I'm back.

Consider this one single post as my way of saying....keep checking back. I think I'm going to start back into this blogging thing after almost a year hiatus. Wow. It's been quite a year.

Anguilla- Day One.

Really? April 21st? THAT'S the last time I posted? GAH!!!! All these responsibilities and THINGS to do are really sucking me into a black hole of.......................................................................

So rather than go into detail about all the stuff that is going on right now (ie. 39 days until zee weddin!!!!! ) I think I should finish the train of thought I started back in April and finish the Anguillan vacation talk.

So...where were we? Oh! Yes! The first whole day. So we arrived Wed. night, had that awesome dinner and woke up Thursday to find a gorgeous beach waiting for us. So we did a little of this:

......and it was nice.

We took a little stroll down the beach to Gwen's for some awesome BBQ and rum punches (except I had beer cuz of the stupid possibility of food coloring in the rum punch...stupid allergy....but the beer was still pretty good). There were lots of photos taken in front of what basically looked like the screen saver photos for a Mac.

after lunch we headed back to the hotel to get ready for what turned out to be quite the night of partying. just wait....it gets awesome.....

so.....we headed to the other side of the island to the Viceroy hotel to watch what was supposed to be an amazing sunset.....but the overcast night had another plan. Still, the hotel was AMAZING. The drinks at the bar fresh and delicious and the company fantastic.

and by company I mean...."hey! look at the crab!"

"I'm going to get a photo with the crab!!"

"Damn. Too close".

"Shoot! Stupid thumbs up is blocking the crab!!"

"Theeeeere we go!!!"

While at the Viceroy we made friends with our bartender/waiters and they kept asking "are you going to the Pumphouse?" (sidenote: i have no idea if that is one word or not).....apparently anyone who is anyone was going to the pumphouse. So.....naturally.....we headed to "The Pumphouse". Now.....the pumphouse, turns out, WAS the place to be for tourists and locals alike. A band played steel drum island versions of tunes like Taylor Swift's "You belong to me" and everyone was dancing up a storm. Including me.....with my new best friend....

Then there was the ill conceived round of Jager shots.....

Always seems like a GREAT idea at the time.....

Okay...I guess even at the time it seemed like a bad idea....

Needless to say the night went a little like this:

A local dog found it's way to the bar....he was clearly starving and all skin and bones....so we started feeding him pieces of pizza.....

He liked it.......A LOT......see?


And that pretty much puts a cap on the end of our first full day in Anguilla. Just wait for the next day in which everyone is hungover and goes on a BOAT! Hilarity ensues.....

Travel Day One- Tropical Island of Splendor.

Aaaaaaand we're back. (Ok. we've been back for a while, but life is crazy busy and you're just now getting an update. deal. mmkay? thnx.)

I feel even more exhausted now that we're back than I did before we left! Let's just say that Anguilla is a long way to go for three full days. I'm not complaining...it was absolutely worth it....but seriously....traveling to the Caribbean from the west coast is no easy feat. After a long day at work, we left the house Tuesday night at 8pm to make it to LAX for our 10:20pm red eye flight to Philly. After a 3.5 hour layover in Philly we boarded another four hour flight to St. Maarten where we went through customs and hopped on a ferry to Anguilla where we went through customs again. Then we hopped in a cab that took us across the island to our hotel....where we arrived at 3pm the next day. Aaaaand scene.

After arriving at our hotel with THIS VIEW:

(yes. i took that photo. from our balcony. it's not from the brochure or anything)

We showered and headed down to the bar for some drinks and mingling. Then on to an amazing gourmet dinner at Veya where I proceeded to stuff my face with the best johnny cakes and red snapper you've ever tasted...not to mention the vanilla duck that tasted like french toast. Seriously, like FRENCH. TOAST. in...a good way. I neglected to take any food porn photos so forgive me. you'll have to trust that it was awesome.

(at the rehearsal...we look a bit tired, no?)

And that...concludes our day of traveling.

Anguilla Bound

As the hours tick away til we're beach bound there's lots of little last minute things to get done...and one big one that I can check off the list. Invitations have been officially designed, ordered and deposit paid for. YIKES! We're getting maaaarrried.

I'm actually really happy with how they turned out and am excited to see it all put together....even so..these invitations have so far been the one wedding "chore" that has threatened to break my resolve to not get too stressed about wedding planning. I'll admit I'm a bit overwhelmed as we start to think about the details, but am excited that another BIG thing is checked off the list. Now I can enjoy four days of rum punch and sand in my hair.

Yes. Fantastic.

Things always get crazy right before vacation....

Oh man....I really can't wait until we're on a plane Anguilla bound. Last week was an exhausting and trying week at work and today has only proved to be worse on many levels. With a busy work day filled with stress and topped off with a healthy dose of trying to get our wedding invites finalized before we head off on vacation so they can be ready to send out when we get back, I am already wiped. Another hour left of work and then some working out and teaching pilates to do. Sigh. Here's hoping everything gets done on time.

On a positive note Indy is seeming better. He stopped limping right when we started him on the anti inflammatory but on Saturday he was hobbling a little bit (we think he may have over exerted himself) and then back to fine last night and this morning. Here's hoping he won't be needing x rays when we get back.

Indy and his fragile bones....

I had to take the mutt to the vet yesterday.... poor guy has been limping for a few days and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Turns out the vet thinks maybe he just strained his knee tendons and that some rest and doggy advil will help...fingers crossed. If it's not better in a week we take him in for some x rays.

BUT!

In less than a week we leave for Anguilla to attend a friend's wedding (cuz how can you pass up THAT invitation!) and if you may remember from our last trip out of the country Indy decided to up and get sick before that trip too! Luckily we've got Sam watching him again (thanks Sam!!) and that makes me feel all sorts of safe... but seriously, what is with this dog!? He better not try to pull any of this nonsense before our honeymoon!

In other dog news Indy weighed in at the vet at a whopping 107lbs!!! GOOD. GAWD!! The last visit there he was 96lbs and the vet agreed that he should lose about 10lbs to get back to that lean 96. When we adopted this beast we were told he would weigh 40-60lbs. I would say I want my money back...but I don't. Not even a little.

It's probably this kind of behavior that made him hurt his knee....but sometimes you just gotta get the crazies out.

Can we just do an evite?

After a mini meltdown last night over the fact that the woman who is "supposed" to be designing our invitations hasn't emailed me in three weeks (!!) and I have no idea if she is even doing our invitations despite repeated desperate emails:

chris: "If we have to fire a vendor, we'll fire a vendor"

me: *sniff*

chris: "We'll hire a vendor just to fire them in front of the other vendors....We'll gather them all in one place and make an example of out em."

It's funny how the one wedding "detail" that was never even really a huge priority to me (invitations) has turned into the biggest hassle.

On the bright side we are going cake tasting tomorrow...so that's fun.

UPDATE: She emailed me today...saying that she would send a proof tonight....I'm not holding my breath.