My new "grown-up car"...

Before I post about our second trip this year, I have got to say how excited I am about our new vehicle!

Since Jay's truck was in the shop having work done from the break in:

 we wound up having to take my car on the six hour drive to our other vacation.  While we were on vacation, my car's radiator started leaking which made us have to do a quick fix on it in order to get it back home and in the shop...

Background on my car... My 2004 Midnight Blue Hyundai Tiburon
1.  My daddy bought it for me.
2.  In 2004 when I was in the middle of my senior year of high school.
3.  It was paid off.
4.  It comfortably sat 2 people...it had been known to seat 5 people uncomfortably.
5.  I loved it.

But when it came down to it, it was time to upgrade.  Especially after watching my 6'6'' husband drive it for 6 hours straight.  His knees were on both sides of the steering wheel.  It was cute. :)
When we arrived home from our vacation, we quickly put the car in to the shop THAT afternoon.  Since we had no other car at that point, Jay picked me up on the Harley and said, "Well, where do you want to go?"  As I put on my helmet, I hopped behind him and said "the closest dealership."  He laughed as we drove off.  See, he had been trying to get me to get a new car for a while and I think that this trip had been the last straw for him too.
So we went to a Ford dealership (because I thought that I wanted a hybrid Escape), and our biggest "test" for the car was that we both had to sit in it and have PLENTY of room.  After sitting in a few, we decided that the Explorer was the way to go for us.  The dealership had three different black ones and a white one...and my wonderful selfless husband said "pick one".  Now, I know that this will not always be the case.  One day our money will be spent on diapers and extra savings and dentures, etc.  So I am enjoying this.  And I did.  I picked my favorite one:

(I look that way because we had been in the car all day and then on the bike.  If I had known we were buying a car, I would have put on lipstick at least, Mom.)

So, I cried when we signed the paper work...I sobbed to my mom on the phone telling her "but my daddy bought me my car" and various other blubbering emotions.  Poor Jay, it was probably hard to tell how excited I was at first. :)  This is me getting off the phone with Mom and realizing that I'm a big girl...a big girl who is getting a new car.  A big girl whose husband is getting her a new car.  It's a growing up thing.

And here she is at home!  I haven't named it yet... I can't decide if it's a boy or girl... (yes, we name our cars)  Jay's truck is Bertha. Ha.  I'm open to suggestions.

I'm so happy and excited.  It's just another story in this next chapter of our life.  It's our "family car"...but its mine... ( hee hee )

I love you Jay!  Thank you for loving me.  Thank you for getting us a new car the afternoon before you leave to go to work again...I will NEVER figure out all of these buttons. :)

Trip one: Sandestin, FL

March was an incredible month.

Since Jay's job only allows him to be home for 30 days at a time, we spend the 60 days that he is away on PLANNING.  So far, we have planned probably ten trips for our first year of marriage...and we are so excited!  Our first trip of the year was a fantastic beach getaway to Sandestin, FL. I have never been a "beach person" per se, but every year I think that it should be mandatory for a trip to a beach SOMEWHERE and Sandestin is my fav. 

Jay was only home for one day when we loaded up his truck with our luggage and made our way out of town!  (Before we left, I used a Groupon that I had previously purchased for Dave's Mobile Car Wash to come to our house and clean our cars...for 12 dollars...I am ADDICTED to livingsocial.com and groupon.com.)  There is nothing like leaving for a trip right after you get off work.  I was a ball of energy that probably could have propelled the car all the way down there without using any fuel.  We sang an entire set of 105 songs that we had on a cd.  We stopped for coffee 3 times.  We cut off our phones.  It was amazing.

To break up the drive to Sandestin, we stopped at an awesome Holiday Inn in downtown Mobile, AL.  It's a super cool "round" Holiday Inn with reeeeeealllly nice rooms.  The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at a place called Spot of Tea that I found on Yelp.com that had good reviews.  It was YUM.

The drive to Sandestin from Mobile did seem to last a little longer than it should have...or it could have been that the GPS woman in Jay's truck completely hates me and wanted me to hate her back...which I do/did. (She was stolen from Jay's truck in the Baptist Medical Center parking lot this past month...and since Jay's insurance bought him a new one, I'm not sorry. :) )  So, after much ado and yada yada yada, we arrived at our condo in the resort's Luau.  Wow.  I mean, all that it lacked was having food in the refridgerator...which it didn't. Jay checked it first. Ha.

The condo also had a king size bed in the bedroom, 1 1/2 baths, a dining room, living room, washer/dryer, and a wrap around balcony.  It was incredible.  We were very impressed.  And thanks to his sister Tracy telling us about bookit.com, the price was about 40% less than the Sandestin website offered it for.
I love Sandestin.  I love Baytowne Wharf.  I love Jay.  So....I was ecstatic.the.whole.time.

We were at Hammerheads and Rumrunners the first night.  Fortunately it wasn't crowded too badly on a Thursday night so we got to enjoy the dual pianos playing and the drink lines were short! (*That's my ring that Jay bought me in the Paris airport at the Swarovski store...love.it.)

Day two was all about parasailing and shopping! 

ha ha ha ha

800 feet above the Emerald Coast!

We had incredible food every night.  We ate at Bistro Bisoux, Old Bay Steamer and a couple of other places...

scallops over pureed sweet potatoes

Long Island Iced Tea.........Bread Pudding w/ goat cheese ice cream

We can't wait to go back next year.  March is definitely our month for the beach...

Also to be mentioned:

-Jay's next career should be "Sand Dollar Finder".  He dives like a duck and grabs with a passion.  We came home with a pocket full o' sand dollars....free.

-While Jay was diving for sand dollars, the dolphins found him interesting enough to swim within ten feet of him.

-I can sleep peacefully for an infinite number of hours on the beach, amidst a crowd of people.

-If you fall from parasailing from 800 feet, you will die...

-If I don't see a jellyfish, they don't exist.

     

Trip one: Sandestin, FL