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Let’s start by saying that this year was a lot better than last year.  I (Daniel) admit I didn’t do a great job at all last year, I flat out sucked at the whole day. I didn’t have a gift or a card, and I almost took her to a bar (because she loves the atmosphere). We went to Nakato and I was in a bad mood that night. I did get her flowers, but it was after we got home and I realized how i ruined the night for her. Yep, I was horrible. But that was all last year, in the past, not the point of this post.

This year was better.  Heck, I didn’t have to try hard to top last year.  We went to Ikea for free breakfast (I’m cheap so what, it was quality time we were spending together), then Lenox Mall where I was finally able to get Lori Silent Hill 4 which she really really really really wanted.  And for dinner we went back to Nakato, I had a happy face on the whole time.  Lori got a Japanese Margarita that was the prettiest blue she had ever seen in a drink and wanted to swim in it.  The food was great!  We don’t know why people get meat there because the vegetables are the best!  We both went to bed early that night, not in a good or bad way, Lori had to get up for work on Sunday.

This is a picture of the line going out the front door and into the parking lot at Ikea to get a wristband to get a set of 400 ct. sheets, regularly $40 for $10.

Last night we ended ’08 in a garage full of friends in masks, and we started ’09 with sore legs and aching heads.  There was lots of loud music and dancing and laughing about how we can’t dance or hear each other.  We took Adam with us, he out danced us big time.  At one point he had people chanting his name while he was booty dancing with Catherine, “Go new guy, go new guy”.

Lori’s new year’s resolutions are to cook better and to get paid for her photography.  Daniel’s new year’s resolution is to not worry about money.  So if anyone needs some, or knows someone who needs some really awesome pictures taken, you should let Lori take them.  That would help us both with our resolutions.

To everyone, Happy New Year!

The wedding is over, my feet have somewhat recovered from the dancing, and me and Daniel make our way to Savannah for a scenic pit stop. We grab lunch and walk through a couple stores and we leave for Charleston. Our plan was to find the crappiest, cheapest motel we could, just for fun and to help the budget. We totally find the cheapest place ever, $35 with tax.  We walk in and get the creeps, it looks like an 1800′s widow’s room that she died in. No art on the walls, no blow dryer, just a tiny tv, bed, and small wooden dresser. I feared for my life, but Daniel reassured me that we were safe and right by the busy highway.  We must have hit up the local KMart 3 times in that one day, because we kept realizing that we had forgotten crazy things like sunscreen and a hair brush.

So we wake up the next morning and drive to the historic part of charleston, much nicer than Savannah, and before you know it we were boarding the boat.  So who had the awesome idea of going on a cruise? Oh wait, that was me. Really it wasn’t bad and we had a great time in the Bahamas, but the boat rocked a little more than expected, leading me to sleepless nights and Daniel to the info desk for dramamine twice a day. But besides the  swaying from side to side and being queasy numerous times, we had a lot of good times. Bingo, dancing to James Brown on the top deck, getting ice cream and pizza anytime we wanted, playing mini golf, seeing the late night comedians and magic shows…we spent about 7 dollars total in the casinos on the boat and various islands and I think we only won $1, but it was spent trying to win more money!

Our first stop was in Freeport, Bahamas. The water was SO blue and gorgeous. There were actually coconuts in the trees…I have never seen that! Daniel and I tried our hand at snorkeling but saw no fish. It was very wavy and I felt I would drown soon, so we just floated around. The woman near us did find a huge starfish though and she held it up for everyone to see. We must have been asked 400 times if we wanted our hair braided. I’m pretty sure if we were bald, we still would have been haggled to get a braid or two.

From there it was Heaven, I mean Nassau. When we hit the Atlantis resort I almost peed in my pants. It was SO amazing! We swam in the giant pools, walked around the aquariums and saw giant manta rays, and Daniel EVEN got me on a WATER SLIDE! Now granted, it was super tiny and it just spiraled down a few times and then slowed to almost a lazy river because it took you through a shark cave…but I was still clenching my eyes closed and screaming I HATE YOU…so I didn’t notice the sharks. It was all laughs when I got out of the tube, but now Daniel has seen first hand how terrified I am of anything that is fast or goes down a hill. We took a bus back to the boat area and shopped around where the locals hang. Pretty interesting to see the clash. This part was a little dirtier and definitely had more culture. We were haggled by children, one even put bracelets on our wrists and then asked for a $5 tip. The other was the cutest little girl ever trying to sell us a $1 wooden flute. Of course, since I was in band, I HAD to buy the flute and she even played one for us! Another man was yelling that it wasn’t fair that his wife got to look at men, but he couldn’t look at women. So they divorced. We kinda ran to the boat afterwards…

The trip home was rough. The rain and wind made the boat sway horribly (at least to me) and all we wanted to do was sleep. We did however make it to dinner for the bread, starter, entree, coffee, and dessert. This never got old. Bring it on…and the couples we sat with were also young and in relationships, so we had a lot in common and the conversations were great! I swear the first formal night we must have heard 100 Happy Honeymoons and Happy Birthdays sung by the waiters. We somehow managed to be skipped, but it was our honeymoon and very close to my birthday, so I was sure we would be victoms.

Every single person on the boat was extremely nice and seemed elated to be there. Like Disney World, it felt surreal. We even got cute little towel animals from our room service! It was very refreshing and we will never forget it. Especially the man who left a trail of $100 bills and the barf bags at lunch. :) We laughed so much and ran into so many walls without being drunk! Here’s to a great honeymoon!

We had a great time! Thanks to everyone who wished us well!  Click here for more pictures.

October 18th, you’ve heard that date a lot and so have we, but now it’s gone.  The wedding was great.  All that planning and stressing and list making before hand, it was all worth it.  There was hardly anything to worry about that Saturday.  We setup quick and every question had an answer.  The biggest unknowns were the weather and the gnats, but both of them cleared up in the late afternoon.  Hallelujah!

We had the ceremony facing the beach, with a column archway wrapped in garland and red roses.  Daniel rode a bike into the ceremony and Lori was chauffeured to the lawn by her Uncle Ray in his nice black car.  It was great and came together flawlessly!

Hopefully there were constant surprises for everyone that attended, we didn’t want people to go to a wedding they’ve been to already.  The favors were personalized fortune cookies wrapped in favor boxes by weaving wrapping paper.  The cake was layered with ocean waves and stars and topped with a skeleton bride and groom to show our eternal commitment to each other.  The centerpieces were silver sticks (hand spray painted) in fish bowls filled with glass rocks with blue lights illuminating them from underneath.

And let’s not forget the dancing.  Holy wow!  We never thought we would have EVERYONE on the dance floor, but we did and it was amazing!  Thank you to everyone for celebrating with us like that.   Thank you to everyone that wasn’t able to come but wished us well.  Thank you to the random people we’ve met that wish us a happy marriage.  Thank you all!

The photographer has been swamped with weddings recently, but she says since we are awesome and she loves us and the pictures she took of the wedding, they’ll be up and ready for viewing/purchase within 2-3 weeks.   We’ll let you know how to view them when she lets us know.  For now you can check out her blog to see a few teaser pictures.

This is Lori actually writing a post!

What can I say about Panama City except that I’m totally obsessed with it and nothing could ever change that, even if they burned the city to the ground. Granted, there would be nothing to do, but hey they accomplished that when they tore Miracle Strip down and broke my heart into a million pieces….shattering my childhood memories of log rides and haunted houses forever!

Anyway we met my parents down there on a rainy Tuesday night. (But not before stopping at multiple walmarts looking for the Evil Dead movies) As soon as we arrived we sat on the balcony and listened to the ocean. We would have looked at the ocean too, but it was midnight. Daniel slept on the floor once, an air mattress once, and one night he gathered all of the couch cushions and make himself a giant bed on the floor. Neither of these ideas seemed to feel any better than the other. Poor Daniel!

In our short time there we accomplished lots of things, including beaching, swimming, eating, and surviving a grueling maze with blinding white walls and long pathways that lead to eventual dead ends. We came out alive, ate a snowcone, watched a small worm get stepped on by a girl who never noticed, changed our seating arrangements because it was grossing me out, and then we met up with the rest of the gang at Angelos. That evening we listening to the beachy vocals of Accoustix, the greastest and drunkest men to hit the Gulf since forever. People were drinking and dancing to Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, and the Doobie Brothers. I wore my polka dot dress and I should have danced the night away but I was not drunk. And I cant dance.

I am a sucker for the ocean. Sure, it was full of seaweed this time and it felt like swimming in snot, but thats totally OKAY because I can overlook things like giant seaweed pulling me underwater and drowning me. Daniel did not get in. He thought it was disgusting. I agree. But I am not a wus. Daniel and Chase built an awesome sandcastle town. They later destroyed it and its many inhabitants. The pool was awesome.

The day everyone else departed for home, me and Daniel stayed a little longer. We ate at my favorite diner EVER! (It wasnt amazing this time but it’s still my favorite.) We sat in the sand and watched the waves crash for a while. I couldnt help but feel sad that I cant spend all of my days HERE, by the ocean. It steals my heart every time and I cannot bear to leave it behind. I finally raised myself out of the sand and me and Daniel checked out the new shopping mall. It’s pretty nice…very colorful. I found a ton of clothes at JCPenney. Before long we were hungry again and of course I decided on Italian. We found the best Italian ever… Sweet Basil. Then we were off back to the ATL. Leaving home for my other home. Daniel had to keep telling me we were going on VACATION to ATLANTA now. That helped!
Well thats it for this vacation, but there will be more because I am a spoiled, vacation-loving girl who loves freedom from work and a good beach breeze through my hair.

Oh to be there now. With my KITTEN! I AM GETTING A KITTEN! But that will be the next blog!

From last Friday until yesterday, we were on vacation in Tybee Island with the whole family (Daniel’s side). There were 22 of us all sharing a house together. It got loud. It was fun though. There was plenty of room, plenty of sun, and there was a pool. We flew kites, cooked eggplant, walked on the beach, played cards with our cousins and ended up winning four dollars!

There were several days we got off the island, going to Jekyll on one and into Savannah on another. Connie convinced us to go on a ghost trolley tour, but we didn’t see anything. Maybe it was because it wasn’t very dark, or maybe the ghosts were tired from scaring all the tourists the night before, or maybe we smelled bad. When we got off the trolley they started shooting off fireworks across the river, they are always pretty over the boats in the river. And then we found a karaoke bar, we sang pretty loud at our table but couldn’t muster up the courage to sing on stage.

There are pictures up on the pictures page from the trip. Connie looks possessed, Adam looks Vogue, Daniel looks crazy, Lori looks stunning, the house looks big.

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For those that don’t know, the Inman Park Festival is a giant block party that has happened for the past 36 years. Here is how it’s described on inmanparkfestival.org:

The city’s quirkiest and most colorful Parade, led by the Inman Park Butterfly followed by floats, bands, art cars, politicians, drill teams, Kelly’s Seed and Feed Marching Abominable Band, clowns, jugglers, and many more. The parade ends with the appearance of the Inman Park Trash Monarch, perched atop the throne-a street sweeper.

The artists were really cool, James Dean and some of the local artists we see work from around town were there. And it was Saturday so “Fried Food Day” was awesome. We were both able to have corndogs since there were a couple booths setup with regular and veggie ones.

Then there was the parade. How does one go about describing a parade like this? It’s a little bit of everything . . . politicians, draq-queens, cavemen, zombies, eccentric marching bands . . .

We have some pictures up, and there are tons on Flickr if you search for Inman Park 2008.