The Wedding Pics

So they are finally here!

We think we will just let the pictures tell the story:























Sorry the format is off. It just doesn't seem to format well.

Thanks again everyone that was there for all your love and support. We wished we could have taken a day to spend with each of you and we miss all of you that we don't see as often as we would like.

Mid November Update

Well, we have mixed feelings about posting without any pictures or anything else very interesting. But some people are starting to complain because we haven't published anything in the last few weeks, so here goes.

Really, we haven't really done anything very out of the ordinary for this time of year. We've slowly been getting our apartment and all of the usual activities that come with moving into a new place and getting married entail. Our Christmas shopping is almost done as well.

For Halloween, we went to Chelle's house and fended off the trick-or-treaters while watching a silly movie called The Orphanage. The night after, we went over to Mandee's extended family's Halloween party and had soup and played games. Our Team Ninja ruled at the "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader" game we played in.

We also went and saw the play Aida at the Washington Terrace playhouse. Mandee's cousin Kelland and his wife Ashley were in it. It was quite a departure from the typical Terrace play and was a tragedy instead of the silly stuff they usually do, and because of that, it was Camshaft's favorite play that we have seen so far at the Terrace.

Not too much else to tell besides a trip to the Olive Garden (lasagna and chicken maranara) with Chelle and Holli and a visit to the movie theater to see the newest James Bond flick (mixed reviews, but generally entertaining), we've been slowly settling into some semblance of normality again, while still trying to tie up a few loose ends from the wedding and getting the apartment in order.

Hopefully, there will be more to tell with Thanksgiving and Mandee's birthday the 29th!

The Pre-Halloween Festivities

So hopefully after this post we will mostly be caught up, except for the actual wedding, but it may be a bit before we get those pictures. We're in the process of picking them out and getting them printed and whatnot.

Anyway, last weekend was a good warm-up for Halloween. Friday night, we headed up with Camshaft's fam and went to the Pumpkin Walk in Logan.

For those of you who have never been, it is a really fun (and free) activity that the community puts on every year where people make displays of famous scenes out of mostly pumpkins along with other vegetables. For example: Noah's Ark and Batman.

Michelle and Patrick helped out with the Pumpkin Walk, as Michelle's parent's help organize the event, and were part of the creation of a Sword in the Stone display.

We also caught two Jedi knights at the festivities.

This is just a small sample of the fun things at the Pumpkin Walk, but it should give you an idea as to what goes on there. It's a fun family evening.

Afterward, we also got a chance to see the Heidi and the boys in their halloween costumes.

The next evening, we went on the Ogden Ghost Tour, another great activity for anyone interested in the history of Ogden and is not easily spooked. We had been last year and enjoyed it, but this year we brought our camera and got some... interesting... photos. We won't go too into detail here, because we know some people are sensitive about that sort of thing, but there was some strangeness to be had along with all the history of the area.

Anyway, Happy Halloween everyone!

To Seattle! (The Open House)

Well, after the cruise we are and were still staying busy. So after being off the plane from Tampa for only 5 days, we headed to our open house in Snohomish with Mandee's sister Holli and her Grandma Child in tow.

There's actually not much to tell, we arrived up there in good order and hung out at Mandee's parent's house Friday night and Saturday. Mandee's cousin Kerry from Canada and Uncle Lynn from Hawaii cane and were part of the festivities for most of the day. They gave us some serving platters that everyone was jealous of. They even got used at the reception (the rotating platters below, along with a view of the goodies).



The reception was very nice. Mandee's mom made a very nice spread. Lots of the people from the Snohomish area that knew her family from church and work came. By Sunday afternoon, we were on a plane for Utah once again. These quick weekend trips are fun, but exhausting. Good times.

Cozumel and Tulum

Our last stop was to the Mexican island of Cozumel. But we had barely stepped off the boat when we were whisked away to the city of Playa del Carmen and then quickly walked to a bus where we started our trek to Tulum.

It ended up being fairly far away, and we even made a stop at a workshop where they work on reproductions of Mayan artifacts. It was very cool, and we wished we could have spent a bit more time there, because before we knew it we were back on the road again.

The actual site of Tulum is a half mile or so from the bus stop and behind some walls, so after a short walk, suddenly we were there. The city was a major port for the local people from about 1200 AD to 1500 AD and was called "Zama" back before being abandoned.It was quite the site, and much more had been uncovered than at Altun Ha. It was also extremely hot and humid, so we were both sweating like crazy, and it was very crowded. But it was worth it.

The city is dominated by a huge temple called "El Castillo," as seen from the distance above. It was the main site of worship for the Mayan and Toltec people that lived there, complete with human sacrifice and whatnot.

We had two other favorites. One was the Temple of the Frescoes, which was supposedly a fertility temple, where women would go worship when they wanted to get pregnant. It has a lot of cool carvings on the outside (and inside supposedly, but we really couldn't see those), including a cool carving of the Descending God (the main god of this area, left), and a carving af what they say is a baby holding it's umbillical cord (right).

The other cool spot was a structure called the Temple of the Wind. Our guide claimed that it was built as kind of a look out post for hurricanes; that when the wild would blow fast enough to be hurricane strength, that the whole building would act as a whistle that could be heard for miles. Luckily there were no hurricanes, so we couldn't experience it firsthand.

The whole city was also surrounded by a big wall, which some argue was primarily built as protection against hurricanes, while others state that it was like any other city wall. In any case, it was cool to see, especially considering some of the passages in the latter part of Alma in the Book of Mormon when they talk about the people of the Americas buiding great walls.

Tulum was beautiful, built right on the beach. The waters were very pristine and blue. It would be the last stop on our cruise, but would be one of our favorites. It was such a great and fun trip, just being able to relax after the last few hectic months. We enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to anyone.

We'll leep you posted when we the wedding pictures back, and whatever else we can scrounge up from our ongoing adventures.

Belize

So our next stop was Belize City, the largest city in Belize. After a bus ride, we arrived in the Mayan ruins of Altun Ha. It was awesome. Our bus load was the first group there, so there was almost no one there while we took pictures and walked around. The coolest part about it was that it was occupied between 250 BC and 1000 AD, making it contemporary with the events that took place in the Book of Mormon. Who knows what might have happened here during those times! It's fun to imagine. They even let us climb this temple. Here's a view Camshaft standing on the main pyramid with his back towards the main plazas of the old city and one of Mandee facing the opposite direction with her back towards the jungle. These buildings were not only temples, but they also buried some of their priests under them. In one dig, they found a striking jade mask that the government of Belize keeps under lock and key that they consider one of their national treasures.

After leaving Altun Ha and making a short stop at a local restaurant, where we ate some local beans, rice, and chicken, we got on a boat and took a leisurely cruise down the Wallace River back to our boat. There was tons of wildlife around there, including howler monkeys (we saw so many, maybe even a whole barrel-full. We decided to name them all Patrick), several types of water birds, crocodiles, a variety of iguanas, bats, a crab, and manatees (they would just pop up out of the water for 1 to 2 seconds, so we couldn't actually get pictures of them). Here's a few of the shots:
The manatee area was the last stop. After sitting there watching and waiting for a few minutes, some ugly rainclouds snuck up on us. Our driver decided that we needed to get back to the ship ASAP, and gunned it full speed. Then the rain started. It was an absolute downpour. We were pelted so hard that we couldn't even look forward. It almost felt like hail. We were soaked from head to toe, but it soon stopped, and we made it back to the port safe and sound, quickly getting on the boat to dry off and get some rest. It was a full, but super-fun, day.

Roatan Honduras

So after a fun visit to the Cayman Islands, we made for an island off of the coast of Honduras called Roatan. The ship docked in a beautiful harbor called Coxen Hole where the locals were ready to greet us (We think they played their druns and danced the whole day).

We then headed to a nice spot by bus called Carambola Botanical Gardens. Incredibly green, they had not only let the natural forest grow, but had cultivated all sorts of plants native to Honduras there in the garden so that tourists could see them and learn about them. We saw a huge variety of plants: vanilla, cacao, coffee, mahogany, spanish cedar, teak, and palm trees of all kinds, just to name a few. We got to try some of the locally grown fruit and then headed on to the second part of our excursion.

After the botanical gardens, we headed to the Penang Butterfly farm. Not only did it have all sorts of butterflies, it had also become an animal sanctuary where they rescued abandoned pet birds and injured and sick wild animals that had be brought to them. Here's a sample of some of the animals we saw:

So after a couple more hours lounging and strolling on the west side of the island, we headed back to the ship. Another fun day.