Cancun - Last Days

Okay, so days 6, 7 and 8 were spent pretty much doing nothing. Lots of beach time..



Thursday was beautiful...the water was calm but I was too sunburnt to really play in the water. Such a bummer. Shawn got some cool shots, though:





Friday was another beautiful day..


The beach was calm again...but unfortunately, jellyfish had been spotted in the area, so we were told not to go into the water. GRRR!! There were people in the water but Shawn wouldn't let me go in too far. Friday night we went to "El Conquistador" at another Royal Resort for a 'fancy' dinner. It was nice, and not that expensive. We had a ceasar salad made tableside, Shawn had "Steak Diane" also made tableside and I had a huge 16 oz ribeye steak. Then, of course, we had to have dessert - I had bananas flambe and Shawn had a carmel apple pie. Everything was fantastic and the tableside cooking reminded me how much I love to cook!

Here's sunset Friday night..


Saturday morning - the day we left! :-(


We were blessed to be upgraded to first class again...it was funny because we got to check in early to board, and instead of getting right onto the plane, we got onto a bus. There were only like 10 seats on the bus and the rest was standing room only, so Shawn gave up his seat to a lady holding a 2 yr old boy. He was so cute - he kept pointing at everything calling it either a helicopter or a bus. The bus took us to our plane, where we boarded..


Then we had an uneventful flight home! It was a perfect trip!!

Cancun - Day 5 (Wednesday)

Good morning!!

On this beautiful Wednesday we actually did something other than lay on the beach or go to the pool - we took a trip to Isla Mujeres - a beautiful island off of Cancun. We actually went to a park called "Garrafon" and enjoyed relaxing there. We went snorkling first thing, and couldn't really see much. Both of us thought that the hurricane may have messed with the ocean floor, moving a lot of the reef that had been down there. But I still enjoyed myself-I love snorkling!

After snorkling we relaxed!



This is what you can see of Cancun:


As you can see, it was a beautiful clear day.

We ate some lunch and then hung out in the hammocks...


There were TONS of iguanas running all over this park:




We had a couple of drinks (well, I had water)..



Then we went to the snack bar (we had free food and drinks all day..trust me, we took advantage of it.) There were all these conch shells everywhere, on all the tables, on the bars, laying around on the ground...Shawn kept asking me: "Do you want to make a phone call?" I didn't get it, so he demonstrated while we were waiting for our food. Oh, the things he'll teach our son!


After we hung out for awhile, Shawn decided to do the zip line - it was actually to three zip lines, one to the first station, then over the ocean to one in the water, then back to land. It looked like fun:





After that, we decided to head on back...we boarded our boat, got back to Cancun, and hitched a bus ride home. I was really tired and my ankles were extremely swollen, but we had so much fun!!

I have to post this...

Pastor Scott utilized some of my favorite products in his Sunday Service last weekend - "Demotivational posters."

I was disappointed, though, that he didn't use my absolute favorite one:



I always laugh when I see it.

They are on despair.com.

Cancun - Day 4 (Tuesday)

Welcome to Cancun!



This pic is beautiful if you look at it full size. It is Heavenly...honestly.

We spent a few hours at the beach, again!




Looks relaxing, huh?

Again, this is from our room...it felt like we were on a cruise only because when you looked out, all you saw was water.



I forgot to put sunblock on one leg. Of course! :-(



After the beach we went to the pool...this is the view from the pool..



Me chillin in the pool...



After the pool, we went back to the room, cleaned up and went to Bubba Gump's for dinner. Me, being an airhead lately, forgot the camera and missed possibly one of the best parts of vacation. Shawn ordered a margarita, which comes in it's own shaker, like a martini. Well...at the Cancun Bubba Gumps, the margaritas are 'shaken' in a very special way. Shawn got a little 'dance' from the girl shaking his margarita...and of course, was embarrassed by it. I'm bummed that I forgot the camera to catch his face! You'll just have to imagine it!

When we got home, we OF COURSE watched American Idol. Shawn said the funniest thing - that Melinda looked Barry Bonds in drag. You decide... Go Jordin!



Okay my tooth - I was eating a candy bar, and suddenly one of my molars cracked. So in addition to going to the doctor for my ear that was all deaf, now I have to go to the dentist.

Cancun - Day 3

Day 3 - Monday

Sunrise...


In addition to the beautiful sunrise, we woke up to this- PEACE!!



We went to the beach in the morning - Shawn really wanted to bury me in the sand again like he did when we were there for our honeymoon. Unfortunately, the sand was really packed down and he couldn't dig down very far. So he just buried my foot...


Awwww.....


Later, after a free breakfast, we caught the bus to La Isla mall (a big outdoor mall). At the bus stop we saw this interesting sign for a Chinese resturant:


If you can't read it the sign says: "The Real Milenary Gastronomic Tradition." I have no idea what that means...it's like a bad translation from Chinese to Spanish to English or something. Chinspanglish?

Here we are taking a break at the mall. This sitting area was right for McDonalds. Interesting!



When we got back from the mall, we headed back to the pool for a few hours and then ordered pizza for dinner...and watched 24, of course!!

Cancun - Day 1 and Day 2

Our first day started out kind of crazy...we left the house early because you're supposed to check in a couple hours early for an international flight. As we were leaving, we used the little pad on the outside of the garage to close the garage door - and it didn't work! In a rush, we found a new battery and took off. Then when we got to a ticketing agent, she said our passports weren't valid - WHAT?? I guess we forgot to sign them, so we signed them and all was well.

We had first class seats on the way to Cancun, which was great. Definitely more comfortable for me, plus they kept giving us food, which I loved. (Of course!) Once we landed in Mexico, immigration was a snap compared to last time we were there, we flew through customs and got to the Royal Sands. We were supposed to be in an "ocean view" room, but when we checked in, they had moved us...to an ocean front room!





The first pic is the view from our balcony - gorgeous! The next is just our room, which was just 2 beds, a little fridge and a bathroom- nothing fancy. But we don't really need fancy for the two of us! The last picture is of my suitcase, where it seems all this plastic junk literally exploded on top of all my stuff. Bizarre, but easy to clean up.

Day 2 (Sunday)

We did what we came to do - relax! We hit up the beach and the pool pretty much all day!






Then we went to a great dinner w/ a live marachi band (fun!) and came home.
Stay tuned for days 3 and 4!

We're baaaaack!

We got home last night around 7pm. I'll be posting pics and a quick little synopsis of our trip soon. I will tell you that I came home not being able to hear in my left ear and a broken tooth! :-)

Latest belly pic + Babymoon!

It's been FOREVER since I posted a belly pic (not really, but it feels like it.) Here I am at 28w 5d:
(click it if you want to see me even BIGGER!!)





In other news, Shawn and I are leaving for Cancun tomorrow morning! I am so excited. Yesterday we got the news that because of Shawn's 'preferred status' with US Airways, they were bumping us up to 1st Class - NICE! I'm really looking forward to that because, well, who the heck wouldn't?? There will be tons of pictures to come of our trip, including one of G's first plane ride, his first dip in the Ocean, etc, etc. Plus, I'm a major nerd and keep a travel journal of everything we do on a daily basis. I love being able to look back and remember specific places and people we met on our trips. So I'll blog with a portion of that, too. (A lot of my journal seems to revolve around food...weird!)

I know I'll miss everyone, I'll miss church on Sunday but we'll be seeing you soon! (with our tans, of course!!)

Spa day!!

I have to say that I'm definitely kind of spoiled by Shawn. He takes really good care of me and bought me exactly what I wanted for my birthday in February! (Granted, I had to tell him exactly what to buy, but still!) So on Saturday I used my 'spa day' at the Lamar Spa in Scottsdale. I had a prenatal massage (very nice and relaxing), prenatal facial (my skin feels great - I wish I could get one once a month), and a pedicure and a manicure. The spa itself was really nice and relaxing, and I had a great morning. My nails look GREAT too!

(click the pic to make it bigger!)






I'm just happy my nails will look good for our vacation! We leave on Saturday for Cancun and I can't wait!

Oh my gosh I can't believe we've made it this far! Baby G seems to be getting bigger, every so often he'll kick really hard and remind me that, yes, there's a baby growing in there! It's amazing and both Shawn and I thank God every day for him.

Introduction to the rest of our family...

I realized I've never posted about our puppies! They are so sweet and loveable and I can't wait to see how they are with Baby G. They crack me and Shawn up and I can't imagine our house without them.

Meet Patches:




She is our baby girl - quite literally. She's a baby. She hates when it rains and refuses to go outside except for EXTREME EMERGENCIES (i.e. in the middle of the night). She's our 'chewer' or the one who most likely chewed up all my shoes. She loves Shawn and loves attention. Yes, she's a pit bull, but don't buy into the hype! She's great with children and know she'll be a great 'big sister' to G. We got her right after we moved into our home, in December of 2003. She was either 2 or 3 when we got her, so this past December she turned either 4 or 5. I like to think she's 4- she still acts like a puppy.

Meet Prince:




This is our handsome devil! Sometimes I swear he is a bit smarter than an average dog. He seems to understand things that dogs shouldn't. He's the troublemaker. He is pretty brave, but the only thing that shakes him to his core with terror is the dishwasher. He becomes a whimpering baby that manages to squeeze himself into the smallest of spaces. I don't know why it scares him so much. He also has a taste for tissues - used ones. GROSS! But we can't break him of this habit - he's very bold and will grab a tissue off the table right in front of us and run away so he can eat it in private. He also likes socks and other laundry. Someday, we're going to have to pay for a surgery to remove some random thing from his intestines. We think he's a boxer mix of some kind. We got him (they're both from the humane society) in August of 2004 as a companion for Patches. The guy at the humane society said that he'd never seen two dogs get along so well in all his time there. He was either 3 or 4 when we got him, so I just like to say he's turning 6 this year. He's already gotten his first gray hair, and I don't want to think he's any older.

An update!

Just a little update - I was fortunate enough to go on a retreat 3/16-3/18 with Calvary Central chuch. I have a good friend from work who attends there, and I went with her last year to the same retreat. Granted, this year was a total 180 degree difference than last year. (Last year it snowed and was freezing, I was in a really bad place because it was only 1 month after losing Nicholas, etc.) It was beautiful up there - 80s during the day and 50s at night. I was hot, of course. Being big and preggo will do that to you!

Sunrise Saturday Morning







I was blessed to spend time alone, just praying and spending time with God, which I hadn't been doing a lot of. I rediscovered a lot of things about Him I had forgotton for some odd reason. In addition to that, I met a lot of women who truly showed me Christ's love even though they had never met me before and would probably never see me again! It was a great weekend.

Here are the ladies I went with: (from right to left)

Tina, Anna, Lisa and Me. No, I'm not choking Lisa, it's an inside joke. :-)





And me and my very good friend (and sister), Anna. She was sharing Christ with me before I became a Christian and was such a good example of a Christian woman. She's known me a long time and seen me through some amazing things that God has done in my life. I'm very thankful for her friendship.






Also, when we got home (sorry I don't have any pics of this, I wish I did!), my ankles were swollen up like softballs. It was so weird!!

Wedding!

So the wedding on Friday night was beautiful! The bride and groom looked great and we had a good time. Of course, we left at 9:15 because I was almost falling asleep! LOL.

Here are the beautiful bride, Alma and groom, Mike. YAY!





I laughed so hard when they did a bridal party dance - if there is one thing Shawn doesn't like to do, it's dance! I took this photo while laughing hysterically and I think the girl he's dancing with thought I was nuts!





And here is a pic of me and one of the two of us. I really didn't like the way these pictures turned out, but what can you do. Like Lori told me, it's only temporary and I'm just a vessel for this little guy. Can't wait to meet him (and start losing weight, LOL!)