Friend Party

Last week, before I left for DC I celebrated my 23rd Birthday with my two amigas, the sweet Miss Julie Mack and the Spicy Miss Zaneta Gileno.

Of course Alice's Teacup was the luncheon location. We scarfed down our scones before eating lunch of course.
and waited for our fruity tea to cool
took a group picture by the fairy wings (I can't wait to bring little girls here, Kate, Carly, Megan, Emme, any takers?)
and afterwards, we of course had to stop by Magnolia's bakery to pick up some yummy cupcakes and a candle.
aren't they cute? makes me want to go home and bake : )
Then we had a photo shoot in the subway station....
Zaneta was fierce!
And I got to blow out a candle : )

It was a fantastic birthday celebration! Thanks for the treat Sweet Julie Mack and Spicy Miss Gileno!

DC madness!

Okay get ready for picture overload. Here's a collage of the many cool and amazing monuments and memorial's that we visited...

We had a lot of fun running around and cramming in as much DC stuff as possible in the course of 2.5 days. The weather was perfect except on Sunday when we went to Arlington and I thought I would pass out from the heat! D.C. is a really neat city and it made me feel to proud to be American and to be able to claim this country as my own. The leaders with memorials and monuments are amazing men and truly God inspired. Yes, everyone has their own personal issues and quirks, but overall there have been great men who have lead and influenced our country for good and I am grateful for that! 

Dan and I in front of the White House of course...

Washington Monument is awesomely BIG!

One of my favorite pics of the weekend.

Looking out from Lincoln Memorial

Oh that silly Dan o' mine!

(please read in a southern accent) Nancy and Udean were out showing the Christian's around...

Another fav. pic of the rotunda in the Capitol

Ashley's wedding! An absolutely blast and evidence that Dan and I are a Mr. and Mrs. now : ) 

We went to Arlington to visit Dan's Grandpa and Great-Grandpa. We got to witness the changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Really amazing.

There is a great feeling at Arlington. When you look out and see the rows and rows of tombstones marking a person who has died for our country, you can't help but feel proud and incredibly grateful for what has been done for you. 

And it's beautiful (and that day, incredibly hot!)

JFK memorial.

And again, another favorite pic of the Washington Monument. It's just cool! 

So Dan and I went to DC for my friend Ashley's wedding on Saturday, but we decided to make a weekend trip of it since DC is cool, I've never been there and we had free lodging. We stayed with my mother-in-law's college roommate and her husband. They were amazing hosts which made the experience even better. 

We got down there Thursday and saw the White House before turning in for the night. Friday was packed with touring! We started at the Museum of American History, and then proceeded to walk all around the Mall. We hit up: Washington Monument, WW II memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, almost the Jefferson memorial, 5 min of the Air and Space museum, and the Capitol. It was a reaaaally long day full of walking. Thank goodness it wasn't too hot, but I still of course got burned. 

Saturday we attempted to go to the Holocaust museum, but it was packed and we had to leave fairly soon to get ready for the wedding. So we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (DC museum's are almost all free which makes them even more worth it!). Then we had to get ready for the wedding. It was beautiful and soo much fun to party with my friends : ) good times all around!

Sunday morning we went to Arlington and visited Dan's grandpa's. It was boiling hot, but worth it to go and feel the pride and spirit there. 

D.C. is sweet. The city is ridiculously clean as are the metro's (like woah clean!). And it's very young which is nice : ) I definitely plan on visiting more! 

Take a wild guess...

Where do you think we went this weekend? 

Oodles more pics to come!

H to the Moon: The Return to NYC

The last two days on the boat were uneventful. The first one was spent recuperating from the excursions and giving my burnt skin a break. 

we did however, tour the galley. Basically if you've worked at a restaurant, you know what a big industrial kitchen looks like. But what's amazing is the fact that they're able to serve 1,300 people within 30 min. That takes a looot of coordination my friends. And we learned that every 8 days when they dock, they spend $500,000 on food. CRAZY! 
Our last day was spent out in the sun, trying to soak up as much as we could before going back to reality. Dan discovered the slide and went down at least 7 times. He claims to have reached high speeds. 
I of course wore my ginormous black hat in order to give my face a break from the horribly burning sunscreen I had brought while protecting my fair skin from the sun. 
The last night we wandered around on the outside deck knowing we'd be missing the wonderfully easy life of cruising...
But we were still happy to go back home and start really setting up our apartment : ) 

Finally the honeymoon pics are over! But many things have been going on. Stay tuned for some glimpses of our apartment and my birthday lunch with the amigas Julie y Zaneta!

H to the Moon: Nassau

The following morning we arrived at the capitol of the Bahamas. So basically the biggest island out of their 700 or so...

We spent the day at the Atlantis resort. Which greeted us with this beautiful view. The resort has, a shark aquarium, a regular aquarium, oodles of water slides, a casino, a dolphin cay, man-made beaches, and real beaches... as well as a $25,000 a night room. Yes it was luxurious. 
Here's one of the hammer heads. Just swimmin' around. They were in this really shallow pond? thing, so you could see that scary fin poking up all over the place. Super cool. 
The bridge behind us is actually the $25,000 room. With a four night minimum. I could buy a house with that... or lots of cars... or pay off my student loans... 
Jelly-fish in the aquarium. I'm really scared of jelly-fish, but they're ridiculously beautiful. 
We heart the Bahamas!!! 

Up next: Finally! The return to NYC...

H to the Moon: Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is a private island owned by Carnival Cruise line. That means a day of beaches and nature surrounded by only other cruise goers. There are only 30 people who live on the island, and they're all cruise employees who maintain the island and whatnot. The water was absolutely amazing, but reeeeeeally salty. Each time I went under the water (even with my eyes closed) I couldn't open them for a few minutes after because they burned so badly. But the water was still divine : ) 
Tender Times : ) 
We went on a nature walk through the island. It was really pretty but we went at 11:30 in the morning which means that it was hot. Ridiculously hot. And I was already sunburned... so that was not so much fun...
But the views were gorgeous!!
But it was hot. (Can we applaud me for keeping it real with the ugly picture? Yes, I am that awesome : ) 

H to the Moon: Grand Turk

It was stormy and somewhat windy when we got off at Grand Turk. But of course it's the Bahamas so it's still beautiful!
For our activity that day Dan and I each had a sea salt scrub and a massage right on the beach. You could hear the waves crashing all around and the wind was going crazy! But the scrub and massage were amazing...
Place where we got our massages...
My favorite picture from Grand Turk...
Us with that Big-A ship once again!

Other than get the massages and hanging out a little on the beach, that was about all we did. It was a nice relaxing day. Absolutely perfect for us!