Honeymoon--Part I

WE ARE OFFICIALLY MARRIED! We said 'I Do', went on our honeymoon, and received the certified copy of our marriage license. Now I just have to go through all of the name change documentation and it will be complete. I definitely want to post all of the wedding information, rehearsal stuff, etc. but it's going to be a somewhat lengthy process and I want to see everyone's pictures first so I will start in reverse order...this post will be all about the honeymoon which actually works out best since it's the most fresh on our minds (this will be part I, the rest will come tomorrow)...so here goes!

Let me preface with saying that planning this wedding was HARD. We live about 2 1/2 hours away from where we got married so we counted on my parents a lot for help with meeting with people and storing and transporting stuff etc...Also, I was working long hours and William was up to his eyeballs in med school stuff...not to mention the fact that he had 2 final exams the monday and thursday before the wedding. Yikes. So anyway we left Winston thursday afternoon after his test and went straight to our reception location to decorate. We stayed there for a good while, went out to eat with some of the family, and then went to my parents house. The day of the rehearsal was CRAZY with lots of errand-running and last minute details but the dinner and actual rehearsal was great (details to follow). The wedding day was somewhat hectic also but it was beautiful and we had some funny stories (also with details to follow)! After the wedding we went from the chapel to the reception and after a great time a limo picked us up at 10:30. We were all the way in Dunn, NC and our hotel was beside the RDU airport. We ended up leaving by 11:00 and after riding around and making some stops we got to our hotel at about 1:30 am. We took about an hour nap, and then we got up and packed all of our bags and my parents picked us up at our hotel at 3:45 am. YES, 3:45. Our plane boarded at 5:45 am so we had to be at the airport EARLY. Not only was everyone running off of fumes, but it was dark and my mom has issues with driving at the airport. We were trying to get to our terminal and each time we passed it my mom didnt take the right turn. We made 3 complete loops around RDU. Everytime it was a little bit funnier. :) We flew from RDU to Charlotte where we had about a 40 min. layover and then from Charlotte to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We actually had the carnival cruise line pick us up from the airport and it was only about a 20 min. ride to the ship...we could see it as we passed:

Once we actually boarded the ship, we went straight to eat and then we went to our room and Passed out. We had been up for over 24 hours and we were dead. We slept through dinner, got up and walked around and hung out, watched the ship begin to sail (above you can see Puerto rico at night when we left) and then went back to bed and slept through the night. When we got up on Monday we felt back to normal and ready to see St. Thomas.

St. Thomas was beautiful and you have never seen water so blue. It was incredible. We got a taxi that took us to Morningstar Beach and we really enjoyed swimming in the water--It was so sandy and clear! We stayed there the majority of the day and then took a taxi back to the port and did some shopping.

During the night when we were on the ship we would always go to the dining room, usually catch a show or two, sometimes go the to the casino or watch a movie, etc. It was so relaxing and fun to just do things at our own leisure. Tuesday was a day at sea so we just took our time sleeping in, went to the pool, ate a lot, etc. That night was formal night on the ship so when we went to the dining room the staff sang happy honeymoon to us and of course every night we had a towel animal:

The next day was Barbados. We had our first excursion planned which was a catamaran ride and snorkeling with sea turtles. When we got off the cruise ship it looked like this:

We were freaked out because we were supposed to be going out on the sea and they told us not to worry because it was the middle of their dry season and they said it would pass. In about 30 minutes the rain finally went away and we had an amazing boat ride and snorkeling adventure. I enjoyed snorkeling with the turtles, it was SOOO neat to see them up close...HOWEVER; they were not afraid of humans and once a GIGANTIC one rubbed against me I was freaked out. The little ones were cute. The ones that were big enough to ride were too much for me. The guide thought it was hilarious that I was freaking out so he decided to feed the turtle beside me. Great. It was really cool though, even though I didn't like them touching me, and we rode to a different spot and snorkeled over a reef which was also really cool! Here are some of the pics we got from the boat and the snorkeling:

After a great day at sea, we boarded the ship that afternoon and got all cleaned up for another wonderful dinner and night at sea....we took a picture on the balcony:

This concludes part I of the honeymoon report. There are many more funny and beautiful parts to share but for tonight and I am still Jet lagged! We will post the rest tomorrow, I know the suspense is killing you! :)