After four years at BYU, I graduated with a BA in Political Science. My parents, most of my siblings, and Taylor's mom all came to see me, Brian, and Amanda receive our degrees. Words can't even describe how stoked I was to be done. I still have recurring nightmares (as recently as last night) that I failed one of my classes, or forgot to take a class, and they revoke my diploma. Luckily, it hasn't happened yet.
Next up was a trip to the Oakland Temple. On April 30, I received my endowment. Taylor was there, naturally, along with my parents, Taylors parents, and Matt and Alyssa. It was really great to have them all there. I'm especially glad Alyssa came, it was nice to have another girl my age there haha.
After that, it was time to get married (finally!). My mom and I drove down to Newport Beach the Sunday before the wedding. The next day, I took my bridal pictures down at the beach in Laguna Beach. It was so much fun to have my mom and McKenna and Dani there with me.
Throughout the week, my siblings started coming in. It was fun to get to spend the whole week with everyone at one of my favorite places in the whole world, The Newport Coast Villas. We always have such a good time when we're all there and this time was no different. It was so nice walking down to the beach with the kids and eating in Downtown Disney.On Saturday, May 16, 2009, Taylor and I were sealed in the Newport Beach, CA Temple. It was a really good ceremony and the sealer couldn't have been nicer. He said so many great things to us before we were married. After the ceremony and infinite pictures, we had a luncheon reception at the Chart House in Dana Point, CA. It was probably some of the best food I've ever had at a wedding, so needless to say, we were both ecstatic with how everything turned out. Our florist and cupcake baker are sisters, and they decorated the whole restaurant to the nines. I'm so glad for people who have creative vision like that, because I'm completely lacking in that department. The whole day had the perfect crisp, yet comfortable feel we wanted. Taylor and I danced to "When I First Saw You" sung by Jamie Foxx on the Dreamgirls Soundtrack and my dad and I danced to "Slipping Through My Fingers" from Mamma Mia, two of my favorite musicals. I'm glad we danced to songs that were a little more original for weddings. There's one country song that people do for almost every father and daughter dance at weddings I've been to, and frankly the song is a little creepy to me haha.
The next morning we left for our honeymoon. Almost all of my brothers and sisters have gone to Hawaii on their Honeymoon, but since both Taylor and I had been a couple of times already, we decided to look elsewhere. Lucky for us, Marriott had just opened a brand new hotel in Costa Rica. My parents generously offered us Marriott points and Taylor's parents topped it off with two plane tickets. We stayed at the JW Marriott Guanacaste. It's been almost three months now and we still talk about how much we wish we could live there forever. We developed quite the schedule. We'd wake up late, go to the amazing breakfast buffet (smoothie bar, omelet bar, every pastry imaginable!), read by the pool, play in the ocean and find new beaches, more laying by the pool with pina coladas, go back and shower and then off to dinner. Our favorite restaurant was the poolside grill. They had coconut rice with pico de gallo on top that was literally to die for. Their spa was also the nicest one I'd ever been to and Taylor and I got a great massage there. On our way back to the airport the morning we were supposed to leave, we went to drop our rental car off but nobody was there yet. When they came it was an hour until our flight was supposed to leave, but luckily it was less than a mile from the airport. When we went to check in, there was a large group of people that were already standing there and said they hadn't been allowed to get in the line for the last 15 minutes, when they finally opened the line, the man at the counter said, "Sorry, you had to check in last night if you wanted to be on time." Then he changed his story to an hour early check in. The crazy thing was, we were all there an hour early, he just wouldn't let people come in line until it was too late. A few shouting matches later, we, along with the other group of people, missed our flight out of Liberia and decided to try and catch one in San Jose (because they only have one flight leave from Liberia to the U.S. every day). We tried to take an 8 seater plane to San Jose, but the first half of the group got in line first, and then we were informed there would be no more flights available to San Jose that day either. So we, along with another couple, decided to take a bus (really a sketchy van) to San Jose (4 hours away through winding jungle roads!). We made our flight, but almost missed our connecting flight from Houston to LA. All in all, by the time we got home it had taken 22 hours to get there and we were exhausted, but we actually had a lot of fun along the way. And we got to see more of the country that way. Taylor and I are officially throwing this resort in for consideration for the next Phillippi Family Vacation. (Mom, there's amazing spas, and Dad there's great golfing!)
This is just a picture I took with a normal camera, it really is that amazing there.
This place was near the hotel, a little sketchy.
On a beach in Tamarindo
We went to this really good Asian Fusion restaurant on the property. I stuck with a fork, but Taylor was excited to use his chopsticks.
At the poolside grill, so good!
Taylor exploring the coast
After our honeymoon, we went to stay in Vacaville for a few weeks while we worked for my dad and made some money. My parents also threw us an awesome Open House for Vacaville friends after Taylor finished his LSAT. Then it was off to Utah where we are now living in our first apartment, completely decked out in Ikea, we LOVE it! I finally found a job working as a receptionist at a pain clinic and Taylor is finishing up Summer term. We have one year here in Utah and then we still don't know where he'll go to law school. I'll try and post more regularly so I don't have to do these massive ones at once.
