Destination: Paradise

This year we decided to plan a big trip to celebrate our one year and... well pretty much any excuse we can come up with! We started planning it back in January of this year and were counting down the days!

When we landed in Miami, we knew we were in for a treat! 

We boarded the cruise on Sunday and we were running round like kids in a candy shop, there was so much to do and see! And of course on cruises you get the option of anything you could possibly eat... ever. And of course we did! 

Our cruise was 7 days. We were on the ship for 3 days at see and then we had four port days! Our ports were Cozumel, Mexico; Belize; Mahogany Bay, Honduras; and Grand Cayman. 

Our port days were jam packed and filled with our shore excursions. In Cozumel, our excursion was canceled. Then in Belize we had a blast going zip lining, rappelling, and cave tubing during our Ultimate Adventure! Then we spent our day in Mahogany Bay on the beach and snorkeling! Then during our last day at port, we were in Grand Cayman. It was our favorite port, and we had a blast. We boarded a boat and they took us out to the middle of the ocean to a sandbar. A sandbar is a part of the ocean that is waist high and it was just crystal clear! It was amazing and there were a ton of stingrays that just stay in this sandbar because they know they will get fed. It was spectacular. Stingrays would swim up through our legs and around our feet! They are such peaceful creatures and the way they glide through the water is amazing! The whole day was just top notch! 

It was the perfect way to end a whirlwind of a year! 

Grand Cayman - Stingray city!

Belize - Cave tubing

PS We want to go cruising again, so if anyone wants to go... we need cruise friends!

Vegas baby, Vegas!

We did it! We went on a vacation! Where did we go, you ask. Well we went to Fabulous Las Vegas!!

This vacation was much needed! It was inspired by my friends, Mariah and Michael getting married in the Las Vegas temple. The sealing was beautiful and it was a great reminder of our own wedding day. It reminded us of why we chose to get married, how we felt that day, and the amazing people that we shared our day. It also reminded us to keep the eternal perspective when we face problems and challenges!

(It was super windy that day hence the squinty eyes)

Inside the Las Vegas Temple Atrium 

Waiting for the couple to come out!

Such a cute couple and a beautiful day!

After the wedding we stayed two extra days so we could do things on the strip. Jackson had never been  before, and apart from gambling and drinking, there are actually a lot of things to do and to see. So some of the things that we did were, the eiffel tower experience at the Paris Hotel, the roller coaster at New York, New York hotel, and adventure dome at the Circus Circus Hotel. Oh and not to mention, lots of places to eat, and lots of things to try! 

Here are some more pictures!

Mongolian bbq!

We visited Hash House a - go - go! Jackson got the fried chicken eggs benedict!

and I got the banana pecan french toast (something like that) It was delicious! 

M&M Nascar!

We became "parrot heads" at Margatritaville! 

This was taken on the indoor ferris wheel at the adventuredome at circus circus. 

Las Vegas classics. 

I got this for free for checking in to the Ceasars Palace on foursquare! 

frozzzzeenn hot chocolate from Serendipity is where it's at. 

Jackson really wanted to try the foot long hot dog! 

Sooo good. 

Jacksons favorite novelty restaurant - Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville.

(Got the cheese burger in paradise) 

One of the best salads... Ever!

We went to the tippy top!

The view from the top!

We love VEGAS!

We stayed at the Flamingos... so of course they actually have flamingos!

Our room was pretty legit!

And one of the highlights of the trip was to find this gem!

Inca Kola is a Peruvian soda that tastes like bubble gum that Jackson enjoyed as a missionary while in Peru and Bolivia! 

(We brought home 6 of these to share with friends and family! and we are down to our last 2 liter!)

He was so excited to drink it, we barely made it out of the parking lot before he had it open. I thought I wouldn't like it, but it is actually okay. It's not too sweet and makes you want to go back to it. Very refreshing. 

Tuesday afternoon, sadly we said goodbye to Vegas and the wonderful weather and drove up to Provo to see Jackson's brother Dallin and to celebrate Jackson's birthday! (We even drove through a snow storm... in april... on our way up to Provo!)

We got to visit with some of the Millard family friends, the Goesch's! They are a hoot!

We went to Tocanos for Jackson's birthday dinner and they made him dance while they sang happy birthday!

We got to go to boondocks, where my younger cousins have said to be more fun then Disneyland.

(I would have to disagree, but we did still have a lot of fun!)

Then to wrap up the fun we played arcade games, which we realize is like kiddie gambling... but we got enough tickets to get Jackson this awesome trojan hat. 

We had a great trip and made some awesome memories! We are so excited for our plans for this year!

Stay tuned for our up coming adventures! We just bought a tent and it looks like we will be doing that very soon! ( We were so excited we even set it up in our living room, so we are definitely way excited to go camping!) Then we are officially going to Washington DC after the semester is over! We will be there for our one year anniversary, so I am looking forward to that! 

Anyway thanks for reading and come back again soon!

Love the Millards!

Remembering The Wedding!

Did you miss our big day? Well here is our love story/highlights by our amazing videographers Elise and Andy and a slideshow made by Dallin Millard, Jackson's brother. 

Wedding Video! 

Growing up slideshow!

Look how adorable Jackson was as a baby! I mean sooo cute! Not to toot my own horn but our kids are going to be pretty cute. 

Love you guys! 

April Is Here!

April has just begun, which means... this semester is a few short days from being over!!!
I am pretty much finished with my classes besides a few more assignments because most sociology teachers think the same, but Jackson still has a lot left. The funny thing is we feel like we almost checked out at the beginning of March. This semester has been a long and challenging one. I want to take a second and say that I don't think I would have been able to get through these last two semesters with out Jackson. I am in my upper division classes and I don't know if I could have done as well if I was still a single student. Jackson has pushed me to be a better student and to try as hard as I can. This semester I have pulled off the best grades of my college career and I owe it all to my wonderful husband!
So what is pushing us to finish off this last week strong is the fact we are heading to Vegas next Friday. You might be asking yourself, "What do we have planned when we get down there?" We are going down for my friends wedding and don't laugh but we are planning a little bit of Culinary Tourism (a term from my sociology of health class - def: the promotion of gastronomic experiences as a key part of tourism). I mean the whole point of traveling seems to be to eat new things in new places... right? Well we are going to spend two nights off the strip and two nights on. We are an avid fan of Man Vs. Food and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (I think that is how it goes), but we are planning on trying out a few places that are featured on those shows. We also have other things planned besides trying food! We might also go to a show, we might go to one of the exhibits or museums and we are going to do a lot of people watching and a lot of relaxing! We have also been watching the Oceans movies... and the movie 21 and even though we are not planning to take the Bellagio for all their worth (or even gambling at all) we are still getting super stoked. We might even go to the famous pawn shop from Pawn Wars! Anyways we are going in 8 days! We are staying at the oldest still standing hotel (hopefully the renovations are good) on the strip, and my favorite growing up... The Flamingo! The Flamingo is awesome it has a ton of pools and they have a wildlife habitat thing. (Exciting, right?)

Anyway, stay tuned for our fist big adventure since we went on our honeymoon! There will be lots of pictures to come!
Love the Millards!

Hash House A Go Go  This is a video of one of the places we are going to try from Man Vs. Food (not the actual episode though)
Menu Yeah. We are Excited.

Busy with a chance of snow.

So for those of you that have never been to Rexburg, I want to explain to you what it is like. It is like living in a normal college town (no not really). It's more like living in the middle of nowhere in an obscure state with no professional sports team, and about 10 years ago they decided to make the LDS college into a four year university. So the school is growing and the town is not so much. Then in addition to that, we have our own eco system or atmosphere or something like that. While most of the country seems to be experiencing a heat wave of sorts, we go from 40 down to 2 in a matter of a day and from sunny to hail in the matter of minutes. It is really quite an experience, and I invite you to come visit and see what we are talking about.

So we are in the finishing stretch of this semester, it is kind of crazy how time is just flying by. It is also amazing to me how life seems to never quite calm down. There are moments where there is peace, but too quickly they are interrupted by the needs and demands of this world. As of right now there are so many demands in our lives with school and work and it will be go go go until the end. The crazy thing is we already registered for next semester classes! So I am really hoping the week break will give us a little bit of rejuvenation for our second to last semester! I am looking forward to this upcoming semester though, I am taking mostly sociology classes (which mostly sound made up. for example; drugs and society, terrorism and methods) and Jackson is diving more into his psych classes and some classes for his international studies minor. 

I think after these last two semesters for me and one for Jackson we have realized and learned how to balance things out more, or at least we are trying to do so. When you get married you don't realize how much work it takes to keep everything running, especially yourself because of new found responsibilities! I guess it is all just one huge learning process that will make us stronger in the long run, right?!

Well this is a brief update today, hence the fact we are so stinking busy. Hopefully next time there will be more to report! 

Until then... Thanks for reading and come back soon! 

Lauren and Jackson Millard 

Long time, no talk!

Hi there,
So I have been wanting to start a blog ever since Jackson and I got married... Well maybe before that, like when we were dating or something. However, somehow after we got hitched our lives have gone completely bonkers and we are busy all the time!

Here's the update on us! We are both in school right now and working part time. I am in school studying Sociology and Jackson is studying Psychology! (At the wedding everyone joked how we could open a practice!) I am working at Kmart and Jackson is still rocking the good ole TC (testing center, for people like me that didn't know there was a cool way to say it.) We stay pretty busy with school, homework, and work. We both have 2 more semesters before we say good-bye next April to the iceburg that we currently live in, and until then we will fantasize about the warmer, more pleasant states.

Even though the winter has crept deep into our bones, we are fighting hard. We are striving to be more healthy so winter sads don't get the best of us. I don't think we realized at first what was happening, but we are taking vitamins and I am trying to get all the Vitamin D that my body will absorb and I think it is helping! I for one have more energy then I have had in a while. We have both been exercising and all together trying to get back in shape! Jackson is on a competitive basketball team which is helping him stay active and busy and I am just heading to the gym a few times a week. I think we are really starting to feel better and not so boggled down.

We have some big stuff planned in the near future! Due to school and for me to request time off, it is tricky to plan vacations. (Plus not to mention we are college students and we are not totally rich!) However, I am delighted to say that one of my old roommates, and dear friends have provided us with the perfect opportunity to head out of Rexburg for a while! My friend Mariah is getting married in the Las Vegas Temple the weekend after this semester! It works out perfectly! 1. I love Mariah. 2. Jackson has never been to Las Vegas. 3. It's Jacksons birthday week. 4. I desperately need to take a break! I am so looking forward to the end of this semester and the fun couple days in Vegas and then a couple days in Utah visiting family! It sounds just like what the doctor ordered.

We hope to plan more trips this year. I would love to go home to California for a couple of days, and up to the Oregon coast to relive my second proposal (don't worry, I said yes both times.) Then maybe to Texas to meet the newest addition to the Millard Family, our niece Grace. I would also love to go to D.C. to officially meet my sister-in-law Adele and their sweet daughter Collette, who I haven't had the opportunity to meet yet! Oh there is so much to do, and that I hope we can do it this year!

I think that 2013 will bring many adventures and memories, along with plenty of trials and knowing that I have Jackson by my side through it all makes it so worth it. I am so blessed to have married into such a caring and loving family.

Well there is a little update from us! Until next time... Stay classy San Diego

Love,
The Millards!
(pronounced Mil-(LARD)... yeah I didn't realize that at first either.)