{Mexico 2010}

So I went the whole month of February without posting....that is a record!

On February 5th, Troy and I headed down to SLC.
The next day we attended my nieces baptism. Later that night I said good bye to my babies.....for a whole week. It was so hard and it was the longest I have ever left them.
The week gone could have never happened if my brother and sister in law weren't the wonderful people that they are and take care of the kids while we were gone.....{Thanks Jeff & Cindy!}

{Sunday}

Designated travel day. We left for the airport bright and early (too early!) and arrived in Cancun by mid-afternoon. Then took a van ride to our hotel: Dreams Puerto Aventuras
Since it was Superbowl Sunday, that night on the beach we ate and watched the game on some major big screens on the beach.

{Monday}

Tour the area day. We walked to the local shops to check out where we were. The Marina could be seen from our hotel balcony. The Dolphin Discovery was also located there also. I think swimming with the dolphins would have been fun, but I would only really want to have the dolphins come and push my feet, and to do that you had to buy the 'best' package which was $179-ish a person! Wowza! :) That night we went to Playa del Carmen, toured there, walked the beach and visited a Mexico Wal-Mart. That was quite the experience! As we were leaving we stopped at a booth to look at some adventure activities....more about that on Wednesday :)

Picture Above:From our hotel balcony.....The 'adults only' pool. The smaller one on the left had a swim up bar. How lazy that you can just swim up to the bar to get yourself a drink.... Even farther to the left was the marina.

Picture Below: Better angle of the Marina
{Tuesday}

Trip to Chichen Itza. It was at least a 3 hour bus ride, but on the way there we made a few stops.
First, a stop to an underground cenote.
They only gave us 30 minutes there, so Troy and I opted not to get in and swim. But it was huge, and the ropes strung every where and one wrapped around a rock as an anchor were quite humorous. ;0)

The ruins were great. Don't know if I would ever go see them again, but at least I can say we saw them :) The details were amazing!

{Wednesday}

Remember Monday night when we stopped at the Wal-Mart adventure booth?!?!? Well we got roped into doing a time share presentation. Only because we got two tickets to an adventure of our choice, both tickets for 50 bucks. Without going we would have spent $120 a piece!

We were told it would be a 90 minute presentation.
FOUR hours later Troy is banging his head on the wall, shooting himself in the head telling them NO and that we are DONE! Let us go!!

Maybe we should have paid the extra money..... :)

{Thursday}

Our Adventure day, that we sat through 4 hours of people trying to convince us to buy their time share.... We chose Xcaret.

It was at this park, we went snuba diving. I did not spell that wrong. It was really sNuba diving. I was totally fine with the whole idea of snuba diving.

Until, they strapped the weighted belt to my waist, put the regulator harness to me and dropped us off the side of the boat.
I freaked! I was so worked up that I was grinding my teeth so hard, I locked my jaw up and could barely open my mouth to put the regulator in! After trying to get me to go down a few times, the instructor let me take the belt off and just skim across the top of the water. After a little while of this another instructor came along, grabbed my hand and pulled me under.

I, then, was okay with all of it :)

After all the snuba fun we had an 'authentic' Mexican dinner. The restaurant was LITERALLY attached to the horse stables! You could smell the manure while you were eating.....gross.

Before we left for home, they had a show. The first half was amazing! The costumes were unbelievable and the whole thing was great.

Walking into the show most of the characters were standing all over, so you can get pictures with them.
I have some videos of some of the performances. I will get those uploaded and posted into a new post....hopefully soon :)

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They were so authentic, this guy had a REAL snake wrapped around his wrist!

{Friday}

One of my favorite days....
We took a ferry to Cozumel island. Once there, we rented a scooter and headed out of all the hustle and bustle of people. (It was super windy!)




After about 30 or 40 minutes we stopped and walked around some of the beach.

The water was hitting the rocks so hard, and there were blow holes everywhere.

Right as Troy was looking into one.....it come up WAY higher than before.....



Oops!


If you have ever lost a shoe while in the ocean, it could have washed up to the shore. There was so many shoes and trash along the shore.



A little farther down the road, we found a great spot to play in the water. Beach was pretty clean, only about 10 other people playing there.
It was a blast! Well, until one time I came up from a big wave to find my swimsuit top down WAY farther then it should be and a little after that I came down again onto a rock and cut my toe open :) I was a little wounded. Physically and mentally. LOL

Shortly after our ride back in, some lunch, wondering of the streets we headed back to catch the ferry.
There was a HUGE down pour! The rain was coming down so hard, it was ridiculous!
On the ferry ride back there was a band there that played for us. They were great and their first song was "Have you ever seen the rain" That song has officially been sung MANY MANY times in our home in the last two weeks. Mostly by Troy and now Taylor. :)

{Saturday}

Relax at the hotel day. This was our first day we didn't leave the resort. I lounged by the shore and read (while Troy sat there next to me BORED!) then left to take out the kayak.
Shortly after I moved to the adults only side (quieter and less wind) Troy comes strolling in telling me I had to come snorkeling with him.

Just off the shore of our hotel we saw more fish (and was just as close) as when we went snuba diving! It was amazing. And then I hit my shin against some coral....and yet again I become wounded. That one hurt! ;)
I got cold so I bailed out a little before Troy and went straight to the hot tub....ahhhhh heaven :)

{Sunday}

Travel day again. The only bad thing was we didn't get on our first flight until 12:30 and had a 4 HOUR lay over in Chicago. We didn't get into Utah until 11:30-ish, then had an hour drive to my brother's house.

I was so excited to see the kids that I was up at 6:00, grabbing Parker (which was awake crying and would probably went back to sleep) giving him hugs. He wouldn't look at me at first. But Laid on me for a long time :) When Taylor saw us she got all choked up and almost started crying....Mommy too :)

It was such a much needed vacation. After almost 7 years of marriage we took our first real vacation. I could definitely get use to taking vacations!

Thanks again Jeff & Cindy!

All Packed Up

Troy and I's gift to each other this year for Christmas, is to take a much needed vacation.....Just the two of us.

We have the tickets and hotel lined up, so February 7, look out Mexico! ;)

My Brother and Sister-in-law nicely agreed to take our kids for the week (Thanks!). After I got off the phone with them, I told Taylor that she gets to spend a whole week with them. She was so excited she started packing that night.

She kept asking me if she could bring all these different things. I kept telling her it's going to be awhile until it's time but she insisted on packing up.

At one point she had her and Parker's little minkee pillows, both their blankets, Parker's pacifier and two sippy cups all shoved into the corner. Along with bags shoved with toys. She started screaming when I took Parker's stuff out so he could go to bed.

I don't think she will miss Mom as much as Mom is going to miss her.

White Water Rafting

A few weekends ago (I am so far behind on blogging, it's ridiculous!) some friends invited us to go white water rafting with them.

I have asked Troy to take me a few times so I was so excited that everything worked out for us to go!
Melissa watched out kids overnight for us (Thanks!) and we left and had a wonderful time!

I didn't take very many pictures and I was a little bummed that the ones that others take for you on the "Big Kahuna" wasn't posted online.

The crew.

Of course we let all the men do all the work...




First time going and it was a blast. Will go again. Hopefully sooner than later. :)

Mini Vacation

My sister and her husband from Canada flew into Utah this past week/weekend to visit their boys in Logan and to come down and see their parents (they are both from here so both set of parent(s) live in the same town).

I was lucky enough to have a wonderful sister in law that took the kids all day Friday and a loving Mom that watched them all day Saturday and A TERRIFIC husband that watched them Friday night, took them to my Mom's Saturday and later picked them up so that I could go spend some time in Utah.....kid-free!

Friday was our 'shopping' day. We hit a few stores then we went to the Rock House. It was so much fun!




All day it was weird that I didn't have to worry about naps or meals or 'restrictions' because of the little ones!

After a few hours of climbing it was dinner time then off to the hotel hot tub! (with Kohl's in between!)

Saturday started bright and early as we all made our way to Beaver mountain for a FULL day of skiing/snowboarding. I ski, haven't tried the snowboarding scene out, and don't know if I ever will....

My camera was a little big to just stick in my pocket and not worry about falling and breaking it, so I don't have any pictures. My sister does.....and I am hoping she will post them so I can steal them. Gina?!?!?!?

The weekend was exactly what I needed. A little break.
I did come home to a sick little one though. Poor Parker has another ear infection. But he's not too horrible. All he wants to do is cuddle with me.....not really complaining. They grow up so fast that them sitting still in my lap went by way too fast, so this is a pleasant surprise! :)

That little break away from the kids gave me the patience I needed to keep going. I was starting to wear a little thin.....

President's Day Weekend

We took advantage of the long weekend and went to Albion's Campus Grove with family and friends. It was an absolute blast!

The weekend was full of tons of stuff to do. There was never a dull moment.

Every meal was delicious and there were way too many snacks laying around....I think we left with a few extra pounds, no joke.

Making of Valentine's bags and the passing out of the goods was our activity for Friday night.




We took Taylor sledding Saturday afternoon and we LITERALLY took her down the hill twice and she was DONE! (pics to come!)

I was a slacker and didn't get a picture of the two kids in their "Valentine's Shirts." These two are the closest we got the day they were wearing them!

Sunday morning brought time to set up 'shop' for Troy and take group and family pictures.
This was my favorite of Parker. None were taken of Taylor...she was napping :)


We then took a tour of all the other buildings.




One of which was the gymnasium that they are currently working on to turn into an event center.



Sunday night brought the introduction of Guitar Hero. We are now the proud owners of that game. I guess we liked it...even though it boo'd me off stage a few times that night.

The long weekend was fantastic, Thanks for the invite Patrice!

Family Vacation

Troy worked all his water out perfectly that he had NONE this week!
We took the lack of work needing to get done and took a mini family vacation to Utah.

We decided to stay two nights and have more of a relaxed time instead of trying to cram all the things we wanted to do into two days.

After a long drive down, welder pick up, and some lunch we headed to the hotel for some much needed naps!
While myself and the kids slept Troy hit the NPS store.

After we woke up it was time for dinner then we decided to hit the hotel swim pool.
Isn't Parker the cutest little chunk trying to fill out those swim shorts?!!?

The pool was FREEZING! I could barely stick my feet in let alone let Parker get in! Taylor stuck a few toes in, but quickly decided that was not for her. Troy was the only one that braved the cold and that was only for a few minutes!
We decided to just hit the hot tub.
It was LUKE WARM! I could sit on the step with Parker in my lap and not worry about getting too hot or burning the children! We only lasted for about 15 minutes.

The next morning with the much awaited HOGLE ZOO!
Taylor was so excited that on the drive there you would look at her and she would just be grinning from ear to ear!

If you ask her about the zoo she replies, "Raffe (giraffe) stinky" all the while holding her nose. We went inside the giraffe buildings to see the 'Mama & baby' and it stunk so bad!


The Monkeys were her next on her favorites list.


The elephants....not so much! (I think the huge metal elephant that made all the loud noises scared her or else she would have liked them.)


This bear made me laugh!

Once it started getting hot (We got there at 9:00 & left by 10:30-the weather was perfect & no crowds made it even better!) We knew it was time to go when Taylor would rather kick her feet up and munch on some cookies...

I am so glad I decided to bring the jogging stroller instead of the sit 'n stand stroller so that Taylor could have her own comfortable seat. We ended up using the stroller alot!

After a HORRIBLE experience at Market Square (Terrible two's...need I say more?!?!) it was time to go to the hotel for nap time!
Later that night we met up with my Brother in law, Craig, who was in town for a business meeting for some dinner (Are you jealous Gina & Ashley??!!?!)

When our bellies were full we walked down to the Gateway so Taylor & Troy could play in the discovery center and at the splash park while Parker and I went to some stores. She only got in trouble for shoving one kid (one kid too many!) down.

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We called and worked in Troy's 6 month Dr's check up into while we were in town on Wednesday then after wards we hit up Bukoos
This has become my new favorite store when we go to Utah. We found WAY too much stuff there but price was right!
I went there looking for a new quilt for our bedroom...mission accomplished.


We actually found two and since one was only $12! We got both! The one I decided to use was only $30!!! We also found some nice sheets for 20 bucks!

Since I download a TON of scrapbooking stuff my computer was running out of space so we found a portable hard drive. Well, we actually found one for my computer and one for Troy's for all the MANY MANY pictures taking up space on the desktop! Again, prices were right so we couldn't not get them!

The last 10 minutes at the store was the fussiest Parker had been during the ENTIRE trip! Once his bum was changed and belly full he was a happy camper. He slept the entire night both nights there and was content with us hauling him around in the carseat the entire trip.
Taylor had a few moments, but for the most part was a pretty good kid.
Both of them slept the entire drive home so it was nice and peaceful.

It was so nice to get away from our every day lives and spend some time with Troy during the nice weather summer days!

Just in time for grain harvest to start....