Finally! I get my act together!

Back by popular demand, to report about the MEXICAN RIVIERA! I know you have all been losing sleep over me not posting until NOW about the most exciting foreign trip we have taken as a married couple- but after getting back and having over 245 emails to look over at work, and plan my sister-in-law's baby shower, I needed some time to gather my thoughts! So i have been thinking about how to exactly relate the amazing time we had, and after endless debates with myself I have decided to say it with pictures of course!

First things first: after my previous Valentine's post, I received some lovely flowers from a lovely husband.

Now on to the meat of this post: We flew out saturday morning and got to LA on time! I had multiple people warn me that the ship would not wait for stragglers, and would sail off without us if we weren't there on time. After an almost deadly cab ride with a creepy looking driver, we arrived and got on the ship! The weather was a bit chilly, but as true vacationers do, we (and our friends) were the first ones in the pool. That was the first and only day we played frisbee in the pool- a good game of 500 can only last so long with a deck patrol guy who looks like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV- who takes his job VERY seriously. After a scare from the incredibly loud horn on the boat, we were off! The first two days we were at sea, and the first full day was the day we got rocked by the sun. Like an idiot i didn't wear any sunscreen, and the others would put sunscreen only in the spots they felt were getting burned - we were quite a crew later that night. I had left my sunglasses on all day so I had a white raccoon mask around my eyes, and everyone else had white spots and weird sunburns.

right before dinner - a little hot to the touch

(that's cabo in the background)...what's vacation without some good old clown hair?

Our first port day was beautiful Puerto Vallarta. We planned the excursion of the Eco Island Discovery. We took a boat (complete with breakfast and spanish music) out to the Marietas, which are islands made of rock. We couldn't actually stand on the island because it is protected by some law. So, we put on our snorkeling gear and jumped into the saltiest water I have ever been in. That was a huge shock - we didn't even think about it and somehow i jumped in with my mouth open. Lesson learned. I had this beautiful picture painted in my head of crystal clear waters and tons of tropical fish, but reality was that we were swimming in what seemed like lake water, and you had to get about one foot away from the underwater rock to actually see anything. Before you think it stunk - it was awesome! We saw tons of different kinds of fish - my favorite was the blue bodied, white necked, yellow faced fish. And we saw some purple, white spotted coral - way cool! With our surfer dude, Pepe as our leader we had an awesome time. Pepe was swimming with only one fin and no wet suit. He swam down and picked up a sea star. He had our friend Tanner put it on his hand and Pepe described how "he is not holding onto the star, the star is holding onto him!" After everyone else got back on the boat, the four of us kept snorkeling. If you went under the water and just sat there, you could hear whales singing and it was the coolest thing! Allie and I were waiting for the boys to come out of a cave and had birds poop on us, which added some excitement when we started screaming and swimming as fast as we could away from all the birds. Once we got back on our excursion boat and had lunch, we went out for a kayaking tour. We kayaked around the islad while Pepe told us about the history of the islands - we saw lots of crabs crawling around and creepy looking birds staring at us. There was a pelican who was seriously the grouchiest looking bird I have ever seen - Allie and I were nervous he was going to fly at us and try to kill us. After we got out to our destination for kayaking, Pepe said we could take our time to get back to the boat or race each other. Of course the first thing Jake and I do is try to paddle as fast as we can to beat everybody - and we did! Who knows if anyone else was trying to race us, but we beat them all! On our way back to Puerto Vallarta, we saw whales, dolphins, and a manta ray! It was the coolest thing - the crew had girls at the front of the boat that they were trying to teach a dance to, and when everyone saw a whale, the boat stop so fast that the girls looked like they were going to flip over in the water. It was so much fun!

right when we got of the cruise ship, a lady asked us to take a picture with her parrot and donate to something


Tanner and Jake on the way out to the Marietas. Jake is also showing his dance moves.

Allie and me - we both couldn't stop saying "I can't believe we're in mexico!"

Of course we couldn't leave without a picture with Pepe!
Our beautiful, enormous cruise ship as seen from our excursion boat

The next day we went to Mazatlan to do zip lining! We heard everyone talk about their zip lining adventure in Puerto Vallarta - in a jungle, zip lining through gorgeous landscape, and repelling down a waterfall. We went with the greatest picture of how gorgeous it was going to be, and we ended up zip lining over dead trees. Don't get me wrong, it was still fun, just not as gorgeous as those lucky people in Puerto Vallarta. We were picked up off the ship by a guy who told us his name was Silver. I didn't really believe him, but called him Silver anyway. We got onto a bus and tooke the bumpiest ride I have ever been on through, what i am convinced, what are some of the most run-down parts of Mazatlan. We saw houses made from whatever you could think of - with straw ceilings. I saw people selling plumbing supplies out on the sidewalk. I felt bad for the people! Then we arrived at the zip lining place. We got all suited up and then were herded into these old Swiss army tanks. After climbing up these steep sand hills and holding onto the ceiling straps so we wouldn't fly out the windows, we got up to the start. We went on nine zip lines over dead vegetation and sweated like crazy because it was boiling hot. The workers were tons of fun, and when Alex (our guide) asked me my name, i thought he asked me if i was ready so i said "yes". From then on he called me "si" because i told him my name was "yes".

I know you can't see him very well, but that's Alex who thought my name was "Si"

The next day was our last port in Cabo San Lucas. It was also our shortest port, so we decided not to do an excursion. We just walked over to a beach and hung out there for a couple of hours. Of course we were bugged like crazy to buy things by the vendors, but after Tanner told a guy selling sunglasses that he wanted two pairs for $10, the guy called him cheap, and must have told all of the other sunglass vendors about him, because they didn't bother us much after that. We did, however, have about 20 people come buy selling the exact same thing - bracelets with your name on them, and Henna tattoo services. Sorry to say, we didn't take advantage of getting the Henna tattoos.

All of the resorts where we hung out at the beach

Some lady was walking around with an iguana. She let it down into the water and then it started running away and she had to chase after it.

We buried Tanner in the sand with some help from the people who worked at the bar - notice the shovel- this guy's got experience!

Our ports were all so much fun! I was nervous that the days spent on the boat would be boring, but I didn't get bored once! There were games by the pool, which we participated in, and Jake won! He entered the "Mr. Sexy Legs" competition. He told me I needed to be a judge so that he would win. So, we pretended we didn't know eachother, and I entered as a judge! There were five guys in the contest and Jake took the win with no problem! The guys had to walk around the pool all together, and then once individually. Jake definitely put on a show - when it was time for him to walk around individually, he took his shirt off, twirled it around his head and threw it into the crowd. Everyone starting screaming and cheering! He then dove into the pool and stuck his legs out of the water and did some synchronized swimming moves. Afterwhich he lifted himself out of the pool by doing a hand stand (which was amazing) and flexed his leg muscles in the air. Everyone loved him and I didn't even have to say anything to the other judges about him being "mr. sexy legs". They loved his little show and chose him without seeing everyone else! After that, we would walk around the boat and people would say to him "Hey Mr. Sexy Legs". It was hilarious - our friends have the contest on video, so we need to get it from them! Tanner also participated in the Pool Olympics game and his team won! A few days later, Jake and I entered to do "the newly wed game" and we were put on the show! Of course we lost after some embarassing and stupid questions. It was funny because that night and the next morning, we had lots of people come up to us and say how they wish we would have won. They also announced that we were from Salt Lake City, so we had people coming up to us who had either lived in Utah, or currently do. It was funny.

And last but not least - I know you want to hear about THE FOOD! We had been told by everyone we had talked to that the food was the most amazing part. Sorry to say, we weren't super impressed. We chose to do the anytime dining option- meaning we could eat at anytime instead of having to eat at either 6:30 or 8:30. We had four restaurants we could choose from, and they were all super fancy. By the last night I was tired of the fanciness and just wanted a burger. The dinners were good, but there was one night when i got the turkey dinner and it came with lots of giblets, the potato was disgusting, and the corn patty (or whatever) was the worst part. I went to bed a little hungry that night:) We did, however, enjoy the hamburger bar and the pizza bar. I will never forget sitting in the hot tub eating pizza and drinking diet coke - that's luxury!

Overall, our trip was awesome and we can't wait until we can plan another one. We are thinking the Carribbean, but if you haven't been on a cruise - book one now!

This should entice you, if nothing else! This is the rose I got after we did the newlywed game.

I thought I would leave you with a wonderful video - after my sister-in-law's baby shower this morning, Jake sucked helium out of the balloons and sang a song.