CANCUN BABY!!!

Finally, Cancun pictures!! I don't even have any idea how many weeks it's been since we got back. I think just a little over 2. Are you kidding me?? Oh my that is just insane. How quickly life gets crazy again!! Anyway we will put all that aside for a few moments and go back to a place where the air is warm, ocean is gorgeous blue, sand is white, and stress is completely non-existent. Heaven? I think yes.

Starting at the beginning ... we left the house at 3:3o on Tuesday morning in order to park, take the shuttle, and make our 6:00 flight. Since we went to bed at like 1 it was a little rough but of course we got to sleep on the plane. And when I looked out my window and saw this view I certainly wasn't tired anymore ... just SOOOOO excited!!!
Side note: the plane was pretty empty as was the airport ... evidently everyone was scared away by the swine flu. Some airport heath people checked our temperature, let us into the country, and we were at our hotel in no time at all!

Speaking of our hotel, here it is! Although the swine flu has been bad, bad news for Mexicans in the tourism industry, it was pretty great news for us. We got to stay in a sweet hotel with an amazing beach - and NO CROWDS. Awesome.
We got to our room and were excited to see we had a tiny balcony with a gorgeous ocean view, shown here:

And as quickly as we could throw on our swim suits and sunscreen we were at the beach! For the next 5 days, we spent most of our time on our lounge chairs staring at this:

And after going for a few walks along the beach and taking a dip in the bathwater-temperature water, we would walk about 10 yards and refresh ourselves in some fresh water:
Not bad. Not bad at all. As we were relaxing the first day I found myself wondering if this was going to get old. How do you just spend all day so relaxed? What does your mind do when it has nothing to do? The concept was completely foreign. But ... I quickly learned not only is it completely easy, it is 100 perfect divine. It is no secret that it has been a hectic and challenging 4 years for Joe and me and I don't think my mind has ever been so completely relaxed. I slept like a baby which basically hasn't happened since, well, probably when I was a baby. ;)

Taking a swim:

One of our many, many walks along the beach. :) Ahhh .. so gorgeous.

Okay, funny story. So our second day (first full day) there we were taking a walk along the beach and I decided to stand on a rock where the waves were shallow for a picture. As Joe was getting out the camera an ENORMOUS wave came out of nowhere and knocked my feet out from under me ... landing me in some twisted position where I managed to seriously bruise my tailbone, outer thigh, elbow, and knee (w/ some minor scrapes as well). When Joe turned around I was on my hands and knees trying to scramble to shore before another wave came and finished me off and saying "Joe I'm dying, I'm dying Joe." Needless to say I learned my lesson: don't mess with the ocean because if you do it's going to take you, beat you up, and then spit you back out if you're lucky. Of course I have pictures of my bruises but I they are a little bit disgusting for the blog. No lasting damage though.

One of my favorite things to do on our walks was to look for shells. Basically I'm obsessed with seashells! I love them. I brought a plastic bag along each day so I could hold them all. I found lots of pretty ones. :)

Here's me and my beach chair. I am proud to say I was pretty smart this time around and spent a good amount of time in the shade, and the rest of the time slathering on sunscreen. The result? I came home with a mild, healthy glow instead of the painful, ugly, peeling, tomato red sunburn I usually manage to give myself. Hey maybe my J.D. really did make me smarter.

Enjoying a virgin pina colada on the beach was one of my priorities. That and reading my book.

Joe at the pool:

Joe making friends with a lizard one day at lunch:

Um I don't think all these pictures need explanations. We're just happy. We look like newlyweds (and were asked about it a couple of times) only we've been married 4 years.

Food tended to be a little expensive (with limited options) at the resort so most nights we would take a cheap bus ride a couple of stops down the road where there were lots and lots of great restaurants to choose from. One night we decided to order in (Papa Johns pizza) and have a private dinner on the beach at sunset. Pretty awesome.

Another night we had a shrimp feast. All the restaurants were right on the water - beautiful!

We decided to do one "adventure day" and leave our beach chairs to do some snorkeling and other activites. All I really wanted to do was snorkel, but after considering our options the package we ended up with included a boat ride to Isla de la Mujeres, some snorkeling, a lunch buffet, hanging out on the beach at the island, kayaking in the ocean, another boat ride to the downtown area of the island, and then of course the trip home. What we didn't realize was that there was going to be a little less snorkeling than promised and a LOT more "entertainment." Our captain and other guides on the boat basically thought they were a riot and blared music the whole time while dancing for us and trying to pour tequila down our throats. BUT ... it turned out to be a really fun day. I successfully warded off all tequila shots and we got to see some cool fish, kayak, shop, relax, and have all the water and soda we wanted all day long (since it costs like $4 a bottle at the hotel). We enjoyed our adventure and then enjoyed getting back to our routine of ... doing nothing.

I could have stayed at least another week. It was just too much fun. There was even a sweet gym for Joe to use in the early morning before we headed to the beach (while I slept) and a ping pong table we liked to use for a few minutes after dinner. We settled on our favorite meals on the poolside restaurant lunch menu (beef fajitas and chicken panini) and were just so content. The hotel traffic picked up a little the last couple of days with some destination weddings, but it definitely wasn't busy. However, we were lucky enough to come across some scary lady who started talking to us a couple of times for no apparent reason and in the elevator told us in a masculine, heavily-hickish voice: "it's my 4oth birthday and I DO want to go get DRUNK as a SKUNK." I doubt she had any trouble there.

Of course the week came to an end waaay too fast. On the last night we went in search of a special dinner and ended up taking a beautiful walk in this sunset:

We finally found the perfect place to eat and I had delicious sea bass and Joe had the thickest steak I've ever seen. Also we watched for dolphins which are frequently spotted near the place we were eating and I caught a glimpse of one.

On Sunday morning we got up extra early so we could enjoy the beach one last time before we had to check out and catch our flight home. Although we're sad it's over, we are soooo happy we had such a fantastic vacation to celebrate our dual-graduations. I suppose it's always good to be home safe and sound - and no swine flu. ;)

Last of the graduation week festivities

I know I've already said a LOT about graduation but I have just a few more random pictures from our big week that I wanted to post. First off, Joe and I just LOVED having both sets of our parents in town! Having us all together plus Nate & Lori (and even Ben & Caitlin when they were free!) just made the week such a party and so much fun. My mom arrived first and we spent a day in Georgetown together and then Joe's parents flew in followed by my Dad. We had family dinners, went out to eat, spent some time at the mall, went on a couple of walks, and mostly just hung out. But with all the graduation stuff going on we were fairly busy and it all just went by way too fast.

As a side note, I just have to provide a little explanation about my cookie. In case you haven't heard of Great American Cookies it is located in the Columbia mall and they do those big cookie things with frosting. Since we've lived here I've never gotten one but I grew up with one in my Dubuque, Iowa mall and am somewhat obsessed. For the past 4 years I have kept trying to come up with a sufficient reason to get one, since they aren't exactly cheap. But every time a birthday or something would roll around I would change my mind and decide no, I am trying to eat healthy right now and the last thing I need to do is eat an entire huge cookie (since let's face it, that's probably what was going to happen).

Well this time I decided that graduation was THE occasion and I was ready for my cookie, no matter what. We had to make a special detour on the way home from graduation in Baltimore to get it, but here it is:
Looking pretty excited, huh? I was just hoping the cookie would actually live up to my highly-set expectations since I had been having trouble with that lately (see last two posts). :) Here's a picture so you can see what it said.

And the verdict?? Yes, it was delicious. I think I probably ate like a third of it myself. Based on how rough my first week of bar study has been (very mild compare to how it will get) I'm thinking that taking the bar at the end of July will be sufficient cause for another cookie. What do you think??

Another big part of graduation day was our amazing graduation dinner. I chose to eat at the Grille at Harryman House ... this was another part of the day that I had "high expectations" for and fortunately it did not disappoint one bit. We all had delicious meals and appetizers and the meal was very special and unique, which was what I was hoping for. Thank you to our parents who were kind enough to treat us to all these fun occasions as a celebration of us entering the "real world." Hopefully someday we can return a few of the favors. :)

The group outside the restaurant:

That night we hung out, played games, ate my cookie (w/ ice cream for those who wanted it) and I gave Joe his "graduation present." I just wanted Dr. D to be able to see his official new name in print whenever he felt like it so I thought this nameplate would be appropriate:

The next day we had a blast taking our family to hunt valley to the Amish market (love that place) for breakfast/lunch/way more food that you would ever need to eat!! So delicious though.

After lunch we stopped at the NCR trial for a walk. It was a perfect day.

We also stopped at Wegman's ... also a bit of a novelty ... and got food for Sunday dinner and just enjoyed the gorgeous drive. The next day was Sunday and my Dad had to fly out right after church while the other 3 flew out early the next morning. Joe and I, however, spent the day getting ready for our very highly anticipated Mexico vacation!!

OUR BIG DAY

Well we are freshly returned from our graduation trip to Cancun and I can't wait to share some pictures! But first I need to document our actual big day, May 15, 2009: the day Joe became Dr. Dastrup and I became a J.D.!!

The day began with my alarm going off at 5:30 and then leaving the house at 6:40 to grab seats for Joe's dental school hooding ceremony at the Hippodrome in downtown Baltimore. The crew included me, Joe, my parents, Joe's parents, and Nate & Lori. We got there just in time to get good seats and then I went with Joe to get him ready, take some pictures with his friends, and wait for the ceremony to begin.

During the ceremony I had a special seat on the front left part of the auditorium where the "hooders" sat. I didn't know much about hoods until that day, but here's the deal: people receiving advanced degrees are "hooded" with a long decrative hood displaying the school's colors. Normally faculty members do the hooding, but for the dental school's ceremony the students had the chance to choose any person to hood them that held an equivalent or higher degree. And I got to hood Joe!!! My mom thought it was terrific and I guess it was pretty cool. Lots of students had Dads or Grandpas hooding them but I only noticed one other dental student being hooded by his wife!
I tried to watch the first few students being hooded to figure out what I was supposed to do. What a moment!

I can barely remember the program anymore (I think Cancun wiped my brain clean) except that it was very nice. The senior class president gave a thoughtful speech and the hygiene students and those graduating from specialty programs were also recognized. On the way out Joe gave us a triumphant fist-pump. Go Dr. D!

I was super excited to greet Joe afterward since he had accidentally ignored me after I hooded him and beelined it back to his seat instead. I thought maybe I had messed up on the hooding or something?? Turns out he was just in the zone and thought I had turned back the other way instead of following him off stage.

Me and Gina (Joe's mom) with the good-looking Dr.

Us with Joe's parents ....

Us with my parents ... It was so fun to have such an occasion to have both sets of parents in town together! We had a lot of fun.

And of course with Nate & Lori! Lori did a fabuous job helping to document the day. Thanks for taking a day off just for us! :)

And here's Joe with the majority of his fellow LDS dental school buddies. He knew 4 of them (2 not in this picture) before dental school and they were a great group.

Us with our close friends the Austins! Two days later they headed to Tennessee for an oral surgery program and we are going to miss them like crazy.

And with our close friends the Skinners. They are headed to AZ and we are excited for them and are glad we'll hopefully get to see lots of them in the future.

Group picture with the wives ... yes we all should be congratulated for successfully getting through these tough 4 years!

Just the wives (well some of them) ...

After the picture taking we hurried over to the law school a block away and caught the tail end of a brunch that had been going on all morning. We had just enough time to quickly eat some eggs, potatoes and french toast before the family had to get back to the Hippodrome to get seats for my hooding ceremony and I had to be to Westminster Hall to get lined up.

The law students and faculty then processioned to the Hipprodrome which was exciting. It was really happening! I got to ever-so-briefly say hi to a few of my professors on the way into the building and then the program began. The law school and dental school programs were quite different. The day class president giving the speech was a friend of mine and she did a great job. We also heard from Congressman Elijah Cummings who had a lot of great thoughts, but his style was a little intense for my taste (think Baptist preacher). Then there were the hoodings ... unfortunately I didn't get to pick my hooder and was hooded by two professors I didn't know.

After that the graduates walked back to the law school where I met up with my family. For the next few minutes I had a bit of a hard time since I realized the day was not going how I wanted and had envisioned. Because of the way it was set up, the time to see friends and professors was during the brunch (which we missed), and after the ceremony everyone just scattered and I couldn't find anyone. It's hard to explain why I was so bummed but I just was. Several of my professors have meant a lot to me over these 3 years. I respected them greatly and learned so much from them and I know they thought highly of me as well, and I was excited to have them meet my husband and family, to say thank you, and hear words of congratulations which would have been more meaningful than most since they actually knew how hard I'd worked. Anyway, that didn't work out and it's okay. But it did put a damper on things for a few minutes which I why I don't look so ecstatic in these pictures (and why they aren't very many of them). :)

I was happy that we got to see Brigham and Kristen. We have been in the same ward for the past 3 years and Brigham and I were the only two LDS students in the law school. Funnily enough, we ended up being in the same "small section" first year and had lots of classes together. They have been great friends and we'll miss them but wish them the best of luck in Salt Lake!

Joe and me ... walking off the campus as graudates. I still can hardly believe it!

After that we took a trip to the Bookstore for some t-shirts and made short stop in Columbia on the way home (more on that in the next post). By the time we got back we were completely exhausted and had dinner reservations in not too long ... but we stopped to take some pictures with both Joe and me in our gowns since we knew we'd never get around to doing it another other day. Here they are!

Displaying the hoods - I love this picture.

Pretty sweet jumping picture.

Don't know what this is supposed to be ...

Gotta throw the hats!!

Oh yeah ... can't forget this one. :)

That's it! We are not students anymore!!