ABC party and Tide Pools

The beginning of May seemed to be packed. First we said goodbye to our bud Frank, but not before he threw one last party : ABC Party (Anything but clothes). The costumes were out there that is for sure and we all had a great time. A few weeks later it was time to say goodbye to one of my best island friends Jenny, although we never thought she'd actually leave. She was flying standby and it took the poor girl three tries to get off this rock! One Saturday I was also fortunate enough to go to the Tide Pools with Daniel and Kyle. we climbed, we swam, we jumped, I fell (typical), and of course we mudded in the jeep on the way back and stopped to get Kyle some food, go figure.

Kristina, Kyle and me

Hovensa Boys : Please note Daniel started off with no costume, then went to clothes with box, clothes with box with tie, box with tie with undershirt, then box tie sans undershirt. all of this was parallel to how empty the Jack Daniels got, coincidentally :)

Jenny's going away dinner : take one :)

Tide pools: Daniel jumping off the cliff

True Katie style- slipped on the rock and let with some shiny war wounds

Daniel and Kyle climbed, I stayed on lower ground

Kyle kickin it 80's style My jump that I was scared of for no reason. Silly boy getting me all worked up

April Showers bring.... MORE VISITORS!

In April, Daniel's cousin Michelle and 4 of her teacher friends came to St. Croix for their Spring Break. We had such a blast getting to know all of the girls and having them here. The first night they were here we went to disco and another night we drug them to a white trash bash at our friend's place. Poor girls being subjected to that. The last night we spent at where else, the Brew Pub.The girls before disco Top (L-R) Stephanie, Anna, Lindsey (Darbs), me, Megan
Bottom : Michelle and AshleyBefore dinner at Dashi and then the white trash bash!

Frank and Chis at the White trash bashThe girls' last night in STX

March- Jobs, parades and visitors!

March was a big month around here. I started a job as a nanny for a family just up the street. When I started the oldest was four years old and the baby was not quite three months old. Right after I started I took a week off because we had a gang of visitors come in town. Mom, Dad, Mr. & Mrs. Nicholson, Amy, Jana, Mary Kay and Lois & Paul all came down. We had such an awesome time with them and tried to get in as much as we could. There was golfing for some, Hotel on the Cay bar-b-que for all, snorkeling at Buck Island and lots of relaxation. There was even a vendor from Daniel's work who took the group (minus the Nicholson gang who had already headed home) our to Savant for an excellent dinner. The day that everyone flew down was the St. Patricks Day Parade which is always a blast. If you've never been to St. Croix, that is the time to go!

my first paycheck!St. Patty's Day Parade!

The three amigas- Caitlin, Katie and Kristina

My lover and me.. haha

Amy and me!

The rest of December

When we left Vegas, we headed for Memphis. It was time for some r & r, or as much as one can get when having to divide times between families and friends. We also headed down to Alabama to visit Mr. and Mrs. Horn, as well as Daniel's sweet grandmother in Oxford. What was really neat about this Alabama trip was that while we were in Birmingham we went to the assisted living facility where Big Daddy and Big Mama, Mr. Horn's parents live, and had an awesome dinner with Mona and Wobby and Diane and James and their grandson Skyler. I had never met Diane and her family and it was great to see Mona and Wobby again so it was a really nice time to have together.

We headed back up to Memphis for Christmas with our families and had a great time there. We spent Christmas Eve, as we have every year we have been together, with Daniel's family. His sister and Mackenzie weren't able to make it that day so we went down to Tunica and ate at the Paula Deen buffet, seriously you haven't tasted good until you have had some of that macaroni and cheese and fried green tomatoes (I don't sound like a fatty there or anything). We had Christmas with everyone, Mack and Jess included, the Saturday after Christmas and we even went bowling. Dick and Daniel showed all of us girls up, but I think we did pretty well holding our own.

On Christmas morning we were at my mom and dad's and Bub and Brooke came over. We had a great brunch, as always, courtesy of Mom and then opened up our gifts and had some good quality family time.

New Year's was lots of fun. We went to Amy and Brandon's house and had a quiet evening. Just our style! We were able to catch up with the old Corbin gang and Daniel got his video game fix with the boys while the girls chatted away down stairs.

After the New Year came the inevitable, time to head back to our little piece of paradise. While it's always hard to say goodbye (yes, I still cry when I say bye to my mom and dad) it was nice to get home and have our own place with our own things!

Antigua

For Christmas Daniel surprised me with a trip to Antigua. We have thoroughly enjoyed traveling the Caribbean and will miss these opportunities when we are gone. Anyway, we stayed at the Sandals resort and were there for 5 days. We had a blast on resort as well as SCUBA diving and exploring the island.
This is Devil's Bridge. People sold into slavery would runaway to this bridge and throw themselves into the tumultuous waters to avoid the horrors of slavery.

Where the waves crash into, presumably killing the slaves. Freaky.

Daniel on the bridge.

The wave attacked me

Big-bada-boats!

I don't know what this church is, but I just think it is adorable. I made Daniel go back by a second time so I could take more pictures. Funny enough my friend Evers just went there and took pictures of the exact same church.

Shirley's Heights. It overlooked Nelson's Dockyard and all of the island, really.

Dinner at Elinor's. The somelier was awesome and helped us pick out this bottle of Sangiovese!

We had pictures taken by the Sandals people, but this is just one some lady took. I have such a handsome husband.

Our last night. Isn't the sky beautiful!

Viva Las Vegas

After Matt and Jamie's wedding we headed over to Sin City for a little fun with old friends. While there we stayed at the MGM Grand and met up with Austin Walker, Justin Yarbrough, Faron and Charlie Davis, all Auburn Phi Tau alums like Daniel. We had a great time and made some lifelong memories Daniel and me at the Luxor

Austin, me and the blue men

You can't really see us but that is us under the Vegas sign


I made him get the same picture that mom and I took when we were there for my 21st

California Part III- Playing tourists

Sunday, our last day in LA, was a very lovely day. First, we went to a post wedding brunch at Jamie's mom and stepdad's house. This brunch introduced me to my new weakness- HALLAH BREAD! Holla for Hallah! Afterwards, Daniel and I went exploring Hollywood with my Aunt Lori, Uncle Kevin Edwards, Ben, Meg and Nick. Later that night we met up with Uncle Kevin Ehrhart, Susie and Big Kev's friend for dinner at a charming Italian restaurant in Santa Monica. This place also had bread to die for and the whole restaurant chimed in to sing That's Amore! Chinese Theatre

Cousin Nick decided that Daniel needed some hair



Hollywood sign, we definitely trespassed into a neighborhood to take these really fast