6 month anniversary date

Wow I cant believe I have been a Bride for 6 months! (okay so our date was actually in September, we are now celebrating our 8 month anniversary tomorrow!!)  time sure does fly by. J and I have always celebrated our monthly anniversary's so we knew we had to do something for the 6 month wedding ann! I told him I would plan this date and surprise him. All he knew was that he needed to be ready with a bag packed for a one night stay, other then that he did not know anything else about it.

We left our home about 2:00 and headed West on 494. He thought we were going to our cabin, so he knew he was wrong when I went west. He then started guessing everything we could be going towards. Mall of America, the water park, something in Edina. I finally turned of the highway and into the Hilton hotel's parking lot. So he knew we were staying at the hotel. We checked in and went up the elevators and got off on the executive level. The room was standard, but what counted was WHO was in the room!

We unpacked and relaxed a bit before going down to the bar for some drinks and appetizers. At this point I was looking outside and checking my phone a lot so J was asking questions about everything. I had him thinking I was waiting on a car to come pick us up. About a hour later I told him that I forgot something in the room and to come up with me and we'll come back down for our next adventure. When I opened the door J realized his next surprise was IN the room! I had found this great company: http://aestheticaffair.net/  I hired two massage therapist to come to our hotel room and give us a couples massage! I tipped the masseuses a little more and they had candles lite and soft music playing. It was SO perfect!  It was such a relaxing experience. Since we have been in the middle of remodeling the house we needed to get pampered.

After our massages, we had dinner at the hotels' restaurant, Chop house. Thankfully I had a Groupon coupon for it, however even after the discount it was still spendy....so probably wont be going back there, but it was fun and memorable.

 The food was really very yummy and it the portions were HUGE, (but not quite worth the money)

Our anniversary cheesecake, OMGoodness so good! 

Day 6/7: Cruising and last day

This was our last official day on the ship, we took full advantage of it!

We took in the view from our private deck and....drank Champagne! 

 This was a free bottle of wine that we won at a meet and greet on the ship, cant get any better then free Champagne on your honeymoon! 

Cheers!!

After drinking the bottle and reading my book, J was taking in the view, we went to the main deck and checked out the pool. Today was the first day that the waves were large enough to make us almost seasick, throw in a bottle of Champagne, and we were good to go! 

With the boat a rocking and our added drinks this hallway seemed to go on forever

The pools became wave pools!! 

Here is a small video of the "wave" pool! 

Eating at Johnny Rockets, fried foods are the best when you are drinking. 

We had the two best waiters ever, they were SO much fun!! 

during the parade of waiters...

On our last day we didnt do much other then get up, eat breakfast and head out the door. 

We had such a fun honeymoon

but sad to be going home so soon. 

Day 5: Cruising

Our first day of just cruising, we did not plan anything.  After breakfast  in bed we took at look at the day's schedule and decided that we will go lay out by the pool and watch the belly flop contest. It was your classic men in too-small speedo's, quite funny.

After relaxing all day in the sun we had our second formal night. 

What a great looking couple! :) 

 My HOT Husband

again, why pay like $20 for a picture, when you can take a picture of the picture for free!

AND our last towel animal of the trip....a Monkey!!

Day 4: Puerto Vallarta/Excursion: Zip-lining (13 lines) and a two hour ATV tour

Day 4: hands dawn MOST.FAVORITE.PORT.EVER. J and I were really looking forward to this port. Why you wonder? Because we went zip-lining and ATV riding.  The tricky thing about the cruise that we did not know were time zones. At every port the ship's clocks were turned to that port, that we were in that day, so we did not think about thing of it. However when we got into Puerto Vallarta and told the taxi driver where we had to go and what time our excursion was he informed us that they were on the Time-zone line, and where our excursion was it was a hour AHEAD of us! By the time we go to the office we were about a half hour late for Zip-Lining, and the only way to get to the canopy tour on time was to take a taxi and meet everyone there.  Well after a 45 minute drive up and down the cliffs of PV, with J and I both thinking this was it and we were going to die, we made it to the location! It was perfect timing, we drove up just as the rest of the group were starting to sit up into their gear.



We found http://www.canopytours-vallarta.com/  to be the hands down coolest vendor down in PV!!  Next time you go down to Puerto Vallarta GO THERE you wont regret it!
Here are just some of the pictures of the best experience of our lives.

this is what keep us attached to the line

You actually have to "hop" up to latch one....or get a little "captain in ya"

A little scary when you dont even know where your going to end up. It really was gorgeous there!
Very lunch and tropical

Here's a close up of Jamie

And here's a close up of J

Yup I went upside down on one line!!

the last zip-line, was a double line, so we were able to go side by side, I got some great shots.

breathtaking huh!?

After Zip-lining we had a ATV tour, and it was FUN....we went around the country side, through a few rivers, and stopped by a Tequila tasting, some real actually very yummy.

I repeat....go here!!

After a hands down amazing day we made it back to the boat, went to grab some dinner.

After dinner on Day 2 (Cabo) we attended a Honeymooners Meet and Greet, it was really fun to meet other couple's, about 15 other couple's were there.  Free wine and Champagne were flowing and that was a plus!  There was a raffle at the end of the night and J and I won the grand prize! A free couples massage...we decided to take advantage of the massage after all of the activity we did today, and it sure was perfect.

AND today's towel, a Rabbit! 

Day 3: Mazatlan/Excursion: all inclusive resort (El Cid) (food, drinks, pools and the ocean!)

Day three: Since I have been to Mazatlan before I had a good idea of what I wanted to do at this port. Relax! J and I got day passes to El Cid all inclusive resort. For $35 a person, it was all we could eat, all we could drink, we could use their pools and beach front. Brilliant idea on my part, we drank our weight in pina colda's and ate hamburgers and shrimp. We even ran into some new friends from the ship, who happen to be from MN too.  We also ran into another couple who we befriended at the pool, so it was fun to hang out with some friends on the beach. The waves were so fun, with the wind it was a bit chilly, but once you got used to the water it was SO MUCH FUN. we played with the waves for about a hour, even getting spun around a few times, as well as almost losing my bikini bottoms! Good times for sure.  

We had a nice walk up and back on the beach, we were dreaming of one day living on the beach.

J (heart) J

I LOVE this picture of J

a fun video of us on the beach.. you can tell how windy it was, it was still so perfect we didn't care! 

After swimming in the ocean, we wound up in the pool at El Cid, with the wind it got a bit chilly, but the pool was so warm, with the swim up bar we didnt want to leave, we even thought about staying but really did not want to miss the ship!

Mazatlan was a very fun and romantic port, this was really were we realized we were on our honeymoon. :)  

Some pictures that night, as the boat was leaving port. 

After dinner we walked the ship a little bit, here are some pictures we took

This is a picture of the "main drag" of the ship. It has some duty free shops, bars/pubs and a food cafe here

Night time shot of the pool, this night was Caribbean night, so the pools were lively.

And the towel of the day, a sting ray!