Church in Las Varas

 

Sunday we drove about an hour and a half away from Puerto Vallarta to a little town called Las Varas.  We had church at the branch president's house, right in his living room.  It was the neatest thing ever.  There was a gecko on the wall, the front and back doors were wide open and we could hear noises in the street, and the chickens and rooster in the back yard.  When it was time for RS and EQ, the men took their chairs and moved a few feet away onto the back porch.  There were 7 of us in RS, and what is amazing is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same no matter where you are.  I'm so grateful for this experience!
Afterwards, we stayed and had lunch "comida" with the branch presidents family.  That was also a really cool experience!

The Pendulum

Here are two videos of Alex and I jumping off the pendulum on our Extreme adventure.  Alex jumped right off, but I needed a little help :)

I was working up the courage to jump off the ledge, when the guide says "Look, there's a deer", and pushes me off.  Really...I was getting ready...

Superman

This was the superman zip-line.  It is the longest one, over a mile long, going about 70 mph.  It was awesome!

4 Wheeling in the mud

This is a frame by frame shot describing how we got so muddy.  As you can see...we were drenched! I'm not sure if I blame Alex more, or dad for letting Alex drive.  Just a side note - No one else in our group had a drop of mud on them, but were covered!  Muddy or not, it was so fun!

Our Extreme Ziplining Adventure!

...and let me tell you...there is a reason why they call it extreme!  It was so much fun!  Alex and I are so glad we did this with my parents.  We laughed and laughed, and had such a blast together!

Rope climbing 101

Zip-lining!

Zip-lining upside down!

Going upside down was kind of interesting...mom was smart to skip that one :)

If you like Pina Coladas...

We'll, it turns out we do!  We had several pina colada's and strawberry daiquiri's (non-alcoholic), of course, they were so good! 

Puerto Vallarta continues...

 This was taken at the boardwalk.  We spent several hours there.  We loved the little shops.  There were so many interesting things to see!

 Our hotel was really cool.  We loved our all inclusive experience...

 ...and our dinner, on the beach, watching the sunset...

...watching the mariachi band, on the beach, while Alex casually wore his pink sombrero...

Goodbyes -

We loved our time with mom and dad - it was sad to say goodbye.  Our week with them just flew by! 

Sayulita

 We loved all the little shops in Sayulita.  It was so authentic.  The crowded streets, shops, chickens everywhere, fruit stands, people grilling food, cooking tortillas, selling the toilet paper allotment to use the bathroom...it was just so cool!

 We ate at Burrito Revolution!  It was really good - especially the shrimp!

What a cute couple we make, even after 16 years of being married! :)

On the beach!

This beach was great!  The waves were so strong, and were just pulling me all over the place.  I could barely stand in one spot.  It's crazy how powerful the ocean is!

Pictures on the beach

We couldn't stop laughing as we were trying to take pictures and the ocean came crashing in.

Snorkeling with iguanas

 Snorkeling was so much fun!  We started out snorkeling in the pool, but then moved to the ocean.  We saw tons of yellow striped fish, and some bigger black and blue fish.  Alex had a fight with a jellyfish, I'm pretty sure the jellyfish won. 

This iguana was sitting on some rocks overlooking the pool.  I really think he wanted to jump in and swim with us.

I loved seeing the iguana's sitting on the warm rocks.