More Mexico Fun

Everywhere we went there were people dressed up in Mayan costumes, or holding monkeys, lizards, birds, etc. that charged you for taking a picture of them. This was one of them- a 50 peso picture right here. It was cool seeing these guys swinging from their feet around the pole.

There was lots of shopping places right by our hotel, it was fun to walk down the strip looking at all the junk they had.

Some more laying out on the beach.

We got some good seats for the next show at the hotel.

This show was really neat to watch. I loved the acrobat stuff.

We went on another tour out snorkeling in the ocean.

It was beautiful clear blue water with lots of colorful tropical fish. The boat took a big group out to 2 places along a reef it was so pretty! I got a bit seasick and totally puked all over myself, then I was fine.

We were so happy to see our little monkeys after a good week. We got Boyd a t-shirt and the girls a Mexican dress.

Mexico!

We just got back from Cancun last night! We had a really great time overall and we are glad to be back home with our kids.
The traveling days were pretty long... next time we go somewhere we will pay the extra money for a direct flight. Anyway, we got there and the resort was really nice and fancy. It rained only the first night, but was perfect weather the rest of the time. 

Not a great picture, but the first night at the hotel, they had a neat show with Mayan dancers and cool costumes.

The beach outside our hotel was gorgeous, blue ocean, white sand and very clean. We had a lot of lounging on the beach and by the pools.

We went on a Mayan Adventure Tour one of the days- it was rappelling, Zip Lines and Snorkeling in the Cenote cave.

The other place on the tour was Tulum Mayan ruins. It was very cool to see, but holy hell it was HOT! I don't think I've ever sweat so much ever!

Such a gorgeous place right on the ocean with lots of trees and cute iguanas.

More pictures to come...

An amazing hike

Today my brother Cody and his family invited us to hike the caves in American Fork Canyon. I had no idea what we were in for. We got there early in the day (for us, anyway) and it was packed! We had to wait about 3 hours before we could start on the hike... so some advice for anyone wanting to go there... get tickets in advance for the time you want. When we came back, we started up the steep trail.

This is still pretty early on in the hike, but wow the view was awesome!

We are not used to this sort of thing, so we were so glad for all the bench stops along the way.

 Ken did the best out of all of us, and alternated carrying the bag and the kids.

Still not up to the caves, we were pretty hammered. Daisy was especially exhausted early on.

We kept trucking along uphill with our tired crew.

What were we thinking bringing along these 5 little kids?
About the last 1/4 part of the hike, it started raining! We had to get in those caves as fast as we could and my legs and arms were just shaking, trying to carry Daisy up the steepest part in the rain. But, we finally made it in.

We were geniuses and DIDN'T bring jackets. Poor kids were soaked and freezing inside the caves (its about 45 degrees in there).

I don't know what the kids thought about it, but Ken and I thought the caves were very cool!

There were lots of tight spaces and stalagmite obstacles to weave through. In one spot, the tour guide lady turned off the lights to utter darkness, it was amazing.

When we finally got out, Daisy kept saying "I tan't believe it!" And it was really great that the rain stopped for us.

Can you spot our little friend?

Awesome view, huh? The walk downhill was much better and faster, but still plenty tiring for us all.

In case you were wondering how Daisy felt about the whole adventure. She was so done hours ago!

Ahhhh... home to that beautiful sunset! We needed a bath and dinner like nothin' else. I have a feeling we'll all sleep GOOD tonight!

What a week!

This has been a busy, crazy week! Yesterday, we had my uncle John's funeral (he was my dad's brother). Funerals are so emotionally draining for me. I did pretty well for most of it not completely losing it, but there were just some really tender moments that got me. Mostly just seeing the faces of Aunt Sheri and the kids, my Oma and Opa, my Dad, and siblings was just heartbreaking. For most of the talks, the speakers tried to keep it light by talking about the fun/ crazy things about Uncle John and there was a lot that I didn't know. My brother had a picture of my siblings taken, I don't know how to copy just the picture from facebook onto here, but there it is anyway.

Last night, I went to Thanksgiving Point Gardens with my fun book club. I hadn't been there before (except for the Children's Garden) and I was blown away at how huge and gorgeous it is. I've got a lot of pictures of it, so sorry if its overload.

I have more, but you get the idea... awesome, huh? The waterfalls were amazing, even though they are man-made.

More July fun

We got to have some more fun festivities last night with the Copiers.

We had our traditional BBQ and the cousins ran around together. They always love the swing.

Then we headed out to the court to watch the neat fireworks. It was fun to enjoy the whole neighborhood's fancy ones, too.

Aunt Kelly brought glow sticks and sparklers for the kids and they loved it.

My only decent firework picture. I love my camera, but it is not the best for dark. Uncle Chad and Uncle Cody got to be the master lighters.
We had such a fun time, even with a little rain and wind thrown in there. All the kids wore themselves out!

Happy July!

We've had a fun weekend so far... BBQ on Friday and fireworks on Sat.

I made these awesome stuffed strawberries on Friday (its a cream cheese filling with graham cracker crumbs and chocolate). Soooo gooooood!

We watched the Stadium fireworks from Papa and Gramma's yard last night. We love having that tradition with all the awesome treats and awesome fireworks. Daisy was so tired before we even started. She was quite contrary to everyone's comments all night "No, not pretty fireworks! Not a blue one! Not like one!" Oh well, she is 2 after all!

Lucy was so excited for fireworks, and she has been talking non-stop about them. We even had to get her a special outfit for the occasion. She loved the sparklers more than anyone!

I'm so proud of Boyd actually holding a sparkler! He was pretty nervous at first, then he decided it was ok. He's come a long way from a couple years ago... he even had friends to run around with and had a great time!

My niece and nephew, Violet and Dexter, got to come with us to watch the fireworks.