camping on carlsbad state beach

snuck away for the weekend a couple weeks ago with cody, leah and alesha to go camping on the beach. what a perfect weekend. right on the beach. relaxing, roasting hot dogs and falling asleep to the sound of the waves.

pretty impressive photography skills.

i love this pic of leah. man i am good.

we also went to huntington beach and stayed with some new friends really close to the beach in a way sweet house. it was a blast!

picking up where we left off

do you have friends that, no matter how long it has been, you just easily pick up where you left off? i got the chance to spend the weekend with two friends that are like sisters to me! it was such a good excuse to make a quick trip up to the salt lake area.

me and rach. friends since we were little. (my dad dated her mom in high school - funny huh!) loved chatting the night away with her. thanks for letting me crash your saturday night and stay at your place. :)

then i had a lovely breakfast at mimi's with maryann. if you ask how me met she may loudly exclaim that it was one wild night in vegas, but it's not as bad as it sounds. :) she was my roommate for awhile after that and we had so much fun together! so we did breakfast and then just chilled at liberty park. i love liberty park. it was so fun to see maryann. she is definitely one of those people that i can be completely myself with. i love talking to her! and little did we know that we have twinner hairdos. haha! funny.

in my quick trip i also got to see my grandparents, Bri and Cath and fam and got to spend sunday afternoon with my sister and her family. we made yummy zucchini bread and chatted. such a great weekend.

disneyland: part deux

disneyland with the whole family! we had so much fun!

love this sign!

amy and scott surprised us the night before with matching shirts! we did the matching shirt thing in disneyworld, a few years ago, as a joke and i guess the tradition is carrying on. so funny and fun!

notice cami's sweet fannie pack that she was sportin' all three days! and my new hair cut! sue and jared came for a day with their boys and aaron and sabrina were there all weekend too. it was a party!

trying on some hats. me, cami, sara, and amy ended up getting matching minnie hats!

we took landon on big thunder mountain railroad! he was barely tall enough and i don't think he knew what he was getting himself into. cami took all these pictures while the rollercoaster was going. he was so cute to watch! click on it and look at those facial expressions up close! priceless. :)

thanks mom and fam for a fabulous trip!

astro blaster

went to the magical land of disney this past weekend. it's been pretty busy and i haven't had time to post pics but i just saw this in my email and laughed. you get to email this to yourself after the ride! and don't mind the score . . . even though i look like i am way focused i totally sucked at this game. obviously.

cruisin': day 7 and debarkation

the last couple days of the cruise we were on the boat and i hardly took any pictures. we basically layed out, worked out, went to shows and other fun activities on the boat.

i thought this picture of cody was funny! i had never seen him shave his head before! haha!

another fun towel animal.

gettin' off the boat

after 7 days i was ready and excited to come home . . . funny how that works.

cruisin': day 6 thanksgiving

for thanksgiving, we ate at a restaurant that required formal dress and i only brought one dress so i got to wear it again . . . oh well. :) we all went around and said things that we were grateful for. i was grateful for this fun cruise and my family, who i totally missed. :) there was tons more i could have said, but annika pretty much covered everything. haha! :) she doesn't normally have thanksgiving because she is from germany and she loved it!

cruisin': day 5 puerta vallarta

we were in puerta vallarta the longest so we did a little shore excursion to las caletas private beach. it was about an hour boat ride to get there and these funny boys entertained us on the way. one of the guys looked like a mexican colin farrell . . . pretty cute! haha.

such a beautiful boatride with the perfect seats

paradise!

we snorkeled, kayaked, ate, layed out and even got to see a sea lion perform some cute tricks. oh and i held a parrot and a monkey!

las caletas

in puerta vallarta we went to "el centro" and just browsed along the boardwalk.

amazing sand sculptures!

and even more amazing sunsets and statues!

cody got suckered into buying this cute little girl an ice cream. :)

we got a bunny that night . . . :)

puerta vallarta was a blast! a long day, but super fun!

cruisin': day 4 mazatlan

takin' a "golf cart" taxi to the golden zone.

gearing up to parasail!

they make you get in a way awkward position before you "lift off"

flyin'! it was so awesome and really not scary at all, very calm.

toes.

then, thanks to a great tip from uncle bri, we chilled by the pools at las flueres hotel right behind where we parasailed and had some amazing chips and guac. brian always knows the best spots!

this one is for you jared and sue!

we had a little octopus or something waiting for us this time.

if you want to see what it was like parasailing check this short little clip out . . . and don't mind all the wind. it was a blast!

cruisin': day 3 cabo

taking a glass bottomed water taxi to lover's beach. the glass bottom was like an 1'x6' panel of glass on the bottom of the boat . . . funny!

lover's beach. this was the sea of cortez side, it was like a peninsula, the pacific ocean side was awesome. the waves were huge. i didn't even come close to getting in on that side!

according to our water taxi driver that barely spoke english this cave is why it's called lover's beach . . . he kept pointing to this cave and saying something like "make babies" haha! when we figured out what he was saying we totally laughed!

the water was so warm and perfect for snorkeling!

our ship in the distance.

pretty fishies!

when we got back to the port area all the vendors were, of course, there selling their goods. this guy was trying to get people to hold this iguana and pay for a picture! yeah right! that thing is huge.

i just liked this sign in the restaurant.

yummy food and cool decorations!

a shot of lover's beach from the ship as we were leaving . . .