Graduation Trip!

I worked hard to graduate! Spent 5 years of my life writing essays and doing math problems to get good grades. Took my time in figuring out my degree but once I knew what it was I went for it! It took a lot of time, dedication, and money! It feels good to have it all done and have that degree under my belt. So, to celebrate we went on a trip!

We were going to go on a cruise, or to New York, or somewhere really exciting but the thing is that we are not very wealthy people. Wealthy with love, not with money. So we decided to play it safe and go to Vegas. After all, it had what I wanted: sun, warm weather, a pool, good food, fun shows, and of course..... time with my hubbie!

We started planning and making reservations in January. We went with our friends, Liz and Jared, and all 4 of us had it all planned out. Then, I got pregnant! I was so glad we had planned to go to Vegas and not on a cruise! Or to Disneyland! Turns out our Vegas plans were a blessing to me and my terrible terrible morning sickness. I mean can you imagine being on a boat when you are already throwing up pretty much everything? Bad idea! Bet you won't hear someone else say that going on a visit to the Vegas Strip was a blessing.....

We drove down on Wednesday night. We stayed at the Luxor which was really nice. Best hotel Tyson and I have stayed at in Vegas. I liked it a lot. Wednesday we walked a bit of the strip but after just a short while we were all very tired and went to bed.

Thursday we woke up and were excited to get things going! But we wanted to find some deals for the different things we wanted to see. So we visited what looked like a reservation desk.... Turns out it was one of those time share things. Well we told them three things we wanted to see, they got us a discount and all we had to do was sit through 3 hours of being pitched on a time share!

We did not buy a time share. But I did eat the free lunch and enjoy the discounted tickets. I was actually very bored during the whole presentation.

One of our discounted deals was to the Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. I LOVE this aquarium! After our LONG presentation we headed over to see those sharks!

There was a pool where you can pet the rays as they swim by.

Tyson's favorite, jellies!

And a whole lot of sharks!

Afterward we stayed in the area and got our caricatures drawn. I was nervous at first (so Liz and Jared got theirs first) but I think they look amazing! She was a really great artist.

That night the couples split up. Tyson and I went to see Ka! It was a Circ Cu Soleil performance and it was AMAZING! The stage went sideways, people were flipping over each other, there was sand. Oh my it was one of the best performances I have ever seen in my life. I loved it. The tickets were a gift for Tyson on our Anniversary (a while before our trip) but they were well worth the wait!

Friday we decided to walk along the strip and find things we liked. Of course, one of my favorite stops is the M&M store. You might think this would be a hard stop for me with my recent allergy to chocolate, but no. I have recently discovered that baby has cured me of this allergy and I can happily eat chocolate again! Yum.

We had a lot of fun with the M&Ms.

All of us were tired after walking around in the sun. We wanted to go swimming. On our way back to the hotel we saw an oxygen bar. So of course we stopped! Spent a while sucking on flavored oxygen while getting shoulder and neck massages. Yeah it was worth it!

We didn't end up going swimming that day but did see the Lions!

That night we wanted to see another Circ Du Soleil show and there was one in our hotel. Chris Angel and Circ Du Soleil sounded awesome! Stunts with magic shows! No, it was stupid. No stunts, just magic tricks that were lame. Nothing like his Mind Freak TV show which I thought was cool. He is dumb and not a very good performer, great on TV.... not great on stage.

Saturday morning the boys wanted to go ride the Stratosphere, Liz and I stayed behind and went to the pool. We were only there two hours before my new pregger sensitive skin was crawling with a sun rash so we went inside. As Liz was in her room getting ready for the day and the boys were off playing I got locked out of my room! My key card reader on the door had lost its battery juice and I was stuck. Security came, then called a locksmith, I waited for a little over an hour to get in! Sigh, after I got in Tyson and Jared were back so we all went to eat some lunch.

After eating some food we went to the Titanic exhibit in the Luxor. It was really neat. I had seen the one in Salt Lake but that was small compared to this one! I mean this one had a huge chunk of the actual ship in it! The largest piece of the outside wall of the ship ever to be removed! It was so awesome! Too bad we couldn't take any pictures.

More walking, and more random things were seen.

Then we took a gondola ride in the Venetian! It was so fun! Our driver (if they are called a driver, he didn't have to row but just steered the thing) was really nice and a really good singer.

Next was Phantom! It was soooo awesome! Tyson and I have seen it in Vegas before but it was definitely worth it to go again. It was also really cool to be there as Jared experienced his first "theatre" experience. He loved it!

Sunday morning we went to the Bodies exhibit in the Luxor. I will admit, I was pretty grossed out most of the time. Liz and Jared loved it because they are biology people and think it is cool, Tyson loved it because he is an art guy and just thought it was awesome to see all the parts. I was grossed out because it was dead people I was looking at! The one part I really liked was the baby part. Which is weird because that was the one part that had a warning "If you think you can't handle this room here is an exit" none of the other rooms had that! Anyway, I know those little baby spirits are in heaven so I was okay with it. Plus they had a baby that was the size mine was at the time. So cool to see the development as baby grows! Well we don't have pictures from that because they are not allowed.

I had never seen a fountain show at the Bellagio. When we went to see it they had cancelled them due to strong wind. But we got lucky! A few hours later they started up again and I got to see!

Sunday afternoon we walked around some more and played. We ended up getting tickets for another Circ Du Soleil show on Sunday night. This one was called "O". The O is because in french the word, eau (pronounced O) means water. It was SOOOOO cool! They had a giant pool that people kept diving into! We had a lot of fun!

Monday we checked out of the hotel and drove over to the Hoover Dam! We didn't drive over the dam because there is that new bridge where you can see the dam. So we went on the new bridge. We walked halfway across and then it was time to walk back. All the while we told the best dam jokes we knew.

It was really cool to see the dam from this angle!

The boys are always good at posing for pictures.....

After the dam we drove back home. It was a really nice trip. We all got to relax and still had a lot of fun. Plus, I only threw up a few times! I am convinced the morning sickness gets worse with stress though.... because the minute I got back to real life and work the sickness came flooding back!

Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Last Little While

I know a lot of people have been waiting for an update on what has been going on in our lives lately. We found out we are pregnant recently and that has been the most exciting news but there have been other exciting things going on as well!

In March we celebrated my big brothers birthday! Tyson and I thought of a really funny joke. Nikki had told us Bryan was looking for rock climbing equipment and she had sent me pictures of the kinds he wanted so I could have an idea of the right stuff to buy. So Tyson and I bought the good stuff, but we also bought some dinky little key chains too. We wrapped them separately and hid the real gift. We gave him the fake gift first.

Bryan is such a good sport. Immediately I could see on his face, "Uh this is the wrong thing." but we just kept smiling. When my mom asked what it was he said "rock climbing equipment" smiled and told us thanks. He didn't want to hurt our feelings and tell us we were wrong.

Well I am not a good liar so I pulled out the real gift and gave it to him. We could see the relief on his, and Nikki's, face. It was a pretty funny joke!

We went to Idaho a few weeks ago to see Tyson's little brother, Nathaniel, give his missionary address before he leaves on his mission. Needless to say I forgot to take fun pictures and this was the only one I took all weekend!

We did have a great time with family. We were only up there for about 24 hours but it was really awesome to be surrounded by so many family members! Congrats Nathaniel!

Easter came and it was a really nice one. We got to spend the afternoon with the Crown side of our family and we decided to color eggs.

Little Lucas had fun with the dye, and after a while Bryan warmed up to it too.

Tyson made a really gross egg.

And some pretty ones too.

We had an Easter Egg Hunt at the Crown home! I was really excited to go watch my little nephew, Lucas, run around and get the eggs. Then my mom let me know I got to be a part of the hunt as well! She had already gotten sweet little surprises for the baby!

The boys hid the eggs.

The girls, and Lucas, searched high and low.

And I think we got them all.... if not there will be rotting eggs in my parents yard!

And the latest happenings...... I GRADUATED! I now have my Bachelors of Science in the field of Communications with an emphasis in Speech Communication! Yipee!

Tyson has been so great to support me. Through all the money saving so we wouldn't have to use loans. Through all the hours I spend away from him because I had to study. Through putting off his own school so I could finish without debt and through all the tears I shed because I cry under stress. He has been my rock. He has always reminded me that I can do this and that I am smart. Even when I fail an exam or two. I love him and I am so glad to have him!

My parents have been my other major support system through my college days. They were there right from the start. Through moving out, finding jobs, tears again and many many MANY crazy roommate stories. They have always answered when I call needing a compliment because I may feel down. They have always been there to cheer me on when I do well. I am so lucky to have the parents I have. They have taught me so much and they are a major reason I am who I am today!

I am very excited to be graduated and on my way. I don't know what lies in store next except baby is coming. I should probably start learning how to raise kids....

Drumroll Please........

My posts are usually an update on what we have been up to in the last month. This time I am not so keen on doing that. Don't get me wrong, you will be updated on our month eventually but I feel as if there are more pressing matters to address. Well, one pressing matter.

We are pregnant! YAY! We are almost 10 weeks along and are very excited.

Hope y'all are excited to meet our little baby! We know we are!

Love in 2011

I know it has been a while since I last updated the blog. Heres the thing, I have been busy. Not fake busy, but busier than I have been in a very long time. Since I am feeling under the weather today I shall blog.....

It has been a busy last few months. Tyson has been working 60 hours a week. I have been working 50 hours a week and still doing school full time. I am taking one of the hardest classes I have ever taken (second only to math 1050) and am struggling through it. I am working on this service project for the refugees of Sudan. We are also trying to keep our house and our brains together. Needless to say we are both a little frazzled here at the Ellis home.

Our friends and family have been really great to us. My mom and dad are saints. Every time I get this busy I get a little emotional. I think I have called my mom and dad about 20 times over the last few weeks just bawling about something stupid that doesn't really matter. They just tell me how great I am and things are better. They know how to take care of me! Tyson's sister Adrianne, who lives down the street from us, has been kind enough to cook me dinner after a long day. It is so nice to have her down the street and have her welcome me even when Tyson is not with ame! Our friends have been great as well. We had the chance to have dinner with my bestest friend Danny and her husband and their little girl Maylie TWICE in one week! They have been great to remind us that we might be working hard, but it will be worth it in the end and that we should relax when we can! All in all, Tyson and I have a great support system!

Okay, now just for a personal plug. My socks for Sudan drive is going great! My parents donated about a MILLION pairs of socks! Okay, not that much but a lot. And we have raised about $110 so far! Things are going well!

In February we celebrated Valentines Day. Tyson and I worked a 12 hour shift that day and were pretty pooped! But not too pooped to exchange gifts!

Tyson surprised me with flowers! I didn't think he would get me flowers as he was in the office all day, and since I work with him I knew when he took lunch and everything. Anyway, I love them and they are still alive! He knew how I hate when the flowers just die and he got me a little potted plant so it could live!

I know it sounds boring, but I got Tyson a headset for his XBox games. Tyson plays games with his friends online and without a headset he can't talk with them. I like it better when he can talk to them because then it is more a social game. So, I got him a few headsets so he can play with his friends.

Tyson also got me a HUGE gummy bear! This thing is 5lbs! It is the equivalent to about 1500 normal gummies. Yeah, we still have most if it.

We ordered a heart shaped pizza because I did not want to cook and by the time we got home from work it was too late to go out to a nice dinner to celebrate.

We did go to dinner a few nights before, because we knew we would not be able to go out on the actual day.

A few weeks of overtime went by and we were really getting pooped. I was falling behind in school but was trying my hardest. We ended up coming up with a schedule so we could get everything done. I mean, not even our laundry was getting done! I was feeling really anxious and Tyson told me to go out with my girlfriends one Saturday. Me and the girls went to a movie and hung out for a bit. I called Tyson on the way home and he said he had been just laying around relaxing after a long week (very understandable). When I got home..... drumroll please...... he had cleaned the whole house! He vacuumed, he did the dishes, he did ALL the laundry! I was amazed! What a great husband I have!

Speaking of having a great husband. He got promoted! Tyson is now a manager. Between him and one other guy they manage a little over 50 people. Yes, I am included in that. My husband is now my manager. It has been okay so far, but we will see how it goes. Mostly I am just very proud of him and glad the company can see how hard he works.

Well we celebrated our one year anniversary! Yesterday actually.... We didn't do anything big like a lot of people do. But we did have an adventure. We started by going to IKEA.

mmmm, love the meatballs there!

We ate there and then shopped for some stuff for the house. We gave ourselves a limit and decided some of these things count as anniversary gifts.

Tyson picked out the lamps!

Tyson surprised me once again, he got me the box set of the Toy Story movies! We had been looking everywhere to get these all in one set and he found this cute set that comes in a toybox!

We ended our day of adventure by going out to dinner. We went to Iggys. It was awesome because we not only got to see part of the BYU game (sorry, they lost) but we also got to see part of the Jazz game (they also didn't do well). We had a lot of fun!

Tyson and I are going to Las Vegas in May to celebrate my graduating. We are super excited! For our anniversary gift I gave Tyson tickets to Circ Du Soleil in Vegas! He was very excited.

And that sums it up...... More updates to come....

And Tyson, himself, carved the roast beast.