Caribbean Honeymoon Holiday

Being the awesome blogger that I am, I am just now writing a post on our official honeymoon we took back in November. I know, I am so on top of my game. Anyways...we got the wonderful opportunity to spend a week on Grand Cayman Island this past fall all thanks to my sweet aunt and uncle. Thank y'all for the time of our lives! We will remember it always!!

We flew out of Jackson on Monday, November 1st. If you want to save a couple hundred dollars while flying, do it on a week day. Makes a difference. We had a connecting flight in Charlotte and then headed down south to the Caribbean. As soon as we landed we could hear the hip shaking music and feel the Caribbean sun on our skin. We were in heaven!!

We arrived soon thereafter at our beautiful home for the next 7 days, The Caribbean Club. We were lucky to have made it safe and sound though because the taxi drivers in the Caymans are like none other! PHEW!! We met the concierge Danielle, who became our best friend on the island, and she showed us to our private villa. Beautifully decorated with paintings and carvings by local artists, this little gem had an ocean front view and it was spectacular! After getting settled in and touring the grounds we walked across the street to the grocery store and picked up some essentials for the week. When we got back we took a leisurely stroll on the beach and cooked dinner in the kitchen of our villa. It was a relaxing first night.

Early the next morning we headed out to rent a car for a couple of days. The island is small enough to tour in one day so we didn't need the car for very long. But when the guy drove around the corner in our rental I thought Jonathan was going to have a fit. Does anyone ever watch "Family Guy"?? Jonathan drove around in this tiny car for the next two days singing, "Pimpin in a Brand New Hyundai"! Real funny but got old fast.

We took the sardine can and drove to the East side of the island where we found a neat arts and crafts shop, a shipwreck location, and an old lighthouse. After a few hours of seeing where the roads took us we headed back to the villa for lunch. Once we arrived we talked to Danielle and she invited us to go out on her friend's boat with her and more island visitors. Yes, please! So after eating lunch we headed to the North West side of the island towards Morgan Harbor, but not before making a pit stop in Hell. Yes, you read correctly, Hell. You can have your picture made with the Devil and send a postcard postmarked "Hell". Quite entertaining. We then drove over to Morgan Harbor to meet up with Danielle and her friends. They took us out on a fishing charter boat to a sand bar where we got to swim with stingrays! It was amazing and probably my favorite part of the trip! There were tons of them!! They wouldn't really bother you unless you had squid in your hand to feed them, then they would bombard you until you gave it up. I did feed one and it feels like the hose on a vacuum cleaner sucking on your hand. Very cool! The females get much larger than the males, but they are all very "gentle giants". After swimming with the stingrays we headed to a coral reef to snorkel. This was also very cool and an underwater majesty! Very colorful and full of thousands of different fish species. This was one of Jonathan's favorite parts of the trip. After a day full of adventure we headed back to the villa to get some rest.

The next day we went to the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. This was Jonathan's other favorite part. It was very beautiful and although we didn't get to see any, it's very common to cross paths with an endangered blue iguana. After visiting the park we had to take the rental back so the rest of the time on the island we either walked to our destination or took a cab. Most of our time was spent relaxing on the beach or at the pool. We did get out a couple of times to go shopping and out to eat. We walked a few condos down to The Ritz Carlton where we had dinner one night at one of their restaurants, Periwinkle. We had the best calamari in the world! And a yummy pizza too! We also had a delicious brunch one morning at Luca, the restaurant downstairs in our condo. And I couldn't leave Grand Cayman without some awesome souvenirs! My favorite shop was Pure Art where I purchased this beauty.

All in all we had an amazing week! I wish I had more pictures to share other than our underwater cameras, but I accidentally left our digital camera on the plane and never got it back :( I guess that just means we will have to go back one of these days and do it all over again!!

*I look like such a little girl in this photo! But this is me (pretty far out in the ocean) in front of our condo!!

*The two of us in the awesome pool!

*enjoying the pool!

*snorkelers!

*sweet stingray

*me holding one of the male stingrays, so cool!

*Jonathan holding one of the male stingrays

*tons of stingrays!!

-Amelia

What We've Been Up To

First I will apologize for the lack of blogging, but we have been SUPER busy lately and I swear the summer just vanished in the middle of it all. So I will just give a run-down of what we have been up to since my last post.

I launched my business, Studio Milly Jean Weakleg in mid July! So far, so good!! Already have booked two weddings for the year 2011. That sounds so crazy, 2011... and I have several photography sessions lined up for the fall :))) Makes me so happy! Also, I'm getting ready for my first festival which is next Saturday, September 18th. Anyone and everyone in the Desoto County area should plan to attend this fun-filled event and stop by my booth!

*business card

I started classes with KidzArt! It is SO much fun and I enjoy every minute of it :)) even the hectic ones... for those of you who aren't aware, I am an artist instructor for KidzArt which is an after school program teaching kids the fundamentals of drawing and art. I teach Tuesday-Thursday and have 28 kids total, grades K-3. I LOVE IT!!

*student work from this week

Jonathan & I have booked our belated honeymoon! We will be headed to Grand Cayman Island for a Caribbean holiday! We are so excited and can't wait to be there. We are so fortunate to be able to take the trip of a life-time! A big thanks to my aunt and uncle for letting us stay in their beautiful villa at the Caribbean Club!!

*where we will be staying

Jonathan was awarded the "Above and Beyond" award at work! I was such a proud wife of his accomplishments and had to reward him myself with a little party. Homemade decorations and a yummy dinner of chicken ranchero calzones, his favorite :)

*great job, Jonathan!

We've been eating LOTS of veggies from the garden Jonathan planted right after we moved to Pearl. Considering we were late getting it into the ground and it was on the small side it didn't turn out half bad!

*he is the one with the green thumb, not me

I got the chance to visit Starkville for Katie's 21st birthday and had a blast hanging out with her and her friends! It's always great to be back in Vegas :))) and I just love every minute I get to spend with my new sissy!

*Katie, with her birthday present

And last but definitely not least, we've been gearing up for Mississippi State FOOTBALL!! We had a great season opener last week against Memphis, winning 49-7. So proud of our Bulldogs! We played our second game last night against Auburn but came up short against the #21 team in the nation, 14-17. We're still ringing our cowbells though and praying for success next weekend in the Swamp!

*Dan is still (and always will be) the Man!

Well that just about sums up our first summer as newlyweds! Time sure does fly by when you're having fun and we are looking forward to our first holiday season as a married couple! Fall will be here in 12 days!!! And I LOOOOOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!

-Amelia

Not Your Typical Honeymoon

Two days after we were married Jonathan and I packed up everything we could fit in the back of his truck, my dad's trailer, and my mom's jeep and hit the road to move to Jackson, MS. For three days we frantically cleaned, unpacked boxes, and organized as much as possible. Luckily we got most of it done before we woke up at 2am Thursday morning to head for Asheville, NC for our "mini honeymoon" as we like to call it. Jonathan slept most of the way so that left the driving to me....whoo hoo. You can imagine my excitement when we arrived at our destination 10 hours later. We booked a camp site at the nearby Lake Powhatan and it was absolutely beautiful. When we got there we set up "our first tent" that my sister Sarah gave us as a wedding gift, and we love it! Shortly after we decided to take a stroll around the camp site and see what we see. It was so peaceful and all the little critters were out to play. When we got back to camp Jonathan decided it was time to build a fire. Success. Weenie roasting was next on the agenda along with tic tac toe. It turned out to be a relaxing first night and that's exactly how we wanted it.

Early the next morning (if you knew my husband you would know that when I say early, I mean eeaarrllly, ugh) we headed into downtown Asheville for a fun-filled day. Little did we know the first family would be doing the same thing, well maybe not exactly the same thing, but they were there! First we went window shopping and stumbled across some really cool shops. Everything in Asheville is so.....how should I say it, hippie? Yes, that is one way to describe it. Lots of friendly, down-to-earth people who are extremely talented in whatever their trade is, whether it be musician, wood carver, tasty beer proprietor or tattoo artist. Next we decided to stop by Mellow Mushroom for some afternoon grub. I had never eaten at one before and was super excited. I love pizza! And the funny thing is I can't remember what I had but I know it was good! After lunch we ventured to find the best tattoo artist in town. Yep, that's right, I got my very first tattoo while we were there, and no I didn't faint! I got the word "peace" on the inside of my middle finger. I love it! Afterward we decided to hit up this store we passed called "Bruisin' Ales". It's one of those places where you can build your own six pack but all the beer is special. Special because you can't get it in Mississippi. Sweet. Of course Jonathan walked out of there with one pretty good sized jug. And a six pack. Of nothing but dark, heavy beer. I like my wheat beer. Ew, there was one I picked up called a "Sweaty Betty", yea take my advice and don't ever buy that beer. It literally tasted like a sweaty betty. Gross. Leaving the beer store is when we found out the first family was in town. There was a guy in front of us on the side walk carrying a box of pizza and wearing a dark suit and had an ear piece in. Jokingly I whispered to Jonathan, "He's a CIA agent" in which he responded, "Oh yea, while you were in the bathroom, the lady who owns Bruisin' Ales was telling me how Air Force One had just landed." I about peed my pants. I hope Barack and Michelle enjoyed themselves as much as we did ;)

We still had a couple of hours before the doors opened at the Orange Peel for the Railroad Earth show so we did some more window shopping and just chilled until we could get in. Once we did get in, because we already had tickets (thank you, CHAD! Best wedding gift we received), we payed a couple extra dollars to sit in the VIP section. Well worth it. Now not only were we pumped because we were there to see our favorite band on our honeymoon, but my sorority little sis and her boyfriend who had moved to Asheville the year before were meeting us there! I was so excited to see her!! About halfway into the show the band dedicated our song to us, "Right in Tune." It was the coolest! I did not want that night to end. You can listen to the whole show here.

Early the next morning, and again I mean early, we packed up our stuff and hit the road again to head home, but not before making a pit stop in Horn Lake to get even more of our stuff from my parent's house. Needless to say, we still have a lot there.... After we got back home in Jackson Saturday night we went straight to bed. But the next day we went to Lowe's and picked up vegetable plants for our first garden. Jonathan was so excited and is super proud of this 4'x10' piece of land. I'm pretty impressed myself.

We had a wonderful time on our "mini honeymoon" and plan to visit Asheville again and again, and I recommend that everyone visit at least once. Until next time, peace.


-Amelia