Back into the swing of things

Gosh, it's so hard to believe Sayre's only been back for only 3 weeks now! Never in my life did I think I'd say this, but it doesn't even feel like he ever left. Those 7 long months just seemed to vanish as soon as he set foot back on the pier. Don't get me wrong, that in NO WAY means I'm ready for him to leave again (please oh please go away hurricane, Irene!) but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm very happy to report that we just stepped right back into life together without even skipping a beat :)


Since his return, we've had a little bit of time to do some fun things around Jacksonville - the first of which was a very nice dinner date at The Chart House to begin to make up for 7 months of missed dates, anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays followed by a lovely little Segway ride on Amelia Island, 4 movie dates, cooking meals together at home, and a little bit of beach time. We've managed to stay busy since his return, but we've also allotted for plenty of time for relaxing too - afterall, the poor guy did just spend a little over half the year chasing pirates and keeping the seas safe ;) he deserves a little rest and relaxation too!

Just keep swimming...

Guess who's a brand new Open Water NAUI Certified Diver?

Yep, that's me!!!

I had a fantastic time up at a lake in Bloomingdale, GA over the weekend getting certified through Atlantic Pro Divers here in Jacksonville. Their instructor was phenomenal - so patient and thorough in his teaching style. He made everyone feel so comfortable in the water and our entire class of 12 passed with flying colors! It was such a neat set-up too. They had one platform sunk in the lake at 10' for the pool phase of the certification and another one sunk in the lake at 20' for the open water phase, which enabled us to complete the course in just one weekend. We all had to complete the classroom material and take the test prior to showing up Saturday morning. Now I just can't wait for Sayre and I to be able to dive all over the place together! (He's already certified) And who knows, maybe we'll work on some more advanced certifications together in the future! 

First 5k - Done!

I'm a little behind on my posts these days because I've been a bit busy, but I'm going to try to play catch-up!

On May 21st I ran in and completed my first 5k race! My timing was horrible and it was hotter than ever that day, but I finished and that's all that matters :)  It really was such a great experience... over 6,000 people participated! The only downside to having over 6,000 people packed at the starting line of a race on the beach in 90+ degree weather is that the body heat combined with the scorching sun made for a rather unpleasantly sweltering start, but once the race did actually start and we all fanned out, it was great to feel that ocean breeze.

When the race was over, participants were treated to free smoothies, chocolate covered strawberries, & some other tasty treats as well as some really cute sea turtle necklaces for the girls and nice running watching for the guys. They also had a big beach fest to accompany the race, which made for a really fun day.

One of the neatest things about it though, in my opinion, was that since the race was called the "Never Quit Beach Fest" you could write on your runner's bib who you would never quit for :) No real surprise here, but I happily scrawled Sayre's name across my bib before I took off to achieve my goal of finishing and "never quitting."

Girl Time

I absolutely love spending time with my dear-sweet-husband, but this past month and a half has offered quite a few opportunities for lots of fun times with girl friends. It's reminded me how important it is to have good female companions around to share giggles, tears, and stories with. I've been so blessed to have found some pretty awesome girls here in Jacksonville without whom I couldn't have made it this far. Being away from friends and family back home is rough, but these women have made life so much fun!

Last weekend, Katharine, Brittany, and I had quite-possibly the girliest Super Bowl party ever complete with yummy pigs in a blanket, scrumptious wontons, pasta salad, very addicting bread & cucumbers with deliciousness sandwiched in between, and a super moist yummy cake! We each supported our favorite respective NFL teams despite the fact that neither team was in the Super Bowl ;) What a fun night!



I mentioned previously one awesome co-worker who I experienced my very first (and rather interesting) Renaissance fair with. My job is full of awesome people! I've had the opportunity to spend some time outside of work recently with two other great girls as well. Their shenanigans definitely had me laughing my head off :) I am a very lucky girl who has stumbled upon some pretty awesome people in my lifetime.

January Wrap Up - 1 Month Down!

 I've been so busy since my last little post on here that it's hard to know where to begin! January 20th through the 26th, mom and NaNa were in town visiting which was tons of fun! On the days that I had work, I'd come home to a yummy meal that they prepared and then we'd enjoy the evening spending time together - NaNa even learned to do bowling on the Wii and beat me twice! (She's 90 years old!!) On the weekend we spent some time showing NaNa around Jacksonville and Mayport... she even got to see some of St. Augustine too! Speaking of St. Augustine, we actually met up with Aunt Gayle & Uncle Wayne one evening down there as well because they were also in town visiting some dear friends. What perfect timing!

Certainly one of the highlights of their visit here was getting to take them to the Barry Manilow concert one evening :) Mom always was a "Fanilow," so when I heard that he was going to be in town while they were here I just knew we'd have a blast going to see him! He really put on a great show - complete with a full orchestra and everything.

Friday night after they left, I went to another concert with my co-worker and her sister. We went to see George Strait & Reba McEntire! Once again, another fantastic show!! Those two are such country super-stars... I really am so glad we went. I had seen Reba in concert twice when I was around 10 years old and even back then I can remember her performance bringing tears to my eyes. 14 years later, and she is still just as incredible, if not even more so, than she was before! George did a fantastic job too - in fact, they both played and performed for so long that we actually just couldn't sit in the arena any longer so we left after about 4 hours... I think George still had 2 or 3 songs left! It was amazing!

Saturday night I had a lovely dinner with some of the fellow officers' wives whose husbands are also on Sayre's ship at a restaurant in town before meeting up with my other two awesome Navy wife friends whom I had really been looking forward to spending some time with. A night at the Wine Bar down by the beach was just what the three of us needed :) I wrapped up that epic week with a trip to the Renaissance Fair down in Gainesville with another co-worker. The weather was absolutely perfect - clear blue skies and crisp, cool air. It was great! People-watching at a Renaissance Fair is awesome haha. You see all sorts of sights & sounds! We really had a great time :)

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 :)

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!

Here comes Santa Clause

Time seems to be flyyyyyying by these days! I can't believe that Christmas is just 2 weeks away! Yaaaaaay!! Sayre and I have been getting into the Christmas spirit recently with a few fun activities. Last Thursday night we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas concert. It was sooo awesome! Their stage is an amazing array of lights, moving parts, and lasers... combine that with their rockin' renditions of classic Christmas songs and you're in store for a very memorable evening! We had a great time!


To top off last weekend, we made another trip to Disney World to make use of the last few days on our military passes before they expire at the end of the month. Once again, we had an amazing time, despite a little bit of rainy weather. This time we went to MGM Studios (now referred to as Holywood Studios) on Saturday which included the Rockin' Roller Coaster, the Tower of Terror, and Lights Motors Action Show to name a few. That night we went to the Magic Kingdom to see all of the pretty Christmas lights as well as the fireworks display. We were also thrilled to get the chance to ride the newly refurbished Space Mountain while we waited to see the fireworks! On Sunday we went to the Animal Kingdom. The main attraction there, and our absolute favorite ride: Expedition Everest! Also, before leaving, we tried out the Rapids ride even though we knew were going to get soaked... and we did! It's ok though because we were about to leave to drive back to Jacksonville and we had a change of clothes in the car. Overall, it was another great weekend!

Now we're eagerly awaiting the start of the Army/Navy game! Sayre invited a few guys from his ship over to watch it, so it should be a good time. Go Navy!!

Click here to see some more of our Disney trip pictures.

Palin Palooza

Today Sarah Palin is doing a book signing at the Orange Park Mall which is about 30 minutes away from here. For the past two weeks, since hearing about the event, I've been planning to go get my copy of her new book Going Rogue signed... that is, until, my dreams got squashed last night while watching the 10 o'clock news. Sarah's book has already become such a success that people had begun lining up on SUNDAY morning for the book signing which took place today at 9am on Wednesday! Even if I had gone out there at 6am this morning as I had planned, it would have been to no avail. Yesterday afternoon they handed out 500 wrist bracelets gauranteeing those people to get her signature. I had no idea it was going to be that crazy! Granted, I'm happy for her that so many people are still supporting her, but at the same time I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to meet her.

Disney World!!!

As I mentioned in the last post, over the weekend Sayre and I went to Disney World and oh what a bast we had! We drove down to Orlando on Friday night after another one of Sayre's ship's Hail & Farewell parties, got a good night's sleep, & then woke up bright and early to begin our adventures in the Magic Kingdom. The park didn't open until 9am, but we got there at 8am to be the first ones in line. Somehow or another (I won't reveal our secrets here ;) ) we managed to actually get into the park before it opened to the general public, so we got some great pictures of the castle & various places without anyone else in them! The rides themselves didn't open up until 9, but that was perfectly fine because we were still the very first ones on Splash Mountain... and when I say "the very first ones," I do indeed mean the very first ones. That's both a blessing and a curse because... well... you see... we got soaked. Lesson learned: even if they tell you to ride in the first row, ask them if you can sit in the back! Regardless, it was still awesomely fun and we eventually dried off.

Unbeknown to us, we picked the perfect weekend to go to Disney World. The crowds were almost non-existent. In all my past Disney experiences, it was just expected that for most rides you'd have to wait at least 30 minutes or so in line to ride a ride (and even that was pretty short!); however, this weekend, we were able to literally hop off and hop right back on to most rides. I was dumbfounded. Case-in-point: we rode Thunder Mountain four times in a row. It took us longer to wind through the path up to the ride than it actually did to get on the ride. Now, granted, as it got later in the day the crowds did pick up a little bit and Fantasy Land in the Magic Kingdom was probably the most crowded area (that's the best place for mammas & daddies to take the little ones), but it still wasn't bad at all! We had sooo much fun!! Usually, because you spend most of your day just standing around in lines, you're able to stay in the park late into the evening without being too tired... well, since we spent all day hopping on & off rides time & time again, by around 4pm we were utterly exhausted! Although we would have liked to have seen the fireworks that night, we decided to conserve our energy for the next day, so we left around 5 and headed over to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney for dinner. Yum!

On Sunday we decided to go to Epcot before heading back to Jacksonville in the afternoon. Once again, we arrived at the park at 8am even though it didn't open until 9am hoping that we could get in early like we had done in the Magic Kingdom the day before. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well for us, but we were still happy to be there bright & early & first in line to get in! Once again, there weren't any waits for the rides... I felt like I was living in the twighlight zone! It was fantastic! We rode the Test Track 3 times in a row before deciding that we should probably move on to other things since we were planning to leave the park around 2. When talking with some of the Disney workers during the day, they told us why they thought the parks were so empty this particular weekend: it was the weekend right after the Epcot Food & Wine Festival ended and it was also the weekend right before the crazy Thanksgiving crowds were going to show up. Bingo! That made a lot of sense to us! Anyway, Epcot proved to be tons of fun as well! We were sad to leave, but we're hoping to go one more weekend before Christmas (and after Thanksgiving) before our nice little military discounted tickets expire. We were told that they're not going to renew the offer next year, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't true. We'll just have to see!

Click here to see more of our pictures & videos from the weekend.

Casting Crowns Concert

Last night Sayre and I went to see Casting Crowns in concert at the Jacksonville Arena. I had seen them a few years ago in Baton Rouge, and once again they put on a great show! What I love about Christian concerts is that you get more than just a musical experience when you go... there's such a positive and uplifting message to all of the songs. It's not even about the fact that you're seeing a well-known artist perform, it's that the message their music brings is one that you don't find in secular music. Maybe I'm just getting old, but often times I find myself disgusted with some of the songs I hear on the radio. With Casting Crowns and other Christian artists like them, you leave their concert feeling empowered and refreshed. Now, don't get me wrong, I still enjoy catchy pop and rock tunes, but it's nice to balance out the dark messages the world gives us with the simple love and praise of God.

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now ;) and heading out to Disney World tonight! Of course, a blog post will surely follow once we return!