mexico days 4 & 5

Wedding day! And what better way to get ready for the wedding than water aerobics! The instructor was ridiculous and was wearing a towel tie, and was the most excited water instructor I've ever seen!

Of course we also had to go to the beach for the last time before we left.

We were barefoot for the ceremony and left our shoes next to the stairs.

Abby and Diane had a total meltdown during the first dance. It was the strangest and funniest thing of the night! They were honestly crying hysterically, and then once she started dancing with their dad it started all over again with the two of them.

Wedding favors! You get to eat Jillian and Karam's faces!

I took this picture inside the airport and was immediately told by one of the scary policemen that I wasn't allowed to take pictures. Apparently they thought I was preparing to take over their airport and I needed pictures to case the joint.

México adiós. Te echaré de menos!

mexico day 3

On the third day we woke up and had the rehearsal in the morning because there was another wedding that night. 9:30 sure seems early in Mexico.

After waking up so early I needed to rest up on the beach with my friends, a book, and of course, another mimosa.

That night was the rehearsal dinner at El Patio. The food was delish!

Some of the bridesmaids plus Lauren.

Hellbound Twin Chris

So you might be wondering why Chris and I are hellbound. About 10 years ago I went on a vacation with the Brown's and ended the trip meeting church people at Fiesta Texas. There were a few nuns there (why not? nuns need to let their...headdresses?...down) and of course we wanted to take pictures with them. The nuns said we could only take the picture if Chris promised to become a minister. Of course we both promised, and they looked at me, and I continued to say I'll make sure it happens. We took the picture, Chris isn't a minister, and I didn't force him into ministry school. And that's why we're hellbound. We lied to nuns, at Fiesta Texas.

Karam is Indian, so Jillian wore this amazing sari her now mother-in-law got for her from India.

Instead of each of us standing up and saying something to Jillian and Karam, we decided to rap it! Each one of us made up our own part and we performed after dinner. It was a hit! Everyone was laughing in all the right spots. Later that night Karam's cousin asked us if we would do it again at the reception. If I get the video of it I will make sure to post it.

Surprisingly this was the first, and only time, we saw sombrero's in Mexico! We took full advantage.

Champagne toast with J.C.'s bottle. I especially like the array of cups I scrounged up in our room.

Remember when I said that room service was also 24 hours a day and free? Well, when we got back to the room I ordered quesadillas and a ceasar salad for Abby. She "forgot" I ordered it and so she decided to order it again with another quesadilla and a cheeseburger. After she ate her food she passed out, and then these extra 4 plates of food were brought. (Yes, we had a total of 6 plates of food for, at this point, 3 people.) It wouldn't have been as ridiculous had those other 4 people stayed and actually eaten the food we ordered for them. Chris took the cheeseburger back to his room and left the rest of the food for Abby in the morning. 

mexico days 1 & 2

So let me start by apologizing now for the annoying amount of pictures you will be seeing over the next few posts. But those of you who know me know I take way too many pictures, and I have a hard time picking the best out of the bunch. Now saying that, let me warn you that I took over 300 pictures and I was able to narrow it down to less than 60 for the next few posts. You can thank me now, or be annoyed and stop looking. (Crissy I'm thinking of you here. Don't continue to read, get annoyed, and then leave me a comment about it. That's not allowed when I warn in advance. I'm just saying...)

Jillian and Karam got married in Nuevo Vallarta this past weekend, and some of us got there on Wednesday to make the wedding an extended vacation for us. It was especially awesome for me because I just had Christmas vacation, went back for 2 work days, and then left. It was a pretty awesome way to start the new year. A bunch of us happened to be on the same plane coming in, and decided to be the annoying Americans from the second we landed.

We got to the hotel and were given cold minty smelling towels and mimosas as we got out of the car. (Not a bad way to start!) We then ran up to the room, unpacked, threw on our bathing suits and got to the beach. Yes, you are seeing the room correctly, there is a bathtub in the middle of the room.

The resort from the elevator ride down, our room had the same view. It was pretty awesome, especially while sitting in the hot tub on the porch, drinking a beer.

Abby and I took a walk down both ends of the beach. People tried selling us cotton candy and shrimp on sticks that have probably been sitting on those sticks for days with sand stuck all over it.

As more people arrived it was sunset and Karam got us a few bottles of champagne to toast as we watched the sun set.

We ended our first night at the rooftop bar, where we spent every night. 

The next morning we went straight to the beach and started ordering drinks from the waiters that come to us. Waiters, came to us, on the beach. Giving us free drinks. It was a pretty amazing thing to happen. I drank so many mimosas each morning on the beach. I sure missed that while I was teaching today. 

One of the many things people tried selling us were time shares. While Chris and Diane waited for us in the bathroom, he tried selling her some time shares. I'm pretty sure she caved. What a sucker.

Along with all of the free food and drinks, there was even free 24 hour room service. Obviously we ordered food every night after we got back from the rooftop bar.

Check back tomorrow for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Coming back from 80 degree weather to 40 degrees without wind chill sucks. 

if only it weren't $52

I was finishing my Christmas shopping last week when I got back to Austin and stopped into a store on Congress. It looked really interesting because they had these really awesome Mexican skull masks and I wanted to see what else they had. As I was looking around I found this gem.

I wish there was a card next to it explaining what it was supposed to mean, or if there was a specific Mexican tradition that I didn't know about, seeing as how I'm not Mexican. I also don't understand why she doesn't look pissed that this man is on top of her strangling her next to a wall of flames. I really wanted to buy it for someone, but it was $52 and that is pretty steep for something I don't even know who I would give it to.

resolutions

I'm not the type to typically make a New Years resolution because I know after about a month I'm kind of over it, and don't care anymore. Because of this I don't really make any anymore. However, when I was reading Mile Markers yesterday, it made me think about making my resolutions differently than I had before.

 "...this year I will keep it simple. Three things that I can keep top of mind at all times, and therefore quickly assess the rapid-fire decisions of life and determine whether something fits for me or not. Before midnight tomorrow, I will come up with three things that will be left behind in 2010, and three things that call me forward in 2011. It sounds simple enough.

Think about it for yourself. What gets left, and where are you heading?"

I've decided that I will do what Kritsin is doing this year. Instead of making one, or several daunting resolutions I am going to split my focus a bit. Here goes:

What I am leaving behind:

1. self-doubt
2. holding on to old anger, and situations I can't change
3. obsessing over the small things
   

Where I am heading:

1. continuing to challenge myself without giving up on myself, even if that means running a full marathon next time
2. being the best aunt, friend, teacher I can be
3. keeping all my doors and windows open...to the unknown, to opportunities...

As I start off this year I will follow suit and ask myself, am I heading where I want to? Or am I falling backwards into old habits or thinking? Let's see how my resolutions work this year.

Happy New Year everyone!

christmas part 2

It snowed while we were there, and I made my first snowman! (I realize I'm 26 and have never done this, but I live in Texas so give me a break.) The snow was really dry so creating balls was tricky. It would have been more enjoyable had Rebecca not been sitting inside the door yelling at me the entire time about what I was doing wrong and what I needed to do differently. I'm still pretty pleased with how he turned out.

When things got boring we would just watch Rebecca's stomach when the kid was going nuts. I think she had just eaten a lot of sugar before this video.

Rebecca and Michael took us to It's a Wonderful Life at the Biograph theater. It was so good! They even passed out audiograms where you could write a message to someone that they would read during their commercial breaks. They even read the ones Michael and I (with Michael's help) wrote. The audience laughed pretty hard at them. Why wouldn't they? We are pretty hilarious.

Another Christmas tradition is we always do a puzzle, so of course when we got back to Houston that's exactly what we did. I even found earrings in the box!

Merry Christmas y'all!