Teacher Appreciation Week

Fun fact, I was a Special Education teacher for 5 years prior to becoming a BCBA. I knew from a pretty young age that I wanted to become a BCBA, but not so much my love for teaching. Before pursuing my masters to start my career in ABA, I decided my undergraduate degree, or degrees in my case, should be in the field of education. I was in love! There are still days where I miss being in the classroom, but ABA is my true passion. Anytime I get the opportunity to bring those two worlds together, my heart explodes!

While this time in quarantine has been challenging, I’ve found that I’ve had the opportunity to play more of a teacher role and even make use of some of my old materials. With some extra time on my hands and seeing the need for digital materials for virtual learning I got to work!

Over the last 2 months I’ve been creating materials weekly for my Teachers Pay Teachers page and as a thank you to any teachers out there reading this, my store from Tuesday, May 5th to Friday, May 8th will be having a sale, all products will be 10% off!

My products are listed on my Teachers Pay Teacher store as well as, Pinterest, and my website!

If there’s something that you’re interested in for distance learning, share with me and I’ll see what I can put together!

Happy finding my friends!

Eazy Peezy Lemon squeezy

Since I started my lemon detox a few weeks back, I’ve been on a lemon kick. Trying to incorporate lemon into all aspects of things we ingest here. More notably I’ve been baking with lemon, but I just recently created this dairy free easy Chicken Piccata recipe! Check it out below and let me know what you think!

Easy chicken Piccata

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs of boneless & skinless chicken thighs (traditionally you use breast, but I don’t buy breast meat), pounded thin
  • Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder to season (use as much or as little as you’d like)
  • 1/2 cup of corn starch
  • 5 tbsp of dairy free butter (or regular butter)
  • 3 tbsp of olive oil
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1/2 cup of chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup of cooking white wine

Directions:

  1. Season both sides of pounded thin chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
  2. 3 tbsp of butter and 3 tbsp of oil in pan over medium heat.
  3. While pan is heating, dredge all chicken in cornstarch on both sides
  4. When pan is ready, cook chicken in pan approx 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through
  5. When chicken has finished cooking, transfer to plate
  6. Lower heat slightly and add juice of lemon chicken stock and white wine, mix until combined
  7. Return chicken to pan and let simmer in sauce for 5 minutes
  8. Remove chicken from pan, transfer to plate
  9. Add remaining butter (2 tbsp) to pan and whisk vigorously for a 1-2 minutes.
  10. Drizzle sauce over chicken and served over rice, veggies or pasta!

PEANUT VEGGIE NOODLES WITH CHICKEN

Recently, I partnered with Birds Eye Vegetables to cook up a yummy dish. Their frozen vegetables are my secret meal hacks to get our veggies in!

I find a lot of my dairy free inspo from Simply Whisked, Melissa has a dairy free recipe for almost everything you can think of it seems like! I came across this recipe for her Thai Peanut Nooldes and thought this would pair so perfect with Birds Eye’s frozen Shredded Carrots & Broccoli Florets and we even added some grilled chicken.

Birds Eye offers a variety of frozen vegetables that are easy to pair with almost every meal! Check out my version of Simply Whisked’s Thai Peanut Noodles-

PEANUT VEGGIE NOODLES WITH CHICKEN

*Adapted from Simply Whisked

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz rice noodles (or you can use spaghetti/linguine)
  • 1 package of Birds Eyes Steamfresh Vegetables
  • 1 lb of chicken thighs (or breasts)
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter (I use PB2 powdered peanut butter, mix this with water to create 1/3 a cup of peanut butter)
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 for sauce, 2 for chicken
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
  • Salt (to your preference for chicken)
  • Pepper (to your preference for chicken)
  • Cilantro, for garnish

Directions:

  1. Season chicken with salt and pepper, grill or cook chicken until cooked through, dice chicken and set aside.
  2. Cook Birds Eye Steamfresh veggies either in the microwave, or I like to cook the veggies on a pan for several minutes until cooked through and set aside.
  3. Cook egg noodles (or pasta) according to package instructions.
  4. In a bowl, whisk together peanut butter, olive oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, water, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes.
  5. When noodles are cooked drain and then return to pot with sauce, diced chicken, and veggies.
  6. Garnish with cilantro.

Home Learning

Home learning Quarantine Edition

Let’s talk about home learning. The good AND the bad. Let’s get the bad out of the way though…

Teaching is HARD. Teaching is A LOT of work. There we got it out of the way. Now, let’s shift our focus because the power of thought is REAL. But out of all of this, I do hope that people stop looking at teachers like babysitters and a bit more like educators 😉

As a former special ed teacher, this quarantine has sparked my joy of teaching and I want to share some of those tips with you. If you follow me on instagram, you’ve already seen the home learning environment I’ve set up for my step-son, Thomas. All of the videos are saved to a highlights story called “Home Learning”.

If you’re going to take away ANYTHING from this post let it be that you come up with some sort of daily routine. I can’t tell you how much kids THRIVE off routine! Try to make a routine that mimics your #BQ (before quarantine) day-to-day. This looks different for everyone, so what may work for us, may not work for you. Here you can find a template that you can use to customize your own kiddos schedule! I suggest putting this template in a plastic page protector and fill out daily with a dry erase marker in case your schedule is not a fixed one!

Some tips in creating a Home Learning environment

  • Set up a designated “home learning” spot, whether it be their desk, kitchen counter, etc. think of this as their “school desk”
  • Your new best friends will be Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. These websites both have ideas, worksheets activities for things to fill up your day! While somethings are paid, there are a ton of free options as well!
  • Most kids learning websites are offering either reduced subscriptions or free subscriptions, a few I recommend are abcmouse.com , abcya.com , and starfall.com
  • Build breaks into your child’s day. After 2-3 “school” activities, Thomas is allowed to pick a preferred activity from his “break menu” he gets 30 minutes of watching TV, playing outside, playing a game, etc. LET THEM PICK! It has to be rewarding for them, not for US!
  • Establish “home learning” rules. Some rules can be raising your hand, working quietly, checking over work before saying “I’m done”, etc. Practice what these rules look like and praise your child for demonstrating them correctly!
  • Praise the good behaviors! It’s easy to get wrapped up into all the things your child is doing wrong, but make it a daily effort to point out the good things they’re doing and you’ll see how this ultimately starts to come naturally.
  • Give your child work they are able to accomplish independently if you want to minimize asking questions and disruptions.
  • For smaller kiddos, set up “centers” such as library time, play dough time, arts & crafts, sensory play, pretend play
  • Try to have your kids busy and quieter times coincide with your busy work times 😉

While I’m the first person to say how important early education is, I can’t help but to think that although what’s going on in our world is awful and scary, I’m grateful for all the quality time I’ve been able to dedicate to my family.

As a current BCBA, my work life has completely shifted from hands on in a clinic setting to remote telehealth sessions. While we’ve been able to adjust, one of my favorite aspects is that on days when Thomas is here, he helps me work on my clients social skills like playing virtual Simon says, tic-tac-toe or engaging in conversations! I wouldn’t normally have this opportunity to bring him into my world the way I’m now immersed in his. So, while I HIGHLY suggest having a schedule and routine during these crazy times, more than anything, I HIGHLY suggest treasuring all this extra time with these crazy kids

Cauliflower Mac' & Cheeze

I don’t know about you, but my eating during quarantine has not been at it’s best. I’ve been craving lots of comfort foods, such as mac & cheese. So here’s a healthier, dairy free version of a classic comfort side dish or entire meal!

I’ve tried a lot of pasta substitutes, not sure why it took me so long to try out dairy free Cauliflower Mac & Cheeze. Not only is this done in 20 minutes, but it’s super filling! I updated this dish to add some sausage, but you could essentially add any protein, I’m thinking ground beef next time!

Cauliflower mac & cheeze (Dairy free)

Ingredients: Serves 3-4

  • 1 Head of Cauliflower
  • 16 oz. of preferred Sausage or Protein, cooked (this can be omitted)
  • 1/3 cup of full fat coconut milk
  • 3/4 cup of dairy free shredded cheese (I used this one)
  • Garlic Parsley Powder
  • Salt
  • Pepper

*Note: If you’re by a Publix, I love this sausage. When I made this recipe I used Bratwurst because that’s all there was #coronavirus

  1. Bring a large pot full of water to a boil. In the meantime, cut entire cauliflower head into small florets.
  2. Boil cauliflower florets for 5 minutes.
  3. Turn off heat and drain cauliflower
  4. Return cauliflower to pot
  5. Mix in coconut milk, shredded cheese, seasoning and stir
  6. If using a protein, mix in cooked protein, serve and enjoy!

#TailgateToSoulmate

Captured by Maria Font Photography

2 months ago to the day, I made one of the best decisions I could have made in my lengthy 30 years 😉 I married Joel. And boy had I waited for this day.

I’m going to let the pictures for this post do the talking, but I will go into a little bit of my “planning” experience-

We knew we wanted our wedding to be us in every aspect and not cost a fortune, we had honeymoon goals, as you’ve seen. The first thing we agreed on- a backyard wedding with a Mexican food truck. Sounds simple, right? NO. Backyard weddings are a lot of work that I quickly realized I wasn’t going to be able to pull this off on my own, no matter how much of my Martha Stewart energy I channeled.

In comes Lady and Liv! These ladies are a BLESSING. From the moment we met this mother and daughter team I knew I had to hire them, and that was the second best decision I made for January 11, 2020 (first, being Joel)! Although we hired them as “day of coordinators”, they checked in every month along the way and answered every single little and big question I had. But they truly shined the week of my wedding. I can truly say, I did not have to worry about a single thing the week of, they even managed my husband who turned into bridezilla 24 hours before showtime. I truly feel so blessed to have been able to not only work with them, but get to know them! I cannot wait to work with them in the future!

Captured by Maria Font Photography

The best piece of advice Lady and Liv gave me when starting the planning process was to find vendors who we clicked with and that stuck with me. From there, we hired Z Bliss Shop for our florals and rentals. Manny and Zach are the most generous couple and they did everything for us while welcoming a new bundle of joy, #momgoals! They had me sold when they showed up to our first meeting with a power point presentation with pictures of myself and all the ideas I had sent their way. To know me is to know I love a good power point presentation. They took every vision I had and made it come to life in the most beautiful way. I wasn’t a nit picky bride about details because there are just things I don’t know in this realm and I’m so glad that I trusted them and their creative vision. I could not have pictured a more beautiful transformation of my grandfathers backyard, where I once celebrated my first birthday and now our wedding!

Captured by Maria Font Photography

Food & Drinks. Food was VERY important. Drinks were VERY important. Much to our surprise, it was really difficult to find a Mexican food truck that was willing to cater our wedding. Just when we were about to give up, we found Tiago’s Tacos. HOLY CR*P. If you live in Miami and haven’t had Tiago’s Tacos, do yourself a favor and RUN! Gabriel, owner, was the sweetest to work with! His team was awesome and everyone RAVED about our food! For our cocktail hour we hired Pretty Pleese to create a magical grazing board! Crystal made my dreams come true by incorporating croquetas and truffle cheese! HEAVEN! We also had sushi boats from The Sushi Bar, these flew! Our cake was from E & M Sweets, Cynthia, owner, has been doing all our cakes for the last 4 years. She has always taken all our ideas and executed perfectly! I never even saw them! As for our drinks, we were so lucky to work with Hitched Affair. Emily, owner, was amazing from the start in answering all our questions and even hosted a tasting with her bartender, Carlos, at her house so we could get our signature cocktails JUST right! And boy did they get them right! Not sure how many Mezcal Moma’s I had, but having their camper parked in the backyard with drinks flowing, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect bar set up!

And last, but CERTAINLY not least, my Glam Girl, our DJ and Photographer. Cristina was a blessing! I loved her since we met for my trial make up run, MONTHS before the wedding! She listened to everything that I was looking for and executed flawlessly, plus shes hilarious! After speaking with a few DJ’s I was a little discouraged, but then I spoke with Pedro. Immediately we hit it off on the phone and I knew this was our guy! We met up with Pedro a few months before the wedding to hear him DJ and to hang out and WOW! One of the sweetest guys in Miami, for sure! He not only did an amazing job at DJing our wedding, but he was went above and beyond in hooking us up with free lighting! He’s also kept in touch with us since the wedding and I truly hope we get to work with him again! We wouldn’t be here talking about this wedding and admiring all its glory if it wasn’t for Maria Font Photography! I feel so lucky to call this insanely creative genius a close friend! Maria has done a few photo shoots for us, a family shoot at our house, our engagement pictures and now our wedding! Maria went ABOVE and BEYOND the day of our wedding from calming all my nerves, ALL day long, to capturing the partying that ensued all night long! I am forever grateful!

If you’ve made it this far, I commend you. This is a post I hold so near and dear to me, but I also feel like I could never do any of the people who helped make this possible any justice with a short post! They were all an amazing team to work with and we are so appreciative for all the hard work they put in and for being so enthusiastic about all my crazy ideas! Love you all!

Lemon Detox

Coming back from our honeymoon, despite keeping up with intermittent fasting while we we’re away, I found it hard to get back to my IF routine when we got back. Probably because our first few days back I loaded myself up with all the things I missed, Cuban food and tacos.

Pinterest has been a source of information for me when it’s come to intermittent fasting. Something that kept popping up was the benefits of lemon. But not just some lemon juice squeezed into your water, no no, the WHOLE lemon.

Needless to say I was intrigued by all the benefits an ENTIRE lemon is said to have, so I gave it a go. NO, I did not eat a whole lemon, but instead made lemon ice cubes! Check it out below! These treats take 5 minutes to throw together and so easy to pop into my water bottle before I head out for the day.

I’ve only been on the lemon bandwagon for two weeks, but WOW what a difference! Disclaimer, not entirely sure if it’s the lemons that have made the difference OR my increase in water consumption, but either way, I’ll take it!

Lemon Detox

  • 2-3 Lemons (depending on your ice cube tray and size of lemons, I fill up two ice cube trays with 3)
  • Water

1. Wash lemons

2. Slice lemons to an appropriate size for your food processor

3. Add lemons and water (2-3 tablespoons as needed to blend everything together) to food processor

4. Place in preferred ice cube tray and freeze.

Notes: not entirely sure how long these are good for, but mine didn’t last longer than a week and a half, because I’m addicted!

benefits

If you google search benefits of lemon peels, you’ll find endless and enldess information, and pretty much a lot of it being the same info. The peel of the lemon is rich in vitamins, specifically, calcium, fiber, potassium and vitamin C. In just a week and a half I have noticed the following:

-An improvement in my skin and it’s texture

-Less hunger throughout the day while I’m fasting (drinking lots more yummy water)

-Because it tastes so delicious, I’ve increased my water consumption! I was typically drinking about 40-50 ounces a day and now I drink a gallon or more. (This may also be a contributing factor to the skin improvement)

With any dietary change, you should always consult your doctor and see if this is something that would work for you.

Instant Pot Dairy Free Meatballs

Last week most of you voted to see an Instant Pot recipe so I’m sharing with you my own recipe for Instant Pot dairy free meatballs! If you’ve noticed with a lot my recipes, I like things to be QUICK. Not only are these meatballs super quick to make (I’m talking start to table, 30 minutes max), but they are DELICIOUS! There’s also tons of ways to make these your own!

instant pot meatballs

Ingredients: (This can serve about 6, or have enough leftovers for a few days!)

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 lb ground veal
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup of of Panko breadcrumbs (regular breadcrumbs can be used, but are not dairy free)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • garlic powder
  • onion powder
  • rosemary (only because I didn’t have oregano!)
  • 1 16 oz. jar of preferred pasta sauce
  • 1/3 cup of water

Directions:

  1. Mix ground beef, ground veal, egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and rosemary/oregano all together. I like to use my hands for this step.
  2. Take meat mixture in hands and make 1 1/2 inch balls, using all meat, place on a plate until ready to put in instant pot.
  3. Put 1/4 of sauce on the bottom of Instant Pot, enough to coat the bottom. This will prevent meatballs from browning.
  4. Place all the meatballs in the Instant Pot. It’s OK if you have 2 or 3 on top of all the other meatballs, see picture above for reference.
  5. Pour remainder of jarred sauce all over meatballs, so they are all covered.
  6. Pour 1/3 cup of water over meatballs and sauce.
  7. Cover Instant Pot and set to pressure cook for 13 minutes.
  8. You can do a natural release or quick release.
  9. Skim fat off the top and serve your delicious meatballs.

Notes: I use some water because in the past some of my sauces have been too chunky and I’ve gotten a burn warning from my Instant Pot. You can serve these meatballs with pasta or a personal favorite around here is with rice. I also used my leftovers in an cold pasta arugula salad for lunch and that was delicious! Feel free to sprinkle from dairy free Parmesan on top!

Cabbage Pasta

Like a prior me, maybe you’re not into cabbage. I’m hoping, that maybe I can sway your cabbage beliefs. As most millennials, I’m always on the hunt for the next low-carb pasta substitute. A few years ago I discovered the magic that is cabbage. The best part of cabbage pasta, it cooks in about 20 minutes, pair with your favorite jarred sauce and you’ve got a great side or full meal!

Cabbage pasta

Ingredients: (This will serve about 6)

  • Half a head of cabbage, sliced long ways into strips
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Half an onion diced
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 jar of preferred pasta sauce (I always use a red sauce)
  • 1/4 cup of water or preferred broth
  • Garlic
  • Oregano
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Directions:

  1. In a pan, brown ground beef, when almost cooked through, add jar pasta sauce and let simmer while you you prepare the other ingredients
  2. In a large saucepan, add oil and saute garlic and onions until translucent.
  3. Add cabbage slices to saucepan along with 1/4 cup of water or, cook until tender and liquid has evaporated.
  4. Add ground beef and pasta sauce to cabbage, let simmer about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally
  5. Serve and enjoy!

Notes: as always, I don’t measure my seasoning. You can also omit the ground beef. If you do omit the beef, just add the pasta sauce after you’ve cooked your cabbage until tender and let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can also substitute the ground beef for ground turkey! Top this dish, like I did with your favorite (dairy-free) cheese!

Have I converted you to cabbage yet?!

Honeymoonin’

Jacket (customized by me), Spanx Leggings, Bag

It’s finally February and LiveLoveFinds is FINALLY back! January was a dream, one I will be replaying over and over for quite sometime! In case you didn’t know, Joel and I got married January 11 and on January 15 we left on our incredible honeymoon, all of which I’m sharing today! Bear with me, this post will feature all about our travel and all the details of my outfits, well, the ones I got pictures of. We visited LA, Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora. You ready? Let’s go!

Los Angeles

We started our honeymoon with Los Angeles to break up the flying and travel to Tahiti. Just for reference from Miami to get to French Polynesia you need to fly to LA, LA to Tahiti and then from Tahiti you can take smaller planes to any other island you wish to visit.

Hotel

Nomad– Relatively new and located in Downtown LA, our first time in this area and we loved how easily accessible things are, but don’t be fooled, LA traffic is NO JOKE. Overall, loved the mid-century, dark vibes here! The hotel bar is gorg with yummy cocktails and we LOVED the open tub in our room. The gym was also GREAT!

looks

Eats

Kogi– literally our first stop, straight from the airport. The burrito are things dreams, hungover dreams, are made of

Majordomo– amazing food, incredible wine selection, David Chang. Turns out David Chang was staying at our hotel and I saw him in the gym, I tried to say hi, but airpods are stupid and he was rude. In case you read this David Chang, I get it you were working out and I just wanted to say I love your food :p

Petit Trois– WOW WOW WOW. Best bone marrow, best steak tartare, best bread, best service, best everything. No wonder their sister restaurant has a Michelin star. I think Joel and I have talked about this amazing lunch every single day since. One of the chefs overheard it was our honeymoon and gave us a complimentary dessert! This was one of our favorite dining experiences EVER.

Madre– There’s a lot of Mexican options in LA, shocker. Madre came up on a few searches, but their extensive mezcal seletion at their Torrance location sold me. It’s a bit of a drive from LA, but totally worth it! They had a great oaxan selection of bites and everything tasted so fresh!

Pizzana– Joel had been dying to go to Pizzana since we had seen chef Daniel Uditi on Netflix’s “The Chef Show”. Not only did we get to go, but Daniel Uditi personally made our pizza’s and we got to meet him! He completely made up for my not so wonderful David Chang experience. He was so sweet and not only did he make our pizza’s but also gave us a complimentary delicious dessert. Cannot wait to visit Pizzana again!

Everytime I leave LA I leave loving it more and more. Despite the traffic, I love the views, the food, the people, all of it! West coast is the best coast! Also, you won’t see much about food the rest of this post because French Polynesia is NOT known for the food. As foodies, this was hard for us, but the incredible views make up for it!

Tahiti

We took an overnight flight from LA to Tahiti. Air Tahiti Nui is GREAT, lots of decent food, blankets, pillows, eye masks, you know all the things you used to get in the states just for being on a plane. Oh and PLENTY of overhead storage, like enough for EVERYONE on the plane, here’s looking at you American Airlines.

Looks

hotel

We stayed at Manava Tahiti. We picked Manava based on the pool and the views. I mean an infinity pool where we could directly see our next stop, Moorea. It was such a great start to our trip. We basically didn’t leave the pool! Our rooms were great and the staff and service was also great! One of my favorite parts of Tahiti was walking to a local food truck. It was so cool to see a trend so big here also popular across the world! By the time we left the food truck hub was full of locals!

Moorea

We got to Moorea by ferry. It’s about a 30 minute trip from the port of Papeete. I highly recommend going to the roof to be able to enjoy all the incredible views!

Looks

Amazon similar suit, Joel’s bathing suit
*My bathing suit is from Eberjey, but no longer sold.

hotel

During our stay on this amazing island we stayed at the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa. The Hilton was located quite far from the ferry, but had a great property that allowed you mountain views or full ocean views. We preferred mountain views for all our stays.

This was our first over-water bungalow of the trip and what a treat it was! Our bungalow had recently been remodeled and construction was still going on on other bungalows. As a result, we were given a $50 a day resort credit.

Overall, while we loved our room and views, the Hilton had awful service and we even discussed this with a manager early into our stay. While he was somewhat helpful, overall we were disappointed with the quality of our experience with the Hilton brand. But the scenery made for some pretty amazing pictures.

excursions

ATV Tour: We booked our tour through Top Jet Moorea. Our guides were so friendly and knowledgeable. We absolutely loved this tour and getting to do things like drive through a pineapple field, stand in the center of what used to be the center of Moorea’s volcano, and finish with some amazing views of Moorea and the South Pacific.

Private Boat Tour: Surface 21’s private boat tour is a MUST when in Moorea. Dan and Perrine are an amazing couple that we felt like friends after a few hours on their beautiful boat! They were amazing hosts and this was definitely a highlight of our time in Moorea.

Bora bora

And last, but certainly not least, Bora Bora. To get to Bora Bora we took a flight through Air Tahiti which services all the islands of French Polynesia. They offer flight options which let’s you fly to multiple islands while you’re in the area. Our flight was about 30 minutes from take off to landing. Because most of the resorts in Bora Bora on not on the main island, but atolls around the main island, you have to take a water taxi to essentially get anywhere. This is certainly part of Bora Bora’s charm.

Looks

Similar Bathing Suit, Shorts, Hat
*Bathing suit was from Target last year, no longer sold.
Top
*These pants are my mom’s from Banana Republic from over 15 years ago.

Hotel

We saved our best and splurge for last, the Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa. What a GEM! We had one of the nicest bungalow locations considering we had a direct view of Mount Otemanu from our bed. I think it could only get better in a Brando suite. If you don’t know what that is, do yourself a favor.

Service at Thalasso was fantastic and very similar to the personalized service we had when we were in Tulum at Mi Amor. After going around Bora Bora by boat, we felt like Thalasso was set on the best atoll with the best views. What is so interesting about Bora Bora is that you’re actually on a lagoon!

The only downfall of Thalasso was the food and beverage department. While we were well aware that food prices would be high and that quality would most definitely not reflect these prices, what was disappointing was that because this was low season, the resort did not have all the restaurants open. This really limited our options considering to leave the hotel you have to take a water taxi to get ANYWHERE. Not the most practical, but again, that’s the charm of Bora Bora. Also, we’re not sure if they were low staff or poorly managed, although it seemed that both of these factors were at play across all our dining experiences.

Overall, our stay was nothing short of amazing, despite food and beverage being a bit of a mess. Thalasso was such a magical place and I hope we get to go back one day, sooner rather than later!

Excursions

Private Catamaran: We chartered a private catamaran for the day through Vitamin Sea Bora Bora. What a treat! Tony and Allan were our “guides” and we had such a great time with them! Everything was so well planned and they were so friendly giving us an insight into not only Bora Bora, but their life in Bora Bora.

Swim w/ Stingray & Sharks: While hesitant at first, this was one of the most fun excursions we did! Not only did we meet some great people from around the world, but we got so up close to different types of sharks, stingray, eel and even got to swim with not one, but TWO Manta Ray! Our guides from Moana Adventure Tour knew all the great spots to hit up and made our trip so fun!

If you’ve taken the time to get this far, I commend you! This was challenging to put together because I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface and didn’t do this trip the justice it really deserves! It was beyond beautiful, beyond special, and beyond memorable. All credit goes to Joel for taking the lead on planning this entire honeymoon. I’m usually the planner for just about everything and after spending months planning a wedding, this was AMAZING! It was so hard to come home, but being back only makes the daily grind more motivating to have more moments like this.

If you’re looking into visiting French Polynesia and have some more questions or just want to chat, please, reach out! I would love to share more! If you’d like some more in depth reviews of our hotels or excursions, check out my TripAdvisor profile!