Time for a change.

I've REALLY neglected this blog. Really...sorry :( Not intentionally, though. I've been devoting more time to my other blog, Pictures & Pawprints, and have decided to go ahead and close this chapter of my (short-lived) blog life and stick to one. I originally started this blog since I had a blog going on our wedding website as we were planning up to the big day. After the wedding, I had people ask me if I would continue blogging about our new life. "Sure," I thought. Why not? However, I noticed that once I started my other blog in January (which was originally supposed to be solely for photography), I started writing more entries along with my pictures. Once I did that, I hesitated to write more on this blog since I didn't want to be repetitive. The result? Less posts here. So I thought, since Pictures & Pawprints is my personal blog as well, I might as well just combine both since there seems to be no need for two blogs anymore. I still get a good amounts of hits on this blog, so hopefully those of you who have been visiting me will continue to check me out on the other blog!

So...I'll leave this blog active, I just won't post on it anymore. If you want to know what's going on in our world, visit me over at Pictures & Pawprints (just click on that name and it'll take you right there! Don't forget to bookmark it for future visits!) For those of you who haven't checked that one out and don't know our most recent adventure, we moved to Atlanta about a month ago! We absolutely LOVE it here! Now that it's Fall, there's so much to do here and so much we want to explore, so I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about.

Anyway, thanks to those of you who visited me over here. See you on the other site! :)

xo,
Brie

Where have I been??

- Bahamas

- Grand Cayman

- Mexico

- Jamaica

- Clearwater Beach

- Atlanta, GA

Times flies when you're having fun! Sorry - been pretty busy lately and the next thing I know, I'm on my way to update this blog and realize it's been sitting here alone since March 9th. Oops - my bad. 

But yes, we've been pretty busy lately. Between our cruise, our anniversary weekend and another trip up to Atlanta, time seems to be going by so fast! I've got lots to share plus, an announcement coming soon (Not pregnant. Guess again), so I'll go ahead and start with our cruise from March.

Our one year anniversary was April 9th. Since Mike did not have his start date for his next project in Georgia yet, we didn't want to risk things, so we booked our anniversary trip for the week of March 11th. We had such a blast on our honeymoon cruise, that we decided to hop onboard another ship. This time, we went to the Caribbean for a 7 day cruise. It was great! We sailed on the Norwegian Pearl, which was awesome. I would definitely recommend a Norwegian cruise. Oh, and I should say we had PERFECT weather the entire time! We got very lucky :)

Since I already posted TONS of pictures from this trip, I'll send you to check out my Shutterfly link. If you have any problems with the link, just shoot me an email.

Our first stop - Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. This was Norwegian's private island. This day was pretty much spent relaxing, which was exactly what we needed. 

Our second stop was Ocho Rios Jamaica. We hopped on a tour that took us to Dunn's River Falls, where we climbed up a 600 foot waterfall! It was actually a LOT of fun! From there, we went to a few scenic spots and had some time to enjoy walking around, shopping (Jamaican rum? Yes, please!) and eating some awesome Jamaican jerk food. 

Stop three was to Georgetown, Grand Cayman. That morning, Mike went diving and I scuba dived. We hopped on a tour after that and went to Hell (yep - it's actually called Hell due to the black rocks), the Tortuga Rum Factory, Seven Mile Beach and a sea turtle farm (we got to hold them - it was awesome!)

Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico. We visited the Mayan Ruins and, as cool as they were, wish we had spent more time in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen since it takes a LONG time to get to the ruins, so that was our whole day. Regardless, we had a nice time and I would definitely love to go back there sometime!

In all, it was a great vacation and very well needed! Go check out the Shutterfly link since I took tons of pics and would love for you to see them! I'm already dreaming of my next vacation...

Vacation time!!

Yay!! In 2 days, we'll be sailing away for 7 days. I cannot WAIT! It's definitely going to be a well-needed vacation. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun pictures and stuff to report on when we come back.

Last weekend, Mike and I made a last minute decision to run the Gasparilla Distance Classic 5K. We've run in the last several years but with things being so busy this year, never signed up. The Friday before is always the big race expo at the convention center, which is always awesome. Lots of swag, samples and we usually buy our new running shoes there since everything is half off what they are in the stores (don't know why, but I always love buying new running shoes to wear the day before a race. I'm weird.). Anyway...we risked it and signed up, despite the fact that neither of us had trained. Mike's been so busy back and forth to Georgia and I took a little hiatus from running once I joined my new gym. I've been really big into spin and body pump classes and ran for the first time in months the Tuesday before the race. Not ample training. We didn't do our personal best but it's a great race and the medals were awesome this year. We celebrated afterwards by heading out to the annual beerfest in Ybor with some friends. Hey, we earned it! We joined a running club that meets on Tuesday nights so we can be better prepared for the next one...

Sunday was April's baby shower! Hard to believe that baby Olivia is just a few weeks away! A few of us helped put the shower together and it looked great! Everyone had a nice time, especially April, which was important. Since the nursery is baby jungle animal themed, we stuck with that for the decor of the shower.

Other than that, we've been spending all week getting ready for our trip! Penny is going to Jupiter to stay with my parents for the week, so she'll get a little vacation as well. Tomorrow, we're meeting up with some of our friends with dogs and heading to Humane Society's annual "Bark in the Park." It's a one mile dog walk around the park and they have lots of doggie vendors and activities. Here's my shameless bragging - check out Penny's pic on Bark in the Park's facebook page. She's a popular little pup! Sorry, couldn't help myself ;)
http://www.facebook.com/events/279540462102822/

Have a fabulous week and I'll be posting again once we get back!

Get me outta here!

I know I always say this, but what a busy few weeks we've had (and have, coming up). This past weekend, we went up to Orlando and met my parents and sister to go to Universal. Steph is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and we had yet to check out Harry Potter World at Universal. It was really cool! Even if you're not a big HP fan, it's still pretty neat to check out. They have it all set up like the movie and they even sell items that are popular at Hogwart's, such as chocolate frogs, wands and butterbeer (which is probably the sweetest thing I've ever drank. Tasted like sweet cream soda with marshmallow froth).

Can you tell she's excited?

Annie!

Ice cream nerds.

On Sunday, we got up bright and early for Mike's Gator Club 5K that he had organized. It went well and he had a really good turnout! This coming weekend, I have April's baby shower which I'm spending this week getting things together for.

In exciting news, we booked our anniversary trip!! Even though our anniversary is in April, we're taking our trip a few weeks early since we're not sure what Mike's Atlanta schedule is going to be. Better to be safe than sorry. Since we had such a great time on our cruise for the honeymoon, we decided to book another one. This time, we're going to the Caribbean! We booked a great deal on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Our itinerary is:

Day 1: Miami (where we leave from)

Day 2: Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

Day 3: At sea

Day 4: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Day 5: Grand Cayman

Day 6: Cozumel, Mexico

Day 7: At Sea

Day 8: Miami

We're SO excited!! You cannot get me on that cruise ship fast enough. We're leaving from Miami so we're going to head down to Jupiter the day before and stay with my parents to break the drive up. They are also going to be pet-sitting Penny for us while we're gone so we'll drop her off. Here's some pics of our ship that I found. How awesome does that look??

We splurged and upgraded to a balcony room. Figured for this type of cruise, it would be worth it!

Cruise ship, I'm coming for you!!

What's going on?

It's been a busy few weeks here and I'm happy to say that Mike is back home! He finished his first project in GA and I'm very proud of him. He worked hard and it paid off. His next one isn't until another month or so, so he'll be home for a little while. Yay!

My sister came down for a visit one weekend while Mike was actually up in Gainesville for a Gator Club event.  We took Penny to the dog park, saw a movie and hit up the Florida Aquarium - I'd actually never been!

The following weekend, my parents came to Tampa and we went to the American Victory Ship on Saturday. It was built in 1944 and only one of four remaining ships from WWII that are still fully functioning. It was pretty cool! On Sunday, we all went to brunch along with Mike's dad and stepmom. It's always nice to get the families together.

This past Tuesday was Valentine's Day and we celebrated with our simple little tradition - fondue. We stay home and Mike makes a fondue dinner for us - cheese appetizer, meat, and chocolate and fruit for dessert. Yum! We had that along with some champagne and it was a very nice evening. We don't usually do gifts, but I did receive this beautiful surprise at work earlier in the day:

How pretty are those??

We also have an exciting adventure coming up...we booked our anniversary cruise! SO hard to believe that our one year anniversary is less than 2 months away. Time really does fly! Since Mike's not sure when his work schedule for his next Georgia project is, we decided to book it early just in case it ends up interfering with our actual anniversary date. We had so much fun on our honeymoon, that we decided to book another cruise! This time, we're headed south to the Caribbean. We're so excited but I'll elaborate more on that later on :)

As usual, we have a packed weekend coming up. Tomorrow we have our friends Mike and Danielle's wedding! They're good friends of ours who also happen to be our very awesome dog sitters for Penny. Their dog, Rylee, is Penny's little boyfriend. They're so cute! Mike and Danielle are getting married tomorrow night on Davis Island and it's supposed to be a beautiful day! We're very excited for them both.

On Sunday, I finally get to take my photography class! I can't wait to learn all the new tricks I can do with my camera(that I'm still very obsessed with). Mike is organizing an event for the Tampa Gator Club in a few weeks - a 5K race - and he's "hiring" me as the photographer for the event. Should be interesting...

Also, don't forget to check out my picture blog! All the pics from the dog beach, aquarium, AV Ship and Valentine's Day are on there. I update that blog pretty regularly, so if you want to keep up with it, you can add your email up top where it says "follow by email" and it'll notify you when I add new pictures and posts. You can do the same with this blog, if you haven't done so yet. 

Picture site - click here: Pictures & Pawprints 

I'll post about our upcoming trip on Monday. Until next time, have a fabulous weekend! 

Atlanta revisited, pirates and puppies!

First and foremost, what happened to January?? How can it be the 31st already? It didn't hit me until Matt Lauer mentioned this morning on the Today Show, that Thursday is Groundhog Day. Say what?? Not that it matters down here. I believe Punxsutawney Phil pardons Florida since it's going to be 80 degrees every day, regardless of whether or not he sees his shadow.

A few weeks ago, I flew up to Atlanta again to visit Mike. I was able to take a longer weekend this time, which was really nice. I posted all of my pictures from the trip on my photo blog, Pictures & Pawprints, so you can head over there to see them all.

"Hello, Atlanta!"

As usual, we didn't sit still for 5 minutes. I flew in Thursday night and we managed to come across a really great seafood place for dinner. On Friday, we visited the MLK, Jr. Memorial Site, which was really neat. Being that it was MLK weekend, we figured this would be appropriate. There is a museum on site, along with the grave of MLK and his wife, Coretta. There is a tour of the neighborhood that you can take, which we did that afternoon. The tour begins at the firehouse that MLK used to visit as a child (apparently, being a fireman was the dream career of choice by the boys back in the 1920's and 30's). The home that he was born in and grew up in is still there, right down the street, along with all the original items (the home is still owned by the King family). From there, you can visit Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he and his father both preached at. It's also the church where his funeral was held at. The altar is completely restored with all the original items from when he was there. It's very cool to take all of that in and very interesting to think of everything that happened on those very streets back in the 1960's.

The cart that carried MLK's coffin during his funeral.

On Saturday, we started off our day with a tour at the Fox Theater. The Fox is the most famous theater in Atlanta and was built back in 1927. It's the main theater where all the Broadway shows are held when they go to Atlanta, as well as some concerts. After that, we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts. They just opened up a brand new Jim Henson exhibit, with original puppets and characters from his movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, I noticed the nice, big sign that said "NO PHOTOGRAPHY." Boo! But not before I was able to snap at least one picture of Big Bird. It's one of the original ones and it was so interesting to see how he's maneuvered. The same guy has been playing Big Bid since he was introduced.

After meeting up with some friends for some AWESOME true Southern food for dinner at a famous place called Mary Mac's (fried chicken okra,  potato pancakes, chicken and dumplings, mac & cheese and cinnamon apples - YUM!), Mike and I went back to the Fox Theater. Only this time, we were there to see a show - "Annie!" When the movie "Annie" came out when I was little, I was obsessed with it. It was my absolute favorite as a kid. Before it was a movie, it was a Broadway show, which just happened to be playing at the Fox Theater the weekend I was there. Mike got me tickets for Christmas and it was really fun to see it on stage. 

On Sunday, we went for brunch and then to the Georgia Aquarium. It was awesome! Mike thought it would be fun to mess with the penguins, so he pulled up a picture of a sardine on his phone and held it up to the glass and the penguin actually followed it around on the other side! He had his mouth open and everything, like he was trying to catch it! Too funny.

After that, we took a drive around some of the neighborhoods and then went to a bar to watch the Packers game (which we won't speak of). I had to fly out early the next morning, so we headed back to the hotel, watched the Golden Globes, and called it a night. Can't wait for the next time!

This past weekend, Mike flew home for a quick trip and we went to Gasparilla. For you non-Tampa natives, Gasparilla is an event that began in 1904, honoring the invasion of Jose Gaspar, a pirate, in to Tampa. Basically, it's like Mardi-Gras, but with pirates. They do a parade, throw beads, etc. In the morning, we headed out to the "Invasion" which is a giant floatilla of boats throwing beads, that's led by the pirate ship that sits docked off of Bayshore year-round. My friend Danielle came to town for it (a tradition since she moved to South Carolina) and as always, we had a blast. 

My latest project - a front door wreath for Gasparilla. I've seen people putting these up on their doors every year, so I decided to get in on it and made one to hang up this year.

Yesterday (January 30th) was Penny Lane's FIRST birthday!! Can't believe our baby is one! She's such a great, little companion. We were very lucky to have adopted such a sweet girl. She celebrated by going to the park after work and chasing squirrels, and enjoying a brand new bone and some doggie ice cream last night. Happy birthday, Penny!!