Bienvenidos al Paraíso

Mexico was absolutely incredible. It was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been. As I said in my previous post, I would not change one single thing about that trip. From the hotel to the excursions to my travel partner, everything was perfect. I have never been so happy and relaxed in my life.

The flight there was rough; I’m not going to lie. We took an 11:30 flight to Houston, and had a 5 hour layover and then flew from Houston in to Cabo, landing around 12pm local time. Neither roommate nor I slept on the flight from Seattle to Houston. I couldn’t get comfortable in my seat, I was over tired, over excited, and flying isn’t the easiest experience for me in the best of circumstances. We finally landed in Houston and went and found a diner to have breakfast. I can’t tell you the time, I’m thinking it was around 5am local time, so 3am our time? Regardless, after a rough flight we had some surprisingly good airport food before going to our gate to wait for our flight.

Once we were at our gate roommate promptly feel asleep. I can’t sleep in public, and I didn’t really think both of us asleep in the airport was the best idea ever, so I read a book. Thank goodness for my Nook. Best Christmas present ever. I read 5 books on vacation, something that would have been difficult and expensive with paperbacks. Thanks to the Seattle Public library for having such a good digital selection! Once on the plane, roommate again promptly fell asleep. I again did not.

Once we landed in Mexico we found our shuttle and made it to our hotel with very little incident. We rode on the shuttle with a couple that has been married for 3 years longer than my mother has been alive. I aspire to be them someday. We checked into our hotel and were upgraded from a studio, to a large one-bedroom. The place we stayed is a timeshare, but we were able to stay there through a deal on Living Social Escapes. Our hotel room was as big as our apartment. It had 2 full size bathrooms. The patio was bigger than some studios I’ve seen in Seattle. It faced out at the pool with amazing floor to ceiling doors we could open to hear the ocean and let in the tropical air. We never used the full kitchen, but the washer and dryer came in handy for wet towels and swim suits.

We arrived at the hotel mid-day and spent the day at the pool. We went into Cabo that night with a group of people we met the first day at the resort. It was crazy fun. We danced at this bar called CaboWabo all night and I probably had about 10 Pacifico’s. Okay not 10. But a lot.

We left the club at who knows what time and went and found street taco’s for roommate. When we got back to the hotel we went sat in a secret hot tub we found away from the main pool area. It was a most excellent way to start off vacation.

The next day we got up and went to breakfast, and booked our excursions for the days we would be there. The First day (Friday) we decided to go horseback riding on the beach at Sunset.

 

So we spent the day by the pool drinking Supermans (new favorite drink: Half strawberry daiquiri, half mango daiquiri, with Blue Curacao on top) and then were picked up around 3pm to go to the pacific side of the peninsula and ride horses.

 

 

It was stunningly beautiful. The horses were as docile as expected so I just let the reigns hang and took a thousand pictures of the giant cactuses and then the giant waves breaking on the sand. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

I don't think life gets more beautiful than this

Biggest Cactus Ever

Saturday we got up and got breakfast then took a cab into the Marina to go out on a Catamaran and go snorkeling. This was my ABSOLUTE favorite thing that we did. Well, the boat part, not the snorkeling part. Roommate really wanted to go snorkeling, but I told her that I am afraid of fish. Well not afraid. Disgusted to the point of fear? Regardless, I do not like fish. I try to pretend they do not exist for the most part. I had one ill-fated attempted at owning a goldfish. It turned into a zombie. But that’s another story.

 

So back to the catamaran. We were able to ride on the front, on the netting and watch the water run under the boat, while we went out to where we were going to be snorkeling. It was about an hour ride and so much fun. The boats only safety recommendation was to have 4 or less drinks before snorkeling. I guess I don’t really need to say it was an open bar, because it was Mexico, so that’s probably understood. Once we got to the bay where we were supposed to snorkel, we jumped off the boat which was also one of my favorite things we did. I love jumping off high places, I love free fall, I love the water. Win’s, all the way around. As expected I put on my snorkel, saw one fish, and freaked out. In my defense, it was a giant black scary fish. And the water was murky, so you didn’t see the fish until they were less than 2 feet away.

The funny part of this experience was Roommate. Snorkeling was roommate’s idea. Roommate made fun of me when I saw a fish and yelped while she was still putting on her gear. Then roommate tried to snorkel, saw a fish and was practically in my lap. She did the water equivalent of jumping into my arms. It was hilarious. Luckily I had on flippers so I could hold her and me up.

After that we just splashed around in the water with our fins on and took pictures with our waterproof camera. The bartender from the boat brought cervezas out to us on a paddle board. No complaints. After about an hour and half of snorkeling the boat headed back into the marina. On the way back there were much bigger waves so we got spashed while sitting up on the netting. The water was warm, the air was hot, and watching roommate get tossed in the air and drenched from a dead sleep was pretty hilarious.

I think I could happily spend my life on a catamaran. It was the happiest and most relaxed I have ever been in my life. I think I should get a job as a bartender on a catamaran. If I knew that was an actual job, I can’t say I would have actually gone to college.

Sunday we spent all day laying by the pool and then went to the Spa in the evening and got 90 minute massages and enjoyed all of the spa amenities. Monday was spent by the pool all morning then flying back to the states. I had my first “run across the airport at full speed so you don’t miss your flight” experience. We had a 1 hour and 45 minute lay over. Customs took 1 hour and 30 minutes. We then had to sprint from the international terminal to our gate. But we made our plane, with about 5 minutes to spare. When we turned our phones on there was the most adoreable picture of Mr. B welcoming us home.

That's his "Please Give me the CHEESE" face

I’m so glad that he was able to go to Oregon and have a fun time with my parent’s, but I had no idea how much I would miss that dog. I miss him every day. The house is quiet and empty. And it’s not just that I miss having a dog around. I miss Bentley. I miss his funny expressions and his silly old man noises. It made me realize exactly how hard it is going to be when Alison and I don’t live together anymore. To some extent I’ll be losing two best friends, and two roommates all at once. Luckily I don’t see that happening for a very very long time.

Tonight I’m heading down to Oregon to see my family, and Mr. B. and to celebrate my very favorite holiday. Then Friday Roommate and our third amigo are both coming down to have a ladies weekend. Then on Monday, I start the Advocare 24 Day Challenge again. I’m not sure if it will be easier or harder. Easier maybe since I know how well it works (last time I dropped 11.5lbs) and I know exactly what I’m getting myself into. But harder as well, since I know exactly what I’m getting myself into!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

P.S. – In Mexico we met a handsome stud named Jacob. Here’s a picture of us with him.

 

Sun, Sand, Mexico, and Body Image

So this post may be short and sweet, as I just got back from vacation and am so swamped with work and life, after taking 5 days off from being a grown up. Mexico was incredible. It was warm and so beautiful. Everyone we met was so nice. I literally would not change 1 thing about our vacation. That was how great it was. I’m planning a post all about all the things we did, and all the fun we had, complete with pictures, but today there is something else that is on my mind.

Roommate posted all the pictures from the trip today on Facebook. I knew this was happening. Roommate does this with every trip we go on. Really with everything that we do: BBQ’s, parties, nights on the town, all make their way into albums for 300-500 of our closest acquaintances to look at. 2 years ago, I liked pretty much none of the photos. 1 year ago I thought some of them were okay. But lately I’ve actually enjoyed that roommate documents every little thing we do. I like most of the pictures and I’m so glad we have such a great record of all of the stuff we do; for the same reason I’m writing this blog, I want a tangible record of life as it flies past me.

But this vacation was all swimsuits, all the time. And I hadn’t stuck to my old tankini stand by. This was a bikini vacation. I knew roommate would post the pictures and today I got that notification that she had posted pictures. I knew they were vacation photos. Vacation photos that I hadn’t looked at since I took them. I felt good while we were there and wasn’t ashamed to walk across the pool deck without a cover up, or lay next to roommate on a lounger. But that isn’t a photo on the internet. I went and clicked through all 70 photos that she posted.  And I was SO proud.

I am not perfect. I know I still have parts of myself that I’m working on, both inside and out. But I have come SO far and worked so hard and in the moment when I saw those photos, I actually saw the person that other people see, and not that chubby girl that I used to be. So please excuse the tiny bit of self-congratulations, but I just wanted to take a minute to recognize that there are pictures of me, on the internet, in a bikini, and I do not want to die. I do not want to un-tag, I do not mind that they are on my news feed. I have worked hard, I continue to work hard. I’m proud I was able to send myself on a tropical vacation and I am proud of the beautiful women I see in our photos.

People can tell you that you are beautiful all day, but until you believe it for yourself, it has little worth. For me, those words have never been truer than they are today.

Lasagna and Leavenworth (but mostly just Leavenworth this time)

I leave for Mexico today.

I wish I had clever things to say, or a super good post all about Leavenworth, since it was a month ago and since then Halloween happened and when I come back, I’m pretty sure I will only want to talk about Mexico. Because it’s going to be SO awesome. I have big plans for napping, reading, drinking margaritas, napping, and laying by the pool/beach. I have 5 awesomely terrible books queued up on the Nook, ready to be read on a lounger. But I don’t so here’s this post instead.

I also have been thinking all the time about how my life relates to Boy Meets World and Saved by the Bell and Friends. I really want to post about that too. Because I love the 90’s and the 2000’s. And for real, it relates. Also, side bar, I was thinking about this BEFORE they announced a Boy Meets World reboot. I’m not sure how I feel about said reboot. I don’t even know if I can watch it. You don’t mess with perfection. Seriously. They are going to mess it up. I’m sure. Corey and Topanga forever!

Leavenworth was SO amazing! So I will try and do it justice; pretty much the most fun weekend ever.

Upon arrival we had celebratory shots ( of course). We then proceed to eat, drink, play some dance game on the Kinect, and then hot tub.

As a side note, this house was huge and awesome. The room that roommate and I stayed in actually had a loft, that was 10 feet up, so we had to climb a latter to get into our bed. A 10 foot latter. Not sober. I’m very proud of roommate and I for not falling off, either night when we climbed up.  It was actually pretty awesome. I felt like I was 10. Only just the awesome part, not the awkward part.

Just the Ladies!

 

We also had a hot tub dance party, per usual. Pretty much dance party’s happen anytime roommate and I go to a regular party. Fact.

Pirates?...Maybe. Awesome?....Definitly.

 

Saturday we went into Leavenworth during the day and checked out the town, we went to a couple little shops and got corn dogs. Not a bad afternoon if you ask me. Probably just because corn dogs are my drug of choice.

 

 

 Saturday night I cooked the lasagnas, and roommate and I got into our super awesome beer wench outfits, complete with mary jane’s and curled hair. I think we were rather authentic. We then went to the festival itself which was really great. But cold. All the beer lines were outside, and true beer wenches do not need coats. Obviously. Oh yeah, also, it was 40 degrees.

Please ignore the Photo Bombing Cougar. Or don't. Up to you.

There was some good people watching and some really excellent dancing at Oktoberfest. I am SO stoked to go again next year. We also got some pretty funny questions while wondering around in our outfits. We had a TON of people ask to take pictures with us. We had quite a few braniac’s ask if we were cold (really? REALLY?). We also had quite a few boys stop us and tell us how pretty we were and that they didn’t know what to say, followed by awkward mumbling. Hint to the boys of the world: a better opening line is “Hi I’m _____. You’re pretty. What’s your name?”.  Just as an FYI. They were cute though ;)

Sunday we did some exploring around the house we stayed out. The beauty of this state never ceases to amaze me. I feel so blessed to be born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. I really can't think of any better place.

 

Then it was back to Seattle and back to real life for the week, before we celebrated Halloween the next weekend. We were the Ninja turtles. It was awesome. Here are our costumes. Commence being jealous J

Leonardo, Raphael, Master Splinter, Michelangelo, and Donatello

Pretty Turtles

Turtle Power! I think we were all chaneling our characters
Serious (Donny), Goofy (Mikey), and Trouble (Raph)!