The HONEYMOON! (PG)

Disclaimer: All photos/videos can be found on Facebook. Not sure if I'll post 'em here, too.

It's official - we've now been married for a month! It feels (in a good way) like we've been married longer, and it's weird to think we have just barely dated for 6 months. (Haha, we're shakers and movers, what can we say?)
The Honeymoon was a blast. We spent our wedding night in the Romeo Suite at Castle Creek Inn. It's a romanticly themed castle-looking motel over on Creek Road. They had movies in the dining room and we decided to grab two of them. Can't remember what they were, and it was a total waste of effort because we didn't watch either of them.
We had a balcony that looked out over a garden/forest with a stream and fountain. We saw several cars in the parking lot that were decorated like ours was (although I didn't see any other license plate covers that said, "It's a bird! It's a Plane! No, we're just super horny!").

Saturday, my mom graciously drove us to the airport around 5:30PM so we didn't have to leave a car parked and pay ridiculous parking fees. We boarded the plane and I took half a sleeping pill and prepared ourselves for a crappy night's sleep!

We arrived sometime around 5:30AM in Orlando, FL. Our connecting bus to Port Canaveral, where Freedom of the Seas was waiting for us, wouldn't be ready until about 10:30AM, so we napped in between an escalator and a pillar near the Royal Caribbean desk. When it was time, a RC employee woke us and we departed, again napping on the bus. We got on the ship a little earlier than our boarding time and went and crashed in our room.

1st Stop: Labadee, Haiti. Royal Caribbean pays the Haitian gov't. royalties for the peninsula referred to as Labadee. It's a nice area where numerous hammocks are set up ready for use, beach lounge chairs are in abundance, and an eating area has been built so they can unload food from the ship and feed you right there on the land. It was great. The shopping sucked (but we weren't there for the shopping) - they have two little areas: one for "Artisans" and one called a "Flea Market." Not really sure what the difference was as they both had pretty much the same stuff.
Tiffany and I had arranged to do a zipline but when we went over there at our allotted time we were told it was closed because it was too windy. We decided to take a nap in one of the hammocks and awoke to the sound of zipliners. We went over and asked if we could still go and we could. It was a blast! You start at Dragon's Breath (training zipline) and after you do that they take you up 500ft above the sea in Land Rover Defenders. You leave the compound (and there's a guard at the gate...can't remember if he was armed or not). Once at the top, you have a great view of the 2600ft zipline you'll be riding over land,sea, and land. It was beautiful to fly over the water, look down and see the waves roll in. Tiffany and I both agreed that while it was really fun it was one of those things you don't feel like you need to do again once you've done it. Don't get me wrong - I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but I would never pay that much to do that zipline again.

2nd Stop: Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I have never been offered drugs on a vacation before. Kind of a novelty. The annoying thing about Jamaica, however, was that EVERYONE is trying to rip you off. Everyone on the other islands are too, but just not as bad and blatantly obvious. Our waiter on the ship had given us the name of his friend that could take us around and to Dunn's Falls (we didn't want to book it through the ship as we had heard it was possible to get it cheaper without going through the cruise). When we got to the location, several people pointed us to a guy and said "That's Leroy." He had a full bus so another guy came up to us and invited us to his "office" (his car). We talked for awhile, he offered us a scenic drive, Dunn's Falls, and something else I can't remember for $70. It would have been at least $45-50 per person for Dunn's falls if we had done it through the ship. We got him down to $60 without the scenic overlook drive. We wanted to do a little shopping and get our "free" souvenirs. I'll let Tiff talk about that, though. After recognizing that we were newlyweds and on our honeymoon, and mentioning to me that going to Dunn's Falls would, "put some lead in your pencil," we were on our way!

We first went to a shopping area and told the driver we'd only be an hour. He said okay and told us he'd meet us there in an hour. I was a little surprised as I had thought our $60 had reserved him for the day. Nevertheless, we did our shopping and ended up only taking 15 minutes, so we decided to look at all the stores and met back in an hour. Our driver was a 1/2 hour late. We would have taken another taxi (since we had not yet paid him) but our towels were in his vehicle. When we got back in the vehicles we saw someone else's shorts on the seats. He moved those and we were on our way to Dunn's Falls. We told him we were a little frustrated that he was a half hour late. "Traffic, traffic!" They tell you. Bull.
Dunn's Falls was gorgeous! Fall after fall after fall, all pouring beautiful white water. We were so glad we hadn't hired a tour guide as it would have taken us several hours. If you hired a tour guide you had to hold hands and slowly move up the falls. There were probably several hundred people there, but we made it up the falls in about 45 minutes, with little breaks here and there to take footage and pictures.

It was at Dunn's Falls where Tiffany was given a "free" carving of a woman's head. The young man asked Tiffany her name and he hurriedly carved it into the back of the carving. He then asked me what my name was. I told him, "Bubba." He carved that and then I took it and he said, "It's free with a $20 donation." I said, "You told us it was free." "Her's is free. Your's requires a $20 donation." I told him that was okay and that we didn't want it. (I had learned from a similar experience in New York last October: A man was yelling "Free CD" and so he wrote my name on the CD cover and said, "this is free with a donation." Once I heard I had to pay for it I didn't want it, but he had already written my name on it, so I felt obliged. It was some crappy rap cd with poorly announced audible "DJ Whiteowl" occasionally inserted over random parts of the songs. Total ripoff). When I told him I didn't want it he said, "come on, man." I told him all I had was five dollars (which was true). He hesitated for a moment and then finally relented. AH HAH! Who screwed who here? Tiffany and I giggled in bitterness about this later.
When we were finally done with Dunn's Falls, we only ended up waiting 5-10 minutes (probably because we had given him a good talking to ;o). He took us back in to town near the ship and we did some more shopping, Tiff had her hair braided (and got ripped off, but Tiff was strong and didn't give in...too much) and walked to the ship.

3rd Stop: George Town, Grand Cayman. Sting Ray Snorkel! This was awesome. We had been told $35 per person. We met up and went out (1/2 hour boat ride to the sandbar where the stingrays are). It was quite windy and the water was about 5 1/2-6ft deep, so Tiffany and I did a good bit of swimming. We should have taken life jackets off the boat so we didn't have to swim. We got to pet a stingray. They're so soft and slimy in a good way. It was fun to see them so close. They took a picture of us "kissing" the stingray, but we didn't want to pay $60 for a photo. We've got the memory... We fed the stingray some squid and I kind of got bit (didn't break the skin, but it pulled blood to the surface) because I held the meet wrong. You hold it in your hand like a fist with your thumb tucked inside. Those stingrays have incredibly strong suckers for mouths! Tiff wasn't feeling great because she was getting tossed to and fro with the waves and had swallowed a bunch of sea water. They then took us over to a deeper area and we put on life vests and snorkeled around. It was blissful snorkeling arm-in-arm with Tiffany. We saw some coral and were told about "Fire Coral." Nasty stuff. Like Stinging Nettle. We saw some more stingray and a few conch shells.
On the boat ride back they pointed out to us Sylvester Stallone's island home. Pretty with a lot of archways. We had talk to a few other people and asked them how much they were being charged. One couple with two little girls were paying $60 for the four of them, so Tiffany and I thought we could get away with $paying $50 instead of $70 like I was previously quoted, and we did! Tiffany is a great bargainer, by the way...

4th Stop: Cozumel, Mexico. Two-tank Scuba Dive! We had gotten Tiffany scuba certified in July. I have always wanted an eternal dive buddy. I finally have one! This was her first dive and my first DRIFT dive. What a blast! We saw so many things! We swam through a coral archway, saw a barracuda, needlefish, giant lobster (he was hiding in a crevice - all you could see were his whiskers), a trunkfish, jellyfish (little one), lots of coral, tropical colored fish, conch shells, sea slug (looked like a giant, um...Tootsie roll (Better than the noun that first popped into my head, haha). The dives were so much fun! The first one we went down about 80-85 feet. The second was only about 40-45. We had fun. We saw some "wild" iguanas near the dive shop just laying around. I also saw some ants carrying a hard candy mint up a wall. Tiff's ear didn't unclog for about a week or two.

Seven days and seven nights of soft-serve ice cream, amazing food, room service, food, shows, ship exploring, and quality time together. Honeymoons are tons'o'fun!

My Side of the Story

Tiffany told me a few of you wanted to hear my side of the story so here it is (I warn you - I'm long winded, but I'll try to keep it short and to the point):
Last September (2008) I bought a condominium near my sister's townhouse and moved out of my parent's house - much to their excitement. An important thing to note: ever since the mission field I have enjoyed sharing the gospel but haven't been able to find many opportunities to do so. I hoped that with the move I would have new neighbors that I could share the gospel with.
I immediately left the University 24th ward and began attending the 44th where I was quickly called to serve as a ward missionary. Tiffany was also a ward missionary and after about two weeks the Bishopric decided to make me the Ward Mission Leader. Tiffany was soon after released and called to be the Ward Choir Pianist. I think I spoke with her once or twice when she was a ward missionary.

A couple months later my neighbor Nicole was moving some furniture into her condo so that her parents would have a place to sleep when they visited from China. Nicole is from Canton, China and has lived in the U.S. for about the past eight years. I offered to help her move the furniture and as I was leaving she asked me about church. I was so excited! I promptly invited her to church and to ward activities and I think I had my roommate Roger drive her to church (I have PEC meetings every Sunday before church starts).
I knew that there had to be someone in the ward that spoke Chinese and I hoped that Nicole would become friends with whomever it was. I asked around and discovered that Tiffany spoke Cantonese and served a mission in Hong Kong. I was thrilled! I introduced Nicole to Tiffany and they became best friends.
Ever since December Nicole had been attending church and I was ecstatic. The ultimate goal was to invite her to take the discussions. I had talked to her about it a few times and she mentioned that she had back in October but she didn't feel like the missionaries had really answered her questions. I kept in contact with Tiffany and she also invited Nicole to take the discussions. Eventually she agreed and we began having the discussions at my place.

Tiffany came to every discussion. I never had any idea that things weren't peachy at home for her. Nicole had had about half the discussions and the following Sunday I was talking to Tiffany, asking her how her weekend was. I asked her if there was anything that I could do for her and she responded, "Not unless you have a cure for cancer."

I inquired what she meant and she proceeded to tell me that her dad was dying of cancer. I was blown away. I couldn't believe that she had been dealing with such a dreadful experience all along.
Now I'm not the caretaker type. Early on Tiffany asked me if I was because she was afraid that was why I all of a sudden became interested in her. The truth is, I always thought she was pretty and when I found out that she was being such a devoted and caring friend to Nicole while her dad was falling apart I was impressed. I truly appreciated her being such a good friend to Nicole. I was so grateful that I had the opportunity to share the gospel with Nicole, but Tiffany had taken care of and helped her in ways that I could not.
Life is hard but God is good. I wanted to help Tiffany so that she didn't have to deal with her father's sickness alone.

A few days after this I was thinking and it dawned on me (revelation?) that I would be a moron to pass this up. I should ask her out at least once. So I did. We went to Spaghetti Mama's.
Spaghetti Mama's is a place where you get real value for the money you spend. It's a great place for first dates because an $8 or $9 meal gets you unlimited breadsticks, a salad, your meal, and a little bowl of ice cream after. I was explaining this to Tiffany when we got there, but I used the word, "cheap" and she teasingly extrapolated that to mean she was a cheap date. The waitress joined in and I was getting buried alive. It was fun, though.
Anyhoo, after that we went to Off Broadway Theatre's Laughing Stock. I figured she could use a good laugh. Laughter has always been an integral part of my life and I've found it makes the difficult times easier to get through.
After that I took her home. That was Friday. Her dad died Sunday morning at like 1AM. I received the text while I was in a PEC meeting so I passed the word along to the Bishopric and ward leadership. I went to Tiffany's house after church to show my support. That week, leading up to the funeral, I offered whatever I could for support. I didn't want to overstep my bounds since I had only gone out with her on one date and I wasn't sure if she was interested or not. I offered what I could and then let her decide what she wanted me to do. One of the great side-effects of the funeral was that I got to meet her family. This was definitely a plus, because after I met them, I liked them. All of them: the kids, the adults... I was in good company. They never made me feel unwelcome, and I was grateful for that.
After the funeral I spent almost every day with her. I upped my texting plan twice because we were texting nonstop. We continued teaching Nicole with the missionaries and we (it was definitely a team effort) baptized Nicole on March 14th. The rest is history.

In just under three short months I get to spend the rest of forever with the woman I love. I was blessed with two great things from one situation: the opportunity to successfully share something that means so much to me (the gospel) AND a wife (soon)!

...I told you I'm long winded...

How I Did It by O.J. Simpson...er, Christopher "Bubba" Bollinger

I've received a few requests for the details of my proposal to the most amazing woman in the world: one Tiffany Messick.

When my brother proposed to my sister-in-law by having us spell out "Marry Me, Leesa" in Christmas lights at the park near my parent's house, I decided I wanted to do something like that, but I decided I wanted to say it in flames.
Imagine it: "Will you marry me?" in glorious flames...Unfortunately, that's a little more dangerous and probably a lot less legal, so I decided to go another route. Roger, my roommate and close frat buddy, wanted to help and so they came up with the idea of using rope lights.
Every year my frat (Xi chapter of Sigma Gamma Chi - LDS Insitute) has a formal dance at the Snow Lodge in Deer Valley. There is excellent food, great atmosphere (although this year they had sewer problems so occasionally you'd get a whiff of raw sewage (*sniff* Mmmmm....), and a beautiful balcony overlooking the base of the slope.
Leading up to this I had told Tiffany that the ring would not be done until Monday the 27th. Her sister and sisters-in-law had told her it might be a good setup or ploy, so I played it out and told her I was really sorry it wouldn't be done until then (which would have been true if that had actually been the case).
After dinner and the announcement of next year's Xi officers (congratulations everyone!), I told her we should go to the balcony and get some fresh air (I had told her previously that I had always wanted to make out on the balcony :o) We proceeded to go outside and just in case she was on to me, I got down on one knee and told her I had to tie my shoe. She was totally clueless. Then as we were walking I could some of the lights and she said Roger was following us with his camera so I asked her, "So you were expecting this?"
"Expecting what?"
I took her to the edge of the balcony where you could see the lights and got on one knee, and asked her to marry me!
She kept saying, "You Bum!" for lying to her. I loved it. She was totally clueless!

I was VICTORIOUS! (She said 'Yes!")

I'll try and post the video later...

Jumping the gun a bit....

I'm not quite a Bollinger yet, but I thought I would get into this blogging world. Many have wanted to know the story of how Bubba fell in love with me and how I let it happen, so here goes. As for the creative, cute blog that everyone covets....that has yet to come. (I have no idea how to work this thing!)

My side of the story...

How we met: I was a ward missionary, and he just got called as ward mission leader. He started sending out emails and I was definitely impressed with the man as he pretty much enhanced the missionary program of our student ward. He assigned companions to go and find less actives each week. He arranged a Preach My Gospel class (and asked me to teach) so we could get the ward excited for missionary work. He planned on 15 minute meetings every week to report the efforts of missionary work. He helped us set goals and see what we could do to achieve them. And most importantly, he invited his neighbor Nicole to church. This guy was incredible....

How we started getting to know one another: Nicole is from China. We became fast BFF's (Best Friends Forever). Bubba had a great appreciation for me as I invited Nicole to activities and befriended her at church. I was just thrilled to have a close friend that I could speak Chinese with! Nicole and I even went with Bubba to a New Year's Eve party at the institute.
Nicole started taking the missionary lessons at Bubba's place, and I was honored to be involved as well. I always thought Bubba was a spiritual giant and cute, but also kind of annoying. He always thought I was cute, but wasn't interested in being anything more than just friends.

The turning point: One day at church Bubba had asked me how things were going. I wasn't very enthused and he asked if there was anything he could do to help. I blurted "not unless you have a cure for cancer..." I filled him in on the sufferings of my daddy. His texts became more frequent after this, and eventually pretty bold as he also let me know he wanted to take me out. I was curious as to why now, but not before. He told me that when I mentioned about my dad, he really wanted to help me and be there for me, and then he realized it was more than that. After that, how could I say no to him?

How we got hooked up: He asked me out (not through text, don't worry) and our first official date was Friday, March 6th. We went to a cheap place for dinner, as he eloquently confessed to me (and yes, I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, which he was happy to pay for) and we went to laughing stock downtown (improv comedy). In the car he played some awesome music and offered to make me a CD. It was an amazing date, to say the least...

How he reeled me in: The next day I was able to spend time with my family and unfortunately witnessed my daddy take his last breath that night (technically Sunday morning). I texted Bubba to let the Bishop and the ward know. He stopped by later that day to give me the CD he made for me. He was quick to let me know he was willing to help with anything and was a perfect friend for me during the hard and busy times of the planning, viewing and funeral. He got to meet the whole family and they definitely adored him. He just kept reeling me in with his charm, whit, and personality (which I didn't find annoying anymore). Nicole got baptized the day after my daddy's funeral, and Bubba and I have been inseparable since. We have spent every day together and have had quite the quick courtship. He was pretty sure pretty fast, and it only took a day or two for me to wake up and realize the man of my dreams was in front of my face.

Now the sappiness: I am seriously the luckiest girl in the world! He is so good for me in many many ways. Not only the spiritual giant as I mentioned before, but also very patient and loving. He has a lot of love to give and I can't believe I'm the recipient of such love. He is very forgiving, which he will need to be (as he is quickly learning the emotions of a woman!). He is extremely understanding and has a way with words to bring me back down to reality. He is quick to make me giggle, and we really have a blast together. Our goals are a lot of the same and we are extremely looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together. It's great news because I am totally marrying up, but have him believing that he is marrying up as well! We will be sealed for time and eternity in Draper Temple on Friday, August 14th.

Oh, and his name is Christopher. When he was a little boy, he tried to say "baby" and it came out as "bubba". The name has stuck ever since!