Atwell Adventures

packing up and driving north

When we finally landed back in Georgia after 26 hours of travel {courtesy of American Airlines delays} and drove back to my parents, I walked up to my bedroom and became overwhelmed.  Leading up to the move I was busy with finishing up my responsibilities with my Bible study at Wesleyan, transitioning out of my job,  going to wedding showers, and planning for July 7.  So while I had time to think about the move, it probably fell lowest on to do list priorities.

Because of our delays, our original plan to leave Monday morning was going to have to be pushed back to Monday afternoon.

Looking around my bedroom that afternoon, I knew that everything had to be moved, as well as the dining room full of wedding gifts we thankfully had received {which I’m still writing thank you notes}.

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Monday morning I woke up bright and early, finished a few loads of laundry and we started packing up my car. Once we finished packing the car, Gary left to pickup the moving truck and I began working on my room.  He returned about an hour later and Operation Move Out began.

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After about two or three hours of loading {mostly by Gary, Dad and Josh}, the dining room and my bedroom were finally empty and our truck was packed.  It was so weird to see my room so empty.  While we were upstairs, Josh asked me how old I was when we moved into the house and I hadn’t really thought of it until that point.  I had lived in that house since I was 6 or 7, and here I was almost 20 years later, getting ready to leave it.  And with that came moving away from people I love.

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I’ll always remember it was a hot day the day we moved by the popsicles we I was eating in all the pictures.
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After saying quick goodbyes, which thankfully happened so fast I didn’t even have time to get emotional, we were off to our new home!  I was so thankful to make that ride with Gary and not alone in my car {I imagined myself crying the whole way}.  It was a sweet time to anticipate the rest of the move and what was in store… and of course, time for us to make a quick tour of our Uhaul video.

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The trip took us about 10 hours total and that was with a stop for dinner with our friends Thomas and Lauren, driving through South Carolina…

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and finally into North Carolina!DSC00823

We were so grateful for a smooth moving day – no injuries, no car trouble, no traffic, and just a little bit of rain.  Next up was move-in day and that started bright and early the next morning!  Thankfully, Gary had the coffee pot plugged in and ready to go.

From The Road

take me away {part three}

After our first day of traveling and the next two days of storms and sunshine, we were finally ready to explore the island of St. Lucia! And what better way than a few local tours! Before going to St. Lucia, we had asked a few friends about tours they had done.  When our concierges confirmed that those were our best options, we were all set!

On Thursday, we went out with Simon Says Tours.  And no, he didn’t make us play a game:)  This tour had a little bit of everything, which we loved!  We left around 9 or 10 that morning and headed down to our shuttle for the day… a boat! There was probably about 15-20 people total, including our tour guides which made for a comfortable ride.

Along the way we made stops at Marigot Bay

DSC00604Jade Mountain {bonus: this is where the Bachelor finale was filmed when Jake picked Vienna}

DSC00628the majestic Pitons

a snorkeling spot…

a bat cave…

the town of Soufrière {where we visited Sulphur Springs Park and took a mud bath and rinsed in the hot springs, more on that below}…

a local restaurant…

and a quick dip at the bottom of Toraille Waterfall.

Probably the most memorable part of the day for Gary and I was the mud bath. But unfortunately, it wasn’t memorable for a good reason, although now we can laugh about it.  Like I mentioned before, we had both gotten sunburned the previous day. When we reached the mud bath site, we found out that in order for the mud bath to work, you have to take a dip in the volcanic spring (over 100 degrees in temperature).  I love a hot bath but not when I’m sunburned… and this was hotttt. I have never seen a more distressed look on Gary’s face until that moment. And did I mention how you get the mud off? Well you take another dip in the hot water!  Picture me pool-side, trying to splash hot water so I don’t singe my skin but eventually having to jump in as quickly as possible.  Like I said before, we both laugh at this story now but oh-my-goodness I wish we didn’t have sunburns when we visited.

Happy at our resort after a fun day with Simon!

Our next day had us wearing hairnets, harnesses, and helmets in the rainforest with Treetop Adventure Park!  We both wanted to try ziplining and zipline we did!

In total we did 12 zips and were able to soar above and through the beautiful, lush, green rainforest!

Here is a video I tried capturing on one of the zips. {just a warning: it’s shaky and sometimes the audio and video don’t sync}

On the way back from our zipping through the forest, we made a stop at the overlook pictured below.  It was beautiful!

Our two days of adventuring through St. Lucia were over, and our honeymoon was coming to an end.  I’d say it was a pretty good first week of marriage:)

But the adventures were just starting and we had another waiting for us when we got back to Georgia: moving!

From The Road

take me away {part two}

{read take me away {part one} here}

While we were sleeping away our first night in St. Lucia, our new {angry} friend Chantal was making a way to introduce herself.

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And when we looked out our doors, this is what we saw…

But why let a little storm rain on our honeymoon parade?  We had breakfast {for 10} delivered to our room and began making plans for the week!

breakfast in bedWith the package Gary selected, it allowed us to work with some private concierges who gave us recommendations for excursions we were interested in and they took care of all the reservations for us. It was so nice not to have to worry about the details, especially post-wedding details!

day one!

cloudy with a chance of rainOn Tuesday night we headed to our first dinner and said a few prayers for good weather the rest of the week.

first dinnerThose prayers were {thankfully!} answered when we woke up to sunny skies on Wednesday!  Since our excursions were planned for Thursday and Friday, we spent most of Wednesday by the beach…

St. Luciaby the pool…

poolsideeating pizza…

poolside pizzataking a quick boat ride…

snorkel adventureand snorkeling around the bay!

snorkel kissAfter all of our fun-in-the-sun, we ended the day with sunburns, pasta, two desserts, and full hearts.

Not to mention, this handsome sitting across from me at dinner…

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