HONEYMOON - St Lucia

We went to St Lucia!!! I was so surprised! Even though Leland didn't tell me where we were going on our honeymoon until our wedding night, it was worth it!  All those threats of going camping were empty. Ha HA! I knew he wouldn't let me down. 

I don't want this too be too wordy, so I am mostly going to just give you some pictures!  The country was Bea-utiful. We had some pretty awesome adventures  and went on some tours of the island, took a mud bath in the volcano, horseback riding on the beach, snorkeling, and wake boarding in the ocean.  

Luckily we were in a situation where we could do a lot of relaxing as well.  Adventures when we want, relax when we want.  We got a couples massage, relaxed on the beach, ate ourselves sick, and spent some time relaxing in the room with the TV.

It was a good time and place for us to be together and get used to our married-hood.

Some fun things that happened while we were there:

- We met an awesome kid on the flight out there who took to Leland right away.  He even put a new movie on for Leland when he fell asleep. :)

- Everyone there was on their honeymoon!  We thought we would get special treatment and all being on our honeymoon but because everyone else was too, it wasn't all that special.  We were supposed to get a bed of rose petals and a bottle of bubbly.  We got no bubbly and six whole plastic rose petals! Two in the middle and one in each corner.  Romantic!

- Leland went to every bar he saw, whenever he saw it at the resort.  Virgin drinks were a big hit and we found our favorite one a "Scorpion".

-Long interestingly awesome story short: Before our couples massage there was a giant spider (as big as my hand) on the wall and me and these three girls were screaming in terror at it.  Then a woman came in found it and picked it up with her hand and made a fist! She squished the spider with her bare hand and it squeeked when she killed it! EW!

- We went to church there and we had a difficult time finding the meeting house.  No road names or house numbers!  We finally found it and had a grand time with the members there.

-It was all you can eat food at any restraunt at any Sandals resort on the island.  We ate so much.

We wished we could have stayed longer, but I think that we did the most we could with the time we had.  

Luckily for us the Honeymoon never ended, it just changed locations!

Newlywed Game

I have been waiting to get our underwater cameras developed to post about our honeymoon.  Until then, I offer for you ways to know that you are a newlywed.

You Are A Newlywed If....

* You're late for work each morning because cuddling after the snooze button is pushed, continues for a half hour longer than expected...

* You take shorter showers so that your spouse can have a hot shower too

* You realize AFTER you buy all those cute clothes online that you aren't the only one who will know how much you paid for them...(crap...)

* Finishing leftovers gives you the biggest feeling of accomplishment ("Yay! Those enchiladas are outta there!")

* You call out for your mom to clean up the rotten potatoes you found in the cupboard...(echo...echo..echo...)

 * You can come home when its light and never leave until it's light again the next day! It still astounds me!

* Rice is no longer a meal time staple and is replaced by cheese. (Leland)

 * You are almost brought to tears of joy seeing a washer and dryer in your place.

* You have more pictures of the two of you than you know what to do with and start contemplating how your bathroom would look with your wedding pictures over the toilet.

And finally

* When you are happier than you have ever been in your life.  You are constantly finding new reasons to be in love and enjoying all of the "quirks" that come with being newlyweds.  Good and Bad.

Groomals

I wanted to show off my handsome husband and give all of you a glimpse of some of our Groomal pictures.  They were on display at our reception but just in case, here they are!

Hope you enjoyed them. :)

July 10, 2010 - WEDDING DAY

We did it! We got married!  I have put off doing a post about it only because I don't know how to sum up my feelings of that day into one blog post! However, so many people have told me to update my blog.  So I am going to try!

That morning was so relaxed.  It sort of weirded me out! My mom was more nervous than I was. The temple is so calming and I love sitting in that beautiful brides room in the temple.  Relaxed and ready for marriage. Once I saw Lee, everything was even better.  We were so relaxed sitting in the Celestial Room waiting to go in.  I just kept thinking "I'm getting married, shouldn't I be freaking out?".  Leland was just as calm. I guess that means that we were ready!

The sealing was so special and we really enjoyed the advice the sealer gave.  It was hard though, because I couldn't look at anyone in the room or I would start crying (in particular Dad, Lisa, or Georgia who were in puddles).  It was overwhelming to have the people you care so much about all there for you at the same time.  Once we started the actual ceremony I couldn't even look at Lee for too long.  He was getting teary eyed and so was I.  We had such a great spirit in that room and we were ready for that moment. All that time of waiting was for that moment in that PLACE.  We wouldn't have done it any other way or anywhere else.

After some pictures at the temple, we were off to The Mandarin in Bountiful where we had our family luncheon and tea ceremony.  It was so great to have something special for Leland's family and heritage on that day.  I got to wear my beautiful red dress and participate in a great family tradition.  We serve tea to our elders who have been married, and in return the give us gifts (including jewelry usually).  It is very symbolic and special.  It was also the greatest thing that my family could be there to participate in this cultural experience. We had great food afterward and really enjoyed our time together.

We held our reception at Wadley Farms.  We could not have been more lucky with the weather.  It was perfecto.  The facilities were beautiful and everything turned out exactly as I had hoped (except for the flowers, but I was too happy that day to really care).  I had even planned on doing coloring pages of me and Lee for the kids and they were a big hit. Thanks Elise, Drew, and Julie! For the reception we had planned on just walking around and chatting with people but that plan was quickly thrown out the window.  There were so many people there! It was awesome to see so many people that we loved on our special day.

I do have to say that a special part of the night was dancing with my dad.  I had planned on it since I was a little girl and it was perfect.  I love both my parents, but I have always been a daddy's girl and everyone knows that. It was sad when my dad started getting emotional while we were dancing, but I know that he was so happy that I was married to a great man. He was happy to hand me over to my love and Lee and I finished out the dance.

The exit was a great tunnel of friends and family!  Justine totally thought it was for her and she ran through laughing and cheering. :) Unfortunately the awesomeness ended there because when we got to the car, we found it completely destroyed! I should have known, even the diaper under the seat! Bleck...

All in all I do have to say that the day went perfectly.  Even if some things went wrong, I didn't care.  I married the best man I had ever known. Lee and I talk and wish we could go back and live that day again. It was the day that we had waited so long for and it was worth it. The day was the best of our lives.

The End of A Journey and the Start of A New One

In honor of Leland and I starting our new lives together (next week!), I decided to rename the blog and give it a new look. There is a new address that is more about both of us than just about me. Hopefully everyone will visit The "Liu's News" Blog and check up on us and our new lives.

I thought I would kick of the "new blog" with a post about all the feelings that we have been experiencing in the past year as we have been preparing for our marriage:

There was a point in time where I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to get married at all. I had always planned on getting married in the temple and he knew it. We were two people that were in love and had so many obstacles to get over to be able to get married. It was actually interesting because for a while there I wasn't sure if we should continue dating, I just felt so stressed inside.

Then when Leland told me that he wanted to be baptized it was like a huge weight was lifted and light was pouring into our lives from every direction. It felt so right that we should get married.

We knew that we had a long road ahead of us. There was the option of getting married civilly and waiting until a year later to get sealed in the temple, but that option was never really entertained. We both knew that the Lord has asked us to get married in the temple and that was what we were going to have to do. I know that other people have chosen differently, and that isn't a bad thing either. Every person should definitely consult with the Lord about their marriage, and after we did we knew that we were going to wait the year and get married in the temple together for time AND eternity.

After the decision was made I knew we were in for a challenging year. The only thing that kept us going was the thought that we knew that if we could just wait, we would be so happy on our wedding day being in the temple. I will admit that there were times I cried. Alone and together. It was hard on both of us. Sometimes the days and months DRAGGED on. It seemed like our wedding day would never get here.

We had known from the beginning though that we would be blessed for waiting. Leland and I were talking the other day and we asked each other if we had seen any blessings in our lives over the past year for waiting. Besides the obvious blessing of Patience, we have received so many blessings that we are grateful for.

We have learned more about each other than some people probably know after a whole year of marriage. Some people call getting married "taking the plunge" but now we feel like we have been wading in the pool and are already used to the water. The plunge wont be so scary now. I learned how spiritual Leland is and how lucky I am to be marrying my best friend and the person that I love. I know that he is going to be the rock in our marriage.

Overall we have received blessings untold. It's difficult to say everything we have been blessed with, but we know that we are so happy for this journey (now that its ending!) that we have been on this past year. We can't wait for what will be coming our way in just a few short days and the amazing journey we have ahead. We have made it through the most difficult and joyous year of our lives. I know that marriage will be just that, difficult but joyous. More joyous than anything I can imagine right now. We are walking hand in hand toward the finish line of our last journey with experience for our next one that we could not have gained any other way.

We have never been more in love and look forward to an eternity of our love growing together. I know that we can both say how grateful we are for our Savior and for our Heavenly Father walking besides us the whole time and carrying us when we could no longer do it ourselves. We are so happy for our family and friends who have supported us over this past year and we look forward to seeing everyone on the day of the beginning of our new lives together.

Here's to the journey

WOW!

I finally figured out how to get back into my blog. My lack of posting for the past....year and a half was due to the fact that I could not log into my blog! But I am going to try to be a lot better at blogging now. Just to update people, last time I talked about this awesome guy I was starting to date....we are getting married. Lol as most of you know. So soon I am planning on letting everyone know a bit more about our relationship. Expect more blog posts to come!