Friday, November 27, 2009

Puerto Vallarta continued

Here's the next set of pictures from our vacation!
Rick on our ginormous balcony
Us
A better shot of the villas above our hotel
Looking into the hills behind our resort
One night they had a traditional Mexican show for all the guests-they hung up Mexican flags and had singing and dancing. This is while they were still setting up for it.
Local kids playing in the ocean in front of our hotel
Sunset
A nice stray dog hanging out on our beach
Cute boogie boarding little boy
Interesting river next to our hotel
Garza blanca (white heron)
Beautiful scenery

Looking back over to our hotel, the Barcelo. Gives you a good sense of the green hills behind where we stayed.
Crabs!
More to come!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Puerto Vallarta!

Rick and I were lucky enough to be able to go to Mexico from November 10-18th. This was our treat to each other for getting through the stress of our remodel, and also to celebrate my 30th birthday. We had an amazing time, and it was a perfect balance of being busy and relaxing. We stayed at the south end of the Bay of Banderas, in Mismaloya, at the Barcelo. It was an all-inclusive and we LOVED not having to worry about food while we were there. The resort and our room were beautiful and we had perfect weather every day. Needless to say, coming home was very difficult!
This is our resort, looking from our side over to the other side. you can see the green hillside above with the fancy houses and villas.
Looking towards the pools and ocean
On our way to dinner our second night
Our hotel had 4 restaurants. You only got to eat at the fancy restaurants once each, then the other nights you ate at the buffet. This was our first fancy restaurant-Don Quixjote, a Spanish tapas restaurant.We booked a few excursions for our time there, and with one we got a free city tour that we did on our 2nd full day there. We were actually pretty disappointed in it. It was too long and somewhat boring. Oh well, at least it was free.
Taken from our tour bus-the marina has cruise ships in port at least 2 days a week.
Downtown PV, there is the famous Malecon, or the walkway that runs parallel to the ocean.
We pulled up right when some indigenous people had come from the hills to do a show. They're called Papantla Fliers...
Climbing the pole
One stays behind and collects donations. I thought their costumes were beautiful.
The guy on top sits up there and plans a little flute while everyone else hangs upside down
Flying over the beach
Every town in Mexico has a town square, or zocalo, where their main church is.
The top of the church-a beautiful crown.
The Zocalo looking towards the malecon
A cacique in the fig tree
Inside of the church
The side of the church, and the cool dragon lights that I liked.
Shopping in the artisan market, on Isla Cuale.
Later the tour took us up in the mountains to this place to have lunch, which was not that great and was VERY expensive for Mexico. I was excited to get some huachinango for lunch-my favorite Mexican fish-but I was not expecting the head to come attached!
Rick next to the pretty river up in the mountains where we were
The scary suspension bridge over the river that we thought was a little too scary to risk crossing
Rogue chickens on the river
Rick trying to catch his own lunch
An agave farm-the plant where tequila comes from
A tequila making demonstration
The cutest little boy and his chihuahua, Minnie :)

That's it for now. I have LOTS and LOTS more pictures to come!

Meanwhile I've had my 30th birthday and today is Thanksgiving. My birthday was wonderful, thanks again to all that helped to celebrate with me.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year I am so thankful for so many things: Rick and our happy marriage, both of our families, our little house and kitties, our jobs, our great friends and all the many blessings that we have each day. I hope you each enjoy your day!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Stephine's Birthday


We're back from Mexico and I have lots of pictures to share, but have to process them all first! The weekend before we left was Stephine's birthday. Here's a few pictures to celebrate the birthday girl!
Stephine and Lewis
Stacey & I
Cheers to you Steph!
The girls at Rock Bottom
My cute husband and I
Rick and Tim
Tim with Stacey and I
and one with the girls AND Tim!
Happy birthday again Steph! It was so fun to celebrate with you!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Gwen's photoshoot


My good friends Heather and Jay recently moved back to Oregon after living in Utah for many years. They're way on the other side of town in Gresham, so I don't see them as often as I'd like, but I love spending time with them! A few weekends ago they came out to my side of town, and we met at Pier Park to do some pictures of their beautiful daughter, Gwen, who was born in February. Heather has never taken her to get pictures done! It was an amazing Fall day and the park with the leaves was the perfect backdrop. Gwen is one of the happiest little girls I've ever seen and taking her pictures was so fun! Here are some of the pictures that I like the most. I took over 150 so it was hard to narrow it down!
Poor Gwen, some day she'll hate me for this one, but its too funny not to share!



Heather with Gwen


Oh how I love this one!


My Mom said it best, she totally looks like the Gerber baby here!

I made Jay take a pic of Heather and I on the teeter totters :)
And one last one of me and Gwenny!

Thanks again guys for letting me take Gwen's pictures!
And just so everyone else knows, I am officially trying to market myself now for portraits/events. I've made a website that is definitely still in progress, but so far I'm happy with it. Check it out: laurenenochsphotography.weebly.com