Puerto Vallarta- Swimming with Dolphins!

 Uhhh who would NOT want to wake up to this?? I couldn't pick just one pic, so I included all three of my view from our room balcony. I mean COME ON.

 Palm trees....ocean...wide open sky. Be still my heart.

 So on this lovely Tuesday morning, we did our other excursion which was completely covered for free with our awesome resort credit! This time we chose to swim with the dolphins! :) Actually it was called Dolphin Encounter, which is where we got to get in the water and touch the dolphins and learn some tricks. This was another thing on my bucket list that I got to check off! (Ever since I saw the Full House episode as a little girl where the Tanners swim with dolphins in Hawaii, I've wanted to have that experience).

We arrived at the water adventure park where the dolphins reside, and enjoyed the beauty of the tropical atmosphere.

                                                    I just loved these colors together.

This is where we waited and got our directions of what we'd be doing. Everything's better in a grass hut. Even though there was a giant locust type of bug almost as big as a bat, flying around above our heads and distracting us.

 And finally, we got our life vests on and with a group of several people, and were escorted to the dolphin pool. We hopped in the cold water, stood in the water on a ledge, and waited excitedly! Our dolphin trainer was funny and friendly, and he introduced us to our 2 dolphin friends: Luke, and Roman! (I realize my hair or lack thereof is atrocious in these pics, but we'll focus on the dolphins). :)

 We held out our hands flat, and the dolphins swam under them so we could feel their smooth skin. They feel like rubber boots!

 They did tricks for us!

 And then we learned 3 commands to do with the dolphin. This was the dancing command, I believe? I already forgot- oops. But we got one on one time with the dolphin and it was so cool!

 So cute.

 The kissing pose! I love how he's closing his eyes.

 The trainer told me to let him kiss my cheek first, then for me to kiss him on the nose!

 Then it was Jake's turn. He wasn't quite as gung ho about this as I was, but still thought it was pretty cool.

 Gettin some air!

 Nice kiss!

 He's lovin it.

 The trainer had a cooler full of stinky fish that he would throw to the dolphins after every trick. They sure do like their fish! Also, he had one of the dolphins lay on his back in front of Jake and I, with our hands supporting him from underneath. The dolphin was so relaxed, that he went ahead and pooped right out in front of us. Haha that kind of grossed us out, swimming in dolphin poop, which just blends right in with the water. But that's what the ocean is anyways, right?

We got to help the dolphins do more tricks by raising our arms...

 And clapping...

And it was awesome. We had a blast. After the dolphin pool, we spent some time at the water park and went down some water slides, floated in the lazy river, dwelled on how much the girls would have LOVED this, and bought our CD of pictures so we could treasure them forever. :)

Glad we did! Can't put a price on this baby!