A Picture of Paradise

After all kinds of crazy stress and planning, E and I finally made it to Cancun for our anniversary. Although we arrived super early, we somehow almost missed our flight out >< We checked our bag, went through security, got our boarding passes and sat down at a recessed table about 10 feet from our gate to eat some breakfast. About 30 min before our plane was scheduled to leave we figured boarding would be open so we wandered back over to our gate only to find out that they had finished boarding and were looking for our bags to take off the plane! I seriously couldn't believe it, they had never made any boarding announcements (Flight blah blah blah boarding now, final boarding call for flight blah blah blah) and they almost left us behind 30 minutes early. Ugh. Luckily we were the last ones on and the flight was smooth sailing after that.

We ended up staying at Beach Palace, one of the smaller and more intimate palace resorts. We got a corner room and the view was to die for, it just wouldn't quit. We had the lagoon for the majority of our view, which made for killer sunsets, and the clear blue tropical ocean when we turned the corner. It was breathtaking.

 The view from our private balcony <3 p="">

Seriously in love with this balcony

The plan for this trip was relaxation. We basically ate, drank, and basked on the beach for a week, punctuating the sleep days with a long couples massage, a romantic beach front dinner and a snorkeling trip that I could have lasted forever as far as I was concerned. After a ride on a trick speed boat doing spins and swirls, we rode jet skis across the lagoon, through the channel and out into the open ocean to the coral reef. Cancun has the second largest reef in the world after Australia and it did not disappoint. It's no secret that I love fish but seeing them in their natural environment took it to a whole other level. They schooled with me, danced through anemones and poked out of little caves. I could have stayed there all day and we've already decided we need to go back. The jet ski ride back was almost equally incredible, it began to rain a warm tropical sprinkle with cracks of distant lightening splitting the clouds and we watched the show all the way back to the dock.

Cancun sunset over the lagoon. If it can't set over the ocean, at least it sets over a body of water.  

The resort itself was also fabulous. The staff were friendly and extremely attentive. You couldn't sit for more than a few minutes before a waiter would pop up to offer you food and drink. The packages at Palace Resorts are all inclusive and the food and drink did not disappoint. You couldn't go 10 feet without finding something delicious, from the official restaurants to the tiny desert hut that made fresh crepes and the beach and pool side staff who would bring us margaritas and tacos. There was even a fabulous chef who worked at their rooftop bar making the most delicious grilled Thai skewers.

Sunburns' r 'us on the fabulous beach

They also had fantastic 24 hour room service that had breakfast waiting for us each morning when we woke up. They brought mimosas for our anniversary and we finished off the evening with a "Romantic Dinner", a private table for two down on the sand. I'd normally have more photos to post but E and I made the decision at the beginning to keep most of our trip tech free. We left computers at home and phones in our hotel room so we could truly focus on relaxing, healing and soaking up the sun. It was just what I needed to recover after being sick for so long and I hope it refreshed my body enough to welcome the little embryo we'll be transferring soon. I can't wait to go back to Cancun with our little one in a couple years and watch them play in that clear turquoise water. 

Happy Anniversary Mimosas with my lovey

Day 666 of Happily Ever After

Sometimes, E gets called to work out of town for a couple of days. On this particular weekend, he was scheduled to work a game in Santa Barbara, just a couple hours away from home. He's worked games at this location before and they're generally pretty easy and relaxed. He gets a nice hotel room for the night plus a little stipend to help cover his food. This was one of three Santa Barbara weekends E had this month so we figured hey! lets make this a romantic little getaway!

Our hotel, it even has a gorgeous koi pond <3 br="">

That's about when things went Wrong. Soooooo very wrong. I'd gone with him before on weekend trips to SB but on this occasion we had literally everything working against us. To start off, we both came down with the flu. The flu sucks at the best of times, but it sucks even more when you're out of town away from your comfy bed. That was strike 1.

So E and I have a nice drive down. The road is mostly clear, the weather nice and the ocean beautiful at our side. We check into our hotel and everything looks rosey. It's the same hotel and almost the same room we stayed in before, perfectly comfy and cozy. We unpack and go out to take a romantic stroll in downtown. We don't pick a restaurant beforehand, figuring we'll pick somewhere on the fly. We haven't eaten lunch, and start to get hungry. This is strike 2.

Beautiful downtown Santa Barbara. How can this not inspire romance?

The first hour of our stroll goes swimmingly, all the shops are adorable and we have a good time. Then, my flu start to get exponentially worse. We start to get hungry-grumpy. And the world explodes. Strike 3, we're OUT! We can't pick a restaurant, we start bickering, E goes into hungry-fail mode and then we have a miscommunication. E ditches me to go back to the car, he thinks I'm following, I think he's left on purpose. I'm now standing in the middle of downtown Santa Barbara without a car and he's not picking up his phone. My flu gets even worse and I just about hit the roof, which is impressive considering that downtown Santa Barbara is open air.

Around this time I walk back to the car, E leaves the lot to drive around looking for me, and we eventually connect. E runs through a drive through just as my flu is moving from bad to worse and I turn down his fast food dinner. He starts to feel a little better since he's eaten and I'm feeling god awful. We get back to the hotel, start arguing, the gloves come off and the low blows start flying. It gets pretty ugly and we're both seriously regretting coming on this trip. It is NOT the romantic, indulgent weekend we pictured.

Somehow, we both pull our heads out of our asses and decide to be grown ups. I am seriously impressed with this, not because adults shouldn't be able to have conversations without arguing, but because I am so sick that I can't even see straight and I know E doesn't feel great either. We talk things through, agree the weekend is an awful failure, and order iHop to go, which I didn't even know was possible. We eat, we take a crapton of medication, and hit the hay.

I have never been so grateful for take out service before

The next day is much better, in that the worst is over for my flu, and we've both had a solid nights sleep. We eat our left overs, pack up and I drop E off at work. I spend the rest of the day puttering around Santa Barbara visiting over-priced thrift stores and as long as I stay topped up on my DayQuil, I'm good. E has a similarly decent day at work, but is anxious when I pick him up around getting out of the lot and on the road. Things get a little tense again but I've got enough DayQuil in me that I don't engage and E relaxes once he realizes I do know where I'm going and we're well on our way home.

Finally, we make it home safe and sound. Huzzah! We're tired, sick and ready to unpack and roll into bed. But no. Oh, no, no, no. This weekend is not over yet! We walk into our bedroom and it smells like pee. Not like, hey we need to change the potty box pee, but like omg a drunk person pissed all over the place pee. Only it's not a drunk person, it's our kitty Button, and she's chosen to pee AND poop on our lovely bed.

And, this doesn't seem to be normal cat pee. This is angry, vengeful, I hate you for leaving cat pee! Rooooaring cat pee! I think hey, we're okay, it sucks but we have that allergy comforter protector on our duvet, remember? We registered for it and it should be all good, right?

Wrong. So. Very. Wrong. The cat pee has soaked through the duvet cover, through the allergy comforter protector and deep into the down comforter. The down comforter that is large, and fluffy and expensive and did I mention so much larger than our washing machine. I can not figure out how our comforter wasn't protected, the comforter protector is supposed to keep out dust mites and air and OMG how can it not have kept out cat pee?!?!  I hop online, check our wedding registry to re-read the fine print and there it is. In big, bold letters right at the top.

Welcome to Day 666 of Happily Ever After.

Well, fuck me. I have never been superstitious or religious, I am a firm believer in the incredible power that is science. But damn, this weekend, this day is the epitome of craptastic, shitty 666. If I believed in any of that I'd be ready to call someone to exorcise the weekend (and the cat pee!) from our house.

Instead of rolling into bed with a NyQuil nightcap to end the weekend, we get to strip the bed and spend the next two days washing our comforter 487634756374563 times until it's clean and dry and fluffy again. I have never been more glad to see the end of a trip and say a firm goodbye and fuck you to this weekend. Also, I cannot recommend Allergy Luxe comforter protectors. They are not waterproof and will not keep the devil cat pee out of your down comforter.

Happy Birthday, Halloween and a trip!

It's been another few weeks and I somehow built up more unpublished posts in my post graveyard. Nothing too exciting has been going on so there hasn't been anything really post worthy. I mean, I carved an owl into a pumpkin and a squirrel ate it's face off, and I got a teeny little mole/blood vessel that exploded and bled like a horror movie while I was shopping at old navy, but neither event was really deserving of it's own post. So, today I'm blogging about birthdays, halloween and my upcoming trip to visit my friend E!

Today, my little sister is celebrating her 22nd birthday with her new(ish) boyfriend, who happens to share her birthday, in Vegas! It's all very exciting since it's her first time there and her first time taking a trip with a boy. Cue the OOOooooOOoooOOooo. This one is actually very nice, quite cute, and they appear to be smitten with each other. A very big happy birthday to L and J, I really hope they have a fabulous time!

E and I haven't celebrated Halloween since the twins we used to babysit moved out of state. We're in that funny in-between space where you're too old to celebrate alone but don't have kids to trick or treat with yet.  This year, I'm actually going out to be out of town visiting my friend El over Halloween! El lives in Boise with her husband and son and I haven't had a chance to visit them since they moved out there. I'm really excited to spend some real time with them and see their house for the first time in person, since I'm sure pictures don't do it justice. El has been dealing with a nasty broken arm which makes it tough to lift her son, so I'm also looking forward to helping out and playing with her little boy.

I leave on the 30th and will be gone till the 6th, so while I'm having a fabulous time with El, I'm unfortunately going to miss my Titos Tacos election night ritual with E. We usually buy a couple boxes of tacos and camp out in front of the TV while the states report, but I'll be in there air when the first numbers start coming in. I've already voted so I don't need to be there to vote, so I'm hoping my plane gets in on time so I can maybe catch the results with E when he picks me up.  This is such an important election and there's so much at stake, I really hope the country pulls through and makes the right decision.

With that said, I wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween filled with fabulous costumes and tons of candy :)

Death Star Pumpkin!(Source)