BERMUDA!!

And now on to our cruise to Bermuda: On Sunday afternoon, we boarded our ship in New Jersey and left for a seven day cruise to Bermuda.  We had a great time - lots of relaxing, good food, sun and spending time with family.  Our ship (seen below) was The Summit with Celebrity Cruises.  We spent two days at sea, three days in Bermuda and then another day at sea before returning back to the states.

 Our first formal night - before dinner picture 

Bermuda was beautiful!  The water was crystal clear blue the temperature was in the 70's which was a nice relief from all of this hot weather we have been having around here...

The view from our balcony - A fort in the bay in Bermuda

The first day that we got off the ship, we decided to take a tour of the island with my Mom and Aunt Delila.  (We had to do something low key that the preggo was allowed to do... no snorkeling or wind surfing here...)  None of us realized how big and nice Bermuda is... we are much more used to the Bahamas that have good parts and bad parts - Bermuda is all nice.  It is a British territory and you have to be a citizen of Bermuda to buy property or move there... they do not let just anyone in!  They are the third most populated country per capita in the world - it is certainly crowded and they can't let everyone move there that wants to...

We visited lots of scenic beaches on our tour... complete with Pink Sand.  (Although it was not quite as pink as I had imagined...)  The pink sand comes from the coral reefs.

We took a tour of  Crystal Caves that was beautiful - lots of rock formations - not quite the same as the ones I was used to seeing in Tennessee or other places in the US that have a lot more RED dirt that causes the formations to be more colorful.  These were mainly white, but still beautiful.

We went to the Aquarium and Zoo and Josh took this awesome picture of a sea turtle - so pretty.

The next day, Josh went snorkeling with my Aunt Sissy, Uncle Jean-Claude and cousins Christian and Natasha while I went on a glass bottom boat tour with my Mom and Aunt Delila.  We all had a lot of fun and then after meeting back on the ship for lunch, Josh and I headed across the port to take a tour of the fort.  There was a pool in the back where they had dolphins that you could swim with or watch do tricks - picture below.  

View from the Fort Back to the ship

Inside the commissioner's house - in the process of full restoration

Overall the vacation was relaxing and a lot of fun - definitely something that we needed before this busy summer of work travel and getting ready for our baby boy!

2 DAYS in NYC

Finally an update on our trip to New York from a couple of weeks ago.  Josh and I flew into NYC to spend a couple of days site-seeing before meeting up with my family to take a cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda.  We were so excited to take advantage of some time in the BIG APPLE.  We stayed in a hotel near Times Square which is of course a very touristy area, but it was very easy to hop the subway and get to wherever we wanted to go from there...

On DAY 1 we did a lot of walking from times square through mid town and up to central park.  We visited Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral and FAO Schwarz.  

 Preggo in Grand Central Station

 In front of Rockefeller Center

 30 Rock?

 Josh with Leggo batman in FAO Schwarz

For lunch with were able to meet up with Tasha - my college roommate and our good friend.  Tasha's parents still live in Jax as well and so we occasionally get to see her over Christmas Break when we are all home.  Tasha works and lives in Manhattan (fascinating, I know!)... We live vicariously through her :).  She took us to this really nice sandwich place a couple of blocks from the Plaza.  While inside, we saw Patrick Duffy (from Dallas and STEP by STEP) eating lunch in the corner - I took an awkward stalker picture of him that I will not share... we were all excited to see a celebrity!

After lunch we took a walk through central park (remembering just how big it really is...)

 Bridge from Enchanted??

 Lovely afternoon in the Park...

That night we went to see The Lion King on Broadway.  It was amazing.  We loved the sets, costumes, puppets and of course, the music!  The theatre was literally one block from our hotel (very convenient).  

On Day 2 we headed downtown to the Financial District to check out the new World Trade Center buildings.  The main tower is massive.  It is now all framed out and they are finishing with the exterior glazing.  It was unbelievable to see stand under it and see the scale.  We did not realize that you had to sign up in advance to be able to tour Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial... we were only able to walk the surrounding blocks.  

From there we walk to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty across the water... there she is pretty small in the picture below...

After lunch we decided to walk the Brooklyn Bridge - it was beautiful!  I must say, it was pretty tiring and hot to make it to the top, but the whole other side was downhill and so it got better.  One request that this pregnant woman would like to make: a bathroom at the top.  

This is definitely something that we were excited to do and can now mark it off of Josh's bucket list!

On the other side of the bridge, we landed in Brooklyn Heights.  We absolutely loved the neighborhood, so we decided to walk around a bit.

On Sunday morning (day 3) we went to a local breakfast place around the corner from our hotel and then packed up and met my aunt, uncle and cousins to catch a van to New Jersey and board the ship to Bermuda!!  I will update soon with our actual cruise to Bermuda...

Birmingham Shower for Baby Boy Hewiett

This past Saturday, June 23rd some of my sweet friends in Birmingham threw a baby shower for Baby Boy Hewiett - shower hostesses (shown here on the left) were Laura, Katie and Tara.  The shower was for brunch at Tara's house.  There was such a nice turn out of our good friends from Birmingham and it was so nice to catch up with everyone.  We are so thankful for all of the wonderful gifts that they gave Baby Boy Hewiett.  

"H" sign for our Baby Boy - hung on the door for the shower :) 

Gift Table 

Food Table 

Eating during the shower... 

Opening Gifts - A bobby pillow (I have heard this is a must!!) 

Little Gator :) 

 Can't wait to dress our little man :)

Christine and Levi (The life of the party!) 

 Capstone Peeps: Sarah Harper, Rebecca, Tara & Katie

Sarah and I - thank you so much for coming!! 

 Small Group: Laura & Katie

The weekend was a lot of fun - Sarah drove down on Friday night from Jackson to stay with us.  Josh drove us to Birmingham Saturday AM and then we shopped in Birmingham after the shower before heading back to Huntsville to (first rest) and show Sarah around Huntsville.  Sarah - THANK YOU so much for coming this weekend - I am so glad you could be there :).  And thanks to my sweet husband for chauffeuring two pregnant women around all day - we got lots of looks, to say the least.

Thank you so much to my sweet hostesses and to everyone that came to the shower.  We appreciate everyone so much and are so blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Happy Monday everyone - I am (trying) to be better about the blog updates... still to come: NEW YORK and our CRUISE updates as well as some of the work we have been doing to the house!  I hit the road (airways??) in two weeks for a month and a half for work - I have 4 installs to complete before finishing up mid-August just in time for our friends and family showers in Jax.  More posting soon!