Honeymoon! Part One

Kevin and I have been back off our honeymoon for about a week now and have been SUPER busy. So it's taken me awhile to get this post up here!

We took a nine night honeymoon to Los Angeles, California and down the Mexican Riveria. Two nights in L.A. and 7 nights on a Disney Cruise. We flew out the Friday morning after we got married, April 1st. We stayed the first two nights in L.A...

Our first day there...we ate at Burger King and we took a nap, haha. Exciting, I know.  Jetting across the entire U.S. in one day is tough, give us a break. Our flight did leave 6:15 in the morning which is 3:15 L.A. time. By the time we got to our hotel room we had already been up almost 12 hours. Our hotel happened to be positioned right across the street from a BK. So we decided we would get a quick, cheap bite to eat, and then snooze. We were sadly disappointed, in all three areas. To get two meals was 18 bucks. No, its not an astronomical amount of money, but for two people at BK, it is. Especially for two small town  kids. Then it was not quick or even good for that matter. My chicken fries were burnt, my milkshake was all foam, and Kevin's coke was awful. So after the lunch disaster we decided to catch a nap to make everything better.

Nope, that wasn't gonna happen easily either. We get back to our room to find that it is 76 degrees inside. Not a good napping temperature at all. So we call the front desk and they send someone up. He looks at it and fiddles around, then leaves. He told us that it may work or may not. If it doesn't, then call the front desk again. The room cooled down to 74 and then began to rise again. So we called again, the same man comes back up and tells us the compressor? isn't working. He then disappears and comes back up to room keys to an upgraded room! Sweeeeeet! Made the day all better. Amanda called it "A Honeymoon Miracle". We moved all of our stuff to the new room and finally took our nap!

After waking up and feeling refreshed, it was dinner time. We decided to keep things easy and just eat in the hotel restaurant.  They had the coolest glasses! Probably my favorite part. Don't get me wrong, the food was excellent, but the water glasses were so unique! After dinner we made our way back to the room and went to bed. We had a full day ahead of us!

Bright and early on Saturday(and after we discovered our camera was broken)we had two scheduled tours of Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Hollywood. The first tour was of the stars' homes. Cheesy to some, but I thought it was interesting. These houses were ridiculously gorgeous, from what you could see of them. Most of them had walls made of trees and shrubbery so as to keep their privacy. A lot of the tour was just pointing at what looked like a jungle and telling us who lived inside the trees. We caught glimpses of several celebrity homes despite the trees! Here are just a few:

House from Iron Man

House Of Courtney Cox and David Arquette

House Michael Jackson died in

After that, we made our way down some of the most popular streets. Hollywood Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, and Sunset Boulevard. Some of the sites:

Bugatti

They said you know the owner of the clothing store behind the car is there if there's a fancy car parked outside. Every time he visits, he's just parks right out front.

Finally we made our way to the famous Hollywood Sign! So cool to see in person!

After the seeing the sign we made our way out of the hills and got ready to go on our second tour of the day. Double Decker bus! I was really excited for this tour. This just took you around downtown Hollywood. We saw all the clubs were the celebrities party, Paramount Pictures, and where Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown film, and some other prominent places. The only downside to the tour was that our tour guide sucked. I tried to think of a nicer way to put it, but there are no other words. He was awful. He was more worried about yelling to the driver of the bus that he needed his hoodie. He got his hoodie eventually and so we thought things would be better, but no such luck. He was a tour guide that couldn't speak loud of clearly. He then decided to sit down on the floor of the bus and use his megaphone to talk facing the front of the bus. We only caught bits and pieces of the actual information.

Putting up a huge half-naked pic of Audrina

Geisha House, Owned by Ashton and Demi

Capital Records

Painting a new Bud Light sign

The tour ended and we decided to just walk up and down Hollywood boulevard. We saw the Kodak Theater, the Walk of Fame, and shopped at Victoria Secret :) I had to stop there. Then we hit some of the rinky dink shops to buy souvenirs. I think it's part of the L.A. experience. While walking we watched a lot of the street performers, break dancers, a guy set up like a robot and would only move if you gave him money, and an artist that only used spray paint and pages from a magazine to create his pieces. The artist was my favorite, he was the most unique and had the most talent.

We also saw Lil' P-nut. He's like a seven year old rapper that was on Ellen. Kevin was actually the one that spotted him. He went up and asked if that was the kid on Ellen and the adult guy(maybe his dad or brother?) said yes. Then this huge bodyguard type guy just whips out a demo CD and hands it to us. Lil' P-nut was the only celebrity we saw. I'll post a link for it later or just google Lil' P-nut. We would've gotten a picture but the bodyguard didn't seem friendly so we decided against it.

It was starting to get dark by this time so we decided to head back to the hotel. We grabbed a cab and then we experienced the scariest car ride ever. We almost wrecked twice. One of which if it had of happened I would have been seriously injured if not dead. Scary stuff.  We ordered some pizza to the room because we were pooped. The pizza showed up and was disgusting, so neither one of us ate it. Luckily we were too tired to care and it didn't bother us to go to sleep without eating. We had plenty of food to look forward to over the next week!

Dilemma

So I have this recurring issue...some call them an addiction, some call them a girl's best friend. Right now, Kevin is just calling me crazy.

Shoes. Shoes aren't really the problem here though, I can't blame them. The actual dilemma is choosing which shoes to take on vacation. Yep, I can't part with them. Every shoe has a specific purpose or outfit it is designed for. For example:

These red shoes here, they are for formal night on the boat. They add that extra pop to the classic little black dress. 

Flip flops. Rainbows, to be exact. Need I really explain these? They are a staple to any warm climate vacation.

My boots, these go with my sweater dress. And I just like them.

Silver flats. They can be dressed up or dressed down and easily make the transition from day to night.

I just love these shoes. I don't get to wear them much, and they give extra pizazz to that "night out" outfit. 

I've had these shoes since junior year of high school. They are super comfy and I'll be wearing them on our plane ride. Then as soon as we get off the plane in LA, I'll be ready to go out. 

You have to have tennis shoes. Anytime you're doing the tourist thing, you need comfortable shoes!

These go with with my orange and white striped dress, because none of the other shoes match, duh. 

Yep, you counted right, thats nine pairs of shoes.  In my defense, we will be gone for nine nights....you need a pair for everyday.

Personally, I hate being away from home and wishing I had that one pair of shoes. Hopefully I won't have that problem on this vacation!

We're Newlyweds!!

Finally! We got married!

We were married at my childhood home in little ol' Erwin, NC. The day didn't go quite as I had imagined it my whole life, but it was still perfect. We had what I like to call a Murphy's Law wedding, everything that could have gone wrong...did. It rained, caterer had a broken shoulder, we didn't have the right petals for the flower girl, kids were sleeping, hair wasn't cooperating, people ate too much food, and the list goes on. 

Kevin and I both agree it was still the best day of our lives. Despite all the negatives, we had a lot of positives too! We had all of our family close, we were all healthy, my cousin made an AMAZING wedding cake, food was outstanding, we had no wardrobe malfunctions, lots of dancing, I got to wear my rain boots :), this list goes on too. The most important thing was that we were finally hitched!

Our original short and sweet ceremony, became even shorter due to the weather. We exchanged vows outside in the rain under a pretty white tent (thank goodness for the last minute tents). Then all of our guests left to go to the reception hall while the bridal party stayed out in the cold and rain to snap a few pictures. After we were thoroughly frozen, we made our way to the reception hall. 

About 180 people greeted us at the reception hall, it was such a sight! After cake cutting and toasts, Kevin and I tried to sit and eat. I was determined I was going to eat some food...it didn't happen. So instead we were able to mingle with family and friends! 

After our socializing, we decided to go ahead and do our first dance, we danced to Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not by Thompson Square. Love that song. That was followed by our daddy/daughter, mother/son, and Kevin danced with his stepmother, Tina. More dancing came after this! It was our favorite part of the night! 

Then came the bouquet toss, garter toss, and we faked leaving to get good pictures. Plus, we had to time our fake get away with the weather since, sparklers wouldn't do too well in the rain. Kevin and I danced our last dance to a song that was supposed to be played during the ceremony(Dave Matthews, You and Me), but due to the weather it was cut. 

We made our exit as the reception hall started to be broken down and cleaned up. To our shock, no one had decorated our car. Then we were welcomed to our room by balloons, writing on the mirrors, and some other items that I won't mention. 

It may not have been a picture perfect wedding, but it suit Kevin and I just fine. I do believe it fit our personalities to a tee! It was stressful at times, but totally worth it! I would do it all over again! We do need a break however, L.A. and Mexico, here we come!