Honeymoon Uh-huh

I feel like I need to catch the world up on our everything, so what comes after the wedding? Our honeymoon! We had such an amazing time! We had three choices: San Diego, cruise to Mexico, or Hawaii. We finally decided on a 7-day Mexican Riviera Cruise. It was a hard decision (because I love Hawaii), but we figured it was easier to go on the cruise where everything was paid for. Good choice!

The night of the wedding we stayed at the Hines Mansion Bed & Breakfast in Provo. I definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone! It was such a beautiful place. We stayed in the Kitty Hines room, which had a beatiful view. Awesome breakfast, awesome dinner. We'll stay again someday, but in a different room...maybe the penthouse.

On Saturday we drove down to Las Vegas. We stopped off at "Hooters" for our evening show. We saw Gerry McCambridge who calls himself "The Mentalist." Amazing. He doesn't claim to be psychic or anything; he just studied behaviorism and statistics and psychology in school. I'm not sure if I believe him though, because the thhings he did were unbelievable. It was a small intimate show and everyone in the audience participated. If you're ever in Vegas, you should see him. Get tickets here: Gerry - The Mentalist. And before you order them, call me and Eli because we'll totally go with you. We also stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel that night. Awesome!

On Sunday we drove down to Long Beach and hopped on our Carnival Cruise ship the "Pride." It was immaculate. If you've never been on a cruise ship, go. It's amazing how not-on-a-ship it feels. It was beautiful. The cruise ship itself was fun. We had a nice room with an "obstucted view" (we thought it was going to be a post; it was a lifeboat), the buffets and endless ice cream was awesome, and our waiter Whiskey from Thailand was too much fun. The nice thing about Whiskey was he brought us what we ordered, but also brought us some "unique" dish to try. Unfortunately, I didn't handle the first few days meals very well, so I had a baked potato. Great desserts too!

This is Whiskey

This is our "obstructed" view

We really had all our fun on the shore excursions. Our first stop was in Puerto Vallarta. For $30 we got a 7-hour guided whale/dolphin tour. Dolphins are my favorite, so seeing the animals so close was awesome! We had a good lunch, went snorkeling, stopped off at a private beach and explored the tide pools. Then we had a huge party on the boat ride home.

Our second stop was Mazatlan and we chose to just be tourists and wander the city. We decided to go with another couple we had met on the cruise. When the ship dropped us off we were bombarded by people trying to sell us stuff. One guy stopped us. He offered us a free taxi, food, and private beach with boogie boards if we spent an hour looking at his hotel. We figured the free taxi would be worth it, so we went. It turned out to be a Trendwest-type of timeshare. Eli and I said no right off the bat. The manager asked us to leave because our "negative" attitude might sway our friends. Ha! He kicked us out. We did get to go to the private beach after, but the boogie boards weren't free. After those shaninigans we headed to the city and bargain shopped the rest of the evening. If bargaining was a sport Eli would totally be gold medalist. Looking white and being fluent in spanish totally catches most vendors off guard. Good times.

Our third stop was in Cabo San Lucas. Cabo was by far our favorite place. Again, we went on our excursion with our new cruise friends. Too much fun! We decided to do the B.O.B. (breathing observation bubble). The best way to describe the B.O.B. is as an underwater scooter. You take them to the bottom of the ocean floor and drive around. I'll post our video below. After our turn with the B.O.B.s we went snorkeling, ate lunch, and spent time on the beach. We'll go back any day. It was just amazing.

Check out this video: Bob and Friends



Needless to say, after our honeymoon we were content. We had an awesome time, made some great memories, and had quite the adventure. It was so cool to just chill, relax, and feel so removed from the world. No worries at all. The ocean is such a mysterious place. Eli and I would love to study oceanography one day. There is just so much we don't know. We'd definitely recommend a cruise to anyone if you haven't gone, and if you need travel companions...give us a call!

December 28, 2007

Eli and I got engaged in July 2007. A week later we picked December 28th as our wedding day. A week after that we called the Mt. Timapnogos Temple in American Fork and reserved the date. It was such an amazing day. We did an early morning ceremony at 8 a.m. A lot of our family was a little miffed at that, but it turned out great. After the ceremony Eli and I stayed and took pictures on the temple grounds. I nearly froze to death.

We met up with the rest of our friends and family at Somewhere Inn Time in Lindon. We had an amazing luncheon. We got to spend a lot of special time with everyone and shared stories and gave toasts. My brothers got up and toasted us and thanked me for raising them. Ha ha! My poor mother...SHE really did a good job raising us.

We held our reception that evening at a chapel down the street from temple. Eli and I didn't want a reception line, but we ended up doing it...for 30 minutes. After that we enjoyed dinner (which was amazing!) that my mom and aunts made. All homemade mexican food, salsas, and cookies. After dinner Eli, my Dad, Jake (my bro), and my cousin Kristi sang our song (Mas Que Amor - Los Lonely Boys) to me. I loved it. Then Eli and I danced our first song to my dad and Krsiti singing "Amazed" by Lonestar.

After the first dance and parents' dances we dove right into our rice krispie wedding cake. After which we had the bouquet/garter toss. Panda caught the bouquet and Jake (Eli's bro) caught the garter. Then the DJ spun some tunes and we all had a blast dancing. We couldn't have asked for a better night and a better party. Thank you to my parents and Eli's parents for everything they did. The night was truly spectacular!



We realize that some of you were not able to attend our wedding and festivities. Bummer for you, but lucky for you, we took many pictures! If you want to feel like you were there, take a seat and check out the following video. Grab some popcorn!

The Hog

In December 2006 I bought a brand new car. I said good-bye to my Miata that I've had since high school and bought a 2007 electirc blue Nissan Versa. It was amazing. It felt good to buy something with my own money. Eli didn't really like the looks of it, but he didn't have much choice because we weren't married then.

After we got married though, we sat down and prioritized. It's something that has to be done when you decide to share your life with someone. We had two cars. I only really drive mine to work and back. Gas was expensive. We have student loans, insurance, a piano, and stuff that had to be paid off. And our main goal right now is to oust the debt and save (we want a future; babies, homes, etc.).

So, what it all came down to was...the cars. It was a hard decision, but we've decided to sell my car. It was a sad day, but the emotional load was lightened because we invested ( I did say invested) in a scooter. It's the coolest! Not only do we save money in gas, insurance and payments. We've saved over $300 in payments per month.

I believe it brings Eli and I closer together. No, really. Look close, there's not much room on the back, we really do have to be closer! We've also begun a tradition. Each Sunday morning (church doesn't start til 2 for us) we drive around our beautiful city. There's so much that we can enjoy in the open air. It's nice to just stop and appreciate the world around us and St. George has the perfect weather for it. We definitely recommend a scooter ride to anyone and everyone. Happy riding! (Eli says it's a gateway bike to our Harley rides...one day.)

P.S. We have invested in helmets since this day. We are always properly protected.

Our Story

Eli and I met in St. George, Utah at the end of summer 2006. July was the first meeting, the rest was history.

I had already been in St. George for a year. I moved here in August of 2005 to start teaching. Having moved here 2 days before I started working, I didn't have much opportunity to meet people. There was also one singles ward in my area that had 40 members, on a good day. Because I am a dedicated teacher, prep work and grades took precedence over singles ward activities. I didn't have much time for meeting people. That's when I joined LDSsingles.com. I didn't do much with the site. I was just looking for people to hang out with, but seeing that I didn't email people or do much with the site, I never made friends. I just had my wonderful co-workers. These facts will both be important later on in the story.

Eli moved to St. George in July of 2006. He ended up here by chance. Eli went to school at Utah State where he was studying spanish. He wanted to become a spanish teacher. During school he worked at Sam's Club up in Logan. Two things made him move from Logan, a) he had a terrible experience with a professor and b) Sam's offered him more money and a better position with their store in Provo. Being single and not really wanting to keep going to school he went. He then was moved and promoted to North Dakota then back to Logan.

Eli decided to take another shot at college and was looking to go to school at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. He came down here and looked for a job for the school year. He applied at Staples, they didn't have anything in Cedar, but offered him a management position in St. George. He took it.

Eli also joined LDSsingles because he was a ladies man and wanted to meet hot chicks. Alas, after many dates, he didn't find a good one. So he resorted to picking up on girls in Staples...wearing his snazzy grey maager's shirt. One day in July I went with a coworker of mine to pick up some school supplies. I was wearing my way cool Mickey Mouse Pirates of the Caribbean ears that a friend picked up for me. Cynthia was embarrased, but as I walked through the check out line, this guy (who two months later I realized was Eli) encouraged me to wear the ears. I appreciated his support, put the ears on, and invited him to Disneyland one day. He said, "Sure. I'm down," and let me walk out the door, out of his life.

As the month went on, I recieved an email saying that I had a "flirt" waiting for me at LDSsingles. I was curious. I checked. It was Eli, but again, I didn't realize it was him. I wasn't too interested after reading his profile. I moved on. By the way, Eli will still deny sending that "flirt."

In the middle of August, Staples hosts a Teacher Appreciation Night. They give free bags and supplies to teachers. It's a pretty sweet deal. So I went one night after dinner with about 8 other singles teachers from work. We went in and immediately I saw this guy who looked way familiar. I then recognized him as the guy who sent me a "flirt" on LDSsingles. It was Eli and he completely ignored me. Later that night I found another email saying I had recieved a message from someone on the singles site. It was from Eli, but I wasn't a paying member, so I couldn't read his message.

I resorted to stalker-like technique and miraculously found him on MySpace. We got in contact, emailed and texted for a week or so. We finally agreed to go out for dinner. I actually had plans with someone who I was involved with, but that fell through. I was planning on cutting ties with this other guy, but he did it for me. I called Eli, told him plans changed, and I would love to go out with him that night. We went to Cracker Barrel, played a round of mini-golf, picked up ice cream at Mickey D's, and went back to his place to watch a movie (What Women Want, his choice).

Either way, I know it's a long, complicated story, but since then we've decided that we were supposed to be together. We've figured out many different situations where we could've met (even in Vegas a couple years back). It's been an amazing 20 months. We're looking forward to eternity.

Meet the Adams Family

Mandy Rae Adams

Birthday: June 9, 1983

Place: Lockney, TX

Hometown: Antioch, CA

Maiden name: Gallardo Budge

College: Brigham Young University, '05

Occupation: 4th grade teacher

Favorites: Eli, red, yellow, green, french fries, spaghetti, corn, volleyball, running, Fridays, Lost, The Office, fruit punch, riding the hog, reading, cuddling, the temple, lotion, chapstick, flip flops, purses/bags, bubble baths, gum, clean teeth, pictures, art museums, movies, cooking, coloring books, rain, lightning, Eli's corny jokes, family, friends, walks, my husband

Not-so-favorites: being cold, cleaning, ulcers, dishonesty, being away from Eli

James Elijah Adams

Birthday: March 14, 1981
Place: Scipio, in the old house
Hometown: Scipio, UT
College: Snow College, Utah State
LDS Mission: Peru, Lima East '00 - '02
Occupation: Division Leader, PFS

Favorites: Mandy, blue, red, ice cream, chili rellenos, football, basketball, baseball, Saturdays, Lost, The Office, Mt. Dew, playing the guitar, singing, riding the hog, air, water, the Temple, massages, Peru, spanish, family, nieces, nephew, my cell phone, movies, being lazy, sleeping in, being productive

Not-so-favorites: phone calls at 6:30 am, flat tires, gas prices, the gym, stupidity, cold