J is for Jamaica Mon

Today I realized the 31° weather has set in, so I pulled out our honeymoon photo book to daydream about a more tropical time in our lives. Then I realized I never shared any of our adventures with you! Last October we made our way to the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall of Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was one of the best trips I've ever been on. Five star food, personable staff who went above and beyond, private beaches, colorful drinks, and we even met some amazing friends with whom we still keep in touch with, from around the world. I will just let you bask in the light of your computer screen while start scheming a return trip with us! October 2014 anyone?

My excitement was overwhelming to the husband apparently

 

 The first view of our destination

 The staff greeted us with mimosas, introduced us to our personal butler for the week, and showed us up to our room, which included this view. Obsessed.

I obviously had trouble getting comfortable

 Our beach view. The building is one out of five restaurants at the Grand 

 Amazing.

 Andrew enjoying the swim up bar

 Japanese steakhouse on our first night

 Each night they did a different stage show, which were SO fun to watch

 Having a terrible time under a hut

 Room service? Yes please.

 Fake smile at the Italian restaurant because I got sunburnt while snorkeling :(

 Lobby

 Resort hopping to the Iberostar Suites next door

 Pirate party on the beach

 Arghhhhh cheers

 

 Who eats out of a coconut shell? I do and I loves it

 After an afternoon of beach volleyball

 He taught all our friends AND some of the staff how to saber champagne bottles. It's kinda our thing.

 If you can guess how many bottles we sabered I'll give you $1.

 Wondering how I can convince the staff to let me live here

 That's where the kayak love affair began!

 Surf & Turf restaurant. Andrew cried because his lobster was still in the shell and its eyeballs looked sad. Actually, that was me. Andrew bracing himself on the table because he literally can't believe I just did that.

 Friends!!

Until next time mon....

 

xoxo,

KB

 

 



Wooooo!

PARDON ME while I dust off this computer! I know I am not the most consistent blogger, like, at all, but GIMINY CHRISTMAS, time just got away from us there.

Since we last spoke, a wedding reception has taken place, we navigated our first holiday season together, lots of new memories made, friendships lost, better friends acquired, Air Force awards won, dogs trained and many new Rainy tricks of course.

So let me take this opportunity to illustrate the past 7 months of our very happy lives for you!

 

 



And a fun time was had by all :) What a great few days we had with our close friends and family. I would elaborate, but I have a whole post dedicated to the reception and some tips for anybody and their future wedding endeavors...keep an eye out!

 

 

 

There is our fall season! Full of love and crisp air and SUPER CAT and letting the stores of Vitamin D from Jamaica drain from our body. No pictures from Thanksgiving....we had TV dinners....not joking.

 

And it the class of Thanksgiving wasn't enough, there you have, exhibit B, our Christmas tree. A branch from one of our neighbors real trees that I found in our parking garage! It did the job, held ornaments and even smelled nice. Painting pumpkins that we still had from fall was one of my favorite projects.

The groom's gift I got for Andrew was an inflatable kayak. It has proven to be an investment in FUN and now that the weather is warming up (weather pictured above was NOT warm), it is definitely getting some mileage. We see seals each time we take it out, and even the occasional Minke whale!There are lots of "marine trails" in Puget Sound for man-powered vessels, as well as special campsites for us non-motor folks.

 

Had a splendid time with my lil sister and her boyfrand when they came to visit! They had both explored downtown Seattle in previous visits so we concentrated on the Tacoma side of things. Showed her airplanes on base, took them kayaking, went on hikes, saw Elf on Broadway, rang in the New Year, cooked a lot of food, what more could you ask for?

 

Tulip festival in Mt. Vernon, WA.

Dock dogs competition at the spring fair in Puyallup, WA.

What a great few months it has been, I look forward to keeping you all up to date on a more regular basis! This blog has been through a lot of exciting times with me, I went from a girlfriend moving across the country for a guy, to a fiance, now a wife. Tomorrow we celebrate ONE YEAR of marriage. I cannot believe it. I kind of don't believe it....he was gone so much in the beginning I still feel like I am trying to catch up on the newlywed time. Good thing we have the rest of our lives! Until next time...

Cheers,

KB

P is for Post Holidays

So here I am, back in the land of Subarus, seagulls, and evergreens. Being in Kansas for a few weeks was absolutely wonderful! I ventured back and forth between Topeka and Winfield a few times; north and south, up and down, doin' the holiday shuffle. My favorite memories of the trip involved simply being with my family whom I hadn't seen in a long time. KJ and I decorated the tree, we all ate a ton of food, laughed for hours, had lazy days, and coddled me and my screwed up sinuses (I am NOT good at being sick. It just makes me so mad! I have better things to do than feel crappy.)
I spent a lot of time with Andrew's nieces and nephews. All 4 of them. Under the age of 4, God bless em. Here is the newest addition, sweet little Natalie, in her lamb coat!

I feel like it takes a special kind of person to appreciate scenery like Kansas'. The Flint Hills is one of my favorite drives ever. You can see for miles, and the blue sky sits right on top of the hills. No buildings, no trees. Nothing to separate the best friends of land and sky :) Much different than the Washington scenery, that's for sure.

Much of my time home was spent watching Andrew fly his.....wait....fix. his new remote control airplane. We watched it slam into a telephone pole, get snapped nearly in half, fly into a tree a block away, and it's still alive!! The thing did start to grow on me after I got a lesson from the pilot himself. We'll see how long those feelings last. In the meantime, I'm getting my shotgun warmed up for sporting clay lessons, so I hope we don't try to "practice" our respective interests at the same time ;)

We took a horse and buggy ride with two GIANT Clydesdales in Winfield. Just a short, chilly ride around their famed "Isle of Lights" display.

Got to have coffee with one of the best friends ever from my college days. It was so great to see Ashley and get caught up in person. Since moving, first to Oklahoma, and now to Washington, I have found that true friends are hard to come by. Distance makes things inconvenient to many people, which is a shame when you think you are close friends with somebody. Luckily, I have a select few girl friends who have been supportive, and not let mileage get in the way. They know who they are and I couldn't be more grateful for them!

And finally, New Years! We have a great tradition of going somewhere new each year with a couple, Eric and Kelli. This year, we traveled alllll the way to Wichita for a nice dinner, and dancing! If only we had gotten a good picture....funny Andrew. Real funny.

That's all I've got for now. I hope your holidays were all you wished for! Can't wait till next time when I can fill you all in on some aquarium happenings. Until then....

Cheers,

KLM

T is for Tea?

ANDREW IS BACKKKK! He surprised me at work last Thursday with flowers and everything :) After a relaxing dinner and day of shopping we began our journey into Ooooo Canadaaaaa. The trip began with a drive downtown, and a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, which is across the Sound. So here we are, in a car, on a boat, in the bay, goin to Bainbridge!

We then drove about an hour and a half northerly to Port Angeles, where we caught our 2nd ferry, sans car, and arrived in Victoria.

If you're not familiar with Puget Sound geography,  here's a general idea of our path. The drive was just gorgeous, as I have found with most things in this part of Washington, and it was nice to enjoy simple things like being in the car with Andrew.



After a full day of traveling, we finally arrived in beautiful Victoria! And then Andrew told me a surprise he had been keeping from me, and pointed out where we were staying! The Fairmont Empress......

Which was right across the street from their Parliament building.....

Amazing right? Our hotel room had it's own little fireplace and the staff were willing to do anything to make your stay a nice one. As you can see, the outside of the building was covered with ivy, and apparently, it too, changes color in the fall. Obsessed. I was obsessed with it. So.BEAUTIFUL! Here are just a couple of the many, many, pictures I took, solely of the ivy.

Obsessed I tell you. I loved staying at The Fairmont, not just for the ivy, or the service, but the atmosphere! Don't you always wonder what it would be like to live in a castle? Well, I do. And I figure this is about as close as I'll get. Though I don't know what I would do with alllllll of those rooms, while walking down the long, curvy hallways it was fun to think about. Until Andrew brought up The Shining and made me nervous to turn corners in fear that there would be two girls on tricycles at the end of the next corridor. Nice Andrew. Real nice.

Besides exploring the hotel, with it's own restaurants and shops inside the place, we mostly just walked around the town. The hotel was within walking distance of the ferry dock, and tons of shopping and great eating opportunities! We got takeout one night and sat in our room to watch American football, found a brewery (Sorry Canada, your beer sucks)....

Ate some salmon nachos, and waffles. Fancy waffles are quite popular there....

Found a Christmas store with an anal retentive owner who allowed no photos and minimal handling in his 6,000 square feet of PURE CHRISTMAS. (Yea I took one anyways HA!)

and finally, on our last day there, our favorite part of the trip, we had afternoon tea :)

We dressed up nicely, and had the opportunity to head to The Fairmont's very own, Tea Room. The tradition has been around for over a century and it was an amazing experience to be apart of. This link tells you a little more about the "quintessential Victorian experience," and what is involved in afternoon tea. Even though the tea was caffeinated, both Andrew and I found it to be super relaxing and felt like we could have sat there all day chatting and calling each other things like "dahling" and "my sweet." As a gift, we received some tea of our own, and I'll have to say, I look forward to drinking it again. Andrew now wants his own tea set.

Of course we, nay, one of us can never take a serious picture, so I had to opt for one on my own as we left town. Until next time Victoria!

Cheers,

KLM

P.S.