I can't believe how quickly our wedding day zoomed by. We planned for so long and in the blink of an eye it was all over. As we drove away from the reception I just felt an overwhelming sense of gratefulness to everyone. I almost didn't want to leave because I just wanted to spend all night with everyone!
For our first night together Simone and I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn. Our hotel night had been been gifted to us by some family friends. It was a beautiful room and was so fun to be together. Before we left the reception my brother had gathered all our gifted cards and put them in the car. After showering and changing into comfy clothes we decided to open up our cards. It was so fun to read the messages and sweet thoughts from everyone together. It was a great way for us to start of our honeymoon.
The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast. Neither of us are big breakfast people but that morning we feasted and enjoyed every moment. Then we headed out for our long drive to California. We decided to make a quick stop to the house to grab a few treats. Everyone else was at church when we got home, but they had set aside a few treats for us. They also had saved the top of our wedding cake for us. We grabbed our stash and headed back out.
One of my favorite memories from our drive happened when people kept honking at us. We had maybe 4 or 5 people honk before Simone, (kind of irritated) said, "What is wrong with everyone today?!" I couldn't help but laugh a little and said, "It's probably because our windows say 'Honk for Love.' " His response was, "What is Honk?" I got to explain to him the English word 'honk.' After that his whole attitude changed and he was SO excited. He got so happy every time someone honked at us. He really loved it a lot.
When we got to St. George we stopped at the house, dropped a few things off, grabbed something small for lunch and continued our drive to California. For our first few nights we got to stay at the Disney Grand California Hotel. We got to the hotel a little bit later then we had hoped, but we were just so excited to finally be there. We checked in and right as we walked into the room the firework show started. We went out to the balcony and got to watch the show. It felt like the perfect start to our Disney stay.
The next day we went to Disneyland and California Adventure. It was really fun being able to go with Simone for the first time. We got to pretend that we were kids, and just lived carefree. I loved that we didn't feel rushed. We just took our time going from ride to ride. We enjoyed lots of treats together and walked through shops. I really love having a hotel so close by. When it started getting really hot and busy we just went back to the room and took naps. After our nap and feeling super recharged we headed out for more fun.
For anyone who has never been to the Disney Grand California Hotel, I would highly suggest it. It just makes everything so much more fun and exciting. We had one particular moment where I was so happy to have the hotel close by. On one particular Disney day Simone really wanted to ride the Grizzly Rapids ride. Anyone who knows me well will know that I hate water rides. One of my least favorite things is to have wet shoes! Clothes will usually dry quickly in the heat, but shoes and socks stay wet way longer! I dislike it SO MUCH! However, I love Simone and wasn't going to make him go on this ride alone. I reluctantly agreed to go with him. I mean this super literally, but every single "big splash" landed directly on me! I walked off that ride grumpy and soaking! Simone walked off the ride laughing, smiling and completely dry! I find it so ironic that the hater of the water rides is always the one who gets it the most. But lucky for us our hotel was straight across from Grizzly Rapids. We ran up to the room and I was able to change. Simone was super sweet and helped to blow dry my shoes dry. Bless his heart. When they were all dried we headed out for more fun.
After three fun days at Disney we decided to take our honeymoon a little farther south. We got a hotel just south of Anaheim. We went to Target and bought some snacks for the rest of our trip, and ate at a really yummy Thai restaurant. For our last night in that area we made a quick trip to the ocean. It was fun to just be with each other and enjoy each other's company.
On Thursday we we headed South to San Diego. We made a few stops at the beach and still made pretty good time and checked into our hotel. Because we were so early, they didn't actually have a room clean for us yet. We left our luggage with the receptionist and headed out to adventure through the city. Our first stop was to The Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. I didn't know much about the Mormon Battalion so it was fun to learn more. We also got to look for "gold." Ha Ha . After that we got to walk through Old Town San Diego. It was a super cute area and we got some Mexican food. We then headed back to our hotel.
We got to settled in and then went exploring through the city. I was so excited to stay in the middle of "Little Italy." Our hotel was right next to a cute piazza. They had live performances and people were dancing in the streets together. As you looked down the street you have a perfect view to the bay. The weather was perfect and it was nice to just get some steps in and enjoy each other's company.
The next day we headed to the San Diego Zoo. I had been to the San Diego Zoo as a kid, but never as an adult. I really loved it. Everything was beautiful. Simone loved the gorillas the most. I loved the pandas. After exploring everything we headed back to little Italy where we ate the yummiest pizza ever! Simone said it was the most authentic pizza he had tasted since moving here. We stopped and got some gelato and then headed to the hotel.
For our last adventure day we headed to SeaWorld. Simone really loved the animal shows! I'm pretty sure he recorded every moment of it. It was a fun day but it was hard because it was just SO hot that day! We both got super sunburnt. We saw almost all the shows, but by 4pm, we were exhausted and super ready to call it a day. We went back to the hotel. Took a quick power nap, and got ready for the night. We walked around San Diego, and spent some time by the docks. We ate dinner and headed to bed.
On Sunday (our last day) Simone had planned of Soccer draft with all his friends in Italy. He had to wake up at 4am in order to call into the group. I slept while he drafted for hours. When his draft was over we packed up and started our drive home.
Everything about our honeymoon was fun and exciting. We loved the adventures we had together, but we were also so excited to come home and just start our normal life together. Here's to more adventures in our everyday life, and really starting our married life together.
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