Our Summer Vaycay

Our pods we flew to Puerto Rico in. They were so amazing, they completely reclined.

Barbados

St. Lucia

The Volcano.

Sulfur smell

Sulfur enriched water, has healing powers.

Marigot Bay

Some friends we made on the ship.

Catamaran around Antigua.

Perfection.

St. Marten.

St. Croix

Here are some pictures of our vacation to the Caribbean. We flew into Puerto Rico, enjoyed a full day there and a tour from Ryan's brother Matt who served his mission in Puerto Rico. We got on the cruise ship that also carried 3500 other passengers. Our first full day on the ship was a sea day so we enjoyed laying out, reading books, and gossip magazines, getting sunburned, eating a fancy dinner complete with mystery theater and plenty of time to relax. Our first port day was in Barbados (where Rihanna lives, yeah!) and we had a tour around the island. The Barbadian people are amazingly nice, and very humble people. Then we finished our tour at a beach and paid for overpriced chicken strips and fries for lunch. I honestly believe that the rest of the world believes that frnech fries are the American staple, like rice is for Asia. Yikes! What fatties we must all be!

The second island was St. Lucia, and it was just absolutely tropical and gorgeous. I felt like I was in the rainforest. We took a tour around the island and drove into the mouth of a volcano, complete with the smelliest suflur hot pots. I seriously couldn't open my mouth for fear of tasting the sulfur, gross. It was pretty amazing though to actually be in the mouth of an active volcano. So very last spot we went to on the tour was Marigot Bay where the original "Doctor Dolittle" was filmed. Not that amazing, but it was still beautiful of course.

Antigua! We went on a catamaran out on the ocean and got to snorkel in their beautiful reefs. However, something out tour guides failed to mention was that we would also be privileged to swim with THOUSANDS OF JELLYFISH! No joke they were everywhere! As soon as we anchored at the sopt where we were to snorkel my brother in law looks over and says, "Um, there are hundreds of jellyfish in the water." So of course we all freak out, and freak out while we get in the water, and our tour guide nonchalantly says, "oh yeah, they sting, but you can just push them away with your hands." I was like, WHAT? They sting, but I can just push them aways, very comforting. Well the snorkeling was good, but I couldn't exactly relax while swimming through thousands of jellyfish. Anyway, we ended the trip with a visit to this amazing bay on the island, it was the most beautiful beach I'd ever been too. Just still and calm, so wonderful. Antigua was amazing.

Then we visitied St. Marten, we rode ATV's around the island and ended at a beautiful beach, with nice big waves, white sand, and turquiose water. We relaxed on the beach, ate lunch and headed back. I almost took out my mother in law on the way back, on accident of course, but it was a fun ride.

St. Croix was the last island we visited, we just wanted to end the trip relaxing on the beach. So we got on a small boat the rode us over to a small island, which cost us $4 a person to go about 50 yards both ways. What a rip off. Then we arrived and they said each chair and umbrella would cost us $5 to rent. I swear they would charge for oxygen if they could. We rented a kayak and paddled around the little island, going in and out of the sailboats. It was really fun! We ended up at a local restaurant and had amazing beans and rice with chicken, and Ryan decided to get crazy and ate goat. Which wasn't too different than lamb.

So we had an amazing time on the ship, saw lots of shows, ate amazing meals, and desert practically at every meal, and watched lots of people make fools of themselves at the karaoke lounge. I wasn't brave enough to do it myself unfortunately.

So that was our trip in a nutshell! We loved it, and were very lucky to go on it.

Happy Anniversary Ry-O

So today is our second marriage anniversary and honestly we haven't done much because we're still recovering from our awful flight home last night. So in honor of our anniversary I thought I'd list a few of the many things that I LOVE about my husband.

1. He's the friendliest person, can talk to anyone, and typically can find out the life story of a stranger in five minutes.
2. He's amazing with kids and is the best uncle in the world.
3. He's ticklish in about every spot, which makes great fun when you're bored in church.
4. He takes me to see chick flicks, and doesn't sigh when they get mushy gushy.
5. The best little dad to our dog, baby lulu.
6. Stays up late with me to watch my favorite shows even though he has an early day.
7. Loves to cook, but doesn't take over (anymore :) when i'm in the kitchen.
8. A food connoisseur, he truly enjoys food from every culture (especially korea), and treats me to amazingly delicious meals.
9. Loves his family and friends, a wonderful son and brother, and would give an arm and a leg to help them out.
10. Is spiritual, and has a deep love of the gospel and for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Just a few things that I love about my husband. Thank you for an amazing two years, I can't wait to share many more adventures with you.

Love, Cait

What's been happening the last month?

Sweetest Baby Lanaea

Ryan and Cordell

Mama and Baby

Performing on her "stage"

At the restaurant for Eric's birthday dinner

I love all of their faces in this picture

They learn fast

Lanaea showing everyone at the table where her belly is, classy

Our gift to Michelle: a nursing cover, and a bouquet of burp clothes

So snuggly, i love it!

Braed-o

The new mommy

Braeden's favorite pastime, and Ryan's

Mi papa y mi nieto

So sweet!

This past month I've had A LOT of things happen, mostly to my family, but it effects me too right? So my sister, her sweet husband and darling daughter moved to Michigan for Cordell to attend Michigan state for residency and to finish specializing in dentistry. So we had them come over to our house for dinner. It was great fun! We gave them a tour of our house, bbq'd, ate some delicious dinner, went for a walk, and ate cherry cobbler, yum-yum! They moved two weeks ago and it was a very emotional goodbye :( But they are very happy and are enjoying a more relaxing environment, with a cute home and a backyard!

Also, on June 8th my baby nephew was born, yeah! His name is Davis Ryan Jesperson and he looks exactly like his older brother. He's a good little eater and is so sweet and snuggly! We went to San Diego over a week ago to go visit him and my family and had a wonderful relaxing weekend.

Now for us, Ryan coordinated a manager's conference for all of the plasma center managers and they are all here this week. So I've been helping to get things set up, and delivering food, and going to lunch and dinner which will continue through out this week. And in ten days we leave for a cruise with Ryan's family to the caribbean! Yeah I'm so excited and have been hitting the gym most everyday to be ready to live in a bathing suit for ten days :) Oh also, I've decided to get my personal training license, so I'll hopefully be certified by the end of summer! Yeah!

Most enjoyable Day

My school

Our reaction to my grades

I had a wonderful day today! Many of you may know, or not know, that I am going to a community college right now. When we left Idaho I had three years of college under my belt and an associates degree, and I would have had only one year of school had we stayed. But my husband graduated and a year in Rexburg just didn't make sense because his career is here in California. So anyways, I was in the process of transferring to Cal State Fullerton when I was told that there were only two classes that I was missing, and those were public speaking and a critical thinking class. I was so annoyed because here I have over 100 credits and now I would have to take two 100 level classes just to transfer. Lame.

So anyways, this spring semester I took philosophy, public speaking, and political science (a requirement for cal state schools). They were all pretty ok classes, fun somedays and just a drag others. But in my philosophy class we really discussed constrovesrial issues and openly shared our thoughts and ideas. My teacher was really good at making a respectful environment where we could share our opinions. He's really knowledgeable about all religions and cultures, but my classmates were for the most part crazy liberals who wanted the government to legalize basically everything. This class at times was difficult because I felt so alone in my values, but I also enjoyed being exposed to others opinions. The idea of marriage and families and morals were so foreign to them. Marriage should basically be obsolete as far as they were concerned. And for the first time in my life I felt really "peculiar" like I didn't identify with anyone in the class, it was really a poignant feeling. But I don't mind being different.

Through out the class my teacher would call on each class member specifically, but I noticed he often asked me what I thought. Now, I decided I wasn't going to bring my religion into the classroom, I was just going to let people accept me for me instead of judging me right off, based on stereotypes and rumors, but I also wasn't going to hide it either. I had a paper in his class where I expressed my worldview. Every single aspect I explained, from how I looked at nature, to myself, to others, to objects, I said it all. So obviously, my religion was threaded through out the essay. And in one of my teacher's lectures he asked my opinion on why i thought some people who are deeply religious condemn other religions to hell. He said, "Cait what do you think?" I thought, wow, does he think I'm one of these people? So I answered, 'I think people do this because they have so much vested into their religion, and they are worried about what would happen if they ended up being wrong, so they sometimes try to eliminate that possibility." He asked, "and what religion are you?" And clearly he knew the answer to this. So, I said I was mormon and he asked me, what does my religion feel about other religions, are they going to hell? I said, we don't believe that we are automatically sent to heaven just because we're mormon, it's based on the lives we lead, the choices we make. And I said there is truth in everything, all religion's have something to bring to the table, and we don't eliminate other's just because they aren't mormon. I also said, we don't believe in just a heaven, or just a hell, we believe that we will be rewarded with glory based upon our choices. And he complimented mormons for that fact, that we are very accepting of others and we don't shun other religions. And I came to the conclusion that he was trying to help shed a positive light on our church (I think).

So today I took my final. I did really well and I ended up getting an "A" in the class (he graded my test right away and gave me my overall score). So as I was leaving he said, "Cait, I just wanted to say that I know we argued about things in class, but I really enjoyed arguing with you. And I want to you to know that I really appreciated your presence in class." I felt so great! I know that he respected me, but when he said this I realized that my thoughts and ideas didn't go on deaf ears. Sometimes we think that the little things we say or do don't matter, but someone is always watching and is influenced by your example. And before I walked away I noticed he was reading a talk by Elder Holland. Wow!

So I ended this semester with all A's and the cherry on top of today was getting book buyback money! Yeah! And later I'm going to the temple, what an awesome day!

Happy ending.

So I posted just yesterday morning about our craigslist problem. But I am happy to say that all of our items were given away to one very deserving woman. In the midst of receiving calls for people to come get our stuff, I received a very anxious phone call from a woman desperate to come get our stuff. I said, I was sorry but everything had already been spoken for, she said her name was Katie and that if no one came that I'd call her and let her come get whatever was left. I took down her number, and said I would call her, not thinking I would even need to do so. But she sounded so sweet and so desperate that I felt horrible that there was nothing left to give her. So, like I said, no one showed up. So I decided yesterday after I got home that I would call Katie and see if she wanted anything that was left over. She was SO excited!!! She also said how awful it was that no one had even called me to tell me they weren't coming, but I told her I was happy they didn't so we could help her. So she came over, we put everything in her car, and she was the happiest little lady!! It felt so good to really help someone who needed it and not give our free stuff to these losers who didn't even have the decency to call us. Well it was a happy ending, and we have a de-cluttered house :)

Craigslist you tease...

This past week I have been overwhelmed by my house. I kept finding things that needed to be put away, but we had so much stuff taking up our closet space. So the other night I decided our house needed to be de-cluttered, and we needed to donate all of our junk. Yesterday I came home from school around five, and got to work. I got all of the things I wanted to put on craigslist together, took pictures, and posted them in the free section, with pictures included. I posted, a floor lamp, table lamp, laundry sorter, and a very nice ottoman my mother-in-law gave us (beautiful, but not my style). Within 5-10 minutes I received phone call, after phone call of people wanting to come pick up my stuff. I was on the phone with one person giving them directions to my house, and five people called during that 3 minute conversation. I was so happy, within a few minutes I had everything arranged to be picked up. Mind you, I had a total of 10 calls, and 15 emails for my stuff, so I felt bad about all of the people that called in but I had to tell them they were already spoken for. Anyways, I wait for everyone to stop by, and I start to clean out my closets, Ryan and I threw away loads of stuff, and put together boxes to be donated. And, the hours pass, and NO ONE SHOWS UP! I had all of these people call to pick up the stuff, and many more dying to get the FREE stuff, and no one shows up. I was so irritated! So today I'm going to post all of my items again and specify that if they can't get here within an hour, don't bother showing up, because I don't want to waste another night waiting for people to come get my FREE stuff, when I could have easily dropped everything off at a goodwill so quickly! Sorry for the vent, but I had to get that out. Have a lovely Memorial day weekend, I'll be cleaning out my house, laying by the pool, and working on my summer tan :)