Honeymoon in Paradise

We spent close to two wonderful weeks in Hawaii for our honeymoon and had an unforgettable time away on our first vacation together. We were on Kaua'i for 7 nights, Maui for 3 nights and O'ahu for 2 nights. We loved Kaua'i the best with Maui coming in at a close second, and O'ahu was also fun and something we are glad to have seen, especially Pearl Harbor.

After a l-o-n-g flight from Philadelphia, we were so glad to arrive in that utopia known as Princeville, Kaua'i and to know that we would be staying there for the first week of our trip. What a beautiful place! The landscape and seascape were close to perfect and were so completely relaxing. If it weren't for having to upload our digital photos to Andrew's laptop every night - since the memory cards weren't nearly as large five years ago as they are today -- we would have felt completely removed from "the real world."

Here's a picture of us when we first arrived at our condo in Kaua'i after traveling for about 13 hours. Tired doesn't even do justice to how we were feeling but the excitement of being in Hawaii on our honeymoon seemed to keep us going. The flower leis are remnants from the tradition of being "lei-ed" at the Honolulu airport whenever a tourist arrives. Talk about a warm welcome!

Two words come to mind when I look at these photos - young and thin! I had just turned 23 a month earlier and Andrew would be 24 in about two months.

Here's a photo of the beautiful pool area at the Bali Hai Villas, where we stayed. I think I could have sat by the pool for the entire two weeks if I had been given the option.

We golfed one day at the Kaua'i Lagoons Kiele course at the Marriott Hotel on the island. It was my first (and last!) offical round of 18 holes. Even with "fudging" my score a bit, I am probably the worst player the Marriott has ever seen! But, in keeping my glass half full, I will atest to thoroughly enjoying the scenery, LOVING riding the golf cart to the halfway house for lunch and being completely picture happy with our new digital camera! Here are a few photos of the course and of us in action on the course. Wow, I really do look like a serious golfer, don't I? Hee hee...

We did some really neat things while on the island - a catamaran cruise around the Na Pali coast, a hike to the Waimea Canyon, a helicopter ride around the entire island, and an off-road tour to show us the landmarks where some of the many movies that have been filmed on Hawaii were shot.

A picture from the Weimea Canyon:

Some photos from our Ohana Helicopter tour. Andrew and I were selected to sit up front with Nick the Pilot so there is one of me strapping myself into the cockpit. What a wild experience, especially for lil' ole undaring me! The last photo is a shot of the Na Pali coast from the air. We loved the catamaran tour we took around the coastline, but none of the photos we took on that trip could beat this aerial shot.

Finally, just one picture from the movie tour that we took. We saw where various films such as Outbreak, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Fantasy Island, and South Pacific were filmed. Here we are in front of the famous Jurassic Park gate.

After a spectacular week in Kaua'i we took a short flight to Maui and spent three wonderful days there. We did a beautiful scenic roadtrip called The Road to Hana, which was probably the highlight of our time on this island. We loved it!! Thankfully neither of us are prone to motion sickness since it is about a 90 mile drive on a long, winding, single-lane road with various attractions along the way. The scenery was out of this world. Of course since we knew we'd be doing this long drive, we had to upgrade our rental car to a Sebring convertible!

Here are some of our favorite photos from the Road to Hana:

One of the stops along the way was a black sand beach. Literally. It was formed by lava rock sand and was such a neat sight against the clear blue water.

At the end of the road was the piece de resistance, the Seven Sacred Pools of O'heo Gulch. This is literally a seven part waterfall with water deep enough to swim in (but cold enough to keep you in for only a few minutes!). People were jumping off of the cliffs from one pool into the next and if the water were not so cold, I fear that Andrew may have been one of them!

Our Wedding

Andrew and I were married on July 21, 2001, less than two years after originally meeting. We surprised both of our families by getting engaged our college graduation weekend after only officially dating for 3 months! We decided to wait another year to get married so that we would have plenty of time to get our jobs established, find a place to live in PA and to plan our wedding.

Even though both of our families were from northern NJ, we opted for an out-of-state wedding in Bethlehem, PA at Lehigh University, where we attended college together and first met (Go Engineers!). Lehigh has a beautiful campus so a summer wedding there sounded perfect to us. The ceremony was followed by a reception at The Silver Creek Country Club in Hellertown, PA. It was a beautiful day that we both will always remember!

The bridemaids and I pre-ceremony. I prefer simple gowns - very little embellishment- so I opted for a very classic gown of solid satin with a pearl neckline. On the hem of my dress are the bridesmaids' bouquets.

My bridesmaids were (l-r): cousin Lauren, high school friend Michele, sister-in-law Michelle, and high school friends Aliza and Joanne.

A photo of Andrew and the groomsmen pre-ceremony. They were (l-r): college friend Tim, childhood friend Greg, Andrew, college friend Jason, brother-in-law Mike and college friend Jim.

Here we both are with our parents before showtime.

It was a beautiful July day so fortunately we were able to take many outdoor photos on Lehigh's breathtaking campus. Here is Packer Memorial Chapel, where our ceremony took place. The chapel had just been restored prior to our wedding and we lucked out that they had finished working on the facade of the church only weeks earlier.

The inside of Packer Chapel is BEAUTIFUL, to understate it. Seriously. There is a 250 ft. aisle down which I had to walk (and let me tell you that 250 ft. has never seemed longer than it did that day when I was being watched by nearly 200 people!). I had never before and never will again feel as close to royalty as I did that day when I paraded down the aisle of this beautiful 19th century cathedral.

Some post-ceremony pictures around campus, at both the Alumni Memorial Building and in front of Packer Lab, the engineering building where Andrew spent much of his time. The business school building where I had most of my classes is very modern and not nearly as picturesque so we opted to not take photos there :).

Finally, just a few photos from the reception. Of the thousands of photos we have, I chose only a handful of them highlighting the "key players" in our special day.

Andrew and me toasting our first day as husband and wife:

Mom and Dad Caulfield:

Mom and Dad Martin:

The entire bridal party outside The Silver Creek Country Club.

Grandpa and Grandma Gaczewski. They were the only grandparents who were able to be with us on our special day. The only other living grandparent at the time was my grandmother, Lucille Scarcella, but she was too sick to make the journey from Florida for the event. She was with us in spirit that day!

Our First Home

Andrew and I bought our first home in North Wales, PA in early 2001 and since it was new construction, it was completed in May 2001. Andrew moved in once we closed and I moved in after our wedding two months later. We still currently live here and it has brought us over five good years to date and has seen us through many life experiences - our marriage, our first dog, our first child, and numerous parties and gatherings.

Here are some of the photos we took during the construction phase. It is strange to look back on these now and imagine that we stood in our cozy home when it was in its bare bones stage!

Some photos taken on the inside. Here I am in the master bath shower stall and Andrew is in the hall bathtub. Wow, and I think the shower stall looks dirty when it hasn't been cleaned for a few weeks! That's nothing compared to this!:



Andrew in the living/dining room area, standing near the front door:

A shot of the second floor hallway, which overlooks the two-story family room below:

...and a shot of the family room from up above:

Some outside pictures of our end unit. We actually lucked out in acquiring this particular model since we placed our deposit months after all of the other end units had been filled. It just so happened that two other offers on our unit had fallen through and we were in the right place at the right time so we jumped at the opportunity to leave our deposit when we learned that in fact an end unit was available!

The siding goes up...

And up goes the stucco and the stones on the front...