A Honeymoon Thursday

So I think you might get a chuckle or two out of this post. Hang with me!

Thursday was our last full day in Florida {sigh of deep sadness}, so we started as anyone would: drinking coffee.

Okay just kidding. I mean not about the coffee. But about that coffee maker. We borrowed that from our church so we had a way to make coffee for our guests at the reception. We thought it would be funny to have our picture taken with it. :)

And then...you know...went down to the pool for a while. It was seriously such a rough life.

And I actually got IN the pool. This was major for me. I wasn't really in to getting all frizzy headed in front of people I didn't know.

As we left the pool for the last time, we read the rules for the first time. Let's go through them, shall we? #1. Shower before entering. WOOPSIE! #2. No food, drink or glass. WOOPSIE, WOOPSIE and no problem!

We did manage to leave our animals at home and as far as we know, the pool itself did not break the rule of becoming hotter than 104. {Seriously - how is that a rule?? Do people pour great quantities of boiling water in the pool while laughing the evil laugh and watching the temp climb over 104??}

After we left the pool, we headed back to the store where we'd rented our kayak earlier in the week.

And oh my dear people...this time...this time...we fulfilled Ryan's dream of tandem bike riding.

Read: RYAN'S dream.

This man was so happy in this particular moment that you just can't even possibly understand. See that smile on my face?

I really meant this:

See, I broke my leg falling off a bike when I was 11. I did not get on a bike again until a year before the wedding, when I rode my sister's bike very slowly around her neighborhood for about 20 minutes. I'd never been on a tandem bike. And I. Was. Freaked. Out.

We took a few laps around the parking lot to get the feel for the thing. It's weird to be on the back of a bike when you can't see much in front of you except the back of another person. Then we got in a bike lane {and let the record show, I think my PERSON was wider than the lane} and rode right next to the cars.

I had a literal death grip on those handlebars and as we pedaled down the road {much faster than I would have liked} I was chanting "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Psalm 56:3." Anytime I quote Scripture WITH REFERENCE, it's serious. Ryan called back over his shoulder, "What are you saying?" I said "I'M QUOTING SCRIPTURE."

They say opposites attract. They would be right.

En route, we found some decorations for our first yard together.

We rode our bike down to the Siesta Key Village {about 3 miles away from our hotel} and had a late lunch/early dinner together. Then we took a tour of town, where we found this:

WHY, OH WHY didn't we stay there??? Why are we back in the snow??

It was almost time for the sunset, so we rode the bike down to the beach and walked through that amazing sand for one last sunset....

We. Were. Here.

Just thought I'd throw this one in so you could see that self-portraits don't always go well for us.

We'd failed to bring our tripod, so some nice lady took pity on us and took our picture.

Ahhh....waterfront sunsets...how we miss thee.

After the sun went down, we headed back to the road and so carefully followed MORE rules.

And if you're going to break one...why not break them ALL?

We rode back to town and found a little local coffee shop to have a date. Parked our bike. {Cracks me up.}

Very yummy date and then we had to leave....

On the way home, we decided to ride the bike on the beach. The bike didn't have reflectors and our clothing wasn't bright, so we hated to be on the main road. But let me tell you about riding on the beach after dark.

There were NO people on the beach AT all. And that beach was really, really dark. Not a lot of stars, no moon...and the tide was much higher than we expected. We were trying to see how much space we had...avoid holes in the sand...and worst of all...

...I had watched Sleeping with the Enemy right before we left. The worst thing for after-dark beach riding is a recent exposure to that storm scene. I was very nearly in tears by the time we arrived back at our resort.

So to console me...we walked around to enjoy the sights one more time.

And this is how we felt about saying goodbye to our precious wedding/honeymoon trip.

And it's also how Ryan felt about saying goodbye to his tandem bike.

A Honeymoon Wednesday

I promise. One day we'll be done with the honeymoon - but I really really really wanted to tell you about the rest of our trip!!

Wednesday morning, we got up early {like before sunrise} and fixed coffee {of course} and went for a sunrise walk on the beach:

We looked down the beach...looked at each other...and said, "Yeah, that looks like about a mile...why don't we walk to the farthest point and back? We can do that and then get some breakfast."

Sounds good, doesn't it? And it was such a lovely walk. We saw dolphins:

We had our Baywatch moments:

We walked in the water:

We visited snowmen....

....and something like 2 hours later when we got back, limping from water-logged sandals, we discovered it had actually been three miles out to the far point. So rather than walking 2 miles, we'd walked six. In water shoes. Before breakfast. Obviously we were in love. :)

So we spent a few hours lounging by the pool to recover from that. {Read: we both took our computers to the pool and spent time blogging and paying bills. HA!}

And then that night, we had the chance to do something I've LONG wanted to do. Take a sunset dinner cruise.

My friend Christi recommended it to us, and we decided to treat ourselves and do it. We got all dressed up and headed out, mid-afternoon, to the marina in Sarasota:

We went early on purpose, so we could walk around the waterfront and look at the skyline, the bridge, and the boats in the marina:

We walked for quite a while and then we got in line for our cruise on the Marina Jack II!

When we got on board, we asked if it mattered where we sat. {One other couple got on board ahead of us.} The crew told us only 8 guests would be on board that night, so we could sit wherever. The other couple found a table downstairs right at the front of the boat, so we went upstairs. Here's our little table!

Shortly after we found our table, the remaining four people got on board.  Two couples...one couple was made up of the parents of the wife in the second couple. They had a table across the way from us, and obviously they were very important, because they had a reserved sign on it. {That just straight up cracked me up since there were EIGHT PEOPLE on board.} Someone came on board to greet them, further proving their obvious importance, and I heard the younger wife say to the person greeting her, "Now will they serve us up here, or do we need to go to the boo-fay?"

1. Boo-fay? This is Florida. It's just a regular buffet.
2. There are EIGHT PEOPLE on board. Really, how much is it going to tax you to walk down the stairs and stand in the boo-fay line?

I managed to not snort out loud and instead, turned my attention to the boat we considered purchasing:

Both boats, actually. {Insert big fat HA!!! here.}

The cruise took us by some magnificent homes and the sunset was {again} uh.ma.zing.

And speaking of uh.ma.zing....the boo-fay was so good. My first time ever to have prime rib. Spoiled now. Wow.

{That would be the boo-fay lady's mom coming up the stairs behind me.}

After dinner, we decided to really enjoy the views of the homes with their gorgeous Christmas lights, so we went out on the open-air deck and watched as we sailed past the huge, huge houses. It was so lovely out there...

We even drank some coffee out there...

They were playing Christmas music over the speakers, so Ryan held out his hand and asked me to dance. The boo-fay party stared at us, but we didn't care. Dancing after dark on the deck of a sunset cruise - surrounded by Christmas lights - YES PLEASE!!

I was walking away from the boo-fay party and I heard one of the husbands say, "Well, SHE got to take pictures and dance and make out." Well...you could have too, sir!! I had much fun with it! Too bad they didn't join in!

And before we left the boat...a quick kiss at the very front of the thing...

After we left the boat, we walked over to a little park we'd not seen earlier in the day. There was this really cool dolphin waterfall, so we stood there for a while, just soaking in the gorgeous evening. The main Marina Jack restaurant was right there, and they were having live entertainment. The music was such fun so we danced, right there in the dark in the middle of a park. Perfect end to a perfect day.

Shopping for My Wedding Dress

AACK!!!

I forgot to show you my wedding dress shopping extravaganza! So in this week of wedding catch-up/wrap-up, I'm going to show you. I shopped for my dress just a few days after becoming engaged...because...you know...we didn't have a lot of time! I was so nervous about looking for the dress because if you could only just know how...annoying...time-consuming...and exhausting it is to shop for an Easter dress every year...you'd know how flat out scared I was about finding something...anything...that looked good and was affordable. Add to that the need to have something that needed minimal alteration{because there was no time for such things} and it just provided quite a task.

I made an appointment with David's Bridal in Fort Wayne and went in with a list of five dresses I'd seen online that I thought I might like. I was completely in love with one of them, but if I'd learned anything in Easter dress shopping, it was that anything that I adored online typically looked terrible on my person...so I went in with as open a mind as I could muster, willing to try on anything. Well. Almost anything. Nothing garish. 

I invited my mom, Ryan's mom, his sister Bre, his aunt Sandy, my bridesmaid Sara, and anyone from work that wanted to come {since they were all going to be missing the actual wedding, I tried to include them in the dress shopping}. We converged on that store in all our loud glory and I disappeared into the dressing room to shop for my dress.

Here was dress #1:

My first time to ever have on a strapless dress in my life. It went better than I thought it might, but it wasn't me. So I tried on dress #2...the dress I'd loved so dearly online.

There are no mirrors inside the dressing rooms, a detail I detested greatly, so these pictures show me walking out, trying to see the dress and gauge the reactions of my entourage simultaneously:

I knew it then. That was my dress. It was also my first time to ever be in a halter top...but it seemed okay. {Did not want to be one of those brides that caused onlookers to say oh....why didn't someone TELL HER not to wear that????}

I asked the crew what they thought...and they dutifully got on the texting chain, sending pictures to siblings and friends out of town:

Quick funny story on my mom...anytime I shop for a dress, her first question is always, "Does it need a dickie?" {Meaning...is it too low cut?} She was unable to find a dickie for our shopping extravaganza, but she did come prepared with some extra modesty for me:

I was a good sport and tried on some other dresses - all very similar to this one, but I knew in my heart, this was my dress. I asked to wear it again...this time with the veil:

 And it was settled in my heart. Hadn't even been in the store 45 minutes yet, and the dress I had on...was mine.

 It had everything I wanted...it was simple and elegant...didn't ooze with trendiness...it had a train...it was beachy...it made me feel pretty...and I could afford it.

And so it was...I said yes to my dress!

 And everyone clapped for me!

 This girl said yes to her dress!!

 Texting Ryan to tell him I found it. DYING inside because I couldn't show him.

So with one last photo...of the entire entourage together:

I packed up my stuff and said goodbye to my first big adventure of being engaged:

I went up to the front to pay for the dress and while there, I heard great clapping and cheering from the back. My entourage had turned their attention to another bride...and they were voting on her dress. Such team players, they were.

All bagged up and belonging to me!!! Time to eat my last non-salad dinner! {HA!}