Mexico cont...

I couldn't fit everything into one post so here are some of the fun things we did on our vacation...

The pools were BEAUTIFUL. We spent a good bit of time by the pools. Looking back I wish that we had spent even more time there but I am always so hesitant to overdo it because I don't want to get a nasty sunburn. It was also fun because there was a swim up bar in one of the pools so I felt like we were at one of those really nice, exotic places that you only see on trendy TV shows. I could swim right up and order a diet coke or a pina colada like a superstar. :)

We did play in the ocean once but when you compare the salty, sandy, sometimes rocky ocean to these fresh water pieces of heaven...it's easy to pick a favorite.

Peter in the pool - notice how there are lounge chairs IN the pool? AWESOME!

Casen and Shannon in a cabana by the pool.

One of the pools at night. Sadly this is also the scene of the crime on our last night there where someone stole Peters phone out of our bag while we were off swimming.

We didn't really participate much in the resort planned activities but we did have our own private version of a Spanish lesson where we just asked the lady how to say certain critical phrases such as "where are the tortillas", "can I have a bottled water", and "how much is that"?

Part of the fun of a vacation for Peter and I is to spend our time doing things that we can't do everyday so we work to balance the hang out/relaxing time with actual activities that embrace whatever is available at that location. Most of the time Peter and I just did our own thing and then met up with Casen and Shannon for the meals.

Here is Peter and I engaged in a fierce Bocce Ball Battle. Of course, I was defeated by the master.

Shannon and I went shopping a couple of times. One morning we took a taxi into Playa Del Carmen and did the regular tourist shopping thing. We were, of course, harassed at every stop. We held our own though. We kept getting asked if we were sisters so eventually we just said "yes". There wasn't really an option for "snacking" at the resort so I spent a ridiculous amount of money for snacks like m&ms, Doritos, etc which was the major part of my shopping but I did get some great earrings and a pendant.

Before we left Playa, I wanted to find some yummy fresh salsa since there wasn't anything like I wanted at the resort. I went into a couple restaurants by the shops and one told me they didn't have salsa and the other said they didn't sell their salsa. What?!?! So when the taxi driver picked us up, I asked if he knew of a good place where we could get some salsa on the way back home. He said yes and I got excited. I imagined him taking us to this little hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurant where my American dollars would buy me buckets of amazing salsa that we could enjoy by the pool with the tortilla chips I had just bought. Guess where he took me? A convenience store. Seriously? Well maybe good salsa is so common here that they even have it at the local 7-11. So I go into the store and search each aisle looking for the salsa. No luck. Not even a Pace Picante bottle. I go back to the car empty handed but we tried again. This time a hole-in-the-wall convenience store. (Gotta happen this time, right?!) This time the taxi driver goes into the store for me to look for stuff and comes out with hot sauce. Is this what I want? No. He goes back in and comes out again with a canned "salsa". Something I could buy in any grocery store, anywhere...not some yummy fresh concoction with lots of cilantro and jalapeno. At this point I figure, this is the best it's going to get so I take it because I will not accept complete failure at this mission. Funny thing though, when I go into the store to pay for it I see all the ingredients for guacamole sitting there (fresh avocados, lime, onion, etc). So I guess the lesson to learn here is --- Mexicans don't eat salsa but they do eat guacamole. :)

There were also shops at the resort so one night Shannon and I checked them out before dinner. We saw this guy doing paintings on tiles with his fingers. We watched him for a bit and I really liked the piece he was currently working on. I decided to get it but the best part was that because he was working on it right then, I was able to customize it exact like I wanted. For example, I didn't want the dolphins he usually put into his other stuff. And I didn't want it to say "Mexican Riviera 2009", etc. It was really cool to watch him paint my piece right in front of me and now I have a great looking, hand crafted souvenir.

A few nights we went and watched the live shows put on in the theater. We saw a couple that were good. (Below is the show I thought was the best. It was numbers from a bunch of Disney/animated movies. This was the number from Madagascar. Their costumes for this show were so creative!) We also saw some shows that were really bad. We wasted 1 night sitting through a bad one and after that, if we didn't like it after 5 minutes, we left.

This picture doesn't really fit here but I forgot to put it in my previous post. This is a HUGE palm tree. It was more than 2 stories tall.

Trip to Mexico!

The first full week of December we went to Mexico with our friends from Utah - Casen and Shannon. I was so ready for a vacation and it was nice to get away from the cold weather of Texas!!!

Let's just say that the trip DID NOT start out well. As we were on the plane, nearly ready to pull back from the gate at DFW, I got a call on my cell phone from someone at the airport saying that they had my blue suitcase and did I just fly into the airport? NO! I did not just fly into the airport - I am RIGHT NOW flying OUT. I am ON THE PLANE and why is my suitcase not on the plane?!?! I tried to really help this man see how close my plane was to leaving and how important it was that my suitcase made it on the plane too. He assured me that he would make it happen. So Peter and I watched out the window as the last few pieces of luggage arrived and were put on the plane. None of these were mine. Maybe somehow, I rationalized, there was another spot they loaded luggage that we couldn't see and my suitcase made it on the plane. Needless to say it felt like the longest flight ever and the whole time all I could do was stress about my luggage.

We landed and Peter's luggage came off but that was it. No Kallie's suitcase. So we dealt with the luggage people and then worked at getting a taxi to the resort. We got a taxi and then when the guy found out where we were going he wanted even more money and rather than pay that much, we decided to take a group shuttle. (WRONG DECISION!) The shuttle made 7 stops and guess which one we were? That's right.. number 7! Thanks to the luggage and the shuttle it took us 4 hours after we landed before we got to the resort. By this point it was after 11 o clock and we were hungry and tired. Room service was the only option for food and thanks to a couple more obstacles put in our path, we didn't end up getting food until 1:15 am. So, the first night in lovely Mexico was a disaster.

This is how sad it looked with just Peter's suitcase.

The next day was mainly spent in our room talking to American Airlines trying to track down my suitcase. They had no idea where it was and since I only had the clothes I was wearing (pants, longer sleeved shirt, and tennis shoes because it was cold in Dallas), I was not game to be sitting outside in the hot sun. We did meet up with Casen and Shannon for meals and then the nightly performance in the theater. Guess what? My suitcase finally showed up at 2 am that night! I will never again pack all of my stuff in just one suitcase. Going forward, we will be splitting our stuff between the suitcases. :)

After that drama was over, it ended up being a fantastic vacation. The weather was perfect and the resort was beautiful. It was called Barcelo Maya Palace Deluxe and was an all-inclusive resort just South of Playa Del Carmen. We made reservations each night for dinner at a different restaurant (spanish, brazilian steakhouse, caribbean, thai, etc) which allowed us to try a big variety of food. We didn't like that there were times during the day when you couldn't get food, you couldn't take any food out of the restaurants so there was no snacking by the pool, and you had to pay for room service (it was a really crummy menu, but still - this was suppossed to be ALL-inclusive!)

The absolute best part of the resort was the beautiful grounds. I thought the landscaping was perfect and there was great attention to detail. Then, thanks to the Christmas season, at night there was tons of Christmas lights everywhere which just added to the beauty.

The courtyards where the rooms were.

White sandy beach!

There were cool Mayan sculptures along the paths.

Paths and pools Me and the cool fountain.

Peter and Casen

Marabeth's Birthday Party!

Marabeth turned 30 on Thanksgiving but we didn't do much to celebrate that day...

We found out that on Saturday Michael was throwing a 80's themed surprise 30th birthday party for Marabeth. He made of point of asking us to stay so that we could attend the party. A suprise party is a hard thing to say "no" to! The party ended up being so much fun! I certainly felt like I was back in the 80's. The party was held was in the basement of of Michael and Marabeth's friends. This guy had created the perfect place to have a party. He had basically turned it into a club complete with strobe, lazers, bar, and dance floor! Michael decorated with 80s games, 80s snacks, and had a great 80s cake and of course we danced to 80s music.

Peter and I are ready to go, 80's style!

Rockin' it out! Me, Marriann, Katherine, and Julianne

The Birthday Girl!

All the girls

All the boys
Marriann and Peter
Boy, this pregnant woman can dance!!! Katherine kept the dance floor alive!

Party Peter

She had to crash eventually :)

Fun Fun Fun!

Thanksgiving in Nashville

Okay, I know it...I'm way behind again. Oh well, maybe this whole blog thing isn't for me if I need to be timely. :) I am going to have to do this blog in two parts because apparently it is too long.

So for Thanksgiving we originally were just going to stay in Dallas but the closer it got the more I was sad that we weren't going to be around any family. So, the Sunday before Thanksgiving we decided to go to Nashville. It feels like it's becoming a tradition to do a Hough/Nelson (even though we were the only Nelsons there this year) Thanksgiving. It was a riot and I'm SO GLAD that we went.

We did a ton of fun things while we were there. We stayed in Julianne's new house (which was beautiful...I should have gotten a few pictures of just the house) and it was like a big sleepover because Marriann slept there, Derek slept there, Katherine and her boyfriend Tony slept there (their place was full with his family who was in town) and Marabeth, Michael, and Aiden stayed a few nights as well. I sure enjoy being around a big family!!! The party never ends...

We got there on Wednesday and just hung out which was nice. We helped Marriann do some shopping and we visited Katherine at work (the spa). That night we went to see Tony's band play at a bar called "Losers". His band was great! We dance, enjoyed the great music, and even played some shuffleboard.

Thanksgiving was perfect. There was, of course, PLENTY of good food. One of Tony's friends had smoked a turkey and deep fried a turkey for us. Yummy. The house was filled with friends and family. Michael's parents came over and Tony's parents, sister and her kids came too. Now, you know how I love playing games and luckily nearly everyone was up for the challenge so we got in some Apples to Apples, Scattergories, and BIG BOOTY!

Katherine and Tony

Derek always keeping us entertained

Getting ready to play games

Julianne sprucing up her tree

Cracking up at old Saturday Night Live clips

Thanksgiving was Marabeth's birthday so we had to find some candles for her to blow out!

Originally we were just going to stay until Friday morning but we were having such a great time and felt so included by the Houghs. Plus, quite a few people made a point of asking us to stay especially for the big event that was going to happen on Saturday night.... So, we extended our trip and I was so glad that we did!

On Friday we went to the movies and saw The Blind Side and then a Parade of Homes was going on literally across the stress from Julianne's house so we all walked through those. The houses were beautiful but I really don't care for homes that are so over decorated. Peter and I did see a few things we loved, like a really great porch setup with outside furniture and stuff, so hopefully someday we can create that for ourselves if we ever buy a house (...grrr....stupid short sell...).

Saturday was the PARTY DAY. In the morning we went to the spa and I got a facial by Katherine(heaven) and my haircut. Then after Kat was done working, we all went shopping for our costumes. More to come on that in the next post...

Derek, Katherine, Julianne, Marriann, Peter and I - having lunch

Sunday we met with Kat, Marabeth, and Aiden for a family style southern lunch- yummy. Then we all went to the movie "The Incredible Mr. Fox" (or something like that, I didn't care for the movie at all so I've pretty much tried to put it out of my head). Before she took us to the airport, Marabeth drove us around downtown so we were able to look at some of the famous Nashville sights.

It was a great visit with family and I look forward to going back to Nasvhille!

Enjoyed it? YES Do it again? YES!