The final days...

To wrap up our vacation, I have to post some pictures of things we did regularly on the trip. We spent a fair amount of time laying by the pool and drinking virgin strawberry daiquiris

We shopped for all the touristy things that nobody needs. Seriously, who needs one of these Lucha Libre masks used by wrestlers in the Mexican version of WWF? My husband apparently.

We also enjoyed a nightly game of Hand and Foot -- Derek's parent's favorite card game.

And there were several beautiful sunsets, but this one was on our last night and seemed like the perfect bookend to a wonderful week before heading home to rejoin regular life.

Mexican Fiesta

After another relaxing day by the pool, we headed to an authentic Mexican fiesta, complete with great food, entertainment, a cock fight, oh and did I mention both Derek and I were pulled out of the crowd to play drinking games?
Yes, the imbibing fun continued from Wednesday, only this crowd was a little more understanding.
Derek was pulled up on stage and then told he and the other men would do a tequila shot and then give their best Mexican whooping yell. When Derek told them he doesn't drink, they seemed perplexed, but were kind enough to allow him to bring his drink from our table. In the end, he won the contest -- and you'll never believe what the prize was... a ticket to go on the Bora Bora booze cruise! We laughed so hard at this turn of events. What a perfect end to the story!
The fiesta was a great time!

We had the best table in the house :)

At the entrance of La Iguana

Booze Cruise?!

Probably the least enjoyable part of the trip, but the part from which we have had the most laughs, was when we accidentally stumbled onto a booze cruise on Wednesday. Well, we didn't stumble -- but everyone else was.
It all started because we wanted to go snorkeling. Well, if I'm being honest it was me who wanted to go, Derek who was also on board for the idea and his parents who decided to come along for the ride but not snorkel. We found a tour that offered snorkeling, time at a beach and an optional hike to a waterfall with lunch and breakfast included for a really reasonable price. So we booked it.
As we made our way to the boat, a small red flag went up in my mind when I saw the company's logo that said: No problems... Go wild!
Hmmm...
No sooner had we settled ourselves on the boat when they cranked this awful music SO loud, even my rockstar husband was wincing at the noise. And so, we were off.
The first stop was much further away than I anticipated, which made me nervous already about how long this day would last. At least it was the snorkeling spot. We swam en mass to an area where the guide pointed out some fish, which was pretty cool. They cut our time short there however, no doubt in order to get onto the main event: Drinking.
The open bar seemed to never stop as we made our way to the beach where we would have lunch. We made the most of the ride, shouting to one another over the music and enjoying the views.
After a few hours at the beach where I ate the only food I thought might make me sick on the trip, we re-boarded the Bora Bora boat and set off for what would be the longest part of the journey, complete with drinking games, the quintessential drunk girl puking over the side of the boat, the inabriated man falling into Derek's and my laps because he was too drunk to stand and the old lady grinding up onto the younger guys. All this is funny at first, I suppose, but after the whole day and set to the tune of music loud enough to split your ears, it lost some of its appeal. Mercifully we finally made it back to shore with plenty of stories to laugh about for later.

Waiting for the Bora Bora boat to arrive. Ah, we were so naive then.

Lisa and Derek ready to dive in!

The snorkeling spot

Derek returning to the boat.

Derek with a huge iguana on the beach.

Kurtis on the beach

This is what Derek thinks of the rest of the booze cruise

Tequila!

On Monday we headed out on a tour that took us walking through downtown, then on a bus tour to one of the tequila factories in Puerto Vallarta. We ate lunch in a restaurant tucked up in the hills and then were subjected to the odor of fermenting soon-to-be tequila. The tour was interesting but my pregnant nose just couldn't handle the alcohol smell.

These are some of the plants they use to make the tequila.

Speaking of being pregnant, this tour marked my very first belly touch -- a landmark on this journey to motherhood that I was expecting at some point, just not so soon, and certainly not in this scenario.
I've never understood why people assume that because a woman is pregnant, her stomach is suddenly open for petting. I suppose close friends and family could be deemed exempt but not the Mexican tour guide on our tour. That's right, near the end of the day he came up to me and rubbed my stomach and said some sort of congratulations. I was so surprised -- partly because had never met this man before the tour and partly because I was still fooling myself into thinking that I wasn't showing very much. Apparently I was because no one told him I was pregnant.
At any rate, it was a funny experience but I'm sure just one of many yet to come.

Later that day, we hit the waves at the beach just steps away from our hotel.

Check out my baby bump! (or is that from too many tacos in Mexico?)

Derek deciding whether or not to ride the waves.
He decided to go for it...

Waking up in paradise

By the time we arrived to our resort, it was too dark for me to fully appreciate our surroundings. Not to mention I was exhausted from a day of travel. So it wasn't until Sunday morning that I saw how great our home for the next week would be.

The view from our balcony.

The pool area.

Our common room shared between the two bedrooms.

Our room.

We spent the day exploring the resort, sending the "we arrived safely" email to my family and walking through the downtown area of Puerto Vallarta.

Outside our resort.

Derek in the Internet cafe across the street from our hotel.

By one of several statues in the downtown square.

Derek wanted to take this picture for our niece, Kate, because she loves The Little Mermaid.

Touring downtown.

Enjoying gelatto on the board walk.

Hola!

Well, we're back from our fabulous week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! We had such a great time and took so many pictures -- I'll probably have to do a few different posts to document everything.

Myself, Derek and his parents, Kurtis and Diana Larson, left around 7 a.m. March 14 for Las Vegas to catch our flight. We had a four hour layover in Mexico City -- something I was nervous about after one of my friends from work kept emailing me stories from the AP wire about how violent things have been in Mexico lately, particularly in the Mexico City airport. But we got along fine. Derek's ability to speak Spanish was an enormous help throughout the trip (plus it was so cute to see him so excited to be able to use his mission language again.) Our only hitch on the way there was the ticket counter in Vegas accidentally printed two tickets in Derek's name for our connecting flight out of Mexico City and none for my father-in-law Kurtis. We failed to check until we were going through customs and there was some concern he would have go wait overnight in the airport to catch another plane. Luckily, there was room on ours and we all arrived to Puerto Vallarta safely. I now have my very first passport stamp :)

Waiting in Las Vegas for our plane.

My favorite traveling companion :)

The first buds of spring

I absolutely love this time of year. It's true that in the fall I sometimes miss the crisp smell and feel you get in Cedar City, but in spring, I am all about St. George.
I can tell spring has officially come when I see the buds of my favorite pink trees. Sorry, that's about as specific as I can be in terms of the kind of tree. All I know is, they bloom in early March and last just a few weeks or so before darkening and today, I saw the first buds. They must have come out over night.
But its not just the flowers blooming that I love about spring. Something about the combination of warmer weather, longer days and the prospect of shedding my gray and black wardrobe in favor of brighter hues.
This year I'm particularly excited about spring because Derek and I will soon be winging our way to even warmer weather, ala Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! I'll be sure to post some great photos when I get back.

I wanted to take a picture of these myself today, but time got away from me. Here's a Google image to give you an idea.