MexicO'Quinn-moon!

I recently realized that I never blogged about our first year anniversary/late honeymoon! Since it is officially our three year anniversary, (and the two year anniversary of the trip) I decided to go ahead and share now! Lately I've been dreaming of a vacation which got me thinking about it and wanting to relive it so I figured when not share it with you!

After our wedding, money was a little tight (as I'm sure is the case for most newlyweds), and although we did have a little Palm Springs minimoon following the wedding, we still wanted an actual honeymoon. So, we saved up and decided to make it happen for our first anniversary. 

Sam pretty much gave me full control on everything. Originally we discussed going to Ireland, but I was pretty set on going for our actual anniversary and turns out, the middle of November is not the most ideal time to visit Ireland. After a lot of consideration, we (and by "we" I mean "I") decided on Tulum, this beautiful Mexican city on the Caribbean coast. 

When choosing a hotel, I had a few criteria. First, and most importantly, ADULT ONLY. Now, that's not to say I hate kids... but on my honeymoon, I'd rather not have kids screaming and splashing me by the pool, sorry (not sorry). Second criteria was that it had to be all inclusive, I think that's pretty self explanatory. And lastly, I had to have an ocean view room (with a jacuzzi if possible). After lots (AND LOTS) of research and price comparisons, I landed on a winner, Kore Tulum. It had everything! It was adults only, it was all inclusive, I was able to get us an ocean view room (WITH a jacuzzi on the balcony!). It also had a couple of added perks, like 24 hour room service and the fact that it was a "boutique hotel" meaning it had under a hundred rooms so it never felt "busy". 

As the date approached for our trip, I was checking the weather like a crazy person and it was showing thunderstorms for the ENTIRE time we were there. I was pretty devastated but, at the end of the day, 10 days away from work and responsibilities is never a bad thing. So I bought some ponchos and we were off! When we landed in Cancun it was storming pretty bad. The almost hour long drive from the airport to the hotel with the rain beating down on us was not the welcome I had hoped for. The hotel concierge was wonderful and helped us get our luggage to our room and directed us in the direction of the closest bar (included in the "all inclusive", yes please!). It was pretty late by that point (and there was a time difference we had to get acclimated to) so we decided to go to bed and pray for better weather on day two. 

We woke up day two and headed to breakfast, to our surprise, the sun was out and shining! It was a little cloudy but it was a beautiful day!

I had Sam strap on the Go-Pro and we took a tour of the grounds. 

While I was there, one of my besties went wedding dress shopping. I was so sad that I had to miss it but then she sent me this photo (where she OBVIOUSLY photoshopped me in) and I didn't feel so bad. Haha. 

As scared as I was about the weather, it ended up being GORGEOUS the entire time we were there (aside from that first night). 

Endless margaritas!

That view!

The hotel had three different restaurants you could choose from each night, I couldn't pick a favorite if I wanted to. 

Endless margaritas and an ocean view never gets old. 

The 24 hour room service didn't either. 

One of the days we decided to go to Xplor Park, an all inclusive activity park. Because a lot of it was in mud, or water, our phones were in our locker the whole time and this is the only photo we got. It was pretty awesome though, we zip lined (which I never thought I'd do in my life), went offroading in what they called "amphibious vehicles", went underground rafting through these awesome caves (there were bats though, and I did scream, haha). While it all was pretty incredible, one of the most impressive parts to me, that there was an all you can eat buffet, that you could go to whenever you wanted. Why don't ALL theme parks have that?!

The view from our balcony, definitely worth the ocean view upgrade!

I think a rule of honeymooning is that you pretty much have to have a constant buzz (especially if you're staying all inclusive). I'd say we accomplished that. 

One night Sam surprised me with a bottle of champagne under the stars in the jacuzzi.

One of the days we checked out the Mayan ruins, 

Our last night was rough... Usually towards the end of a vacation, you're ready to be home but we really weren't. It was such a wonderful trip and the staff at Kore were just as wonderful. We never wanted to leave.  

I mean... who would want to leave this?!

I booked our flight home as late as possible so that we could still get some pool time in on our last day.

Until next time Tulum!