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I apparently need to make the pictures a lot smaller, sorry and I think if you double click on the pictures it will bring them up so you can see them. I don't quite know how they overlapped?! Anyway I still have to figures out the whole picture thing.

Puerto Vallarta

So last weekend Ryan and I flew down to Puerto Vallarta. My first impression was that I was not going to like it. It took us almost an hour to get through customs in the airport. There we are standing there in our long pants, shoes, and sweatshirts and it was pretty warm in there. Even though the weather there was very nice, upper 70's. In Utah it was freezing! Once we got through customs and picked up our luggage we had to check a bag because one of the girls I work with let us borrow her snorkel equipment. Then it was a mad house...people everywhere wanting you to come listen to time-share presentations and taxis and car rentals seriously it was crazy! I wish we would have taken a picture of it. We walked over the overpass and got a taxi that was a little cheaper than getting one at the airport apparently, we got some advice from people on the plane who couldn't believe we had never been before! We stayed at a cute little hotel close to the beach and it was adult only so we didn't have kids running around which was especially nice since we had the first room right in the lobby! The room was ok, it smelled a little musty but I am sure a lot do being so humid down there and everything, but it was cool. The pool was on the roof and we swam the first night it was cool looking out over the city and seeing the ocean while swimming in a pool and having the tops of trees right there. The middle of the hotel was open and there were huge trees growing up through it, it had a really cool feel. Everything was right there, shops, restaurants, the beach...it was great. When we went down to test out the water it was FREEZING!! I only put my feet in. We still though we might be crazy and try to go snorkeling so we talked to some tour guides but the only place cheap enough to go didn't have a beach and we didn't think we could stay in the water for very long, so we decided to go on a tour of the jungle in dune buggies. That turned out to be an adventure in itself. It was a blast, but the cars were very old and a little scary, maybe that made it more exhilarating! It was a 3 hour tour we drove right on the highway that leads to the jungle, with all the cars, trucks, busses...kind of crazy. Then we took this dirt road through the jungle it was really pretty and we drove through some really small towns it is a very different way of living. We stopped at a little cafe where there was a waterfall which you could see if you bought something (alcohol) we got a snickers and a coke. Everyone down there is always drinking! And the waterfall was not what you expected it was pretty, but not big at all! And the road crossed a small river a couple of times and we were soaked and dirty and cold. We also stopped at a tequila factory and watched everyone else sample shots of "authentic" tequila which no one seemed to like. Too bad we don't drink right? On the way down we had to cross the river again and Ryan decided that since we were already wet and gross we would just go for it. So we sped up and flew through the river. A big wave of water covered us and we could not see anything, or breathe! it was pretty fun though. However we only brought one pair of tennis shoes which we wore on the tour so they were soaking and didn't dry before we had to leave so we flew back to Utah in our T-shirts and flip-flops!! We happened to fly in the day they had a pretty good snow storm so we had to walk though inches of snow to get to our car which was covered! Needless to say we were freezing! We did get our sweatshirts our of our luggage before we went outside. And the people at customs could not believe we didn't bring anything back but we didn't. We had a really great time, I would definitely go back even though the beaches in Aruba I think were much nicer. Sunday night we walked down the I guess main walk where they had bronze sculptures and people making sand sculptures and everyone was out selling things! We had fruit, horchata, flan, chocolate cake, everything was really yummy! We even got to see some dancing which I really liked! And the pictures of me by the pool is what I wore home, ya it was cold. And on the tour since I got soaked my bra got soaked so I had to wear my swimsuit home under my shirt! Ya.








Sorry lots of pictures! I can't believe my internet uploaded them so fast, I was very excited. Anyway that was our fun trip!

Everything else inbetween

New Years we were pretty boring and went to bed early. But New Year's day we went down to AF and my Grandparents take everyone bowling I always look forward to that. We had a really fun time I even beat Ryan on the second game YES! Just luck though. After we went to lunch at JCW's. I love spending time with family during the holidays it is such a wonderful time of year. We are excited to have Russ and Erica in Salt Lake now it is nice to have friends so close by! This is me and their daughter Alice on Christmas

she is so darling!

Ryan is taking a full load of classes this semester including wheel pottery and classical Mythology. And still working at the airport part-time. We are both doing well I am going to cooking and book club with the RS we are reading Mary and Joseph. I just started it but hear it is really good so I am excited for my new clubs and to get to know more people in the ward. We are once again looking for a new place to live. About a month after we moved into our new apt. the owners told us they were selling the house so we are tying to find something in the ward before we get booted out!

Now I have to make a breast cancer plug. There are quite a few women in my family who have breast cancer several have found lumps very young even in their 20's. I hope you will all take a minute every month to perform self breast exams. It really hit home today for me hearing that another one of my cousins found out she has breast cancer. She has 4 beautiful little girls and will most likely have to go in for radiation and chemo. If you didn't know my mom also was diagnosed with precancerous calcifications. She had a double mastectomy and we found out she carries the BRCA gene (for breast cancer) after that I was tested and I also have the gene. Really breast cancer can be caught early and treated it is just a matter of taking the time to take care of ourselves. We are worth it. Think of all the people in your life who think you are worth it too.

Other than that we are really doing well. Next month will be our 1 year anniversary time goes by so quickly! But I am truly blessed. I love you all! Have a wonderful day.

Christmas

Well I suppose I have a lot to catch up on. Christmas was great. We had a Harvey Family Christmas party on Dec. 22 at Michelle's (my brother Christian's wife) barn. We had pizza played games and had a great time. Everyone had to wear either red or green and all the food had to be red or green as well. My mom planned the party and it was a success! It was so much fun getting together with everyone! Sunday the 23 our 10 month anniversary we flew to Washington to spend Christmas with Ryan's family. We had a wonderful time there hanging out with Ryan's family eating lots of good food and opening presents. The day after Christmas Ryan's dad drove us to the airport only to find out that our flight had been cancelled! We both had to work the next day and with the flight cancellation we were not going to make it home for a few days...so we rented a car and drove home. It only took us 12 hours! We drove all night through some snowy mountain passes which took us forever because we could only go 30! But we made it home in time to get about 45 minutes of sleep then it was off the work. We drove all night so we could be at work there was no way we weren't going to go. But Ryan only works until 12 and I was so tired I went home at 12 too. But we decided we shouldn't go to sleep or we would continue to throw our sleep schedule off so we drove down to my parents house and opened our presents there. It was a really great christmas all around! Here is a picture of our cute little christmas Tree and all our presents! so fun!
We had Holly for Christmas...I think these are here favorite gift!! Ok we also got her the Twilight series.



Christmas afternoon we went over to Russ's parents house and played Rock Band it was really fun. I liked playing the drums and Ryan did awesome singing, he was the best! It might not be the best pic but it was a fun game.

This is our wonderful drive home! You can't really tell but it is snowing and just before we got to the pass the big sign said chains required and we were in a rental car with regular road tires and no chains that is why we had to go so slow! Better safe than sorry