Atlantis Vacation Day 2 & 3

Hello All!
We are still having the time of our lives here at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas! We will recommend this trip to ANYONE and EVERYONE! They truly have so much to offer if you are going as a married couple no kids, if you have a million kids, or if you are just going with friends. So much to do and see! AND...the architecture is AMAZING! The picture above is the lobby to our hotel, The Reef.

On Wednesday we ventured out across the canal to Nassau. We enjoyed a nice Bahamian breakfast (haha French toast and grits!) then did some power shopping!! It was actually a perfect day to visit the world famous straw market because it started to pour! The nice thing about the Bahamas is that when it does rain, its warm, and it doesnt last for very long. I was a little disappointed in the straw market because it is very different than how I remember it 7 years ago. The vendors are pretty much all of the same stuff and there isnt really any authentic jewelry or shells. Mostly handbags, t-shirts, and mugs. But we still scored a few good items and I was able to practice my bartering skills!

Then we were on the hunt for snorkeling gear since we left ours at home.

Ahh! The snorkeling has been great! Cody and I both enjoy this very much so it's been fun to do this together. The Reef Hotel has its own private beach and there are never many people on it, so the fish and sea life has been great! Here is a picture of one of the fish' that we have seen:

We have a ton of underwater pictures, so I'll have to post those when I get back. We did get a little freaked out by some fish that would not stop circling us- Aggressively! Cody saw them first and I thought he was exaggerating- but he wasn't! About 20 of these huge fish kept circling us! We weren't sure if they were mobsters fro the sharks so we got out of there! LOL)

The squid (below) was my favorite thing we saw. We saw a little school of about 5 of them. Very cool!

Then we hit the waterslides. I must say that Atlantis has the coolest waterslides I have ever experienced. First of all, you dont have to leave the water to experience them. They have conveyor belts that go off of the lazy river that you can take to go to your slides! How cool is that! The picture below is from my favorite slide, "The Abyss" , a dark drop slide and when you get to the bottom you are in a cave surrounded by aquariums! We sat in there for about 20 minutes looking at all of the cool fish!

Another slide- you float through a aquarium!

After a lazy beach and waterslide day, we hit the streets of Atlantis last night. The lighting was beautiful! And we got to see a really cool lighting storm over the water. We grabbed some icecream and just walked around exploring.

And for those of you with kids (or are big kids at heart) we went and checked out the kids club. Oh my goodness! They have a entire section dedicated to RC race cars/monster trucks. Think "build a bear" but with RC racers. The kids get to design and build their cars and then for $5 a day get to race on the HUGE track against other cars! Super Cool!

Hmm... can you guess which car I would get? :-)

Now our next venture is the Leap of Faith. A straight down drop into a shark tank! Yikes! I'll let you know how that goes!

The Disney cruise ship pulled in today and boy did that hit me hard. My brother, sister, myself, and my mom had a amazing time on that trip. When we stopped in Nassau my mom and I swam with the dolphins. I'll have to post that picture later on. It was such a great time and our last vacation together just the 4 of us. It was one of the most memorable times we had!

We do miss our animals dearly, but we are really having a great, relaxing time!
Thank you Mary Kay!

Atlantis Vacation Day 1

At last our vacation is HERE! For my family/friends who didn't know I chose a DREAM vacation package from Mary Kay this year instead of a Diamond ring. Honestly, with what a GREAT time we are having I just might do THIS every year! For $8.22 (Yes, we went a wee bit over MK's budget! LOL) we are enjoying a FABULOUS 8 day trip at the Altantis Resort in the Bahamas. I really wanted to archive our trip well and figured Blogging would be better than journaling and give us the opportunity to look back!

Ok so let's begin! We took a red eye out of San Francisco and arrived in Miami then transferred over to Nassau. We are staying at the REEF which is one of the Altantis resorts hotels. AMAZING is all I have to say. For those of you who LOVE architecture, this place is elegant AND edgy! I posted a few pics of our room!

The BEST part was that the front desk manager UPGRADED our room to a corner balcony suite! Wait to you see the views!!

So here are some room pictures:
Below is the kitchenette- it comes with a stove, microwave, blender, pans, dishwasher, and full service dishes!

Our bed and to the left is a window with iced glass that goes into the bathroom (YES, that is a TV in the bathroom!!)

DRUMROLL please. . . .The VIEW from our Balcony! The blue lagoon is actually home to about 20 dolphins! We have been watching them swim- it is so cool!

And on the other side.... WOW..look at the water. We spent about 2 hours down there today and the water was PERFECT. And yes, for those who asked...I am getting my "tan on"....I brought my spray tan with me!! No skin cancer or aging here!!! :-)

So when you see how brown I am in the photos below, thank my friend Lesley Bodine for her "Liquid muscle" LOL. :-)

Happy 5 Year Anniversary Babe!
This trip is so special for us- Atlantis was on my original dream list when I first started my Mary Kay business. Taking my husband there has been a dream come true!!! :-)
(LOL- YES..the tan is FAKE!)

On a side note- When you go to Atlantis- DO NOT ask the employees there to take your photo. They expect a $5 tip! YIKES!

We spent a lot of time exploring the Hundreds of aquariums that Atlantis offers. They actually have the largest Marine life habitat in the ENTIRE world! Everywhere you go there are tanks that house exotic fish and sharks.

Today we saw manta rays that were the size of a volkswagon Bug! No joke!

Cody being a goof-ball at one of the aquariums:

Me and the sting rays!

We are having a Blast! Tomorrow we are going to the Aquaventure- an amazing waterslide park inside Atlantis where you NEVER leave your tube! Water rockets and conveyer belts actually take you to the different slides. Some of the slides go through glass tunnel aquariums (tubing through a shark tank for example) as well as fire/rain technology. Should be pretty cool!

Look at the intensity in his eyes as he's thanking me for holding all of those Mary Kay parties!
Haha!

Until tomorrow or the day after,

Lia

The $10 Eye-Lift

WARNING! You are about to be SHOCKED! As many of you know, I am naturally a blonde. I know, I know, What ever possessed me to dye my hair brown? I HAVE NO IDEA- but I LOVE it. :-)

Well, that left me with one little problem that I ignored for quite sometime. My eyebrows were blonde. I "thought" that I had fixed it by having my hairdresser dye them when she does my hair every 6 weeks. Then one day a friend of mine asked if I ever thought about lining my eye brows. (haha dont you just LOVE honest friends?!)

Hmm.. What a concept.

The minute I did .....I was hooked. I whipped out some Mary Kay brow definer and Viola! I was a new woman! Check out this photo below- See what a HUGE difference brow lining makes? My eye looks lifted! AMAZING!

Maria's" Bump-it" Review

So I am finally posting the results of the "Bump-it". I was first introduced to this little baby on a infomercial....and well, those of you who know me- know I'm a SUCKER for "as seen on TV" products. SO of course I just HAD to have it. As my credit card was about to get charged $140, I paused and thought- hmm... probably shouldn't. And much to my impulsive surprise- I didn't! And Boy, was I glad I did because Walgreens had them for $9.99 just a week later and now you can get them EVERYWHERE! 

So it comes in two colors, the Dark brown and the blonde. Each kit comes with the regular bump-it, the (OH-SO-INTIMIDATING) Hollywood bump, and two baby bumps. 

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how easy and quickly I was able to put it in. I'm not naturally a good hair parter and was pleased that my line could be crooked and it would still work! Here is a little image tutorial I found:

Now I have only used the normal bump-it. The Hollywood bump-it just doesnt cut it in Northern California. It would totally fly at a night club in Los Angeles or a Beauty Pageant in Tennessee. But not here- people would look at me like I'm a hooker. :-) So the middle bump-it works just fine!

Now here are my hair pictures of the regular bump-it. 

Totally worth the $9.99 in my opinion.....$140- Not so much!