Christmas Concert

We continued the graduation festivities in Salt Lake with dinner at PF Changs and the Christmas Concert. My sweet father-in-law, Clair, took such great care of us and made the whole thing happen. We all had a blast.

Sam and Victoria also went to the concert, 

but Clair was able to get seats on the floor for them. (So they aren't in these pictures)

After the concert, we walked around temple square and looked at the lights.

Skyler's shirt was a huge hit. We were pretty sure it was made out of metal.

The next morning we stopped by Grandpa Ike's to pick up some chaps and chat.

The Gradutootinest Gradututionist

Well, it is official. I graduated!
It was such a great weekend. My parents came up to Idaho for commencement, and I was grateful for the support from our families that night.

Rise and Shout. . .

Disclaimer: This post is mostly for my parents and siblings to see what Skyler has been up to these last few months.

Mark and I flew out of Salt Lake to go to Barbados. We went down a few days early to spend some time with family. The highlight of the weekend was seeing Skyler cheer at a football game. Unfortunately the ground was pretty wet so we didn't see any major stunts, but it was still impressive. Mark tried to convince Skyler to let us suit up with him and do our own stunts, think the dirty dancing lift, in the corner of the field. In theory, Skyler was down. In reality, not so much.

"Straight like a pencil"

For days leading up to the game Mark was trying to convince Skyler to do a cheer for us. 

Instead of C-C-C-O-U-G-G-G-A-R   COUGARS, 

we wanted M-M-M-A-D-D-D-D-I-E   MADDIE.

We were pretty thrilled when we could see him yelling our cheer.

Running the flag after a touchdown

Sam and Victoria came to watch Sky with us

Afterwards, we went out for cupcakes and hot chocolate.

Aren't they adorable!

Oh yeah, BYU won, but we all know that wasn't on anyones mind.

Oistens

Every Friday night in Barbados they have a fish fry at the fish market in Oistens. I am not a huge fan of seafood, but thought it would be a fun experience and would at least try it. I will never regret that decision. The bell boy at the resort told us we had to try the marlin. 

It did not disappoint.

Also, they had the best ketchup I have ever had in my life. 

It almost tasted like honey.

There were also little shops set up selling tons of jewelry and trinkets.

I ended up buying that necklace.

We also enjoyed some peppermint ice cream.

There was music playing all night and tons of people were dancing. There were a couple of kids that were actually pretty good. I weaseled my way to the front of a dance circle that was probably a little too small for some of the moves they were doing. Despite a few near misses it was really fun.

Atlantis

Another activity Mark and I went on was a submarine tour of the reef. We had so much fun and both agreed it was our favorite part of the trip. Mark signed us up for the first tour of the day, 9:00 am, which turned out to be inspiration. Our tour was only half full. The tour right after us was completely packed. So much so, that someone couldn't handle the tight quarters and asked to be taken back.

We were lucky. Since it was so small, Mark and I sat right next to our tour guide, Romell, and he would talk to just us. Plus he was hilarious. The windows that we looked through were about 3" thick, so Romell told us to turn off the flash on our cameras. Since the lights in the submarine were turned off he told us we could have the flash on for that. Then he said, "So remember, don't flash the fish, but you can flash each other." I died laughing.

Our shuttle out to the dive site

This is Sir Williby

It was supposed to be sunk on the reef but ended up sliding off.

Our vessel, Atlantis III.

Apparently this company does tours around the world, so if you are ever in one of those locations I highly recommend going.