Renee and I decided not to leave for our Honeymoon on our Wedding night. Who wants to rush around before the wedding trying to figure out how to pack for a week of vacation? Rather, we stayed at a local hotel and came home the day after to open presents and pack our suitcases. My parents had taken Chili-dog home with them after the wedding so we got to spend a nice dog-free day in the house by ourselves.
(must pause here and extend a big thanks to my parents for taking care of Chili-dog while we were gone. She had managed to cut her leg a week prior so she was wearing a cone collar while it healed. It couldn't have been easy putting up with that!)
Our honeymoon destination was the all-inclusive Couples Sans Souci Resort near Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We flew down on a series of Delta jets the Monday after the wedding. We had a very relaxing week there. Our accommodations were wonderful, the food was excellent, and the beach was very beachy. (traveler's tip - if you want ice-cold drinks like you are used to consuming in the USA, you MUST ask for a glass of ice with your drink - they will not serve it ice-cold. It's a cultural thing.) We enjoyed a free couples massage, a ziplining trip, and a trip to Dunn's River Falls--think Johnson's Shut-Ins on steroids. Aside from that, we spent a lot of time in the water, both ocean and freshwater pools. The resort itself was large and beautifully landscaped with lots of Mediterranean-like stone walls and walking paths. We never felt crowded, however. The resort was adults-only and we never had to fight for beach chairs or rafts. We would definitely return in a heartbeat!
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So, post-wedding life.
It's been an interesting month as Renee and I have begun the process of figuring out life together. We're fond of saying that we have the maturity as an older couple that a really young couple likely wouldn't have had, but we also have the challenge of combining our lives after 22 years of collective singleness. Included in that is learning new rhythms of Living, new ways of doing things. It's been mostly smooth, with a few speed bumps and potholes along the way. Some old habits of singleness have been hard to break. We communicate really well, fortunately and are taking care to pray together as often as we can. It's been a real blessing having Renee off from School since we've been married. She has had lots of time to make my house into our home. Things such as curtains and throw pillows have appeared in our bedroom and the guest bedroom, for example. Both rooms now look like true bedrooms rather than just rooms with beds and furniture. And it's been that way throughout the house. I am so thankful that I have a wife with a good eye for style! She returns to school this week so we'll soon find out how life goes with both of us working.
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To sum up - our wedding, reception and honeymoon went as well or better than we could've hoped. We're an "us" now, living life together and looking forward with faith to the future.
from matlockjohn.blogspot.com
