Honeymooners in Cancun, Mexico!

If you haven't noticed, I'm still trying to play catch up from the last- oh 16 months of my life. I really want to write about some of the fun times Cam and I have had before baby boy arrives.

First on the list- our honeymoon! Believe it or not, but that was the first thing we talked about before we even really talked about our wedding. I will never forget- we were sitting in front of this house in Washington during Christmas time watching all their Christmas lights sync up to the music on the radio. Randomly, we started talking about where we'd want to go on our honeymoon and I immediately thought Cancun, Mexico. I've never been one to have a desire to go on cruise's because I get so dang carsick, so I thought a resort would be a lot more fun. That night, we got on the computer and started looking at tickets and hotels and flights- we literally spent hours trying to find the best deal and we weren't even engaged yet haha. I know, I always take the fun out of things because I didn't let Cameron plan the honeymoon all on his own- but I wanted to be involved so I could plan accordingly.

Fast forward to the day after our wedding. We flew out of Las Vegas and only had one stop in Houston, TX for a connecting flight. It was about a 5 hour flight and the longest time I had ever flown over such a large body of water. It was a little terrifying to say the least. Also, I have this weird fear of having to go to the bathroom on an airplane, so not only was I terrified of looking down into the dark ocean, but I had to face my fears with the bathroom or wait it out. I chose to wait, I was pretty proud of myself.

Leaving Caesar's Palace, on our way to the airport!

Anyway, we landed in Cancun, Mexico at about 11pm and tried to find the cheapest taxi to our hotel. We were about 15 miles away from the Hyatt Regency where we were staying. We ended up getting a pretty good deal because Cam speaks spanish and told everyone he was from Guadalajara so they didn't think we were some rich Americans they could take advantage of. Haha, the guy who drove us to our hotel was actually really, really nice and spoke in spanish most of the time- I told him I could understand it well, which I can, but I really couldn't respond back. Holy crap though, the streets there were crazy. I seriously cannot believe how he maneuvered that van through all the insane traffic. I thought for sure we were dead at least 5 times haha. Finally, we got to our hotel and they took us up to our room. We had this awesome ocean view and I could not believe that we were actually married, and in Cancun. Ah, it was seriously so cool!

The view from our hotel room!

Inside the lobby area of our hotel- Hyatt Regency

The next morning we slept in and just enjoyed being on vacation. It was a nice humid, sunny day and we soaked up having absolutely no responsibilities! It was the best! I don't know why, but we didn't stay at an all-inclusive hotel (probably because of the much higher cost) but we did get free breakfast and oh my gosh- they had the most deliciously moist muffins I have ever eaten. Honestly, I could have eaten 20 of those things. I still think about how good those were. I should have asked for the recipe. Hyatt definitely has some really good food.

Outside our hotel room eating food from Oxxo

In total, we stayed in Cancun for a week- and we went to a lot of their touristy parks. Cam and I always say that if we go back, we'd only go to one of the parks- Xplor- and spend more time swimming in the ocean. I mean, it was cool to go and say that we went, but we had to wake up super early to catch the bus each morning and then we would drive for like 2 hours there and back and by the time we got home, we were exhausted. Not only that, but you had to pay to do additional tours once you actually got into the park- so it was a little pricey. However, we were able to see some pretty cool things. We went to Xcaret and saw lots of exotic animals and we swam through this natural cave-like river, and at the end of the day we went to this performance with dinner served to us that told the story of the heritage there. It was really interesting. Then when we went to Xel-Ha we were able to see the ruins, and where the ruins were located was on this huge cliff-side and it was absolutely beautiful. And I think it was at that park that we were able to go through this little zip line into the water. We also went to Isla Mujeres (Island of Women) to snorkel in the middle of the coral reef in the ocean. I'm not sure how Cameron convinced me to go out there because 1- I'm afraid of sharks, and 2- that meant getting on a boat and getting seasick, but he got me to go. When we were going out on the boat to snorkel, the water was this gorgeous turquoise color and you could see all these really pretty fish swimming around. Oh, it was to die for. But when the boat stopped and it was time for us to put on our gear, I made the mistake of putting on my flippers while that boat rocked back and forth as everyone dove off into the ocean. Instantly, I was going to puke. But, I wanted to do my best to enjoy it, so I jumped off and nauseously tried to look down but it was not happening. I was either going to throw up in my mask, or get out of the water. But the boat had drifted quite a bit, so one of the workers threw me a tube to hold onto while everyone else enjoyed the snorkeling. I felt so bad that Cameron couldn't really enjoy it because I was so sick, but for the brief moments I wasn't about to throw up- it was really neat.

Xel-Ha

On top of the cliff at the ruins

Zip-lining at Xcaret

Xplor though was by far the most fun. It was one of their newest parks and we got to go on 14 zip lines through the jungle. For the most part, Cam and I would zip line together because some of them were like 2 miles long, but one time I wanted to go alone and I totally got stuck in the middle of the line, apparently I didn't weigh enough. I was kind of freaking out inside because I didn't want someone to slam right into me. So this guy monkeyed himself onto my line and pulled me back with his legs- awkward. Haha. Then on the very next line, they told us we could only go alone and told him I was probably going to get stuck because I had just gotten stuck, but he was like oh no you'll be fine, and sure enough I got stuck again. Haha. Those zip lines were awesome, the last one was my favorite because we got to zip line into this huge waterfall. Cameron was right behind me on that one, and he ended up getting stuck right in the middle of the waterfall and the guy kept telling him to push forward but he couldn't hear him so he was just sitting there with all this water pouring over him for like 5 minutes. So, eventually the worker guy just went out there and pulled him. Haha it was so hilarious. I guess his foot got stuck, or his shoe was caught so he couldn't move. After the zip lines, we got to ride these ATV's through this 5 mile trail that would take us through water and under these caves in the dark. I was surprised at how fast they went. We probably had too much fun on those. Sometime when we were at that park we also got to swim through natural stalagtite caves and the water was absolutely freezing but I'm glad we did it- it looked like there were icicles everywhere. I wish we would've brought a camera, but I was so afraid of dropping it or losing it, or getting it wet. They would take pictures of you at each of the parks, and then they'd want like $50 for one image. It was a little ridiculous.

Ok, so I just have to talk about the food for a second because it was seriously so good- at the Hyatt anyway. Occasionally, we'd eat there for dinner even though it was overpriced, but they had the most amazing salmon I have ever eaten I didn't even care about the cost. I think we ate like 3 times while we were there, and I got salmon every time. It was just so fresh and the sauce they used was unbelievably good. And their rolls, like the muffins, were addicting. The server couldn't bring us enough. Another night we were there, we decided to walk down the busy streets of the hotel strip in Cancun thinking we could find a cheap little street taco place to eat at, but alas we couldn't find anything for cheap! Until finally, we went down this sketchy alleyway and this cute lady handed us her menu and she actually had really cheap tacos! We were sold- and we so we ate there and the owner herself served us. She was seriously so cute. She ended up talking to us for quite awhile and then made this drawing of us on a napkin showing how we were in love. It was adorable- and the food was really good too. In addition to the good food in town and at the restaurant, we would go to this gas station, Oxxo, across the street from our hotel. Apparently, Cameron had many fond memories getting snacks from that gas station on his mission, so he was pretty excited about it. They actually had really good chips, and ice cream.

Gosh, there are just so many things to write about- the day that we didn't go to any parks, we enjoyed spending time at the beach right outside of our hotel. I wish like heck we would have taken more advantage of the swimming pool and the ocean. The water was sooooo warm, and beautiful. It was crystal clear and the sand was so soft. Ah, it was just amazing. They even had these little cabanas right by the sandbar and so we ended up laying in one of those for hours just soaking up the warm weather and hearing the ocean waves crash. I could have slept for hours in one of those cabanas- even though Cameron was already over sitting there for just one hour ;)

Chillin' in our little cabana

All in all, our honeymoon turned out absolutely perfect, and totally worth it. A week of pure bliss. We flew home on my birthday and Cameron bought me mamba's from the Oxxo store as my birthday cake. Haha. We did not want to come back to reality. I'm so glad that we went, despite the price, because I knew we wouldn't be able to afford a vacation like that for a verrrrryyyyyy long time.

Oh, how I love this cute boy!