Saying goodbye.

is lame. really lame. 

we made it short and quick of course. just like pullin' off the band aid. 

daron and i are officially the only ones left of my family in good old utah. 

i know it has been a great thing for our marriage to be on our own in our little house in lehi. 

but it doesn't make it any easier being the odd ones out. my true feelings are: when i think about how we will be here for 2 more years i kind of panic and it sounds like eternity. i kind of feel my throat closing off and my heart beats faster. i don't know why. there is nothing wrong necessarily with the state...i think it is more the fact that neither daron or my parents are here and so we feel far from "home." our old homes. 

i guess it just takes a while to adjust to not being "from" the place you grew up for 18 years of your life. at least it has been a harder break for me. when people would ask daron and i where we were from in puerto rico and he would say utah, i could feel my face immediately become very perplexed..."utah?? really? we are?" every time he answered that question it caught me off guard. it has hit me that that really should change. daron and i have our own little family. it is little but it is wonderful. it is just the two of us, growing closer more and more each and every day. i know, without a doubt, the day we leave this place...when daron  gets into some program for school and we have to say goodbye...i will be sad. and it will be a time where i look back at all the wonderful experiences we had here. the experiences that defined our relationship. defined who we are as a couple. for it is this house, where our own family began. no other house will we be able to say that about.

i do not want that day to come, where we are packing up and moving on to a new adventure, and feel as though we let this time pass thinking too much of our future. about what was next, everything to look forward to thinking "once this (whatever that is) happens..." oh, it will be so good.

i want to feel as though daron and i took not a moment for granted, lived up every day we had, and have no regrets. Life moves too quickly to only be thinking about what is ahead. i am grateful for times like these...that remind me to take full advantage of my present.     

oh, and of course, there is this edible goodness. who decides to start smiling right when b.j. and elle have to leave. figures, right!?

PR in a nut shell

meaning...through lots and lots of pictures. note to self: never think it is a good idea to put this many pictures up again. that was horrible. once i started i just had to finish. no wonder i throw one picture up per blog post. i feel so worn out.

i had to keep reminding myself that i am going to be grateful i went through and organized all the pictures and put them up. i know i will be when i can't sleep, pull out my computer and start reading old blog posts and laugh at myself (i do that all too often). it's safe to say to the pyfers and jewkes that our first family vacation was a success!

(flamenco beach on culebra island or heaven. either name fits just fine)

(needless to say flamenco beach wore us out. beau and amy slowly passing out is my favorite) 

the stormy (adventurous) day when cat was ill

la estacion

and some random randoms

My favorite excusions: 1. Flamenco beach (no need for an explanation there)

      2. Bioluminescent Bay (a must do)

my favorite part of the trip as a whole: getting to know the locals

-Keshley

-Hyrum

-Nora

-Miguel

Keshley and I met on the plane (her picture is above). I asked her what brought her to puerto rico. she replied by shaking her head. it didn't take long to realize she didn't speak english. for the last hour of the plane ride i wrote to her on a napkin in spanish trying to communicate with her. (emphasize the word trying) we got to writing so much that we filled the napkin and she pulled out her notebook so we could write in the back of it. she is 14. from carolina, puerto rico. she was in the states visiting her aunt. she doesn't like the city of san juan but recommended culebra and vieques beach and said the people are nice in "some" of the places. haha that is just part of the "small talk" we had.

Hyrum. he was my favorite. we met him in the ward on Sunday. Hyrum's dream is to be called on a mission to Salt Lake City. he practically screamed during the meeting when we told him we were from Utah. why does hyrum want to go to SLC so bad on his mission? so he can go to general conference.

yeahh, that made me almost pop a tear.

oh puerto rico. how we miss you so.

"mawwiage, mawwiage is what brings us together today"

or for the past weekend.

                      

        one of these is not like the other :)

 

wonderful venue, adorable details, and a gorgeous bride.

you can't ask for more.

even with everything though, i have to say the ceremony was the most beautiful.

and that is how it should be.

CONGRATS David and Kirstin Hansen!

can't wait to see YOU.

text messages- from lover

daron reads this post, and then i get these text messages from him.

haha. i love him. 

i'm pretty sure there is nothing sexier than a family man.

ooo give me give me give me.

sexy home remedy

tonight i was asking daron if he thought a certain someone was sexy. he said "no. i don't think anyone else is sexy besides you." i of course didn't believe him and somehow the conversation ended up with me convincing him that i am really sexy and all of the reasons why. after my big long spiel he laughs at me. ru right? then he informed me that he can't take me seriously with this ridiculous glob of toothpaste/salt mixture on my FATTY cold sore. i may have forgotten about the home remedy on my lip.

so yes. i have a cold sore and it is kirstin's wedding this weekend. i want to cry. i am a bridesmaid (which i have been so greatly looking forward to) but now i am terrified i am going to ruin the pictures. obviously the bride will look gorgeous and most likely no one will notice me. but if they do and they notice this MONSTER of a cold sore it will not be pretty.

and for anyone who has had a cold sore before, you know smiling hurts like a banchy. you feel like your lip is about to split open. smiling is not your friend.

defeated, i decided i should listen to the home remedies on random, most likely non credible websites that said eat lots of dairy.

so this gallon of ice cream and sexy me are enjoying each other tonight.
go away cold sore. go away.

laugh with me.

pictures of puerto rico to come. maybe. ha we hardly took any pictures but at the same time there are so many pictures. and it just sounds kind of exhausting to do. and, quite frankly, i don't really even know if pictures do the beaches and adventures justice. it was hard to capture how incredible the places were. but for now, i wanted to show a picture i thought was quite comical.

thank you to bryan who took this picture. he did a great job "in showing how tall this tower was" which is exactly what i wanted him to do. i just had no idea he was going to show how tall i am as well.

seirously...who says i am short?? they are confused!

vaca update

a phone pic from our stay here in puerto rico.

you may think this post is about to boast about how amazing/incredible/blissful/romantic and just perfect our tropical vacation is here. let's just say the trip has been... "adventurous"

we have experienced everything from missing flights, lost luggage (that did not eventually arrive for more than 3 days) gloom doom weather to people barfing one after the other. me first (all of sunday) daron was next (all of tuesday) and poor poor cat is the sick one today. amy, beau, and bryan better be scared because this stomach bug is mean. and to top it all off hurricane emily decided to scare everyone off so every tour on the island closed down.

this all results in one too many episodes of america's next top model, the E true hollywood story of taylor swift, LOTS of swimming in the luke warm spa that smells like dead fish or poop (it's debatable as to which one), juggling fake fruit, a NOT OK amount of "tiny wings" whatever the heck that is, and about our 100th round of phase 10. 

don't get me wrong, there is no where else i'd rather be. it's nice to know "...the sun'll come out....TOMORROW!"  :)