1.15.2012

Honeymoonin' Time

Josh and I decided to wait until Christmas break to go on our honeymoon so that way we wouldn't be missing school and we could just have a relaxing vacation.We went to Miami, Florida. For those of you that don't know me that well, I am ALWAYS cold no matter how many layers I wear so when I first found out his parents were sending us to Florida I was looking forward to getting some warm weather in January. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The week that we were in Miami it was oddly cold. Usually it's in the 70's during January but while we were there it barely reached 60!
We have this little thing in our family that whenever we used to go camping the weather would turn out bad because of my mom. Her name is Irene and so they would always say "I-Rain" is here and that is why the weather is bad. Well, I think my mom has passed her bad luck onto me. Within the past few years I can think of numerous times we went camping, to Bear Lake or on a trip and the weather was out of the ordinary. When I was 16 my mom, Charlie, and I went to Laguna Beach, California for spring break. The whole time we were there it was overcast. The sun didn't even peak around the clouds for a moment! Also, it seems like every time I would go over to Bear Lake for the weekend with my family last summer the weather would not be what I was expecting. It would be cloudy and windy with very little sun. I think with that said, you probably would be better off not inviting me to go on vacation with you!!
Even though the weather was crumby in Miami we still had a wonderful time! We were able to rent a car and drive to many different places. We arrived in Miami on Monday afternoon and after we got settled in out hotel room we went and ate at Benihana's. That was my first time going there and I absolutely loved it! The food was amazing, especially the ham fried rice. Josh had told them we were on our honeymoon and so they sang us a special song and gave us some yummy dessert. 
On Tuesday, we decided to drive through the keys to Key West. As I got dressed that morning I knew it was supposed to be colder that day but figured I would be fine wearing shorts and sandals. When we went out to the parking lot to get into our car it was freezing (maybe a little exaggeration) so I ran back up to our room and changed into pants and boots. 3 hours later we arrived! It was really neat to drive through all of the Keys and cross the bridges that went from one key to the next. Key West was different from what I pictured. It has very narrow streets and old houses that were turned into shops, hotels, and businesses.There was surprisingly a lot of people there for a Tuesday afternoon! We waited in line to get a picture by the monument stating that we were 90 miles from Cuba. Josh also told me about the Mile 0 which I had never heard of before. For those of you that are from Utah... Key West is the town that is the farthest south on the map of the U.S. Unfortunately, we didn't ever find the Mile 0 sign to take a picture of. Then we walked down Duval Street and roamed the different shops on that street. That night we ate at Hard Rock Cafe and for dessert we ordered key lime pie since it is famous in the Keys.
On Wednesday, we went shopping at the Dolphin Mall (which was my choice)! This mall was huge! The mall was a mix of outlet and normal stores which was the perfect combination. It took us at least an hour just to make a full circle around the mall. After shopping we headed to the American Airlines Arena AKA home of the Miami Heat!! We had a lot of fun at the game. Luckily, Lebron was playing because Dwayne Wade was out for that game. It was neat to watch a team that is actually good because I've only been to Utah Jazz games ha! Josh especially loved it because he is the one that purchased the tickets at least a month before our honeymoon!
 On Thursday the weather started to warm up so we drove to north beach and walked along the beach. The water was very clear and I felt like I was in the Caribbean. There were a lot of people laying out on the beach which we had planned to do but accidentally left our suits at the hotel. We turned our rental car in that afternoon so after that we went back to our hotel and just relaxed and watched TV. We flew back to Illinois Friday morning to spend one last day with Josh's family and to go to Colin's birthday party.

90 Miles to Cuba-- Southernmost Point

Cold or hungry?

Famous Key Lime Pie

Josh + Bob Marley= Love

On Duval Street

Miami Heat

At the game

Lebron warming up

Beach

Just a little chilly

The Boardwalk

Such a pretty day

1.08.2012

Home For The Holidays

I've come to learn that deciding which family to spend what holidays with when you are first starting out as newlyweds can be tricky. Fortunately, we were able to spend time with both of our families this holiday season. As mentioned in the last post, Josh and I stayed in Logan and had our first Christmas together in our little home and spent time with my (Joni's) side of the family. The rest of Christmas break we were able to spend with Josh's family. We are so thankful that his parents were able to fly us out to Illinois to be with his family during the rest of the holiday season.

Josh and I arrived in Illinois on Tuesday, December 27th at night. On Wednesday Josh's parents, Jason (Josh's brother), Josh and I were able to attend a session at the St. Louis Temple. It was such a pretty day outside, sunny and all! Josh and I haven't been back to the temple since we got married so it was nice to be able to go together and to be there with his family as well. I look forward to learning new things as I go each time.

St. Louis Missouri Temple

That evening Grandpa and Grandma Grodeon (Lisa's parents) had the McDonald family over for dinner. We were able to see our nephew Colin and he was so excited to see me. Megan said that on the car ride over Colin was singing, "I get to see my girlfriend, I get to see my girlfriend." (For those of you who don't know about this, Josh's nephew has called me his girlfriend ever since the first time he met me in August. Even now that he knows I am married to Josh he still calls me his girlfriend. It's so cute).

On Thursday we lounged around for most of the day and got things ready for the open house. That night we all went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and then Jason, Josh, and I went to a bar to see his friend rap. This was my first time of experiencing the bar and it was interesting indeed! I am a very very curious "people watcher" and since we obviously weren't drinking I spent most of the time watching drunks interact with one another. It was entertaining for me.

Friday evening was our open house so during the day we helped get everything set up for that. Lisa did such a great job decorating the house and keeping the plum color vintage theme we used at our wedding. She is so creative. Josh and I dressed up in our wedding clothes for one last time and so did his parents and siblings who were part of the wedding. I'm glad we did, not only because I got to wear my dress one more time but also so his friends and relatives who couldn't make it to our wedding could see us all dressed up! The open house turned out wonderful. A lot of the McDonald's family and friends were able to make it and I was glad I could meet them. I also met some of Josh's friends he went to high school with, but they didn't let me in on any secrets about Josh! For some reason nobody took pictures!!! We totally forgot. So I will describe it for those of you who weren't there. We had a chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows, creme puffs, and pretzels to dip in the chocolate and also an h'orderve bar with meatballs, shrimp, and vegetables. Oh and also this yummy punch drink. My favorite thing was the bottled water. Lisa ordered stickers that said, 'Josh and Joni McDonald, November 19, 2011'. So we stuck the stickers over the bottled water labels (picture below) and it became our own special bottled water. It was such a cute idea.

Our "personalized" water and napkins



Wedding Day at the Logan Temple

Let's see....Saturday was New Year's Eve. We spent the evening doing the McDonald family tradition--fondue with steak and shrimp & chocolate and fruit, and play games. I had so much fun and plan to carry this on someday with our own family. And yes I finally got a REAL New Year's kiss from the love of my life!!

Fondue-ing it up!!

The Ladies
New Year's Eve

Bill is already getting tired...only 1 more hour to go!

My New Year's kiss