1 Week in Paradise

*Caution: Picture overload ahead!*

Towards the end of February we met up with our best friends, Charlie and Julie in Cancun to celebrate theirs and Doug’s 30th Birthday!  We have been talking about this trip forever and we were all super excited when the week finally arrived!  I will try to do a day by day recap.

Day 1 – We arrived late Saturday night.  We met Charlie and Julie at the pool bar where they were already good friends with the bartender!  We had some “celebratory, finally together again drinks, some throwing people in the pool excitement, and some because we are in Mexico tequila shots”!  We went to dinner at the Italian restaurant at the resort.  It was Charlie’s actual Birthday so we sung him happy birthday and he ate a piece of cake that somehow ended up all on his face.  After dinner we went to the rooftop bar that had a pretty cool view with some really comfy loungy bed things that we almost feel asleep on.  We decided to call it a night since we were all tired from our day of traveling.

Day 2 – We spent the majority of the day laying by the pool soaking up the sun.  Everyone lathered up in sunscreen and no one got burnt the whole week!  Before we got ready for dinner we took some group balcony shots and headed to the inside bar/lounge to have some drinks and play cards.  We ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant at the resort.  All of the walls of the restaurant had vines covering them.  It made me feel like we were having dinner in the rainforest.

Day 3 – Another fun day hanging out by the pool and on the beach. 

We took a stroll through the hotel zone part of Cancun.  Did  a little bit of shopping.  Found Julie the perfect bathing suit!  Had some $90 drinks and chips and salsa! :/  Then made our way back to the hotel to get ready to go out to Coco Bongo!

Before we got ready we had some pre game shots and met Charlie’s “in 25 years” twin.

We had a blast dancing the night away at Coco Bongo, a club and disco bar.  The club has dancers on stage putting on a show to classic songs by people like Madonna and Michael Jackson and today pop hits.  Here is a video that I took from inside.

The boys had fun acting like our bouncers.  They stood in between two tables and did not let people through mine and Julie’s “dancing space”.   I think they scared a few people screaming at them in their deep voices telling them to “GO AROUND”!

In between the dancers/songs they would pick people out of the crowd to dance on stage.  Julie and I got picked to go up!  We had so much fun!  This is me with my serious dance face on …hahahaha!

Day 4 - was spent laying by the pool and letting our dancing feet recover!  Doug had a little self portrait time on the balcony…He is such a stud!

We took a walk down the beach.

We all participated in a belly flop contest.  Julie’s was the best…

We did some “yoga poses”…

Charlie and Julie spelt out O-H-I-O….

Then we found Charlie’s “in 25 years” twin and all his Harley Davidson buddies…

That night we went on a party booze cruise…

My serious dance face again…

Love this group shot…

After the cruise we continued the party at Senor Frogs.

Day 5 - was another day at the beach.  We played volleyball, played in the ocean, and enjoyed doing nothing.

Day 6 - was our last night and we were all getting sad that we were about to part ways.  When we are sad we take shots to bring our spirits back up…lots and lots of shots!

After our spirits were lifted we went to a bull fight in downtown Cancun.  It was such a different experience from what  I thought it was going to be.  I thought that little bull fighter men (aka matadors) just danced around to aggravate the bulls.  I had no idea that they actually kill the bulls and everyone cheers!  Crazy…Crazy…Crazy.

The trip finally came to an end.  We had such a fantastic time and enjoyed catching up with our best friends.  What a great way to celebrate our Birthdays!

Favorite Quotes/Convos from our trip:

“GO AROUND!”

Julie: “You have such big hands.” Charlie’s “in 25 years” twin: “Now would I not look funny with small hands.”

Charlie’s “in 25 years” twin: “We are going to be as drunk as 14 bastards!” Charlie: “14 bastards…we are going to be as drunk as 16 bastards!” Courtney: “We are going to be as drunk as 20 bastards!” Charlie’s  “in 25 years” twin: “Whoa, whoa, whoa…have you ever seen 20 drunk bastards?”

“Francisco, we need 4 Scooby Doos and 4 Supermans”

Happy Happy Birthday

Doug turned the big 3 –0 this year and I didn’t take a single picture of the night we spent celebrating.  We went out to dinner to one of our new favorite places here now…Jimmy Mac’s BBQ.  They have the most delicious rolls!  My mouth is watering just thinking about them.  We met about 15 of our friends for dinner and I had brought a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cake.  After dinner we went to Muckleshoot Casino.  The girls played BINGO and the boys played poker.  No one ended the night as big winners, but I think Doug enjoyed his birthday celebration.

The next weekend we went out and celebrated my birthday.  We ate Mexican and then went to a dive bar.  Doug and I are both looking forward to celebrating our birthdays even more in Mexico with Charlie and Julie!

Science Museum and Oregon Wine Tasting

In January after the snow storm we headed down to Oregon.  Our first stop was in Portland at the Interactive Science Museum.  We all enjoyed playing and learning.

After watching a movie in the Imax theatre at the museum that put us all to sleep we headed to check into the hotel.  The hotel didn’t allow pets so we had to leave these cuties in the car.

After we went out to dinner and to a few bars we headed back to the hotel.  We sent the guys to check on the dogs.  They wanted to bring them into the hotel.  Their bright idea was to sneak them in using a large duffel bag.  They brought Wrecks up first because they thought that out of the two he would be the one to not go in the bag.  Turns out Wrecks was super easy to get in the bag, but Parker was not having any part of it.  Wrecks got to sleep in the hotel room with us and Parker stayed out in the car.

Wrecks even got to sleep a little on the bed!

Here is a video of how they got Wrecks into the hotel.  He is such an easy going dog!  He didn’t bark or cry the whole time he was in the bag!

  

On Saturday we got up pretty early and headed down to Willamette Valley to do some wine tasting.  We to about 7 different wineries and by the end they were all tasting the same.  We had a blast, but all past out when we got to our hotel room.  Even the dogs enjoyed the wineries…they got to run and play outside at each one of the stops.

Going to Portland is one more thing we can mark off our NW travel bucket list!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

In January Doug had pretty much a whole week off from work when the doctor that he was working with went to Hawaii.  I was a little sad that we was going to be home doing nothing without me…and then the snow came and my work was cancelled and I was stuck at home with him!!!  In one night we got about 18 inches of snow.  Cabin fever set in quick and I was so excited to get out of the house just to go to the gym.  I tried one morning to get an early workout in.  I made it to the gym just to find out that their power was out.  Thank goodness that we never lost power!

Look at all this snow…

Wrecks wasn’t a big fan of the snow…

Good thing that this is a rare occurrence…the Wideners are not big fans of the snow.  We like going to the snow, we don’t like it when it comes to us.