Honeymoon Part 2!!

After we returned from our Costa Rica trip we flew in to Vegas and stayed at my house for a night. This begins the second part of our honeymoon which was a road trip up through California on our way to Oregon for our 2nd Reception there. We started by driving to Matt's sister Rachel's apt in Beverly Hills. We stayed with her for the night. The next day we went down to the beach and just had fun doing things on the pier and laying out :).


We stayed another night and the next day we started driving to Six Flags Magic Mountain WOO!

We got there and there was like no one there. We didnt have to wait for more than 2 minutes on any ride it was awesome! Although this made us sick faster since we didnt have the time waiting in lines for our bodies to recoup. I just love going to theme parks with a boy and always having someone to ride with and hold my hand, I still like Disneyland with him better, but we had lots of fun. :)

After we were too sick for any more rides we started the drive to Monterrey Bay where Matt's sister Kim and her family live. They just bought a house and we got to stay with them. They did a lot of remodeling and there house looks so cute! I cant wait until the day that we can get a house :)The next day we drove "17 Mile drive".

Kim's husband Akoni works at Cypress Point, a gorgeous golf course right on the coast near Pebble Beach. He took us all around the course on a little golf cart tour. It was so pretty.



After this we drove the rest of the drive and started heading for San Francisco.

We made it there just in time for our Alcatraz Tour. We were running along the piers trying to find where to go haha.

It was a lot of fun, and the tour was really cool.
Here I am on the boat.

And Matt

Matt in Jail :(

Me in Jail

Being a Seagull

After Alcatraz we ate at my favorite restaurant, Bubba Gumps, on Pier 39!!

Then we got dessert at Ghiradelli Square Mmm


We stayed at an amazing hotel called the fairmont that Matt's sister Andrea booked for us while we were in Alcatraz haha. It was amazing I loved it, everything was so old fashioned. We told the guy it was our honeymoon and he upgraded our room, sweet! We're just gonna do that everywhere :)

We stayed one night there and the next day we headed out for more driving, but not without stopping at the Golden Gate bridge first and then driving across it :)

Needless to say, Matt was so ready to be out of San Fran, the traffic there drove him nuts and the lack of parking, you'd think he'd be used it to by now living in Provo haha. So we stayed the night at this little motel it was kinda scary but fun. Our next day was going to see the Redwoods. I just think they are so amazing, and we had a lot of fun.

I'm a tree-hugger :)

Look close, Matt is standing btwn those 2 ginormous trees :)

We had such a fun trip, and loved having 2 honeymoons. But as far as im concerned our honeymoon isn't even over, we're still living in a honeymoon state :)

Honeymoon in Costa Rica!

After our wonderful wedding night we headed off the next day to our Honeymoon in Costa Rica!! I was so excited to get to fly on a plane with my husband, he thought I was silly that i was so excited about it but its something every girl looks forward to..no more feeling awkward on planes worrying about falling asleep on the guy next to you's shoulder (true story happened to me while flying to Italy Junior year of high school haha)

We arrived in Costa Rica, picked up our rental car and started driving to the hotel, a trek that was supposed to be an hour and a half but took us 5 hours!!! Matt got lost and we were driving around this country on unmarked roads and scary streets, in the middle of the night, not to mention the lady told us when we picked up our car not to stop for anything, she said "if you get a flat tire just keep driving, do not stop, and do not let anyone help you" so comforting :(. We finally made it to our hotel at 5 am, and we checked in and crashed in our awesome room with an ocean view.

The next day we ordered room service, slept in, checked out our resort, and planned what we wanted to do.

Some of the amazing things we did while we were there are:

A horseback ride to a waterfall and then to swim in a natural pool.


Get pina coladas.

Go swimming at the beach.

Visit Manuel Antonio National park

Hang out with monkeys :) my favorite!

Go on a white water rafting trip.

We went zip-lining through the jungle but I dont have those pictures right now :(
And lots of other fun stuff.


We had such a blast and have so many fun and funny memories from our trip! Thanks so much to Matt's parents for our awesome Honeymoon trip! We love you guys!

I have the BEST Parents!

So I just have to say a special thank you to my parents for giving me such an amazing wedding, and raising me the way they did so that I could be married and sealed in the temple just like they were. My parents are seriously amazing and if you know them you know what I am talking about. My mom is so busy with all 4 of us kids and she always has put us first so that we can do the things we want to. And my dad works his butt off as an amazing CAO (Chief Accounting Officer) for Wynn Resorts. My parents have worked so hard to be to where they are today, and I am so grateful to have them . My mom worked so hard to get everything ready and perfect for my wedding. I think she cared more about all the details than I did. haha.

I hardly had to stress about any wedding stuff and I was able to focus on school and finish my semester with A's :). I love having a mom who is my best friend and who I can trust with anything! Who do I want to go shopping with me and help me find stuff?...my mom! And not because she will buy me stuff (which is a plus) but because the cutest outfits I own were chosen by her.

She helped do so much for our wedding and I owe it all to her and daddy of course although he was more there for support he stayed out of the planning mess haha. My parents are awesome and I love them so much! Ready for grandkids yet? haha jk Thanks so much Mom and Dad I love you! Matt does too :)

Mr. and Mrs. Ekman!! 5-1-09

Ok so I don’t have any of my really good pictures yet, I am getting a CD of everything but haven’t gotten it yet, so these pictures will have to do for now. Plus this is long but oh well my main purpose of this blog is to have a journal of our lives together so I have to use details :). So about a week before the wedding on Saturday April 25th matt took me through the temple.

Im so glad that Matt and I could get married in the temple and that I found a worthy boy to take me there. That next week all the final preparations were made. Matt flew home to Oregon until Thursday and I hated that he was gone. But I had lots to do. I had to have my dress fitted since it had just arrived the week before. I didn’t get to take any bridals for this reason, there just wasn’t enough time. That week there was one day where all of my bridesmaids got together and my mom bought us all lunch at CafeRio, it was Amazing and so fun! Me and mom finished all the details so everything would be ready.

Anna, Britt, Jessica, Amy, Me, Heather, Amanda P., Morgan , and Tori

We also all went to get our nails and toes done that Thursday morning.

On The Thursday night before the wedding we had our rehearsal dinner at BJ’s. We had my favorite types of pizza. It was so fun to have everyone there before the craziness of the next day began.


Angel, Michael, and Amanda


Jon, Jordan, and Britt


My Grandma, Aunt Carol, Uncle John, and cousins

After the dinner all my friends took me out for a bachelorette party! It was so much fun we all had little masks, feather boas, and name tags of a guys parts haha it was funny!

We went to the Las Vegas sign and took some pictures there and then of course we went to the strip and the girls had a bunch of dares for me.

After each dare I got a prize, to name a few…some chocolate paint and some naughty dice haha. I had such a fun time with all my girls Thanks girls!!!
By the time we got home I was exhausted, but of course I stayed up with some of the girls who were staying at my house and we had to have the night before the wedding girl talk, haha it was fun chatting with anna, tori, cari, and my sisters. I didn’t care that I was up late I could not fall asleep!
That morning I woke up and I remember thinking holy crap im getting married today!! Haha but I wasn’t really nervous at all, I was just excited to get ready and have my almost husband come and take me to the temple. So I woke up at 7 am after like 3 hrs of sleep and went upstairs to the chaos, haha every girl in the house was up getting ready and running around getting things together. I got to sit and be pampered while Leslie (my hair-dresser and my moms long time friend) did my hair and then my mom did my makeup.

Poor Matt showed up to pick me up and they wouldn’t let me see him! I wanted to see him so bad, and they made him just go without me, he didn’t even know how to get to the temple so he called like 5 times asking me where to go haha. Once I was ready my mom and I got in the car with everything and headed over, and then I finally got to see my fiancé just beaming at me. We were ready. We had to wait for everyone to arrive and then we were sealed for time and all eternity to each other in the Las Vegas Nevada temple at about 12:30 pm on May 1, 2009. I can still remember how extremely happy I was when I first heard them say that we were now husband and wife. From that point on I have been Mrs. Ekman. After we were married I had to change into my dress which took some time to get everything right, Matt still had never seen my dress so you can imagine the look on his face when I walked out:) . It was so fun to walk out of the temple to everyone cheering for us and to have all our close friends and family there.

Of course then began the 2 hours of picture taking.
We were so exhausted by the time we got back to my house, we ate really fast and then 15 minutes later had to head over to our reception. The reception started at 6 at the Redrock Country Club.


My stud little brother Blake





Everything inside was fantastic!! It was everything I had dreamed of for my wedding. Everything went so smoothly, our dance went perfectly which Matt was freaking out about and I mean literally freaking out, he was more nervous for our first dance then anything else haha.

The food tasted amazing and the cake was so so so good! I have to brag about my cake because it was bomb! There was not a piece of nasty fondant at all. Just 4 tiers of buttercream frosting with white chocolate petals around it.


The reception seriously went by soo fast, I felt like it had only been an hour and my mom was already telling me to start getting my stuff ready to leave , Now I was nervous haha. We walked out through everyone cheering and waving big sparklers and then we got into the limo and rode off :).

We stayed for our wedding night in an amazing suite at Wynn Encore. It was perfect and the room was so nice, there was even a remote control for the blinds which was my favorite part haha. We had to get up pretty early the next morning to go to the airport on our way to our Honeymoon in Costa Rica!!! But ill save that for another time. But I must say that I am so happy with my husband. I love him so much and I am so excited for the rest of our lives together!