the BEST week of my life.

oh my goodness. if you've never been on a cruise...do everything you can to go!
we had an absolutely fantastic time. our itinerary went something like this:
monday: depart from long beach, cali
tuesday: spend the day in san diego, cali
we rented a little two person bicycle and cruised around downtown...super fun!
wednesday: arrive in catalina island, cali
my absolute FAV stop! we went snorkeling at "lovers cove" and buried ourselves in the sand. what a relaxing, beautiful day.
thursday: spend the day in ensenada, mexico
this was danny's favorite stop, probably because he speaks spanish. i couldn't understand anyone, but it was still fun. and it was my first time out of the country! we rented a four wheeler for an hour and rode it around the sand dunes, which were right next to the beach. talk about perfect.

the BEST day of my life.

i've been promising wedding pictures for over a month...and i'm just NOW getting them up! i don't think i can explain how incredibly awesome/wonderful/perfect/dream-come-true my wedding day was...it was eveything i hoped it would be. cami had my camera as we came out of the temple, so some of the pictures are really random, but she did a great job! we're still waiting for the actual wedding pictures from hayley anderson but don't worry--as soon as i get them i'll put them up for all to see! until then, here's a few more to enjoy!

right before we left for manti!

the BEAUTIFUL manti temple

cute little mariah

the happy MARRIED couple


jill and i

mr. and mrs. mckinley

alli and danny

what a WONDERFUL, magnificent day.

bridal shower with the girls

ok. so i know i got married over a month ago...and my bridal shower happened before the wedding, but i thought since life has finally started to settle down i'd fill ya'll in and brag about my awesome, wonderful friends.

jenny was the host of the party and, holy cow, she went all out! we had delicious croissant sandwiches (my favorite), yummy watermelon, cream puffs, lime water with pebbled ice from sonic (she know's me all too well!)

we played a bunch of fun games, socialized, and opened gifts. it was so much fun seeing everyone and realizing how blessed i am to have such amazing friends! i had a fantastic time!

lindsey and michelle

me and the second ward girlies

amanda, kierstin, lindsey, and michelle

deina, jenny, and lindsey

thanks girls for the wonderful night!!

what happened in vegas

about a week and a half before the wedding, the girls and i took a road trip down to sunny las vegas. we got a super good deal staying in a marriott hotel (thanks to jenny's hook-ups) and we had quite the weekend. we went swimming every day, shopping a ton, ate even more, and were crazier than ever. it was a blast...i love my girls!

flip that dresser

so for the first two weeks of our marriage we didn't have a single thing to store our clothes in. we were basically living out of boxes and bags, and our cute little apartment was a MESS. about two weeks ago we were driving down university and saw this huge yard sale. i don't usually stop at those, but there was tons of furniture, so i had danny pull over. we looked over the dressers, and they were all super trashy but there was one that was the perfect size for what we needed. it was yellowish wood--the paint was peeling, and when you touched it you got a handful of splinters. but for some crazy reason, i thought it had potential. i figured if we sanded it down, got a different color stain and changed out the knobs it would look a million times better. so that's what we did. danny thought i was crazy, and when we took it to my parents to work on it, they thought i was crazy too!

but i showed them.

we borrowed my grandparents sander, got a beautiful stain at home depot, and some sweet knobs as well. we worked on it for a couple hours each day, and by the end of the week we got to bring home our new dresser. we had such a blast working on it together--and now danny wants to be a carpenter on the side. hah. turns out i wasn't crazy after all.

we're back!!

i've been mia for the past few weeks...the wedding plans got the better of me! but now we're back and life couldn't be better!! we are two very much in love, extremely happy people.

thanks to ALL of you for your support, love, and help with the wedding!

everything was PERFECT.

i wish i had more time to give ya'll a run down of the actual wedding day, but until then, here are some pictures (which we took before the wedding) to keep you busy. they turned out exactly how i wanted them to! these are a few of my favorites. i HIGHLY recommend hayley anderson as a photographer, if any of you are looking for someone to shoot your wedding, or family pictures. she is awesome!

stay tuned for more pictures of the wedding day, and our cute new apartment that we LOVE.

xoxo.