Home from the Honeymoon

Monday, October 18

We sadly left Cancun on Monday. We had such a fabulous time and made sure we said goodbye to all the staff who had been so kind to us the entire week. It was actually the perfect time to leave. We had thought it was weird to be so alone at the hotel, but by the time we left more people had showed up and they were noisy and rude and we missed our quiet little vacation. haha

My luggage tag. :)

Of course, we couldn't get out of the country without a little drama. :) When we went to check in for our flight, the airline couldn't find our flight. Apparently, the computer said we were to connect in Charlotte, but our tickets said we were to connect in Phoenix. That took a bit of time to figure out, but they finally found our flight.

Then they asked for our immigration forms. Now, no one told us to keep these forms after we filled them out to get INTO the country, so I never paid any attention to them after we got to our hotel. We looked through our stuff and I found mine, but we couldn't find Joe's. "That is your ticket back into the U.S.," the lady said.

"Um... well, we don't have it," I said. (Joe at this point was FREAKING OUT, but I was just trying to go with the flow.)

They sent us to the U.S. Airlines office in the back of the airport. They reviewed Joe's passport and took a copy of the stamp he received when we came into Mexico. Then they sent us to immigration.

Immigration asked Joe a bunch of questions. I felt like we sounded guilty because one of the questions he asked us was if we had the same last name. I was all, "Well, yes, but no because... well, technically NO, but we just got married, so..." They just kind of looked at me and shoved a new form to Joe.

Joe filled out the form and everything ended up being fine. :)

I had a Fanta with a fancy straw to celebrate.

Then we went through security and because fate likes to screw with Joe, his bag got pulled for inspection. :) Actually, the security guy was pulling almost every other bag for inspection. We got to watch a lot of people get searched before it was our turn. It's funny the different reactions people have. Some people were super apologetic because they forgot they had a bottle of water in their bag. Some people were so pissed they couldn't even speak because the security guy had to take away a pair of tweezers. Funny.

They just checked out the cords for Joe's iPod and phone, and sent us on our way.

Whoever designed the Cancun airport is brilliant because you have to walk through the duty free shop to get between security and the gates. We decided to buy a bottle of Don Julio, Joe's favorite brand of tequila, which is usually super expensive. It was a lot cheaper and we thought it would be a fun reminder of the trip.

Well, we forgot that we had to go through Customs once we landed in Phoenix. And since you have to go back through security after Customs, they won't let you bring any liquids through. The airline made an announcement to say that if anyone bought anything from duty free, to place it in their checked luggage before going back through security. We didn't check any luggage.

We thought it would be pretty ironic if they made us pay the $25 to check a bag so we could send our tequila that we saved $20 by buying in duty free, home with us. Luckily, the airline allowed us to check one of our carry on bags for free.

We arrived safe and sound back in Seattle around midnight.

And that was our trip!

A Trupanion Halloween

I love Halloween. LOVE it. And about two weeks before our wedding, I told Joe we really needed to start thinking about costumes. He looked at me like I had completely lost my mind and told me that he was putting a moratorium on Halloween planning this year. We needed to get through the wedding first, and then we could talk about Halloween. I suppose I have to say, he was right. I didn't need anything else on my plate before the wedding.

But, it made it so I was a bit rushed in finding my costume this year, especially when I found out there was a costume contest at my work. But I figured it out, headed to Value Village and the fabric store, and came up with this:

Cruella de Ville and her teeny Dalmation!

I'm going to get you!

It's exhausting running from Cruella all day.

I didn't really know how much others at my work were going to dress up, so I posted a poll on Facebook on if I should do a 'bigger' costume or a 'safer' costume. Everyone said go big, so there you go.

And it turns out I had nothing to worry about. My entire department dressed up and we ROCKED it at work!

Price is Right winner, Run DMC, and a white trash convict. Plus, the bull with a bull rider there at the bottom. :)

I love my work!

Hurricane Honeymoon: Sunday

Sunday, October 17

Sunday was our last full day and (surprise surprise) we spent it relaxing on the beach!

I think these dinosaurs were Joe's favorite towel animals.

On our way home from Isla Mujeres the night before we saw this restaurant that looked good and was within walking distance from our hotel. So, for our last night, we decided to check it out.

Getting ready for our 'date'.

Wearing the dress my mom got me in Hawaii.

We opened our free champagne to get the night started.

I just love champagne. :)

We made it to the restaurant just in time for sunset. So gorgeous.

The restaurant was called JC Capitan and half of it was under cover and half was out over the water. We chose to sit out over the water and it was so nice. Seriously, the nicest restaurant I think I've ever been to. And so romantic!

We found out that they had a resident alligator that lived near the restaurant. The staff said he came every night and they fed him all the fish heads they had. After dinner we hung out waiting for him to show up, but we never saw him. They said he was 6 meters (18 feet!). We definitely wouldn't have missed him.

Apparently the whole lagoon was full of alligators. There were warnings posted all over. But we never saw a single one. Sad.

But it was still a perfect last night of our honeymoon. :)

Working Hard

I love my job. Seriously. It's so much fun. Not only do I get to spend much of my work day hanging out with the office dogs, but I get to focus on writing about pets all day. And everyone in my company loves to enter contests in an effort to get our name out there (and of course to potentially win cool stuff!). Yesterday, we entered a photo contest on Progresso Soup's Facebook page. Here is our entry:

Caption: Here at Trupanion, our canine colleagues always get the treats while we are left with nothing. You see? Our soup bowls are empty. We deserve treats too! And we loooove Progresso soup. Help us out?

Cute, huh?

(I'm at the far right, in the black coat, with my boss's dog, Safari.)

Hurricane Honeymoon: Saturday

Saturday, October 16th

The one place we heard over and over that we just HAD to go was Isla Mujeres. So on Saturday, we decided to give it a whirl. We had to take a ferry and it ended up being a pretty windy day, but it was still a good trip.

Waiting for the ferry.

You can see how windy it was from the palm trees.

Welcome to Isla Mujeres

There were a lot of activities you could do on the island. Scuba diving, swim with the dolphins, zip line, ect. We elected to just take it slow, just us, and rented a golf cart to drive around the island all day.

Joe was a happy man.

We drove around the entire island, from end to end. At one end of the island, called Punta Sur, there was a little area where you could walk out to the edge and look at some Mayan ruins. There were a few shops and a place that sold ice cream.

That dog wasn't moving for no one. lol. So cute.

More iguanas!

We stopped for lunch at this cool little bar that had the baseball playoffs on the TV. The lady who owned it was a huge Giants fan and brought out her dog, all dressed up in a Giants jersey.

I love that Joe wore his 'Groom' bracelet the whole honeymoon. :)

Cruising around town.

We returned the golf cart and walked around for a bit.

We stopped for drinks at another bar before heading back to Cancun.

An of course, an adorable little puppy joined us!

"Bobby" thought the strap on Joe's backpack was a lot of fun!

And... time to relax.

Then it was back on the boat, and back to the hotel.

I'm glad everyone told us to go there. Very fun!

In Her Prime at 59

Happy belated birthday to my mom, who turned 59 on October 25! I told her to live it up this year before she turns 'real old' and becomes 60. heehee

Since my mom was pet sitting in the Seattle area this week, I was able to take her out to dinner for her birthday, on her actual birthday (which hasn't happened in a long time!). Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures because I wasn't thinking, but here is one of my favorite pictures of us:

Living it up in Boston!

And another huge happy birthday to my aunt, my mom's sister, whose birthday is actually today! Happy birthday Kathy! Love you!

Hurricane Honeymoon: Friday

Friday, October 15

After five days of doing nothing but laying on the beach, we decided to head down to the center of Cancun to check it out. We rode the bus and it was super cheap and super easy.

super tourist bus picture

I've always known that Cancun isn't 'real Mexico' and is very Americanized and caters to tourists. So I shouldn't have been surprised to see Starbucks. I got a little more excited than I probably should have.

Thank God for Starbucks.

We looked around the mall for a bit, and then went to the 'flea market' which is basically a bunch of little shops where the guys try to sell you a bunch of stuff you don't need at really high prices. You are expected to barter and they are pretty ruthless. Yes, we bought some stuff. :)

Then, like the tourists we are, we had to stop by Señor Frogs.

Lunch by the lagoon.

Silly tourist.

Sillier tourist

After lunch we headed back to our room. Once again, we were impressed with the towel art that greeted us when we walked into our room.

The swans even had a little veil and hat. :)

Then, you guessed it, it was back to the pool and beach chairs!

Margarita time!

Hurricane Honeymoon: Thursday

Thursday, October 14th

We started out our morning out on our new deck with coffee and books.

Yes, I converted Joe to the dark side. He is the one reading Insomnia.

Then it was back to the beach. Do you see a pattern here? Seriously, all we did this whole trip was eat yummy food, drink fun drinks, and relax on the beach. I'm pretty sure we both gained 10 pounds.

*love* this picture

Ignacio was back and our new friends made the mistake of throwing him a fry. Ignacio looooves fries and he stalked them for the rest of the day. He even jumped up on Kelly's lounge chair, sending her bolting out of there and up to higher ground. It was pretty funny.

"Give me another fry, woman."

"Look how pretty I am..."

Then, WE ordered food, and Ignacio came to check out what we had to offer.

"Whatcho got mister?"

Checking us out.

After lunch we played in the ocean a little bit.

That's my husband, looking all handsome.

happy, happy

When we went back into our room, we got a knock at the door. There was room service, with complementary wine and chocolate covered strawberries. How nice is that?

mmmmm

Dinner at the hotel and back to our room for the night. Yep, like I said, there was a pattern to our days! Some may call it lame, we call it much needed!