Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Mexico!!!

Okay, I'm finally getting around to the recap of Mexico!  This is going to be a bit long so I don't plan on editing this post, I'll probably just type it up and hit publish.  We stayed at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya (which deceivingly is actually in Playa Del Carmen).  It was a great location!  Very close to Playa, right on the beach and close to the ferry that takes you to Cozumel!  The resort itself is an all inclusive which was great.  The food was hit or miss at the buffets for breakfast/lunch but the dinners were always superb in my opinion. 

The swim up bar is the best for obvious reasons.  You're in the water AND drinking!  :) 
The bartenders were always nice and prompt and would make you ANYTHING you asked for.  We drank countless amounts of pina coladas, miami vices, mudslides, margaritas, etc.  And they would whip up their own concoctions once you got bored of the above!  I think I lived the entire vacation in a constant haze of a buzz.  :)

We flew out there Sunday, March 18th, took a cab ride to the resort (about a 45 min drive from the Cancun airport) and immediately hit the beach.  Kyle lost his sunglasses 2 seconds after entering the ocean.  The waves were intense and I'm not sure we were prepared for that but we were drunk from our flight and van ride (the drivers will stop at the gas station and let you pick up beer if you ask and we totally asked) so we didn't care and jumped right in!

That night we had dinner at the resort's Japanese restaurant.  The sushi was just so-so but the shrimp tempura and chicken teriyaki I had was wonderful!  We ended up calling it an early night since it started raining and we were all a bit bushed from our flights in.

Monday was beach/pool day!  The bars don't open until 10:00 am (gasp!) so the ladies lounged around on the beach soaking up the scenery and reading as the boys waded in the ocean.  Once 10:00 came we hit the pool bar!  We were in there the ENTIRE day.  Water logged, drunk and pruney, we eventually got out to clean up for dinner.  We ate at the resort's Brazilian steakhouse that night.  The best way to explain this place is to compare it to Fogo De Chow.  Endless meats on sticks coming at you (that's what she said).  Again, very tasty!  We enjoyed some of the resort's night time entertainment (80's night!) and went to bed fairly early again that night.  We were exhausted since we'd been drinking since 10 am and, who are we kidding, we aren't kids anymore.  Day drinking is great but it rarely leads to all night drinking anymore!  :)


Tuesday Wade and I met up with our friends, Bob and Amy, who just happened to be staying at a resort down the beach from us at the same time.  We took the ferry over to Cozumel and rented mopeds for the day!  SO fun!  Bob and Amy are Cozumel veterans and knew all the good places to stop so we circled the island, which is fairly small, only 9 miles by 12 miles, and made several pit stops. 
Cozumel




Rasta bar
The best place by far was the Rasta Bar.  The view from there was unbelievable, the drinks the tastiest and the fish tacos were the best I'd had.  We stayed there for quite a while before heading off to a couple more stops. 

The scooter gang
By the end of our loop I was feeling pretty dang good (they do not hold back on the drinks they make on the island!) and I got off our moped only to stagger backwards and fall into Bob and Amy's.  Um, yeah, ow.  Mega burn from the pipe is now on the back of my right calf.  Hurts like hell.  But, I was in Mexico and wasn't feeling the pain at that point so oh well! 

We finally made it back to our resort but not in time to join the rest of our group for dinner so Wade and I just hit up the buffet.  I should mention the guacamole and pico here were un-freaking-believable!  I think I ate my weight in that alone.  Could be the reason I came back 2-3 pounds heavier.  Well, that combined w/ a massive amount of drinking.  Ha!

This evening we decided to take a walk down to one of the other Riu resorts in the area, since we had access to all of them with our wrist bands, and go to their disco-tech.  We watched a bit of their evening entertainment before entering the club and then wore out our dancing shoes!  So fun!  We finally made it back to our resort around 2:00 am so we proved we weren't always lame early nighters!

That's a lot of alcohol.
Wednesday we decided to walk into Playa to do some shopping and eat lunch.  Of course being the typical tourists we ate at Senor Frogs.  However, only because we got a coupon for buy 1 round of drinks, get your 2nd round free!  This would be the end of me!  We ordered our drinks and were surprised to see they ended up being yards!  I had ordered a sex on the beach so by the time we started in on the 2nd one I was toast.  We walked the beach back to our resort where I ended up taking a much needed siesta.  One could say I passed out, however I like to say I fell asleep for a bit. 

Dinner Wednesday night was at the resort's steakhouse and we all ordered their surf and turf.  The turf was wonderful however my surf was a bit chewy.  Although everyone else's seemed to be good.  We ordered champagne to toast our last night there and the wait staff was very nice to promptly bring it out.  We chugged that down and then hit the entertainment area for the night which just happened to be a compilation of Michael Jackson songs.  AWESOME.  :)  We danced and drank and drank and danced.  So. Much. Fun.
The whole gang

Ang, Kyle, Andrea and Matt left early the next morning.  Luckily Wade and I's flight was later in the afternoon so we got to sleep in a bit b/c for the first time of the whole trip I was hung over.  We had laughed earlier that we didn't think it was possible to be hung over in Mexico since we were all waking up fine, however I proved that wrong on the last day!  I think it just meant it was time to head home.  I missed my little peanut and was so anxious to see her!

Modeling her new Mexican shirt!
My parents were nice enough to come up to our house to watch her for our entire trip and my dad picked us up from the airport while my mom kept Charlie up so she could see us when we got home.  Her face when she first saw me was priceless!  I loved it!  A complete look of surprise/shock/happiness!  She squealed and ran over to me and then followed me around the rest of the night before she finally went to bed.  I missed that girl so freaking much!  Mexico was/is awesome but nothing compares to my little peanut!

But we did decide that an annual (or at least every other year) trip is needed.  It doesn't always need to be Mexico, but it does need to be somewhere warm where the drinks are readily available.  Those are my only 2 requirements.  I'm easy like that.

Sorry for the long winded recap!  I want to be able to look back on this trip and remember it since so much of it is hazy from constant alcohol consumption.   It was so much freaking fun.  I also decided we have some of the greatest friends ever.  I love you bitches.  :)  xoxo

Kel

Wordless Wednesday

MEXICO ladies!  I want to go back...

Saturday, March 24, 2012

A post to hold me over...

We just got back from Mexico Thursday night and I haven't had time to get caught back up on life yet so until then, here are some adorable pics of Charlie.  She had a fabulous time with Omi and Paps while Wade and I were away.  And Wade and I had a fabulous time w/ our friends enjoying the beach, pool and unlimited food and drink.  I'm currently going through detox!  :)
Tickle time!

Showing me her "guns"!

Playing w/ one of the maracas I bought her in Mexico

Trying to climb up the slide

Omi helping Charlie go down the slide

Mommy & Charlie going down!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

(Not) Wordless Wednesday

It's SO nice out today! A jog/walk to the park was necessary! Charlie had a lot of fun! And so did I!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

We just got back from a trip down to Galesburg to visit the in-laws.  It's always great to get to see them!  Unfortunately Charlie seems to have impeccable timing when it comes to our trips and has now given us all the flu twice while down there!  So we extended our trip by a day so we could fully recover from the bug.  It was awful.  Seriously, getting the stomach flu twice in less than 2 months hella sucks (but I guess if you want to look on the positive side I am now at my goal weight and ready for Mexico).  Ha!

Regardless, before we all got hit with the flu from hell we had a lot of fun!  And luckily Charlie is pretty chill so while she was feeling better from the flu and we were all still immobile she just sat back and hung out!  Thank goodness for Disney movies and cartoons! 

LOVE this adorable outfit I scored for 1/2 off at Target - Harajuku Girls

I swear she's addicted to crackers

We all look pretty good for just puking our brains out.
Anyway, Wade and I are getting pretty stoked b/c in 12 days we leave for Mexico!  Even though our winter up here has been remarkably mild and the temps are now getting into the 50's we are ready for some sun, sand and drinks!  We are lucky that my parents are able to come up here to watch Charlie for the 5 days we will be there and we can fully sit back and relax knowing she is in good hands!  We are in need of a good vacation.  Charlie is the bomb diggity but to be able to get a break is always appreciated (especially when that break comes in the form of an all inclusive resort in beautiful weather w/ some great friends!!)  So needless to say, the only thing on my mind recently is packing and getting everything here at home ready for our trip.  There is a lot to plan once you have a kid to leave them with someone else!  Emergency phone numbers, medicine dosages, how to use the car seat, etc, etc.  I've got a long list of things to remember!

Well, not much else to update on.  I wish I had gotten some more good pics while we were down in Galesburg but I pretty much left the camera in my bag once we all started feeling ill.  Next time...

Later~
Kel