bahama mama

Next stop was the Bahamas!!!! when we got in it was overcast and looked like it was going to rain. we went to the atlantis resort a few miles away. the resort was beautiful! we could see it from our balcony

the first thing we did was swim with the dolphins!!! it was such an amazing experience and we loved every minute. this was the huge complex that they housed over 30 dolphins in.

we were in a group with a family from boston. they were really sweet. we lined up and the dolphin would swim along our hands both on their bellies and on their tops.
they did some tricks for us! its pretty amazing how high they can jump!!
we were able to get on a boogie board and have the dolphin push us across the bay by our feet. they are so powerful!!! that was probably my favorite part of the experience.





couples pic!! awww
only girl i could share him with :)
after the dolphins we were able to spend a bunch of time in the big water park on the resort. we didnt get any pictures because we were too busy riding CRAZY rides! there was one that went through a tube in the middle of the shark tank! it was so sweet. it rained a bit while we were in the water park but the rain was warm so we didnt mind. we had so much fun but had to get back to the ship.....

my swimming suit was still wet so all of these pictures look so funny! we wandered around downtown and it was beautiful. the shops were full of all the same stuff but we found some dr pepper and salt and vinegar pringles!! mmmmmmm so great!!

after nassau, bahamas we went to royal caribbean's private island called coco cay. it was absolutely beautiful! it was the definition of tropical island and it was where we really felt we were in paradise!
we went snorkeling and enjoyed the sun for the day. afterwards it was two bumpy days back to baltimore. this is our balcony looking onto the baltimore port.

these are some pictures from dinner when we had to dress up.

this picture was taken before we got tan! hahaha

our steward left us cute towel animals!! yipee! this was my favorite, an elephant

it was such an amazing trip and we had so much fun spending it together. it was such a great time for us to go and we are so glad that we did!

flo-ridin

We had two stops in Florida on our way to warmth. the first stop was port canavaral, first we walked to coco beach which was really close to the ship. we didnt have our swimming suits so we just walked along the beach. the weather was nice but it was pretty hot and muggy which did not endure mainland florida to me.


after wandering down the beach for a while we headed back for our gator experience. ross and i are in love with this show called swamp people on history channel, and so when we heard about seeing gators on an airboat we just had to go. it was so cool!! we were taken through the swamps and the guy driving the boat took us right up to gators.

our cool headsets! so we didnt go deaf and so we could hear the guide. i was surprised at how loud they are!
this is when the captain hit the gator with the boat!!! the gator wasnt too pleased and i was pleased to not be on that side. the guide said that gators can jump half their body weight out of the water, i thought he was joking but he wasnt!

this was the boat and ross wanted a chance at the captains chair.

the best part was probably getting to hold a live baby gator. it was so creepy and i was totally freaked out. ross jumped in right away but i was really hesitant. but i did it and it felt pretty cool! i was proud of conquering my fear.

the guide showed us how much the gator liked to have his neck scratched. it was so funny because the gator would crane it's neck like a cat! (notice the rubber band keeping the mouth closed)



our next stop was KEY WEST!!! oh man i loved this island!! it was somuch fun! we pretty much just wandered around and bought souvenirs. i was surprised at how excited i was for the whole jimmy buffet experience and it didnt disappoint! the sun was so pleasant and the temperature was great. i loved the feel of the place, it did feel like a vacation place where people just dont leave.



margaritaville!! i was decidedly more excited than ross but he was kind enough to humor me.

UTAH!! represent! woot woot

we ate right by the stage after i had found a copious amount of souvenirs (so so great)


i HAD to get a burger (minus the cheese) in paradise. and it was so great!! mmmmmm
after we toured key west we went back onto the ship and caught some rays (which subsequently burned both of us to a crisp. like most of our other shipmates)


the color of the water was soooooo beautiful! i loved it so much!

Goodmorning Baltimore

So ross and i decided that we needed to get out of logan and go on a trip (of course this was in december!) and we decided on the Caribbean. I have always wanted to see the caribbean and so i have been pretty excited all semester, especially when it was snowy and miserable. I have decided to break up the different places so the whole trip wont be as daunting to post. our first stop was baltimore. we flew in the night before and stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the inner harbor. we were on the 31st floor out of 32! we had a great view of the city. it was a clear day but very windy so we were very cold! luckily we had packed hoodies because we would have frozen!!




we wandered around the inner harbor and went to a recommended seafood restaurant. we both got crab plates (because everything i read said we had to get crab) and it was so great! it really does taste different than the imitation kind :) the waitress was way nice and taught us how to take the meat from the legs. we had a great dinner and payed an arm and a leg (typical tourists!) and i felt like i had a pretty good taste of balitmore. we also spent some time at the inner harbor the day we flew home as well. we toured the submarine torske and the uss constellation which were so so great!! i had always wanted to see a sailing ship up close and it was so interesting!! we also went to the national aquarium which was crazy cool!! there were shark tanks that you could get up close to and all kinds of interesting displays of different ecosystems. i love love love museums of any kind! i love to see how people display things and how they convey information. someday i will hopefully work at a museum because that would be so great. baltimore was a lot of fun! hopefully some day we can go back


walking around the inner harbor
little italy! it was so cute and the small buildings kind of reminded me of scotland.

What a lucky girl I am!

Saturday was a day for me to sleep in while Ross went to the Elders Quorum activity of shooting guns (I'm just so glad the girls weren't invited!) , so as per usual Ross woke up early (meaning 9 o'clock which really is early for me on a normal day much less a saturday!!) and went to the store to get ammo before he went shooting. I had taken a sleeping pill the night before so i was TOTALLY out when he barged into our room holding these babies and a dr. pepper!! haha while getting ammo he came up with the rather brilliant plan to get me flowers!!! awww i was so excited through my drug-induced stupor!! i feel so lucky to have someone who listens to me and gives me wonderful hot pick roses! just had to post cuz i was/am so excited about them and my wonderful hubby for his spontaneity and his love! being married is so wonderful when its to someone like Ross :)

Spring Break

Well its spring break and i am at work....yipee!! haha we arent going anywhere special for the week but i almost like that better! we are just chilling at home and enjoying time together, which is always the best! we have been watching the first season of Modern Family the past few days and it has been so fun to laugh at the quirky things our families do and how similar some things are to the show. the other thing that has been good about it is the way it reminds me of how grateful i am to have family in my life and to learn and grow with them. ross and i were chatting about how sometimes families have their struggles and sometimes it is hard but it is all worth it in the end. there are so many good times and good memories that come with families! we are both so grateful for the chance we have to learn from our families and to someday start our own (no hidden announcements here). we are looking forward to a fun week with a new addition to the Menlove clan with the addition of Sara and Will's new girl! we are so happy to see growth and to welcome a new member!! we are feeling very lucky this week!

I'm so terrible at this whole blogging thing

Its officially been ages since i last wrote and its funny that i say that because that is exactly what i write every time in my journal when i get around to writing in it. ugh i used to be so good!! haha well here is my attempt to be good again.
lets start with christmas...christmas was great as a married couple! it was so fun to share traditions and work on creating some of our own. we went to temple square twice and it was so beautiful both times! i saw this tree in the conference center and fell in love! pink, purple and huge! so we got some pictures by it by a cute missionary who asked us if we were newlyweds (i thought that was so cute! she was so excited for us! and i was excited for us to have our first official christmas together) here are some pictures.the tree!!! it was a beaute clark, a real beaute
i love this picture
grandma and ellie! i like this picture a lot because my mom looks so cute and you can see ellie's cat beanie that was so cute!
this is our first family picture with the newest member erin!! yipee! it was so great to have everyone together and to have jake, jen and the kids here (i just love them so much!)speaking of love.....I LOVE THESE PICTURES! i am a confessed proud auntie and i stole these pictures from my mom and therefore had to post them. awwwww they are so cute!! i love ellie's piggie tales....i better have a girl some day so she can have piggies too.

these are some pictures from the menlove family photo shoot. they turned out really good!
this one is the whole menlove fam. it is so cute! i love the box car in the background and everyone looks so great!
This is the tractor ross and i rode in for our very first date! plus he let me drive it for a bit, so we wanted to be sure to get a pic with it. i love these ones. i love ross's expressions in these pictures, he looks pretty excited.

this one is a bit cheesy but i kinda like it. we were harkening back to our engagements....hahaha but they did turn out great.

i cant believe its finally march!! dreaded feburary is OVER! wahoo! i changed my blog background to reflect my new found hope in warmth some day coming (and they stole my old one from me so i had to take measures....) yipee for flowers and eventual spring (even if its only in my hopes right now). plus march means that ross and i have been married for 9 months!! yipee! haha im just starting to get used to all this married stuff and really enjoying it! it still doesnt seem real many days but i am so glad it is! ross and i have been enjoying this semester because i only have two classes (one of which ended last week! so now i am down to one!) this means i have less homework and more time to do little if anything but hang out with my hubby...which has been so great! ross just started a GRE prep course and he is working towards tackling the beast and figuring out where we will end up for the next few years. we were planning on UConn for the summer but those plans are no longer so we are working out where we will end up for the summer too!! and i thought decisions for a wedding were hard to make! life decisions are much harder! but we know the Lord will guide us as we stay faithful and seek for His help.
january and feburary were full of fun activities. january of course saw the anniversary of burns night!! it was super great and the food was amazing! here is the man who caused the movement....
Here are some pictures from last years celebration.

my kilt! :) and ross lookin good as always

sammy also dressed up for the occasion, complete with burberry tie, smokeless pipe and watch on a chain

ross eating haggis!! wow i knew i had snagged a good one when he was willing to try haggis!!! he's pretty great and i am very lucky!!

we went with sam and erin and had a good time being exposed to scottish culture. i was so excited to share a wee bit of scottish culture with my loved ones. i had pictures but they were pretty hideous so they were swiftly deleted!

we spent a saturday with sara, will and liam at hardware ranch and it was so interesting! i feel like a true loganite now that i have been to hardware ranch. i learned a lot of cool stuff about elk and enjoyed watching liam wave to all the elk and horsies. he was so cute!!! i just hope that someday i get a little guy as good natured as him...i think i could handle a boy if he is as sweet as liam!





our first valentines day as married people was really fun. Ross surprised me with beautiful red roses on friday and i was pretty excited (i have a complete weakness for flowers!) i decided for v-day i would make ross filet mingon i saw on food network and besides filling the house with smoke from searing it, it was DELICIOUS!! mmmmmm so good! i was pretty proud of myself that it worked! and ross, like the good hubby that he is, was proud of me too. we spent presidents day down in st george with my fam playing sequence and shopping. it was really fun except for the snow and rain part! there were quite a few people who had left logan for warmth like us who were disappointed! hahaha but i was a fun time nonetheless!! since i forgot my camera (a usual occurrence) here is a picture from last year!! hopefully next time we go down we will have some sun! st george was also great because it was a chance to get to know erin, sam's love and fiance. she is great and it was fun to spend some more time with her! it was also weird to think last year at this time everyone was getting to know ross better during presidents day! how things change. baby morgan, i discovered, wasnt so much a fan of me....hahaha i was so excited to get to play with her and any time i held her after about 1-3 minutes she realized who i was and started to cry!!! it was pretty funny and some day i figure she will love me cuz i'll play dress up and tea party and barbies with her! just not until then.
ross and i are excited for our plans this semester to go to the cabin and st george as well as going to the bahamas for 9 days! we are trying to work out and get a little tan so our white logan skin doesnt bake in the Caribbean sun. oh man every time i see some type of tropical scene on tv i get so excited! i havent ever been on a cruise so this will be a new adventure and i am so excited to experience it with my husband! (sometimes its still weird that i have one) so that will be a post for the future. plus we are excited (and nervous and afraid) about me graduating...what? it could really happen? thats something i just thought OTHER people did....nope....i will soon be in that club....YIPEEE! now i just need to plan for the future...shoot. hahahaha but we are excited for the future! and hopefully i will be good and post more things about it :)