Ode to Catherine

So today was my friend Catherine's last day at Southwest Airlines. She took an early buy-out package that our Company offered that was just perfect for her and her family. I am so blessed to have worked with her for as long as I did. Even though over 30,000 people work for SWA, I know it's going to be lonely, lonely, lonely without her in this building!

Anyway, Catherine, here are just a few reasons why you are such an amazing person and we will always be friends...

You always keep me straight when I'm out of line.


You help me catch muffin theives! (Although I think you and I both know who did this all along!)


You help me turn my boss' office into a gym whenever I ask, thus completing the most epic office prank of the entire century.


You're always concerned about my floatation.


You're always up for an adventure.


You make a phenomenal back-up dancer.


You aren't afraid to climb into the wheel well of a 737 for sake of a good picture!


You know how to hug without hurting a sunburn.


You appreciate a nice hotel bathroom.


You love chocolate as much as I do!


You and Gwen introduced me to a certain husband of mine.


You were an amazing bridesmaid, and I was so blessed to share my special day with you!


You are a fabulous mommy. Really, one of the best, and you are always looking out for what's right for your family.


And I can think of no better reason to leave Southwest than this little guy!


Congratulations on your "retirement." All of your SWA friends miss you dearly, but we'll have our monthly lunch dates for sure. I love you, Cat!

East Coast/West Coast

So... I think I get the most inconsistent blogger award for the past few weeks. I apologize! Matt and I have been busy little bees with our crazy work schedules. We did, however, have time to take two amazing trips.

We went to Philly to visit friends and help put on the 4th of July parade. And then a few weeks later we got the opportunity to attend the wedding of my dear friends, Jon and Libby. It reminded us so much of our special day -- it was absolutely magical!

Our Philadelphia Photos

Our Los Angeles Photos

Enjoy!

Wedded Wisdom: Cornbread

Here's the first installment of what I'm sure will become a somewhat regular article on our blog: Things we've learned since we got married. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to add some of your wisdom as well...

If you think cornbread is good for more than one week, you're wrong.

If you think you have a strong enough stomach to handle cleaning out a pan of old cornbread, you're wrong.

If your husband thinks, once you are forced into the restroom gagging, that he has a strong enough stomach to handle the cornbread that you left in the pan, your husband is also wrong.

The moral of the story is: Even if your cornbread looks awesome before you leave for a weekend, just go ahead and throw it out. Happy Wednesday!

Grand Turk: Our Final Port of Call

The very last stop on our incredible honeymoon cruise was the tiny island of Grand Turk. After our amazing expeditions on St. Maartin and St. Thomas, we opted just to veg on the beach and take in the wonderful sunshine. We grabbed a bite to eat at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville where we could look out over the beach.





After walking around the cruise complex a bit and learning a lot about island culture (for example: the store Rasta Pasta does NOT sell Italian food), we went to the beach and just lounged until it was time to sail away. Soooo nice!











It was a wonderful ending to an unforgettable trip. Matt and I are so lucky to have had the opportunity to go on a cruise like this, and I know we'll treasure these memories for years and years to come. Thanks for letting me share!

St. Thomas & The Walking Tour

We thought after the amazing day we had in St. Maarten, nothing on our cruise could possibly top it. But we were pleasantly surprised at how wonderful St. Thomas was!



We took a walking tour from Blackbeard's Castle (which, by the way, is not a castle nor did Blackbeard ever visit). We posed with some awesome pirate statues, and then headed down the windy, steep road to see the rest of the island.







We went into three different historic homes, where we met some great people that we befriended. The great thing was that everybody on the island knew everyone else, so they just kept directing us down the road to see their friends, who were equally awesome. We went to a rum distillery, lots of shops, an amber museum, and ended up on a really fun boardwalk next to the water, all off of the famous 99 Dutch Steps.

St. Maarten

Matt and I were so impressed with our second port of call, St. Maarten, that now we want to go as often as possible. When we arrived to the island, we automatically headed down to Sunset Beach -- one of the most famous little strips of land in the aviation world. We had a spectacular time watching the planes land at Princess Juliana airport, which was so close you... well, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.







We found a neat little restaurant right next to the beach where we ate french fries and watched all of the planes. They had a chalkboard surfboard (pictured below) that told you the flight times of all of the incoming aircraft.









We couldn't ask for a more perfect place to spend the day!!!





And to top it all off, an amazing sunset from our ship's balcony.

Cruisin'... Around the Boat

Aside from all of the beautiful and lounging-packed destinations, our ship had some pretty fun stuff. You learned all about our fondness for the pizza bar in my last post, but we had a great time exploring and partaking in the awesome activities they have to offer.

Each night, there was a neat show. We only made it to one of them, sadly, because we had the late seating at dinner. Here we are at the magic show. I think it was good—at least from what I remember. That evening I was suffering from some major sinus congestion. My sweet husband bought some Sudafed for me at the ship store, and I took it in between dinner and the show. Needless to say, about 20 minutes into the performance I was sacked out. You can’t really tell from the photo, but we sat really close, right in the middle. I’m sure the magician must have seen me: head back, mouth open. I woke up when he was doing some crazy trick in the middle of the audience, about 15 feet away.

Our awesome porter (whose name I unfortunately could not pronounce) decorated our stateroom for us. We had a fun little mail box outside our room, and each night we would get the next day’s itinerary. We had so much fun going through all of the neat little activities and picking out what to do.

One morning we got up super early and caught an awesome round of bingo. We were the youngest people there by at least 30 years, and we had a blast learning all of the bingo lingo. For example, did you know that when they draw the number 25, you yell “A duck and a snake! A quack and a hiss.” I’ll spare you the details of the hand signals that goes with it!

After about a day of looking for the way to get to the bow of the boat, we finally found it. (If you’re ever on a Princess cruise, by the way, check deck 15 – it looks like it doesn’t go all of the way to the front, but it does!) It was incredibly, insanely windy when we stepped out of the door. At our wedding, Catherine’s dad gave us a lucky dollar to play in the casino on the ship. Matt put it in his pocket that very morning, but when we walked outside that poor dollar didn’t have a prayer. If you find our lucky dollar floating anywhere in the Caribbean, we would really appreciate it if you would return it. I mean, don’t you think it might be bad luck when your lucky dollar blows away?

And it wouldn’t be a proper cruise without a formal night picture. Please note, I was wearing a strapless dress in the photo, but that’s not exactly apparent. So much fun!