Our Honeymoon.

As I'm working on the "Adventures" tab of my blog, I realized that I have never actually blogged about our Honeymoon.  It's been a lot of fun to go through the pictures from our first week as a married couple and reminisce about all of the fun we had together. Looking at these pictures I can't help but think of Brad Paisley's song, "And I thought I loved You Then" because I swear we barely knew each other at that point.  (Of course that's not true but it feels that way now).  I love growing and discovering and learning more about Josh with each passing year. 

We were married at 4:00pm on Friday, October 10, 2008.

We were on our flight to Grand Cayman Island at 5:45am on Saturday, October 11, 2008.

You might notice that we left for our much anticipated Honeymoon rather quickly.  In hindsight, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone.  The sheer exhaustion of getting married, dancing, sleeping, getting to an airport, figuring out we didn't have our marriage license, waking our parents up to get said-license, running through the airport to make it to our flight on time and sitting in our seats with 5 extra minutes definitely put a little strain on our first trip together.  

While planning our honeymoon, we were so excited to get out of West Michigan and into the sun of the Caribbean that we didn't really consider that an early flight the morning after the biggest day of our life might not be the best idea ever.  Needless to say, we landed in Grand Cayman, made our way to our resort, and took one big long married NAP.  Exhaustion isn't very compatible with healthy thinking patterns in this mind of mine, so I was relieved to wake up refreshed and no longer going through the major identity crisis I had been experiencing on the sleep-deprived flight down ("Who am I?", "How is my name different but I'm the same person?", and "ohmygosh we are married FOREVER.") After feeling like I was from CrazyTown, it was nice to join the rest of the crowd in Normal-ville.  We were ready to have a great week together!

On our flight.  I made matching shirts. I hadn't considered Josh might not want to wear pink but he was a trooper about it.  I still have my wedding earrings in.  I wonder if I slept with them?  Probably.

The view from our room.

We tried to find local restaurants to eat at but could only find one.  Vivine's Kitchen.  It was literally an addition to the kitchen in this woman's home with just a roof and tables under it.  You had to walk up her back stairs, order inside her home kitchen, and wait for her to bring the food out.  Grand Cayman was uninhabited when it was discovered, so there really isn't much of a cultural heritage.  It was pretty much just like the United States which, for a couple of cultural enthusiasts like us, was the only mildly disappointing aspect of this trip.

Just getting out of the pool after a late night swim.  Oooh la la!

Checking out shipwrecks. 

We officially declared Burger King our "Honeymoon Restaurant".  We decided that we would rather spend our money on experiences on the island rather than food at all of its fancy restaurants.  One day, we ran into fellow honeymooners from our resort downtown and had this conversation:

Other honeymooners: "We were just on our way to lunch at the (insert fancy restaurant name here)

Us: "That's great!  We're on our way to lunch too!"

Other honeymooners: "Oh really? Where are you two going?"

Us: "Burger King."

Other honeymooners: "Oh.. um... that's....nice."

Cemetery Beach

We found a blow hole.  I was sure my new husband was going to get knocked down, crack his skull open, and swept out to sea.  So naturally I stood there, helplessly taking pictures of what was sure to be the last moments of his earthly life... (fortunately I was wrong).

I made one - ONE - attempt at driving on the left side of the road in the right side of the car.  It was terrifying. and weird. But I wanted the full Cayman experience.

Rum Point where we saw and chased sting rays while we snorkeled! 

 Everything was so colorful.

We snorkeled every day of our vacation.  It was so much fun and we have yet to see anything even close to as beautiful as the underwater life we witnessed in Grand Cayman.

However, I did get a case of swimmer's ear by the end of the week. 

After one glorious week, we boarded a plane to head back to our new life as a married couple. 

We were officially ready to take on the world together!