Turkey Time

Wow, where did the rest of November go and the start of December? As every one's Holiday schedule typically is mine has been particularly hectic. Between the new job, wedding showers/parties, traveling and the Holiday I can't remember what I've even done since yesterday.

However, this year I got myself back off my butt Thanksgiving Day morning and ran the annual Cincinnati Turkey Trot. It was unseasonably warm, which was awesome, but rainy, which was not awesome due to the blister I got on my foot from wet socks. A group of us ran the race entitling us to a Thanksgiving Day brunch and dinner.

Later that jam packed weekend we had a wedding shower thrown by amazing family friends! A group picture of Jim's family, my family (minus my brother) and the hosts is included. It was an amazing dinner party and we were all so lucky to have a fabulous Chef prepare us a gourmet meal! I can't rave enough about the meal, he is opening a restaurant in O'bryonville soon and I recommend everyone goes!

I'm currently sitting on a long flight back from LA where I visited Jim's sisters, sister-in-law and infamous Bruce Wayne the dog! More to come on this...Happy Holidays!

Traveling....

As you can tell from reading my blog, I like to travel and so does Jim. We jump on any opportunity to travel and always love to find new places. As we began our registry Jim told me about a website that allows people to donate towards your honeymoon!

The website is Travelersjoy.com and basically you can select ways for people to donate towards your honeymoon. You can have them buy dinners, adventure packages, spa packages, etc. I absolutely love it for couples like Jim and I who have lived together for awhile and accumulated house ware products through the years. While we still need some house ware items, we would truly appreciate the ability to take the honeymoon of a lifetime.

Check out the site and read more about it; if it moves you feel free to donate:) If you know anyone else getting married pass this along, it is a great alternative to a traditional wedding gift. Plus, there are no shipping fees, wrapping fees, etc.

http://www.travelersjoy.com/jennyandjim

NashVegas

Last weekend I had a little girls trip to Nashville for a Bacherlorette Party and we literally partied so much you would have thought we were in Las Vegas! Maybe it's because we haven't had a girls trip in awhile but there must have been something in the water, shall I say beer, we drank.

We started the weekend off right with drinks at a restaurant called Cabana, which features your own personal Cabana, and ate and drank while we jammed to our perfect party mix. Following that, we went to a few bars where women don't frequent (that's right, some gay bars). Ladies, this should always a stop on girls trips, not only do you get free items but they totally pump up your ego!

Following this we went out on the town and went to the famous Broadway strip, visiting, Tootsies and many other great places! In Nashville the bars are open until 4AM, which means 5AM EST. I haven't pulled an all nighter like this in years, but why not? So we danced the night away chugging beers and champagne until the wee hours of the morning.

Once we got back to the hotel the party didn't end. We met friends, partied, sang, dance and laughed and laughed until literally the sun came up. I closed my eyes and was awoken 2 hours later by Christine, the bachelorette to get back at it! So off we went and did it all over again on Saturday.

It really was a blast and I can't share all the details because they are too dirty for a blog
(just kidding), but some things a girl has to keep secret! I can't wait until Christine and Jason's wedding!

Whirlwind Weekend

Wow, the past week has been such a blur! Coming off the flu and heading to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for Morgan and Mindi's wedding! However, let's focus on the Mexico trip as the flu and cold stuff is soooo behind me.

So, we left on Wednesday, October 21st at the butt crack of dawn. We had a nice journey down there except the part where we had to land and sit in Guadalajara to wait out the rain. Hurricane Rick caused quite a bit of rain on Wednesday and we had to wait out the storm to land. But once we did, party time!

Wednesday night we had a great dinner with everyone who was there. There was about 10 of us and we ate, drank and laughed ourselves silly. They have this fabulous desert drink called Mexican Coffee (or sexy coffee). It involves lighting tequila on fire and pouring it back and forth so it's a big flame and then lighting your cup on fire and serving you coffee. It actually tasted like hot chocolate but the presentation is worth it. After dinner we enjoyed some late night cocktails and off to bed.

Thursday we hung out at the swim up bar, the beach and Jim and I went on a zip line/canopy tour in the jungle. It was so much fun. We zip lined over the river, through the jungle and saw a lot of cool stuff. We were about 700 feet up zip lining across miles of the jungle. The guides were amazing and so funny, we had a really good time. Afterwards we got to hold monkeys which was awesome but we also got to hold a giant boa constrictor...well we = me cause Jim was afraid of it.

That evening we went into town for the rehearsal dinner at a local tapas restaurant that overlooked the city. It was a cool restaurant and view but the food was so so. Then a few of us checked out the local scene downtown and headed back to the hotel. Since the hotel was all inclusive it was hard to justify spending more money on drinks out on the town. We ended up hanging out for awhile and retreating to our room early that night.

Oh yeah, our room was so nice. We had our own private balcony that overlooked the sea. Our bed was positioned just so when you laid in it the window could be open and you could hear the waves and see the ocean. It was just amazing. The bathroom was great and the shower was all glass and tile, I just love tropical showers. We would spend a lot of time just laying in bed and relaxing and enjoying the view with an ice cold cerveza.

Friday came and it was just a beautiful day! We spent all day swimming in the ocean and relaxing leading up to the wedding. It was the most amazing sunset ever when they got married (see pic to left), you couldn't have asked for anything better. The ceremony was amazing and they were both so happy. We continued the party well into the night with lots of dancing, tequila and laughter. Our server Rosalio just loved to keep bringing us tequila so that lead to a pretty fun night.

Saturday Jim and I took a snorkeling adventure that was so fun. We cruised out to our snorkeling spot and spent about an hour or so checking out the fish and swimming through caves. We then continued to our lunch location, which was a local beach nestled up against the jungle. The boat ride was amazing. Our friends Sarah and Jake also did a boat cruise and ended up getting engaged on theirs! Woo Hoo- her ring is amazing and we were so happy for them!

We headed back for our last dinner with the group at the resort. We enjoyed a fine Italian dinner complete with wine, sexy coffee and great food! It was a perfect dinner to end a fabulous trip! Jim and I were so exhausted from all the partying, food and drinking that we hit the bed early. We had an early flight back to the states and just wanted to hang out and enjoy our last night together.

So we got back on Sunday and were exhausted. We really really missed Chili so it was so great to see her at our house when we got home! We watched the second half of the Bengals ass whooping against the Bears and were asleep by about 10PM!

All in all it was an amazing trip and I am so glad Morgan and Mindi invited us to be a part of it. It was a nice break from Cincinnati and also cleared up my allergies getting out of the city- thank the Lord!

I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to attend their wedding and spend time in Mexico with some of my best friends. These are the things that make life happy and great:)