Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Hola Senoritas! For Spring Break (my very last ever since its my final year of law school) some of my friends decided we should go to Mexico. Obviously. We decided to go to Playa Del Carmen instead of the traditional spring break haven Cancun. We stayed at the Viva Wyndham Maya which was really lovely. Perfect for our group since we just wanted to relax and drink fruity beverages. It was pretty flippin' awesome and we all had fun in the sun :) Here are some of the highlights:

 Ladies on our first night!

Critter--my new best friend. He is a Mexican Agouti.

Critter sniffing around

Critter having dinner

 Me + Critter

In the club. Things got weird when they gave 

Brian a helmet + whip. 

Brian + Ashley

King of the Castle

Our last night at dinner. More props! 
This time fake guns and sombreros. 

 The pool had a shallow end (like 1 ft deep) and it was awesome. 

This move, slithering across the bottom on your stomach, 

is called "Salamandering"

Vegas Baby :)

This was my first trip to Vegas! In a crazy turn of events, our family trip to Vegas actually got even more interesting when Cole surprised me there and proposed! It was an extremely eventful trip and we all had a lot of fun!

Obviously playing slots on our first night! 

This was me & Julie's favorite... Lobstermania!

(at Caesar's Palace, where we stayed)

Me & Jules outside the Mirage

At the Mirage

Inside the Venetian

Dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill

The whole fam at Mesa Grill

What Bobby calls "Tequila Crema" apparently. Delish. 

So, this happened. Cole pops out of nowhere while we are walking 

to watch the Bellagio fountains and proposes. Tears ensue. 

Cole's very grand, very romantic proposal :-)

Aannnndddd Dad awkwardly taking pictures of the moment!

Pics at Bellagio (after I wiped away tears of joy)

Fountain pic. <3 this one!

Laughing to make the situation less awkward. (Dad loves photo ops)

The RING! Love it... nice work Cole! :-)

Ohhhh.... shiny!

Champagne toast at Michael Mina restaurant

The family toasting at Michael Mina

Mini rootbeer floats for dessert!

Cole bought champagne but we never drank it the night before... 

therefore, drinking at 9 am the next day was the obvious choice. 

Bubbly + fountains= Vegas bliss

Nom nom nom

All in all, fantastic weekend in Vegas! I can't wait to go again... bachelorette party maybe??? 

Sandals Ocho Rios, Jamaica

In May 2011, Cole and I took a trip to Jamaica. Cole was done with grad school and I was done for the year, about to start my summer internship. It was an amazing vacation, our first together!

First use of the underwater camera

Our first night!

Water tricycles... SO hard!

Ready to snorkel!

Snorkeling trip

Dunn's River Falls

Getting a "Bob Marley" from the swim-up bar!

Mmm... dessert!

Cole double fisting: "Bob Marley" and "Dirty Banana"

At the beach front bar

Cole cheesin'

At the bar again

Our last day

We really had such an amazing time. We stayed at Sandals, so the food and drinks were all-inclusive. We ate some delicious food and drank a lot of Dirty Bananas! Between our excursion to snorkel and Dunn's River Falls, and just lounging by the pool and beach, we had an exciting and relaxing vacation together. 

Weekend in Denver-- Sunday 4/10

On Sunday, we all woke up pretty sore. We finally go our acts together and had brunch at Mercury Cafe. It was all organic and delicious! I had a pretty amazing omelet there with mushrooms, peas, Camembert cheese and a creamy champagne sauce. After brunch we went to Seven Cups, a Chinese tea house in Denver. We had a pot of Puer tea (a kind of black tea) and a pot of green tea. Both were delicious!

Tea and sugar

Tea and mochi (apricot, brown sugar, peanut and sesame flavors)

Sugar rocks up close!

Pretty tea pot!

After tea, a little work, and some dinner at Root Down (I wish I took some pictures of the amazing food!!!), Sarah and Vanessa brought me to the airport. SAD!!! I miss them already, but it was a good weekend overall, and my legs are finally recovering from the hike Saturday. 

Weekend in Denver-- Saturday 4/9

Saturday, we woke up late-ish and decided to go on a hike near Boulder. We got bagels for breakfast at Moe's Bagels. I had a pesto bagel with veggie cream cheese- delish! Then, we drove out towards Boulder, turned left towards Eldorado Springs and parked at the South Mesa Trailhead.

The hike we did was called Bear Peak. We started out around 12 or 12:30, made it to the top in around 2.5 hours, and started to head down around 3 PM. We walked down the trail for a while until we realized that it didn't seem so familiar.... but we weren't really sure. We probably walked down for about an hour until we decided to turn around. We asked a few people which trail we were on, and realized for sure that we were LOST! I'm still not really sure how we missed the turn, but we did. So, we turned back around and headed up the mountain again. By this time we were pretty darn exhausted but still had to trek back to where the trails diverged. Once we got back to the top we were relieved, but still had to make the 2 hour trek down the mountain.

On the way down, it started to get a little colder but we kept moving. Unfortunately, I wasn't being too careful and I sprained my ankle. After a few minutes of sitting and crying on the rocks, I decided it was OK to continue... just very slowly. Anyways, after a long, long, long day of hiking, we finally got back to the car.

Here are some highlights from the hike:

"Flat Irons" near Boulder

Sarah and Vanessa holding up the rock!

View from the top of Bear Peak!

Vanessa and Sarah at the top of the mountain

Another view from the top

Sitting on a rock

Sipping on the Camelbak

Sarah-- Vanessa in the background

Vanessa, Sarah and I at the top

View of the plateau

More awesome rocks

Once the hike was finally over, we ran to Argonaut for some beer, the grocery store for some snacks, and headed back to Vanessa's apartment. She had already told some people to come over that night, so we quickly showered. Our legs were hurting pretty badly, but we made it through the night. After 3 or so beers, I passed out on the couch.