Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Highlights of our first year together (2010)

Sorry this is a really long post and really late but here is a quick recap of our first year being married.

Tyler & I were married Jan 8, 2010 in the Mt Timpanogos Temple. Best day thus far :)



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Honeymoon:
We went on a cruise through the Caribbean for our honeymoon. We visited St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Grand Turk. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop in the Bahamas because it was too windy to tender the boats.

St Martin we tried to soaked up as much sun as we could before going back to snowy Utah. We didn't realize till later that we should have put a bit more sun screen on.


St Thomas was rainy most of the day so we did a little shopping :)

 Grand Turk was one of our favorite stops
 We ate in Margaritaville
went snorkeling

 

 and swam with and kissed stingrays
 Unfortunately the sun goes down even in Margaritaville
 The days at sea we played lots of ping pong, golf, basketball and enjoyed eating lots of yummy food!




We had so much fun we didn't want to leave
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Yay for Summer Vacations!
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Rowley Family Reunion:
It's been a tradition in my family ever since I was little to go to Lake Mead each year as a family. It is by far one of my favorite vacation spots. Apparently we had so much fun we forgot to take pictures. Here's the Rowley family clan. Highlights of the trip include: boat rides, wave running, the boys trying back flips on the wakeboard, slalom skiing, air chairing,  knee boarding, eating lots of treats, playing games, and sliding down our slippery slide.

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Zions:
Our parents got together and planned a trip to Zions...
Hiking the Narrows
(Robert, Kathryn, Kristee, Stacee, Ty, Penny, Steve)

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England
We were lucky to be able to go to England to visit Tyler's mission so soon after coming home. We decided when we got married it was something we wanted to do before starting a family and Tyler's mission president made it possible by letting us stay with them in the mission home. Here are some pictures of our trip:

London:
The mission home
Shopping for some fresh fruit
Tyler was so excited when he found out that the mission home was 5 min. away from the Chelsea Football (soccer) Club. We saw some Chelsea players just getting done with practice as we drove by.
Tower Bridge
The Eye of London

Thames river with Big Ben in the Background
West Minster Abbey
We were able to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace
I don't know how they keep a straight face all day...
Trafalgar Square. This art museum was incredible


Wimbledon:
Where the pros play
Temple grounds:

The England temple is so pretty! We were even able to go through an endowment session while we were there.
I found some friends

Our Car. Tyler taught me to drive stick on the right side of the car...I only stalled once! :)

 

Castles:
Hampton Court

Windsor Castle



South Hampton:
Tyler served in South Hampton for 8 month of his mission.
We ate at Nandos ... Tyler's favorite

 Shadrak is studying at the University there and we got to spend a couple hours with him...
 Peckham:
As much fun as it was to tour England and all the sites, we enjoyed visiting all of Tyler's converts and friends in each area the most. It was nice to put a face with all the stories that I love to hear about his mission.
 Church in Peckham. Tyler with the boys...
 Elizabeth invited us over for plantain and chicken. mmm

We also got to spend a afternoon with Chef Keith and Utica.

One of the highlights of our trip: Elizabeth asked Tyler to baptize her son (John Baptist) who had just turned 8 years old. The baptism was last day of our trip and we couldn't have ended the trip in a more special way. We had a party with tons of great food afterward.

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Paris:
We decided to take the Eurostar to Paris for two days. One of Tyler's mission buddies (Paul Obrecht) who lives in Paris was nice enough to show us around and let us stay with him and his family. If it weren't for him we would not have gone very far. The undergrounds were all in french and neither of us speak a word.


Crepes for breakfast

In front of the Eurostar
First Stop: The Louvre
The view from the Louvre. The Eiffel Tower looked close enough to walk ... we were way wrong. We decided to walk to the Arch De Triumph and that was a plenty far walk.
Meet our tour guide, Mr Paul Obrecht. Walking through the park to the Arch


Walking down the Champ Elysees. The arch was massive. Exhausted by our walk we rested for a while. Obrecht tried to teach us how to say the alphabet and count to 10 in french. Bahaha I'm sure he's still laughing at our crummy french.

Notre Dame
and FINALLY the beautiful Eiffel Tower.


Obrecht introduced us to his favorite place, Flam's. It tasted nothing like American pizza but it was so good!


We stayed at Obrecht's house about 30 min outside of Paris. They treated us to a legit french breakfast that consisted of baguettes and chocolate filled donuts. Mmm talk about my kind of breakfast, starting the day out with chocolate. :)
 

We were so grateful that for the Obrecht's letting us stary with them. We said our goodbyes and decided to test our traveling skills and visit a couple more places before our train back to England. We went to a castle on a hill (I really think that is what it is called).
We headed back to the Eiffel tower where we walked around some more, sat in the park, took funny pictures, did some shopping, and ate ice cream.




















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Dunaway Family Reunion: 
We all participated in a service activity earlier in the year (made blankets) and received free tickets to .... Disneyland!!

This is how much fun we had at Disneyland. Space Mountain, our faces say it all...




We spent a couple days playing at the beach... Here is cute little mermaid Olivia. 
Our impressive sand castle that washed away right after we built it. I should have listened in primary that the foolish man built his house upon the sand ;)

Ty spent most the time mastering skim boarding
Walking the pier

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Sept 13 we found our that we are PREGNANT :) In Dec we found out we are having a little girl. Wow, I can't believe we are going to be parents. We couldn't be more excited. Due date is May 21. 

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I guess we had had so much fun the last couple months we should have seen this coming. Three days after we found out we were pregnant Tyler was playing in a soccer game and broke not just one wrist but BOTH. He fractured his left and broke the scaphoid bone in his right. He had to have surgery on his right where they placed a pin in his scaphoid bone. Here he is right before going into surgery. Don't you love how cute he looks in his hat ;)



Tyler was so nervous about being put under and almost pasted out while the nurse gave him the IV. He was loopy before the surgery even started. Right before they put him under, they put an oxygen mask on him and he raved on and on about how good the oxygen smelt. You should have seen his face light up when the surgeon asked if he would like to take it home.
















Poor guy was in casts for a total of 3 months. It was definitely a crazy 3 months not being able to drive with school, work, and me right in the middle of being sick. We learned to have more patience during this time and grew so much closer together. Both arms are now healed and even stronger than before.


More coming soon...

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