We're Back!

Hey folks,

We are back. We are married. We are so loving married life. I will show you the photos from the wedding next week but this week I would like to talk about life since 10.27.12.

We started out with spending time with our nephew, Miles, for his birthday party. It was a blast to watch him play with all his spiderman gear he received. We then went to my house and watched football with my grandma, mom, and uncle/aunt from Chicago. It was necessary to watch BOTH the packers and the bears. (both won, no worries) We did not need to worry about our gifts because my friend, Bek, and her husband took all our gifts for us to our house. When we got home we opened half our presents and then went to bed. We were in Saint Paul for two days and did nothing but stuff around the apt, it was so great to not have to do anything but be together.

On Wednesday, we took a plane to FL and flew into Orlando. When we arrived we sat down and store internet from the airport to book our car and hotel. We got a killer deal on the car due to the hurricanes on the east coast. We also only paid $52 for our hotel room, we were skeptical but all worked out. We went to the pool that day and did not much more during the day. When we got to yhr hotel check-in was not ready yet so we found a Chik-fil-a (we had never been to one) and ordered some fast food. We loved it so much. We also decided to splurge and go to Cirque du Solei at Downtown Disney. It was fantastic! Oh my, we love those shows so much. (We went to one in Spain while Caleb visited.) When we got to the show, the seating assistant asked us if we would like to sit in the front row, we were very willing and literally were underneath much of the show. Before the show, we went to an Irish Pub that turned out to be very good food. There was a live band playing Irish music and people in kilts dancing.

The cutie assigned to sit next to me on the plane.

Chik-babies...

Our Mazda 2 we drove. We loved it!

Cique du Solei... La Nouba

Front row tickets

Irish Pub in Downtown Disney

We traveled to Tampa on Thursday but stopped by Chik-fil-a for some bfast before we hit the interstate. There is only 1.5 hours between the two big cities so it did not take long at all. We got a room for $42 a night and it was right on a bay with white sand and tiki huts, very tropical feeling. It was also a condo with a full kitchen, so nice. We had a great time at the resort. We wanted to spend some time outside of the resort too so we went to the mall. That was a free ride but going to Target was not free. Because of this, we decided to take a 30 minute walk to Target from the mall. It was touch and go for me as I was in dress sandals. Caleb learned a lot about my whining on the way to Target, oops. I thought it was a good idea for me to buy new shoes while at Target so I wouldn't whine any more. Caleb thought tennis shoes would be good but I thought flats would because I would wear flats again unlike the tennis shoes. So, I bought the flats... bad idea. I got TERRIBLE blisters on the back of my left foot for the remainder of the honeymoon and I ended up needing to put the terrible-support flip flops back on. We laid out in the sun and I got burned pretty bad. I was not sad about this because that meant my body was getting it's painful first layer of sun. We had dinner at a fun restaurant called "Bahama Breeze" down the road. It came time to pay for the food at the end of dinner and we paid on a visa gift card. Little did we know that when you pay with a gift card, you cannot tip with it. This was mortifying because then all we had was a 10% tip all in change to offer. We bee-lined out of that restaurant as soon as we laid down all the change so that we would not be judged or see the face of our INCREDIBLE waitress. I still feel terrible about it.

Breakfast as newly married folk

Chillin in the sun

Tampa view

On Saturday we took a shuttle to the port to get on the ship. We did not know what else to do with no transportation and an early check out at the hotel so we decided to get to the ship as early as we could. It worked out great because lunch was being served on the ship and we indulged on this. We laid out in the sun as the ship sailed off and were smiling from ear-to-ear in excitement to finally be on our honeymoon cruise. The people on the ship were very nice and we had a great time on the ship. We spent a significant time in our ship room as we were burnt and we got bored of the ship. We were not bored on Sunday as the ship allowed all of us to watch the NFL games. The only difference we had from any given Sunday for us was that we were sitting outside, basking in the sun while cheering on our teams. There was ping-pong which worked out great for me as I got much better at the game. Caleb even told me he tried while playing me. This is a huge compliment as my husband is a very good ping-pong player. He got second place at the cruise ping-pong tournament. Big deal, people; this is a big deal. They also had a mini golf course and a water slide. There was one night as others were at the clubs where Caleb and I went into the hot tub at the back of the ship and it was so nice to be in such relaxation mode while sailing the gulf of Mexico. We ate dinner with a couple from Kansas City and also one from Tampa Bay. It was nice to see people like us everyday and debrief each day.

Traveling by sea

Sunsets for lovers

Our ship

The Wife

The Husband

We went on two excursions, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. In Grand Cayman, we went to Stingray City. This is where you can hold sting rays and swim with them. It was SO much fun. Caleb and I both held a sting ray. There was a prego momma ray that we felt her moving belly. The boys don't get bigger than two feet wide but momma get to be four feet wide because the babies swim underneath them as they grow up. How cool is that? In Cozumel we were given a gift from two Klinge siblings and their spouses (Thanks Nick, Tim, Carrie and Beth) for kayaking and snorkeling. Unfortunately, it was too windy to do the kayaking so we were transfered for a trip to a private island with water trampolines and such along with a Mexican buffet and tiki-beds. We utilized all these things by the time it was time to leave.

The private beach in Cozumel

Snorkeling with stingrays

Caleb holding a stingray

Hottie on the private beach

We came home safely and we are safe and sound in our downtown Saint Paul apt and worked a full work week. It is nice to be back to reality but I think we will miss the carefree life we had during our honeymoon. Nothing went wrong at the wedding, honeymoon, or thus far. A good sign for the future I pray.

So people, we are back and I am back to my weekly posts. If you have missed me, I was only gone for a lil. Continue to pray for us, we are loving married life but could always use a praying section as you cheer us on in our marriage.