Hana Hou!

Its been a week since I have been back from my vacation to Hawaii and I still think I have not adjusted to the change. While I was there, I got a few texts that I was missing all the snow in Houston and of course I had to text back with a picture of me laying out on the beach :) Cruel, I know.

I had a fabulous time on the Big Island and Oahu. There is so much I wasn't able to do and hope to visit Oahu and another island in a few more years. The Big Island was phenomenal with star gazing on Mauna Kea and visiting the volcanoes and walking through a lava tube. I haven't been able to go through all of my images yet, but most of them have family/friends in them so I probably won't be posting those. But here are some general photos I took.

This whole trip I was so busy behind the camera that I almost forgot to get a picture of hubs and I. This was taken before the sunset picture above. I just realized I look like I'm pregnant in this picture (which by the way I am totally not). I guess its just the way the dress is cut and the angle of the picture. Oh well.

This was the first trip my dad has taken with hubs and I. He had such a great time (because he didn't have to do anything, we just told him what time to wake up haha) he wants us to go to Europe next year with him and his siblings. I wouldn't mind going to Europe again, but I REALLY wanted to go to Asia.

Anyone have any interesting vacation plans in the near future? Do you vacation with your parents? If so, how does that work out for you?

Aloha!

In 12 days I will be saying Aloha, drinking mai tais, and getting lei-ed. Yes ladies I am going vacationing in Hawaii! I am extremely excited because I have never been and I desperately need this vacation. Our last vacation was in June and that was before everything got crazy at work.

We will be spending a few days on the Big Island and a few days on Oahu. I wish we had more time to explore the other islands, but its OK, I'll take what I can get. We have alot of stuff we plan to do there like going to the Volcano National Park, Mauna Kea, black sand beach, North Shore on Oahu, Dole Plantation, Diamond Head, and Pearl Harbor.

Image from hawaiipictures.com

I am a little sad that we will be there before the whale watching season though. Hubs said not to worry, if I wanted to see a whale he would take me to San Antonio. Hahaha to see Shamu.

Any must see place or must eat at place you know of?

Feeling Green

Before our trip to Mexico, I was looking for a few dresses I could wear walking around town and possibly to dinner. I think dresses that can be worn casually and a little bit more dressed up at night are key for beachy vacations. I headed over to Old Navy to see if I could find some cute flip flops and was excited to see that they were having a sale on all dresses and skirts for $15.

I love wearing bright colors especially during the summer. So I picked up the cute green halter dress with a ruffle trim. For walking through town I wore it with simple beaded flip flops and for dinner I wore them with nude wedges. The best thing about the dress were the pockets which I forgot to show off.

Here are two other green pieces that I want to buy:

Skirt from Urban Outfitters

Shirt from Gap

I love wearing bright colors during the summer. What are your favorite colors to wear besides black and white?

Iberostar Grand Hotel Paraiso

After the wedding in Playa del Carmen, we decided to switch hotels to an all inclusive resort that was rated with 5 stars. Upon your arrival you get a cool towel and a fruity drink or champagne. I guess there are still lots of people afraid to go to Mexico and that's why the resort was only at 30% capacity when normally during this time of year they are at 80%.

After the bellboy shows you to your room, and you have about 5 minutes to look around your suite (all the rooms are suites), your butler comes to show you how to use the room. Yes, it is necessary because the room's A/C and lights run on a motion sensor. He also shows you the minibar which can be costumized to whatever you want, including VSOP courvoisier. And if you guys are serious drinkers, you can order the whole bottle to your room. I am not talking about just the mini bottles, but the bottles you see behind the bar.

Here was our room:

Some of you may be wondering why I included pictures of the bathroom. Well, to me the bathroom is just as important as the sleeping area. I always judge a hotel by its bathroom as well. If I am not impressed with it, I will move on.

There was everything you could ever need at this resort. They had 4 a la carte restaurants, including a surf and turf, and 2 buffets. There are other Iberostar hotels on the grounds you can go it at as well, but the Grand Hotel is the top of the line so we just ate there. The food was good, but it was not to die for. Don't get me wrong it was 10 times better than any other all inclusive hotel I've been to, but I was not wowed. I was wowed that lobster was included without an extra charge.

Of course there are day time activities for you to partake in like beach volleyball (which I felt like throwing up after we played, probably from all the dos equis I already drank), spanish lessions, and salsa lessons. You also get 60 minutes of non motorized water sports like kayaking, sailing, and snorkling included. There are also night time shows that were pretty interesting, especially at the rock show with the guy in pleather pants and spray tanned abs but somehow still had a muffin top? hahaa.

I will end with this picture I took from the balcony of the surf and turf restaurant. Here you can see the infinity pool and Playa Paraiso. When I got home and uploaded the picture I realized this is the same picture they have on their website (found here). I may be biased, but my image shows the hotel off better! And my image is straight from the camera, no editing. Hotels.com, Travelocity, or any other hotel website, if you would like to hire me to take pictures of your hotels around the world and review them I would be glad to :)

When in Mexico

...do as the Mexicans do. Dos Equis, Corona, and Modelo all week long! We spent time deep sea fishing, visited Xel-ha, attended a friend's wedding, kayaking, and hung out by the pool.

Anthropologie dress

Coverup: Forever 21, Sunglasses: Target

There wasn't anything special about my outfits in Mexico, it pretty much consisted of sundresses and shorts. I do have a few items from my trip I will post later along with a review of our second hotel: Iberostar Grand Hotel Paraiso.

I am not a person who normally makes it a point to tan, but I am really liking the tan on me right now. Do you like yourself tan or your natural skin color?

The Real World

No, I'm not talking about the MTV show. My week long vacation has come to an end and here I am catching up on my 100+ work emails. The vacation was worth it though. I took lots of pictures that took forever to upload that I can share with you in the next few days. Right now I wanted to talk about bathing suits.

I bought this bathing suit from Forever 21 because I wanted something more playful than my basic black and basic white bikinis I love.

The bikini is cute, but really is only for looks. Please do not wear this to do any activities. I was wearing this in the pool and was close to a wardrobe malfunction. Suprisingly my bandeau top bikini held up while playing some beach volleyball. I was really scared of the girls popping out on that one.

What bikini style do you like best and have found that works for your body type?

I will leave you with this picture.

Hit by a bus.

That is what I felt like yesterday. Monday evening I couldn't even eat when we went to a friend's BBQ. Well, I take that back, I couldn't eat the BBQ, but I made sure I ate dessert. Because no matter how sick you feel, you always can have dessert. Anyway, later that night I started getting cold chills and my back was bothering me like no other. I still don't know what happened, but my boss sent me home early yesterday so that I could rest. I really wanted to upload some pictures from the weekend, but decided to completely knock out at 3 in the afternoon on a workday. Wow, that felt really nice.

I was going to make a doctor's appointment just in case because I don't want to be sick on my trip next week. But since today I feel almost normal, I am going to hold off for a bit. This is where I will be in exactly one week. Just looking at these pictures makes me feel better.

Playa del Carmen, here we come!