The Honeymoon is Over!

No, not in THAT sense. It just ended, and now we're back to reality. Here's some pictures from the fabulous trip to Aruba Brent planned:


We stayed at the Occidental Grand on Palm Beach in Aruba. Brent upgraded us to the "Royal Club" and we also had a suite. It was marvelous, darling.


One of the first things we did was check out the swim up bar. We spent many a day camped out on the rock stools watching the March madness basketball tourney with an Electric Lemonade in tow. Electric Lemonades: Blue Curacao, Vodka and Margarita Mix. Yum!



This is a pic I took sitting at this bar and pointing my camera straight up. Totally gorg, huh?



We were staying at an all-inclusive so most nights we went to dinner at one of the yummy restaurants at the resort but one night, we celebrated our 'special occasion' at the best restaurant on the island: Papiamento restaurant. It's at a one hundred year old house and the restaurant is owned and operated by a local family. The tables are all around a pool in their backyard and we got one of the tables along the edge of the pool. It was both quaint and exotic at the same time. Seriously though, I want their recipe for blue cheese shrimp, an app we had. I tried to recreate it when we got home but I just made a big mess.

We went sailing! Twice, actually. The first was a sunset cruise on a very large catamaran (first pic) and then we went on a tiny little sailboat - just Brent, me and a guide (captain). Brent and I got to ride along and enjoy the view for a little over an hour. The only thing separating us from the water was a net.

We went on a jeep tour of the island. Aruba is very unique. It's outside of the hurricane belt so its drier than most isalnds in the Caribbean. The west side of the island looks exactly what you think it should look like for a tropical isalnd. The middle of Aruba (it's on 19 miles long and 6 miles wide) is a desert -- complete with cactus plants all over. The east side is somewhat difficult to describe. It's mostly rock. In fact, there's a few rock caves there (we went inside one), but rock formations take the place of beaches in much of edges of the island on that side. Here's a pic of what is called the "Natural Bridge" - for obvious reasons.

After we went to the Natural Bridge, we went to Baby Beach, one of the best places to snorkel. Brent is still terrified to go into the water past his knees (the turtle incident in Hawaii still haunts him) so I went in solo (among about 50 other snorkelers). The beach is basically enclosed so nothing too big can get in. The reef is really shallow and the water is very calm, which makes Baby Beach perfect for snorkeling. I didn;t take any pictures of the huge and colorful fish I saw because my digital camera isn't waterproof. That said, while I was out snorkeling, Brent practiced his photographic skills by snapping shots of a lady in a string bikini. String on the bottom part. I'm not going to post those though. :)



Aruba is 15 miles north of Venezuela and not too far away from the equator, so it can get HOT - but, there are 15 mph tradewinds pretty much at all times so you don't really feel the heat. It also makes the skyline incredibly interesting because there are cloud patches that blow through and decorate sky constantly, including one at sunset above.

All in all, I say GO to Aruba. Like, this weekend. Seriously. If you like sun and fun -there's a lot of that. If you like more Americanized areas, there's areas of that on Aruba (including Tony Roma's and Wendy's). If you covet authentic culinary experiences, you'll love this place too. Most of all., the service is beyond friendly. Aruba's slogan is "One Happy Island" and we are now "One Happy Couple" who took "One Happy Honeymoon."

We got hitched!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who came to our wedding, all who couldn't make it, and those who made it happen. It was so special and memorable.

Here's a link to *some* pictures, submitted by friends on Facebook. As soon as the official pictures are in, I'll post for show and tell.

Wedding:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69175&id=592617248&l=9461e9b93d


Here's another link to pics of the Rehearsal Dinner:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71899&id=592617248&l=b82d610f77

RSVP's!

Invitations went out earlier this week. It's so fun to see how many people have used our web site to RSVP!!!

40 Days and 40 Nights

The countdown in ON!

Our wedding website countdown clock tells us that we have 40 days until the " Big Day."

We've actually completed a lot in the last 6 weeks including the "do it yourself stuff" like the shells of the program, table numbers, favors, and the cute "bells and whistles" stuff that I've seen in bridal magazines for the last 9 months.

Invitations are going out TOMORROW!!! I'm looking froward to getting back RSVPs quickly (ideally online) so that I'll be able to have the best idea of numbers when I travel down to Pismo in a few weeks for my final meetings.

Brent is already in wedding and honeymoon mode. For one, he calls me "Mrs. Hoffman" which is flattering and at the same time, makes me feel old. I'll have to explore that one in the weeks to come. Since he has been to 2 weddings in the last two months, he walks around the house saying "ding" everytime he wants a kiss (symbolizing when the guests clank their spoons on their glasses for the bride and groom to kiss). He's been interested in what music is planned and he even "practiced" dancing with me last weekend. He's especially counting down to the honeymoon, which is still a surprise and I have no idea where we are going -- although I know it's a beachy locale.

I'm so excited to see all of my friends and family in one place, and to marry the love of my life!

It's coming together!

The final "big" piece of the puzzle has been found - we have an officiant!

It was a worry that we were coming on 3 months (today, actually) until the big day and we didn't have someone official do ask us "Do you take this... to be you lawfully wedded..." but thanks to my mom's memory, we now can get married legally!

Now it's just time for the "crafty craft" stuff, which thankfully coincides with my 2-week holiday vacay. You know -- favors, programs, thank you cards and the like!

We get our marriage license on December 30th.

Congratulations Kristin and Ben!

Congratulations to Brent's sister, Kristin, on her engagement to Ben! They met online too a few months before Brent and I did.

(Kristin is standing next to me on the right in the picture)

You should see her ring -- it's gorg!

Welcome Ben -- we can now be the "outlaw" club of the Hoffman fam!

NEW KIDS have "The Right Stuff"

Good things come to those who wait.

I waited 20 years for Friday night. Last Spring, Jaymey and I heard rumors that New Kids on the Block were getting back together. Once we knew it was fact, and they started announcing concerts and the East Coast concerts started selling out in under an hour, we made a deal: The minute you heard of a concert within flying distance of a Southwest plane on the west coast, you have permission to buy tickets. We found out about the San Jose concert, which weren't on sale yet, but we could buy pre-sale tickets if we had an American Express card. We had done something similiar with Kathy Griffin a few months back (with Citicard, which I had) and had got 4th row seats, so we started calling everyone we knew to find someone who'd let us use their American Express. Thankfully, my dad and stepmom had one, so within about an hour, we had our tickets pruchased.

Kym + Joey = 20 years of love! You may know that Joey McIntyre is on my "List of Five." I have loved him since I was 13. Yes, I know he is married. Brent knows I love him and I made sure I reminded him that Joey was on my list before I left for San Jose. You never know - I could get lucky. As if! (I watched Clueless this morning)

Jordan and Donnie are pretty much the same. Jordan has lost weight since his "The Surreal Life" stint. Donnie looks older but both guys still have crazy energy and chemistry with the crowd.

Danny, who I thought looked like a monkey 20 years ago, has definitely grown into his face. He's hot now! And he has 4 kids. For some reason, that makes me feel old.

And then there's Jon. Apparently one of the reasons why NKOTB broke up was that Jon was getting panic attacks when going on stage. I guess he is now over them, which is a good thing for us. Anyway, Jon had this interesting smirk on his face every time he wasn't singing. It really looked like he was thinking, "I can't believe we sold out this arena. Look at all of these chicks who paid like $100 to see us. For God sake's, I'm over 40. But who cares, I'm getting pa-aid!" It was pretty funny.

At one point, in between songs, Joey yells out, "Ladies and gentlemen, Jon Knight!" The camera went to him and he looked really surprised. The guys were cracking up. Jaymey thinks they were calling him out because he had stayed out of the limelight the whole time. The crowd got pretty quiet and we started wondering if he was going to sing a solo, which would be rare. But he just stood there. Eventually, they moved on but I felt bad for him. Regardless, anytime the camera panned to him, the crowd went wild.

A co-worker asked what I was doing this weekend as I left town on Friday. When I told her, she asked, "What kinds of people will be there?" I said, "A whole bunch of chicks in their early thirties trying to re-live their junior high days." When Jaymey and I got to our seats, we asked how old our neighbors were -- yep, early thirties and a 29-year-old.

In fact, the gals next to us were from Sacramento and had gone to that concert the night before, so they gave us the guided tour through it, which was very helpful. They brought signs with them. They had one for almost every song. Jaymey and I kept staring at each other saying, "Why didn't we think of that?" That is just totally something we would do and just proves how overworked we are that it wasn't even a thought to bring signs with us. Duh!

Between each song, Jaymey and I would face each other, hold hands and jump up and down screaming with excitement. Yep, like 13-year-olds.

All in all, it was in the Top 3 concerts, I've been to. All you haters can just keep hate'n. Better seats at their next concert for me!