Danny & Ashley

My friend Ashley and I have been begging our men to take us ice skating forever.. so we finally followed through with it and made a night of it. The four of us caught bart in Pleasanton and headed to the Big City for some yummy dinner at Bucco di Pepo and then after dinner we made it to Union Square to ice skate. It was a blast. I was pretty impressed at how well Danny and I did, we didn’t fall even once. We are so grateful to have Ashley and Vince as such great friends, they are the greatest, can’t wait for their wedding

Haha good thing she is short LOL

So I am the worst blogger lately, but with s school over for a month I promise to be on top of it. So to catch you up… Danny and I flew to Park City Utah, where we met up with his family. It was absolutely fantastic. HIs parents rented a BOMB three story cabin which was plenty fun. We ate more than anyone should eat in a whole month. LOL We seriously ate like ALL day, YUMMY. Why can’t we have Thanksgiving more than once a year? Well maybe that’s a good thing We were lucky to  stay for 5 days, we shopped, played spoons, games, walked the town, and then to top it off we all went to the spa in Park City and got massages. We were preety spoiled but loving every minute of it.  I Love my family, we all have such a great time getting together, I wish we were closer!   Love you all!!!

Here we are after our massage... Out of it!

This last weekend we transformed our kitchen table into a pumpkin carving mess Our dearest friends Ashley and Vince came over for a yummy dinner and three hours of pumpkin carving. I think we were all pretty creative and really into it. We only bought one carving kit so we all had to share one carver haha.. that took forever… The pumpkins turned out so cute though. Halloween isn’t Halloween without pumpkin carving.

Last weekend my fabulous sister in laws, mother in law, and I headed to Arizona for a girls weekend to celebrate Chrissy’s birthday. Weekend of relaxing, spa day, shopping, and yummy food, can’t get much better. We had so much fun and can’t wait till our next birthday celebration.

Danny and I decided to try our wedding cake that had been frozen for a year. I was pretty hesitant!! We were pretty sure it was goning to make us sick. But let me tell you we were so wrong. I have to admit we did have the best cake I have ever had at a wedding and it was still so good. I could have ate the whole thing.. YUMMY…

I guess you can say he liked it..

Danny and I celebrated our 1 year Anniversary this weekend in beautiful Monterrey and Santa Cruz. We woke up on Saturday morning and headed to Monterrey. We walked the Fisherman’s Wharf and had some delicious Bread Bowl Chowders.. We loved it at the time, but shortly after we both got pretty sick. Went through quick though lol. Wouldn’t recommend that again. We were really excited for our next adventure to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. We both hadn’t been since we were younger, so we were surprised at how big it was from what we remembered. We loved it!! The weather was perfect, a little overcast, but a nice change from the heat back home.That night we went to the BEST restaurant called the Shadowbrook. It not only had the best food and peach pie dessert I have ever had in my life, but it was in such a romantic and intimate setting. A must go to again.

Here we are going into the Shadowbrook restaurant..

Toasting our sparkling cider... Too many more!!!

We stayed at the West Cliff Inn, the cutest bed and breakfast, overlooking the beach. It was so nice, we really enjoyed our room and the super spa sized bath tub Loved it. The breakfast was very yummy. They had a variety of goodness, quiche, oatmeal, fruits, toasts, eggs, potatoes, all kinds of stuff. I could do that more often. After breakfast I told Danny I only had one desire and that was to ride the Giant Dipper lol.. Been awhile not much has changed, still looks like it could be anyones last ride! It really was a perfect little weekend gettaway!!

Here is our bed and breakfast. Our room was the top one on the left.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!!! I can’t believe its been a whole year already. I have the most remarkable husband and feel so blessed to have him as my constant and my best friend. We have grown so much in this last year and I can’t wait to share forever with each other. We have been quite lucky to have traveled so much in our first year. Started off in Venice, Italy, then to Cancun, San Francisco, Vegas, and then to Costa Rica for two months. We have had the best first year together and know that the years to come will get better and better.  To celebrate were heading to Monterey for the weekend and then to a cute bed and breakfast in Santa Cruz. Can’t wait.  I love you sweetie.

Venice, Italy on our honeymoon!

This last week Danny and I had a great five days with the family in San Francisco. Danny’s mom planned a whole iternary for all of us. Danny’s sister Christina and Ryan and the kids came down.We got to see our little niece and our new nephew Bentley.. he is the perfect baby… he was such a trooper, 6 weeks and he was in the car seat behind the bike going across the Golden Gate Bridge…

The first day we had the intention on renting some bikes and biking across the golden gate bride and then having lunch in Salsalito. We all thought it was going to be a quick ride, but we had to bike to the bridge from the rental place, so it ended up taking over three hours to get across. It actually only took 20 minutes to get across the bridge but the ride to the bridge was a work out, up and down hills, wow were we sore but it was so worth it. It was really fun day.

The next day we went on a tour through China Town. Pretty interesting, I don’t think I will EVER eat meat of any kind in or around China Town after going through some of those markets. We saw a fortune cookie factory. Did you know that Chinese doesn’t even have fortune cookies they actually don’t even know what they are.. Thanks to America propaganda. The tour provided lunch so we went to a China restaurant there in China Town where we had a ton of little appetizers, I wasn’t to excited about it, so I just filled up on Chow Mein, the only thing I recognized. lol. Danny liked it all of course, can always count on him to eat everything.

We did a lot of shopping and walking around on Saturday and then got to finish the night off with the play Wicked. I was so impressed. It was absolutley amazing, a must see if you haven’t. I loved it. It’s playing in the Orpheum Theatre for this month if your interested.

Danny and I before Wicked

The weekend was great… I love getting to just relax and hang out with the fam. Well it seems we have been doing a lot of that lately. We have been living in our suitcases since coming back from Costa Rica, hopping from my parents to Danny’s parents until we can move into our new place August 1st. It will be so nice to finally get settled, we have literally been living on the go from the time we left for Costa Rica in May. Nuts. Have to admit it’s an adventure but a very fun one. Were off camping with my family this weekend up at Big Trees in Calaveras. One more weekend until real life begins. Danny got a job working in Oakdale for a Gun and Accessory wholesaler, where he will run up all their marketing. He’s excited to finally get going in his career. Now we only have me to get through school, it’s so nice to have him graduated.  I don’t have to go back to school for another month so I get to play house wife until my real life begins.

Brooklyn giving Bentley kisses...

Were home. Wow I can’t believe it. We are soo exhausted. We had a really busy last week in a half or so with Ashley and Vince. We all had such a great time.  They flew in early Wedneday so we kept it pretty low key for the first day. We showed them around San Jose, showed them UCR campus, and introduced them to the traditional rice and beans. They loved it the first day and then you could slowly see the hesitation about the fourth day with the beans. LOL I just laughed, try eating it for two months I don’t want to see another plate of rice and beans for a very long time. LONG.

Here we are in Puerto Viejo. It's the day before the tropical storm so it's a little overcast.

We woke up early the next morning and took a tour bus to the Pacuare River, where we went river rafting. SOO much fun. I can say that was the funnest thing we did our whole trip there. The rapids were really good, three and fours. Went in the water a couple times. It was a blast. I can’t wait to do it again here in the states, won’t be as good of course as Costa Rica, but sure is worth it. We got home later that night and packed our bags for the long weekend to the Carribbean side at Puerto Viejo. It was a really long bus ride about 5 hours. It takes forever to get anywhere in Costa Rica. We all were pretty sick of the traveling on the bus after the week. When we got there to Puerto Viejo we found out that there was a bad tropical storm coming through and it was expected to rain for the next week. We were all pretty bummed so instead of staying there for the entire weekend without any sun we decided to jump on the bus the next morning and head back to San Jose and then jump on another bus the next morning to Manuel Antonio for some sunshine. We arrived in Manuel Antonio on Sunday afternoon with lots of sunshine. YAY So happy we decided to head back to the Pacific side. We slept in a fairly nice place for a hostel, sooo much better than the place Danny and I went the first time there. NO cockroaches at least.

Three of us fell out on this one. The guide told us to stand up haha. Didn't work out too well!

The next morning we signed up for a Canopy tour. We had a blast. It was so incredible to see the view from far above the trees. I recommend this activity for everyone. The good thing about it is that younger ones can do it also. We have a lot of pics and video from both the Canopy tour and water rafting, a must purchase for everyone. It’s fun to have those memories to look back on. Will try to put up as many pics and videos as we can.

There's Danny. Crazy! Doesn't it look so amazing. That run was over 350 fet high.

The next morning we went down to the beach where Ash and I layed out and tried to get some rays while Danny and Vince tried out the surfing. The waves weren’t very good so they weren’t too pleased wth their performances. It was fun to watch them though, it looks like such a great workout. Maybe if I wasn’t so afraid of the ocean I would give it a try, maybe some day I’ll muster up the courage.

Here's my surfer stud.

We decided that we all had been roughing it and needed a little pamper time. So we get on another bus and headed back to my oh so favorite resort at Los Suenos. YEAH. Ashley and I were in heaven. I was so excited to lay out by the pool and relax. It was great! The best part was when Vince asked Ashley to marry him. It was so sweet!! We are soo excited for you both! We love you. Since we all were pretty tired we decided to stay an extra night there at the resort and relax. YEAH no arguing there. We finally got home on thursday around 3 giving us the rest of the night to pack for our flight tomorrow and clean up Jose’s. We had a really early flight the next day and a long 7 hour lay over in Denver.

This is a type of berry that is a natural mosquito repellant used in bug sprays.

After the long two months were fnally home. It was a experience that I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to take. I was nervous at first, but after indulging myself into the lifestyle and looking at the opportunity of growth that I was receiving it got so much easier. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, definately a place to mark as a must travel destination.

Here is the beautiful resort

It’s Monday less than two weeks until we are going back home. I can’t believe it has already been over 5 weeks. We have loved it here so much. This last weekend Danny and I treated ourselves to a two night stay at the Los Sueños Resort near Jaco. Absolutely gorgeous I was so excited to have a nice bed to sleep in and just lay out by the pools and beach. We took a bus to the resort, which is about a three-hour ride up and down the curvy mountainside. These bus drivers here just freak me out they go so fast around some of the bends you just have to pray that your gonna make it. The bus was pretty nasty that we took there, but all I kept saying to myself is the resort will be so nice and CLEAN. Well it hadn’t been more than an hour into our trip on the bus when all of a sudden you hear the dreadful sound of someone throwing up. A girl around 12 got sick on the bus just a seat behind us and threw up everywhere like 4 times. It was the Nasty thing I have ever smelled. So here we are with my head out the window of the bus trying to breathe fresh air and Danny trying to lean over me to do the same. So while we are all trying to not throw up ourselves or pass out from the smell everyone is trying to keep their feet up because as the bus goes forward so does the vomit ☹ Sooo gross. Obviously here bus drivers care more about a schedule cuz he didn’t seem to care one bit that there was throw up everywhere on the bus, we just kept pluggin along for another 2 hours. Danny and I just laugh at it now, we have come to learn that you just take things as they come, especially living here in Costa Rica for this long, you never know what you will encounter along the way.

Having dinner on the beach

We loved the resort and took full advantage of the amenities. On Saturday we treated ourselves to a couples massage in a cabana right on the beach. It was so perfect, just what we needed.  We had to come back home on Sunday, I just assume we stay there till we have to leave to go back home, but I didn’t win that one. Lol
Our friends Vince and Ashley will be here early on Wednesday, we are so excited. We have a lot of things planned for when they get here and can’t wait!!!

Kinda see the resemblance :)