1,000 Places: Los Cabos, Mexico

Nothing compares to laying on the beach in Mexico. What makes it even better is laying next to your new spouse, knowing you have nothing to do for 5 full days -- except maybe go on a random Rhino Excursion along the coast. Thomas and I picked Los Cabos for our honeymoon spot because it allowed us to do exactly what we felt we needed after the wedding, relax!

Los Cabos is located on the tip of Baja California, where the Pacific meets the Gulf of California. The water is dangerous and turbulent and you would never want to swim in it, but it is gorgeous to look at. The waves are so loud you can hear them from anywhere in the resort.

This was Thomas' first venture into Mexico, and the first notch on our international traveling belt. The trip more than exceeded expectations. We spent our mornings laying by the quiet pool, would switch to the beach cabanas for lunch and then the large pool until sunset. It was the most relaxed either of us had felt and it is a feeling we have been chasing on every subsequent vacation.

The great part about our resort in Los Cabos was that it was all inclusive. They had several restaurants with a variety of food ranging from local Mexican, to Italian and even Asian fusion. Alcohol was included in the package and refills on margaritas flowed like water. It was a surreal experience to have a half empty cocktail only to be given another full glass right away. Many all inclusive resorts don't include alcohol so we got really lucky... and drunk!



On day three, Thomas decided he wanted to go explore, so we found a company who rented Yamaha Rhinos and a guide took us on a tour of the outskirts of Los Cabos. It was hot, dusty and bumpy, but the view of the ocean was phenomenal. Thomas loved testing the abilities of the Rhino on uphill treks and I held on for dear life, hoping we wouldn't tip over (which they told us could very easily happen).

If you have the chance to visit Los Cabos, I suggest you do. It's a relaxing vacation that is also extremely affordable, and you can't go wrong with that!

Questions or Comments? Post them below!

LEGO Project: Forestmen's Crossing

The LEGO Project series is a look through the Second Snack collection of LEGO sets from Thomas’ childhood as well as some modern sets. For years these LEGO bricks and pieces have been laying dormant in plastic bins but with the pooled resources of the Internet, reassembling sets is now a reality. This series features a set or theme reconstructed on a weekly basis.

LEGO released the Forestmen's Crossing set in 1990 and only in the United States. Its one of the earliest sets I remember having. Like a lot of kids, Robin Hood was a hero of mine and the Forestmen of the castle theme was really cool. The castle theme had a lot of different factions which gave it depth and a lot of room to come up with story lines.

This set in particular had a lot of cool accessories and a couple unique pieces. A thread by dj2005 over on EuroBricks has a great review of this set. This set is famous in the LEGO community for including a Forestmen Maiden, one of the ultra-rare female mini-figs. She wears a green cap which is also hard to find. Pieces like these can fetch quite a bit of money on eBay and other sites that sell second-hand LEGO bricks and pieces. Me? I'll never sell a single LEGO piece. These sets mean too much to me to part with. If anything I'll most likely get around to buying up parts I seem to have lost in other sets.


Questions or Comments? Post them below!

Weather: My Greatest Obsession

Ok, so maybe it's a little weird, but I absolutely love weather. I check my favorite weather website, wunderground.com every morning when I wake up, every night before I go to sleep and multiple times throughout the day, just to see if anything has changed.

I think my love of the weather comes from never wanting to be cold, so I know I need to be prepared for whatever the temperatures will be outside that day or night. I am never left without a jacket or scarf when it is chilly, or without sunblock when it is stifling.

I check the weather for cities we will be traveling to, even if it is just up the freeway to my dad's house. Sometimes its colder there, and I feel I need to be prepared!

My obsessive weather checking has come in handy for our vacations. I check the weather for a city while thinking about visiting the destination, to see if the weather will be tolerable, or if we should visit another time. Once we book the trip, I start checking the weather daily to see how much it fluctuates so I can mentally start preparing our wardrobe. For our recent Italy trip, I knew it was going to be both hot and cold in the 12 days we were there, so we packed appropriate clothing for each situation and were not left uncomfortable, which would really be the worst thing while trying to enjoy a vacation.

So what are you obsessed with? Weather maybe? :)

How To Get Married In Vegas

When most people hear about a Vegas wedding, images of Elvis, a pink wedding chapel, and a drunk bride and groom come to mind. While those things exist, the reality is that Las Vegas offers so much more for engaged couples. If you're tempted to get married there, or at least curious about how they work, keep reading, because we've done it.

In honor of our engagement anniversary, we wanted to tell you about the best decision we made in those 8 months between proposal and wedding day -- getting married in Las Vegas! We initially attempted to plan a typical ceremony here in California, but cost started to be a burden, so we knew what we had to do.

Getting married in Las Vegas is simple. Even the full fledged ceremonies (like Thomas and I had) are simple. Here are the basics.

Hotel or independent chapel?
Thomas and I went the hotel route because we didn't want to have to travel far between getting ready and getting married. Generally the hotel chapels will be able to fit more guests as well.

The Budget
There is a huge range of wedding packages in Las Vegas. You can spend $500 for a quick ceremony, or you can spend $15,000 for an elaborate ceremony overlooking the Bellagio fountain. You have to decide which option fits you, and trust me, there is an option that will fit everyone.

Location
Thomas and I went out to Las Vegas about 6 months before our wedding to tour the different hotel chapels. It gave us a good idea on the chapel location in relation to slot machines and hotel rooms and also gave us an idea on if people would need to climb stairs or walk far. We had to think about some grandmothers after all. We ended up going with The Mandalay Bay because they offered us the most inclusive package for our budget.

Pick a wedding package
Once we picked The Mandalay Bay, they handed us a packet of about 5 papers to go through. One had our flower choices (pick 2 colors). One had our breakfast in bed choices (do you want white or wheat toast -- coffee or hot chocolate?). Another had our massage choices (would you like your couples massage to be before or after the wedding?). These were obviously all very easy choices to make and it took us about 30 minutes to finalize the ENTIRE wedding.

Show up
Its really just that simple. We picked everything when we visited 6 months prior, so we just had to show up, and BAM, we were married.

Thomas and I were thrilled with our choice to get married in Las Vegas. Not just because it was affordable, but because it was a beautiful ceremony that was quick and painless. The icing on the cake were the extras included with our package, and we highly recommend it to anyone thinking of getting married in Vegas.

Bonus: Your don't have to travel far for your honeymoon either. We spent three days in Las Vegas enjoying the extras of our wedding package and then headed to Mexico for the rest of the week together.

Questions or Comments? Post them below!

Our Wedding Photography: Two Years Later

Since Thomas and I were married in Vegas, the wedding photography was not amazing. It wasn't horrible, but we both still wanted some gorgeous pictures of us in our wedding gear. Enter Jeff and Erin Youngren, the photographers for my younger brothers wedding. They set up a "day after" session with us that took place a month after our actual wedding day. Many brides have done "trash the dress" sessions, and while I did not in any way trash mine, I did do things I never would have dared to do on my actual wedding day. We wandered around downtown Laguna Beach and then head up into the hills to trample around in the dirt and leaves, and I even laid on a tree! My dress was not destroyed at all and we have some phenomenal pictures because of it.

This all took place two years ago. Our second anniversary came and went with zero wedding pictures on our walls. Just last week, we FINALLY printed out some of the beautiful pictures and framed them on a wall in our home and I am so excited to look at them every day.




Since we bought multiple frames of varying sizes, we had to first figure out how to place them on the wall. We stole this idea from the Youngren's as well (thanks guys!) and cut out pieces of newspaper that were the same size as the frames and taped them to the wall. It helped to see if we liked the spacing and what we needed to change before the nails actually went into the wall.

Once the spacing was perfect, we started pounding away. I am in love with the finished product, a wall of us looking our best staring back at us each morning when we leave for work and greeting us as we come home each day. It makes me smile every time I see our wedding photo wall and while I am bummed it took us so long to finally do it, I am excited to look at it for the rest of our lives (especially when we don't look that young and gorgeous anymore!)

Big thanks to Jeff and Erin for capturing some beautiful shots of us, we still love them!!

Meme Monday: Bruce The Cow

Meme Monday brings you a weekly Internet Meme that we have found. Internet Memes are described as something that catches on like wildfire with Internet communities with no outside source of promotion. They exist purely for enjoyment and laughs.