It feels like we’re settling into a routine. We survived the wedding and honeymoon with only two mini-meltdowns (both before the ceremony – 1) involving the missing centerpieces; and 2) Nick seeing me before he was supposed to). Neither of which mattered after about two minutes of reflection. I was surprisingly emotional at times and it took the comforting prayer of my good friend Alisha to soothe me about 10 minutes before I walked down the aisle.

I’ve never felt so beautiful as I did on that day – maybe I never will again, and honestly, that’d be okay simply because I’m not sure it could ever be topped.
 
Since I mentioned in an earlier post that I was nervous about having all the families converging without any explosions I should note that nothing happened – it was quite smooth sailing. The only familial drama involved my sisters boycotting my bachelorette party in favor of their own get together (that remains an unsolved mystery that at some point I’ll need to address with them I suppose).

My major goal for the wedding was just to remain in the moment, which is difficult for someone who is always contemplating the next move, the next thing. Having Russ officiate was one of the best decisions we made because he made both of us feel at ease, at home… he allowed us to relax and laugh, even though we were standing up in front of a big crowd. 

As for the honeymoon – it got off to a bit of a rough start but ended up being an amazing week filled with lots of love and adventure. Before going to Nicaragua we had read on many sites not to rent a car because driving is impossible if you’re not a local but because we thought we were capable of tackling any road we set out undeterred. The other reason to avoid getting behind the wheel is that the law states when an accident occurs that both parties are taken to jail to sort out who was at fault. By now you probably know what I’m going to say – 20mins after getting in the rental car we were lost and involved in a minor accident as luck would have it… with some off-duty police officers. As Nick got out to negotiate a price I sat in the passenger seat contemplating if I was going to have to bail my husband out the first night of our trip. Thankfully, we were released after coughing up a measly $65. It jarred us back to reality and the next day we promptly returned the rental car and took taxis the rest of the time – certainly the best choice. We would’ve spent most days frustrated and lost because there are no street signs or road names (even in the capital Managua).

We endured a tropical storm that turned into an unseasonal hurricane… carried our luggage across construction beams because the river had washed out the bridge… hiked up into a cloud canopy… strapped ourselves onto zip lines and flew across canyons and jungles… tried scuba diving for the first time… went horseback riding on the beach… had a day of sailing and bbq’ing… and got incredibly lucky with a bug infestation the first night in the resort and got upgraded to the 2 story family-sized condo. It was truly amaaazing and action-packed.

Even in Nicaragua everyone kept asking us, “Why Nicaragua?” … I think we were the only honeymooners most people we encountered had ever met. We just kept responding, “Why not?!” It was such a beautiful country, full of kind people. We took one of our local tour guides and his girlfriend to a fancy restaurant and they were so honored to be there – it felt nice to be able to treat them and just hang out as if we were old buddies. Granted, the electricity frequently went out and the roads are truly heinous (potholes every 3ft on the freeways)… but we just laughed at those little hiccups and were flexible with our schedule and everything worked out wonderfully.