(sorry in advance for this super long post – but I think it will be worth it for you to read!)
Our first honeymoon was to McCall, ID where we stayed in a friend’s cabin (for freeeee) and were going to go to Brundage (see picture below) for some fun snowboarding and enjoying each other’s company.
Well, unfortunately for us, December 2005 was not very snowy in Idaho, and McCall was not as much of a winter wonderland as perhaps it should have been. Therefore we elected to spend all our time staying in the cabin making yummy food and… well, you know, hanging out.
Then on our way home to spend Christmas with our families, our car broke down as we drove down the road out of McCall and we ended up spending the night in the bunk house of the cabin (another family had already took up residency in the cabin for Christmas – but they were friends of Russ, too, so it wasn’t totally awkward).
Thanks to a lot of really nice people, we ended up with our car in Boise, and us finally sleeping on my in-law’s couch at 5am Christmas morning.
Needless to say, our honeymoon was not very… honeymoon-ish.
So when Russ told me to book a flight to Puerto Rico for the second week he was going to be there for a Spanish language immersion trip, it was like a second chance for our honeymoon.
Since the hotel was paid for by Russ’ work, we only had to pay for my ticket to get down there. It wasn’t too expensive, even though we bought the tickets last minute, and I think that we might just have to take a trip to Puerto Rico again sometime. It was really fun.
We stayed in a Marriot Courtyard hotel right on the beach in Northern Puerto Rico, just outside San Juan. The entire beach was mostly hotels, and some apartment buildings (I think the building in the left side of this picture is an apartment building). The Marriot was really nice – they even had a poolside bar. I spent most of my time lounging on the beach and reading while Russ was in classes, and then in the afternoons and evenings we got to go out exploring.
Hurricane Irene made an appearance the day before my flight arrived in Puerto Rico, so our adventures were a little more… adventurous. It rained a lot because of the hurricane. Apparently the weather had been great the week before I got there, and then after the hurricane it was mostly cloudy and rainy all week long. But that didn’t stop us from having a swell time. There was also damage all over the island that was still being cleaned up. Not to mention all the power failures.
I think we only saw a few working traffic lights while we were there. More often than not, the traffic was horrible (which I learned was not necessarily because of the hurricane – it was more because of how Puerto Ricans drive) and one intersection we were stuck in for a while because none of the lights were working and I think it was the intersection for people getting on and off the highway.
To keep myself entertained I took a lot of pictures of the beach and the waves. I won’t bore you by posting all of them here. Our hotel was really close to the airport, so you could always see (and hear) planes taking off right by the resort. The water was pretty cold because of the hurricane, but Russ told me it had been really warm the week before. Apparently the hurricane brought cold water with it – or churned up the colder water from the deeper parts of the ocean. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to play in the ocean. The salty water reminded me of living in Monterey and visiting the ocean there. I love the ocean, and I was really glad to visit it, even if it was cold (it wasn’t nearly as cold as the ocean in Monterey! Even “cold”)
One afternoon after class, Russ told me to meet him on the beach for a surprise. I was super excited, because I love surprises! He took me down the beach a little way to a guy at a makeshift looking booth with life jackets strung up between two palm trees. Obviously I knew what we were going to be doing as soon as I got there. Jet skis! Woo hoo!
Well, that’s what I thought until I got on the thing. It freaked me out. I was puttering along when Russ (who was sitting behind me the whole time) took hold of the accelerator and showed me how to ride that thing. I was screaming probably the whole time, “You’re going to kill us! We’re going to drown! Don’t make us crash! AAH!!!” After a little while I realized that I was indeed not going to flip over (Russ told me that it was usually the small jet skis that flip over, and that you’re actually less likely to flip over when you are going fast – not sure if that is true or if he said all that just to get me more comfortable driving like a crazy person). It worked and I ended up making some pretty crazy waves and jumpin’ ‘em like a mad woman. It was super cool, and I am glad he got me out there and got me comfortable – because that is something I would never choose to do on my own. That’s one of the things I think I like the most about being married to Russ – he gets me out of my comfort zone and shows me things that I would have never discovered without him. (disclaimer: the picture above was taken after our ride – we did indeed ride with life vests on. I promise)
We spent a lot of evenings playing in the pool with the other wives who had come out. The hot tub was really nice, and the pool was comfortable (although I spent most of my time in the hot tub – I don’t really like cold water). Russ likes to swim, but me? Not so much. I like to relax in a hot tub, and that’s about it.
Lest you think we were beach bums the whole time, we wives went on a tour of old San Juan with the guys (this was part of the language immersion program). We went to the old Spanish fortresses, and also walked around downtown old San Juan as well.
The old castle was definitely my favorite. In fact, when I first got to Puerto Rico I saw these cool looking turret things on everyone’s license plates and I told Russ, “If we have time, I would love to go there!” I also told him I wanted to go to a fresh market place and buy some mangos and avocadoes and all those other yummy things you can’t really buy in the states (especially not in the mountainous desert). While in Puerto Rico, I ate the most scrumptious mangoes (probably 4 or 5 of them in the 6 days I was there), star fruit (delish!), avocadoes (who knew, they're supposed to be bright green when they are ripe!), and don’t forget the monfongo (mashed plantain) and churrasco (grilled steak – yum yum yum). I think I ate the best I have ever eaten. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
Back to that castle. Because I am a sucker for history and museums, I really enjoyed myself. It was interesting to learn a little more about the history of Puerto Rico – how it was so important to people trying to trade in the Americas because it was really the first “civilized” place between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. After all that water it sure was a nice place to land.
We also learned that San Juan is going to be using the old water collection system that the Spaniards built at the fort. They are in the process of updating it and getting it ready for their own use. I think that’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard of. Of course, conservation of both history and natural resources are some important things to me, so it’s neat to see a city doing both! Using their history to conserve natural resources. Smarties.
Of course, the best part of being there was getting to spend “grown-up” time with Russ. We’ve had kids since we were married (practically – Vince was born a year after we were married) and we’ve been doing to school or moving across the country with all this military stuff. It was really nice to settle down for a while, and the trip to Puerto Rico for some time away was icing on the cake. Yummy yummy icing. This is my favorite picture from the trip. We were getting kind of bored (and tired of walking around) on the San Juan tour, so we stopped to take some smooching pictures. I think this one turned out the best.
“But wait! There’s more!” Russ wasn’t done with his surprises. The last day we were in Puerto Rico, he took me on the longest drive ever (seriously, I thought the actual driving through Puerto Rico was the “surprise” part…) and we finally ended up in this backwater, run down fishing town I later realized was on the far north east tip of Puerto Rico. Still having no idea what we were going to be doing (but assuming it had to do something with kayaks because there were kayaks everywhere at this little park where we stopped) we had some yummy fish, and shark, and other yummy foods at the little fish restaurants and stands at the park.
After dinner, we had a little kayak safety training and learned that we were going to kayak through a itsy bitsy canal to a mostly land-locked bay called “Bioluminescent Bay” where these little organisms live that light up when you move them! I don’t have any pictures because it was dark, and my camera is not very good at taking pictures in the dark. Now I am thinking I probably could have done a video. The glowing organisms weren’t super bright, but I bet I could have shot a video. It was fun to splash the water onto my shorts because it looked like I was throwing glitter on my legs. With every stroke of the oars, the water would light up. It was really magical. I thought I was going to get eaten by a snake or capsize in the canal when we were going back and forth from the bay, but it was really not too bad.
Here is a good video that shows what it was like. The glow was more green than blue (the video makes it look blue, but that’s probably the camera)
It was a fabulous trip, with memories made that will last forever. We’re going to have to make sure we take some “all by ourselves” trips more often! It’s so easy to get caught up in every day and forget to get out and do something special with your spouse. Gotta love that big hunka man! 
This is a picture of Russ in the rainforest the week before – this is probably the only thing I would have wanted to do and didn’t get to. I guess we really will have to plan another trip to Puerto Rico!
I also think that a lot of neighborhood kids who are in other wards come and start their trick or treating out in our church parking lot. It’s safe, fun, and you get a warm bowl of chili! Plus, we usually start at 6pm and it’s not quite dark yet.
(Mastiff/Rottweiler mix – one of the most beautiful dogs I have seen!) and we were headed back down his walkway to cross his driveway to the sidewalk when a chick comes ripping into the driveway. V was already making his way to the sidewalk. I don’t think she saw him, but we yelled at him, and he took off toward their garage, away from the car. We were all freaking out, but there were no injuries, and after some great big hugs, we were all fine. 
This summer we had a little “mini” reunion (I put mini in quotes because even our “small” reunions are still big…) Because the weather was horribly hot this summer we went up to the little fountain pools at Nelson’s Grove park in Orem. We had actually had a potluck picnic behind my aunt’s stake center and the kids needed an escape from the heat, so we walked over to the park. The kids (and some of the older “kids”) got in the water and splashed around.
Russ was the third from the front on the second row. 
