Mexico!

January 2nd, after a day of work that d-r-a-g-g-e-d o-n, and with a little magic, as the 3 flights before mine were cancelled because of bad weather, I hopped on a plane that flew me off of The Rock and started my trip to Mexico.
One lucky thing for me about the 3 previous cancelled flights, was that Tom and Lisa were supposed to be on two of those earlier flights, and ended up getting bumped to our flight, so we got to fly from Kodiak to Anchorage together.
Another stroke of luck was that the flight I booked from Seattle to Mexico just happened to be the same flight that Tom, Lisa, Kevin and Lauren were on, and we were all in first class together.  That was a BLAST.  

The hat (which is Lauren's) on Kevin is especially funny, because there was an old man and woman in the row right in front of them, and the MAN had the exact same hat on.
Once we arrived in Mexico, we all got a van together to travel to our resort.

We stayed at Dreams Puerto Vallarta. What can I say?  The weather was perfect, the resort was beautiful, the food was fantastic, the drinks were divine, it was a wonderful resort.  The resort is all-inclusive, so you can eat at any of the restaurants there for free, drinks are free, etc.

  Steve and I were able to enjoy some romantic time to ourselves by booking a couples massage (actually, we liked the couples massage so much we ended up getting it twice during the trip).

 

The massages were together in one of these canopies outside, so you had privacy, but you were out in the sunshine listening to the ocean.  Awesome!
We also booked a romantic sunset dinner on the beach one of the evenings we were there. 

Of course, we were there for, and to celebrate with Kevin and Lauren for their wedding, and was it a celebration.  Lauren planned a bonfire two nights before the wedding so that all of the friends and family who came (35 guests!) could get to know each other.

Lauren also had a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding:

 Hannah and Anna are like the little sisters that Steve never had.  He loved them almost as much as they loved him!

Of course, there was then the lovely wedding on 1/6/13.

Don't you just love the pirate picture of Reverend Steven?
The wedding and reception were both lovely.  Lauren had everything planned down to the very last detail, and everyone had a wonderful time.

We also went on a couple of trips outside of the the resort--one to downtown Puerto Vallarta, and the other by boat to a little village called Yelapa.  The trip downtown was great as I was able to see sand sculptures and the funny statues downtown, and we had guacamole made fresh at our table at a bar where we sat and rested.

The Yelapa trip was by boat, and on the way we saw manta rays, dolphins, and were able to do some snorkeling.  At the village the girls rented horses and mules (the boys walked) and we went up to a waterfall just beyond the town.  It was a lovely day out.

Sorry this post was so long, but I hope you enjoy the pictures.  It was a lovely vacation, and I'm glad I was able to go!
Cheers.