Back on Solid Ground

Well, we had hoped to update our blog from sea, but that proved to be impossible with the ship's WiFi ... I tried and tried with no luck. Sorry to those of you who were looking forward to it. ;)

For a quick review of our honeymoon trip - it was a great, relaxing 12 days on the Explorer of the Seas. We've gone down the Atlantic, into the Caribbean to visit 7 beautiful islands, and back up the East Coast to return home. During that time, we zip-lined through a rain forest of Antigua, toured waterfalls and many other areas of Dominica, mountain biked through the sugar cane fields and neighborhoods of St. Kitts, relaxed on beautiful beaches in Barbados and St. Thomas, walked down the boardwalk in St. Maarten and toured a historic fort in San Juan. We met some great people, went to a cheesy honeymooner's party, loved the perks of the Grand Suite with 3.5 hours of free drinks each night (me, a little too much a couple of times!), we attended a Murder Mystery dinner in the ship's Italian restaurant, played ship shuffleboard, stuffed ourselves silly ... and I found out from a number of strangers that I have shiny hair!?! lol

Here are some pics from our trip that show the above adventures - (I'll send the big batch of photos on Kodakgallery):

~St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles~

~St. Johns, Antigua~

Looking calm in front of the rainforest we're about to dangle over

The nerves hit me after gearing up

Tarzan & Jane Lewis!!

~Roseau, Dominica~

In front of one of the Trafalgar Falls -"Mama Falls"

Overlooking the city of Roseau

~Bridgetown, Barbados~

The view from our umbrella on Boatyard Beach

~Basseterre, St. Kitts~

During the 10-12 miles of biking

Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Caribbean on the right

~Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas~

Looking over Magen's Bay

The view from our lounge chairs on Magen's Bay Beach

~San Juan, Puerto Rico~

San Cristobal Fort

Touring the grounds

Touring the tunnels

The colorful streets of San Juan

We had a blast off the ship as well as on the ship. We became friends with our tablemates - the Hanson family and Christine, Joyce and Nancy. We spent most of our time together - when we weren't at dinner or off the ship, most of us were together at the Crown & Anchor bar in the Royal Promenade, at a show, in the concierge lounge, or playing shuffle board. We even had a party in our room with everyone.

One night, we all decided to get a fun photograph taken:

All good things come to an end. The last few days flew by and as the weather grew cooler, it was easier to get ready to "move out" of suite 1560.

Final dinner with our waiters Sherman and Norris

"The crew" - our final night in the Concierge lounge with Ovidu and Jason

It was a great time all around. We can't wait to plan another trip for next year!

(I will put up the professional pics we purchased in my next posting)

Honeymoon Cruise - Day 1 (Bayonne, NJ to open sea)

Well, day one of our honeymoon cruise is over, and it all went great. We arrived at the ship terminal, unloaded our bags, and within 7 minutes, we were checked in, given our SeaPass cards and seated in the “special” area for suite guests and Diamond or Platinum members, waiting for the shuttle to bring us to the ship. We did wait an hour and a half or so, but they served us stale cookies and some bad coffee – none of that mattered though – the excitement of the next 12 days made it all okay.

Once we got on the ship, our first priority was signing up for wireless. It was a bit disappointing to see that they charge .37/minute, but I can’t be cut off from the world for that long!! (I’m updating this the smart way – typing it all out in Word and copy/pasting into the blog to save time). We scoped out our dining room table, seeing that we’re at a table for 8 – right next to the Captian’s fancy table! We hear he will be joining us on Monday night’s formal Captain’s ball. We grabbed some lunch while enjoying the view of the NYC skyline, and our old Manhattan apartment building.

By this time we were able to venture into our room – the part we’d been most excited for. We are SO glad we splurged on the Grand Suite (thank you wedding Guests!!!) We have so much room, and a large balcony – it will make the 12 days much more relaxing for us. I’m excited about the double sinks and the tub in the bathroom. We can’t wait to hit the warmer weather so we can sit out on the balcony. It’s halfway through Monday and it’s still a bit too chilly. But thankfully, we haven’t hit any bad waters and haven’t noticed any more ship movement than normal – I was worried about that.

Well, I could go on and on about people we’ve met, the perks we’re enjoying from booking the suite, and the excursions we’ve booked (I’m nervous about a couple already!) But I will keep you all posted as the week goes on. Here are some of the pictures to share from yesterday - enjoy!

View from our balcony at the port:


Our Grand Suite:

(will add more pics if I can ... connection stinks!)

Janet Ann Bowler

January 30, 1929 - February 2, 2008

God saw she was getting tired

And a cure was not to be.

So he put His arms around her

And whispered, come with Me.

With tearful eyes we watched her suffer

And saw her fade away.

Although we loved her dearly,

We could not make her stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

Hard working hands to rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us

He only takes the best.

~ She will be missed ~

The Winefest

Last weekend, we ventured into Connecticut to meet up with our friends, Jeff & Anna, to go to the annual Sun Winefest at Mohegan Sun. We started out by tasting the many wines - I stuck to a few Rieslings, Jeff and Aaron tried whatever they could get to a table for ... Anna, well, she can't drink for another 6 months or so! :) We also tried out some of the food samples they had. Then we headed to the Ales & Spirits upstairs where we got to sample beers and liquors in tiny little Nyquil-sized plastic cups. The boys weren't impressed with the beer choices - most of them were what you can buy in the stores - not many new samples. But the vendors got creative with some of the liquors - they mixed them to make little mini-cocktails (in the cups!) My favorite was the pomegranate-martinis!! The boys really liked the VT maple vodka. And of course, Aaron & Jeff had to hit up a craps table ... it wouldn't be a trip to the casino if you didn't lose some money, right? It was a good time - and great to spend time with the Hladkys, as always!!

Check ... check ... is this thing still on??

Hi everyone! I've gotten a few nudges to update our blog - sorry for the delay to those of you who check it out once in a while. The past month and a half went by so fast with so much going on, that we're just now settling back down again - in 2008!!! So I'll start with a "Happy New Year" to all!!

Since November 30th, I've spent 19 days in Vermont so I could spend time with my family, especially my grandmother. The traveling back and forth made the month fly by, but I enjoyed the time I got to see her and everyone else.

I did get to attend the Annual Senesac Holiday Party this year. There were a LOT of people there, and lots of food and alcohol - good times! Aaron was still in NY during this time, but here are a few pictures from the party:



I'm still trying to get my invitations/announcements up and running. I finished an invitation order a few weeks ago, made samples for two others, met again with my first client (for whom I made save-the-dates for in November) to discuss her invitations, which I will be working on this month. I have 5 more people on my list to start working with - things are looking good and I'm looking forward to settling back into my "business". I'm currently trying to come up with a name so I can purchase a domain name and get a website going - I'm stuck on "Eventations" - let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas!

Aaron got out of most of the Christmas shopping, though he did come with me on a couple of trips out. Here's a picture of him playing with the welding goggles at Restoration Hardware (What a looker, huh?!)


We also walked around the city a few days before heading up to Vermont for Christmas. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree looked smaller to me than the ones in the past, but Aaron really liked the lights this year.


Aaron and I spent a quiet night back in Tarrytown on New Year's Eve this year - we were up for lots of junk food and a movie instead of crowds and booze. We have ALMOST mastered the right concoctions for Sonic strawberry-limeade slushes ... I'm addicted!

So, into 2008 we go ...

Turkey and "Poe-tay-toes"

We're back from our week in Texas. We did a lot of traveling, and are happy that we got to see so many people - 33 friends and family to be exact! We landed in Houston on Friday, November 16th and didn't stay in one spot for too long. Here's a map we put together to show our exact travel routes and stops throughout the week (you can click on it to see it larger):
And we're off! -- Houston to League City for Friday and Saturday; League City to Dallas and Lewisville on Saturday; Dallas to Lewisville and a "scenic" drive around Denton on Sunday; to Corinth for Sunday night; back to Lewisville and then Corinth again on Monday; Corinth to Austin on Tuesday; Austin to League City on Wednesday and remained there until Friday with a little visit down to Santa Fe in there on Thursday -- we'll quiz you all later ;0)

It was great to see the MacKenna family on Saturday. Uncle Pete and Aunt Sue were able to make it up for the wedding in Vermont and were kind enough to put together a dinner with Aaron's mom, Sharon, to celebrate our wedding with her. We had a great dinner where I (Sheila) got to meet the family - Matt, Marney, Jacob & Garrett and Jason, Ginger, Jackson & Mallory. Jesse came up with us and JP joined us for the dinner as well. We had a great meal and shared a slideshow of wedding photos with Sharon - she loved them!



We did spend time with Sharon on Sunday and Monday as well, and then went up to spend a couple of nights with JP before heading back down "south". We stayed at Jesse's place in Austin on Tuesday night and drove around downtown on Wednesday so I could take a look at the capitol (they wanted to rub in the size of their capitol compared to Vermont's). After that, it was back down to League City to spend time with Wade, Sawakon, Sean, Coriann, Raistlin, Rachel, and Roland. Thanksgiving Day was rather chilly, but Sawakon and Wade made a mean meal. Grandma made an appearance at the house for a quick bite to eat and then we were all off to visit Uncle Burt and Aunt Debbie and their clan at their new house. There, we saw Burt and Debbie; Nathan, Martha, Samantha & Christian; Melissa, Jody, Morgan & Jared and DeAnna. We were sad that we missed DeAnna's girls, Megan and Lauren, but we'll make sure we see them next time we're down.

All in all, through our coughs, colds and travels, it was a great time. My flying got a little better on the way home and we hope to plan another trip soon after the honeymoon. Thanks to everyone for making time (and sleeping space!) for us.

Andy Duback Photography

Well, we've gotten over 700 wedding photos from our photographer and they came out great! We sent the link to the online photos to everyone, but in case you'd like to look through them again, click here.
(The password is the state we got married in, and they're only up until January 2nd)

A few pictures also made it up onto Andy's website - the best one is being used on his main portfolio page (we're so happy the sun came out and he was able to get this shot). A few more of the photos are used in his portfolio - pages 2, 3 and 5.