What does it mean when ducks....

...are the highlight of your day?

True story, yesterday the ducks on campus made their way over to the intersection by the law building. I watched a duck cross the street and single handedly (is this a word?) stop traffic. It made me smile.

Answer Choices

A) I'm grateful that I was out of my office on an errand to witness this

B) I love ducks

C) What nice people on campus that didn't run over the duck

D) All of the above

One other side note that made me smile: the errand I was running was to go to the bank in the bookstore and deposit some stuff in my boss's personal account. I liked that when the teller gave me the receipt he said "Anything else we can do for you, Deborah?" I inwardly chuckled cause I am certainly not a Deborah. :)

Who said winter camping isn't fun?

I know it sounds crazy what with the freezing temperatures and snow, but Jesse and I decided if Jesse's brother Joel can sleep in a snow cave on Christmas Eve, we can sleep in a tent in January!

Look how tough I am, braving the cold temperatures of Orem Utah!!

Yep, we really had to crank up the fireplace to keep warm. But we had fun watching Tailspin and playing the Wii we got for Christmas.

Palindromes!

I love palindromes and always have. And even though "technically" it has to be a word to be a palindrome, I still include numbers. Like today for example.

01-11-10

Same forwards as it is backwards. Too bad it took me until 11:30 PM at night to alert you all to the awesomeness of today. And yes, I broke my blogging silence (or laziness) to talk about palindromes. Since becoming married I have become a geek. (or perhaps it has always been so and I am now secure enough to embrace it) :)

I hate long pants long pants....

in the winter because they get all yucky from the muddy slush that was once snow. Since winter has finally decided to arrive this morning, I was faced with wearing wet pant bottoms all day at work.

While alternately contemplating why I wore flat no traction shoes that let all the snow in and how not to look like an idiot while tiptoeing through the muck so as not to get the bottom of my pants wet I was struck with lightning!

(Okay not really lightning, but a really good idea).

I am simply going to roll my pants so they won't get wet. Genius. I know, I am not in grad school for nothing.

Unfortunately I am wearing ankle socks so that would expose my somewhat prickly legs (hey, it's winter) to the cold.

No good.

Then another stroke of genius: knee high socks! This is the perfect solution to my winter wet pant problem.

For those visual learners here is what I had in mind:

Sadly, as I was looking for this picture online, I discovered this.

Someone has already embraced the idea of rolled pants and socks. So much for my genius idea. Dang it.

But hey, so what if I am not the original creator of this idea? At least I will not be alone wearing my rolled pants and socks.

The Honeymoon

Welcome to PUERTO VALLARTA

I promise I will put up pictures of the wedding. It was just easier to post stuff about our honeymoon first. Whatever. I do things my own way. If you want the pics from the wedding you will have to hear about the honeymoon first. :)

Jesse kept our destination secret until a couple days before we got married. He accidentally spilled the beans. He was kinda disappointed in himself, but it was still a good surprise.

We flew into Puerto Vallarta and were a bit overwhelmed. We practically had our luggage stolen by a guy in the airport trying to get tips for carrying luggage. We weren't able to exchange money in the airport because we were chasing our luggage. We finally got in a taxi to take us to the hotel only to be blasted with mariachi music and fear for our lives by the craziness of the driving and with the guys with M-16's checking for drugs. We get to the hotel and are immediately offered wine at the check in desk. Finally we make it to our room and but had to spend $40 in tips to get there. Ahhh!!!!

(Yes, his was taken as soon as we got into our room.)

Despite a bad beginning we had a great time in Mexico. We stayed in an amazing resort that provided all of our meals (and alcohol if we were drinkers. I kid you not that there was four free whiskeys on tap in our room. Also at breakfast one morning I was asked if I wanted a shot of tequilla in my water. Water?!?! seriously).

We went on a pirate ship one night called the Marigalante. It was an exact replica of the Santa Maria. We even got to eat dinner down in the bottom of the ship. I felt like I was on my way to Moneky Island with Guybrush Threepwood. (Don't know that reference? You missed out my friends.)

We ventured out of the resort a couple of times to visit the town of Puerto Vallarta. It is not like America. I don't know why I thought it would be, but it definitely wasn't. There was a board walk with cool art by the ocean that we spent quite a bit of time on. We also got our souvenirs there.

While out and about, we stopped at a couple of great restaurants. Our favorite being Casa Naranjo.

We had a bit of a hard time finding it because we didn't have a really good map, but as we were wandering around we found a map to it on the wall of a building. So I took a picture so we could remember where we were going:

Since it was the off-season, the restaurant was only open for dinner. We got there a half hour before it openend. We were so tired from walking and the heat that we sat down on a curb like bums about half a block from the restaurant and waited until it opened.

But it was so worth the wait. We were the ONLY ones in the restaurant. I felt like a celebrity. The food was amazing! And they even brought us out a free marlin turnover appetizer. If you are ever in Puerto Vallart, you have to go to Casa Naranjo.

The other restaurant we went to our last night in town was called La Piazzetta. It was located in the towns little Italy district. (Who knew that Mexico had a little Italy?) It was really great pizza. And we ordered a unique dessert. It was gelado "Disney" style.

The icecream was made to look like a mouse. Kinda cheeseball, but we liked it. :)

At nights, the resort had entertainment for the guests. It was stuff like a Michael Jackson lipsync with backup dancers (I guarantee you've never seen anything like it), native dancers, and contests. A couple nights before we leave, we got selected to participate in one of the contests. And what contest do you think that was? The Ideal Couple. That is right, Jesse and I competed against two other couples in front of a bunch of Mexican tourists to become the ideal couple. That is right folks, we won and are the ideal couple. Sorry to all of you out there who think you are it. Clearly, Mexico has spoken and we are it. I snapped this picture of us on stage in the middle of it. :)

After the shows, there was nothing left to do but drink the night away so we alwasy went back to our room. Luckily, Jesse had thought to bring some card games with us. So every night we took turns beating each other at cards.

And of course, no trip is complete without some serious beach time. The resort had its own private beach that we spent many an hour at. It was so great to sit in the little beach chairs and read with the wind blowing my hair and the sound of the crashing waves. Curse Utah for not having any beaches.

So that was our trip in a nutshell. Thanks for all the love and support of our friends and family during our wedding.

My First Thanksgiving......

1. I spent away from home

This was difficult. I love my home and I wasn't sure anything could compare. But new families are good too. :)

2. I spent in Cache Valley

I have always loved Cache Valley. Now I will get to spend many more holidays in that great valley.

3. we had ham instead of turkey

That is right, we are saving the turkeys. All you turkeys in hiding can come to the Taylors next year.

Different is not always bad. I actually don't really like turkey, so I ate alot more at Thanksgiving this year than I usually do. But still it was weird not to have the turkey.

4. it was dark outside when we ate

It was weird to eat and it was dark. In fact, on any other day it is normal to eat after five when it is dark, but somehow on Thanksgiving that is just weird.

5. I was actually hungry for dinner

Since dinner was being ate at the actual dinner time, I was ready for some food. My family tries to eat around 1:00 pm. I am just not ready for that big of a meal that early in the day.

6. I spent an hour by myself

There is always people everywhere at my house for Thanksgiving and we are playing and hanging out. After dinner this year, I found myself all alone because there were only a few of us at dinner. Everyone else was off doing things, so I crafted for a while. Welcome to marrying the youngest child.

7. no one watched football

I don't actually sit down and watch the entire game. I like to wander in when my dad starts cheering and check out the action. But it is always on in the background. It was strange not to have football be a part of Thanksgiving.

8. I had someone to snuggle with after a day of festivities

Despite all the differences, it was a great day and I am so thankful that I have a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me.

Stars...

Life has been crazy busy and I have been pathetic about blogging, but this weekend Jesse and I found a minute to ourselves to lay on the tramp and look at the beautiful stars. I am grateful for precious memories like these.