Mexico! Feliz Navidad and all that Good Stuff

Well, after Thanksgiving, we always get ready for our trip to Mexico. It's fun to know that the holidays are coming and a vacation is too!

This year we invited along another couple with us, our friends and wedding attendants, Paul and Bridget. It was nice to be able to get away and have fun with them too.

But before we went, 11/20, we had an Engagement Celebration! It was alot of fun to get together with friends and family. It was the official kickoff to planning and sharing our lives as an engaged couple.

Michael's birthday is on the 1st of December, so it is nice to be able to get away to celebrate that too! I took some cake up to Michael's station and had a little celebration.

We stayed at one of our favorite places, Adventura Spa Palace. It is about 1 hour South of Cancun. It is so great going during the Christmas time, they have a big tree in both of their lobbys and they have Christmas music playing. The water was warn and the weather was beautiful! It was a bit overcast the first day,but by the 2nd day, was sunny and beautiful! 87' during the day and in the 70's during the night. Last year, it was cooler in the evening.

We took full advantage of the all inclusive. I can honestly say, they made the BEST Margaritas and Mojitos. Michael continued to enjoy the favorite drink from last year, the Dirty Monkey and Planters Punch. Noting is better than sitting by the beach and pool, having a waiter come and bring you drinks and snacks all day long. There is also a fresh juice bar in the hydrotherapy area where Michael and I fell asleep after doing the hot tub and cold plunge. My favorite part was when we go back to the room when the pool closes to get ready and all dressed up for dinner. The dinners are great, and we had so much great food. The steakhouse was probably Michael and Paul's favorite, they were able to order 2 filet mignon and I am pretty sure that they were in Heaven. I would not recommend having dinner and 5 bottles of Champagne. I am pretty sure that we all had headaches the next day.

They definately had the best ice cream in the WORLD! It was so yummy! This was the Prime Rib and Lamb night. I was in heaven.

After dinner, we headed back to the nightly shows. One night entertainment was a circus and another fire dancers on the beach. Michael even was brought up on stage and won us a bottle of Champagne! Room Service anyone? Did I mention that they had room service all night long? I heard the sliders were great!

Our resort gives us free activities and tours, so we took advantage of the Tulum tour (we have already gone to Coba and Chichen Itza. It was amazing, but it would have been a little nicer to be able have a longer tour.

Bridget really had fun in the waves at Tulum!

Needless to say, Mexico was great! We were sad to come back, but cant wait to see the boys and get to jump right into the holiday season!

Pancho, the Donkey. He was so cute, we couldnt resist getting a pitcure with him!

Disneyland and Universal Studios

First, I have to say, I was like a little girl when we woke up to go to Disneyland! I couldn't wait! The last time I had been there I was in Kindergarten and there were a ton of new things since then. I remembered that the newest attraction was Space Mountain. I'm not that old, right!?! Anyway, we were excited to be kids together.

For anyone who doesn't know, I get extremely sea, air and motion sick. This has been a really hard thing for Michael to get used to. Lucky for us, I brought my Vomosin (Mexican Dramamine) with me, so I could go on all the rides I wanted to.

We started in the Disneyland Adventures Theme park. It was a blast! We went ahead and started the day off with the Tower of Terror, nothing like starting the day off with the scariest ride. We rode a few rides, and headed over to Disneyland! We were so excited. Did you know that they pump the smell of popcorn in the entrance? Yep, they do. Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain, the Haunted Mansion (I would recommend that you skip it if you go there for Christmas time, was pretty terrible), the Matterhorn, Space Mountain and Star Tours...it was right after Star Tours that we realized something terrible. Yep, I didn't have my phone. "Michael, call mine", I asked. "I dont know where my phone is...". Coincidence? I don't think so. So, there went all of our connections to the outside world, email, phone, calendars, FACEBOOK! So, our day ended going to the Lost and Found at Disneyland to file our phones missing. I still think it is a conspiracy, Michael really wants an iPhone.

The next day, after a scary night at the hotel, we headed out to Universal Studios. I love the tour of the studios. I got to meet Matt Daemon and Michael met the Hulk, it really made his day.

We saw Jaws, rode on the Mummy Ride, the Jurassic Park ride, they were great!

Michael met the Hulk. I know he is a big fan. He seemed a little upset at the request of 'gimme knuckles', but was a good sport.

That night after we left, we went sightseeing on Hollywood. The street performers were great and looking at all of the famous actors and actresses at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Dorris Day's feet were so tiny! My all time favorite was Roy Rodgers and Trigger.

Justin Timberlake was not too warm and fuzzy, but handsome all the same!

This street performer was AWESOME! I said it was for the boys, but secretly, Michael wanted a picture with him, so I gave in.

Well, that was our trip to Los Angeles. It was really nice to be able to get away with Mike and if you ask me, it was a good thing that we lost our phones. We had a chance to reconnect, enjoy eachother and not worry about the ouside world. We both love being engaged and are so glad that we are blessed to be able to go on vacations and trips together, having time to make new memories and continue to learn about 'us' as a couple.

Catching up...

Well, It has been a month since our last posting. What a busy month it has been...

Shortly after our last Blog in November, while in Los Angeles, we lost our phones and ALL OF OUR DISNEYLAND PICTURES!!! We were really sad, but will remember it with all of our 'scrapbook' memorabilia.

Los Angeles was great! Mike had a union confrence in Los Angeles and I was lucky enough to 'tag along'. We were excited to be able to extend our trip to add a few days and find our own lodging. We were hoping for something close to both Disneyland and Universal Studios. I looked and looked, searching on Expedia and found a great deal on a room at the Holiday Inn Express! I was so excited, it was one of the few hotels that didnt charge extra for parking and looked like it was 'smack dab' in the middle of the two! Our internet connection was a bit slow and kept kicking us off, so, I booked ASAP when it finally let me through.

We Checked out of our hotel in LA for the conference and headed to our new hotel. It was still early enough, so we headed out and did some sightseeing before heading to our hotel. I called the Holiday Inn Express to confirm our reservation and they didnt have my name in their system. I decided to check the address, and realized it was a different location...'Wierd', I thought. We entered the address into our GPS and headed to the hotel. We pull up to "HOLLYWOOD Inn Express". "OH NO!!!! DID I CLICK ON THE WRONG HOTEL???" Sure enough, I did. Ugh...I hope this is going to be okay...

So...we check in. The lobby is so small and we walk over to the window. I know its bad when there is bullet proof glass and a gas station style pass through for our IDs. Ugh...I feel a nightmare coming on.

"OK, Its going to be OK," Michael and I reassure ourselves. Lets just get the key and check in. We walk around wondering where room #6 is and decide to try the room that has no number on it, but appears to make sense that it would be there. Sure enough, it works and we are in our room. "HOME SWEET HOME".

We walk into the smell of stale cigarettes and cleanser. "It'll be okay," Michael assures me, "we just need to sleep here anyways, we get to go to DisneyLand tomorrow, remember? We'll be gone all day."

"Ok, you're right," I agree. As I set my bag down on the bed, I notice that there are strange splatters all over the wall and start to cringe. Michael is exploring and I hear him shriek. "WHAT?!?!", I yell. Michael tells me to stay out of the bathroom. I run to him. There he is, standing in the small room, half laughing, half shrieking, pointing at the ceiling and saying "That's not bad, right?". It takes me a second to understand what he is pointing at. The light fixture is hanging from the ceiling, no cover. He continues to point, at the mold on the ceiling and walls. "UGH!", I didn't even know what to do. I ran out of the bathroom only to find a terrible stain on the floor. Blood? I hope not, but wouldn't be surprised. I go back to my suitcase and started to cry. I decided to trust Michael. I put a chair in front of the door just in case though, especially since it didn't have a deadbolt.

That night, we had a hard time falling asleep. THIS WAS NOT THE MARRIOT that we just came from. In the middle of the night, we heard the neighbors being very loud and Michael got up and looked out the window. Apparently, there was a transvestite prostitution ring running out of the next door neighbor's room. All night for the next few nights, it went on and on. We would hear a noise and run to the window, trying to catch a glimpse. There were times, that were so funny that I couldnt stop laughing. What a terrible place I had set us up with. We laughed about how horrible it was, especially since so much of our evening entertainment was running to peek out the window to see what was going on next door! I'm not so good at being sneaky at looking out the window, espcially since the laughing I am pretty sure was heard through our hollow door!

*To all our friends, If you didn't get the hint, please do not stay at the Hollywood Inn Express in Los Angeles on Sunset Blvd*