Thanksgiving in Fredericksburg

Our thanksgiving was filled with food, family, and fun! On Wednesday after D.J. was finished with work, we hit the road to Fredericksburg to spend Thanksgiving with The Browns! Trying to get out of Hampton Roads at 3 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving is the worst day to travel.  Surprisingly, it was not terrible. It took us about 10 minutes extra to get through the tunnel and then about 20 minutes extra the rest of the way.  Instead of going up 95 though, we took the scenic but faster route up Route 301.  It was very pretty and worth the extra miles to keep moving rather than sitting in traffic on 95.
For the first thanksgiving not spending it with my family, it was great to be with D.J.'s family.  Dennis had the turkey going bright and early and Stef, James, and Jayden came over around 11 a.m.  Amy, Brian, and Myla got there around 3:30 p.m. We all ate together around 5 p.m. and then watched the Steelers Ravens game after.
Friday we went to see The Hunger Games in the morning and attempted to do some Black Friday shopping.  Personally, I think its not all that its cracked up to be. The sales are decent, but not worth the lines.  The line in Old Navy was literally to the back of the store. We came home that night and I did some Christmas shopping for D.J. while we hung out.  Saturday everyone came over and we played 4 on 4 basketball back in the park! I was pretty much not playing since I am no good.  :) Jayden played with his basketball and Myla was all wrapped up in her "fat suit" which is the cutest little pink outfit sitting in her stroller!

We already have lots of plans to see this side of the family in the next few weeks.  Christmastown with Brian, Amy, and Myla and Brian's family next weekend and then D.J's first coaching basketball game on Dec 14th with the rest of the family coming down to hang out and watch it!

Here are some snapshots from the weekend together!

 

Check back soon to see the progress of the house so far! Before and After pictures will be up soon!

Wedding Wednesday

So here it is everyone, some of my favorites from the wedding pictures! Enjoy and please feel free to pin any pictures!!

 

Everyone have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends!

St Lucia- No Presha No Problem!

Clearly I am trying to get caught up with all the blogging I need to do since the wedding! Lets do a Flashback Friday to St. Lucia! D.J. and I headed down to the West Indies on October 22, 2013 and we were there for the entire week! Lets just go through it day by day!

Tuesday- We left The Brown's house around 3 a.m. to catch our flight to Miami before we headed to St. Lucia! We arrived in St. Lucia around 2 p.m. later that day.  Lucky for us there was not time difference! The airport there was a little different than Miami! We walked off our big plane onto the tarmac and got our bags inside the airport. There was no gates and we walked straight into customs.  They told us that about 3 planes fly in each day and that's its!  Shawn and Kori and the kids got us a helicopter ride from the airport to our hotel so we headed there next.  It cut out about a 1.5 hour drive from the airport to our hotel.  Instead we flew from the International Airport to the local airport on the other side of the island.  From there, we were taken in a private car to the resort! St. Lucia is 236 square miles and a map of the island is below. Our hotel was at Pigeon Island. 

After we got to the resort, we had our special check in area where they served us Rum Punch. We made our dinner reservations and then we ordered room service to the room since we were exhausted! The weather Tuesday was sort of crappy so we didn't make it to the pool that day.  For dinner that night, we went to Bayside for a quick bite to eat before we relaxed that night and watched The Voice!


Wednesday- Today we explored the resort, laid by the pool and did some games with the "playmakers".  These are the people that run all the resort games. They were all awesome and by the end of the week knew us by name!

Thursday- Thanks to SUNY Geneseo, today we went Zip Lining! It was pretty spectacular.  The drive there was about an hour.  We drove the the middle of the island in the rain forest.  The views on the way there were awesome.  We drove through Castries, the capital.  There was a lot going on down there since a cruise ship was in port.  Our tour guide for Zip Lining, George of the Jungle, told us that the port could hold up to 5 cruise ships at one time.  The roads are opposite from America and another strange thing we noticed was that cattle just graved the side of the street like it was no big deal! The ziplining adventure was beautiful.  We did 12 lines ranging from 100 feet to 800 feet and speeds from 15 mph-35mph.  We went through trees, over rivers, and hiked to the top of a mountain to do the longest zip of the course! We didn't see any wildlife on the zips but we did get to hold a boa constrictor when we got finished!

Here is a few from the drive to zip lining.  It was known as Lion's Head because the rock looks like the profile of a lion.  This is the Atlantic side of the island were there are not so many beaches, but lots of bluffs.

When we got back to the hotel after the zip lining, we grabbed some lunch and did a mini snorkeling adventure right off the beach by the resort! For dinner tonight we went to the Pub.  Their main specialty was fish and chips.  For appetizers we had crab dip with shrimp which was awesome! D.J. especially loved all dinners because it was unlimited and FREE already paid for!

Friday- Today we did another adventure thanks to The Campion Family.  We did Snuba! It is where you have the gear to scuba dive, but you don't have to hold the tank.  The tank floats on the top of the water in  a little raft.  You have breathing tubes attached to the tank and you can go down as far as 20 feet.  Where we were, that was perfect.  It was really awesome to get up close and personal with all the coral and the fish.  We saw lots of different fish on this adventure.  We saw some beautiful corals as well.  Unfortunately, we took pictures on a camera that we borrowed from D.J.'s sister and the battery died right when we got in the water.  We were able to get a few pictures, but we haven't gotten them from her yet since we gave the camera back when we got back to the States.  Hopefully we will have pictures to show you soon! When we got back from that, we went down to the pool for a little (obviously) and then we got ready for dinner.  By the way, I was reading the new Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me and I could not put it down.  Everyday we always played a lot of games that the playmakers put on.  Later that night we went to dinner at the Italian restaurant and let me tell you-- it was delicious! I had Shrimp Alfredo and D.J. had to dinner meals!

Saturday-On Saturday, we really just hung out by the pool and played some pool volleyball.  We had to get ready early for dinner sine we were going to La Toc, one of the 2 other Sandals on the island.  They had the Japanese style restaurant at their hotel so we went over there.  I was really glad we decided to go with the Grande (our resort).  Lac Toc is the Sandals with a golf course so it is more spread out, more hills, and less beach.  It is also smaller than ours too. I really enjoy how our resort was in a little cove so the waves were not waves at all! Also, we were close to the National park, the Snuba, and the snorkeling! The other guest had to come to our resort to do any of the water sports!

Sunday- Sunday we started our day off with a hike to the top of the mountain in the Pigeon Peak National Park.  In pictures, it doesn't look like it would be a hard hike, but let me tell you, it was like rock climbing at some points.  But the views from the top were amazing.  Looking north you could see Martinique, the closest island to St. Lucia.  Looking south, we thought we could see the Piton's but we were wrong. Haha! 

Monday- On our last day we really just wanted to relax and take in as much sun as we could.  It was the nicest day we had so far and we stayed outside from about 10-6 p.m. For anyone that knows me, this was so great! We played corn hole, horseshoes, pool volleyball, beach Olympics, and just chatted with some friends we met! For dinner that night, they close down all the normal restaurants and have a street fair outside where all the local vendors come in and offer souvenirs for purchase! We got some magnets, a beautiful painting, and some post cards! There was also some awesome local dancers and fire blowers! D.J. and I both got up on the stage and did dancing with them before we had to limbo under the stick! For me, it was no problem but for D.J..... not so much. 

Cool pictures of our rings!

Pretty much my view every day! 

Tuesday- Unfortunately, we could not stay forever.  We had some breakfast, played morning trivia and then packed up our bags to head home.  We rode the van back to the airport and it was a rough ride.  D.J. almost got car sick and I had to hold on to the handle the entire time because of all the twists and turns! Anyways, we made it home safety and the in-laws picked us up from the airport around 12 a.m.  We are so thankful that they were willing to do this for us!! We got back to their house around 2 a.m. and slept in till 11 the next day! On Wednesday, it was back to Norfolk we went and back in the groove of work on Thursday!

Overall, the honeymoon was exactly what we wanted it to be! Beautiful island, delicious food, and great memories with each other! We cannot wait to go on our next vacation...whenever that may be!

Fall with the Browns!

Even though all the wedding excitement has settled down, we have still been super busy! The weekend before our honeymoon, we went up to Fredericksburg with the Brown's/Perry's/Williams to enjoy some family time together before the upcoming holiday season!

I had a long weekend at work with two big events going on Friday and Saturday and we got on the road mid-day Saturday.   On Sunday, the whole family went to the pumpkin patch.  Now when I say pumpkin patch, it was a LEGITIMATE pumpkin patch! I have never been to anything like this in my life... I almost forgot we went to pick out a pumpkin! On the way there, Jayden of course was having a blast with "WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY!" If you don't know what that is, take a second and look it up on youtube, its pretty entertaining.  Anyways, there was so much to do at the pumpkin patch.  We looked at horses, had chicken pluck at our feet, did a sunflower maze, had some delicious kettle corn and went on a hayride pulled by a tractor!!! Jayden was having a blast and Myla was enjoying it too...(even though shes only 4 months old!)

After we finished at the pumpkin patch, we headed back to the Brown's house for some yummy dinner and pumpkin carving!

Monday Mrs. Brown took off so we could enjoy some time with her and the little ones.  We went into town for a little bit and did some shopping for the honeymoon and then had dinner that night again with everyone at the Browns.  It is always a great time when we are all together up there! Gets a little crazy at times, but that's what makes it fun and memorable!! And the next morning, well... more like a few hours later, the in-laws were nice enough to drive us up to the airport as we left for St. Lucia!!! Next post will be about the honeymoon!!

As Amy says... TOODLES!

Cayte