More Trip Stories + Live! Closeup

Good morning!!

I hope you enjoyed my last pics and even my Live! video! We had such a fun trip!!!! I have so many more to share with you, and it just takes time to gab!

Before I start gabbing more about the trip, I’ll show you my Live! closeup with Thoughtful Wishes. This Thoughtful Journey DSP is amazing!!

Here’s everything I used. I found out the pearls are non-orderable til the first week of June, but for now you can use some of our other gorgeous gems! We have so many!!!! Click any product pic to order:

Product List

MORE Trip Pics

So I’m starting the trip pics back up with another “official” resort pic. We had to use our wristbands to activate the cameras. There are many stations around the resort and each of the parks. This is definitely a closeup compared to the original. (I posted originals on Facebook; here on my blog, I had to resize and square it up!)

This was in the Stampin’ Up! hospitality room–just for photo ops. 🙂

We think this one may be “hazy” from sunscreen that ended up everywhere, probably including Liz’s phone. 😉

Those were from our last night. We wanted to go around to a bunch of the stations. We also wanted to visit our favorite restaurant AGAIN! It was called Las Cuevas. After looking up menus, etc, it was what I was in the mood for and everyone agreed–fresh pasta bar caught my attention! Unfortunately, it was way across the resort grounds and up ramps, down steps, across beaches. I’m outta shape! As we were “traveling” there, I was like, “whose idea was this anyway?????” 😉 The paths to the restaurant were beautiful, though!

We had dinner in a cave! It was a Brazilian steakhouse–our first! When we were explaining it to people, they’d say, “Oh, like a Brazilian steakhouse.” Well…yes! Haha. We were clueless but enjoyed it immensely!

So besides the pasta that was amazing, the concept of the Brazilian steakhouse is they’d bring out huge skewers of meats–one at a time–maybe every 10 min. They’d slice off as much as each person would like. Then they’d come back with another kind to try!!

We tried:

• skirt steak
• top sirloin (I thought it tasted like prime rib. SO good!!)
• garlic rolls
• new york strip
• pork with pineapple
• Brazilian [beef]
• bbq ribs
• chicken
• pineapple (delicious!! really sweet coating with a little spice; inside was still fresh)
• shrimp
• They would have gone back to the beginning and kept coming, but there’s a “tool” they put on the table….if you have it turned to green, they keep coming; if you turn it to red, they stop.

Here’s where the grilled everything we sampled:

BESIDES ALL THAT, you could go outside to get several more smoked items. We tried smoked brisket, beef ribs and pork ribs. I don’t remember which I preferred the most. When we went the 2nd night, we didn’t even feel the need to go get these. But here’s where they smoke them:

Todd liked seeing the smoke just going up through the rock. He said on his morning explores, you could still smell all the meat. 🙂

Next Adventure:

After our first full day in the sun, Tyler wasn’t feeling well and wanted to relax. But we had scheduled a day at one of the parks that were included with the resort, Xel-Ha. We decided to add on an activity there and started right in at the park with Sea Trek–an underwater explore with helmets. I could wear my glasses! Divers were down there making sure we were safe and guided us so we could hold on to the railing while we walked on the lagoon floor.

I feel like Liz’s pic might be sort of at the end of this: one of the divers holds a squeeze water bottle full of fish food. Occasionally he’ll hold the bottle toward you and squeeze! The fish are instantly all in front of you! Yikes and cool all at once! Liz reached out to touch them; I had no interest in that.

It was a cool experience! Here’s a video, too:

Liz went down the huge waterslide. (You can see it in the background below.) We didn’t get to see her though! They had no kind of observation area. She said it was a bit much and a tad fast! The rest of our day was spent in the lazy river, having lunch and then Liz tried some snorkeling. We were hot and exhausted at the end of our day. When we got back to the hotel, we were about to walk down our long hall to our rooms. Liz stopped and turned around and said, “I had fun; I’m thankful for everything; but I’m done. I’m going to my room.” Haha. I totally got it, and I appreciated she wanted to say she was thankful. I love that in a person.

Catamaran Sunset Tour

We went on one other trip away from the resort. We booked a Catamaran tour. We were all so excited! But it turned out to be a bit rough! It wasn’t quite the family sunset pics we were hoping for. But here are a few we got.

More pics from Todd’s explores

Todd calls this the angry ocean.

This is the chapel from below. And yes, he climbed to the top.

These are 2 bridges we had absolutely no intention of crossing!

Here’s the view of the ocean from the infinity pool.

Here are animals we saw at the resort

These birds were always near the main area by the infinity pool.

SO many lizards and iguanas!

We thought this was a monkey, but someone told us it’s a Mexican racoon!

Anything for a fun pic!

Todd borrowed someone’s coconut just for this pic. It was a throwback to one of my brother when Todd & I were first married. I received a bouquet of carnations arranged to look like an ice cream sundae with a straw, and my brother pretended to drink it for a pic. Goofy sense of humor, just like Todd’s.

As you can see this resort was absolutely gorgeous!! We were so thankful for such an amazing trip and being completely spoiled by Stampin’ Up! We got lots of family time, too! So awesome.

Thank you again for your help and support in earning this incentive trip!! (Disclaimer: less than 1% of all Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year. So thankful to be one of them!)

Have an incredible day!!