Jonathan's 30th Birthday!

Two posts in two days?? That never happens! You know I must be slightly bored while here in Covington haha. It actually hasn't been too bad but I was hoping to make a trip to Goodwill tonight but found out at the last minute that the hotel shuttle doesn't go there. They do go to Walmart though which is actually a farther trip. Make sense? I didn't think so. Anyways, tomorrow I will be back in Houston with my husband! I'm looking forward to be home and having a long weekend!

So I need to continue catching you up with all that's been going on. Well I mentioned before that the cruise was partly a birthday thing for Jonathan. Well it wasn't just any birthday. This year he turned 30! It being Jonathan's 30th birthday, I knew I wanted to celebrate big. Unfortunately, with the cruise being the weekend after his birthday and us having a wedding before his birthday, we didn't have any time to do anything until the weekend after. (Not that we were upset for to be doing all those fun things.) I decided to plan a surprise scavenger hunt! Not only that, but I decided to make it 30 themed! Either the clue, activity, or both had 30 somewhere in it. I definitely had fun coming up with everything, and Rachel and Colleen helped me pull it off! Saturday morning I took Jonathan out to brunch. I took him to a restaurant called BRC, which has a great brunch and serves southern comfort food. Jonathan kept asking me what we were going to do all day and I wouldn't tell him anything. Meanwhile, Colleen and Rachel let our friends into our house so that when we got back home Jonathan was greeted by his surprise party! It worked like a charm!

Jonathan at brunch, clueless!

We took tons of pictures! At each location there was an activity that each team had to perform before getting the next clue. They were quite funny so I have to post some pictures!

Trying to get 30 ping pong balls out of a kleenex box taped to  their butt!

Then they had to complete a relay race while  keeping themselves on a towel!

Ok enough of the embarrassing photos! It was sooo much fun, and I have to say, I was very impressed with how well everyone did! Want to test your own Houston knowledge? Read the clues below and leave a comment with your answers!

1. Picture of a statue of George R. Brown
2. The second killer bee was traded to the Houston Astros on August 30, 1990. Go play some ball with him and take a picture!
3. 30 minutes into the game, 60 to go. Grab your cleats and head to the game
4. Did you know that Venus is just under 30 million miles from the Earth? (Approximately 25.8 million miles.) Lucky for us, we have the entire system here in Houston!
5. These owls aren’t at the zoo. You’ll want to find a building that’s fitting for today’s celebration
6. 30-love, don’t lose the game now. You’ll be remembered for this one
7. Phew! That took long enough. I think I’ve aged 30 years! First one back wins!

The winners!

Second place!

Third place! Hey that's still bronze!

After the scavenger hunt, we met back at our house and watched the videos of us all making a fool of ourselves. That is, until my computer decided to completely crash for no reason. No matter, we still found plenty of games to play and hung out all day! We had a 12 hour party! I think I'd call that a success!

Of course we had to sing the 30 year old Happy Birthday.

O yea, and the winners each won a Crave cupcake!
Everyone got one of these cupcakes that I made. Everyone was happy :-)

Fluxx!

Phase 10!

As you can see, Jonathan had a great birthday! The next day we slept in, lounged around, and watched the super bowl. It was an awesome weekend!

Until next time,
- Chelsey

Cruisin' Mexico

So I'm wayyyy behind on what's been going on lately. We've usually super busy but it's risen to a whole other level. Don't worry, it just means that I have more to right about on this little blog! Well I'm currently in Covington, LA for a business trip so hopefully I'll have some free time in the evenings to catch you up on everything. So following the weekend of Karen and Evan's wedding we headed out for a cruise! The cruise started the day after Jonathan's birthday so it was partially to celebrate his 30th but it was also for a bachelorette party for one of our friends. Surprisingly, it's not the first bachelorette party that Jonathan's attended. The cruise was out of Galveston and we rode up to Galveston Saturday morning and met for lunch at The Spot before boarding the ship. The food was great and we all got pina coladas that came in a coconut! Yum!

We're on a boat!

Leaving Galveston!

We had a blast on the cruise. I loved looking out at the water, watching the stars at night, exploring the ship, and going to all the activities on board. We spent most of the afternoons finding a spot with a good view by the water while reading. It worked perfectly because I loved being outside in the sun while watching the water and Jonathan loved relaxing and reading.

We took some breaks to take pictures.

Cozumel was really fun. We decided not to do an excursion and to just explore the island and I'm glad we did. We shopped, checked out downtown, had real Mexican food, and took a quick trip to the beach. It's definitely a different world there. They're willing to bargain and sell anything. We were even at one shop and the owner had an old car that Jonathan complimented him on. The guy offered to rent the car to us! Definitely sketch but that's Mexico for ya. The beach was beautiful! The water was so blue and we could see little fish swimming around our feet. The water was pretty cold so we just pulled up a few beach chairs and sat in the water. It was kind of unreal how pretty it was. They also had all these games on the water: a trampoline, rock wall, slide, etc. Although we were too cold to venture out there I thought it looked awesome! Probably doesn't pass the safety codes in the US or else they'd be everywhere.

Land ho!

Jonathan's first time in Mexico!

Can you believe that water?!?!

The main plaza in downtown Cozumel.

Look how huge that mango margarita is! 

A historic Catholic church in downtown.

I'm obsessed with these doors!

We stopped for coffee at....

...which you can tell by the name, is purely Mexican lol.

The beach!

Look how fun!

The water is sooo clear! I was in heaven...

The last night of the cruise we threw a surprise bachelorette party for Katie. It went great and Katie's mom brought so many great decorations for the shower. Katie was totally surprised! Afterwards, we danced the night away, especially after hearing that we would be delayed in getting back to Galveston weren't getting in until noon.

The group at the bridal shower.

And finally, more pictures that I just wanted to throw in here...

The obligatory towel animal pictures!

and group photos:

Dinner on our last night!

All dressed up for formal night!

As you can tell, it was really fun. It was nice to go on a short trip and explore a new city. Traveling is definitely a favorite of ours. Sorry for the picture overload! I always take way too many pictures when we go on trips :-)

Check back soon on what else has been going on in our crazy lives!

-Chelsey

Our First Wedding Since Our Own!

This past weekend Jonathan and I made a trip up to Austin for a wedding of a friend of mine from college. She was actually one of my roommates during my senior year! It was so great to see everyone! I got to see so many people that I hadn't seen since our wedding or even longer! I met Karen through my sorority at UT. People are often surprised to hear that I was a sorority girl but it was a Catholic sorority so it's much different than what you normally think of as a sorority. Really just an organization for Catholic women. I loved being involved with Mu Epsilon Theta in college. It gave me a home while being on such a humongous campus! Karen's wedding ceremony was held at the University Catholic Center on the UT campus which is where I spent a lot of time hanging out with friends. It was so great to get to go back to campus and reminisce. It had been probably over a year or more since I'd been back. Way too long!! Everything was exactly how I'd left it!

We got there early so we walked around campus a little before the ceremony:


The tower! The heart of campus!

View from the main mall with the state capitol in the distance.

The UT campus is so pretty :-). Before we knew it, it was time for the wedding! Here's a picture of the chapel right before the ceremony started:

It was a beautiful ceremony! Karen is never one for making decisions so instead of picking one color for her wedding, she chose 5! Each bridesmaid and groomsmen wore a different color and carried a matching lantern instead of a bouquet. It was so pretty and really symbolic of how their marriage is a light to the world.

The reception was held at Maggiano's Little Italy and it was a fantastic venue! The food was great and there was tons of it! The service was amazing, the place was beautiful, and we had plenty of fun on the dance floor. All of our tables were named after different TV shows that Karen and Evan love to watch. I was a bit disappointed to not get to sit at the Boy Meets World table but our table was full of fun people. We were the Firefly table, and proud of it! Karen and Evan were announced for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. and took their first dance:

By the way, Evan can dance! He has taught ballroom dancing at UT! I felt a little intimidated but that didn't stop me from getting out on the dance floor!

I did manage to get a few pictures with the bride!

She's so beautiful!!!

 

Roommates!



All the Mu Epsilon Thetas! Mu love!

And one of us...

He's so handsome...

Karen's aunt made her dress! Can you believe that??? Especially when her aunt lives in Maine! I'm amazed she could pull that off, but Karen looked absolutely stunning! Her cousin also made her wedding cake. I want connections like hers!

It was so great to see so many friends and to catch up with each other. After the reception we all headed to a friends apartment to play cards. It was a hilarious card game called Cards Against Humanity. It's like Apples to Apples but more "adult", if you get what I mean haha. We played that for a few hours and then headed back to the hotel. As we were entering the hotel we notice Karen and Evan sitting there. They were there hanging out with their family! How lucky were we to get to see the bride and groom again?? They seemed to have a great time at their wedding and it went perfectly. We chatted for awhile until we realized that it was past 2am and Karen and Evan had to leave for their flight at 7am that morning. We said goodbye and wished for them to have a great time on their honeymoon.

Sunday morning we didn't have time to do much since we had to get back to Houston to celebrate Jonathan's birthday with our parents. However, we did manage to sneak in some time for mass, Mangia's pizza, and the arboretum! Mangia's is one of my favorite restaurants in Austin. They serve deep dish pizza they way you're supposed to make deep dish pizza: sauce on top, then cheese, and then toppings! I spent the first 10 years of my life in Chicago so I'm very partial to Chicago style pizza! It's so good! I do not think any other type of pizza qualifies as a pie... Anyways, this kind of pizza is so hard to find in Texas so I'm always stoked when we're in Austin and can go to Mangia's. Just look!



Yummmm!

We finished our trip with some Amy's Ice Cream and this beautiful view from the Arboretum:




It's nice to get to Austin and see the hills. Houston is seriously flat. Normally I don't mind, but it's refreshing to see rolling hills every now and then.

I had a blast at the wedding! I was totally reliving every minute of our wedding the whole time putting me on cloud nine haha. It didn't hurt that our friends were also telling us how amazing our wedding was too. Even Karen said so! Don't you worry, hers was up there. We settled on my wedding being the best of 2012 and hers of 2013. We both win anyways because we get to be married to our loves! Sorry to be so cheesy...weddings really bring it out in me.

Until next time,
-Chelsey