Lots to tell... great wedding, great cruise, we even almost saw someone drown!

WEDDING

Everything went so wonderfully! The sealing was beautiful! But I am getting ahead of myself... So, we got to his parents nice and safe. It was very very hot and was supposed to be the whole week with the possibility that it might get just a little cooler on Friday, our wedding day. We worked on this for the reception and put everything was as prepared as it was going to get. My parents got to Washington two days before the wedding. They stayed in Seattle and Nathan went to drop me off. They took us out to dinner and we went back to the hotel and talked for a bit. When we got back to the hotel (a short walk away), the power went out in the middle of talking. Reminding you that it's record breaking highs in Washington. PLUS we didn't get the second room we wanted so i was sleeping in a queen bed with Meriam and Emma and heaven forbid that they sleep next to each other, so I was in the middle. YAY! it was so hot, I sleep around 4 hours that night. The power did finally come back on that morning, thank goodness. That was beautiful! but really the endowments were beautiful. Really coming down to the final hour and everything was going pretty well. We set up for the reception that night and it took far less time than we all anticipated. On the way back to Seattle, after setting up, the car died on the way back on the highway... but eventually it started and we got back... now I had my own room and it was great... Meriam slept with me in my room.. on a separate bed and everyone thought I wouldn't sleep. I slept the whole night. It was great. Everything was so surreal. I hadn't hit me at all that I was getting married that day. My mom did my hair and we were off to the temple (which was right around the corner). Nathan was almost the last person to get to the temple, thinking he only had to be there just before the scheduled time. Funny, considering he had to be there an hour before, lucky for him I didn't have a lot to do to prepare. I wasn't wearing my wedding gown for the ceremony and my hair was finished. I was going to wear the temple dress that I was sealed to my Father in. Well, we did all we needed to do and the ceremony was perfect. Nathan didn't cry, but I did. I was trying very hard not to make loud crying noises. I did pretty good I think. I believe that at this time it had hit me a little bit what we were doing. Now... I can't even comprehend it... It still really hasn't set in that I'm married. But anyways, everything was beautiful at the reception! The only thing that almost didn't go well was the fact that we forgot to get ahold of a cake cutting set... there was one thing we had borrowed (now we own) we used my friends Mariztas sword for dress up for Nathan... it got used to cut the cake! It was perfect! The car was awesome and had tons of little Mickey heads on it. It looked great!

HONEYMOON

So, Nathan's Father took us to our hotel so that we could leave from there, take the ferry (that was right next door to the hotel), and walk about a mile or so to the cruise ship.... which we did, we didn't take a taxi and it hurt our hands, but life goes on. So our first night was great, very relaxing, Sister McKee made a picnic for us so that we didn't have to go anywhere to eat. It was perfect, very yummy. So, we got to the Norwegian cruise ship terminal and checked our luggage in. The lady said that it wasn't necessary to put our Names and Addresses because as long as the room # was on the luggage it would be fine. So, we dropped our luggage and went to check ourselves in. We got to the desk and she said there was something wrong. She walked away and took forever to get back. BUT when she did, she said that we have someone to thank because instead of the bottom floor tiny little porthole room we were supposed to have for about (3 or 4 hundred per person), we got a 10th floor BALCONY room. It was awesome!!!! The room we got was valued at around 1000 a person! big deal upgrade for no cost. I think they double booked our room and the other people checked in first... so we got the upgrade!!! AWESOME!!! Room service and everything was included in the price of the cruise and we got that often, they charge a $12 service fee per person per day to replace having to tip... but we definitely took advantage of that. We got room service at least once a day and went to restaurants for the rest of our meals, it was fantastic. The food was wonderful!!!! I think we both gained weight... heh. We watched the shows and movies... the room was wonderful!

The first place we docked at was Ketchican. We saw a Loggers Show there. It was so much fun. The guys that compete are hired as athletes and trained to act and such. They split the audience up into two sections (American and Canadian). We were on the Canadian side. One of our guys has been on ESPN and won two world competitions. He was very sarcastic and rude, which was great cause the audience is supposed to Boo and Hiss and the other team and cheer on theirs. It was great, our side won!

The second place we stopped at was Juneau. We had tickets for the tramway. It takes you up the mountain and you can see their Rapture Sanctuary (which consisted of a single Eagle) and walking trails, it was pretty cool. The views were spectacular.

We saw Sawyer Glacier on the way to our third destination, Skagway. We ate at one of the restaurants that night and happened to be seated with a perfect view of the Glacier while eating, it was great!

In Skagway we had the real expensive excursion. We took a bus around the town with a little tour of the city by this adorable man with immense sarcasm, he was a real character. Finally, the bus took us to a ranch where we would be going on a Trail Ride. Nathan got a beautiful horse named Homer and my horses name was Hercules. They were great! We had no problem with them, we both handled them well enough that it was perfect. While riding through beautiful forests and meadows, we heard stories from the locals about the area and heard dogs barking from the mountain tops (where if you spent enough money you could be involved in a dog sled excursion). We watered our horses in a little river where the salmon run was starting! It was so incredible to see all the salmon swimming while Nathan's horse, Homer, kept trying to stomp on them and was splashing me... it was great. Neither of us were really very sore in the days to come.

Now one of our most exciting moments on our cruise, our stop at Prince Rupert in Canada. There seemed to be only one port for cruise ships... the port was very close to the shore and there was another dock by our tail end very close to us. The cruise ships have the ability to turn the propellors so that you can go sideways. So we are heading into the left, going sideways, but at the last moment they turn the propellors going against the shore so that we come into the dock softly. There were a few little boats tied up the little dock. There were two boats towards the end that were really taking on the turbulence on the water from our propellors. There was a man in each of the boats. The one on the end had a bigger boat, but he noticed the turbulence and got off his boat. The other guy (next one in), had a smaller boat and he was a bigger guy. He was watching the ship come in and didn't immediately notice the water that started to come over the back of his tiny boat. He looked down and stepped back, but didn't think about getting onto the dock until it was too late! His boat took on too much water because of his weight and he got sucked under with his boat. He didn't appear for a while, the guy that owned the other boat started running over when he saw it happen (we were all freaking out!), that guy slipped on some water that came up on the dock from the turbulence... but he got up and ran over to where the boat had got under as the front two feet of the boat finally bobbed up to the surface... it sat there vertical. But where was the man? The other guy looked like he might jump in to see if he could find him. And that is when the man finally came up on the other side of the dock and hung on, not being able to really speak yet. Apparently, I was the only one who had enough sense to actually yell to the man not in the water... "HE IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOCK!" The guy heard me and helped his friend out of the water... he ended up just fine. not even going to the hospital. Nathan and I were joking with each other about how the Canadians now have a good reason to hate Americans and how he should get a free cruise and such out of this... and then... we saw a sign that said "No Moorage" which mean... no tying up your boat there... hahahaha. oh well. he is ok! Crazy times. For the rest of the day we walked around and then came back to the boat and relaxed.

Everything just went so well! it was really perfect. We got back and opened gifts and drove back to Idaho to work on Tuesday... lame, but good, cause we need the money lol.

Anyways, more to come :)