Honeymoon!

Me and Trevor trying to get the night view from our suite behind us!

Well as most of you who actually read my blog already know, Me and Trevor went on a 7day cruise down the Mexican Riviera for our Honeymoon! Now we got married on a Tuesday, and our cruise didn't leave until the following Sunday. So the night we got married we left and went to a suite my parents got us at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in down town San Diego. The room was amazing! We had 6 floor length windows of beautiful San Diego views, and we had sparkling cider and chocolates with chocolate covered strawberries. It was perfect! (THANKS mom and dad!) The next morning was my Dad's birthday so we picked him up a present and went back to my house to spend the afternoon and evening with my family. We opened all our presents, gave dad his present and hugged everyone goodbye! Reluctantly we had to leave, we were driving to L.A. that night to go to Six Flags in the morning! The McCormack family generously let us stay at their house since Vicky and Afton were going to be gone. Afton left us a very sweet note hoping the "McCormack Inn" was to our standards and that we enjoyed it! haha! They even left us a bottle of sparkling cider. When the McCormack's heard we were planning to go to Six Flags they got us tickets, SWEET hosts! The next day we spent the whole day at Six Flags which was so much fun. Trevor wouldn't let us leave a minute before the park closed even though we were both exhausted! Anyyyways the next day we got a special driving tour of Bel Air from Thomas on our way to the Fox Studios, where Thomas gave us a special tour, lucky us! We got lunch with him down in L.A. and then me and Trevor spent the night just chilling watching a movie and eating dinner at home. The next day we woke up early and drove down to Malibu. We spent the day at Santa Monica Pier which was so much fun! It is a place I have always wanted to go. We then went to Brandon and Serene's and visited with them, hung out. Later we went to see a movie and had some dinner. We spent the night at Brandon's and Serene's and that was such a treat. We even got to go to church with them in the morning. After church me and Trevor had to drive down to Long Beach where the Ship was leaving from! Now I could write the looooongest blog about our Cruise, but to save time I will just summarize and sometime you can ask me the details! The cruise was so much fun, we ate, slept, swam, ate slept, swam! Our first port, Puerto Vallarta = a BLAST! We went and did the Extreme Canopy Adventure. We took a boat all the way to this way small town in the middle of nowhere, then got on a truck (which was a ride just in itself!) and drove high up into the mountains, then we got on Mules (yes MULES!) and rode on them up a very windy narrow mountain side until we finally got to where the Zip Lining started. I am afraid of heights, but not enough to stop me from doing fun things. I mean I was the one who REALLY REALLY wanted to do this, but I am not going to lie I was afraid. The hardest part was letting go the first time, but after I did that it was amazzzzzing! We Zip Lined, and then we did some propelling, and free falls (which were also hard for me to do! haha) All in all, the MOST amazing thing I have ever done in my life. It was crazy. Our next Port stop was Mazatlan, which was really cool because I couldn't stop thinking of my brother Brandon and how he had lived there! I wish I could go to all the places my brother's served because there is a sense of pride you get by seeing the place. I am so proud of my brothers. Anyways, in Mazatlan we took a boat out to Deer Island which is a natural reserve there so it was completely secluded! Our group was just there with the tour guides etc. SO NICE. We went Kayaking around the Island and then took a hike up the Island and saw some amazing views! Fun Day. Our last stop was CABO SAN LUCAS! Which me and Trevor literally fell in LOVE with. It was cool again knowing Brandon had served not far from there either. Anyways, Cabo was PERFECT! We just hung out on the amazing beach, took a banana boat ride, took a boat over to the Lover's Beach (which had the most insane waves! I had sand in places for weeks) and played around on the secluded beaches and crazy waves, and then we went Parasailing! Now again with the heights, but parasailing was so smooth so peaceful so cool, I wasn't worried or afraid for a second! It was probably the second coolest thing I have ever done next to the Ziplining, rappelling, and free falling a couple days earlier haha. We ended our perfect day at Cabo with some authentic mexican food. I told trevor, we are here we need to get some local food. It was by far the best Mexican food I have ever had in my life. SOO good. That was our last port and we had another day at sea which we enjoyed more food and swimming and sleeping and shows etc. After an 11 day long honeymoon, we were ready to go home :)

Yummy Strawberry's and chocolates!

San Diego Bay, one view from our suite.

Me and Trevor at Six Flags.

Fox Lot Studio Tour.

Santa Monica Pier.

Best Ice Cream Ever!

Our bedroom was decorated in Honeymoon Decorations, what a surprise!

Bon Voyage! The boat is leaving dock!

Trevor really enjoyed the food... as you can tell.

Being silly!

Trevor laughing hard about something, I don't even remember about what but I love this picture.

Deer Island.

Mazatlan behind us.

HELLO!

Lover's Beach.

Like I said... VERY secluded.

PARASAILING!

Perfect Wedding, Perfect Honeymoon. Need I ask for more?

Praying Mantis Boxing Match

Well today was Employee Appreciation Day, and since I am now officially a University of Utah Employee I was able to attend. (I will have to post a blog about now being an employee with the school at another time!) Anyways I went to the fun day, I got some free pizza, ice cream etc and was on my way back to the office I work at when I came across this. Now I only had my camera phone so I wish I could have got a better picture but I was horrified to get too close, I didn't want the thing jumping on me. First off you can't tell in the picture but this Praying Mantis was the BIGGEST thing I have ever seen. Like bigger then my hand! It was so big, it is what first caught my attention.... THEN I noticed the fact that it had just killed another Praying Mantis! Seems silly but this was the craziest cool thing I have seen in awhile! I am sad I missed the fight, now that would have been entertaining. Anyways it got me wondering over to good old Wikipedia for some info...enjoy.

(Pay attention to the cannibalism part! Wish I had time to wait around and see if it ate its little Praying Mantis friend!)

Wikipedia gave me this description...

Praying Mantises are exclusively predatory. Larger species have been known to prey on small lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, and even rodents, basically anything that it can successfully capture and devour. Most species are known to engage in cannibalism. The majority of mantises are ambush predators, waiting for prey to stray too near. The mantis then lashes out at remarkable speed. Some ground and bark species, however, pursue their prey rather quickly. Prey items are caught and held securely with grasping, spiked forelegs ("raptorial legs"); the first thoracic segment, the prothorax, is commonly elongated and flexibly articulated, allowing for greater range of movement of the front limbs while the remainder of the body remains more or less immobile. The articulation of the head is also remarkably flexible, permitting nearly 300 degrees of movement in some species, allowing for a great range of vision (their compound eyes have a large binocular field of vision) without having to move the remainder of the body. As their hunting relies heavily on vision, they are primarily diurnal, but many species will fly at night.

So all of this got me googling different Praying Mantis information and found this amazing picture...

Yup that is a humming bird, I even watched a video on You Tube of a female and male Praying Mantis mating and then right after she EATS HIM! these insects are crazy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYp_Xi4AtAQ

"Second most Beautiful Voice."

Well I had an interesting experience today at church. Me and Trevor have only been to our new ward three times, one of those times being Stake Conference so we really still don't know anyone. Well there we were sitting in the pews and it came time for the sacrament hymn. Were singing the hymn everything is normal and were coming to the end of the verse. Well you know that big pause that happens in between a hymn, and a sacrament prayer? You normally don't hear much, the shuffle of legs and scriptures, maybe a kid burp or something? Well all of a sudden this middle aged man sitting by himself in front of me and Trevor turns around looks right at me and in a quite loud not reverent voice at all says, "That was the SECOND most BEAUTIFUL voice I have ever heard!"

You should have seen Trevor's face, and mine I am sure as well! It may not seem funny while telling the story but if you had been there. It was like everyone heard it, and his compliment ended up becoming well really embarrassing. Everyone turned around that was near us and looked right at us. Trevor couldn't stop himself from lightly laughing during the sacrament prayer, and he wasn't the only one, I heard others. Anyways once the giggles and the awkwardness of the situation went away I was sitting there thinking about what this man had said. He thought I had the second most beautiful voice in the world? What a compliment! Of course I came to the realization this man has probably not heard many people's voices then! Either way, I was deeply flattered by his comment, and it made me think of my voice. I am from a musical family, and I really believe everyone in my family has a natural ability when it comes to music. I have played flute, piano, and sang in choir growing up so I know I am not totally musically challenged. Anyways, so here I am sitting and thinking about my voice, and well I am about to divulge a secret. I sometimes love to listen to my own voice (now before you go thinking I am the most conceded person in the world just wait).... I sometimes love to listen to my own voice because I swear, to me, It sounds JUST like my mother when she sings. Now I am sure if my mom is reading this she is thinking about all the times she would elbow me in Choir when I would purposely sing the wrong notes (because I thought it sounded better haha) and when I was out of tune, haha and is very ashamed I think I sound like her. But I really do. I have never told anyone that before because it... well kind of sounds weired. I don't think it is just me I hear it when Kira sings too. We all kind of sound alike... maybe its a genetic family thing like how all the Leavitt's have the same smile. But anyways, I love that I have this. I love that even though I can't always be around my mom, and someday she will be gone, every time I sing I think of her, because I really do hear her. And I think my mom has one of the most beautiful, clean voices. Maybe if she had been next to me today in church that man would have given her the honor of the "First most beautiful voice he has ever heard." haha.

The Best Day of My Life.

How does one describe their wedding day? Especially when their wedding was as perfect as I could have ever imagined it to be. You are just full of emotions of happiness, and joy, and your emotional because your so happy. You are also in almost a shock because you just can't believe this is all happening to you. Trevor and I had the perfect wedding ceremony in the temple, the perfect reception, everything was flawless. Everyone says this but it really was the best day of my life. I am so lucky and so blessed to have found myself with amazing family and friends, and now with an amazing husband who I still just sit back and think about all the amazing qualities he has and how incredible he is, it makes me wonder...why he picked me? I wish I had the wedding pictures back to show you all but until I get those up for you, here is just the first part we have of our wedding video. Thanks to everyone who made this day amazing, especially my dad and my mom, I love you.

Me and My Parents before going into the Temple.

trevor.alycia {san.diego.temple} from Eric Richards on Vimeo.

More Pictures COMING SOON!

Family Dinner the night before the Wedding...

The night before the wedding we had the opportunity to have all our family and friends here for the wedding at a big dinner. It was so much fun! We had a lot of family and friends travel to come see us from parts of California, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Canada! We got good ol Pat and Oscars and all just sat together and ate, shared stories etc. My Nana pulled one on my and did a "Panty Line" presentation for me. I was verrrrry red, but it was so hilarious. The poem went along with the different stages in your life and what under wear you wear during those stages. It was great :) It was just a fun night surrounded with all the people you care about, it was perfect.

Lisle the "MC"

Sarah Grandpa and Nana.

Evan ALWAYS has something in his mouth.... I LOVE this picture because i have about 4 identical to it all on different occasions.

Sydney does not like to sit still.

Getting over the embarrassment haha.