Memorial Day

Memorial Day, a day to remember those who have died serving our country. In my family and for many others, it is also a day to remember family members who have passed on. It is a tradition my mom upholds of decorating and cleaning those graves. I have had the opportunity to do this every year since living here in Utah for the past five years. This will probably be one of the last opportunities I have for a while since we will be moving in August. I was worried I would not get the chance to put flowers out this year because it was looking like it was going to rain all weekend. We lucked out though, the sun came out just in time!

This is the Dutch wooden shoe and flower arrangement I put together for my Grandpa Tolsma who was born and raised in Holland.

My cousin Mikell's grave. I bought her the most beautiful flowers! I bought these pink azelas and put a "Pink Ladies" sign in the pot to remember our favorite movie that we watched an endless amount of times.

My Grandpa and mom.

Robert was a big help. He made sure every plant was firmly grounded.

Mom working hard to clean it up.

This was the beautiful arrangement that my mom bought for her mom (my grandmother). I love it! It completely reminds me of her.

My Grandma Whitehead's grave up in Wellsville, Utah.

My Grandpa's parents in Logan, Utah.

Oh the pretty flowers! Isn't my new camera awesome? I love it!

I love this picture! As you can see, we had fun spending time together!

The Start of Memorial Day Weekend...Began with a visit to the Salt Lake City Hogle Zoo

This past Saturday, Robert and I went to visit Salt Lake's Hogle Zoo with some of my good friends from Georgia.

We loved seeing all of the animals. Robert and I still act like kids. We had a great time, especially since it was FREE to get in. You can't beat that.

Giraffes fascinate me. What an incredible creature.

Nice black bear...

Angry black bears.

Ahhh...
Jason you might remember this lion. There is a photo of you as a kid drinking from the same fountain.

Robert's favorite animal, the penguin.

Jean and Kamie. Thanks girls for inviting us to go to the zoo with you!

We made a decision!!!!

For those who have been anxiously waiting since November to know where we will be heading this fall for law school, the day has come. We have finally made our decision! Drum roll....

Robert will be attending Stetson University College of Law located in Gulfport, Florida just outside of Tampa. We are extremely excited to begin this new chapter in our lives. It will definitely be a new adventure for both of us. We just made this decision at the end of last week after Robert returned back home from Florida. While he was there, he looked for a place for us to live. Below is a picture of the building we will most likely be living in. We are in the paper work process as we speak.

We will be living on the 15th floor of this 16 story building located in South Pasadena. Below is the view from our balcony. We got a great deal on it, and we are super excited! It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, so everyone is welcome to come and visit! Once we move in, I will post more pictures of what the inside looks like.

High School Reunion - 5 years!

Due to wonderful timing, I was able to attend my 5 year high school reunion on Saturday, May 16th, the day Robert and I got off our cruise. Right as we got off the ship his family dropped me off at the airport. I decided to make a pit stop in Georgia on my way back home to Utah. Robert did not go with me because we decided he should stay in Florida for a couple more days to look for housing in St. Petersburg in case we were going to go to Stetson for school. It was a wonderful trip! My brother picked me up from the airport, and I was able to stay at his house for the night. I arranged my flight home on Sunday to depart later in the day, so I could spend some time with them. We had a lot of fun together. We played with their new kittens, played Mario Kart and Mario Party, watched Mamma Mia, and I helped Lori, my sister in law, set up a blog for her family!

Below are some of the highlights from my reunion:

Some of my best friends from High School from right to left: Jenny Shular, Caty Szczepanski, and Brittany Edmondson. It was so great to see my girls again!

We had our reunion at an Atlanta Braves game, and we tailgated beforehand. It was great to see old friends, eat some southern BBQ, and get to go to a Braves game! I could not think of a better way to kick off the start of summer. Luckily, the weather ended up cooperating because it was going to rain all night, but it held off.

Some of the girls

Some of the guys

One of my good friends from back in the day, Adam Bashakes.

The view of the whole group sitting and watching the game.


You know you are in Atlanta when...you see life size cows doing the chop!

Brittany, our class president, did an awesome job planning the reunion. Thanks Brittany!

Here is everyone from the Starr's Mill High School class of 2004 that showed up. We had a pretty good turn out, 100 out of 400 is not too bad. I can't believe it has been five years.

Summer sun, something's begun...

The first day on the ship

We all went up on the sports deck and played some mini golf. It doesn't take us any time at all to adjust to vacation.

The best and only way to start off a cruise, with a mustard drill. Cheers!

All aboard!

This is a picture after we finished playing in the first of two ping pong tournaments. The guy in the middle with the gold medal around his neck is named Larry. He quickly became our biggest challenger that we would try to overcome all cruise. I took the silver and Robert finished with the bronze.

Here is Rob in action! Go Rob!

Robert's parents relaxing and chatting on the pool deck.

Formal night.

Can I just tell you how much I love this chair! I love it! I need one in my house. While we waited to be seated for dinner we filled the time up by posing like supermodels.

True Love

Me and the boys

The family at dinner.

Robert's grandparents dancing at the Platinum Members' party. Aren't they cute?

Here is a video of Rob's grandparents and us dancing out on the dance floor.

Almost every night before dinner we would play shuffle board.

I think I won almost everytime. :)

The whole gang after dinner.

Robert and I shopping in the Promenade.

Ice Skating fun!

It was a little boring because they would only let us go around in a little circle, so we had to make up our own fun. Although, we did enjoy getting out there for thirty minutes to goof around.

I love this picture of the grandparents. Thank you so much for a wonderful cruise experience! We had a blast! It was a great way to start off summer vacation!

Laying out on the sundeck trying to get that base tan for summer.

Isn't he handsome?

Robert and I went out before dinner one night to watch the sunset. It was beautiful!

I just love sunsets.

We celebrated Mother's day on the cruise, as well as Chris and Teri's 24th wedding anniversary. Robert and I surprised the mother's with roses delivered to their staterooms, and we had the wait staff surprise Chris and Teri with an anniversary desert.

What a happy couple! Awww...

Yay, our first day at port! Look at our pretty ship. She is a beauty.

St. Maarten

Toes in the sand. In St. Maarten, we started the day off with a brief shopping visit and then we took a taxi to the French side of the island where we spent the rest of the day playing and relaxing on the beach. It was fun to take a taxi across the island because we got to really get a feel for the area. While on the French side, we did happen to see a few topless sunbathers, but all in all it wasn't too bad. Got to love the French right?

Robert taking it easy out on the beach.

Having fun playing in the ocean. The water was warm and crystal clear. We ended up following a school of angel fish as we watched them feed on a school of bate fish. Eventually we ended up feeding them by hand with bread. It was awesome. They completely surrounded us.

I think he is starting to look a little pink, don't you?

Hot rod Rob.

Our next port was San Juan, Puerto Rico. I loved their cobbled streets and colorful buildings. In San Juan, it was overcast and rainy all day, but it wasn't too bad. We were still able to do everything we wanted to. It apparently rains there all the time.

Notice the cool basketball court behind him. We thought it was awesome. They have NBA logos painted all over the court.

Here we are in San Juan on our tour of the San Cristóbal Fort.

It was a lot of fun and we were able to stay dry from all the rain for most of the day.

This is the dungeon area. It was our favorite part of the tour. We walked down a long dark tunnel to get here. You can't tell how dark it is by the flash, but it was. There were no windows because this tunnel system goes underground.

It would not have been fun to be held captive here.

These were some drawings that prisoners drew on the wall. Most of the prisoners held in this prison were held there for treason and probably did not survive.

This is how my hair looked most of the cruise. It was always so windy!

The view from San Cristóbal. As you can see, there is another fort on the island.

Our next and last port of call was Labadee, Haiti. This is one of our favorite islands to visit. It is Royal Caribbean's island, so it is completely private. We love it because you can just relax. You do not have to take a taxi to get anywhere. They also feed you a big BBQ lunch that we love.

Most of our time spent on Labadee is spent playing volleyball. Austin, Robert, and I were all on the same team and had a great time playing together. After that, we cooled off in the ocean, grabbed some lunch, did a little shopping, and then took a nap. What more could you ask for?

They allow certain Haitian vendors to come to the island. This is David, Robert's favorite vendor because he likes to talk politics with him. David is always reading and trying to learn new things when we come by. He is the only one in the warehouse that does not try to pressure you into buying his things. I always buy these cool mahogony bowls he makes. He is always in the same spot, so we know where to find him. This time David gave us a free mahogony plate and glass that he made because we always stop by to see him.

This is when Robert joined in the pool games out on the pool deck. Their team ended up winning.

Robert was trying to cheat...you were not allowed to hop.

Robert showing off his skills on the Flowrider.

So I have to apologize, I apparently stink at videography. I took the video from the wrong camera angle, so enjoy watching it sideways. Nevertheless, it is still a cool video because he almost lands his barrel roll. He did land it later on in the week.

Nice form!

This was my first attempt on the Flowrider. It is harder than it looks. The water is rushing at you at 30 MPH. Not bad for a beginner...

After that, I tried standing up. I was doing pretty good there for a little bit.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Remember Larry...well we played in another ping pong tournament and this time Robert beat Larry and won the gold! I just love that you can see Larry's disappointed face in the background! Go Rob! Also on a side note, Larry was the Canadian National Champion for four years between 1968 and 1973.

Here are the medals we won. Our main accomplishment, besides Robert beating Larry, was winning the dodge ball tournament with Austin and Chris.