Sad, the last full day of the honeymoon! Luckily, it was an amazing last day. Andy and I decided to get massages at the spa at the resort. We just wanted to spend our last day really relaxing since this was vacation after all. Andy always complains about one of his shoulders hurting so I knew he'd love a massage and I was right. But, what I didn't expect was that the ladies at the spa were actually genuinely concerned about how knotted and stiff his shoulders are. At the end of the massage we were shown a basket of different types of products we could purchase including a neck and shoulder wrap that you microwave. We passed on all these purchases despite their insistence that this hot wrap would really help Andy.

We changed and made our way back to the lobby where we were greeted by the friendly staff again and the one lady had a wrap in her hand! She handed it to Andy and told him it was for him to take for free as "part of a special promotion". The whole thing was shady and I'm pretty sure it was a special promotion just for Andy. In any case, he has a nice hot wrap that I insist he uses every time he complains about his shoulder!!

We grabbed a nice lunch outside at Neptune's again. Andy had a calamari appetizer and roasted chicken. I went with a salad, the vegetarian dolmas and the delish veggie wrap I had earlier in the week. I still need to figure out how to recreate their pesto vinaigrette because I loved it.

After lunch we wanted to enjoy a little more time in the pool so we swam and drank a few more dirty bananas! Unfortunately, rain also blew in and cut pool time short.  But, it was about time for photoshoot so the rain was a good chance to shower and do my hair. We'd won some free photos from the onsite photographer at a raffle on our first night. We got 5 free photos. Considering they charge you over $15 per picture they take on site, this was a sweet deal! We met with a nice photographer and walked around the resort and snapped photos. We then choose our 5 favorites to keep!!

The photoshoot was perfect because we also had to dress up for dinner. We had reservations at the swanky French place La Toc for our last evening. We were really excited for this dinner!! We settled in for our reservation and ordered appetizers. We started with tuna carpaccio and sea scallop with bacon! Then we had a special amuse- bouche. I was PUMPED! I watch far far far too much food related television and every cooking challenge has chefs make a one bite wonder. The top chef fan in me was a little too excited.  It was a teeny bay scallop with a salmon mousse and cavier topped with a free dried basil leaf! YUM!!!

Being at a French restaurant, I of course, ordered my favorite soup... FRENCH ONION! Andy for a salad with caramelized onion, his favorite. For the main event, Andy went with lamb over mashed potatoes, asparagus and bean ragout. I had duck in cranberry sauce over smashed potatoes, plaintains, asparagus and beets. I love cranberry sauce so this was like fancy thanksgiving dinner. Dinner definitely lived up to the hype. We finished the evening with dessert. We had creme brulee and cheesecake with blueberries. Custard-like desserts and cheesecakes are my favorite so this was a perfect way to end our last dinner. We left very full and very happy.

Unfortunately, Monday came too quickly and the next morning we basically packed, had breakfast and one final chance to stroll around before we were off to the airport. Luckily we made it home with no problems. We arrived in Gulfport late at night and our dear Amanda picked us up and brought us to our car. We made the hour and half drive home and finally got home to see Parker and Violet around midnight!

It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to do it again!

I decided it was time to take a little break from the Honeymoon blogging to do a little wedding recap. I just redid the blog banner so I thought a little actual wedding blogging was in order. What's been on my mind today was our music choices!

As you all know, I put off picking music for quite some time. Not for any reason other than I was busy. But, choosing our music quickly became one of my favorite parts of the wedding.

For a long time, all I considered was the song we'd walk into at the reception. Several years ago when Carly got married she "asked" me if she and Andy could use "my song" aka SexyBack. Since they were getting married first, it only seemed right they use my song (sidenote: Carly, since you're having a baby first you're welcome to my babynames too). Well, sadly, SexyBack is not cool anymore so that was off the list.

Then sometime in the fall of 2010, I proclaimed to Andy "we should use the Black Eyed Peas song!!" I thought I was super clever since tonight was going to be a good good night. Andy laughed at me and said "Dan and Teresa JUST used that at their wedding". Ugh!!! Plus, I had a whole year to go so anything on the radio in 2010 was probably going to be terribly overplayed by my 2011 wedding. So, I stopped trying to pick songs.

Finally, summer 2011 rolled around. It was finally time to pick a song!!! Luckily for me, I quickly became obsessed with Party Rock Anthem and spent the entire summer driving around to that song. But, the reception entrance song was suddenly the least of my worries.

Next, it was onto our mother-son and father-daughter songs. First, an awful lot of the "choices" are strange love ballads. Luckily, Andy and his mom settled on Rascal Flatts "My Wish" which is a good solid choice. My dad and I went with Loudon Wainwright's "Daughter". My dad has been a Loudon fan for quite some time so it seemed like a good choice. Ironically, this song plays during the credits of Knocked Up. And its gaining popularity. Carly used it at her wedding as did Andy's friend Heather this past summer.

The ceremony was definitely the hardest but I am very happy with our choices. In fact, hearing one of the songs on the radio today got me thinking about writing this blog. We chose an instrumental version of Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" for the processional of the bridesmaids. I've always liked the song in general but the instrumental version is really pretty but not too traditional so it was a great fit!

Then, for my entrance, I went with an instrumental version of Here Comes the Sun. I am a giant Beatles fan. And, my love of the Beatles is something I've shared with my dad. Since he was walking me down the aisle it seemed very fitting. In fact, after the ceremony I had my uncles give me props for the song choice here. I was really happy with it.

When it was all over Andy and I and the rest of the wedding party walked out to Coldplay's Viva la Vida. It was just pretty, upbeat and seriously who doesn't like Coldplay... they rule the world. Now it makes me happy whenever I hear it because I remember the wedding.

By far, my favorite choice though was our first dance song. Andy and I talked about this for a long long time. There are so many options for a first dance song. But, we ended up choosing something so personal that ended up being a big surprise to my family. My darling cousin Kenzie has a beautiful voice. Years ago when she was in high school she recorded a few songs in the studio with my Uncle Tom playing guitar. She then sent out her CD to all the family and its been in my music library since then. One of the songs she recorded was "I'll Be". I've always loved the song but NOT Edwin McCain. Kenzie's version is lovely!!

Andy and I decided this was a great choice and I quickly emailed Kenzie to ask her permission to use her song. Of course she agreed. But, we didn't end up telling anyone about our choice. It wasn't intentional, it just didn't really come up. Kenzie didn't mention it either. On the day of the wedding, I asked our DJ to announce that the song was by my cousin. Apparently, this was a big surprise to my parents, her parents, and the rest of the family. It ended up being a very nice moment and I can't imagine a more personal song we could have used!

All and all, I'm a happy lady!!!

Friday was finally truly relaxing. We stopped running around St. Lucia and decided to check out one of the other Sandals resorts - The Halcyon. Its much smaller than ours and apparently where all the British tourists go.

We spent the morning at their pool, drinking Dirty Bananas (duh). We also had a good time watching people join the aqua-cising class, including the older guy who was PUMPED to do it. We spent a little time walking around the resort and met Dan the Man who sells souvenirs on the beach. I wanted to buy a wooden fish from him but had no cash. We quickly learned that Sandals hates cash and it was nearly impossible to get any. Our resort would give us a cash advance but we hadn't done it and this resort wouldn't!!! I was bummed, I wanted the fish.

We had a casual lunch at the Bayside Buffet which was just a little bit of everything in a nice open air venue. After lunch we played some shuffle board (I'm awful) and then it was off to the giant lawn chess. I have no clue how to play chess so Andy decided to teach me. Shortly after starting, one of the resort photographers name Shady dropped by. When I told him I was learning to play he decided to help me and then spent the entire game teaching me to play and give Andy a little run for his money. I think Andy enjoyed the challenge and he did WIN!!!

We then got a key to a courtesy room so we could change into our dinner clothes. Its a nice perk when you go to the other Sandals resorts. They'll hang onto bags for you and give you a place to change and clean up since most of the restaurants are a little nicer at night. We went back to the Bayside for the Asian Buffet. Unfortunately, it was a tad disappointed. I was really excited for sushi but the sushi was weird. It was "tropical" and had fruit and stuff in it.

After dinner we went back to our resort where we caught the end of a street party. I got another coconut and we were there in time to catch the guys dancing an insanely tall stilts. One even fell over :( But, it was really cool. There was live music and it was nice time. After that we wandered around. The bar area nearest our room had karaoke so we laughed at some of the performers and then headed off to bed.

After a very few busy days in St. Lucia, it was time to take it easy for the morning. Honeymooners get a voucher for breakfast in bed one day so we decided to make use of it and finally sleep in a little! We enjoyed a lazy morning eating some delicious food (and mimosas) and some Stephen Colbert.

We then spent a little time wandering around the resort, including some shop and drinking Dirty Bananas. After lunch it was time for Andy's favorite, zip lining. We both picked an activity and mine was the volcano and his was the zip lining adventure in the rainforest.

We had an awesome tour guide who went by Simple. He was a blast, he had a great sense of humor and made our sort of long ride to the rainforest a delight. We learned about St. Lucia and he poked fun at everyone on the bus. He also challenged a guy on the trip to a race when we got to the forest and we learned he's seriously the fastest man alive.

Zip lining was fun but exhausting. Andy absolutely loved it. Me, being a huge science dork, spent as much time looking at the bromeliads on the trees as I did anything else. Honestly, I would've preferred hiking in the rainforest :) The course was very fast an was high as 260 feet at points. It was hot and humid. We also had to get up some serious sets of stairs. All and all it lived up to Andy's expectations and beyond.

On the ride home, Simple gave us some more the very pungent Spiced Rum. We also had a chance to stop for some photos at scenic overlooks although, I was also as fascinated by the goats tied up too. (I don't know, I'm weird).

That night we tried to go to the Pitons again for dinner but this time we arrived nice and early and got in with no problem. We both started with the special of the night, seafood chowder although I got creeped out by the baby octopus and its scary tentacles and made Andy eat it. Then I had a little meat filled pastry and Andy had beer battered shrimp. For dinner, I had the Surf and Turf and Andy had a pork tenderloin spiced with scotch bonnet peppers, a variety of spicy Caribbean peppers. Andy loves spicy food and was pumped to try things with scotch bonnet. Dessert was amazing! I had a sour cream lime cheesecake and Andy had banana caramel custard. It couldn't have been nicer. The ambiance of the restaurant was fantastic. We enjoyed the high thatched roofs, open air and tree frogs!!! AWESOME DAY!!!