Riviera Maya {10th anniversary adventure}

Dave and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary at the end of December so on New Years Eve we headed down to Riviera Maya, Mexico for a trip alone. We figured out that we haven't done a trip just the two of us (no kids, no friends) since before I was pregnant with Big E (about 7 years ago). It was time. We've done cruises but never an all-inclusive resort so on the recommendation of a friend we decided to stay at Now Jade Riviera Cancun.

The resort was beautiful. Dave read a ton of reviews before we went, some good and some bad. I've come to the conclusion that everyone has a different experience - ours was very good. We went during a busy time of the year but because it was just two of us we hardly ever waited for meals. Our room was beautiful (although our view was obstructed by plants since we were on the first floor). The beach was outstanding and long. There were free water activities to choose from that we participated in. All in all - a wonderful resort choice!

We had a blast just relaxing the whole week. Pretty much every day you could find us laying out, reading from 8am to 5pm when it got dark. I read 4.5 books last week which is insane for me, but I loved it. Dave played beach volleyball (he's the one blocking a spike in the black hat). We did scuba one morning which was fun (I love scuba) and spent plenty of time riding the waves on the boogie boards. Dave also took us out on a Hobie Cat sail boat, SUPER fun!

We walked up and down the beach searching for treasures. I love that Dave's now into finding beach glass too and would get even more excited than me to find pieces that had been worn from the sea. He loves the clear (turned white) pieces and my favorites were the unique colors like turquoise, cobalt blue and even olive green. {{stay tuned tomorrow for a tutorial on one thing I did with some of our found items}}

The one big thing that we did was head to an adventure park called XPLOR. It's kind of like Disney World, but adventurous. You pay one fee for your whole day there including the best lunch that I've ever had at a park like that. There were amphibious vehicles to drive through caves and water, underground rivers to raft on and swim through (the stalactites were beautiful) and 14 zip lines to enjoy. There were two circuits for the zip lines, one had a water slide and two water entries (i.e. freezing cold and soaking wet) and the other circuit just had one water entry. It was a blast. A few of the zip lines we got to go on together and the others were single riders. If you're going to Cancun, I highly recommend XPLOR. It was a fabulous time.

My goal for the vacation update was to not bog you down with pictures, but now it seems that I've bogged you down with text :) We just had such a great time and I wanted to share it with you all. I hope you had a great Christmas break and a wonderful start to 2012. Happy New Year!

Craft Weekend in Cali

Two weeks ago today (I can't believe it's been 2 weeks already!!) I went on a craft retreat in California with my girls from Creative Estates. There were 7 of us (we missed you Alison), 4 of which were from California and 3 of us were from the midwest. We stayed at a gorgeous beach house off of Newport Beach in the OC.

We had a blast together crafting...

shopping & eating...

walking down the beach with Jazz...

watching sunsets....

Megan, Katie, Elizabeth, me with crazy hair, Nicole, Kristen & Jacqui

goofing off in the car while heading to the craft store & getting fro-yo...

walking on Balboa Island...

& eating all of the delicious food that Katie made for us...

It was a fantastic long weekend with lots of crafts being made. Coffee cozies, purses, skirts, dresses, jewelry, hats & more were made in that short three days. New relationships were strengthened as we had one-on-one (or three/four-on-one) walks down the boardwalk. These ladies are truly amazing and I am so grateful that friendships like this can happen when you've only met people one time. The thought of it is crazy - meeting ladies at a conference that I didn't know beforehand then going across the country to meet them for a craft retreat. I truly hope this is going to become an annual event!!

crafts from the other ladies

Craftee McGee made my hat. I made a scarf, bag, pillow, hoop art for e's room,
knit maxi skirt/dress and cards. Lots of crafty goodness going on!

Here are some great recaps of the weekend from the other ladies as well
with more fabulous pictures - be sure to check them out!

Food, Wine & Mod Podge

Olive Blue (sunsets & outfits)

32

Last week started off less than stellar. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Monday and the kids were less-than-obedient all day. The day ended with crying kids and a crying momma on her bed. I hoped to cry it out and compose myself before hubby came home but as I opened my eyes I saw him walk through the bedroom door and say "uh-oh". He's the best...after dinner he handed me some cash and said, "I got this. Don't come back until you've had starbucks and ice cream". So I took him up on it and felt much better once I got home and the kids were in bed ;)

Tuesday both kids had school and when I picked up Big E we headed to the Verizon store to see if there was anything they could do for me. My current (free) phone had been dropped so many times that I couldn't see out of 1/2 the screen but I wasn't up for upgrade until May 2012. Luckily they were running a promotion so that I could upgrade to an IPHONE!!! and I also am getting a $100 gift card back. Um, happy early birthday to me! Tuesday was also the day when this pin rocked my world and I had a record sales day {{EVER}}...the week was looking up!

Wednesday I spent naptime and 3 hours that night making rings & trying to get orders out so I could relax on my birthday. I got everything made, but not shipped. So I figured I'd work a little bit on my birthday and then take the evening off on a date with my man! Thursday started with sweet singing from my three loves and funny cards to make me laugh. Both kids went to school and I headed to the dentist {who does that on their birthday?? I'm crazy!}. Turns out I need 3 fillings so it ended up being an expensive day! Once both kids had lunch I laid them down for naps and got ready to ship orders when I heard the garage door open. I opened the front door and there was my hubs - home early! He said "you have 20 minutes, pack your bags" so I laid the orders down and got packing. I had no idea where we were going but Nana came over to be with the kids and we went on our way to this...

After Monday night's fiasco Hubby decided that I needed a night away - it was the sweetest thing! He researched and researched and found us a beautiful cabin in Brown County (Indiana) to stay at for the night. It had a fireplace (actually 2) and a hot tub. It was SO relaxing! We ate dinner in Nashville, IN at the #1 rated restaurant, Big Woods Brewing Company. I got to pick dinner so we had BBQ pork nachos and BBQ pizza. It was absolutely delicious! The next day we ate Krispy Kreme's in bed and set off for a 3 mile hike.

The hike was gorgeous and we had fun taking goofy pictures...

Going off the path to downed trees (where the rattlesnakes are - no thank you!!)...

We spotted a lover's tree but didn't stay long enough to carve our own initials...

Hung on some vines...

And enjoyed each other's company in the beauty of God's creation...

I'm thinking 32 is getting off to a good start! I am so blessed!

overcome

While in New Hampshire we went rock jumping...granted it wasn't a huge, 40 foot rock but it was still very daunting when looking down from the top. All of us jumped except for our two little ones (although E thought she might want to try).

me jumping the first time (I jumped 3 times, what a rush!!)

The best part? My bestie Chrissy overcoming her fear of heights
and jumping off. It took her 15 minutes of this...

...but finally she overcame her fear and took the leap.
I'm so proud of her for facing her fear!

What do you need to overcome today?

The Beauty of New England

Romans 1:20 NLT

"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature."

When we went to New Hampshire from flat, hot Indiana we saw some amazing things. Before I share with you about what we did on our trip, I wanted to share what we saw through God's creation. New England is a beautiful place, full of mountains and streams and ocean. It almost makes me want to move there (if it weren't for our family living here in Indiana)!

flying around amazingly beautiful thunderstorm clouds

on the way to the White Mountains

Lady's Bathtub in Lincoln, New Hampshire

Lady's Bathtub in Lincoln, New Hampshire

 

Ripley Falls

What is your favorite: mountains, plains, oceans? What do you think is the most beautiful?

Cruise with my Bestie!

I thought I'd tell you a little more about what we did instead of just what I wore so here we go! Chrissy and I traveled on the Navigator of the Seas via Royal Caribbean. It was a four night cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale and spent one day in Cozumel, Mexico. 

In Cozumel we did some ziplining, climbing and repelling at an Adventure Park and spent time at the beach snorkeling and searching for sea glass.

Every night we got dressed up for dinner...the only time we weren't in our bathing suits! Chrissy and I wore Amy Cornwell Designs jewelry every night (even gave out some business cards on the trip).

We ate SO MUCH because it's all included so why not? I had a different, but good Indian dish the first night (bottom right), pasta, seafood and tons of delicious desserts.

This is what we did a majority of the time. We enjoyed our virgin frozen drinks & just laid by the pool all day long. We didn't do much beyond that (but we did attend a few shows before/after dinner and danced the electric slide one night).

We even made sure we found a Starbucks in Mexico. Only these two girls would be concerned about Starbucks on vacation! It was SO HOT and the frappuccino and iced caramel macchiato really hit the spot.

The adventure park was a blast. I'm so proud of Chrissy, who's afraid of heights. She did it all and didn't freak out a bit. We had a great time!

{and I forgot, we picked up some Cuban Refugees too (video)  - blog post}

What's your favorite vacation memory?

Spring Family Vacation 2011

Spring break week we were blessed to fly down with one of Hubby's students in his King Air (airplane) to Florida. We spent a few days on our own and went to the beach, then spent a few days with them at Animal Kingdom Lodge and went to Disney World for a few days. We had a great time {despite a bug issue at the first resort, my strep throat and Ellie's motion sickness}. I thought I'd share a glimpse of our trip with you...

my swimsuit is from Lime Ricki - modest,cute swimsuits!

What did you do for Spring Break?