RYAN'S GRADUATION

So..RYAN GRADUATED LAST SUNDAY WITH HIS B.A. IN INTERNATIONAL SERVICE!! One down 2 or more to go :) It was a great weekend; Holly and Bruce both came to DC to be here for the big day and we got to spend the whole weekend with them. It was so nice to spend time, just the four of us, visiting, eating and just having fun; we just loved having them here. Ryan's graduation was awesome, we all were so proud of him; in case you didn't know Ryan graduated with University Honors and magma cum laud which is the top 10% of his class. It was so neat to acknowledge the moment and see him in his cap and gown and be there for the ceremony; it really was a special night. It was awesome to see Ryan accomplish this goal that he has worked so hard for. I watched him slave over a 70 page honors thesis paper and than multiple papers after that. He has put his whole soul into this program and it was so wonderful to have a day to acknowledge all his hard work. After that night though, the next day he started summer school for his Masters :) School never ends :)

The last few weeks in April and the beginning of May was mine and Ryan's finals. We had many late nights and multiple all nighters. We lived off of pizza, energy drinks, Pepsi,and Sweettarts; I know real healthy huh. lol I don't think we ever went to bed at the same time for a straight month and the last few weeks we took turns getting snacks for each other and taking breaks to make a 7eleven run. It really was a crazy month, but a great one too. We definitely have many stories to tell our kids one day and to just look back on and laugh at. It is a neat experience to go through school together, especially because we go to the same school. We watch each other work so hard and being in school together and watching each other have real late nights, makes us really have a better appreciation for each others hard work. We love being students together, even though we are poor and our house is a mess around midterms, finals and every week while we are in school :)

Here is one funny story that happened the week of finals: the last week of finals I (McKenna) had a multimedia project due and was at the school till 3am finishing it, than I came home and had to study for a math final..so I started studying for math as soon as I got home and only made it about 30 minutes or so and then couldn't keep my eyes open so I decided to set my alarm for an hour and take a 1 hour nap and wake up to finish studying. Well I set my alarm and fell asleep on the coach..At 9:50 a.m. I was awaken to Ryan screaming my name saying, "McKenna wake up it is almost 10:00 a.m.!!!!" (I was supposed to be at my multimedia final at 9:30 a.m. and my alarm never went off and Ryan happened to wake up and see me in the family room) I jumped up from the coach with mascara all over my face :) and started to freak out. I through on a hat grabbed my shoes and ran out the door; I didn't even have time to brush my teeth (gross I know)I just threw gum in my mouth and left. I ran to my class when I got to the school and wasn't too late and didn't get in trouble luckily. I than attended my multimedia final critique and then took my math final. IT WAS A CRAZY CRAZY DAY!!! In the moment it wasn't funny..but after it was absolutely hilarious. So yeah that is just a short summary of our couple weeks of finals. We both had a great semester and will both be taking courses this summer :) What can I say we just can't get enough of SCHOOL lol!
BELOW ARE SOME MORE PICTURES OF RYANS GRADUATION!!

SPRING BREAK & MORE (Make sure to see the pictures at the end of the post)

Spring Break was this last week and Ryan and I decided that we needed a little break from school ..so we took a vacation and went on a cruise to the Grand Cayman and Jamaica. We have only been on cruises with my family before and were worried that it just wouldn't be the same without a big group, but we still had a blast. It was a 5 day cruise and had 2 full days at sea were we just ate and laid by the pool; it was very relaxing. The boat made two stops: the Grand Cayman and Jamaica! At the Grand Cayman Ry and I went on an excursion to stingray city. For those of you who have never heard of stingray city it is a place in the ocean that is quite shallow, where stingrays hang out and let tourists feed and swim with them. The stingrays do have their stingers, but they don't sting you unless you step on them; which is easy to avoid. The stingrays were huge! We fed them squid and got some pictures with them which are shown below. It was so much fun and they were very beautiful. Me being the worrier that I am, wanted all animals to be treated fairly :)and didn't like how our group was only feeding the one stingray our tour guide picked up, so....Ry and I got extra squid and fed the other stingrays; which was my favorite part. At one point when we were feeding all of them, they smelt the food and just swarmed us. They got so close that Ry had to push them off of him lol. It was so much fun! We then went snorkeling for a while and saw some coral reefs and fish. Unlike Ryan who is an awesome snorkeler and dives down in the water and goes pretty deep; I had a life vest on the entire time lol because I have a hard time concentrating on treading water and breathing through the small tube you have to breathe through. lol It was so much fun though. When we got to Jamaica we decided to walk around and go to the markets and see Jamaica. We had so much fun in the markets, but got hustled by the market sellers. Everywhere we went in Jamaica (well the part we were in) someone was trying to get us to buy something from them. We were just walking down the street to one of the markets and this guy stopped us and said that he wanted to take us to his store. Ry asked where his store was and he said in the market down the street. We then told him that that is where we were going and so he walked with us. When we got to the market, sellers swarmed us wanting us to look at their store and we told them we already told this guy (the one who walked with us) that we were going to his store first. The guy then looked at us and said, "I actually don't have a store I just lead people to the market to buy stuff." lol Then he wanted us to pay him money for walking with us there. lol So...we did. You can't say no, the area was quite poor and they need the money. We shopped in the market for a while and bought things we didn't really even want lol but it was money worth spent. Sometimes we would say no and they would get upset; so it was very hard to say no. We bought a canvas/painting from the market; it is beautiful. We are going to hang it in our family room over the coach. Below are some pictures of Jamaica too! There are a couple of the waterfall there, which is amazing and you can actually hike up it, which Ry and I said we have to do next time! Jamaica was absolutely beautiful and we really want to go back. The rest of the cruise was laying out and eating :)We had an amazing time!


Sorry this post is so long, but we haven't updated it for a while and there is a lot of new info, so here is some more. As for school we both are really enjoying this semester. The week before Spring Break we both were crazy busy with midterms. We were very excited to get them over with. Ryan is doing awesome in his classes and doing a lot of reading for his independent study class. He has a 40 page honors capstone paper due at the end of the year, before graduation and another paper just a little shorter than that, due at the end of the year for his independent study course. He is working hard and getting ready for graduation in May and preparing for the summer when he starts his Masters Program. As for me...classes are going very well this semester. I am taking 15 credit hours and I love my courses. I recently met with my academic advisor and am expected to graduate in May of 2009! ONE YEAR LEFT!!! I am taking two summer sessions which is going to be nuts, but you do what you have to do. ;) This summer is going to be crazy, but before I know it will be May of 2009 and I will have my BA in Public Communications with a minor in psychology. Well that is the latest information.

I hope you guys didn't get too bored hearing all that information. Ryan and I are doing awesome. We love DC and are really enjoying school at American University. We are just so grateful for the opportunity to go to school out here and experience the east coast. Well..we will talk to ya later.

Grand Cayman Stingray City (Us with the one of the stingrays)

I know we are crazy! We were told if you kiss it you have 7 years luck! We'll see :)

One of the many stingrays! They are huge huh!

Ry and I in the Grand Cayman.

Waiting to get on the boat that takes us back to the cruise ship after 6 hours in the Grand Cayman

JAMAICA PICS

Ocho Rios, Jamaica Waterfall

View of Jamaica

More Jamaica Pics

Walking to the markets in Jamaica

View of Jamaica

Ry and I on top of a hill in Jamaica

Waterfall in Ochos Rios, Jamaica (famous waterfall)

2008!!

Hi everyone. We are so sorry we haven't kept up our blog! Things have been crazy and we just really haven't thought about updating it. :) We went back to Arizona for Winter Break! We stayed for 4 whole weeks which was amazing. We had a lot of time to spend with our families and got to see friends also. It always feels so good to go back to Arizona and just be surronded by family and familiar faces. We loved the weather there for a change, even though there were some days it was colder in Arizona then in DC CRAZY HUH! I think DC always feels colder though even if it is the same temp. just because of the humidity and wind DC always has. After we got back from Winter Break we just jumped right into school. We both are getting used to our classes and are enjoying the semester so far. ;) Our teachers are great and our classes are interesting. EXCITING NEWS! RYAN GRAUDATES WITH HIS B.A. IN MAY!!! Crazy huh. I'm so proud of him, he has worked so hard and is very excited. In the summer he will start his masters at AU and then we both should be done in about a year and a half. Well we both are just working and going to school. We love DC and are looking forward to some warm weather and hope Spring comes fast lol. I know this post isn't much but I hope it gave you a better idea to what we have been up to. :) Talk to you later :)Oh and one more thing our new years resolution as a family is to be more SOCIAL lol FUNNY HUH, but sadly it is true. We both are hermits. We will see who we meet :) See ya

New Pictures

Here are some pictures of the Hurst family in July 2007, pictures of our little family and some pictures of Melly's visit to DC. We will post some pictures of our new apartment later for everyone to see. Oh and I posted a picture of our baby dog Romeo. I hope you guys enjoy! Love you all.

Homework and Hardwork begins :)

Hi everyone it is us again! We thought that it was time to update our blog and to add some new pictures for everyone! We have both been in school for about 4 weeks and we both love our classes. This semester is going to be challenging for the both of us because each one of our classes requires a lot of reading and a lot of hard work. This semester Ryan is taking Arabic, Cross-Cultural Communications, International Relation Research Strategies, Society and Culture in the Middle East, and International Trade and Investment Relations. This semester it took a little longer for Ryan to get really excited for school because he is just about to start his graduate program and is taking classes to finish up his undergrad; so he is in a limbo stage it seems. He really does enjoy all of his classes though. He loves his professors and it has been a lot of fun to hear him practice his Arabic alphabet at home. He listens to the Islamic Call of Prayer about every night which is very neat to hear. It is so awesome to see how he loves the different cultures especially the middle eastern culture. As for me (McKenna), I'm taking Writing for Mass Communications, Understanding Mass Communications, Finite Math, Sex Culture and Society, and Visual Literacy. All of my classes are going well but I'm still figuring out how this new school works. :) American has a lot more reading than I'm used to but it really pushes you to work hard. I am surrounded by people who are motivated and really want to be learn which I love. Some of my professors are very hard graders but I'm learning what they expect. I think the most wonderful part of being in school is that your mind is challenged and you learn new ways of thinking and broaden your knowledge and perspective on many issues. We both are really enjoying school! As for our new apartment, we are moved in and absolutely love it. It is everything we expected and more. We can't believe the difference it has made in our life and are so grateful for it. Our neighbors are wonderful and very friendly. We have a lot of small dogs in our building which is very fun because of our dog Romeo. People on our floor let their dogs out and just have them all play which is a lot of fun! Just recently my sister Melynda came and visited and it was so fun having her here. I will post some pictures! She is so fun to have around and we just love her so much. We miss everyone, but are doing wonderful! WE WILL WRITE SOON! TAKE CARE EVERYONE! HOPE YOU ENJOY THE PICTURES!