Our Vacation Before the Move!

Carson and I decided we should take a vacation to celebrate Carson's graduation and to enjoy some time together before the REAL job starts. We used a couple of free certificates we got from our timeshare we bought last year and partied hard down in fabulous California and Puerto Vallarta! Here's what we did on our trip! Hope you enjoy! DISCLAIMER: You will see more pictures of just me than us together... Carson isn't a big fan of pictures and the only way I could get them sometimes is if I was alone in them! So if you get sick of seeing me, just wait 'till the next post. :)

I must say Carson looks pretty dreamy in this one... maybe it's because he just ate 50,000 calories with me at In-N-Out! That's where the good stuff is!


I don't remember ever going to Hollywood Blvd, so we spent a day down there shopping and enjoying the fake celebrities on the streets. Carson found Dean Martin's square and happily took a picture of his prints!

We also had the chance to see the musical "Wicked!" Because it was so incredible, I just had to post two pictures from it! You'll never see the Wizard of Oz the same! You would not believe the pipes on those girls! They can shake the roof when they belt it out! This was Carson's first musical he has ever seen and even though he tends to stay away from things like this, he enjoyed it! In front of the Theatre all psyched to go in! Two thumbs WAY up!


After our stop in California, we went to our honeymoon spot, Puerto Vallarta! We stayed at the same resort, The Mayan Palace. This is a picture at the resort... talk about paradise! We stayed in the blue tower in the background.

We had the beach coast right in our backyard! The grounds of the resort meet the shore of the ocean so you can get your beach trip in just a few steps away from your room!

This is at the pool right behind the tower we are staying in. It is HUGE! It stretches almost from one of the resort to the other! You can see the beach in the background. You walk a few steps down from the pool and you are right on the sand to the coast! Isn't that great?! We went to Walmart and bouth some squishy balls to throw around in the pool. It was a good way to have some fun right on the resort.

Zoom in on this and you will see an iguana eating the leaves! Carson took this picture from our room balcony.... man he has good eyes! He started yelling, "Nykelle come here quick! Hurry!" I thought that he saw a celebrity or something, but it was even better! He spotted an iguana!

It is said that Puerto Vallarta is known for having the best sunsets in the world and that Cabo is the place to see the best sunrises. We failed to get sunset pictures this time, but got plenty on our honeymoon! This shot is from the window on the airplane.... not bad for a camera job!

Here's a shot on the boardwalk that stretches along the coast. This is where we spent a lot of time shopping and enjoying the days. We were able to find a couple of mattes that were made out of ground-up cat-tails. They were woven into the shapes of the sun and the moon, and we thought that would be a fun addition/souvenir for our new home! We just need to get them framed with some lights!

We went to Eden where they filmed "The Predator" with Arnold Schwarzeneger (is that how you spell it?) I've never seen the movie since it's rated R, but it was fun to go to a little famous spot in Mexico! My dad highly recommended we do the zip lines here the next time we go, so for any of you travelers put that on your list!

We hiked back and around Eden to look at the beautiful greenery and had no one to take pictures for us... So Carson, being the engineer that he is, jimmy rigged our camera on rocks and put it on a self timer so we could get some photos! This one worked first try!





As you can see, we are quite a distant aways from our camera. Again, no help for the picture, so Carson had to fly across an optacle course of rocks and river to get to me in 10 seconds for the picture! He didn't make it on this try.... And he didn't make it on this try...... Finally!If you look very closely, you will see a white blob curled up in a ball in mid air... this would be me. I decided to be brave and try out a nature-made slide! Maybe this water is the culprit of my parasite infection I enjoyed for two weeks after?SENIOR PIPI'S! This is our most favorite restaurant from our honeymoon. The food is incredible and the ambience is genuine. If you get a chance, you've gotta try this place! We ate here two times during our week stay to make sure we got a little souvenir on our sides from the food! It's that good!Look at the size of that margarita! We almost got drunk off of it, but good thing I double checked and asked the waiter if he was sure it was virgin.... it wasn't so they went back and made us a new one alcohol free!Your eyes are not playing tricks on you... that really is the size of their burritos... You can tell Carson is feeling a little overwhelmed in this picture because he knows he is going to have to eat his plate, plus finish whatever I can't! Yes... that is my fajita on fire...We had the chance to go zip-lining in the tree-tops of a semi-tropical rain forest. If your scared of heights, this will definitely cure it! We walked on little one foot planks around the tops of the trees holding on for dear life and not looking down. We were over 100 feet in the air gliding from one tree to the next. What a rush! This is the view we enjoyed eating on the beach front! After Eden, we went to Mismoloyas where a mexican made us park in his stall and said, "Follow me I feed you!" Turns out he was a waiter wanting some customers, so we walked along the sandy beach until he planted us down on some beach chairs under a big umbrella and asked if we would like to eat here! It was so much fun! The waves are rolled back in this picture, but when the tide would come in, it would touch our feet!This is our view to the right from our beach-front eatery spot. We talked about how we would like to own a condo someday down here! Good luck to Carson in getting all the money for that! (Just kidding... I can help teach piano lessons to pay for it) Maybe someday! Just a dream now.It is official in this picture that we BURN. We decided to do a "booze cruise" for one of our adventures during the week. Don't worry, we didn't drink any booze, it's just nicknamed that because everybody else does! We went to a beach and ate lunch, then to a little island where we hiked up to a waterfall, and went snorkeling. I would NOT recommend the snorkeling.... all we saw was thick green and got caught in the current and had to have the boat pick us up... Maybe this was the culprit of my parasite? Here's the view from on top of the boat of beautiful Puerto Vallarta!
After our long day on the booze cruise. The boat is in the background.

I tried to get a picture so you could see how narrow and steep the back streets of downtown Puerto Vallarta. It doesn't do it justice, but it's crazy to think how cars get up some of those steep roads and that people live up there! I was so impressed with how good Carson still looked after a long day of traveling and begged him for a picture. He flashed me his "I'm really tired and you're being annoying" look, but I tend to prefer "GQ" look for the name of this photo.