Beautiful Sayulita!!

On 12/10 (Thursday - I think) we took a bus ride to the town of Sayulita.

Shannon and Ryan have some good friends of the family (Chooch and Miki) that live down in Sayulita from October until May and then live in Everett for the rest of the year. You know - snowbirds. But in this case they go all the way down to Mexico and not Arizona. Chooch and Miki bought the property and built this amazing 4 story house a block from the beach about 15 years ago.. give or take. The view is truly breath taking and the house is very welcoming.

Mi Casa - Su Casa.

It was great to have the chance to hang out with Chooch (Miki was out of town for a couple of day when we dropped in). The 4 of us took a walk down to the beach for some lunch and then took a short walk to another beach call "Beach of the Dead".

We arrived in town about 10 am and didn't end up leaving until 8:30 or something like that.

Chooch treated us to drinks and burgers for dinner. There's nothing like enjoying some good company, sitting on a balcony, watching the sun go down and listening to the waves crash in the background.

I thought the colors were amazing in this picture.

This was taken from my seat on the bus ride there.

The house on the left is Chooch's place.

It was kinda funny. We got off the bus in town and walked to Chooch's place. I had asked Ryan and Shannon if they knew where he lived and they said they didn't. They just knew he lived by the beach at the bottom of a hill.. in that direction (pointing). Sure enough.. Ryan took us right there. The last time Shannon and Ryan had been to Chooch's was 5 years ago.

Crazy, huh?!?

This is one of the views from Chooch's.

This was taken off of the main balcony. (3rd floor).

Okay, so I was a bit of a "grumpy gus" that morning on the way to the bus stop and on the bus ride. I didn't have any coffee before we left and I wasn't happy about it.

So right after we got dropped off in town about 2 or 3 blocks in - I found a coffee shop!

Yep. In my hand is a grande americano. And yes.. I ordered it with my Spanish accent.

"Chulla"

Chooch and Miki's dog. Miki has a call into the airlines to see if Chulla can get frequent flyer miles for all the trips back and forth to Mexico!

Another view but this was taken on the top floor.






Manzanita soda.
MMMMM!!
While we were down there - this soda was the next best thing to beer. Well, that and water.
This was my lunch on the beach in Sayulita.







Ryan kickin' back with a beer and Shannon enjoying the chips and salsa.
It was funny, her and I couldn't really see eachother around that pole unless we moved to the side.



My view at Beach of the Dead.
The reason they call it that is because to get to this beach we had to walk through a cemetary. I didn't take any pictures.. It kinda creeped me out. Strange, I know.

Shannon, Ryan and Nick all enjoyed being tossed around by the waves while I enoyed the shade. My back is still not 100% and I didn't want to take any chances with the waves. In the end, they all ended up covered with sand in crazy places but thank goodness Chooch let us showed at his place to rinse (most of) it off!




Just playing around with the camera.

So after Nick got TOSSED around by the last wave he walked up to me and said "I think I might have lost one of my contacts".

We didn't bring his goggles (not that they would have helped in the waves) and didn't bring a back-up pair of contacts. So without the contact he was screwed for the rest of the day. Nick can't see ANYTHING without them in or his glasses on!

So.. I walked away while he was drying off and took some random pictures. When I came back I saw something strange in his hair. It was his CONTACT!!!!!

It was not dried out at that point, thank goodness!!

This is a picture of Nick with the contact on his tounge. Because he had a ton of salt and sand on this hands, we had to rinse them off with some flavored water we had with us. Nick said that grape was better than salt in his eye!

At Beach of the Dead.

This was one of the many highlights of our trip!! We were so lucky to have been able to go to Sayulita and enjoy the view and company at Chooch's place.

There is still a couple more days left of our trip that I still have to post.

Will post more in a couple of days!

Puerto Vallarta in December!

Ah Mexico. I've been there a few times in my life but this trip was very special for a couple of reasons. One - it was Nick's first time there and Two - we got to go with 2 of our really good friends, Shannon and Ryan.

It was great being able to hangout and have a good time with such good friends.

I have SOOO many pictures that I want to share with you but have not had the time. Here are a few of my favorites from just the first 3 days of the week long trip. There will be more to follow later on this week, I promise. I've got a few days off. =)

The first beer of the trip. Mmmmm Pacifico. It's a great thing to enjoy on a hot day in December.

Shannon and Ryan.

How funny is that? See the palm trees in the background?

This tree was in the lobby of the hotel that we stayed in.

This is a statue on the waterfront in downtown Puerto Vallarta.

Interesting.

Another favorite picture.

Downtown before we got to the flea markets.

This was on the second day that we were there.

Iguanas!

Between the hotel lobby and the pool we could spot several of them hanging around enjoying all of the heat. Did you know that they can swim?!?!

This was taken from the beach in front of the hotel that we were staying in.

We were able to enjoy a few beautiful sunsets while we were down there.

The colors are just amazing.

The boys at one of the bars that we stopped at while downtown our first time enjoying a nice cold beer.





Downtown somewhere.
Just walking around enjoying being there.

POOL DAY!

We spend the 3rd day just hanging out by the pool. It was great. Ryan, Nick and Shannon participated in some awesome tequilla volleyball.

I think they lost both rounds which meant some shots of tequilla.

Another shot from downtown.

GUERRERO street.

haha!

In case you are wondering... yes, I did find the one Starbucks in town.

Just kidding.. there was a few of them around. This one was located in the heart of downtown.

They had a chocolate cherry frap. = goodness.

Just beautiful.

There's going to be another post about this church later on.

Doesn't that look refreshing?

This is a picture of me after a day at the pool. See the curls?

It's natural. ;-) The weather and being in and out of the pool causes this to happen.

This is how curly my hair was when I was little.

Sorry there are not more pictures posted. It's late..

More will be posted later this week.

Thanks for stopping by to check it out!

There's a 1st time for everything.

Thanksgiving 2009.

This was the first year that Nick and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner and we had such a great time. 2 days before we left out 2 loaves of bread and I made a pecan pie. The night before I cut the bread into small pieces and made 2 pumpkin pies (you can never have enough) while Nick prepared the carrot dish that his family has every year thanks to Aunt Dayna. Velveta, Ritz Crackers, butter and carrots. We were up pretty late that night getting things ready but it all paid off.

The next morning was a breeze and we got to enjoy spending time with our parents!!

I can hear our moms singing in the background now...

"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme".

I don't know about you but I've never heard of that song before!

These are from Sue. She was nice enough to let Nick and I borrow some Thanksgiving decorations for our house. I guess she has a ton of these doll for Christmas.

The Byers Collection.




Rummy Time!! One our family favorite games is Rummy. My dad thinks he's the Rummy king. Not so much this time, huh dad?





Mike joined us a little later in the day and caught the tailend of our Rummy match.

CHUB!!!

This is someone that I am very thankful to know. We were very lucky to have Nick's grandpa Chub join us for dinner this year. Sue made his favorite - greenbeans! Not really, but I know he had a great time seeing us and enjoyed all of the good food.

Chub will sometimes call me Sweetie Face. That's what he use to call him late wife, Dot. Chub melts my heart when he calls me that and he smiles back at me.

Nick and I went back and forth about wether to put some of the stuffing in the turkey or not. We ended up (or Nick did) stuffing the bird full of homemade stuffing. We also went with the bag method on the cooking of the bird. It was quite tasty I have to say. Coming from someone who hates turkey, I gave it another shot this year since it was our first time hosting and it was very juicy!! The stuffing was one of the best that I've had. (I grew up on Stove Top - haha! Love ya, Mom!) Nick and I made ours with all fresh herbs, apples and bacon. -Mmmmm-

Sue made the canberry sauce from scratch and brought another family favorite..

Cope's Corn.

What's a Thanksgiving dinner without the gravy?

Ahhhh.. the table is set and ready for us to enjoy our meal.

Nick and I were fortunate enough to get china from our wedding last year. This is the first time we've used it. It's so beautiful AND dishwasher safe.

That's one of the memories I have as a kid. The china we used was my great grandma's and we had to hand-wash it. I loved how special it was and didn't mind hand-washing all of it.. well, most of the time.

I'm looking forward to using our china every year and the silver that was handed down to us from Nick's mom and aunt for our wedding. It's all very special to Nick and I.

Even though he has carved a turkey before, this was his first year doing it for "us".

This was Mo Mo during dinner. I guess he had a long day watching us cook and play cards.

He's in the top part of the cat tower. Passed OUT!

FAMILY.

(thank goodness we got the timer to work!)



There was a total of 5 pies between all of us. What can I say?

Shelly Crocker is the name.

Thanks mom for bringing the homemade apple pie. The apples were from her front yard~

Thanks Niki for the BEST pecan pie receipe. It ROCKS.

Thanks to Libby's -pumpkin pie in a can.. just add spices and eggs. haha. okay, a little more than that. It was funny.. Sue gave me the big can of Libby's and said to use it since it was the best. She's tried many other ways to make a pumpkin pie and always went back to Libby's.
When my mom showed up on Thanksgiving and she saw the pumpkin pies she said the same thing Sue said about Libby's. Good to know. I would have just bought a pumpkin pie at Costco for $5.99 and called it a day. Betcha Costco doesn't use Libby's.

Chester had a great Thanskgiving too. =)

This was after he enjoyed a little bit of turkey himself.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

We're looking forward to Christmas.

Nick and I are leaving for Mexico in a week. We'll be back on the 14th. I'll post some great pictures when we get back.

Love you all. =)

It's just a small collection...

Chester says hello too.

Hi there! It's been a busy few weeks for Nick and I .. it's not going to slow down for the next month with the holidays. My good friend Lesley (who was one of my 2 bridesmaids in our wedding) just got married last weekend and I was in her wedding! Other than my own, I've never been in a wedding before. It was very fun and interesting.. not being part of all the major and small planning around it but being a part of all the get togethers was very fun. Her colors were black and a dark red. Everything was very beautiful. Congrats Lesley and Tim!

Work has turned a corner for me! I have a new assistant manager that started on Tuesday and I'm very excited about it. She hasn't worked for the last 5 years, with 2 little ones at home, but was an assistant manger for WaMu for 4 years down in Las Vegas. For the time being.. my branch feels complete. I've also hired a 3rd banker and am very excited about him joining our team. He won't be in the branch for the next few months.. he has to become liecened in the seires 6 and 63 first. Even though my new assistant is new to Chase, I already know she's going to be a great add to my branch!!

Nick and I are going to Puerto Vallarta in just 2 weeks. O.M.G. That soon?!? We've pretty much had this trip planned since our wedding. It's a gift from our friends - Shannon and Ryan. We're going to be down there for a full week and staying in a timeshare of theirs. We're very happy to be leaving this nasty weather and going down there to enjoy some r & r on the beach. Well.. that and some drinking.. =)

Thanksgiving is coming up and for the very first time, Nick and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner over at our house. We're going to start off small... We're having my parents and Nick's parents over to join us. So, 6 people... not bad, right? At least it's not 20 or something like that. Our turkey is 19.5 pounds, and we're breaking out the china that we got from our wedding and I am SO excited about it. That's one of the many memories I have from growing up and Thanksgiving. Mom would always use Grams' china. We're looking forward to a great day, good company and some wonderful food.

And, on top of all of that... Nick just turned 30!! Happy Birthday Nick. Here's to your 30's. =)

What's one more day... in banana days?

So... a few years ago it all started with a car named Lighting McQueen and a movie "CARS". Thanks to that awesome movie, Nick now has a GROWING collection of dye-cast cars. They are cute and at times I have joined Nick on the "hunt" for the newly released cars. What can I say? It can become very addictive... as you can see for yourself...

Above are the originals from the movie.

DJ, Snot Rod, Wingo and Boost.

I didn't even need Nick's help naming them. ;-)

I know what you are thinking... aren't the red cars all the same? All Lighting McQueen?

Yes. Yes they are.. BUT everyone of them is different from the others.

The dark one in the middle is called "cruisin' McQeen".

I needed Nick's help on that one.

Hasbro is the maker of these cars and I do have to say they do come out with some really cool sets. See Mater (fire truck) and Mia and Tia as Dalmations?



The collection just keeps growing and growing..





There is not a duplicate car on this table.

and they lived happily ever after...

one year later... November 1st, 2009.

Happy anniversary to Nick and I.

So for the weekend Nick and I stayed at The Inn at Langley. It's on Whidbey Island which you can drive around or take a short ferry ride. We opted for the short ferry ride.

The ferry left from Mukilteo but before we caught the ferry we enjoyed some lunch from Ivars. They sell a cup of chowder for $0.75. Not bad!

When Nick and I were dating he took me to the Inn at Langley for a weekend and it was amazing! It had been a year and a half since we had been there and it was worth the wait. The whole weekend was perfect. Start to finish. Even though I forgot the cake top at home! We had a slice on Monday night.

We didn't really have much planned for the weekend. We did have reservations at the kitchen/resturant on Saturday night at 7 and I had packed a picnic for Sunday for Deception Pass.

Thanks to the timer on the camera.. here's a prom picture!

Here's the view from our room. It was chilly outside.. but beautiful.

Breakfast was buffet style from 8am to 10am. Thanks to daylight savings.. we got an extra hour to sleep in. Like the 6 course dinner we had the night before.. breakfast was amazing.

100% cheesey right here!

We got a laught out of this. We saw this outside a doctors office in Langley when we were walking around town.

When was the last time you saw someone using a pay phone?!?!

The weather couldn't have been any better for us on Sunday. It was clear and sunny when we went to Deception Pass. We arrived there around 2 and stayed for a couple hours enjoying the 4 types of cheese, meats, fruit, nuts .. etc. that I packed in the picnic basket. I was introduced to goat cheese this weekend and really do like it. I enjoyed it with walnuts and apple slices.

Our special spot. ;-)

An amazing and perfect weekend just like our life together.

I love you Nick Jones! Here's to growing old together.