Puerto Rican Getaway

A couple weekends ago, I met up with Blaine in Puerto Rico. He was working there that week and we decided to make a little trip out of it. Since Blaine travels so much, he has racked up quite a bit of free hotel stays with Marriott. But since he barely has any time off, he has no time to use them other than on short weekend trips. He was super excited for this trip since he's been to Puerto Rico several times, but it has been all work and no play. 

I flew in late on Friday night so Saturday we took it slow and just went to Luquillo Beach and relaxed. Even though there are beaches in Miami, we get so busy on the weekends that we rarely go. Also, the hilly views from this beach were gorgeous. 

We had coconut and parcha (passion fruit) homemade ice cream. So good!

Then for lunch we headed to Old San Juan. We ate at a tiny hole in the wall that surprisingly served up some pretty dishes!

Tostones rellenos

Arroz mamposteao

We went back to the hotel and passed out of how tired we were. As much as I wanted to explore Puerto Rico some more, we were both too tired! For dinner, Blaine took me to his favorite spot in Conrado. It's an Argentinian place called Ummo. We ordered gnocchi with ricotta and short ribs - this is what Blaine always orders and now I understand why. It was out-of-this-world amazing.

The next day, we got up early to try to do as much as possible on our last day here. We went to the caves in Camuy - the 3rd largest cave system in the world. I wasn't too excited at first but this was so cool! 

Loved the sun rays everywhere!

Biggest stalagmite in the cave

See the profile of an indian on the right?

Drinking natural purified water

With el coqui - Puerto Rico's unique frog

After our hike in the caves, we went to the observatory in Arecibo that was only 20 minutes away. It's the world's largest radio telescope and it was HUGE. It wasn't my favorite thing that we did in Puerto Rico, but it was definitely impressive.

We went back to San Juan to visit Old San Juan - my favorite part of Puerto Rico, for lunch. I love all of the different colored buildings and the cobblestone streets. 

We stopped by El Jibarito for mofongo de yuca. I love traditional mofongo, but mofongo de yuca is so much better and I can't find it anywhere in Miami. It was so good. 

The inside of the restaurant reflected the buildings outside

This purple building made me happy

We saw quite a bit of classic cars too

We walked (almost ran) all the way to El Morro because we had an hour before it closed. We made it just in time and at the perfect time. Since it was close to closing for the day, there weren't many people there and we had a pretty magnificent view of the sunset from the fort. It was also breezy and the weather was perfect. Everybody was flying their kites that day. We had so much fun roaming around this massive structure. Blaine liked it a lot more than he expected. It's so impressive. We'd like to go back again and read a little bit more about its history instead of racing through it.

Blaine deducted that this was the cooking hall and later on we found out he was right!

An original canon

Gorgeous or what?

Blaine in a  prisoners cell

This picture doesn't do it justice

We walked back to Old San Juan and ran into the Catholic church where Blaine's great grandmother was baptized. We didn't know this until later in our trip and couldn't go inside to see the actual ledger with her name on it because it was closed. But it was still neat to see it from the outside. Its crazy to think that Blaine's ancestors are from here!

Puerto Rico was so much fun and a much needed trip. I realized that Blaine and I have rarely taken trips alone. It was so great to be together and not worry about anything and do whatever we wanted to do. It was also fun for Blaine to have fun in Puerto Rico instead of just work there. As you can see, he was very excited for me to be there with him. Love that man! 

Being that Blaine will be there very often, this won't be our last trip to the Isle of Enchantment. We love it! 

Demery & Kevin's Wedding

Demery & Kevin were married on the 5th of October and we were so happy that we were able to go to their wedding! It was a beautiful day and a fun wedding. Demery looked gorgeous and so happy. It was great. And of course we were ecstatic to see our family. It was too short of a trip to Delaware, but we really enjoyed our time there.

We celebrated Blaine & Stacey's birthdays one night after a big family dinner.

It was a lot warmer than expected!

Poppy & Stace dancing. Poppy's still got it!

Chase & Blaine dancing.

The centerpieces - Blaine's dad made them!

We loved spending time with Stacey - missed the kids!

With Mr. & Mrs. Garber - We're happy to have Kevin in the family!

September

Again, I have falling behind on blogging. October is here and next thing you know it'll be 2014. Does anybody else feel like this year is just flying by? As much as I love the holidays and fall (even though fall is nonexistent in Miami - more on that later), I wish time would just slow down a bit. Anyway, here's what happened in September. 

For Labor Day, we went on a boat ride with my uncle, cousin, Bruce and Damaris. He bought a boat recently and we didn't use it all summer. It was a pretty gloomy day but it was still fun to ride. I didn't get in the water because I felt pretty sick, but everybody else did. 

Ivan turned 8! The baby of the family is now ready to be baptized (he's receiving discussions now). Kinda crazy! We love being around for things like this!

We moved into our own place! We decided not to buy a home. We really needed our own space already, even though my mom is great and buying a place would've meant living with my mom longer. And as much as I'd like to stay in Miami or Florida for as long as we can, our future is definitely uncertain. We're in a 1 bed/1 bath apartment in Miami Lakes right across the street from Main Street - a cute little area with restaurants, a theater, some shops and Coldstone - that's the most important part. We're still fairly close to my job and stayed within ward boundaries. Even though we've been in here for a little while now, I'm still not completely settled in. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm comfortable with my mess! :) Even though it is lonely being entirely by myself when Blaine is gone, it is so nice to have all my stuff back, and having my privacy again. 

Sometimes on Sunday, Blaine and Bruce like to match :) 

We're currently obsessed with Suits.

I hung out with my friends one last time before Andrea made the move to L.A. We ate at a nice thai place in Weston.  When we get together like this, I (strangely) miss our high school days. They were so much fun and I owe it all to these girls. 

A parent of a patient surprised me at work with this awesome gift. Her son is 4 years old and was barely speaking when he first came to me and couldn't sit down for more than a minute for the life of him. Even though there's still a lot of room for him to grow, he's made significant progress. He was one of my first kids and one that I was honestly afraid of treating. Months went by without any progress which was so discouraging and frustrating. Now, he's one of the kids I look forward to seeing the most.  It was really nice of the family to show their gratitude. The Nothing Bundt Cakes were amazing, but what I really loved was the note on the card. Funny thing is Blaine's birthday was that weekend and I had already ordered a Nothing Bundt Cake for his birthday. Needless to say, we had cake for days! No joke I ate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner one day. Who could blame me? 

Blaine turned 26! My man is getting old - joking I still think he looks like he's 19. To celebrate, we went out to Perricone's for dinner with my family. With him being away so much, we just wanted to stay at home that weekend and be together. 

The last week of September, my job hosted a Spirit Week. Dressing up for spirit week was one of my favorite things to do in high school. We had Sports Day, Pajama Day, Superhero Day, Nerd Day and MTC Spirit Day. I dressed up everyday except for Nerd Day (which was my favorite costume) because I was so sick. But it was really fun to incorporate these things into therapy sessions and to have some kids show up in costume. I really love my job! 

One of the sassiest girls I know!

Sports Day

Even Baby Logan dressed up!

Some of my favorite books

And I forgot to take pictures the rest of the days... anyway, it was fun. 

In September, Blaine traveled to Hartford Connecticut, Sarasota and Puerto Rico. They just switched him over to a bunch of Puerto Rico stores so he'll be there more often now (we should've just moved there!). Needless to say, he's practicing his Spanish a ton. And that's what our September looked like!