Nuestras Vacaciones a Mexico (Our Trip to Mexico)

Hola! As you may have heard, Garth and I traveled to Mexico to celebrate our third anniversary. We left last Saturday and spent five wonderful days in the Riviera Maya, which is just south of Cancun. This was the first "real" vacation we've had since our honeymoon and it was a welcome respite for us. I took a LOT of pictures, so I thought I'd chronicle our trip with just a sample of what I took.

We're on our way!

Do we look tired? Well, we are. This us at Chicago O'Hare airport at about 8 a.m. I know that's not all that early, but we were up at 4 a.m. to make our 6 a.m. flight out of Nashville. Are we complaining? No way! It just got us to Mexico that much sooner. :)

We stayed at the Valentin Imperial Maya, a beautiful resort between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. This is the reception area at the resort. Aren't the flowers beautiful? I especially love the red ones at the top.

This is our gorgeous room! It was truly a treat.

This is the view from our balcony. If you look closely in the distance, you can see the ocean! We were just steps away from the pool and the beach, which is where we spend most of our time.

Another view from our balcony. I loved the thatched cabana-like roofing on the balcony and throughout the resort.

This is the view on the way to dinner the first night of our stay. The resort was all-inclusive, so there were a variety of restaurants on site that we ate at.

This is the chapel at night. Apparently, many people come to the resort to get married. It certainly is a beautiful setting!




After dinner, we watched a Mayan music/dance show. The Mayans were indeginous to this part of Mexico. The Mayan costumes were very elaborate and quite pretty. Here's a short glimpse of the entertainment. We enjoyed it!

The next day, we spent a majority of our time at the beach. Even though the temperatures were above 90 degrees every day, the sand never got hot!

We spent a lot of time under a palapa, the thatched umbrella shown here. It was a great place to read a book and feel the ocean breeze.

This is a view from the palapa. The red flag signified the roughness of the water. I think they limit water sports on red flag days. It was red every day we were there. But, we didn't mind. Garth had fun body surfing in the waves. And, it didn't hurt that the water felt amazing!

Garth on the beach. Clearly, he's a happy camper!

Can you tell I got a little sun?

All cleaned up! This is us before dinner on our second night. Can you see the bird in the background? We became quite good at self-portraits.

On Sunday night, we ate at the Japanese restaurant. It was called Ginger. I loved the menus. Very cool! Also, the hanging paper lanters were beautiful. Can you see the markings on them? Yes, I'm a dork and took pictures of EVERYTHING!

Yes, I even took pictures of the food! Not only was it pretty to look at, it was delicious! Garth had some BBQ ribs and I had sea bass.

Here's to vacation!

After dinner, we went to the sports bar. While we were there, we met this cool couple, Tina and Chip. I had played beach volleyball with them earlier in the day. Anyway, Chip and Tina live in Phoenix, but are originally from Romania. We spent several hours hanging out with them and listening to their stories. Tina lived in Romania during their civil war and shared her experiences of hiding in her bathtub to avoid gun fire and seeing dead people in the street. It certainly makes you appreciate everything you have when you hear stories like that. They were a fascinating couple and we enjoyed spending time with them. We'll never forget it.

On Monday (day three), we went into the town of Playa del Carmen. It is an old fishing town that has become a popular tourist destination. Avenida Cinco (Avenue Five) is lined with shops and places to eat.


There truly is a Starbucks on every corner...even in Mexico! Just on Avenida Cinco, we saw TWO Starbucks. There was also a Bourbon Street bar (that's for you, Blair) and a Burger King, (that's for you, Dad).


For some reason, this place made me laugh. If the name "Drugs & Deli" weren't enough, their list of available drugs was even funnier. Apparently, Mexicans believe it's important for tourists to have access to Viagra and diet pills on vacation.

For lunch, we ate at this great place called La Casa del Agua (The House of Water). Having a Corona hit the spot after being in the very hot sun.

The restaurant had a gorgeous view of the ocean!

Another picture from our table.

And, the food was terrific! This is my shrip ceviche.


Playa del Carmen has a ferry that takes you to Cozumel, a small island off the coast of Mexico. Here is the boardwalk to the ferry.



View from the boardwalk. I love the color of the ocean!

Use on the beach at Playa. Can you see the ferry in the backround?

Here's another view of the beach at Playa.

After spending a few hours in Playa, we were ready to go back to the resort and hop in the pool! We took a taxi to Playa, but decided to take the collectivio (bus) back to the resort. This is the local method of travel and was REALLY cheap - only $2/each! Well, this turned out to be a bad idea. We had to wait a while for the next bus and THEN it was 30 minutes late. Apparently, that's normal. I guess that's why it's so cheap. After being there more than an hour, we finally decided to take a cab. This is us in the VERY hot bus terminal. It's very hot in Mexico, but it's not too bad if you're in the shade or can feel the ocean breeze. Well, here there was neither. It was miserable. So, that's why we have the sad faces.

That night, we went to the French restaurant. We'd never really had French food before and it was good! We both had the Chateaubriand (center steak). The middle photo is my quiche lorraine and the last picture is Garth's chocolate mousse.

We finally got someone to take a picture for us. This is us outside the French restaurant.

The flowers and plants at the resort were beautiful! Here are a few.

More pretty plants and flowers!

We spent our last day (Tuesday) back at the beach. Garth reading his book under the palapa.

View from the palapa. Those are my feet!

Here are pictures of the gorgeous pool!

Garth walking on the bridge over the pool.

Our last night, we ate at The Lobster Pot! I had Lobster Chipotle, Garth had Lobster Poblano and the last is the King Prawns appetizer.

Garth asks, "Why did I have to go all the way to Mexico for Baked Alaska, Mom?"

The waiter took a picture of us after dinner. It was delicious!

We decided to order room service for breakfast the day we left. They set it out on our deck. I'd never had room service before. It was great!

Before we left for the airport, I took some final pictures of the beach in the morning.

Palapas and chairs lined up for the day.

The beach was empty first thing in the morning.

This is the beach bar. I don't think it was up and running for te day just yet.

Our names in the sand.

Us at the beach. We found a nice lady from New Jersey to take the photo. We were sad to leave!

I had been looking for a souvenir in Playa, but never found anything I liked that was in our price range. Right before we left, we looked in the silver shop at the resort and I found this lovely silver ring with blue opal in it. Garth treated me to this ring and a matching necklace. What a sweet way to end our anniversary trip!

Last margaritas in Mexico.

While waiting for our flight back to the States, we had lunch and some celebratory margaritas at Jimmy Buffet's restaurant. Happy Anniversary to us!

If you'd like to see the rest of our 300 some photos, you can view them by clicking here.

Star Sighting

Since we live in Nashville, we often get asked if we ever see country music stars or celebrities. For me, the answer is always no. However, Garth has had numerous celeb sightings. I don't know if it's because he's lived here longer or if he's just lucky that way. It probably doesn't hurt that he went to the same college as many celebrity's kids. But, that has nothing to do with the fact that he Jessica Simpson at the TigerMart by our house several months ago.

Anyway, I digress. Last Friday, we went to to the Green Hills Regal Cinema to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which was very good I might add). So, who did we see sitting a mere four rows in front of us at the theater? None other than Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban! I didn't see them at first, but Garth noticed them when coming back from the bathroom right before the movie started. It wasn't long before nearly everyone in the very full theater was looking their direction. It's one thing to see a celebrity, but completely another to have one (or two!) just hanging out at your movie theater!

After the movie was over, we get to the parking garage and see them right in front of us. It turned out they were parked two cars away from us! We tried to play it cool, but we couldn't help but gauk at their very big, black Rolls Royce.

No, we didn't talk to them. Everyone has asked us that. In Nashville, it's almost a faux pas to do so. I think that's why so many stars have houses here. It's likely one of the few places where they get left alone. I did take note of how tall Nicole is (she's taller than Keith) and VERY thin. I think she's a few months pregnant, but you certainly couldn't tell (at least from the back). It makes me wonder just how much thinner she would be without a baby on the way. YIKES!

Admittedly, I was intrigued by the whole thing. I'm not a person who obsesses over celebrities, but it was certainly exciting to share a movie theater with a couple celebs for one night. :)

Bailey's "First Day of School"

Okay, so she's not really gone to school, but we have enlisted her in doggie day care. After many sleepless nights, we thought it might be good to get her some exercise and activity during the day so she would sleep at night. Well, it worked! Last week, we took her twice and both times she was wiped out as soon as she got home. And even better - we woke up to our alarm instead of a wet nose in our faces! Here's a video of her first day. It looks like she had a good time!

Wedding Weekend, Memphis Style

This weekend, we ventured to Memphis to see my cousin Tim get married. With such a large family, it's always fun when the Tieman family converges for a family occasion. We took a LOT of photos chronicling the occasion. So, here's a look at our weekend!

Friday Night at The Tiemans

As soon as we arrived in Memphis on Friday, we headed to Uncle Terry and Aunt Becky's (Tim's parents) house to hang out. We asked Tim to play his guitar for us. Somehow, Mom became a part of his band.

Even though she had NO idea what she was doing, she had a fun time pretending that she did!

To continue the randomness, we even decided to test out the weight machine. Paula proves that she really could beat us all up.

Jenna hanging out with our Illinois cousins, Jon and Andrew.

Saturday Fun

While our younger cousins decided to do some educational things (i.e. zoo, Mud Island), we chose to let out the inner child in us and go to a Go-Kart/arcade place near our hotel. It was fun times! Here's us before our big Go-Kart race.

Erin's ready to go!

Paula and Mom are strapped in. Paula got the slow cart that time. Sorry, Paula! And, Jenna ran her into the wall. It was not a good race for Paula.

Yay, tickets!!! Even though we are all adults, there is still something very fun about winning tickets while playing arcade games. Admittedly, it was kind of sad - all of the little kids in the place were jealous of all of our tickets.

To make the experience even better, we got the deal of the century! For $7, we got two Go-Kart rides, a card for $7.50 worth of arcade games and a free popcorn and pop! There's nothing like some good, cheap fun!

The Wedding

Before the wedding got started, we took the opportunity to take pictures of everyone all dolled up. Of course, here's us.

We ALWAYS have to have a sister pic. Don't we look cute?

Here's a bunch of the cousins - believe it or not, this isn't even everyone! I'm the oldest of 17 grandkids on my dad's side of the family.

I don't know about you, but I think cousin Andrew might just be Mr. GQ in the making!

The happy couple - Tim and Andrea Tieman!

The Reception

What a pretty (and yummy) cake!

There was a LOT of dancing going on at this wedding. Here's Jeremy and Paula.

Jenna dances with Cousin Jon, while Mom dances with Garth.

Dancing Queens!

Paula and Cousin Teresa were tearing it up on the dance floor.

I had NO idea Paula had such moves!


Perhaps the funniest part of the whole evening was watching Paula's dance routines. This is one she made up with a friend of hers. She calls it "the pizza." I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! Watch the video and you'll see why. :)

Remember all of those tickets we won? Well, we decided it was only appropriate to use them to get some gifts for the bride and groom. Who wouldn't want a blow-up guitar and light saber?!?

Aunt Becky and Garth try to be cool. I'm not quite sure if it worked....

Here are my grandparents at the reception.

The Morning After

On Sunday, we all went to church to celebrate Uncle Terry's 25 years in the ministry. Unfortunately, we had a tough time finding the church.

Caption #1: Searching for Jesus.

Caption #2: Real men don't ask for directions.

This is Jeremy and Uncle Doug on the side of the road. It was pretty funny looking at our caravan of four vehicles on the side of the road. We were definitely lost!

Luckily, we made it in time for the service. This is Uncle Terry receiving his award. Congratulations, Uncle Terry!

All in all, we had a great weekend. I took a LOT more pictures. If you would like to see the rest, you can click here.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ahh, mothers. Where would we be without them? Okay, we wouldn't BE here without them. Certainly that's reason enough to have an entire holiday dedicated to them. However, mothers are more than that. They are teachers who share their wisdom with us - not just when we're younger, but throughout our entire lives. They are supportive, comforting, giving, and thoughtful. And, of course, they are disciplinarians when they need to be. It often takes adulthood, or perhaps even motherhood itself, to fully understand all that our mothers do for us. And it's possible, we'll never completely know.

Although celebrating our mothers is completely appropriate, we should do so more than once a year. So, if you haven't already, give your mother a call or a hug and tell her just how much she means to you.

All that being said, here's to mothers - Especially mine and Garth's! Marj and Linda, we love you bunches!

Our group gets bigger!

For our May rendition of girls night we went to Rosepepper, a funky, fun and yummy Mexican restaurant. Our group got bigger this time...a LOT bigger. Katie brought several friends with her, so we had about 10 people there tonight! There were so many people, that I didn't get pictures of everyone. However, here are a few...

Beth and Jan are two of my Mizzou girls. Beth is a very talented graphic designer and all around crafty gal (check out her site to see her work). Jan works at Lovell, where I used to work several years ago. Beth and Jan also used to work together at Channel 5 where Beth works now. Can you tell it's a small world??? (Note: I tried my "no flash" rule with the camera, but was having a tough time. There was a crazy red light, which made it VERY hard to work. So, after this one, I cheated!)

Kiki and I go back several years. She and I met through the local Kappa Delta alumnae chapter. It's been a long time so it was SO great to see her! She works for an ad agency and focuses on the Nissan account and loves it.

I HATE this picture of me, but I know how bad you wanted to make the blog, Katie! So, here you go. Katie and I worked at Lovell together many moons ago. We both survived and are great friends! We also like to get our VERY big dogs together to play wrestle mania! Believe it or not, her dog is bigger than mine - she has a French Mastiff!

Here are "the Beths". You met Beth H. above. To the left is Beth, L. aka Freshie. She makes hand-made jewelry, which is VERY cool. You can check out her site here. Freshie and Beth met in the craft world and we're so glad she came tonight!

I tried taking some candid pictures, most of which, didn't turn out well. This one, however, I thought was good. Cara, another Mizzou gal who is a reporter for Channel 4, caught on to my sneakiness, so it ended up not being so candid after all.

A Cinco de Mayo Photo Lesson

On Monday, we decided to have the obligatory margarita in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Does anyone else find it curious that most people celebrating Cinco de Mayo are NOT Mexican? I guess it's no different that non-Irish people drinking green beer on St. Patricks' Day. However, I do find it odd that this is a much bigger holiday in the U.S. than in Mexico. Anyway, I digress...

We met up with some friends at Las Palmas for the best margaritas in town. Because everyone else had the same idea, there was quite a wait. So, we had to hang out in the parking lot until they had a spot for us. I pulled out my camera to take some pics of the occasion. I was about to turn on the flash when our friend Wes said, "don't do that!" He's a very talented photographer (check out his site) and began instructing me on the evils of using a flash. A full-on photography session ensued where I learned about aperture, shutter speed, film speed, etc. It was quite fun to learn how to use all the settings on my new camera!

Here is a photo we took outside of the restaurant - with NO flash. Doesn't the sky look pretty?

This is Wes demonstrating how a slow shutter speed works when you're moving. Doesn't he look like he's flying?!

After an hour of waiting (and one photography lesson later), we finally made it in the restaurant! Cheers!

The Many Faces of Margarita Lovers

We were all very excited to get our "best margaritas in town." Apparently, we all have different ways of showing it...

Like this...

(Wes with his Monster Margarita)

This....

(Deanna with her Monster frozen)

...Or this!

Petro trys to act suave, but we know he's really excited deep down!

Garth and his good friend, Blair.

Danny and Petro

Garth and I towards the end of the night. We ONLY got jumbo margaritas, but that was enough for us! Hooray for Cinco de Mayo!