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!

Two month hiatus

Sorry sorry sorry for the lack of posts. It's been a busy 2 months (when are we NOT busy??). I had a work trip to San Antonio (a.k.a the hottest place ever) in August. We had Gator Rompin' which is Tampa Gator Club's big event of the year. We also re-did our backyard and it looks awesome! We put pavers down and created a patio with a covered canopy and a fire pit. We can't wait until the weather gets cooler so we can use it.

At the end of  September, I had a work trip in New Orleans that Mike joined me on and it was a lot of fun! We ate so much...New Orleans definitely has some of the BEST food I've ever eaten! I could live off seafood and cajun food. Yum! We did  a lot of walking to make up for it though! NOLA is a very interesting place - lots of history, lots of old buildings. I love places like that. I'd definitely go back again!

Penny graduated from Puppy School. She did well but still has a few things to learn so she's taking the next step up and we're enrolling her in obedience training. Potty training is about 99% there and she does well with sit/lay down. Crate training totally went out the door since she gets anxiety in the crate, so we now share our bed with a 12 pound ball of fur. We take her to lots of dog parks and try to socialize her as much as possible and she does really well with other dogs! She did excellent on her first road trip. We took her to Gainesville this past weekend and she slept the entire time to and from in the car, and did great when we left her in my sister's apartment.

We're now in October with is BIRTHDAY MONTH! Mike's birthday was this past Sunday, October 2nd. I threw a party for him Friday night and then I happened to win tickets to the UF game on Saturday, so we went up there for the weekend. My birthday is next on the 13th, followed by my dad on the 14th, mom on the 16th and sister on the 18th. I am vowing to try as hard as I can to NOT have kids in October! I don't think we can handle another birthday!

Since I've been MIA on the blog for awhile, here are some new pics of Penny and some of our trip to NOLA. I promise to get back on track with the posting!

Penny says "GO BULLS!"

She also cheers for her dad's team :)

My latest project for our front door.

Smiling away!

Acme Oyster House - NOLA

The best oysters EVER!

The classiness of Bourbon Street.

Probably the best gumbo I've tasted, not to mention one of the best sandwiches too!

Loved seeing buildings like this all over NOLA. So pretty!

St. Louis Cathedral

My 5-times great grandfather. Cool huh?

Local brewery "beer flight."

My favorite - crawfish! I could eat pounds of these...

Alligator, sausage and shrimp cheesecake appetizer. Don't knock it til you try it!

Beautiful Tulane University - my dad's alma mater :)

My dad's old frat house!

Who ate more crawfish? Yep. That would be me...

Where Mike won $1,000 Saturday morning while I was working.

4th of July Weekend

We're back from vacation and back from a fantastic weekend! We flew in on Friday afternoon and landed around 3:30. Word of advice - NEVER fly Spirit airlines!! I know they've been around awhile and advertise cheap flights, but they suck! The reason they can sell cheap flights is because they charge you for EVERYTHING. They charge $35 for a carry-on bag. People use carry-ons to avoid being charged to check luggage. They also charge you for soda and water. Seriously? Come on, Spirit. The flight attendant came up and down the aisle at least 20 times to collect trash, which was super annoying. What trash? You don't give us drinks or even a measly bag of peanuts so what the hell do we have to throw away? Not to mention our pilot must have been either new and nervous or just an absolute idiot because we all wanted to throw up during the landing. The plane was rocking back and forth so badly. I really think Mike was afraid I was going to throw up all over the seat in front of me, but I took some deep breaths and made it. I should have, though. Screw you, Spirit - this is how I feel about your airline. Barf! So there.

OK, back to the trip now that I've gotten that out of my system. We all headed back to Ryan's parents house at Seaside Park. The house was huge and gorgeous! It was right on the beach too. The sun was still out so we put our bathing suits on and walked down to the beach. The guys played football (and some random game they made up) so us girls took a walk down the beach. We must have been gone awhile because the boys thought we got lost! That night, we enjoyed an amazing dinner and hung out at the house.

Saturday morning, Mike and I took the bus into NYC! It's obvious that this was something I was so excited about doing. I really miss that city and despite some of the negative things (like walking the streets when it's rainy, dealing with the post-Christmas cold weather and the rent), I really do miss living there. There's so much to do and always something going on and I love the city life. As you saw in my last post, we tried to hit all our favorite spots. It was great! It was so hard to leave. I'm already longing to go back for another trip! I'd really like to go up in the late fall/early winter. That's the best time to be in the city! We came back Saturday night and joined everyone to walk around the Seaside Heights boardwalk. What an amazing people watching place... I could have sat there for hours and just stared at people.

My beloved Central Park. I could just sit here ALL day!

Sunday was overcast, unfortunately. However, we didn't let that stop us! We hung out at the house, played games and then us girls rode bikes over to the boardwalk once the sun started to peek through. We were there for about an hour, though, before the rain showed back up. Fortunately, the house was only a mile away and we were on bikes. Since were were all leaving the next day, Ryan's parents grilled up hot dogs and hamburgers so we could celebrate July 4th the day before. Everything was great and we were stuffed by the end of the night!

Enjoying some delicious peel-and-eat shrimp out on the patio.

On Monday, we woke up early to head into Philadelphia, where we were flying out of. Geoff and April had to leave early Monday morning, so we dropped them off at the airport and the rest of us went into Philly. Mike and I had never been there before, so it was fun! Especially being there on July 4th! What a perfect day to experience that city. The weather was great and since there was a parade going on, we took advantage and went to see the Declaration House, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell before there were lines. Everything was so historic and so interesting. Of course, for lunch we HAD to have a traditional Philly cheesesteak! The "real" way to eat them is with "whiz" and nothing else. I got mine that way and Mike got his with provolone (the whiz was better though :) ). We walked around the city a little more, went to the Betsy Ross house, visited an old cemetery that dates back to the 1700's, stopped for some amazing ice cream sundaes and then it was time to head to the airport. We stopped at the Philadelphia Art Museum to check out the steps that Rocky ran up and down, but it was blocked off due to some July 4th concert going on. Still got some pics, though.

Our flight back was on Southwest and was 100% better than the flight up! Plus, there were only 54 people on the flight so we had tons of space to stretch out. Score! It was a fabulous weekend and we're very grateful to Ryan and his family for inviting us up there. Here are a few more pics of our weekend:

My office building where I worked for Broadway.com.

The corner where we met in May 2007! 5th and 55th.

My apartment building on the corner of 23rd and Lexington.

Meeting up with some great friends in the city!

The house where they film "Jersey Shore" on MTV. Not too fancy...

Mike meeting a patriotic friend in Philly.

Where the first Supreme Court met in 1791.

The Declaration House, where the Declaration of Independence was signed!

That's the actual chair George Washington sat in!

In front of the Liberty Bell.

The Liberty Bell - I thought it would have been bigger than it was!

Yum!! On the left is provolone, right is whiz.

See any ghosts?

Betsy Ross house. Couldn't take any pics inside, but it was cool!

Yum - chocolate mint sundae!

The famous steps that Rocky ran up and down.