I have a lot to cover in this post, but I'll try to keep it brief.
New Year's Eve has never really been much of a holiday for us. We mostly just hung out and said "Happy New Year" at 12 if we even noticed. Well this year was different!
Dave's Christmas present this year was tickets to the John Mayer Trio New Year's Eve show in Las Vegas! It was AMAAAAZING!!! We are huge JM fans. His concerts are incredible. They are very different from the music he plays on the radio. John is an unbelieveably talented guitarist, and he really shows that off in concert. Dave is a guitar player, so he really appreciates that kind of stuff. We were constantly looking at each other with dropped jaws because John's solos were "face melting."
Our "seats" were standing room only, GA, but right up front. So we stood for almost 2 hours waiting for the show to start. WORTH IT!
The next day we drove to Oceanside to stay with Dave's sister Jenny and her darling family. We are usually at their place for Christmas, but didn't go this year. We knew we'd be visiting at the first of the year, so 2 Cali trips in 2 weeks would have been a bit much.
We always have so much fun with them: shopping on base, eating great food (always a great family activity), goofing off with the kiddos, etc. Jenny and I made a bunch of headbands, which I love!! Thanks Jen!
We saw Avatar with them, which I totally wasn't interested in seeing. But it turned out to be an incredible movie. Sure, if you read into it there's a lot of "tree-hugging," "go-green" ideas being sold, but I was entertained. Loved it.
On Jan 3, we went to Long Beach Harbor to board our ship for a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise. I know I don't even need to say it, but the cruise was truly incredible. Sun, sand, friends, and food. What else could a girl ask for?! We went with roughly 50 people from Pinnacle, the company Dave works for, so we were constantly with friends. Here's a quick rundown of our "7 Days in Heaven":
Days 1 and 2-- Sea days. Laying out, playing games, amazing meals, fun shows, etc.
Our cabin
Just arrived and discovered that we had a balcony!
The view out our cabin window
On our balcony
First formal night
. Zip line! We all rode a bus about 45 minutes into the jungle and then "zipped" thru the jungle. 16 total zip line runs. Some hundreds of feet in the air, and as much as half a mile long. It was incredible!!!
Nate, Dave, Me, Gavin JOhnson, and Dallas Bradshaw
SUPER unflattering pics :)
. Took a taxi to the El Cid resort. Beautiful beach, but all of our friends were getting stung by jellyfish. So we just put our feet in. AND I STILL GOT STUNG! On the ankle. Not unbearable painful, but no fun at all. Still a fun day with friends.
El Cid Resort
(our fave day). Left the ship early to maximize our day ashore (only had until 2). Took a water taxi to a restaurant called "the Office." it was literally on the beach. As in, toes in the sand. Beautiful. And great food. Then a water taxi to Lover's beach and a tour of the surrounding beaches and famous rock formations. We swam a lot that day. the water was perfect.
The view from our table
Our breakfast table
The view from "The Office"
Our ship and a pirate shop. Arg!
Clear blue water!
Tons of sea animals
The Dragon (he's drinking...)
Scooby Doo!
. Still lots of fun
Second formal night
Dave's brother Nate and his friend Gavin
After dinner, our last night
Or favorite dancer, Stewie. We nicknamed him "Reno 911 Guy"
I hadn't been to Mexico before, and enjoyed it just as much as the Caribbean. I cried the last day on the ship because I didn't want it to end. And I cried as we drove back to Utah watching the temp drop from 81 to 8. Really. No one wants to see that happen.
As you can see, we started this year out with a bang. I sure love Dave and sharing these amazing experiences with him. The rest of our year may not be as lavish, but it will be wonderful just the same, simply because we are together. Cheese!
