Finally.... St. Kitts! part one

So I'm finally posting about our second honeymoon to St. Kitts! Yay! Since it's been a month and a half since we got back, I don't remember minute details, like the exact day we went to Nevis (island right next to St. Kitts) but I remember enough. :D

Well, Kurt and I flew out of Salt Lake at midnight on Friday morning. I had been up since about 6 am Thursday taking midterms all day (and Kurt had had a similar day). We traveled all day, flying to La Guardia airport in our beloved NYC, then to Puerto Rico, and then to St. Kitts. We were not able to get much sleep on our flights, so by the time we got there at 5, we were bushed.


But! We had enough energy to walk to the restaurant next to our hotel and have dinner on the beach. We watched the sun set and ate island food (well, I had a veggie burger, but it came with island-style salad and veggies. That was the night Kurt discovered Kittitian jerk chicken, which was by far his meal of choice for the next 8 days). By the way, Kittitian is pronounced ki-tee-shen. We went to bed at 8.

The next day we slept in till 11 (yep, we were that tired). We woke up and walked out on our balcony to this sight:



It was a beautiful Caribbean day! We decided to make the most of it: we headed to the beach (which was right down the sidewalk from our door.... love it!)


Check out that water!!


Kurt was lovin' it as well. (See how the vegetation grew straight up to the water? It was so beautiful).

After an afternoon spent soaking in the sun, we took a walk around the little lake in front of our hotel.


People here have HUGE houses! Well, the rich people do. We learned that if you buy enough land, the government grants you automatic citizenship. There must be tons of new citizens in St. Kitts, with the amount of large and extremely beautiful houses around our part of the island.


There's our hotel, the Timothy Beach Resort, from across the lake. I loved how green it was! Reminded me of Charleston, but greener! And did I mention humid? I didn't blow dry my hair once--I knew my hair would frizz out as soon as I walked out of the door. My skin was loving it.

At night, the only thing to do in St. Kitts is go to bars and drink. A few nights we went to the bars to drink virgin margaritas and listen to the live reggae bands, but we could just as easily hear the music from our balcony, so usually we'd sit on our balcony and listen to the music while Kurt read and I did sudoku. It was so warm at night that we didn't need pants or long sleeves on. And it was so dark. It was really relaxing, especially after going through weeks of midterms.

One night though, Kurt got bored and decided he wanted to knock down and eat a coconut from one of the many coconut trees on our hotel grounds. It was pretty fun to watch:



But finally Kurt got one.

Like a little boy with a new toy. Awwww.

One day we rented a car. In the morning we went sightseeing all around the island, and in the afternoon we went to the southern end of the island which is a narrow peninsula and snorkeled all day. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of us with our snorkeling gear because we were always by ourselves, but we had a blast. We saw a sea turtle, a couple of octopi, a squid, lots of colorful fish, and even a shark (at which sight we quickly headed for shore--Kurt's terrified of sharks. I told him what I saw and he took of immediately. It was pretty funny).

Sightseeing was fun though. We went to this old plantation where Thomas Jefferson's family hails from. It was in the middle of the jungle.


We even met some English guy to take our picture. Look, there's his thumb!

People in St. Kitts just let things go to waste sometimes. So there's lots of old sugar refinery ruins in the middle of the jungle. That was definitely a Kodak moment... or several.




Oooo, look, I've got a smoke stack growing out of my head!

Next we went to an old fort on top of a massive hill. The view was pretty incredible.





From both sides.

The next day Kurt found some friends to take him scuba diving with him (alas, because of my beautiful asthma and sinuses, I can't scuba dive).


He ran to catch the boat....

... while I stayed behind ....


to sunbathe on yet another amazing day on the beach...


get some quality reading...


and to enjoy a tasty Coke. Mmmm. :)


Oh, and as a tip, don't order pizza in St. Kitts. Especially the Mexican pizza.


... To be continued!

Nothin' could be finer than to be in Carolina

And that's the derned truth! Kurt and I were lucky enough to be able to spend Christmas with my family, in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. In case you didn't know, it's my favorite city in the entire world. And in case you also didn't know, my family are my favorite people in the entire world!

We had a great time! We flew in on Christmas Eve, ate some Christmas Eve dinner, opened one present each, and played games. The next morning, we had apple pancakes, which I think we will eat in heaven because they are the perfect food. Mmm mmm good! Next it was time to open presents, but first...


The traditional Christmas morning stairs shot! See, we usually eat breakfast after opening presents, but we're all (mostly) grown-ups, so we naturally decided to be mature and stuff our faces first thing on Christmas morning. But my dad always makes all of us kids sit on the stairs right after we wake up on Christmas morning. Literally, we've just rolled out of bed and onto the stairs, and before we can see the presents, he takes pictures of us. These pictures are traditionally blackmail-material, but this year was no so bad. Chris is the only one who looks sleepy. Now it's time for presents!


Collin got something cool... and such a pretty face he's making.


Steph got one of them new-fangled iPod Nanos. Oooooooo.


Chris got a chocolate face! Bears love chocolate face kids.


Kurt and I got .... something. Can't tell what in this picture.


And as always, I was happy to see my beloved Chou chou. I love this little dog.

The next couple of days we did lots of fun stuff that I didn't get pictures of. :( Mostly though, we played games. A lot of games. All kinds of games. Well, mostly Guitar Hero, Wii, and various board games. My family really enjoys playing games together. The best part of playing games was the various Wii boxing matches. And I think I just might have to post some of those videos... mwahaha. :D

One day we went out to my grandparents lot. They have a huge lot on the outskirts of town and my parents are going to buy half of it from them to build on. My parents wanted to show us where they were going to put the house of the lot and a day out in nature just sounded good. Not to mention that it was a beautiful 50-something degree day. I love Charleston weather.


Chris was excited to be outside. He had a great time figuring out how to walk under branches and over logs. He is the cutest little kid. And dang smart too.


Kurt, for some reason, does not look happy in this pic. Maybe his stomach hurt?


Chris found a log that had fallen on the ground. It had rotted partially so that the exposed side was flat enough to walk on. He thought this would be a very fun log to walk on.


The day we left hit Kurt hard. He was really sad to leave. Can't you tell by his expression in this pic? We went to beautiful Hampton Park on the Charleston peninsula to take family pictures. It was a beautiful day! Sixty five degrees, sunny, it was the perfect day to be outside.


We took some couples' (and individual pics, for Caroline, Steph, and Collin). Kurt and I kinda botched ours up by acting stupid. Typical.


Kurt and Chris raced around the park a few times. I also raced with Chris. He loves it when you race him. He'll be just walking around and you come up to him and say, "Ready... Set..." and he stands absolutely still until you say, "Go!" and then he takes off running and he laughs the whole way. He is so cute!


Here's the family picture. :) We had a great time in Charleston and I actually cried the whole way to our apartment from the Salt Lake airport. I can't wait till the next time I see my family. :)

Bridal Pictures!

So, I've been married for 7 months, but I finally got a CD of my bridal pictures! Yay!
Just to let you know... I intended to take my bridal pictures at the Magnolia Plantation just outside of Charleston. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that they charged $150 to take bridal pictures on their property. That's complete crap. It was late afternoon and the good sunlight would be fading soon. We were about 20 minutes from Downtown Charleston (my other choice) and so didn't have time to get down there and find parking, etc. So Grant, my photographer, knew of a cheap park only 5 minutes. It was a cool little spot, but not nearly as pretty as the plantation or downtown would have been. Oh well! My pictures still turned out amazingly beautiful. They were taken by Grant Gibbons, good friend of my family and amateur photographer (hoping to go pro soon), the same guy who did our wedding day and engagement pictures. I just wanna say this: my pictures were free and they are every bit as beautiful as people who spend $2000 on their pictures. Grant did such a good job!! So here are some of my favorites. Warning: there's lots.