First Visitor!!!

YAY! Chris Hutcherson made is way down to Miami on June 20th and is staying the week with us! We have had SO much fun so far! We showed him one of the many beaches here, made some yummy dinners, played some fun games, gone shopping, and toured the University of Miami. We have showed him around a lot Miami and Coral Gables. We also tried some Cuban food! YUMMMMY! my goal is to learn how to cook it! We also got sushi- I miss the place back at home we always went to (Sushi Thai) because it was delicious and cheap- here the sushi is delicious, but not as cheap. Unfortunately, I've had to work a lot this week so John and Chris have been hanging out a lot. But that's alright, I'm glad John has someone here and doesnt have to be alone all day while I'm working! Tomorrow I dont have to work a lot so we are going to take Chris to South Beach, spend some time on the beach and then check out the strip :) and Saturday we are planning on going to Key West! SOOO excited! I'll update after that trip for sure! Anyway, I am glad that Chris came because it's been a blast so far!

2 years already!?

June 21st was our 2 year anniversary! I just cant believe we have already been married that long! Where has all the time gone! I must say though that it has been the best 2 years of my life and I have an amazing husband and best friend :) this amazing man of mine took me to Key Largo for our anniversary :) We went on Saturday because we had a friend coming to visit on Sunday for the week and I thought I may have to work. SO- we got up early and drove down to Key Largo, our plan was to go snorkeling and spend the day on the beaches down there. When we went to pay for our snorkeling trip, the lady there ended up telling us about this 5:30 snorkeling tour (on the way back the sun would be setting and the colors would be reflecting off the water) so we decided that sounded amazing and signed up for it instead. She then told about the area and gave us some ideas of what we could do. We decided to go sea kayaking! It was SO much fun! I had never been before and it was just great. We kayaked through mangroves, which are really pretty trees that dont grow very tall- look them up they are quite fascinating to learn about. After kayaking we decided to hang out on the beach for a few hours and then went and got on our boat that was going to take us to the reef. The boat ride was great and the snorkeling was even better! We saw TONS of fish (a barracuda included!) and a huge turtle! When we got back from snorkeling we cleaned up and changed and then went to dinner at this really nice seafood restaurant on the water. The food was AMAZING and delicious! (we split a meal because it was so expensive, but it was plenty for us :D) Then we headed home and watched more Trueblood! it was a more than perfect anniversary:) I have the best hubby in the world ;)

Here are some pics- enjoy!

Kayaking- you can see the mangroves! they were so pretty

Beach


Snorkeling- we look silly:)

Very colorful fish!
Crush!

Sunset

Dinner!
The love of my life ;)

First week in Miami!

So I am going to do my best at blogging and keeping things up to date- i figured this way, I have a log of all our adventures and everyone at home can see what we have been up to! I am trying to catch up now from the first week in Miami- it's just been so busy, but I want to catch up! So here is what we did the first week! :)

On Sunday (our first full day here) we decided to check out South Beach! It was a lot of fun, but very expensive to park! You have to pay to park EVERYWHERE down here! it's really quite ridiculous, but whatever. So we hung out on the beach for a few hours and people-watched- it wasnt really what we expected, but it was still very interesting and fun! (and crowded!, but I'm guessing that's just because it's such a hot spot). Here are some pics:

"water so clear you can see to the bottom"- ALL the beaches water has been SO clear!

Lots of people! ps: it was a sunday at like 6pm:


Chillin' on the beach :)

A REAL coconut tree! I was SUPER excited :)
Monday I had to work! Well had to fill out paperwork really....it only took like half the day and then we tried out beach #2! I cant find the pic for this one, but when I do i'll post it! The water was soooo clear and the sand was amazing. It was a lot of fun and less expensive to park here!

Tuesday I had some meetings and then we went to visit Aunt Vicky! It was very neat driving to Homestead because my mother grew up there. It's really nice. Aunt Vicky's place was really nice too and so was our trip, we chatted and got dinner and she told us about the Miami area. She also then introduced me and John to Trueblood! Guess what we did for the next few days! ADDICTED! We have now officially caught up! It is SO good! Thanks Aunt Vicky! :)

The rest of the week I had to work on and off, we checked out the area some and watched a lot of Trueblood- oh and of course unpacked a lot when our stuff got here. We also tried beach 3 on Friday- it was alright. It was more of a place to take kids:
It was really pretty but just a bunch of kids there- so I doubt we'll go back often. It also wasnt really beachy- it was more of a pool of water from the ocean that is enclosed. It's very calm.

It was a great first week to say the least! I cant believe we actually live here! It's crazy thinking we can go to the beach any day we want. It's also hard to believe that it's warm here year round. CRAZY!

¡Bienvenido a miami! and the journey begins...

And we are off! Leaving Raleigh VERY early in the AM on June 12th after a great breakfast with the in-laws! I never realized how hard it would be to say goodbye to everything. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much or been so emotional in my life. I guess once you have lived somewhere for most of your life it’s really hard to say bye. I believe it was even harder because I pushed it out of mind for so long that I didn’t really prepare myself for leaving everyone. BUT it is all okay because it’s not a goodbye- it’s a see you later!

John saying “See ya later!” and of course he loves his Wolfpack! ☺


This is where we stopped for lunch on the way down. We saw a billboard for it on I95 and decided we would stop because we were starving! When we pulled up it looked a little sketchy, but turned out to be a really nice “mom and pop” shop with AMAZING food! Seriously! When we drive back home we have already decided we would stop there again.


FLORIDA! Home sweet home! Now that we are at the top- we still have the whole length to go. Lol However, we stopped at my mawmaw’s and papa’s in Greenville, Fl. We wanted to visit them and figured we would break up the drive. 9 hours of driving was good enough for one day! We made really good timing though and had a really fun time ☺ I love road trips- especially with my crazy hubby. ☺

When we got to my mawmaw’s she had a whole amazing meal cooked for us! It was delicious, home cooked, country food- nothing better than that! We had a great time with them chatting and hanging out- great end to the day!


The next morning we got back up earrrrrrly, ate an amazing breakfast my mawmaw made and then headed out. Just to show you how far we had to go- the green dot is where we were and the red is where we were headed!

This is John and mines excited faces for being headed on our way and almost to Miami!

We made amazing time and so we decided to stop and take our time eating lunch. We stopped in Port St. Lucie at this sports bar and had a delicious lunch ☺


¡Bienvenido a miami! WE MADE IT!!! - so excited ☺

And to top off our trip we ran into the real mascot on the way to our apartment! It’s an ibis!


Home sweet home ☺