Christmas 2010

Sayre and I just got back from our awesome Christmas vacation during which we got to spend lots of quality time with our entire Alaskan family :) Yep, that's right, everyone was in town to celebrate! What a rare and fantastic treat!

We jam-packed the week with family, friends, and adventures. When we arrived in town Saturday morning we hit the ground running - fortunately we managed to get a fair amount of sleep during our evening flights so we were ready to play as soon as we landed in Fairbanks. The temperatures never really seemed too bad to me... I suppose my fingers and toes felt frozen at one point or another ;) but I think I was a little more prepared this time for the frigid air. (Plus, my wonderful in-laws always find new ways to bundle me up) Anyway, our adventures ranged from taking over coffee shops with family & friends, chasing away a pesky moose who was trying to steal hay, snowmachinging, sledding, and hanging out in hot springs just to name a few.

I think my favorite day, for more reasons than just the obvious, was Christmas day. Even though it was our last day to spend in Alaska, we managed to stretch it out and enjoy every little last bit of holiday cheer that we could. We lounged around in our pjs for awhile, had breakfast, opened presents, had loads of fun outside (it even warmed up to 0!!), and had a delicious Christmas dinner. We spent the evening getting in as much time with family as we could and then ultimately had to say our goodbyes - Sayre had to report back to the ship Monday morning so to make it back in time we had to leave Alaska at 1:30am Sunday morning. Although it's hard to believe Christmas is already over, we really enjoyed our time up there. It was so hard to leave, but we were so happy knowing we had taken advantage of each day.

As 2011 draws near with each passing day, Sayre and I continue to appreciate the moments we have together. The new year is sure to bring about many new adventures for us... we're just looking forward to all of the new experiences and lessons we will learn. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, & God Bless!

Disney & Diving

Last weekend we finally took advantage of the Disney World passes that were so generously given to me at work a few months back. We purposefully waited for the weather around here to cool down to use them, and we couldn't have picked a more perfect weekend - the weather was soooo nice! After Sayre's Warfare pinning, we went and ran some errands (mostly to stock up on uniform items for him) and then drove on down to Orlando and arrived just in time to spend the evening in Epcot to enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights.

Before setting out on our Disney adventure, we new it was going to be epic :) We planned to squeeze in all 4 of the Disney parks in just one weekend! Anyway, on Saturday we woke up early to get to the Animal Kingdom before it opened to be sure we were able to ride our favorite ride, the Expedition Everest, and we were so glad we did because we got to ride it 3 times :) We hung around there all morning, left the park to grab lunch, & then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Magic Kingdom. It was soooo much more crowded there than we anticipated, but we still had a lot of fun and actually got to see them filming some concerts for the Disney Christmas Day parade, so that was pretty neat. On Sunday we spent the morning at MGM (or Hollywood Studios as it's known now - although I'll probably always call it MGM) riding our favorite rides there, taking pictures with characters, and eating some yummy treats.

We left MGM around lunch time and headed out to our last adventure for the weekend: Indoor Skydiving! Yep... that's right! It was sort of a spur-of-the-moment decision, but we're so glad we did it! We had an absolute blast and would highly recommend it to anyone :) It's like skydiving without any of the real risks - you're just basically in a giant wind tunnel floating around. Overall, it was a fantastic & very memorable weekend and a great way to begin the holiday celebrations!

Warfare Pinning

This past Friday Sayre received his Naval Warfare pin which is a pretty big milestone in his Naval career. Fortunately I had the opportunity to go out to his ship for the ceremony and actually pin him. It was a really special moment for both of us. I'm such a proud wife :)

Plaaaaaaay tiiiiiiiiiime!

Following Thanksgiving week, I went on a very quick business trip with some co-workers to one of our manufacturers. It was so awesome to be able to see the manufacturing process take place - especially getting to watch the rotationally molded plastics machines work their magic! I may be a huge dork, but learning about how things are made truly fascinates me :) And I can't even begin to describe how cool it was for me to be able to see all of the components in-person... I'm so used to just seeing these things in AutoCAD on my computer screen that sometimes it's easy to forget that my drawings & renderings do eventually turn into real playgrounds.

Thanksgiving

This year, since we weren't able to go visit my family for Thanksgiving, my parents drove over to visit us instead. It was so nice having them here with us for a week. We really do enjoy having visitors come & stay with us :) It gives us an excuse to make the apartment look all nice & pretty & it's always fun coming up with new things to cook and desserts to bake.

Unfortunately Sayre was on duty on Thanksgiving day, so we had our nice big turkey dinner on Friday instead. On Thursday, since Sayre had to be there anyway, I took my parents on base so that he could give them a tour of the ship. The ship is always seemingly impressive to outsiders, but trust me, I don't think anyone that's had to stay on that thing for more than a day finds it to be like a floating mansion by any means haha.

On Friday we drove around a bit - I tried to give my parents a tour of my office but failed to obtain a working key to the exterior door.. oops! Eventually we ended up back home and enjoyed our delicious Thanksgiving dinner :) thanks to mom & dad who brought pretty much everything... I only made pumpkin pie & sweet potato casserole - they brought everything else. Oh & since we won't be heading to Louisiana for Christmas this year, we also managed to squeeze in a little Christmas celebration as well and swapped presents. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable, but much-too-short visit.

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Sayre and I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to participate in "Trunk-or-Treat" at church like we did last year because he was in Rhode Island for SWO school up until the night of the event. I did, however, still have a lot of fun this year :) I managed to get some of my fellow co-workers to dress up for the occasion with me, which of course made the Friday before Halloween that much more entertaining - especially since I, of course, took the opportunity to continue the friendly feud of LSU vs Florida. I dressed up as "Tiger Bait" and wore a Florida tshirt that I tore on the back to look like a tiger paw had gotten to it & iron on the words "Tiger Bait" to the back. It took a little while for my co-workers to get it (I guess it makes more sense to LSU fans who yell "Tiger Bait" at the opposing teams). I was still proud of myself though ;) Overall, it was a really fun day in the office. When Sayre got home later, we had fun carving our little pumpkin and then I roasted up the seeds :) mmmm yummy! I love fall!

An Emotional Return

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of experiencing the homecoming of the USS Taylor. My friend's husband and another friend's fiancée were aboard the frigate for a 6 month deployment and returned home on October 23rd. I tagged along with the girls to photograph the incredibly emotional and heartwarming day.

It's really hard to put into words the range of emotions I felt that day. At times, I felt almost as nervous as the girls did because I began to realize the enormity of the day and I could only just begin to imagine what it must feel like to be reunited with your loved one after they have been serving our country overseas. All too often we take these things for granted - heck, even despite being a Navy wife myself, the fact that every single day people are separated from the ones they love who are defending our country isn't always in the forefront of my mind, but experiencing this homecoming helped me to gain a much better appreciation for the sacrifices that these men, women, & their families make for our freedom. No matter who is in office at any given time and no matter what state of affairs our country may be in, the fact of the matter still remains - these men and women put themselves at risk every single day for the truths & principals upon which our forefathers founded this great nation.

I just beamed with pride as tears welled up in my eyes watching these sweet amazing girls that I have gotten the privilege of getting to know be reunited with their men. I am honored that they let me be a part of that amazing day. Honestly, it was such a privilege for me just to be able to experience something like that too so that I will know what to expect someday after Sayre returns from a deployment.

GEAUX TIGERS

As most people know, ever since I began working here in sunny Florida, I've had an on-going rivalry with my co-workers who are avid Florida Gator fans. A few weeks ago, LSU played and successfully defeated them in a notorious nail-biter game. It was glorious :) All week leading up to the game I proudly displayed my abundance of LSU gear around the office and wound up making a bet with the VP of our company (which he obviously lost) leading to an amazing day the following week during which he had to wear an LSU shirt of my choosing :) Anyway, Sayre and I actually got to go down to Gainesville for the game, and I'm sooooo glad that we did! Aside from experiencing the thrill of the game, we also got to reunite with one of our fellow NYLFers, Erik, that we met all those years ago in San Jose as well has his fiance. They were great hosts and we had such a great time tailgating with them! 

The following weekend (last weekend, actually) I flew over to Baton Rouge for a whirlwind trip to visit with family and friends since we won't get a chance to go there for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year. Time flew by waaaaay too quickly, but it's always a treat to go home. I hadn't been to an LSU game in Tiger Stadium in 2 years, so I was so glad to have an opportunity to be there. I know it's hard for people that didn't grow up around the SEC to understand why everyone is sooooo football crazy in the south ;) but I guess for us, it's more than just a game - it's a community experience & an all-day event. Even if the game doesn't start until 7pm, everyone goes out to campus that morning to tailgate & catch up with old friends. It doesn't matter who you are - if you walk around campus for just a little while on game day you're bound to run into people that you know. It was just so much fun tailgating with Stacie & her friends & seeing old familiar faces. It brought back such great memories from my precious days at LSU.  :) Anyway, as game time approached, I met up with my mom and off into the stadium we went. That was the first LSU game she had been to since before I was born! We had great seats (thank yooooou once again stubhub.com) & a great time. We got home a little late since it tends to take awhile to move around the city once the game is over and 92,000+ fans are trying to leave, but when we got home dad was still awake so the three of us spent some quality time chatting about the game and looking at pictures before heading off to bed. Sunday came & went with a little more time spent visiting with family & then I was right back on the plane headed back to Jacksonville. Like I said before - it was truly a whirlwind trip, but I'm so glad I got the chance to go! 

So, what's next for us? Well, Sayre's wrapping up SWO school next week, we're going to try to use our passes to Disney World sometime in November, Thanksgiving & Christmas will be here before we know it, and then a new year will be upon us bringing about all sorts of new adventures! It's crazy... I know I say it all the time, but I just don't know where the time goes. 

Alaska & Sea World Adventures

Where, oh where, has the time gone? Tomorrow is October 1st! Oh my gosh, this year has flown by! Well, once again I've been a blogging slacker, but this past month was a rather busy one to say the least. I don't even quite know where to begin...

Well, let's see... at the very end of August I went down to Orlando with two other coworkers to take a class on Playground Safety for my job. On the third day, I took an exam to become a CPSI (Certified Playground Safety Inspector) and just last week I found out that I passed - yay!! Basically having that certification will just verify to our customers and installers that yes, I do know what I'm doing when I design these playgrounds and no, kids will not be in danger when they play on them :) The test was actually rather intense, believe-it-or-not, but I'm thankful that it's over and that I passed.

During Labor Day week we finally got to take our Alaskan summer vacation that had been postponed. Although it rained a bit while we were up there, we still had a blast! We spent our time segwaying, hiking, eating salmon, celebrating Kennan's birthday zebra-style, and enjoying some quality time up there :) It was wonderful! Annnnd we even had the opportunity to go down to Yakima, Washington at the end of our trip to visit Aly & Pat, see their new home, and celebrate Aly's white coat ceremony. Even though our trip occurred later than we had originally planned, it all worked out rather nicely.

To wrap things up in September, we decided to go on a spontaneous trip down to Sea World last Saturday. Neither one of us had been there before and we had a great time! The roller coasters were probably the highlight of the trip for us ;) but the shows there are really neat as well. We lucked out with some great weather despite the threat of rain and the temperature even seemed to drop a bit... hooray for the onset of fall! Now we just need to plan our Disney trip before the holiday season rolls around and the crowds get crazy ;)

As for the month ahead, we find ourselves once again with a busy schedule. Personally, I'm just looking forward to proudly and obnoxiously support my Tigers in the office next week because the LSU vs. Florida game will finally be upon us. They've been giving me a hard time about having graduated from LSU ever since I even interviewed there (that's to be expected though, I mean I am living in stinky old "Gator Country" now). During my first week I brought in my LSU flag and a few LSU accessories... but next week... it's ON! :)

To Infinity, And Beyond

Once again, it's hard to believe that so much time has passed since I've last updated. It seems like summer has slipped through our fingers so quickly... although, we're still definitely feeling the Florida heat! Anyway, August brought us a few more adventures including a weekend getaway to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center. We figured as long as we're living down here in Jacksonville we better take advantage of all of the fun activities around us! Anyway, above are some pictures from that adventure. We had both been their previously when we were younger but neither one of us remembered just how much there was to see there! I think they've added a few buildings & exhibits in the past few years. We spent the whole day taking it all in and we even got to see the last piece of the space shuttle that they're getting ready to bring up there. Pretty cool stuff. Also, below are some pictures from when we visited one of the very first little playgrounds that I designed when I first started working :) I happened to notice that it was built one day when I was driving home, so Sayre and I decided to go get a closer look.

Inspections, and Disney, and Planning... oh my!

It's hard to believe that July is almost over. I find myself, once again, wondering where in the world the time has gone! Sayre's been very busy lately with life on the ship... long hours and weekend workdays have kept him going non-stop, but he's been a really good sport about it. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that once they pass this beast-of-an-inspection that they have coming up, things will start to calm down a bit.

My job has kept my very occupied lately as well, but I find myself loving it more and more every day (which, for me, is hard to believe). Just this past week I was surprised and very touched to be given the first "Beyond Your Ordinary Employee" award from my bosses. Honestly, when they began saying very sweet things about the recipient of the award I never imagined they were talking about me, but then they passed the certificate my way and handed an accompanying pair of tickets to Disney World to me :) They sure do know the way to my heart! I'm so blessed to have found such an inspiring, fun, and unique place to work with such fun-loving & incredible people. Now the pressure's on to keep cranking out some fun playground designs and begin preparing for my CPSI exam at the end of August (Certification for Playground Safety Inspectors).

For now, our main focus is just making it through Sayre's ship's inspection. Unfortunately that seems to be the one thing that has been dictating our lives lately, but that's just the "Navy way." It'll all be over soon, thankfully :) and then maybe, at last, we'll be able to make our trip up to Alaska... I'm not getting my hopes up anytime soon though. If there's one thing I've learned in the past year as a military wife, it's that nothing is ever certain and flexibility is key to maintaining your sanity :) Keep your expectations low, rejoice when things work out the way you hoped, and just let it go & move on when things fall through.

The Fourth Times Two

Sunday night we celebrated the Fourth of July all over again... this time with Sayre! He's been working very long hours lately, but I guess since it was Independence Day his captain decided to have mercy on them all and gave them the day off. When he came home verrrrrry early Sunday morning after standing watch I was still half asleep as I asked him if he had gotten the day off and then subsequently told him something along the lines of, "Oh. Good. Well, Katharine & I are going to see some more fireworks tonight so you can come, but only if you want to." Hehe I'm not sure if he appreciated that at the time or not, but at least I invited him, right? Anyway, the three of us ended up having an all-American celebration complete with bar-b-qued hamburgers and some delicious lemon squares that Katharine made & a little patriotic dessert that I made as well.

After eating, we headed out to the beach to watch some fireworks. The beach was pretty packed and to our surprise (and slight horror) we found that they actually let you shoot your own fireworks right there on the beach despite the fact that it was packed with people as you wait for the real fireworks show to begin. There's no way that this is even a remotely good idea but we just made sure to duck when they were getting to close for comfort. Danger aside, we had a good time and the fireworks were, once again, a beautiful sight to see on such a wonderful holiday.

Continuing the Celebration

Ok, so maybe not everything went according to plan for my 4th of July holiday, but I'm making the most of the situation and celebrating in true patriotic-style :) Who knows... more fireworks may be in my future for the weekend too. After all, it's still only Saturday!

Happy Independence Day!

So, technically it's only July 1st, but for some reason this year (despite obvious downsides - see post below) I'm really excited about July 4th coming up! So much so, in fact, that I made these little cupcakes and brought them to work today in anticipation of Sunday and to celebrate my co-worker's birthday :) Tomorrow night = fireworks show with my neighbor!

The Ebb & Flow of Military Life

Flexibility has become one of life's greatest virtues in the past year. Great excitement and great disappointment are just a part of every day life whether you are in the military or not. Even when you think you've crossed all your t's and dotted all your i's, things don't always go according to plan. Sadly, we're having to post-pone our much anticipated trip to visit family in Alaska because of reasons we cannot control. It's utterly heartbreaking when you've done everything right to make such a trip occur, only to get it taken away from you at the drop of a hat... but, duty calls. I just pray that we can reschedule it for sometime in the near future. So goes the ebb & flow of military life.

1 Year Down... Many More to Come!

Sayre and I just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on Sunday. On one hand, it's so hard to believe that an entire year has already passed since we exchanged vows, but on the other hand it feels like we've been together for a lifetime. The transition into married life, for us, just seemed so natural. At the risk of sounding cheesy or cliche, marriage has solidified the fact that we really and truly were made for each other. It's been so interesting to see just how alike we are in so many ways. I guess that's part of what has made things seem like a breeze for us.

When Sayre first moved in with me after we returned from our honeymoon, I have to admit I was a little nervous about living with him. Sure, we loved each other and got along perfectly, but you always hear stories about new couples learning about each others little quirks and I just wasn't quite sure how things would be for us. Fortunately, we seem to have all the same quirks ;) such as the way we hang the toilet paper roll, preferring a tidy house, the way we put away dishes, etc. The only main thing we differed in was placement of dishes in the dishwasher, but Sayre has since reformed to my ways ;)

Overall, I think it's safe to say that married life suits us well. We've experienced so many things together in the past year like our first Navy move, trips to Disney World, Aly & Pat's wedding (it's still hard to believe there were 2 Jeannet weddings in one year... wow!), and so many other fun adventures. On Sunday evening we went to the Melting Pot for our little anniversary dinner. It was delicious and, just like always (because we're both photo nerds), there are some pictures below :) So here's to many more years of laughter, joy, love, and photography!

Oh, I forgot to mention, as tradition goes we removed our wedding cake top from the freezer to eat it as a part of our anniversary celebration. It turns out that 1 year old wedding cake that's been sitting in the freezer wrapped in saran wrap really isn't all that great... it wasn't that bad, but it just wasn't good either. Oh well... at least we can say we tried it (albeit a very tiny bite) and then promptly threw the rest away.

May, where did you go?

Is it really June already? How in the world did that happen? Time is just zooooooming on by! Last weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) we had the pleasure of visiting Pensacola, where a bunch of the good old USNA gang is currently living. It was great to see everyone, catch up a bit, and tour around everyone's new places. Unfortunately it rained the whole time we were there, and we only stayed through Sunday, but it was still a good trip overall. I think it was especially great for Sayre since he missed seeing everyone at Brandon & Ginny's wedding. Pensacola is only about 5 hours away from us, so I'm sure we'll make our way over there to see everyone again sometime in the future.

Say Cheese!

For his birthday this year, I asked Sayre what kind of cake he would like for me to make for him. When he happily replied, "CHEEEEEESECAKE!!!" I cringed ever-so-slightly inside. You see, despite having received a spring-form pan over a year ago from Rachael at my Bridal Shower, I had still not made a cheesecake. Somehow I had convinced myself that eating cheesecake was far simpler and way more satisfying than attempting to bake a cheesecake. I just knew that when I pulled the thing out of the oven it would immediately laugh in my face and then collapse. I'm still not sure how I came to this conclusion, but I accepted it as truth and tucked the spring-form pan into my cabinets. I knew, however, that this was Sayre's one real birthday wish - to have a cheesecake all of his own - and I had to step up to the challenge!

The first hurdle I had to jump was finding a good recipe. I know that cheesecake is about as far from being healthy as you can get, but I was determined to find a "guilt-free" recipe. After some extensive research, I found one that used fat-free cream cheese and totaled in only 2 grams of fat and 44 calories per serving! Yesssss! Amazing, huh? Anyway, on the eve of the anniversary of Sayre's birth I set out on the daunting task. I pulled out the spring-form pan from its hiding spot, gave it a good pep-talk, and started mixing up my ingredients. About 45 minutes later, it was done... the timer on the stove was beeping... this was going to be the moment of truth. I carefully walked over to the kitchen, so as not to shake the ground beneath me resulting in cheesecake catastrophe, carefully removed it from the oven, and ever-so-gingerly placed it on the stove top to cool... then I warned Sayre that he better not go clomping near the thing for fear of his life! :) To my great surprise, the cheesecake survived, it was a tasty success, and Sayre was a very happy birthday boy the next day! I just wish I would have let go of my fears and given it a try a long time ago... I have a feeling that the formlery dreaded spring-form pan is about to get a lot of use!

Alligator Pie

To celebrate Sayre's birthday this weekend, we packed up the Escape and headed north about an hour and a half to Folkston, Georgia - home to a grand total of 3 stop lights, a train-watching platform, and an entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp! We went to a place called Okefenokee Adventures where we decided to rent a kayak for the morning. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! The weather was perfect, although we're glad that we got a very early morning start because by noon it was pretty hot and we were starving :) so we headed back in for a little lunch at the boat house there. While kayaking in the swamp through the little canals we saw soooo many pretty lily pads in full bloom complete with sunbathing gators - and lots of them! I was surprised at how they didn't seem to be bothered by us in the least bit... just as long as we didn't accidentally whack them with our paddles! It was such a neat experience to be so up close and personal with them. I'm just glad it wasn't dinner time!

After we were done kayaking for the day, we did a little more sight-seeing at the Okefenokee Adventures place and then went over to the bed & breakfast where we were staying to get checked in. A few hours of kayaking are a lot more tiring when you haven't done it in awhile ;) so we decided to take a nap before going back out to the swamp again for our sunset tour. Surprisingly, there were only two other people on that tour with us. I'm not sure why more people didn't sign up for it - it was fantastic! Our tour guide absolutely loves his job, which of course benefited us greatly because he was so knowledgeable about the land, and he ended up keeping us out there on the boat for a lot longer than what we expected. The sunset was just stunning and it was such a thrill to do some "gator shining" when the sun went down. Seeing those beady little red eyes lit up against the black of the night was kind of creepy, but really cool!

The next day we went up to Waycross, Georgia where there was another entrance to the swamp that Sayre & his family had actually visited during their travels many years ago. There they had many more exhibits and places to walk around. Of course, Sayre had to do some investigating to see if everything was just the same as he remembered ;) They even had a very zoo-like train that you could ride around their property to see little exhibits they had set up in a Disney-esque fashion. After wandering around there a bit, we left to head back to Jacksonville to relax for the rest of the afternoon before starting another week. I'm so glad we had the chance to go up there though. It's such a fun place and Sayre had a great time doing some adventurous activities for his birthday :)

You can see more pictures of our adventures here.

A Fun Visit

Last week, my parents came in town for a visit to keep me company while Sayre was away on the great blue sea. I was so glad they were able to come in for a few days! My only regret was not being able to take off some time from work to have more time to play with them. We did manage to fit in quite a few fun activities despite that though.

In the evenings, we tried to squeeze in a few things like a trip down to the beach to watch the sun set and walk along the fishing pier - which, by the way, I had never been on/knew about before! What a great new discovery! Sayre and I will surely have to go down there now that I have a new fishing pole too! We also hit up the Town Center one evening (a definite must for avid shoppers such as my mom ;)) and we spent some time just hanging out. It was so nice.

The other musts for the weekend while they were here included checking out St. Augustine to show them where I work and explore the city. While there we found another great fishing spot and beachy area that I had never seen before - once again, some great discoveries! Although I'm not necessarily looking forward to the hot weather to come this summer, I am looking forward to getting out and enjoying the plethora of beaches around us! Also, on Sunday, I took them on their very first Segway tour :) I'm pleased to announce that they did an excellent job on their first ride and had a great time! All-in-all, I had a wonderful visit with them and I am so thankful that they came! (And they replenished my supply of Louisiana goodies - crawfish (yep, that's right!), pepper jelly, red beans & rice (which, I can surprisingly still get here in Jax),  & some boudin sausage. Yum!

Savannah Sunrise

As I mentioned in the previous post, last weekend Sayre and I had a belated birthday celebration for me since he was out of town on the actual day. We headed north about 2 &1/2 hours to beautiful Savannah, Georgia where the flowers were in full bloom and the hints of summertime were abundant. It truly is such a beautiful city sprinkled with history and quaint parks all throughout. We had a great time exploring all of Savannah's little treasures!

Our adventures began on Saturday with a Paula Deen Trolley Tour! That's right... you heard me... a Paula Deen Trolley Tour. You see, this sweet southern gal has made quite a name for herself, but many years ago she had very humble beginnings in Savannah. In fact, that's where her restaurant called The Lady & Sons is located. Anyway, because Sayre is such a great sport (and a wonderful husband... I mean really... what normal guy would actually agree to take his wife on a Paula Deen Trolley Tour!? I am defintiely spoiled by him), we hopped on the trolley around 10am and rode all around Savannah hearing about its history as well as the life & times of good 'ole Paula. The tour wrapped up at her brother's restaurant called Uncle Bubba's Oyster House where we were able to sample some of his great food buffet style. It was wonderful! We were quite pleasantly full by the end of that adventure. In fact, someone even unintentionally took a little siesta on the ride back to the trolley station because he was rather comatose ;) Before returning to the trolley station, our tour guide held a drawing for a Paula Deen gift bag and yours truly won! I got a bag full of great little goodies including a signed recipe journal, a signed photo, and an awesome tote bag. Yay! Anyway, we spent the rest of the day just walking around the city on foot and popping in & out of the cute little shops along River Street. It was a  perfect spring day that left us full and satisfied!

On Sunday we woke up and headed back into town to resume our explorations. The main event for the day once again included a plate full of goodies, but this time it was at The Lady & Sons! Since we had ridden on the trolley tour, we were able to make reservations ahead of time. Thaaaaaank goodness for that! Honestly, that little perk alone made the tour worth it because at 9am there was already a line wrapped around the building just for people to put their names on the list for when the restaurant opened at 11! Craaaaziness! The food really is that good though. I can see why people would wait there for so long just to get a tiny morsel of Paula's famous fried chicken, pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, or creamy mashed potatoes to name a few. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.... MmmMmmm! Once again, after that experience, we were feeling just a weeee bit full ;) so we decided to head back to Jacksonville to catch up on life before Monday rolled back around. All-in-all, it was a perfect weekend and a wonderful birthday celebration. If anyone is anywhere near Savannah at any point in their travels, I highly recommend checking it out. You won't be disappointed!

Weddings and Birthdays and Crawfish, oh my!

Last week I went back to Louisiana for a few days for my birthday while Sayre was on yet another underway. I know, I know... it was terrible for me not to mention that I was going to be there before, but I was in town for such a short amount of time that I decided just to lay low and spend some time with my parents. I had actually planned this trip before I got my new job after hearing that Wicked was playing in New Orleans. I'm so glad they let me take a few days off since I had already gotten my airline tickets as well as tickets to see the play. It was such a whirlwind trip, but I managed to get my hands on some crawfish, a delicious cookie cake, and see the azaleas all over town in full-bloom all before heading back to Jacksonville and then up to Georgia for Brandon & Ginny's wedding!
(See more pictures I took in Louisiana here.)

Their wedding day could not have been more perfect - clear blue skies, a crisp breeze, and a lovely crowd of friends and family to celebrate the happy occasion. Sadly, because Sayre's ship schedule changed, he had to miss the wedding. He was so heartbroken and felt so bad because he had to also relinquish his duties as best man, but I was glad that I was still able to go to witness Brandon & Ginny exchanging their vows. Fortunately, Paul and Abby generously offered to give me a ride to the wedding so I got to spend some time catching up with those two as well as a bunch of other great guys and gals from Sayre's Naval Academy days. It was so nice to see everyone again, but the weekend just went by too quickly! I guess we'll just have to try to make a trip over to Pensacola sometime soon because it seems as though quite a few people have ended up down there.
(See more pictures I took at their wedding here.)

Sayre returned home on Monday, but we still haven't had a chance to celebrate my birthday together. We've got a few ideas for some fun adventures to remedy that this weekend though :) I'm looking forward to it!

Hippity Hoppity...

Can you believe that Easter is this weekend??? I sure can't! Where did the time go? This year is just flying by! Anyway, last weekend Sayre and I spent some time at the Big Bunny Party. It was a great event, similar to the Trunk-or-Treat party that we volunteered for during Halloween. We heard that about 4,000 people showed up! Out of those 4,000, I'm pretty sure I painted at least 3,000 faces ;) I was amaaaaaazed by how many people wanted their faces painted... oh my gosh! After it was over, I was exhausted, but I had a great time! Fortunately, Sayre walked around a bit with our camera and took some pictures of some of the other activities going on because I didn't get a chance to go and see anything else. They had a "Big Bunny" performance complete with an awesome balloon backdrop, tons of inflatable bounce houses, egg drops, egg hunts, etc. There are some more pictures in our picasa webalbum if you want to take a look.


Last weekend we also had an opportunity to see Memaw and Jack. Memaw is the sweet mother of Karine - Sayre's "sponsor mom" from the Naval Academy. It was so wonderful to catch up with them while they were in town visiting some family! We definitely need to make it back up to Annapolis sometime in the future to see everyone. We sure do miss our Naptown friends and family!

Well aside from "Big Bunnies," we've been keeping ourselves busy lately mostly with work. Sayre was gone for awhile with his ship. He's back for now, but he'll be off on some more adventures here and there soon. Now we're just looking forward to some new springtime adventures that the warmer weather coming our way will bring. Happy Easter everyone!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Sayre will be returning from his voyage on Saturday (yaaaaay!) only to leave again on Monday (boooo). While he's been gone, I've been so very thankful to have my new job to keep me busy... otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble I could have gotten myself into! I'd probably be buried up to my neck in completed crafts by now ;) Heck, even while working full time I've still managed to bake a bit more often than I usually do just to help the time pass by at night. Fortunately, rather than keeping the sweet confections for myself, I've shared them at work. Since tomorrow is St. Patrick's day, I made some chocolate cupcakes with green frosting tonight :) I have a sinking feeling that Sayre will be sad when he hears about all of this... poor thing... normally I try to put a limit on the number of sweets we have around the house (mostly because I will eat it all).

In addition to baking and working, I also kept myself busy this weekend playing around with some other lovely Navy wives whose husbands are also on Sayre's ship. On Saturday, I went to the Town Center here in Jacksonville with Jeanet and her sweet little baby girl Aliea. On Sunday, I met up with them again as well as another wife named Laura who has a precious 7 year old son. Y'all, he is seriously the sweetest and most well-mannered little boy I have ever met in my life! He's awesome! He would run to open the doors for us, was super-eager to push Aliea's stroller, and was so sweet & friendly. I told Laura she should write a book on parenting. Anyway, it was a great weekend. Hanging out with the girls certainly helped to pass the time. As sad as it sounds, by the end of the weekend, I was actually pretty tired. I guess I still need to get used to working full time again and having a social life.

Whistle While You Work

Since starting my new job, I feel like I've been neglecting the blogging world so much! Gone are the days when I used to sit around reading blogs all day, searching for new crafts and recipes to pass the time. Now, I find myself busily working away on playground designs and renderings as the day seemingly flies by! It's great! My co-workers are incredibly friendly, the office environment is fast-paced but laid back (yes, somehow, it's possible), and I love what I'm doing :)

The only thing I'm struggling with is adjusting to working hours again. For the 6 months it took me to find a job, I got used to being able to experiment with recipes, craft til my heart was content, and run around town completing various errands. It's not bad... I just got spoiled, that's all ;) Thankfully, though, getting up and heading off to work is actually a joy for me, and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Oh, and I suppose the only other drawback is that I work with a bunch of Gator fans... but, don't worry... I'm slowly integrating LSU into my workspace... and I'm very anxiously awaiting football season in the fall!

It's too quiet around here now...

Yesterday afternoon I said my farewells to Sayre's mom & dad. They had been here visiting us for a little over a week and we had such a wonderful time with them! Although I started work on their first day here, I was fortunate enough to be able to just work for half-days while they were here so that I could play with them in the afternoon :) It was perfect! I think it's safe to say, that the unanimous vote for the favorite activity of the week was our Segway tour on the beach. If you know Sayre and I fairly well, then you know how much we love technology and the joys we get from playing around with techie geek toys. We were just so happy that they enjoyed riding on the Segways as much as we did!

When they left, Sayre also took off for just a few days on his ship for some training exercises (I think... I'm never entirely certain of just exactly what they do on that ship). Things around here are just too quiet now! Who wants to visit us next? :)

Being able to spend some time with our families as they have come to visit us these past few weeks has reminded me of how truly blessed we are to have such amazing people in our lives. We are constantly surrounded by the love and support they all share with us, whether they are near or far away. Looking back on the past few years, I'm still baffled by how God brought us together, but there's no question that He did. We're just so lucky that He equipped us with such wonderful families that continue to love us and support us as we continue on this new journey of marriage.

Cookie Monster

 There seems to be an epidimic going on in my apartment. Cookies are disappearing left and right! It's a tragedy, I tell you!! But, fear not... I think I may have just gotten to the root of the problem. You see, there's someone else lurking around here. Someone who has an affinity for all things sweet. Someone who claims that I no longer bake things just for him now that we're married like I once did when we were dating. The married life can be so rough on a guy sometimes. ;)

The Gauthier Girls

This past week Sayre and I had the pleasure of hosting my mom, Aunt Debra, & Aunt Gayle here in Jacksonville. They decided to swing on over here and visit for a few days while I still had some time to play before starting my job next week :) We had a blast!

I tried to show them the sights and sounds of Jax that we've discovered so far like the Town Center, Jax Beach, the Mayport Naval Base, Talbot Island, and St. Augustine. It was so nice to just have them here to spend some time with all of them. Probably one of the best new discoveries that we made while they were here was a huge outlet mall near my new job! Oooh it's glorious :) They have so many shops and so many great prices... just the right combination for us girls. We had a great time shopping and seeing the sights. Unfortunately, Sayre had to work and didn't get to spend as much time playing around town with us as he would have liked, but in the evenings we all enjoyed dinner together and spent some time just visitng in the living room. I'm so glad they had a chance to come here before my new job starts! They left this morning, so now I'm getting some domestic-y things done before Sayre's parents come to visit us for a week starting Wednesday :)

LOSSSSSST

Just over a year ago, when Sayre and I were visiting Alaska for Christmas in 2008, we were introduced to the world of LOST. In case you've been living under a rock for the past 6 years, it's a widely popular television show about a bunch of people that crashed onto an island... but, really, it's sooooo much more than that. Anyway, during our 2 week visit that Christmas, we watched almost the entire first season. After that, we were hooked and officially became "LOSTies" allowing the show to consume us as we proceeded to watch seasons 1 through 5 within a year in order to prepare ourselves for the final 6th season, which just so happened to begin last night! To celebrate such an exciting occaison, I cooked up a delicious recipe for Cajun Pasta that I found on The Pioneer Woman's website. She made hers with chicken, but I made mine with ground beef instead. Sayre and I both loved this recipe! I also made some little cupcakes for dessert :) I was planning on something much more elaborate and LOST-related; however, since it was just the two of us and we didn't have a LOST party, I decided to just make some simple cupcakes, and then later proceeded to have a photoshoot with them :)

Talbot Island

Sayre and I went on an unplanned adventure yesterday, which if you know us, is very uncharacteristic of us. Usually, if we're going to do something, we're going to plan it to the fullest extent. When we woke up Saturday morning, it was a dreary and overcast day. We had wanted to go to a swamp that's about 2 hours from here and take a boat tour, but the looming clouds ahead told us that the swamp wasn't the greatest idea for the day. Having spent most of the week inside I was just itching to get out, so Sayre suggested that we drive over to the ferry and take it across the river and then just see where the day takes us. Desperate to be outside, I happily agreed and off we went.

Honestly, we did look online to try to see what activities we could possibly do once we got across the river, but according to the google map, it didn't look like there was a whole lot going on over there. Oh well, that didn't matter. We decided we would just go for a nice drive over there anyway. We just barely missed the ferry by about 2 minutes (it runs every half hour) so we just waited until it came back around again. Once we made it across we were pretty excited when we found a park where we could drive around on the beach. They had campsites there as well as quite a few covered pavillions for picnicing. Conveniently enough, just before we left, I made some sandwiches for us to take along in the car since we didn't really know what we were doing, soooo we stopped at one of the pavillions and had our own little picnic. When we were finished, Sayre gathered up all of our trash and brought it over to the garbage can. As he dropped the trash in, he jumped backwards about 10 feet while I sat there staring at him wondering what was going on. Apparently our trash landed on top of a very unhappy little opossum who must have been rummaging around in there for some food... oops! I'm not sure who was more surprised - that poor little guy or Sayre ;) Anyway, after that adventure we continued driving around the island and stumbled upon quite a few more parks, fishing areas, and kyak rental shops before we decided to head back home. It's always exciting to find new places to explore!

Puppies-N-Things

There's a store here at the Jacksonville Avenue Mall called Puppies-N-Things. We first heard about it from another couple here in Jacksonville who went there once while they were out and about and told us that it was a fun place to go browsing around and play with adorable pups. The first time we went (a few months ago) they had some very cute puppies there; however, none of them were little dachshunds so we were spared from any impulsive desire to snatch a puppy up for ourselves. This past weekend, it was a different story.

It was a Saturday afternoon, we had just gone to lunch with our friends Abby and Paul, ran some errands, and we were looking for something else to do before returning to our apartment. I happily suggested going to visit the pet store since we hadn't been in awhile because, well, how can you visit a pet store and not leave with a huge smile on your face? :) I assumed that since they didn't have any dachshunds there last time, surely they wouldn't have any things time... wrong! As soon as we stepped foot into the back area where they keep the pups, my eyes locked in on an adorable little dachshund girl. Y'all, it was love-at-first-sight! And she was on sale... if you know me, then you know that one of the things that I surely inherited from my mother is a passion for finding things on sale. Ooooh my goodness, it took everything in me to be rational and convince myself of the truth: we don't need a dog right now. Over and over again, I repeated that phrase. In fact, it became my montra for the day.

Sayre, God bless him, is really too good of a husband. He saw the look on my face as I held that little puppy in my arms and asked the most dangerous question he's probably ever asked in his life (aside from proposing ;) just kidding!) He said, "Do you want her?" I looked at him, blinked my eyes a few times, and said, "YES, of  course I want her! But no... not now... we can't." Then he told me, "I'll get her for you if you really want her." Oooh just tug on my heart-strings some more! I honestly have no idea where the will-power came from that I managed to muster up, but I knew deep down that now is not the time for a puppy. We walked out the store and vowed that someday we would have our very own little dachshund. As we drove back I fantisized about stumbling upon a wild pack of little dachshunds, capturing them, and taking them home with me. Maybe that's where life will lead us someday... to have our own herd of dachshunds. Or maybe not. Just one would do quite nicely :)

Mardi Gras Mambo

It's that time of year again! Mardi Gras is very quickly approaching (February 16th, to be exact), and I have been desperately craving some good old fashioned King Cake, which is a customary treat that goes along with all of the other Mardi Gras traditions. Now, I'm not someone that really condones or appreciates the things that are typically associated with Mardi Gras a-la Burbon Street; however, the fun family-friendly parades and festivities along with the overall happy and uplifting spirit of the season are what I enjoy the most! Since I was recently telling my mom (ok, maybe more like whining to her ;)) about the fact that I can't find a decent King Cake anywhere around here in Jacksonville, she and my dad sent not just one but TWO King Cakes to Sayre and I! Sweet! Unfortunately, they are no longer in existance because Sayre and I have enourmous sweet teeth, but to be honest, they actually lasted a little longer than I thought they would. To the left is one of the King Cakes in all its glory packed up perfectly enabling it to miraculously avoid destruction in its journey here to Jacksonville.

Yes, that is a Manny Randazzo King Cake :) Arguably one of the best King Cakes around! If you're new to this whole Mardi Gras business and want to know more about it, here's a link to the Wikipedia page explaining more of its history. Read the top paragraph and then scroll down near the bottom to read the paragraph under the "United States" heading.

Rehearsal Dinner Slideshow & Wedding Slideshow

This is the slideshow that we made for our rehearsal dinner before our wedding on June 13, 2009. I've been meaning to upload it to youtube, but I kept forgetting about it until now :) As customary with these sorts of things, it has some cute/embarrassing/funny pictures of us growing up and us together as a couple.



The video below is a slideshow of our favorite photos that photographer Kim Ashford took.

Cricut Crazy

For Christmas this year, I was shocked/happy/so-excited when Sayre got me a Cricut. It's basically like a printer, but instead of printing ink onto the paper it will cut paper, vinyl, cloth, and other similar materials. You can buy cartridges for it that are already pre-loaded with lots of cute desings and letters or you can also hook it up to your computer and design your own! There's no limit to what this thing can do!

This week I've gone a little Cricut crazy. I got some sticky-backed vinyl that I've used to cut out stencils to use for etching glass with some glass etching cream. I've pretty much glass etched anything I could get my hands on these past two days haha it's pretty sad. Below are two of my creations :)

It's all in a name...

So last week I went to Kinko's to get some brochures I made for my business printed. When I walked up to the counter, the clerk asked me for my name so I began to spell it out for her. After she finished typing, she repeated it back to me to make sure she had it right. She said, "L-E-E-S-L-E?" and, of course, I said, "No. It's L-E-S-L-I-E." She corrected it then went on to spell my last name back to me. "J-E-A-N-E-T-T-E?" I guess she didn't hear me correctly at all the first time I spelled my name out to her, so once again, I said "No" and told her that the correct spelling is "J-E-A-N-N-E-T." (Now, here comes the kicker... get ready for this...) She then, straight-faced, said to me, "Well, are you sure that's correct? I've never seen it spelled like that before. I thought it was J-E-A-N-E-T-T-E." I tried to hold back the laughter as I told her that although there are many ways to spell Jeannet, the spelling that I gave her was, in fact, correct, and that yes, I do know how to spell my own last name even though it's still fairly new to me.

Christmas Re-cap

It's taken me a little while to get around to writing about our Christmas vacation. I'm not really sure why... I haven't been particularly busy by any means, but I just haven't gotten around to blogging. Although I've been glued to the computer most of the day working away on my business site, I thought I'd take a little break from that to write up a re-cap of our adventures.

Sayre and I drove to Baton Rouge the Saturday before Christmas and spent 10 wonderful days there visiting with family and friends and relaxing. It really was nice just to get away from daily life in Jacksonville for a little while. We went ice skating in downtown Baton Rouge, saw a few movies (Avatar and The Chipmunks movie ;)), shopped, ate, visited with people, and ate some more. Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas.

Most of my extended family was in town, so on Christmas Eve we all got together just like we always have at NaNa's house, ate lots of delicious food, and played the present swap game. That evening we went to Church, and then Christmas morning we enjoyed a long lazy morning opening gifts and playing with all of our new gadgets and toys before eating a great meal once again. (I swear, every time I go home I feel like all I do is eat.)

It was so nice to have some time to reconnect with old friends while we were in town. Some I had seen just a few months prior, but others I hadn't seen in years. You know, we all have grown up quite a bit and experienced lots of things, but generally speaking, we're the same old girls we were back in high school and I'm so happy about that! I don't think I've laughed that hard in a very long time while just swapping stories both old and new!

As always, the end of our trip seemed to creep up on us and come too soon, but now we're settled back in Jacksonville and looking forward to what 2010 has to offer us. Since returning here, I've been focusing on launching my business. It's exciting but pretty nerve-wracking at the same time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Anyway, here's a link to some more pictures from Christmas week.