Learned Wisdom

I promise I will get back to all of the updates soon, but I want to take a break from all of that. Today Carson and I have been married for a month. Yay! In that time we have learned some valuable lessons, so we thought we should share them.

1. Never put a large bed against a wall - that side of the bed will require the moves of a rhythmic gymnast to make. Moves neither of us have. 
2. Buy a plunger before it becomes absolutely necessary. And before your local Target runs out of them. And before it's Sunday. 
3. Objects displace water. Very large objects displace a very large amount of water. 
4. In a snow storm, many objects - mattresses, large pictures, snowboards - can catch the wind and act as sails. Beware. Especially when going up stairs. 
5. People buy wedding gifts from very....um...unique places. Of course we are grateful for any gift we get. 
6. Ikea is a great place to buy projects to keep husbands quiet (or swearing) for hours. 
7. Even with all of the rope, manipulation, and imagination in the world, our sectional will never fit into or on top of my mom's Honda Pilot. Bummer. 
8. Girls don't cry to all chick flicks. And they don't appreciate it when boys pretend to cry "for emotional support."

Jamaican Honeymoon

After the wedding Carson and I had no idea where we were going on our honeymoon. My dad had set the whole thing up and barely told anyone. We did know that we were spending the night at the JW Marriot Resort where we had our breakfast and reception earlier that day. We walked in to this...

...it was seriously the nicest hotel I had ever seen. It even had three bathrooms! On the bed was an envelope from my dad telling us that the next day we would be flying out to the Couples Negril resort in Negril, Jamaica!

We spent most of the day relaxing and then we were driven to the airport where we first flew to Charlotte, North Carolina and then Montego Bay, Jamaica. Since Negril is a 90 minute drive from Montego Bay, my dad arranged for us to fly in an air taxi instead. Carson, who doesn't really like flying anyway, was a little scared when he saw the name of the airline (TinAir), but even more scared when he saw our plane...

I love flying so I was supper excited. I sat up front in the co-pilots position and Carson sat in the back with all our luggage. 

Yeah...he was more than a little nervous. To make things worse for Carson and better for me, after getting into the air, the pilot told me to fly the plane. He didn't even have his hands on the controls!

The pilot taught me how to go up and down, showed me what some of the gauges on the dashboard meant, and just told me where to go and I took us there. It was awesome...and just hours before I was telling Carson I wanted to learn to fly an airplane. Carson distracted himself from the terror by taking pictures of Jamaica from the sky.

We finally made it to the resort and found our way to our room. It was a spacious room with two private balconies, a mini-bar stocked with non-alcoholic drinks (they must have thought we were crazy when we asked not to have free alcohol in our mini-bar), and a hammock. 

Every day there was a different towel sculpture on our bed which is what is on the bed in case you were wondering. 

Our resort had tons to do but it was also a nice place to just relax. 

To Carson's delight between the four restaurants and three bars he could always get food or at least a pina colada. 

We were both fans of the bar - especially this one that was right on the beach. Everything was virgin of course!

This one was Carson's favorite because he could be in the pool and still order drinks. 

Carson ate this same meal at least once and most often twice a day - jerk chicken and fries with a side of wings. And some sort of tropical drink of course. 

Carson in the hammock on our balcony. I think it looks like he is in a cocoon or something. 

The view from our room. The weather was perfect the entire time we were there. It was warm but not too hot and the sun was always shining. 

As part of the honeymoon package at the resort we had a couples massage in this hut...right on the beach. It was so nice to relax and be pampered, especially after we had been so busy and stressed. Here we didn't have to worry about a thing. 

The beach was one of our favorite spots to relax. There were hammocks in some of the trees big enough for two people. We loved swinging in them and listening to the water. 

This restaurant was really nice and required reservations. The decor was really unique and we got to eat some things we had never tried before. It was also fun to sit on an couch and eat a formal dinner, not just leftovers or something.

We intermixed all of the relaxing with fun activities. One morning we took a shopping trip out into the city. We bought a lot of really cool things to decorate our apartment with and we made a friend. 

He wasn't really musically talented, but like almost everyone in Jamaica, he was super friendly. 

We also did some snorkeling where we got to see a lot of starfish.

It turns out that it is pretty hard to take pictures of someone else while you are both snorkeling. So, this is what you get. 

The highlight of the trip for both of us was going scuba diving. We took a little class with another couple, passed with flying colors, and then headed out to the ocean.

The water was really choppy so it was pretty scary to jump in, but it was way calm under the surface. 

During this trip we saw a ton of lion fish. In this picture our instructor is pulling one out with his flipper because they are poisonous to touch. 

Apparently Carson only felt like taking pictures of me from the back that day...

We also did a little jet skiing. We negotiated a deal with a nice Jamaican not affiliated with the resort and got to ride around for an hour. This was a little sketchy...especially after he told us that if it starts beeping its okay, just to let him know. I was a little afraid we were going to get stranded in the ocean but it ended up being a lot of fun. Carson and I took turns driving us around the bay where our resort was.

Even though Carson didn't get to make a gingerbread house this Christmas (a Flake family tradition) he did get to enjoy this one, probably the biggest I have ever seen. 

Our trip was short because we wanted to be home in time for Christmas, but it was a blast. Thanks dad for letting us have this opportunity!

Formals

We will have our wedding pictures any day now, but for now I can show you the pictures from our formal shoot that we took before the wedding. It felt a little weird getting all dressed up in our wedding clothes and having people congratulate us when we weren't even married, but it was a really fun day. Jennie from Jennie Slade Photography did such a good job. I absolutely love her and Carson will even tolerate taking tons of pictures if she is behind the camera. 

Some Background

September 2009 - Carson and I first met at our ward party last year. This is true - even if he doesn't remember it (which he swears he doesn't). He was with his girlfriend who I also met and who I thought was super nice and pretty. I honestly didn't think much of Carson because he was dating someone, and I am not the kind of person to mess with that. Since Carson doesn't even remember seeing me at that party, I must not have made a great first impression either.


Fall 2009 to Spring 2010 - Carson and I saw each other occasionally because my roommate Jess was dating his brother Ryan. I went to some of his football games, ate dinner at his parent's house, and typed papers in his apartment - all as Jess' friend supporting Ryan. Carson remembers this, but since he always had his girlfriend around we never really spoke more than a few words to each other.


April 2010 - Carson and his girlfriend broke up - for real this time (there were some false alarms earlier). As soon as this happened Jess and Ryan tried to set us up.  They got married around this time so they thought it would be fun if Ryan's brother and Jess' best friend started dating.


May 15, 2010 - Carson and I went on our first date - paintballing up Hobble Creek Canyon. We played a few rounds, he gave me a huge bruise on my leg, and then he and Ryan cooked us dinner up at their house. I had a really fun time and decided I wanted to see this guy some more since I didn't really know him that well. Little did I know that Carson had told his co-workers even before our date that if I ever became his girlfriend we would get married. Confidence? Or wishful thinking??


May 16, 2010 - I turned 21 and Carson helped to celebrate. He came to my birthday dinner that Jess made, helped make desserts for the party that night, and spent the evening celebrating at my apartment. I was surprised that he would want to spend so much time with me so soon...but I wasn't complaining.


Late May 2010 - Carson and I continued dating. I won't bore you with all of the details but there were movies, dinners, throwing the football around at the park, horseback riding, cooking, baking, and a lot of talking. We even went to California for Jess and Ryan's wedding reception. Basically, we were together and just enjoying it.


May - October 2010 - The dating continued. I wasn't in school until fall but Carson was working a ton over the summer so we didn't see a lot of each other. I would take him lunches a lot and we planned things to do during the few hours at night when he was free. Weekends were nice because we had time to hang out and we always went up to his parents house for Sunday dinners. Once school started things got better as far as the time we could spend together. We met up for lunch on campus when our schedules allowed and studied together after school. Carson brought up marriage on the way home from his parents house one Sunday and at first I was surprised, but we both knew it was the right thing to do.


October 9, 2010 - Carson proposed! And of course I said yes. From there the wedding planning was in full swing. We didn't want to be engaged for a long time so December seemed the best option, it was just so soon! We decided on a date and a place and just started planning.  We got to go down to Vegas a few times to take pictures (probably Carson's least favorite thing to do) and get plans finalized. Our parents were a huge help - we couldn't have done it without them.


December 18, 2010 - We were married in the Las Vegas Temple for time and all eternity and we couldn't be happier. Now we are adjusting to real life after the honeymoon, moving into our new apartment, and adjusting to going to school again.