the dance

After our honeymoon, Dustin and I were beyond excited to see our pictures and video from our wedding. It was so exciting to look it all and relive our favorite day a little. One of the best parts of getting the footage, was getting to watch the dance that we taught ourselves.

Rewind months and months back. We came across Work Song by Hozier on Pandora. And of course I had to hear it again immediately after. So I looked up the music video and we watched intently. The lyrics and Hozier’s soulful voice are more than enough to melt my heart, but the dancers!…they make the song. Go watch the music video…you’ll see. They’re really quite amazing.

So then I said, “We are learning that dance.” And I sort of got a “yeah right” face looking back at me. Well, my boo-thing underestimated my many years of dance and choreography. Also, what you might not know about Dustin and I is that we tend to break out in lyrical dance. A lot. So…the challenge was definitley accepted! We worked on that dance and taught ourselves the steps little by little. We’d play the song in slow-motion to get the intricate hand movements down. Our pup, Carter, would run around us anxiously as we practiced the lift in my living room. We’d be on a hike and randomly bust out into our choreographed routine. Man, was it a lot of work, but man was it fun to dance with my man every single day.

We practiced the routine in the barn the night before the wedding. Right before we had our last kiss as fiancés at almost midnight.

The next day, the DJ asked us if we were ready to do the dance right after our Taylor Swift “I knew you were trouble” dance off (hence why Dustin’s tie is pulled out). But the adrenaline was going so that was a smart move.

I simply love being able to watch this moment again…And AHHH! Here it is!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GRaBfSoKhA

photos by Nate + Lori // nateandlori.com

Although we amateaur-edited this video ourselves, the footage was amazingly captured by White in Revery // whiteinrevery.com

Oh Valentine’s Day…

There shouldn’t be a single day for love, they say.

This holiday is all about Hallmark making money, they say.

I hate Valentine’s Day, they say.

Well, maybe it’s because I teach first graders and we spend the day doing things like uncovering mystery Valentine’s with watercolors and making a Friendship Salad out of fruit and marshmallows…but I love Valentine’s Day! I love any holiday, in fact. I just love celebrating stuff. I really do.

When Dustin and I were baby teenagers we used to do Valentines Day like this: get each other presents and wait forever to eat at a crowded restaurant. Kinda lame, right?

When we grew up a little bit, we would cook a meal together instead of wasting time waiting to eat. That honestly was pretty cool. We enjoyed finding a fancy recipe and Gordon-Ramseying it up in the kitchen together.

These past few Heart Days, we’ve started a new tradition. Using the day as an excuse to go on an adventure. Even if it was as simple as finding a new trail to explore. So we continued the tradition this year by camping at the Chassahowitzka River.

The Chass River is on the west coast of Florida. And it is SO CLEAR. I am used to kayaking in the dark and ominous waters of Central Florida, so let me tell you how cool it was to see to the bottom of a deep river. SO COOL. I loved it!

There were also parts of the river that had underwater caves. Underwater caves filled with the clearest water ever and also some fish. SO COOL.

Dustin was brave enough to swim through one. Given my lame lung capacity (thank you scoliosis), I decided that swimming through an underwater cave just wasn’t in the cards for me. But hey, he took the GoPro so I could see what it was like.

It was Maeble’s first time kayaking. Carter is a complete pro and literally just snuggles while I row. Maeble had a bit of a rough start, but I think she figured it out after a little…Until Dustin felt a slight slither on his toes. When he pulled over and slowly started getting out of the kayak, this was the conversation:

Amanda: “You going swimmin’ babe?”

Dustin: “Yeah, I’m getting out.”

Amanda: *senses weird look on husband’s face. “Is there a spider or something?”

Dustin: “Not exactly…”

Amanda: *now has a weird look on her face. “Ew. Don’t tell me. Cockroach?” (scariest thing alive.)

Dustin: “Not exactly…” *uses shirt to pull a wiggling snake out of kayak

So yeah, he’d been chilling with us for about an hour and a half by Dustin’s toes. Glad that friendly fellow didn’t bite my main squeeze!

While camping at the Chassahowitzka River Campground, we met some cool peeps, heated up some homemade beef stew (cooked in the crockpot the before hand), and listened to Mumford and Sons-ish music while hangin’ by the fire. We were also able to drive a few minutes away to the Withlacoochee State Forest for some hiking. The trails there were pretty different than what we’re used to. Really wide with open fields here and there. There were a few good climbing trees too (:

This was also the first adventure for our new Toyota FJ Cruiser (lovingly named Yoda…get it? Toyota…Yoda..hehe). And let me tell you how cool our new Adventure-Mobile is. SO COOL. No really, this truck is perfect for what we need. It hauled the kayaks beautifully, the interior floor is all super-durable plastic which is perfect for our wet and dirty fur-babies, and it’s got red leather seats. RED. LEATHER. SEATS….SO COOL.

We had a blast exploring the Chass River area…

There was just something about sleeping in the trees in our Jungle Hammock on a brisk winter night. It was simply the very best way to spend Valentine’s weekend 2016. Watch the adventure below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3OktVGQxic

Category: Uncategorized

the dance

chass river adventure