honeymoon magic and bits of our married life.

Nick and I left our reception, and escaped to a week of honeymooning in Florida for a week. We were excited to have a week off from work, and to celebrate our life together as husband and wife. Our plane left really early in the morning on Sunday, we weren't thrilled about the lack of sleep, but were excited to arrive in Florida early enough where we could still enjoy some of the day in Florida; possibly by the beach or getting groceries together for the week so we had the rest of the week to relax. The plane ride went smoothly and we picked out our rental car, a charger! We hit the road, and in an hour and a half we would be driving up to the place we would be staying for the week. A balcony that overlooks the ocean, a walk out to the beach, a pool and jacuzzi -- honeymoon heaven. Not too long into the ride I started to feel nauseous. I thought maybe I needed to eat but by the time we found food I was past being able to consume anything. I reclined the seat in hope of sleeping the rest of the ride would allow the feeling to pass. No such thing. By the time we arrived to the condo I was just plumb sick. I stripped and crawled pathetically into bed. I made several attempts that evening to get up and about, only to result in throwing up. My husband of less than 24 hours spent the evening lovingly taking care of me and cleaning up pepto bismol. After a good night's rest and much need sleep, I woke up feeling much better! Not sure if I had a small bug or if it was pure exhaustion and traveler's stomach combined. We spent the rest of the week hanging out by the pool/beach, we explored a marine museum, flew a kite, ate fresh seafood (Nick did more so than I), went on a dolphin/manatee cruise, and spent our last day in Florida at Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure. Here are a few photos from our honeymoon:

Morning sunrises and fell asleep every night with the door cracked so we could fall asleep to the crashing waves.

Relaxing by the pool.

Nick's plunge into the ocean, we were later told after our honeymoon that sharks have been sighted along the beach and one was caught not to far down from this area.

I haven't read through a whole book in a long time, this week I read through two! Loved it! 

Nick tries oysters out -- wasn't a huge fan.

Our favorite place to eat -- Capt Hiram's

I tried Mahi Mahi and actually liked it! I even ordered a meal of it on my own! 

Flying our pirate ship kite!

Universal Studios - 4/8/2011

We LOVED the Harry Potter portion of Islands of Adventure! 

The week went by incredibly fast and I still can't believe that our wedding and honeymoon has already past. We have been married for nearly 2 months now and sometimes I wish we could go back to that day, but I wouldn't change anything about it. As said in my prior post, we are loving married life and learning new things about each other and our life together. The biggest battle for me right now is my job. We [job] have hit some rocks in the road and it's challenging, but Nick is so supportive and loving through out it all. I love coming home to him and knowing that I get to fall asleep and wake up to him everyday. We are taking each day as a gift and are trying to make the most of it. If we need to relax, we relax, but we also recognize that we are young and want to make the most out of life. We want to get out and do things, be spontaneous while we can and while it is just the two of us. Here is a tidbit of what married life has looked like:

We flew home on Saturday, 4/9/11 and didn't have to be back to work until Tuesday. We spent Sunday and Monday opening gifts and setting up our life together, which seems to be an ongoing project ;). 

We are so grateful for all the gifts that were given to us!

It was so much fun sitting and opening each gift, seeing who it was from, and giving a place for that gift in our home. 

So far in married life we have gone to a Tigers Game with some of our friends, Justin and Liz! They played the Yankees on May 2, 2011, unfortunately they lost that night. It was also our one month anniversary! 

We've planted our first garden, it's a container Garden. We are anxiously waiting for our beans to sprout from their seeds and excited to see peppers and our lettuce growing. 

We haven't had much consistent sun in the last week so I am a little worried that our plants aren't getting the boost they need in their first 2 weeks of container life. We will see what happens. We know that this our first time, and there will always be room for improvement and learning.

Yesterday we took the day and went to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, sorry no pictures but we loved walking through it and found the Bodies Exhibit fascinating! As we were walking through it, I mentioned to Nick that I love being part of a bigger city where we can have the opportunity to explore various things like the museum. I have personally fallen in love with East Grand Rapids and the Gaslight Village. This has become our favorite spot for ice cream -- Jersey Junction -- the waffle cones are delicious! We love getting ice cream and walking through the village. I love the quaintness of East Grand Rapids and how friendly it seems to be. Every time we drive through, families are always out walking their dogs, running, being active -- even after sunset. Maybe this is just an outsiders perspective but, as an outsider looking into East GR, I'd love to live there! :) Maybe someday when we are rich and have our pottery barn styled home and expansive garden in the backyard -- picket white fence and a wrap around porch. Sigh. So excited to see what our life will bring, pottery barn or not. Much love today.