Monday, July 19, 2010

More 10th Anniversary Stuff

I made up this little slideshow of our trip to Anguilla as well as some snapshots from the past 10 years. Yes, it has been almost a month since our anniversary, but hey, we're still celebrating. Many pictures include the boys as well, because we just can't imagine the last few years without Dalton and Colby.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010

10th Anniversary

Shane and I went to the island of Anguilla to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We wanted to go someplace very special. We had researched and planned for months before deciding to go to the resort of Cap Juluca in Anguilla. We were wanting to go somewhere that had a great beach and a place where we could afford to get a beachfront room. Throughout our research we found that this resort had all beachfront rooms no matter what category, and we also found that the island of Anguilla is known for its great beaches and beautiful turquoise water. I previously knew very little about Anguilla and had never even known anyone who had been there, but everything we read about it sounded awesome so we thought we'd try it out and go ahead and book our stay.
Everything we read about Anguilla and Cap Juluca turned out to be true. When we arrived at the resort we were just in awe. And when the lady at check-in told us we had been given a great upgrade we were just giddy. We just couldn't believe we had been upgraded to a pool villa!! We had our own private pool!! We just didn't know what to do with ourselves. When we were taken to our villa I just couldn't stop looking at the view and the huge villa that we were upgraded to. Shane and I just kept thinking there must be some mistake and someone was going to come and tell us that they've made a mistake and tell us we were in the wrong villa.

We've been to a few different islands in the Caribbean, but this was truly the most beautiful place I've ever been. The water was the prettiest I've ever seen and the beach was amazing as well. The resort catered to our every whim and was always there for us no matter what was needed. While laying out on the beach, a beach attendant would bring a chilled towel around 12:00 and complimentary sorbet around 3:00. And whenever you would go pick out your lounge chairs, the attendant would bring a cooler filled with iced bottled waters. Ahhhh!! So nice!! The island has an amazing selection of different fine dining restaurants for being such a small island of just 16 miles long. We rented a jeep for a couple of days to tour around the island to try out a few different restaurants. We went to 4 different restaurants and they were all just fabulous! I loved trying out such new places! Such fun!
I could just go on and on about how beautiful this place was! My theory about the Caribbean is that there are so many different islands with their own unique personality that why would I want to go to the same one again when there are so many other islands to explore. But Anguilla has kind of changed my mind about that. It was such a slice of heaven that it will be hard to ever go anywhere else!
Our villa and lounge chairs.


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Fishing in the Gulf

A couple of weeks ago Shane, one of Shane's friends, and I went out fishing in the Gulf out on the flats of Steinhatchee, Florida. We went with a guide. We had been talking about going out with a guide for a while to try to learn a little more and catch a lot of fish. We got an early start and headed out on the water. It was fun to go with a guide because he provided all the bait and took care of everything we needed pretty much and he knew all the best places to fish. We were mainly fishing for trout, but we also went fishing for some redfish. I caught one redfish that was the biggest fish I'd ever caught in my life. It was 28 1/2" long and weighed over 6 pounds. Pretty cool. Here's some pics of some of our catch:
(Sorry, can't figure out why this is underlined)




Here's Shane trying to reel in a pretty good sized shark