Bonjour!!!!!! anybody want a crepe?

So after touring the ship (which was incredible by the way) and having a fun first night eating, exploring, swimming and more eating, we had a great nights sleep on a memory foam bed and woke up in France! Our first stop was Toulon.  We had signed up to go on a tour to Marseilles.  Totally the place where the Count of Monte Cristo takes place- which in case you didn't know, is my favorite movie!!!!! (Jessica)

The landscape was beautiful!

Chateau D'lf!!!!!!!!! the real one!!!!!! :) (that's the prison island that edmond dantes was held prisoner!)

A beautiful chapel at the top of the hill. They were holding mass while we were there. The music was beautiful.

A closer view!!!!!!! 

This was such a beautiful site.....we only got like five minutes there.....I wish we could have explored more!

A beautiful sunset from the ship deck 

 We were invited to a honeymooners party that night and there was a drawing for prizes.  Ironically, the only two non alcoholic drinkers present (us) won the grand prize $200 drink.  We laughed for a bit and then gave it back to them to re-give.  

Luckily- I felt ok cause I got to eat my fill of chocolate strawberries- MUCH better than any old alcohol!

Next, was Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo.  We rode a boat into the harbor and were greeted with this beautiful site!

no comment....haha, just couldn't resist

There were beautiful purple flowers EVERYWHERE!

This is the cathedral where princess grace kelly is buried

It was full of beautiful mosaics

Bryson was in awe of the organ

Grace Kelly's grave

The palace where Grace Kelly lived when she became the princess

Bryson and I were exploring the skinny little streets and found this gorgeous church.  You never would have known it was there- a tiny door in tons of connecting buildings opened up into this. It was so peaceful.

Monaco.....pretty much the richest city in the world.  It was crazy. The most expensive home in the world is in this city....it sold for over FOUR HUNDRED MILLION dollars.  I think I could buy a country with that.

All the architecture was beautiful. Everything was clean and very fancy

Seriously....every single car in the city was a sports car or luxury car.  They were all new, clean and shiny.  It was insane

There it is- the 300-something million dollar house!

Real French Onion soup......mmmmmmm. SO DELICIOUS

In the words of Gwyneth Paltrow: "baby let's cruise....." *part one*

Wow! We had such a fun time on our honemoon cruise in Europe.  So beautiful!  Well, I guess you want to hold it with this boring chatter and get on with the pictures. I don't blame you......so here it goes.
 We started out by flying to Barcelona, Spain, where we met up with Bryson's parents.  They are pretty darn awesome and we had such a fun time with them.  I was especially grateful cause I got to spend more time with them and get to know them better.

We went exploring and found a little restaurant that serves tapas......little pieces of bread with different meats, cheeses and spices on top.  They were different....but delicious! Doug especially enjoyed them as you can see. :)

You can always count on Shelly for classic faces.......now I know where Bryson gets it. :)

 We wandered down Las Ramblas- one of the most famous boulevards in the world. It's full of shops and street vendors and other fun things.  There is also a HUGE market there and we couldn't resist wandering around and staring in awe at the perfect food on display.  I wanted to buy all of it.

nuts and dried fruit.  literally every single kind.

oh my gosh- look at those sweets.....can you say YUM???!  I wanted one of each....but i proudly resisted! :)

The fruits shocked us.....every single one was perfectly ripe and beautifully fresh looking.  They put our grocery stores produce sections to shame!

 GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The magic fountain. They have beautiful water shows every night to different song arrangements.  One night it was classical music and then the next night it was an 80s medly! (all in English too!) :)

It got more and more beautiful as it got darker.

What's Jessica's favorite part of Europe?  GELATO!!!!!!  I will confess, every chance I had I would ask Bryson if we could get one.  Luckily he liked it as much as I did.  We definitely got our Gelato in. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!

 Doug and Shelly really appreciated their introduction to that divine little cup of heaven.

The staircase at our hotel......made me dizzy just to look down.....and this isn't even the top floor!

La Segrada Familia....a beautiful cathedral that looks very gothic.  It almost appears from a distance that someone has dripped wax down it and let it dry there.

But upon closer inspection, it is actually covered in carvings of the Saviors life.  The building depicts every main event in Christ's life that we read in the New Testament. It was very very beautiful.

The inside was stunning too. We especially enjoyed the stained glass windows.

The inside was actually created to look like a forest.  The pillars were trees and the ceiling looked like a canopy of treetops.  Stunning, original and quite fascinating.

 Shelly was equally fascinated by this guy who was a good two feet taller than her.

What a great first couple days!  

Ok.....so this took me a bit longer than I thought.....so I'm going to do this in segments.......next on the list:  FRANCE!!!!! :)

See you in a week and a half!

So- there won't be any posts for the next 10 days or so.....cause Bryson and I are finally going on our Honeymoon! :)  We leave in the morning at like 2 am.......ugh- so we can be at the Salt Lake airport at 6:30.  Party party!  We will then begin the long flight to Barcelona where we will meet up with Bryson's parents and go on a cruise that stops in France and Italy! Woohoo! Finally, some homework free time with my hubby!  Many loves and warm wishes! There will be a big post when we get back! :)

Everyone's favorite.....yardwork :)

So this morning Bryson and I decided to tackle the greatest foe that we have in this new home of ours.....the dandelions! Man- those things are EVERYWHERE in our yard, and let me tell you, they are established and quite happy where they are.  They are the most determined little buggers I've ever seen.  We've tried a bunch of stuff, and they just won't leave. So my mom was here for a bit and let us know that the only way to truly get rid of them is to dig them up by the root with a knife. So for the last few hours that's what we've been doing. It will be a lot of work, but definitely worth it. And yes everyone, I, Jessica, did indeed help with the yardwork.  I know, not like me, huh?  :)  

At the end of today's digging we had all these sacks full of em.

The funny thing is, we had only accomplished digging up this small square of our yard....but look! It's dandelion free!!!!!

Tomorrow's project?  This half of the front yard. :)

Class of 2011- Jessica's Graduation

So, the week before the wedding, I (Jessica) graduated from BYU-Idaho with a Bachelors of Science degree in Communications and a minor in theater arts.  Wow- I can't believe it.  I've been here at BYUi forever it seems, and yet it has gone by so fast. I have loved every minute of it.  Because Bryson still has schooling, we'll be here for a few more years, so luckily I don't have to part with my beloved Rexburg yet! It's true- I've grown quite fond of the place.  There is such a wonderful spirit here that you can't find anywhere else.  The school has grown and changed like crazy, and yet it is still the same. That legendary Ricks spirit is still here stronger than ever!
Graduation was fun- my parents as well as Bryson's parents came up for the celebration.  It was a busy busy weekend with white glove (mandatory cleaning when moving out of an apartment at the end of a semester), moving everything into the new house, graduation, wedding planning, painting, cleaning, finals and everything else!  I'm amazed we all survived it!  Well, here's some pictures of the event! :)

well, now that I am all graduated and all that fun stuff, I guess it's time to grow up and get a big girl job!  Haha- we're in the works of that right now. Job hunting in Rexburg is a kind of a tricky thing, but I'm sure something will come up!  It's been fun, this whole adult thing. I just hope I can prove to be good at it!