't and I didn't end up posting it after the changes I did get to put in, and then we had an open house, and then we went randomly out of town (more about that later), and now here it is a week later and we are finally posting this which has been sitting here in our "Drafts" for a week. Enjoy.

Well, I still don't have wedding pictures, but would some honeymoon pictures suffice?

If you don't know already, Royce took me on a wonderful cruise to the Western Caribbean.

It was perfect! (especially considering the fluctuating Utah weather we had been experiencing). We made all of our flights just fine, and made it onto the cruise boat without them leaving us. I was a little dizzy at first, so I took some dramamine and it seemed to help (it also made me conk out at like 9:00).

The first full day on the cruise we spent floating through the ocean, though I'm not sure floating is the correct term for what a cruise-ship does. We had lots of lovely food, went to a couple of activities (name that tune, pictionary, and other exciting-like things), and just generally relaxed and caught up on a lot of missed sleep from the week before.

The first place the boat stopped was Grand Cayman. The island itself wasn't much to see, but we sure had a fun time on our excursion. First, we visited Hell. It's this half-acre of burnt up land that somebody decided to call hell and now they take tourists' and their money to visit it. It wasn't great, but it was part of a triple-package tour so it was fine.
If you look really hard, you can make out the gray devil somebody has placed there.

I don't know whether these two pictures are considered sacrilegious, but I thought it was kind of funny. Royce's Note: Notice who is the devil, and who is the angel in this picture.

The next stop was a rum-cake factory. That wasn't in the brochure, so I guess it was a bonus visit! A great one too! For two Mormons we sure did get drunk off cake.

Actually, Royce and I did not sample any rum cake or buy any rum. Instead, we had this picture taken.

Kind of pretty.

The next stop was really cool. It was a turtle farm where they breed turtles, surprisingly. The guide told us all about turtles, but if you asked me what he said I couldn't tell you. Probably because it was overshadowed by the fact that we got to hold the turtles! Cool, eh?



You can't tell, but this is actually me holding the turtle.

I realize a lot of you out there have or have had pet turtles, but there's something about holding a turtle at a turtle farm that's just neat.

Royce's Note: Later we both got Salmonella and died. Actually apparently the salt water and filter system they have there prevents salmonella. Go figure.

The last part was the best. We took a fairly long boat ride out into the middle of nowhere pretty much, but more specifically to a sandbar full of stingrays. Our guides were native Cayman islanders who had been going to the sandbar since they were children and knew the stingrays by name! We got to touch and hold and play with the stingrays, which sounds kind of scary (and it is at first), but it was so neat!

Royce's Note: WARNING: BEWARE PICTURE OF EXTREME WHITENESS LIE AHEAD!

Because we don't have a waterproof camera, these were the only pictures we got. But don't you worry, I was right there in the water with Royce and those stingrays. At one point, the two guides both put the stingrays they were holding up against me, making me into a "stingray sandwich." I was laughing so hard.

That was our first two days on the cruise more to come later.

The worst part about getting married

Today was not a fun day. But lest I lead you too much astray, it had nothing to do with marriage. Well, not directly at least. Today we headed to downtown Fort Worth. We got lost several times before we found the building we were looking for (curses to one-way streets), and when we finally found it, there was no where to park. So at the light I told Royce to jump out and get on the driver's side while I jumped out and ran across the street.


Once inside, I quickly found the Social Security office and walked into a packed waiting room. There's just something about walking into a room full of sitting people that makes me tired and depressed. I found where to get my number, found the forms to fill out, finally found someone to ask how long this was going to take, and patiently (not really) waited my turn. After about 20 mintues, my number was called and a nice lady helped me get my name changed for Social Security. Yay!

I do have to say this--thank goodness for cell phones. There's no way I would have felt comfortable just jumping out of the car and saying "I hope we find each other when I'm done."


Once Royce and I met up again, we found our way to the Interstate, connected to another Interstate, and found the exit for the Department of Public Safety. But unfortunately, we couldn't find the actual building. We drove around for at least a half hour before we found it. And then when we found it, there were no parking spots there (but at least there was a parking lot and fewer one-way streets). So once again, Royce dropped me off, and I went in, only to find an even more packed waiting room and an even more depressing atmosphere.

I waited in line for awhile, and then when I got through that line I received a form and a number. And then I sat while I waited for them to call my number to get in another line. After about 40 minutes of waiting, I thought, "That's it, I'm outta here." So I called Royce, who was reading a book in the car, and told him that I didn't want to wait. So we ran to Chick-fil-A and ate (we were both starving). We went back to the DMV after eating to see if by chance they still hadn't called my number, but they already had. Oh well. Next time I'll go back earlier in the day.

I FOUND PROOF...

I FOUND PROOF...that 2007 was the year for the 10th annual Christmas letter. Which makes me happy as I really wasn't sure. So for the one of you out there that was actually wondering...there ya go. Sorry I know you were waiting for an exciting post (probably from Heather) about our honeymoon, but instead you get this.

We were looking for some knives I use to sell the type of (Yes I was a Cutco knife salesman) and I found some old Christmas letters! Exciting. Maybe if I get a scanner one day I'll scan the old ones in here.

We (meaning Heather) haven't posted because we've been moving into our new place in Ft. Worth, TX. We are just about done, so hopefully soon. We'll probably post some pics as well. Other then that we've been borrowing a bunch of apartment stuff from my parents, setting up an ear appointment for me (I have a clogged right ear), and grocery shopping.

Heather has the camera with all our pictures on it (I have no idea how to download them or where all the cords are) so I'll wait for her to put some pictures up before we (I or her) blog about other fun stuff.

New Blog

Heather and I decided we were too lazy to have separate blogs now that we are married, so we decided one of the first things we should do as a married couple is combine blogs. This is it! We haven't even got back from our honeymoon yet and we are already combining blogs. How cheesy is that? (We actually just have a lot of time to kill in the airport). Enjoy our new blog together. We won't be posting on our old blogs anymore, but if you want to read our old blogs go here:

http://roastblog.blogspot.com/
http://violinheather.blogspot.com/

These will also be in our side links if you forget them later and want to read one of our humorous adventures as single people (side note: I've never even read all of Heather's posts from before we were dating!)



MORE TO COME! MAYBE EVEN LATER TODAY OR TOMORROW IF WE GET REALLY BORED AT THE AIRPORT!