by the way...

the pic of the water right below this post is of the ocean NOT the pool. thats what i love most about the caribbean! the water is incredible.

St Maarten

Brian and I went to St Maarten last week with my old college roommate Joclyn, and her fiance Josh. WHAT A GREAT TIME! We were there from sat-sat, the weather was great, the drinks were cheap, and the company was perfect =) For those that don't know, we bought a timeshare on a whim while on our honeymoon - we knew it was either going to be the best thing we've ever done, or the dumbest. It's workin so far! We were able to save points from last year (we went cross country last year instead of using the timeshare) so we had enough to get us a two bedroom, two and a half bathroom suite with a balcony overlooking the Great Bay on the southern part of the Dutch side of the island. The resort was awesome. We did some excursions, but there were a couple of days when all we did was take our time in the morning, eat breakfast on the patio then headed to the beach. It was super relaxing. It would get so hot that we would have to go in the water after 20 minutes, the water was nothing to complain about! we probably spent an equal amount of time just floating in the ocean as we did laying on the beach. We rented a car so we were able to explore...it's a very small island, 36 square miles, but they pack a lot into 36 miles! One half is owned by the dutch, the other half by the French. We only drove ourselves to the french side twice, and had an unbelievable meal. Apparently the french side is the culinary capital of the carribbean. It was good, but the area was kind of sketchy so we didn't hang around much after that. Turns out the dutch side had food that was just as good and it was closer so it was easier for Brian to drive on that side...the people there drive like maniacs so it was good that we just went a few minutes away each night after that. It's so sad but every morning i couldn't wait for dinner!! We went to a lot of suggested local places which I love doing. When i go somewhere I like to go places that say something about the place we're in. Every place we ate, we had a great view of the water. It's their slow season so nothing was every packed. It was awesome. The resort had a restaurant and a couple of bars so every night we would go back to the room, shower, play setback (boys vs. girls of course) on the deck, then get ready for the night. After dinner, we would go hang out with our fave bartender Leroy and watch the olympics. It was happy hour from 10-11 every night so drinks were half price, it was great. After that we'd all be wiped so we were in bed by 12 every night! so sad. it would have been better almost if there were more people on our resort, happy hour would have been more interesting if it was more than just the 4 of us...then we may have stayed out later! One night I went to bed and couldn't move, I thought i was just exhausted from the trip but then i realized i was just THAT relaxed. It's hard not to be when you're down there. No one stresses about anything...everything is on island time, food comes slower at restaurants, no one is in a rush. (except for the crazy motorcylcists). I'm obsessed if you couldn't tell. while we were there we did some snorkeling, and an ATV tour of the island, and ziplining through a tropical forest. Some of the pics I posted are of our resort, Gizmo the parrot, us taking a complimentary chocolate raspberry rum shot (unbelievable), our pool, the atv's, and the picture of the plane is at the airport...the island is so small that the runway is literally across the street from Maho beach, if you google it you will see a lot of cool pics, this plane wasn't that big so it wasn't as close to the ground, but it was still really neat to see (and loud!). when a plane would take off, once the jets started the sand on the beach would get blasted into the water, you don't want to be stuck behind that!!! GREAT VACATION! now back to work =(

Weekend festivities

Friday night my parents come down and we walked to a cute italian place in the center of town for dinner. We had never been there before and I love trying new places. It was great, we were there for three hours! Not b/c the service was bad, we were just having such a relaxing time, sitting on the patio on north main st, drinking wine and eating great food. It was planned at all, very last minute...sometimes those are the best times!!! Saturday morning we left early for VT, this time we took amanda and we had a blast. the weather was awesome and the boat was working again so we got some tubing, knee boarding, and skiing in. Still feeling the knee boarding 5 days later...took quite the face plant. Anyhow, another great weekend to add to the summer =)

Take a hike....

As usual, i'm a bit behind in my entries! Last friday brian and I took Champ hiking on sleeping giant mountain in hamden. What we thought was going to be a 45 minute "walk" ended up taking 2 and a half hours...oops. Clearly we're not experienced hikers! We ended up hiking 5.5 miles up, around, and down the mountain. We were under the assumption that the trail we took just did a loop and that we would end up back where our car was...WRONG. we ended up on the other sided of the mountain and then had to take a different trail back. it was an awesome workout though, and it really tired out champ, he loved it. We were a bit nervous b/c the trail was really rocky and steep at some points, but as we were sitting there trying to figure out how he was going to climb up the first steep part, we looked and he had already climbed up. so we knew the rest of the hike would be a piece of cake for him. thank God b/c sometimes when he gets tired and doesn't want to walk anymore he just lays down. do you know how hard it is to move 78 pounds of dead weight? thankfully he was having a blast and didn't have one problem. we got to the top of the mountain and the view was beautiful, who would have thought it would have been?? it's hamden,ct afterall. right after i snapped a pic, we heard a clap of thunder...great. luckily it remained sunny for the rest of the hike, although the thunder kept getting closer. It made things interesting thats for sure. It turned out to be a great day all around...i think Champ has been feeling neglected with the move and all of our traveling to weddings and what not so it was great to be able to give him our undivided attention for a few hours!

Country fest 08

Joclyn and Josh are getting married! YAY!

Playing catch up...

Things happen faster around here than I can write about them! (was that proper english??) anyhow, let's play some catch up...a few weekends ago, we went up to boston to celebrate joclyns (my college roommate for 3 out of 4 years) engagement! we had a nice dinner with joc and her "fiance" and jamie and her husband. On our way there we dropped a rescue lab off with it's new foster parents...that was an adventure! rex is a chocolate lab, 110 pounds, and loved running around our backseat. total opposite of champ who just lays down in the car. he was great though, a fun loving guy! i hope he gets a great forever home! anyhow, the rest of that weekend was pretty low key, hot dogs at gram and gramps, a trip to ikea with bri and my sisters followed by dinner and hanging out. the next day we went to a mass for my grandfather and then had a picnic at my parents house, it was a great low key afternoon. the next weekend we were at gillette stadium for the country fest featuring kenny chesney, keith urban, and leann rimes...it was an awesome concert! long day though...left around 730, picked up some friends along the way, and finally got settled in our prime tailgating spot by 11 AM. it was wicked hot...great weather for a couple drinks! i'll post some pics when i upload them. the concert started at 4, didn't end until 1130. LONG LONG DAY. but totally worth it! for the next three days after that it was birthdays galore! sunday was shannons (my sister) bday, went to the movies and had dinner and cake, the next day was amandas (my other sister) 21st bday! had a great dinner at Hot tomatoes in hartford with the fam, then we all went to a bar nearby (pigs eye for the locals reading this) and things got a litte crazy! to give you a quick idea of how the night went, my mom was behind the bar ringing the tip bell, amanda was swinging from the lights that hang over the pool table (per the bartenders request), there was some dancing on the bar thrown in there somewhere too. it was great, so much fun. it was a monday night so we had the bar to ourselves pretty much. brian and i left before my parents did...sad! the next night we were at the casinos for brians best friends bday. crazy few days. this past weekend we were 8 hours away, the most eastern part of the US pretty much, in Calais Maine for a wedding Brian was in. drove all day friday, rehearsal dinner friday night, wedding from 130-12 (yup, you read that right), then drove all day on sunday. needless to say, we're still recovering! so there ya go, in case you caught yourself thinking "hmm, i wonder what brian and emily have been doing with their lives" there's your answer =) meg told me the other day she hopes our future kids are easy going b/c we're always on the go...i'm looking forward to them slowing us down!!