The Recap - First Wedding Anniversary

PINTEREST. SAN ANTONIO.

Brian and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on July 7! It's hard to believe a year has passed. Year 1 of long distance marriage complete. Woohoo!! HOPEFULLY we only have one more full year of the long distance thing. Prayers up! For our anniversary day, we spent most of the day in Corpus Christi because Brian was on the schedule for a morning flight. When I went to pick him up I gave him his homemade anniversary gift. My first Pinterest inspired DIY project success! It was effectively a jar that contained (1) Reasons why I love him, (2) Quotes about various things related to us, (3) Memories I love about us, (4) Songs that remind me of him and I, and (5) Encouraging quotes, phrases and passages. He loved it!! I gave myself brownie points for actually tying my present into the anniversary year 1 theme: paper. Pretty sure Brian knows nothing about anniversary themes.

DIY Anniversary Jar - Front 

DIY Anniversary Jar - Back

After some down time we went to an early dinner with another couple. What?! You shared your anniversary dinner with another couple? Uhhh...yes. While my trips to TX are for Brian and I to spend time together we also like to be social and spend time with our friends, as couples, so sharing a Hibachi dinner with friends for our anniversary was just fine by us! Following dinner Brian and I headed out to San Antonio for the remainder of the weekend.

I had reserved a hotel at Fort Sam Houston sometime early in the year. Not exactly sure why I booked the hotel that I did [probably because it was cheap] but when we arrived Brian could tell I wasn't thrilled. It wasn't dirty or poorly kept. It was just old. Old bathrooms.Old carpet. Just old. Fairly certain the hotel was/is used for barracks. I tried to hide my dissatisfaction but I'm not very good at that. Brian offered to change hotels for Saturday night but I told him it was ok. Needless to say I didn't get the best sleep that night. Brian slept like a baby. He has no problems sleeping in ugly or old places. I shouldn't have had an issue with this place but I did and it carried my mood the entire time we were in the hotel. Sorry Brian!

The next day Brian picked a place for us to go hiking, per my request. We set out for Eisenhower Park and hiked the long loop. It was a good time talking and walking. We got a couple good views of landscape but mostly just hiked amidst trees and rocks. After hiking we grabbed lunch and headed to the hotel for showers (and a nap for Brian). By this point we had decided we would head back to Corpus after dinner, so we checked out of our hotel a night early. From there we headed to the Riverwalk. The plan was to catch a movie, enjoy the Riverwalk and head to dinner. Those plans didn't happen. To our surprise seats were assigned at the theatre so the only seats left were in the front row. Instead of breaking our necks, we decided to forego the movie. Cue my attitude. As we walked the Riverwalk in the heat my attitude rose with my body temperature. My attitude finally subsided after some ice cream and an apology to Brian. I must have been hot and hangry. After my hot mess had chilled we ventured to the Alamo where Brian got his history fix.

Eisenhower Park

Eisenhower Park & Brian

After the Alamo we hopped back in the car and headed to dinner at Pappadeaux's. BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT I'VE BEEN TOO SO FAR!! It was delicious! Brian agreed. We headed home to Corpus after dinner, cutting our weekend trip short by one day.

All in all I had a good time with Brian but in the future I plan on splurging on anniversary hotels and reminding myself to keep my attitude in check whenever I find myself hot and hangry.

Where Did Your 2017 Cruise Take You?

Western Caribbean: Mexico. Grand Cayman. Jamaica.

How does time go by so fast?!?! I've neglected to post about this trip [or anything else] in over 2.5 months. My bad. Life has been crazy (in a good way). I promise to get better. Starting now.

In March, B and I took an impromptu cruise. 11 days prior to the cruise's departure date Brian tossed out the idea of taking that specific cruise...in 11 days. I quickly hit him with an eye roll and a "boi bye", but this was over the phone so he didn't see the eye roll. I'm sure it was implied.  A for effort on B's part BUT I'm a planner and 11 days to plan, book and prepare for a cruise is not my thing. Turns out I can be persuaded and wouldn't you know it's not all about me. GASP. After a day or 2 of discussions, B and my parents broke me down. Knowing the time B and I get to spend together on real vacation trips will be far and few between at some point, I reluctantly said "let's do it". I'M. SO. GLAD. I. DID.

B and I shared 7 days away from work [mostly] and our hectic schedules. We spent EVERYDAY together and it was well worth the money and uncertainty. B and I booked an excursion at all 3 ports. I'm not sure we'll do that again but it definitely gave us new adventures...

First stop was Mexico. There we went to an adventure park in Rivera-Maya Cancun. In order to get there we had to take a little boat to that area. For a whole 45 mins, I listened to my fellow passengers puke into barf bags. I'm a sympathetic puker so I had to plug my ears and clothes my eyes. Brian found this hilarious. I was not as amused. I made it though...with my breakfast still in my stomach. Once at the adventure park we went zip lining through the trees, zip lining into water, paddle rafting, riding on a dune buggy type thing and then more zip lining! It was a blast!! We napped so hard when we got back to the ship. Let me be honest though, I can nap just about any time. This just gave me an excuse.

Dune Buggy Cruising "safely"

Ziplining

Brian and Sheri - March 2017

Second on our agenda was Grand Cayman. There we did a Jeep Tour and beach day. We visited a place called Hell, drove on the left hand side of the road, tasted (and purchased) flavored Rum and got extra crispy on the beach. It was a relatively low key day. I know Brian was hoping for more off roading in our Jeep, but it was still a good time.

Beach Stop while on our Jeep Tour

In Hell w/ Brian

Last place we ventured was Falmouth, Jamaica. While there we visited Dunn's River Falls (gorgeous waterfall you can hike up) and went to a cultural spot and ate native food, watched dancers and relaxed.  As we were leaving Dunn's River Falls we had to walk through a market to get to the exit. Our tour guide informed us not to stop for people trying to sell us things, as that would make us lose the group BUT wouldn't you know my husband decided to forego that warning and stop and get us little personalized tiki men. So for about all of 1 min I freaked out thinking I'd lost my husband in this market and he was going to get left behind (because I was making the bus), but he showed up eventually and we can laugh about it now.

Sher aka Sheri Tiki

Our balcony view while docked in Jamaica

While on the ship/cruising we ate way too much, napped frequently, went to shows, worked out, and climbed the rock walls. We spent SO MUCH time together (for us). I'm so grateful B had the idea.