san antonio, por favor

because we're broke, and christmas is just around the corner, we decided to make our honeymoon a short weekend in san antonio.  that being said, we had the best time.

 taylor got a lot of hookups through his job, and so we got to stay at the Hilton Palacio del Rio in a balcony suite right on the riverwalk! the view was incredible too

and so our first night (friday)  comprised of us soaking in the christmas-y riverwalk.  we ate at casa rio, a mexican place that is strangely owned by germans.  but we gusta'd all the same.  and we took a stroll around before calling it a night.  because saturday was the big day for us!

margarita? yes please!

we got to go to seaworld for free! another freebie that taylor scored.  and that included a special event.......swimming with beluga whales! i am a marine biologist at heart. so.this.was.perfect.  we got to seaworld right when it opened so we could see the dolphins and catch the killer whale show before we headed to see our belugas, which was the last thing we did. they were so squashy! they're really fatty animals, because they live in the arctic and all.  dont judge, they're just keeping warm. this one was named betty, but we got to play with two more also.

then after we got back to town, we did a little shopping before our big fancy schmancy dinner at little rhein steakhouse.  the waiters there wore white button up shirts with black vests and long black aprons.  that sort of place.  but our waiter was awesome.  he came up to us and said "good evening" in a pseudo-i'm-full-of-myself voice.  we had a good laugh at that because he was really just a hamburger-and-fries guy like us.  he kept telling us "pinkies up!" because we told him how we try to be prim and proper every now and then, but it never works.  overall i loved it.  the atmosphere was great and we had a perfect view.

yes, we got an entire plate to hold our cocktail sauce :)

  after that we checked out the wax museum...really freaky.

this creeped me out.  red michael is looking right at me in this shot

                                                            and of course..the alamo :)

huge tree in front of the alamo

taylor was tired of taking pictures with me at this point

 lastly, we barely caught the last river boat tour of the night.  it was such a perfect way to end our last night in san antonio! i definitely recommend going during wintertime. 

the rest of the night consisted of another stroll through the prettier side of the riverwalk, and just enjoying our kickass hotel.  we had no agenda on sunday, thank gosh.  but we had free passes to go see the natural bridge caverns, thanks to taylor again, so we thought we'd check it out after breakfast at ihop.  pretty cool stuff! it was hot down there, felt like 80 with a 99% humidity.  its amazing what the world can do.

see the "natural bridge?"

with heavy hearts, we headed back home.  but not before we got our first family christmas ornament!!!

woohoo! cant wait till we have an entire tree full of memories.  till then, our little alamo will do :)

oh hey, grown up life

i'm married?

no really, i'm married. what? yea.
my boss addressed me as Mrs. Esco today.  whoa.  its like...did i not see this coming? did i not plan every part of my wedding since march of this year?  haven't i been one big bag of stress hormones for the past month? well...yea.

but looking from the other side of it all....wow.  i'm married.  i feel like i'm part of this club now.  i saw an old man at target yesterday, and i spotted his wedding band.  and i wanted to say "yea...me too. just joined. how bout them wedding vows eh?" *elbows in ribs*

not that i'm not completely ecstatic that i can call taylor "husband" now.  or that i dont feel good being all wife-y when i wash a load of dishes, or pick up taylor's shoes.  and i've probably practiced writing my new last name a million times already.  i still suck.  its because my first name is all straight lines. 

Nikki.

and my last name is all curves.

Esco.  well the E can be straight, but i write in cursive, and my cursive capital e's look like sideways butts.  can't help it.  E's are hard to do.

so my name doesn't flow yet.  we'll get there.

so, how does this post fit in with my "in-between" style blog? well, i feel in-between right now.  like, in between saying my wedding vows, and waking up one day and not have my heart flip out when i remember that i'm married.  i guess when i don't mess up my signature on credit card purchases because i still want to write my maiden *hehe* name, or when i introduce taylor as my husband and don't get a goofy grin all over my face.  i'm in-between newly-wedded and ....just wedded.  i hope i don't forget this feeling fully.  but how awesome will it be to say "happy 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th anniversary taylor."  that's what i want.  50 anniversaries.  more actually, but 50 is pretty legit.

oh hey, cool fact.  the day before our wedding was 2.5 years for me and taylor.  kinda awesome.

i'll post more about the actual wedding day later, but i wanted to jot down some feelings i'm having right now.  bliss is a good one.  good word too.  bliss......
joy.  peace.  love...love love love. child-like happiness.  i cannot imagine being more content.  that's another good one.

till then, imma go be married some more.

adventures in frisbee golf

although i really enjoy the outdoors, i dont enjoy sweating or sunburns.  and up until recently, victoria has had this nasty tendency to be hot, sticky, and sunny. so finally it got cooler and shadier, and i agreed to go frisbee golfing with taylor.  ha.  just tack that onto my never ending list of  "no i'm not good at that." but it was fun to enjoy the nice weather with the future hubs (9 days!) and he is so gosh darn cute when he shows off how good he is at doing anything physical. i would marry a natural athlete, wouldn't i?

but i suck at frisbee golf.

each round resulted in the same thing.  we'd get ready to throw, him being very confident that he would land his frisbee within putting distance, and me being very confident that i'd get nowhere close.  i was afraid for myself, the trees, taylor, and squirrels.

we'd throw. and for a split second, both our frisbees were on a similar path.

and then the horrible result.  of course, taylor would have the result of a spectacular throw. and i'd have the result of a spectacular fail.

and taylor would try not to laugh.

i'm not sure if frisbee golf is my thing.  i have zero hand-eye coordination. at least we didnt try darts.
i think i'll stick to reading.