Farewell Michigan

After exactly one year and two weeks in Michigan we have said farewell. That's right we are no longer "Michiganders".

When we first moved there I couldn't wait to leave and now leaving has been so hard. We have had quite the adventure here and I wouldn't trade it in for anything. We have had so much fun and have been blessed while we were here.

We were able to attend all the major sporting events... Lions, Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons.

We had fun with visitors. My family came and stayed with us. The Cherrington family stopped and stayed with us on their way to New York. My good friend Autumn came and played, and my friend Kristi and I were able to get together a few times since her mom lives here. We also got to visit and go on trips with my favorite couple: The Moons.

We got to do some exploring in the state of Michigan and the surrounding areas.

We met and worked for a lot of different people,

Doctors, Lawyers, Baseball Players, VP's, Photographers, Car people... Oh the many

jobs I had in Michigan.

My favorite job, was with Goldfish though. I have had the hardest time saying goodbye to them. I love my little swimmer kids. I loved the thoughtful gifts and pictures they would bring me. I loved seeing them get so excited about swimming. I loved the hugs and high fives. I loved the people I worked with. I loved going to workevery day and being surrounded by friends. I loved all the crazy people and dramatic stories and laughing so hard at them at the end of the day.

We will also miss our little five year olds in our primary class. We fell in love with Primary and the special spirit in there.

I may or may not miss our little apartment though. It was a great first "home" for us. But I will not miss the constant head aches from all the smoke that constantly seeped in through the walls or the weird noises or the fear off being home alone in an unsafe area.

I will miss the lakes. I will miss the green. I will miss the good outlet stores. I will miss my yoga classes at my favorite gym. I will not miss "Michigan lefts", that is for sure.

I am excited for family and Utah friends though. It will be a fun new adventure that involves Jason going to school, and me finding a job to support us. I am excited to be able to talk about "stakes, wards, LDS, CTR, BOM, FHE, and missions" and not have people look at me so confused.

Thank you to everyone who took their time to come out to our apartment to say goodbye to us. Thank you Goldfish for the farewell lunch and fun weekend. Thank you Michigan for making our first year of marriage such a memorable one. You will be missed!

(Belated) Anniversary Trip

For our one year anniversary we decided to take advantage of being "close-ish" to the Caribbean and do some exploring. After MUCH researching we finally found the perfect place, for the perfect price... Puerto Rico. We left last Monday (3/8) and stayed for 5 days. It was a much needed vacation and we had a blast. Even though Puerto Rico received record rainfall that week, and it rained the majority of the time we were there, we still had so much fun exploring new places and getting to spend time with one another without the stress of all the other stuff going on back in our "real lives".

We stayed in Rio Grande, which is on the northeast side of Puerto Rico. We stayed at the Wyndham Rio Mar Resort. It was at the bottom of the El Yunque Rainforest and right on the beach. We truly had the best of both worlds.

We spent a day hiking and exploring the rain forest. It was so beautiful and fun to see all the different kinds of plants, birds, and lizards. We took a hike along the river to a big waterfall where we swam and played for a while too. The rainforest was probably one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me.

We did have one partially sunny day where we hit the beach and rented boogie boards. The water was pretty cloudy from all the storms but it was still the perfect temperature and it was so nice to be back in the ocean again, I just can never get enough!

We rented a car while we were there so we were able to do a lot of exploring in all the little towns next to us. We spent one afternoon/night in Old San Juan. I loved Old San Juan they had fun little shops and great architecture. We also hung out at the old Castillos (forts) that were built 100's of years ago when Spain owned Puerto Rico. It was all very interesting and neat to see such magnificent structures.

The rainiest day there we took a ferry over to Vieques. A small Island just off of Puerto Rico. Part of the family that I had nannied for in New York was staying over there so we got to spend the day exploring that island and catching up with them.

It was hard coming back, but I guess every vacation has to end sometime. Now I just have to restrain myself from planning the next one. Thank you for an amazing Anniversary Jason! I loved every rainy second of it! :)

Dear Tax Return,

Thank you for being so good to us this year. Being married, and having a combined tax return is awesome! And lets face it, after last year, you really did owe us one. We will send you a post card from Puerto Rico. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

The Beckstrands