Time Flies

It is hard to believe it has already been a year since Chad and I recited our vows in front of all our friends and family.  August 14, 2010, was one of the best days of my life.  I am usually not a mushy, gushy romantic, but for some reason yesterday (August 14, 2011) was an emotional day for me.  Just remembering all of the events of the day… getting my hair done and playing dress up with my favorite ladies, the “first look”, the vows, the speeches, dancing ALL NIGHT LONG!!!  These are all things that I will never forget.  Thanks again to all of my friends and family that helped make my wedding the best ever!  I mean, who else can say that 6 people got tattoos at their wedding reception, 2 of which read: Jamie and Chad 8.14.10 J

My awesome uncle Gator :) My aunt/godmother, Donna, also got this tattoo (she is also awesome :)

I don’t think Chad and I would have guessed we would be spending our one year anniversary in Costa Rica.  We planned a full day of activities to celebrate.  We started our day with a guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park.  We were picked up at our hotel around 8 in the morning and were soon walking through the jungle with 4 other people from Israel and our guide.  The park is incredibly beautiful and packed with wildlife.  We were told by several people that you MUST tour the park with a guide if you want to get the full experience.  So, we took this advice and were unpleasantly surprised by the guided tour.  The pace was sooo slow and the tour was actually a little boring.   When the tour was complete, Chad and I went off on our own and had a real adventure.  Here is just a little bit of what we saw:

Howler Monkey

Sneaky Raccoons!  We saw one almost get away with a ladies purse!

HUGE Iguana! 

The tree stump of love ;)

Chad with our guide.  He really liked to talk about trees...can you tell how excited Chad looks

This is a three toed sloth.  Chad and I were hiking by ourselves and I looked to my right and saw this guy.    It is rare to see these so up-close.  

After the park, we went back to our villa to shower and get ready to go out.  Chip, the owner of the hotel we are living in, told us to stop by for some complimentary anniversary cocktails!  So, we started the night with some Blue Monkey Blasts at the hotel restaurant.  After that we took the bus to a restaurant we have wanted to try called El Avion.  The restaurant is a little bit of a tacky tourist trap, but they have a great sunset view and claimed to have happy hour (which they did not!) El Avion is built in and around a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane.  The plane was part of one of the biggest scandals in the mid 1980's involving Nicaraguan, counter-revolutionary guerilla fighters. Our plan was to just get an appetizer, but it turned out that El Avion does not cater AT ALL to vegetarians.  So, we decided that dessert before dinner was necessary.  We split some tasty coffee ice cream and played in the cockpit before heading back to our villa!

Chad and I really enjoy cooking together, so we decided to eat dinner at home.  We made pasta, salad and garlic bread.  It was a delicious meal and it was nice to switch it up a little bit with some Italian cuisine.

It was a wonderful, exhausting anniversary!