And its back to work....

The vacation is over and its time to check in. Todd got up this morning, put on his Alphas and headed out to check into his new duty station. I had to take a picture because honestly, how handsome can you get?

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! It was hard to keep Todd's hands off the gifts til Christmas morning (if you left the room for a moment he would start shaking things) but he made it and we had a great time opening gifts! We didn't get a white christmas but the sun came out for the first time this week and it was a beautiful day! Thank you so much to our families, we can't believe how spoiled we are! We missed you all so much today!

We made a bit of a mess

hmm, what should I bake?

lookin' good honey

Showing off my new jacket

My Ironman: now he can train indoors when it snows

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

One of the things that I was most worried about was that we would be moving over Christmas. With it being our first Christmas as a married couple and Todd's first Christmas home in 2 years, we really wanted to make it special. Todd promised that wherever we were on Christmas that we would have a tree and celebrate properly and he made sure that it happened. We even packed all our ornaments in our car just in case. It could not have worked out more perfectly, we were able to unpack our whole house and then run out to start decorating for the holidays, you could not even tell that we'd been here less than a week.

Merry Christmas!

Our tree

Our stockings

Our wreath, not sure why this was such a priority but it went up even before our furniture came. You can see the boxes in the background.

Moving Day!

We can't believe how easy everything has been! Todd's Camero (after a little searching and begging) showed up untouched and all our furniture came just 2 days after we got here! The driver was in a hurry to get home to his family for Christmas so he came early! We could not be happier to have our things! The movers came at 7:30am this morning and were done by 9. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and wow are we tired! How did we accumulate so much stuff??

Our new home!

The man in charge

Our dining room

Our living room

We are here!

We are in Rhode Island...and its snowing! We were so anxious to get here so we decided to drive straight from Philly. I had no idea how close it was. It only took 4 hours and about 4 states to get here, super easy. We decided to meet up with our friends, JP and Jennifer in Providence to do a little last minute Christmas shopping and have dinner before heading to our new home, Newport. JP and Jennifer have an adorable house just down the street from where we will be living in Newport and were so kind to let us spend the night.

Rhode Island State Capital

Providence

Welcome to the city of brotherly love

We are in Philly!

Outside Independence Hall

Where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed...pretty cool!

Liberty Bell

Embarrassing roadtrip experience #1: After taking in the sights we were ready for dinner. We asked the receptionist at our hotel for a recommendation and she said we absolutely had to go to this italian place across the street. So we walked over there and walked into an incredibly fancy restaurant ...sweatshirts, tennis shoes and all. All the men had on tuxes, all the woman had on sequins and Todd and I had on beanies and faded jeans. Having too much pride to turn around and half expecting to be turned away...they sat us...in a very dark corner. The food was delicious but it was by far the most expensive meal we have ever had in sneakers.

We are in D.C.

We did more of a drive by of D.C. really. My dear dear friend, Nix and her lovely husband, Jason live here, and we were too busy hanging out with them to see anything. We stayed with them for the night and then in the morning we drove around the city. There was just too much to see so we figured we would come back and tour the city properly.

Freezing in Williamsburg

We had so much fun today. We loved walking around Colonial Williamsburg. It took us 10 hours to get here from Nashville so it was so nice to wake up and do something other then driving. It is however COLD! I have no idea how the Colonials stayed warm. If I set up a colony here, I think after one winter, I would seriously consider moving it, its freezing!

Walking back in time.

Todd did a little raking to help out the village

Todd outside the Governor's Mansion, not too shabby

This picture is for my dad...just look at all those Revolutionary riffles

Todd outside the Gun Magazine

Honey, I told you it was a bad idea to steal that horse

Honky Tonkin' in Nashville

I love Nashville! I have decided that this is where we are going to retire. Todd thinks its a bit soon to be making such a big decision but I am sold! We decided to take it slow today and hop over to Nashville from Memphis. It turned out to be a good decision, it poured rain on us the entire 4 hour drive so we were glad to get off the road. The native Californian in me was baffled...baffled, that it could rain consistantly for over 200 miles...I'm so sheltered!

Rain, rain...go away...

Nashville is commonly referred to as 'The Athens of the South' which was a total headscratcher for us until we found out that they have...drum roll please....a Parthenon! The reason they have a Parthenon, another headscratcher, intrigued us so we had to check it out. Apparently they built it for the Tennessee 1897 Centennial Exposition and by golly loved it so much that they made it permanent. Weird.

Toadi next to a ginormous statue of Athena

Hello!

After the Parthenon we decided to head to the main drag to have some lunch and listen to some up and coming country singers. The main street is lined with bars all boasting which country star they helped get their start. Every bar we passed had a live performer, it was the a great way to spend the day.

As if we didn't get enough at Graceland.

Welcome to Music City USA

Welcome to Crazytown!

Yes, we are in Memphis, TN. We pulled up to our hotel and guess what was across the street...Graceland. These people are nuts, there is Elvis stuff everywhere! We aren't particularly big Elvis fans but we couldn't resist walking across the street to take a peek. When in Rome right?

The signs in the parking lot of our hotel

The sign in front of our hotel

Our hotel pool

Todd making himself at home in 'The King's' livingroom

The TV room

Relaxing in his backyard

The King's grave

We're in Arkansas y'all!

I'm not sure if we were just glad to get out of Oklahoma City but we loved Arkansas! Oklahoma City was an interesting time. We thought our hotel was in a bad neighborhood but on further exploration, it seemed the whole city was a bad neighborhood. I'm sure we are wrong but if there is a nice area in town, we missed it. The actual state of Oklahoma was not bad, there just was not a lot to look at. There were quite a few famous people that came from OK, and when you ventured into their town, they reminded you constantly of that fact with signs and billboards. We drove through the birth place of Carrie Underwood, Garth Brookes and Troy Aiken. Arkansas was a nice change, it was very clean and the people could not have been friendlier.

Bye Oklahoma

A southern staple. Very yummy.

Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain...

Oklahoma....wow.

Deep in the heart of Texas!

Roadtrip Confession #1: The Coyers run-in with the law...
We are not particularly fast drivers and lets face it, we are driving the Civic deeming high speeds nearly impossible. That being said while happily cruising down I40, I looked in the rear view mirror and lo and behold...a Texas Ranger. Yes, I got pulled over. His reason...I was 'slightly' speeding. After many apologies we were given a warning and sent on our way. At further inspection of our warning citation we made a curious discovery...we were cited for going 70mph in a 70 mph zone...hmmm. Go figure.

Amarillo, TX. This restaurant was recommended by our travel book and it did not disappoint. It was the best BBQ we've had in a while and the portions were HUGE. We could barely walk after.

Todd rating: C+, he said the road was a bit dull but the food was good

Shan rating: B, I thought Texas was fun, the people were nice (even the Ranger) and the food was awesome!