Honeymoon Bliss

Our honeymoon was amazing!! We cruised to Progreso and Cozumel for 5 luxurious days! Richard had never been on a cruise before, so it was neat to get to experience that with him for the first time. As we left Galveston, we waved to all the people still on shore and then just stood up on the top deck taking it all in! We stood there so long we missed our dinner time, but luckily, cruise life ALWAYS has food available, so we didn't go hungry. We enjoyed a drink and some dinner and then headed to the Welcome Aboard show.

Watching the sunset that evening was wonderful!

We enjoyed lots of sun, both on the ship and also in Cozumel while we enjoyed our catamaran trip to Passion Island!  Here are all of our beach pictures...

This is one of my favorite pictures!  We truly felt like this the whole trip, just relaxed and enjoying every minute of it!

 We had a lot of fun trying to get original sand pictures!!

On Passion Island we saw this mom and baby raccoon hanging out.  They were so friendly and came right up to me like a dog would.

On the ship, they had a water slide that I had to do, just for the picture!! 

  One of our favorite things to do on the ship was to just watch the water go by!  I think we would stand or sit there for hours.  It was so relaxing and just made all other thoughts disappear.  We also loved the ice cream cones, too.  We both decided we ate more ice cream cones in those 5 days then we had in 15 years!!  But there were so good and the perfect 3:00pm treat!! 

When we got into the Progreso Port, we shopped a little and then went on a Mayan Ruins excursion.

 All the rock structures were amazing and it was neat to hear all the history behind the Mayan culture and those structures that were still standing.

 There was a limestone sink hole we got to swim in that was super cold and clear enough to see the fish in it.

 After dinner when we would go back to our room, there was always a cute towel animal waiting for us!
Here is a dog

  A monkey hanging from our ceiling

 An elephant

 and a heart

 The last day we went to the towel folding class.  Here is my attempt at an elephant.

 and a dog.

In the evenings, we would get all dressed up and head to dinner.  The other couples at our table were a lot of fun to visit with during dinner and the food was outstanding!  Usually after dinner we would go to one of the shows or we would go to the comedy club, which was so funny every night!

 We are so thankful that we had family to help watch the kids while we were gone and that we truly could relax and not worry, because we knew they were in good hands!  The whole experience was so wonderful and it was a great way to connect as husband and wife!  We did not want to come back to reality!!  I will treasure that memories we made and look forward to a life time of more wonderful memories to come!!

Our Wedding

The wedding was perfect in every way!! We were able to mix our favorite hobby with all our favorite people and it was so special!! We rented a suite at the Ballpark in Arlington and had the ceremony first and then we all enjoyed the game as the reception!  My best friend, Tanna took all these wonderful pictures!!

 We got to the Ballpark a little early so we could get some family shots.  It was a lot of fun trying to find poses for 7 people, but I think they all turned out so good and the kids were great in cooperating almost the whole time!

We had a bat engraved with our names and the date and have everyone sign it, kind of like a guest book. It turned out so wonderful and we are looking forward to displaying it with the rest of our Rangers memorabilia!

 The ceremony was very relaxed and intimate.  Everyone just gathered around us in the suite and our pastor started it all off with a prayer and few verses for us to keep in mind.

I really wanted us to write our own vows so here we are exchanging vows with one another.  Richard's words were so sweet and sincere and I will remember them for the rest of my life!!

Then we exchanged rings.

Pastor Booker said one last prayer...

and we are now husband and wife!!!

After the ceremony, we wanted to get the kids involved so we decided to pour sand showing our unity as a family.  Richard and I went first and then each kid got to choose the color they wanted to pour and pour it into the container.

Pastor Booker poured last, and he poured white sand as God's covering over our family.

The final product was so beautiful and unique, just like each one of us and our family, as a whole!  I will always treasure this container!!

We had little bite size Texas Rangers cakes that were super cute and delicious.

My mom and dad got us the MVP ride as one of our wedding gifts.  It was so neat!!  In the 4th inning they took us in an ATV with Captain, the Rangers mascot, and announced us as newlyweds and put our picture up on the jumbo-tron.  It was so surreal and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!!

We were surrounded by lots of friends and family that have laughed, cried, grieved and rejoiced with us over the last four years! We are truly blessed.

My co-workers from Georgetown were able to come and surprised me with "the baby doll".  When we all taught together this baby doll was hidden by Lisa in the classroom where Vikki and I taught, when we would find it, we would hide it back in Lisa's classroom.  We always tried to out-do each other in finding original hiding places and that game lasted all year long!  It was a lot of fun!! So I was very surprised when I opened my gift from them to find the baby doll all dressed in a wedding gown!!  Very creative girls!!  You got me!!