phuket, thailand

one day in thailand, we took a boat tour around the beautiful signature islands. we got off the boat several times to canoe and to go into caves. one of the caves had bats, lots of bats. these caves were really cool because they'd open up into these secluded, peaceful... areas. i don't know how to explain them.. they were just these openings in the middle of the island and it would be so quiet. we would just float there and listen to nature do it's thing. we had lunch and dinner on the boat and they sure put on a spread. after dinner, we put together our own flower boat/lanterns, went back out on the canoes, and let them float in the sea. the whole day was beautiful and one i won't forget.

and then this, this is where we stayed for 3 nights in phuket. 

*note - this post is meant to get braggy. how could it not? look where we stayed for 3 nights! my in laws got us this incredible villa over looking the ocean. we each had our own huge rooms. we had personal chefs who would make whatever we asked them to. it was some of the best food i've ever had in my life. we had masseuses come to the villa to give us hour long massages.  we basically ate and hung out for 3 days without a single care in the world. we rented scooters and putted around the island. tanner almost got hit a few times because it's so dang confusing driving on the opposite side of the road.

*i have concluded, that driving scooters on islands is one of my most favorite things to do. we only did this once before in nicaragua, and that was one of my favorite days of my life*

 this place was jaw dropping when you first walked into it. my sister in law, ana, said it perfectly when she said "i'm pretty sure the bachelor was filmed here." and we alllll know how incredible the bachelor(ettes) are treated :) 

bangkok, thailand

this entire temple was made from pieces of china

we had a tour bus all to ourselves

a flood of memories came back to me while i was watching the bachelor last night. i know i was just there, but it already feels like a long time ago. we stayed in bangkok for a couple days and the first day there we toured around ancient temples in the city. the temples were beautiful. they were very detailed and intricate.

to me, one of the biggest shockers in thailand was the driving rules, or lack thereof. well, driving on the other side of the road through me off, but i swear there aren't any traffic laws. people just weave in and out and go really fast and it's so busy! vietnam was worse, but thailand was still crazy. the craziest part was that i trusted all the drivers we were with. i felt like they knew what they were doing and even though we were all over the place, we made it safely to our destinations :)

a valentine brag..

from my sweets. snowboard pants, chocolates, and a crest kit of course ;) he knows i love crest products and he knows a whole kit is the way to my heart. 

<<< aren't my new snowboard pants the best?! i actually had already bought them, but then they got stolen. i was sad about it and must have brought it up a lot because tanner got them again for me. true love. true true love. and then, that's what i wore to dinner >>>

 ^incredible shrimp appetizer               ^incredible steak & lobster              ^incredible filet minon                  ^incredible dessert

i took these pictures on my phone and didn't spend the time to size them to fit nicely. BUT, awesome experience. tanner secretly made early reservations to barbacoa!

if i haven't rubbed it in enough from the pictures... now i'm going to talk about it. we combined our anniversary (the 13th, happy 3 years to us!) and valentines, like we do most years. but this year was pretty great. i'll fill you in a little. the last two years we've been in vegas for trade shows. and you would think that'd be a fun place to spend these special days, it's not. we were always too tired to celebrate after spending all day at the show. and, well, let's just say, tanner has REALLY stepped it up from our first year being married. he told me he made dinner reservations and my mouth probably dropped from shock. A. reservations meant nice restaurant B. tanner doesn't like spending money on food because he says it just goes through you. on valentines morning he told me we were going to barbacoa, a place i've been wanting to try since we moved here.. a year in a half ago. barbacoa had the entire restaurant adorned with roses. i mean, hundreds and hundreds of roses. they gave each of the girls their own vase of a dozen. we enjoyed our menu of 4 courses. all of it was insane. so good! they even lit tanners filet on fire.  so. cool. the whole experience was incredible. we were planning on seeing a movie after but with a full belly, we decided to go home and watch hulu in bed. we watched shows we haven't seen yet for a good 4 hours or so. it was nice having tanner's 100% attention yesterday. he is so busy with work that even when he's home, he's usually working. the whole day was perfect and i am so in love with tanner, it's ridiculous. i'm proud of him and am grateful for all that he does for me. he is an incredible man and i'm lucky to have him.

beijing, china

it was soooo cold! we packed for hot weather and thought we could get by with layering what we had. yeah, that didn't happen. we all ended up buying coats, hats, gloves, under layers and anything else that was warm. thank goodness you can bargain for everything!

we had a 9 hour layover in beijing, china so we took a train to  tiananmen square, the forbidden city, and the beloved silk market. we heard it was going to be cold, but nothing could have prepared us for how cold it truly was! made for some cool pictures though. we walked through the forbidden city and i couldn't believe how big it was! it kept going, and going, and going. since we were in a hurry, we didn't get a guide so i really don't know the history behind it. i do know that tiananmen square is where there was a protest and a student put himself in front of a tank to make a point. there was a lot of history here that i wish i knew more about. i'll have to study up on it on my own with google :) really, we were in a hurry so the boys could spend a few hours in the silk market. this was their highlight of the trip. they talked about it every day. it was my first time in the silk market and i understood why they were excited. i normally hate bargaining, but it was kind of fun. it would be easy to spend hours upon hours there to get some good finds. tanner does business in china so he's gone a few times. maybe next time, he'll take me :)