Honeymoon!

I am giving in and writing about the honeymoon basically to get it over with. That sounds awful and makes it seem like it was an awful time and I just want to move past it, but that is completely not true!! It is just the fact of sitting down and writing it. But here I am, going to do that now! Don't worry I won't give every detail of every day because you'll probably be terribly bored by the end of it.

We left for San Jose, Costa Rica (the capital) on Sunday evening around 7:00. It was almost a 4 hour flight, but they're two hours behind us so we got there around 9:00. After a slight issue with our luggage (don't worry, we left the airport with all of it) we met up with our rental car guy who took us to go sign the papers so we could start our 2 hour(ish) road trip to La Fortuna that night. He gave us lovely tips and information about staying safe ("Don't worry, they won't kill you, they'll just rob you") and gave us our GPS and we were off. Trent was the only one that could drive because the car was a stick shift, and it was a good thing. I would not have been able to drive on some of those dirt mountainside roads. I was having a hard time just riding! He did wait until we were on one of their highways to tell me that one time he almost lost control of the car and sent us flying over the edge of a cliff. Thanks, Trent.

Anyway, we got to La Fortuna late at night and accidently didn't set our clocks behind two hours so when we woke up in the morning we thought we had missed breakfast and decided to just start our adventurous day. Little did we know it was like 7:30 in the morning and the town was still asleep. Oh well. We spent the day hiking the base of the Arenal Volcano, swimming a little to cool off from our hike, eating, sleeping and checking out the natural hot springs. Those were pretty cool because the ground was all pebbly and sandy, but it was like being in a hot tub.



The next day we took another road trip to our next destination, Manuel Anonio. This road trip was more like 5 hours. It was a really pretty drive though, so not bad. Manuel Antonio is on the Pacific Coast of the country and completely covered in rain forest, but also has nice beaches. We hadn't eaten lunch that day so we opted for an early-ish dinner once we finally made it to the hotel. Our hotel, by the way, was a cool little hotel on the top of a winding dirt mountain road with an amazing view. It was my birthday so we made ourselves look good and journied to a nice restaurant with another amazing view of the ocean. And then the storm came... it started out slow and kind of faded but then came back full force. The electricity was out for much of the second half of our dinner and never really came back fully. We were eating dinner by a candlelight that kept getting blown out by wind (did I mention it was a restaurant with no sides- very open?). When there was a break in the rain we headed back to the hotel for safety, and bed time. I had to sleep with headphones because the storm was SO LOUD and as most of you know I am TERRIFIED of storms.

So the next day we had planned on doing our zip line through the forest tour. When we woke up, however, we realized that damage that the storm had done. We decided we would make it a pool day instead. We took a nice walk down to the beach (complete with about a dozen monkees playing and finding berries to eat) and took some pictures. Unfortunately that's when we found out that we shouldn't swim in the ocean because the storm had churned everything up and it probably wasn't safe. Then we walked back up and found out that our winding dirt mountain road was closed because the storm and knocked down trees. Then we found out our pool was closed from storm damage. The phone lines were out. The internet was out. The cable was out. Hm... okay. So we hung out at the hotel for a couple hours and they finally opened the road. We ventured into the town and took tons of pictures of the damage that had been done. There were power lines and trees down EVERYWHERE. The National Park was closed until the week after we left because of all of the trees that had fallen so we didn't get to do that either. We made the most of our stay there though, I think. Hung out, relaxed a lot.

The next day we did our zip line tour which was really cool. Roads were closed again and power lines were still down so it caused some obstacles but we still go to do it! The rain forest is awesome and even though the only wildlife we saw on our tour were some toucans (too far away to get a picture of) you could still feel it all around you. The next day we had to pack our bags and drive away from our adventurous hotel. I was a little relieved to finally hit some highways again and be off the roads I was afraid were going to crumble beneath us. We spent our last day in the capital city of San Jose and found a cool market in the middle of town.




The trip was definitely an adventure. Not what I expected (with the big storm), but it was a great vacation and an amazing way to start our marriage. Someday we will go to Costa Rica again during the dry season (did I mention it rained every day?) and check out a beach or two. Definitely recommend going there. It's beautiful.

This is what you have all been waiting for!

I feel like such a bum because I have not posted anything on here in months and I have no good excuses for ignoring these empty pages. But, I have a surprise for everyone this evening!! As Erin has explained, we are finally married and enjoying married life. On a side note, what kind of an answer do people really want when they ask "How's married life"? I don't get it. First of all, in the first three weeks of marriage, not much has changed. We haven't even received our wedding license on the mail yet, so as far as border patrol is concerned Erin is still not a Stapleton. So, in response to that question, which I have probably been asked 1,000 times in two weeks, married life is great. It has instantly reduced our car insurance rates, and that is wonderful!
Speaking of car insurance, do I have a story to tell! I couple of years ago, in fact just before Erin and I officially became a couple, we took a trip down to Panama City for a very good friend's wedding. On the way back, I got pulled over for speeding in Alabama. Say what you would like about me getting pulled over, but I am a responsible driver and was just enjoying the empty and open Alabaman highway with a beautiful girl in the car next to me....I don't see anything wrong with that. Long story short, I paid the bill a few weeks later over the phone after I received it in the mail. The ticket came in the Summer of '08, and the payment took place in probably August of '08. Flash forward to June '10. We had been home from our honeymoon for a few days and it was time to get back to work and take care of the things like opening a car insurance policy for Erin and I. Everything was going great, Erin's report came back good and the agent assumed that mine would be good because I had been active on my parents policy for years. She quoted me at a wonderfully low price for 6 months and I was ready to sign on the dotted line when she pulled up my license report to find that my license had been suspended...since November of '08! I assured her that she must have been mistaken because there was no way that it had been suspended and I wouldn't have known about it...but sure enough, a court in some small city in Alabama had requested the suspension of my license for an unpaid ticket.
Now, I knew that I had paid the ticket because I spoke with a clerk at the court office and paid with m credit card over the phone. So, I quickly called the court to figure out why they had suspended my license. Come to find out that the ticket had been underpaid by $.78! 78 cents!!! Really? It probably cost this court more money in paper work to have my license suspended than to forget about $.78! But don't worry, I'm sure they made it all back in late fees! Luckily, the maximum late fee that you can be charged for a late ticket is $100. I say that because it had been nearly two years! I don't even want to imagine what it would have been if they didn't have a cap on their late fee penalty!
So, $110.78 to the Alabama traffic court, $35 to the Georgia DDS, and 2 1/2 hours of the crowded DDS office, I am a legal driver once again!
We are trying to figure out how to get the wedding slide show uploaded so that everyone can see it. If anyone knows how to upload something that is made with iDVD to the internet, please let me know

New Look

It's Erin again. I'm sorry if you get bored with my posts, but Trent just hasn't updated in a while and I don't want you all to be bored!

So I changed the look of the blog a little bit... what do you think? I told Trent I wouldn't make it too girly. We'll see what he thinks!

I hope everyone has been doing well lately. I don't have a big topic to write about or anything and I just haven't been able to bring myself to write the Honeymoon blog. I feel like I've told the story so many times already that I can't sit down to write it, too. But I'm sure one of us will sooner or later. Kelsey and Greg have been living with us since we got married (in fact they moved in while we were on our Honeymoon). They'll be with us for about two months. I'm sure a lot of you think we are nuts to have roomates while being fresh Newlyweds. It's really no big deal, though. Nobody has really gotten in any fights yet and we don't really get in each other's way. I went from living in that big house by myself to living with 3 other people and a dog! But I enjoy the company.

Another new look I'm getting (besides this rockin new blog template) is my new iPhone 4!! I preordered it the first day you could and cannot WAIT for it get here! I just spent the last 45 minutes of my lunch break searching for a new cover for it! Ugh, I just can hardly contain my excitement! My original iPhone that I've had now for 2-1/2 years is done with me. It keeps crapping out on me one way or another. It knows I am replacing it and is getting back at me. A few pieces fell off recently, it gets stuck on certain screens, it goes REALLY slow now, and the battery has just decided to go super fast over the last week and die on me while I'm driving in the rainstorms we keep having every evening. Oh well... only 6 more days until the new one! Someone let me know if they find a good cover for the new phone!

I want to make a quick shout out to Miss Cecelia Bree Benich who was born yesterday! I can't wait to meet you Bree! If you're anywhere near as fun and cute as your brother (which I know you will be), we'll be best friends :)

That's all for now... have a good weekend everyone!

Wedding! Cont.

So the ceremony started a little bit late, but everything was going smoothly. I was waiting in the bridal room while the bridemaids began to walk down the aisle and I was laughing about how funny it would be if Ellie (our Yorkie flower girl) would poop going down the aisle. This comment even got me a compliment from the bartender who was in the room with us that I was in the top 1% of calm brides he's ever seen there. I was proud of that compliment because if you know me, I am kind of always a stresser and a worrier, and not very often the calm one. But I know that my marriage to Trent is right and I just couldn't wait to make it official! So I wasn't stressing or worrying about it.

When it got to be Wade's turn to walk down the aisle with Kelsey and Ellie (we tried to make it as fun for him as possible) with his dad sending him off and his mom at the end of the aisle with M&Ms and trains waiting for him, he didn't want to do it! No worries, it was the effort that counted. At least he looked adorable! And Ellie got a laugh out of everyone. The Jazz festival was supposed to have a break during our ceremony time, but of course, they were running behind as well, and so we had a little tune for the first few minutes of our ceremony. Once again, no stressing so we made the best out of it and did a little dance at the front. Rod, our officiant, gave a very personal and perfect homily for Trent and I, and made the ceremony very special. It all went by so fast. No matter what may have happened during that wasn't supposed to happen (the wind blew out the candles to light the unity candle with, I couldn't find the kleenex that was in my dress pocket, YES I had pockets in my dress, and a lovely Jazz festival patron who decided to yell at us during our ceremony about the large mistake we were making- shout out to all the wonderful men in the audience who later told me they were 2 seconds away from getting up and hitting that guy in the mouth), it was absolutely perfect- and rain free!

Trent and I left to take pictures while the reception got started, and walked around the park for a while. I was sort of sad because the awesome park with the awesome view of Atlanta's skyline was covered in tons of people watching a concert, so we had to find some more secluded areas to take photos. I think they turned out spectacularly, though. Our photographer Kate Byars (www.katebyarsphotography.com) was amazing!! Check out her website for more pictures.

The reception also went by in a blur full of yummy food that we never got to eat (I heard it was delicious), a photo booth for our guests which created the best and most hilarous guest book ever (I DEFINITELY recommend having one of these at any event you throw), a green cake which Trent and I smashed in each other's faces, and many great friends and family members. We absolutely loved every minute of it. Special thanks to my parents for throwing the wedding of my dreams.

Hopefully you all could make it to the wedding and hopefully you loved it as much as we did. If you weren't able to be there, here are some pictures to help you feel like you were! Honeymoon blog coming soon!



Love,

The Stapletons

Married!

Hello everybody!!

We did it! Finally, we got married!! We are now Mr. and Mrs. Trent Stapleton. I thought I would write a little summary of wedding weekend first, and then do another post a little later for the honeymoon. This will be Erin's version of the story, so if any of you read this only for Trent's witty entries, I'm just warning you. I'll try to be witty, too. TRY being the keyword...

The weekend really started on Thursday when we had a birthday dinner for my sister-in-law Jennifer, myself, and my twin Kelsey at Henry's. If anyone has not been to Henry's in downtown Acworth, you should pretty much stop what you're doing now and head down there. It's delicious. Cajun, but even I like it, and I think mild things are way too hot to eat. Just my family got together and celebrated, and it really kicked off the weekend for us. Family started getting into town, and it began to sink in...

Friday was a packed day starting with a morning rehearsal at Piedmont Park. Thank God for my friend Ashley who did the run through with everyone and told us all where we needed to be and when. THANK YOU Ashley! It was very smooth frankly because we had awesome bridesmaids, groomsmen and family. Wade (the ringbearer) also made it all the way down the aisle during the rehearsal like a pro and gave us all hope that it would work just the same way during the actual ceremony.

After the rehearsal the boys went off to play a manly game of Whoorly Ball (I have NO idea how to spell that, so please don't judge me). If you don't know what this is, I like to describe it as lacross in bumper cars. You each have your own bumper car and those little hand net things and try to score goals. It can get pretty violent... I'm pretty sure some of the boys had bruises afterwards. The girls had a really nice lunch in the way cute Viriginia Highlands area and then kind of dispersed and did nails.

The rehearsal dinner was DELICIOUS at a yummy Italian place called Scalini's. We had a really great time with my family, Trent's family, and all the massive bridal party that we had. In case you didn't know, there were 11 each of bm and gm plus a ring bearer and a lovely Yorkie flower girl. We played a slideshow I made that I am going to attempt to post on this blog a little bit later so you can see baby Erin & Trent. Pretty cute if I do say so myself. So a huge thanks to the Stapleton's for a wonderful rehearsal dinner.

Wedding morning came with a lovely forcast of thunderstorms starting at 1pm and going through the rest of the day. I kept my fingers crossed for this to be false since the ceremony was supposed to be outside. Girls went to the hotel and got all pretty with hair and makeup, and the boys met for some fun foozball games at the Stapleton household. Ceremony started at 6:30 and ladies had to be there at 3:00 to start getting dressed and take pictures. When we got there the ceremony was all set up and ready to go... under the tent. I was slightly heartbroken, but they assured me it was only a precaution and it would be much easier to move the setup outside than it would have been to move it inside. So I put my heart back together and got ready for pictures. I got the girl's monogrammed umbrellas for a gift and had them bring them along just in case. We got some really cute photos of the umbrellas and the girls. I love them! I also had a pair of galoshes (again, I can't really spell well) that I had as another precaution. Boys arrived at 5 for pictures, and still no rain!!

I was waiting in the bride room trying to stay calm and be thankful for some air conditioner when I was told that they were moving the ceremony setup outside! The rain had held off! I couldn't have been happier! Although the ceremony would have been fine in either location, and the wedding ceremony is not about the look of it all but about the joining of two people into one, I still had always pictured the ceremony outside, so I was very relieved. The next thing they told me was that the cake had yet to arrive. Ha! Oh well, I thought, as long as it's here before it's time to cut it, I don't mind! The ceremony got off a slightly late start because of some lovely traffic caused by the Jazz festival that was going on, which also provided the backdrop and background music for our ceremony. No worries, though, it allowed for some extra people to join the audience.

**The rest of the story will be explained in the next post...