a little of this, a little of that

in case you're wondering where i ran off to, it was here:

 my home away from home, my parent's other home, in florida. pretty much one of the most awesome places on earth. we had perfect weather (low 80s and plentiful/abundant/radiant/etc sunshine--according to weather reports, every day).

andy and i spent 8 days down there, my mom was there the whole time, my dad there for a couple of days. we got to see my great aunt & uncle who are snow birds down there, and some awesome family friends. i enjoyed some delicious margaritas at various places (airplane margaritas are NOT recommended), while seated outside enjoying the summery atmosphere, even in November.

we got to see some awesome sunsets, like this one:

we nearly missed this one, but it was awesome that we caught it! (the huts are the lifeguard houses at our beach, the most awesome beach in the world, well, at least the US. yes, it's ranked the #1 beach in the America this year.)

we visited the sarasota chalk festival (and got to see some 3D chalk drawings)

terracotta army in legos!

viewing the above drawing from the opposite corner.

that's us. in this sea turtle-VW beetle-barrel full of something.

spent some time by the pool, on the beach, at the aquarium, at the botanical gardens, on our friend's boat, watched andy go fishing (see below), ate a bazillion calories worth of food at Ruth's Chris to celebrate our engagement with my parents (which was all so worth it), you know. vacation.

and in the midst of all of that, we got some tough news on the wedding planning front: our band backed out. they were supposed to be sending us the contract the next day (as they had confirmed availability nearly 2 weeks beforehand), and whatever. just really tough, because now we're 9 months out, and the good bands are already booked because people have longer engagements now and have been planning their wedding for 6 months already.

anyway, sorry for my rant. but the good news is, is that i feel more in love with andy than ever. i just can't wait to be married to him. it's a good thing we're not waiting until 2013. and there was something i saw on Pinterest (omg, just got introduced to this and it's AWESOME)--and my re-pin failed... but it was something to the effect of: a wedding isn't a performance, things may not go as planned, but as long as when the day ends you're married to the one you love, it was a success. and i'm going to try to really tell myself that over and over again. so if you see it on Pinterest, let me know. because i want it. thanks.

hope all is well!