Our hometown

Our trip to Utah was amazing! We spent the majority of our time with Stephen's family because I was able to stay an extra two weeks with mine after Stephen went back to the Island. His entire family was able to come visit which meant a lot of crazy fun and game nights. Sweet baby Kaylee was kind enough to bring a stomach bug all the way from Vegas with her to Utah. It hit quite a few family members. Stephen got knocked dead for one full day which was not fun at all. It was the first time I have ever seen him really sick. I felt so bad for him. The bug hit me a few days later and I stayed pretty sick for a few days. Then a few days after that I got a cold that lasted until I went back to the Island. There must be something about coming back to Utah. It just gets me sick and more sick.
After the stomach bug sickness had mostly passed all the guys spent an afternoon golfing and the girls got pedicures and went shopping! Stephen even got a couple haircuts while we were on break. His first haircut was just a trim but it didn't look the best afterwards so a couple days later he went in and had about 6 inches chopped off. He had been growing it for 9 months. I have to admit I had a love/hate relationship with the long hair and ended up being a little sad to see it go. Luckily Stephen is super attractive with short and long hair.
Like all of our trips home we end up fitting a lot in our schedule. We did so much I had to put our activities into separate posts. We caught up on movies that were in the theaters, had wonderful American food, went shopping, and did as much as we could with friends and family while trying to relax plenty. After sending Stephen off at the airport I headed to Orem to stay with one of my best friends Shae. I spent the night at her house and the next day we celebrated her birthday. We went to Chili's for lunch and then got a slice of chocolate cake to share from The Chocolate in Provo. I was able to play with her darling little baby girl Molly. It was so much fun being able to visit with her for the day. Then I headed back to Logan for the next week and a half. I was able to visit so many good friends: Trisha, Alison, Brikelle, and Brandon and Whitney. My parents and I had a fun time too. They were so funny and cute when they dropped me off at the airport. They watched me off and kept waving good bye until I went all the way through security and then up the escalator out of sight. I love my family so very much and was so grateful to be able to spend some extra time with them before heading back to the Island.

My first pedicure. I was pretty ticklish.

So were Stephen's sisters!

Peirce family pictures. Clay wasn't the happiest.

and didn't last long...

 Baby Kaylee

Peirce Sisters!

Spending some time with old amazing friends
after Stephen had headed back!

After 3 hours at the dentist and two fillings later!
Me attempting a smile. 

It's kind of a tradition now to have popcorn every night.

Happy Mother's Day to an amazing momma!

Missing my man but so grateful for Skype!

Davis Park

I was so sad to see Stephen go back to the Island without me. I have missed him so much! On his last day in America we just took it easy in the morning and relaxed. It was a beautiful day by the afternoon so we headed to the golf course so he could get one more round in before heading back. I'm not much of a golfer but I love driving the cart around and of course taking pictures of all the ducks. We had a perfect day together. After golf we went to Nielsons frozen custard and got a couple concretes. Definitely a new favorite place for me. We spent some time with Stephen's family in the backyard, then headed for Salt Lake. We ate dinner at the spaghetti factory and then headed to the airport. Stephen's flight was delayed an hour so we spent a little bit of time together before he headed through security. I had no idea how hard it was going to be letting him go without me. When he finally left I couldn't watch him go because I was going to start bawling right there in the airport. So I just headed for the car. He is so amazing. I'm glad to call him my husband and so excited to see him again in just a couple days!

Remember these...Little helicopters.

Enjoying a fire the night before Stephen heads back to Dominica

Missing my man.

My favorite place to be with Stephen

Stephen and I were lucky enough to get to the temple 4 times together this break. One thing we miss more than anything living in Dominica is not being able to go to the temple. One goal we have is to always live close to a temple. I hope after leaving Dominica we can keep that goal. It truly does make us better people and keeps our marriage so strong.

Pack the Park Pink

One of our favorite things we did during the break was go to a bee's game. We went to our first bee's game together while we were dating, then went to another the next summer after we were married. It has become one of our favorite traditions to do in the summertime. When we do go to a game we try to go on firework nights. This game was also themed pack the park pink in support of breast cancer research. Marilee, Colby, and the kids came with us. It was such a fun night! If I do say so myself Stephen looked pretty good in his pink shirt too.

He's such a great Uncle.

Happy Anniversary

I never thought I could love someone as much as I love Stephen! He is my everything and more. We were lucky enough to celebrate our one year anniversary twice. It was absolutely perfect! On our actual anniversary we woke up to an empty apartment (because we had moved all our things to our new apartment) with hardly any food in it, stressfully made it to church, came home from church and made mac and cheese and leftover pizza, then Stephen left to go study for finals. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind for a perfect one year anniversary. Thankfully one of our good friends Tai invited us over for dinner. We hung out with their adorable kids and Stephen won a paper airplane contest. It was so fun being able to spend the afternoon with them. Then we headed home and watched our wedding video together. I am so glad we had one made. Pictures are amazing to look back on but having an actual video of our wedding is incredible. Our anniversary could have been more exciting but in a way it was perfect.
Once we made it home to Utah we celebrated our anniversary again. This time we tried to copy our wedding day and our first day married as closely as we could. When we got married our Sealer told us he hoped we would come back to the temple every year on our anniversary and to still be doing Sealings on our 50th anniversary. We were able to do Sealings in the Salt Lake Temple our first weekend home. It was such a special experience. I love being able to listen to what was said when we were married a year ago and remember all of the wonderful blessings. I hope on our 50th anniversary we are still able to go do them.
After going to the Temple we had dinner at the cheesecake factory. It has become one of our favorite places to eat in Salt Lake. We spent the night where we spent our first night married at the inn on the hill bed and breakfast. They left out some sparkling cider for us and I had a small cake made to look like our wedding cake so we could traditionally have some of our wedding cake on our first anniversary. I felt like having a fresh cake was a much better option then freezing real wedding cake for a year. It was delicious. We had such a good time at the inn on the hill. They even brought us breakfast in bed the next morning. While eating we watched country music videos in bed. It was a lot of fun. One of the videos we watched was "I don't dance" by Lee Brice. I had never heard it before but now whenever I listen to it I think back on our anniversary and how much I love being married to Stephen.
We went for a walk around the capital after checking out of the hotel but kept it pretty short because it was a bit chilly. Later we went to the Kura Door for a couples message where we went a year earlier on our first day married. It was an amazing anniversary weekend! I am so lucky to have Stephen in my life. We are absolutely perfect for each other. I can't wait to celebrate 50 more years together.

Dominica Anniversary!

Utah Anniversary! 

View from our room at Inn on the Hill

223

Dominica to San Juan to New York to Utah

Stephen is finished with his first year of medical school! He is officially a second year Medical Student. It has been tough but he has done so well. I am very proud of him. Unlike Christmas break when we stayed on the Island for about a week before coming home, we left this time the day after finals. We couldn't wait any longer for a much needed break from school and especially the Island.
Like always it is a frustrating adventure leaving Dominica. We headed home on the 23rd of April and chose to use the airline seaborne in hopes that we wouldn't have a horrible repeat of Christmas break. We spent that morning packing up last minute things to be moved to our new apartment and then headed for the airport. Going through security was fine, besides the fact that they took away my comb and a beautiful conk shell we had found by the ocean. The worker said my comb could be used as a weapon and then demonstrated how. She then said the conk shell was considered a rock of Dominica and couldn't leave. We were pretty furious and then saw over a hundred conk shells outside the airport that I'm assuming came from other disappointed people leaving the Island.
When boarding came we all made our way outside to get on the plane and waited for a while. Then we were all asked to come back inside to wait for a while. They moved everyone from our plane to one side of the airport and when one student left to the other side to talk to some friends they moved him and said we couldn't cross a certain line. We all felt a little like we were prisoners. Then they individually checked each of us and all of our personal items before letting us all on the plane. They were throwing out everyone's chapsticks and lipglosses until one girl passed around a ziplock baggie for everyone to put theirs in. As long as it was in a bag while being checked it was fine. Once we were done being checked we could take it out of the baggie. It was quite ridiculous honestly. Finally we all got on the plane after having been checked multiple times and Stephen joked that this was the safest flight he has ever been on. After saying that the flight attendant made two people on the very back row move because of balance issues during the flight. We didn't feel quite as safe after that; but we survived and made it to San Juan.
Once we got to San Juan we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the San Juan Intercontinental Resort and Hotel. It was incredible. If we ever stay in San Juan again we will definitely stay there. We had a door man bring up our bags and he was the nicest guy ever. I'm not really sure how to describe how awesome this guy was but I'll just say we left him a pretty awesome tip. We absolutely love the people in San Juan. They are all so welcoming and kind. We ate dinner at this awesome little place and had authentic Puerto Rican food. After dinner we headed to the pool area and it was again incredible. We sort of regretted not staying there for a few days. The next morning we saw a little bit of Old San Juan. It was pretty early in the morning before all the shops opened up but it was fun to see before heading to the airport. Flying to New York and then to Utah went very smoothly. We made it home on the 24th at midnight. Two long days of traveling but finally made it home!

Old San Juan

All the conk shells

Stuck in the very back to New York and Utah.