To the Mountains we go!

It has been hard to contain our excitement, but tomorrow is finally the day (or night I should say). Tomorrow night at 3 in the morning (technically Saturday morning) we are headed to the creek house, and we are all just a little excited :) We have been talking about this trip for months, and now that it is finally here, we are all just ready to go! Last year, we went up after Christmas, and for new years, and it was just a little bit chilly...so hopefully this trip will be more comfortable! I am so excited for fall weather, and to meet my cousin's little baby boy Noah!


I'll post more once we get back, but here are a few pictures from our trip last year...

More to follow once we return. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our First Home!!

This has taken me entirely too long to post, but here it finally is! After 7 months in our new home, you can see if for yourself, haha. These are just a few pictures to show what it's like. This first picture is what you see when you walk through the front door...our dining room, with kitchen straight ahead and living rooms up to the right. 

This is just another angle of the dining room, with the front door on the left. I love the table and china cabinets that Mrs. Dawes gave to us, and I love that map on the wall of St. Lucia that we got there on our honeymoon. 

Here you have our kitchen, which, quite frankly, Kyle uses more than I do. But, now that volleyball is done I plan to change that! (Although everything Kyle makes is very good!)

These next two pics are of the living room. Mr. and Mrs. Dawes helped us paint it blue right before the wedding. We're still adding touches here and there to make it our "home".

The hallway leads to our bedroom and bathroom, as well as the laundry room. I'm making this sound bigger than it is...the laundry room is in the same hallway as the bathroom. That's better :) I do love the little table that Kyle painted black though, good job hun! And just a quick shot of our bedroom, because it's not finished yet either :)

Last but not least...the bathroom :) 

Well, there you have it! Our first home :) We love it, and have made it truly our "home". 

St. Lucia, here we come!

We're married!! We left the reception and headed to the airport where we stayed the night at the Hyatt before rising bright and early to catch a very, very early flight. Some of our wonderful bridesmaids and groomsmen even ran by the hotel to bring the ipod that we forgot and pick up our tux and dress :) 

Once we landed in St. Lucia, we had an hour ride up to our resort, at the top of the island. The resort was beautiful. We had a perfect view from our room. 

Our room was up on the "bluff", which was the perfect location. We were right across the street from one of the smaller, quieter pools, as well as a restaurant that had breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were just a short walk up the hill from the main lobby and pool, which translates to "we got our exercise everyday" :) 

Our first night there, we got dinner at a pub, right off the lobby. Let me just say, we did not let the "all inclusive" part of the honeymoon go to waste! If there was an appetizer and dessert offered with our lunch or dinner, you can bet we got it ;)

Day 1: We had breakfast in the main restaurant, where we enjoyed a variety of breakfast foods. While we were enjoying our breakfast, one of the "event coach's" asked if he could join us. I forget his name, but he had a great sense of humor and loved his job. During our breakfast, he convinced Kyle and I that we needed to be a part of the "carnival" that afternoon, so we told him we'd check it out. 

After breakfast we walked out to the pool to lounge and enjoy the sun. We played a "fishing" game, and although we lost, still had a good time playing :)

While relaxing at the pool, Kyle went up to the lobby to sign us up for a few adventures during the next few days, as well as getting us reservations for dinner later that week. At around one o'clock, we headed over to the tennis courts to see what this "carnival" was all about. Let's just say, we should have stayed at the pool, because we ended up walking  around the resort looking like this...

After the carnival, we were hot and tired, so we headed up to the pool across from our room to cool off and relax. 

Some of the restaurants at the resort require reservations for dinner, while others don't. We decided to try one of the restaurants that didn't, and figured if we couldn't get a seat, we could wait for the night carnival at the beach to eat. But we were able to get a seat at The Pitons restaurant, and had a wonderful dinner. The Pitons are the two mountains St. Lucia is known for. 

After dinner we walked down the beach to check out the night carnival. There was a great steel drum band, and of course, more food! After dessert (of course) we headed back to our room to call it a night and great ready for a busy next day...


Day 2: After another wonderful breakfast, we headed up to the lobby to catch our bus that would take us to the zip-lines. We had an awesome tour guide, Greg, who pointed out all the St. Lucian sights and products. We stopped along the way to see a spot where part of "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed. 


When we arrived at the zip lines we were informed that we needed to wear shower caps under our helmets, or we could purchase bandanas...so bandanas it was :)  


Despite the rain, we had an awesome time zipping from tree to tree, taking pictures and videos, just enjoying the beautiful nature all around us.  

When the zip lines were done, we made our way back to the resort. Our tour guide, Greg, entertained us with St. Lucian history, along with letting us sample some of the island's natural treats...

We even got to stop and take a few pictures of the beautiful sights...

When we got back to the resort, we quickly showered and headed over to one of the other resorts for dinner at The Pier. The wait was over an hour, so we decided to take a walk into town and check out a local shopping center recommended by Greg. We must have got there too late, because most of the shops were closed, but we had a fun walk :) Dinner was wonderful, and it was cool getting to see one of the other resorts. 

Once back at our resort, it was off to bed again to get ready for another busy day to follow...


Day 3: Another great breakfast done and over, we headed back to the lobby to catch our bus that would take us to the marina for our "Sea and Land tour". We boarded the catamaran and tried to find a dry spot to sit for our voyage down the coast of St. Lucia. 

As we left the marina in Castries, we saw numerous cruise ships docked. In the next picture, if you look over the girl that's standing up head, you'll see our room...it's the orange building just to the left of her head. (I guess it's kinda hard to see, but you get the idea :))

Our boat docked in the town of Soufriere, where we were getting off to walk through the volcano, see the botanical gardens and eat an authentic St. Lucian lunch at a local restaurant. 

At the restaurant, there was a gift shop with an adorable little boy named "Kyle" standing outside, counting the number of customers that went in and out.

Back aboard the boat, we headed up the coast to do some snorkeling. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of us in our snorkeling gear, but we did get a few after :)

That evening, we had a reservation at Kimono's, a Japenese Hibachi steakhouse. It was a very fun dinner, starting with the "woo-woo", ending with our hilarious "black-enese" chef :)

Day 4: Our last full day was a day full of relaxing and enjoying our resort. We started with an awesome breakfast in bed...

Followed by time lounging at the pool (I think I could do this everyday :)) Then dinner reservations at my favorite restaurant, La Toc. It was an absolutely delicious French restaurant!

After dinner, we headed down to the lobby for a fun casino night, although our play money didn't last very long :) Back at our room, we had a fun surprise waiting on our bed...

We couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon. it was wonderful getting to spend our time together doing all of these fun things. We were looking forward to coming back as a newly married couple, but definitely a little sad to be leaving.

A real life fairytale

It was finally here! The week of our wedding, the week we had been counting down to. It was torture working Monday and Tuesday, but fortunately my family made up for it by flying in Wednesday, along with one of my fantastic bridesmaids Sarah Swanson. We had some fun girl time Wednesday night (watching the "Last Song" at the theater ;)) and began the festivities Thursday morning. We started with a bridesmaids luncheon at Mimi's Cafe. LOVE this place! 

After brunch, we headed to Baldwin park to get manicures and pedicures. Mom deemed the experience "so nice it feels sinful" :) We did thoroughly enjoy the hot rock pedicures we got, all while sitting in the massage chairs. Just what we needed to relax and rest up for an eventful next two days!

Jessie, Darcy and Melanie made their way into town as us girls continued to run a few errands before heading to frostproof tomorrow (who knows what the boys were doing at this point, most likely sleeping ;)) We had a practice run with make up, and then it was time to get ready for the evening's festivities of the bachelor/bachelorette party. Anthony and Jodye had arranged for Kyle and I to basically have the same party, just reversed, ha. Us girls headed to cowboys first for some line dancing, then downtown, while the boyswent downtown then out to cowboys.

Friday morning, the girls rose bright and early (while the boys slept) and packed up all we needed to head to frostproof, to start setting up the reception site and getting ready for the rehearsal dinner. I am so blessed to have such good girlfriends who did so much work to help make this wedding amazing :) Once we got to Noah's ark, we set about our task of getting things just right. 

Once things were set up the way we wanted, we went and checked out "spook hill". Much to our dismay, we were not "spooked". After checking into our hotel, and   meeting up with the boys, parents and family, we headed over to the church for the rehearsal. The theme of the evening was a more relaxed, country feel, with the girls wearing dresses and cowboy boots, the guys in jeans. 

After running through things a few times, we were all ready to eat and head over to Leslie's for our rehearsal dinner. I was so excited to finally see how it was decorated! I had been hearing for a few weeks about how much time and effort was being put into this dinner, and couldn't wait to experience it for myself. I was not disappointed! Everything looked like an ad straight out of Southern Living, from the mason jar candle lights, to the covered picnic tables, right down to the name card place settings. Thank you so much to everyone who pitched in and made the rehearsal dinner so wonderful! And let's not forget Uncle Rick's amazing cooking! The food was delicious, with the mac 'n cheese being a bit hit :)

 Another big hit of the evening was the armadillo cake, straight out of Steel Magnolias. Red velvet cake inside, just like the movie! Rylee was enamoured with the cake, although requesting to eat the head :)

After dinner, we headed out to the corral for a bonfire and a little line dancing :) Ever since Jessie got married two years ago, and had her bridal party perform a line dance to "here for the party", it has been a staple at all wedding receptions. Our wedding was no exception, so Jessie set about to the task of teaching everyone the dance, even our flower girl Cheyenne, who eagerly learned the steps. 

We ended the night by heading back to our hotel and trying to get a good nights rest for the big day tomorrow! :)

The day started with breakfast and heading over to the Smith building to get our hair and make up done. Our photographer, Sean Wells, came bright and early to start on the photos, and asked if he could take my dress out of the bag to take some pictures...and it's a good thing he did, because it was a wrinkly mess! Tracey Brock did an amazing job of calling around to find some way to get the dress steamed. Fortunately, Tiffany, the hairstylist, actually had an aunt in town who owned a steamer, and brought it over...crisis averted :) 

It was finally time...and I think I speak for Kyle and myself when i say we had a few butterflies in our stomachs (but definitely the good kind :)) Everything was perfect, from my Dad walking me down the aisle, to Kyle looking incredibly handsome at the front of the church, the music sung by Josh, the ceremony by Danny, and promising the rest of our lives to each other in front of our family and friends. 

After the ceremony, we took our family pictures at the church. Then the wedding party headed to the nearest orange grove to take a few fun pics before going on to the reception. 

At the reception, we had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We ate, we danced, we cut the cake, we threw garters and boquets, and we left a married couple :)

It was the best day of our lives. :) Just the beginning...