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...

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!

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

Photo Tag Time

The wonderful Ms. Gabby from Gabby She Wrote tagged me for a photo tag and well since these are so much fun I thought I’d play along!

Here are the rules:

Open your 1st photo folder

Scroll to the 10th photo

Post the photo and the story behind it.

Tag 5 or more people
I think ya’ll may have seen this photo before. Not sure. It’s taken in Mexico at the swing bar at the resort we stayed at. We were down there for our good friends, Brad & Erika’s wedding. Those drinks in our hands look SOOOOO good right now. I’m pretty sure I’m drinking a White Russian and Wade has a mojito. The quality isn’t the greatest unfortunately but I love this picture! It brings back good memories! I want to go back! And yes, I have a swizzle stick in my mouth for some reason.

So I usually take the lazy way out of tagging and just say I want whoever is reading this to play along and let me know! Today is no exception b/c I’m always lazy and I’m too preoccupied w/ the upcoming appointment today to think about anything else! Ahhhh!!! When will 1:30 get here?!?!?!

Cheerio~

Wordless Wednesday

So technically this specific post is not wordless, but in the future they will be. I got this idea from a fellow blogger, Exmi, and I liked it.

Enjoy!

Ahhh... Mexico

What more can be said about Mexico other than in the dead of winter it is the greatest place to escape to. We just returned from a 6-day trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico for Brad & Erika’s wedding. One word sums it up: Perfection. Perfect weather, perfect wedding, perfect friends, and all that tallied up to a PERFECT time! Erika was a stunning bride and Brad was a handsome groom. Wade was the best man and I must say he was muy guapo. There is my extent of Spanish for ya’ll.

We mostly relaxed by the ocean, drank lots of tropical slushy drinks, played some water volleyball and enjoyed ourselves.

My new favorite drink is the Miami Vice which is ½ pina colada and ½ strawberry daiquiri. Absolutely delicious! Too bad they are too much of a pain in the ass to make for me to bother w/ now that we are home.
Who bought tickets to the gun show? :)Wade and Brad enjoy their big gay swing time. :)

Kristin I have no clue as to what is going on in this picture, but that is what makes it funny. :)

We also had the opportunity to take an excursion and visited the Mayan ruins of Tulum and went to Xel-Ha which is an ocean inlet that has been turned into a tourist attraction.

Gretchen and I are about to be a snack for that hungry iguana!

We snorkeled, tubed, cliff jumped and just marveled at the beautiful nature. And E ran into a tree. Too funny not to share, although at the time she had a nasty headache. Poor E, those dang trees always jump out at you.

So now the question comes, when can we go back!?!?! (And more importantly, when is spring going to get here? I’m freezing my ass off!)

Oh the places we go...

So as promised I’m posting some pictures from the busy lives we’ve been living lately.

My trip to Ft. Myers with Milly, Gilly and Bud was wonderful. The weather was picture perfect (in the 80’s every day and sunny) and we kept ourselves busy sight seeing, shopping and going to the beaches. Perfection! We also had the pleasure of getting down to Everglades City and taking an air boat ride. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a boat w/ a big fan on the back of it which propels it and skims it over the water. Because of this the water does not have to be deep for the boat and it can even go over mud as long as it is wet. There were times we were in water that was just a few inches deep. This boat can fly! And we zoomed through the everglades and even got to do some 360’s! It was a blast. Unfortunately the only alligator we got to see was a little stuffed dead one (the season was dry and the water turned too salty so they swam out and away), but we did get to see a swamp raccoon. And yes, they look almost exactly like the Midwest raccoons. But it was still neat b/c our captain fed it right out of his hands and it grabbed the “People” crackers from him w/ her little paws. Very cute! Here are some of the highlights of the trip. I definitely think we should make this an annual vacation! :)
Bud, Milly and Gilly ready to watch the sunset

They have some great sunsets in Florida

Our air boat ride!

The captain manuevered us through these narrow passageways

The friendly little swamp raccoon we saw

I got to pretend to be captain! Aye matey!

Milly got to steer it for real!

They are everywhere! This was in a drainage on the side of the highway.

Gilly and Bo enjoy the Seafood Festival that we just happened to get to go to in Everglades City

Our next trip was up to Bessemer, MI (the U.P.) We had a group of 14 join us this year. Smaller than normal, but no less fun! This group wasn’t afraid of drinking hard, partying, UFC, unicycling (haha), handstands (haha, again), snow tossing and staying up late. Well, late as in 1:30 am. But when you start drinking before noon, that IS late! A lot of people skied and snowboarded and sledded. I did not. Do I regret that? Not in the least. I stayed warm, drank early and stayed out of the blizzard that the afternoon turned into! The 2nd night up there it turned freaking ridiculous on us and the wind-chill was around 20 below! Our walk home from the Booby Hatch (which is only 2 blocks!) was HORRID! My thighs froze by the time we walked back into the Abbey! I never knew my thighs could freeze, but yes, in fact, they can! There were so many good moments captured on film, I’ll try to get the best ones on here. Definitely good times! And I got to try my first pickled egg. Did I like it, you ask? Well, I'll let the pictures tell the story. :)
Travis was the pimp for the weekend (and he pretty much didn't change out of this the whole time!
The group playing tippy cup

I told you there were handstands... and they weren't very good!

I decided I would test out the "fire escape", I need to lift weights, I'm a wimp.
Thank God John helped me or I would have fallen on my ass! :)
Ahh... the Booby Hatch, what a GREAT place!
And I told you there was unicycling!
And UFC, I won. :)
I love Kara's face in this one. Priceless.
My 1st pickled egg... And my last pickled egg. Freakin nasty.
And now it's time for the "Toss Wade in the Snow" game... he wasn't being cooperative.
But we eventually got him, and bonus, we got Travis too! :)

And finally, E’s 2nd Bachelorette Bash! This one unfortunately didn’t turn out all that much better than the first. Although this time when she got sick it WAS due to the alcohol. We never made it out of Gretchen’s apartment, but we still managed to have a good time and take care of poor E. She knows how to drink them down, unfortunately couldn’t keep them down though! We’ll do a 3rd times the charm party for her in Mexico, which is in exactly one week! Yippeeeee!!!! I can’t wait! I’ve been a shopaholic lately finding all these cute tee’s and tanks for the trip. I’ve spent way over my budget for clothing this month. Oops. I guess I will just make it up next month and not buy anything. It’s so hard to say no though when you see something cute that is on sale and you just KNOW it will be perfect for Mexico! Si, me gusta mucho! Vamos a Mexico!

The first try, Jana filled in as our bride so we could still get in free everywhere even though we lost E. :(
Yay, E came back out!

Sisters, so happy together! :)

Seriously, minutes before we lost her the 2nd time!

We decided to continue the party anyway. E would have wanted us to... :)

So there is my full length update. I hope you are all happy now! This weekend we have friends coming to visit us! Bartels, Drew and maybe Tanya, assuming she is feeling better. I can’t wait. We never get people to visit us, we always have to visit them! So this will be great! We plan on skiing one day. We’ll see how that goes…

Until next time… Cheerio my peeps!