mexico day 7 and 8

day 7 (tuesday) was our last full day in mexico

we told my dad we wanted a beach day, and that's what he gave us.

again, we spent the day at our favorite spot on the beach.

we did some snorkeling, some eating, some reading, some kayaking, some pina-colada drinking, some sleeping, and some more eating.

funniest moment of the day is when we told my dad we wanted a "jumping" picture on the beach.  he had no idea what we were talking about and struggled big time trying to get us in the air.  

as we were attempting the jumping pictures (and laughing hysterically at ourselves and at my dad), these two little amigos were watching us and laughing at us.  we ended up inviting them to join us.  pepe is the one in the white shirt, and flores is the one in the yellow.

they had never taken jumping pictures before and were more pro at it than we were.

they became our new bffs

that night we got all dolled up and ready for our last dinner at the japanese steakhouse (think tepanyaki).

we decided while we all looked so tropical and pretty that we'd take a few family pictures on the beach

the next day we got up early and got things all packed up.

the gang went miniature golfing while i did some last minute shopping

we made it to the airport in cancun by about 3pm and made it home to logan that night around 1am

we had an amazing time on this trip and i am so glad my dad put it all together.

my family is the bomb diggity and we loved being able to play with them for 8 days straight with no telephone or computer distractions :)

thanks again mom and dad for the trip... you're the best parentals ever!

and that concludes our fabulous mexican vacation

mexico day 6

day 6 (monday) we planned to go to akumal bay

akumal is known as "the place of the turtles" and is a protected ecological marine research and turtle protection area.  

we took the collectivo again, but this time only about 10 minutes south of our resort.  akumal beach was gorgeous with perfect white sandy beaches and practically no one was there.  we had to watch a wildlife protection video before we could enter the water, but then we rented some snorkel gear and headed out to find us some sea life.

we saw lots of sea turtles and sting rays!  not too many tropical fish, but that's ok because we've seen those plenty of times snorkeling in other places.  i've never swam with turtles before (or stingrays for that matter), so it was quite the experience!

that night we ate at the resort's italian restaurant and watched the nba playoffs in one of the lounges.  i guess even on vacation in mexico you can't get away from the nba

mexico day 4 & 5

saturday (day 4) was our first full day of relaxation.  we found our favorite spot on the beach at the resort and didn't leave except to get in the water, get some food, and get some pina coladas.

this was also the day that a few people in our group started feeling a bit sick.  we think it was the fajitas from the mexican buffet the day before because only a few of us were feeling yucky.  lucky for me, i passed up the fajitas.  sadly enough, josh did not.

day 5 (sunday), we decided to head into playa del carmen for church.  well, those of us that felt good enough to go.  my dad did some research and found out how the collectivo (public transportation) system worked and where exactly the church was.  it started at 9 so just to be safe (remember, no one in my family speaks spanish) we decided to leave plenty early so we would make it on time.  well, we were at the chapel much than we had expected to be- like an hour early.  while we were sitting there, we joked about how one of us should go and practice playing on the piano because they'd probably ask us to play.

well, it wasn't really funny anymore at 8:55 when the bishop came up to us and asked if one of us would play all 4 songs for the meeting.  somehow i got chosen to play (instead of my little sisters and mother who can all play the piano and actually have one that they practice regularly).  pretty sure i'm a little rusty anyway, but add a completely full congregation, two songs that i don't know very well, and one song that isn't even in our english hymnbook, and you have one very scary, intimidating experience.  well, the lord was on my side because i was able to make it through the songs ok, even the one i had to sight-read.

it was an interesting experience, and one that i will always remember, even if we have no idea what was said because it was all in spanish.

after sacrament meeting, we decided to walk to the wal-mart to get some pepto-bismal for the rest of our group back at the resort.  we were in mexico while the world cup was going on and it was quite the sight to see all of the men sitting on patio chairs in the electronics department cheering mexico on.  classic.

we also shopped around a little bit on their 5th avenue and bought some jewelry and a few souvenirs.

best line of the day:

mexican jewelry store owner to my dad (wearing his long sleeve white church shirt in 100+ heat/humidity):

"amigo, are you loco?!  go buy a tee-shirt next store, you crazy gringo"

and so we did

and he changed in an alley way

and he was sooooo much happier!

the rest of the day was spent being lazy on the beach and with dinner at the resort's steakhouse.

mexico day 3

our 3rd day in mexico started off with another early morning

so early, in fact, that we saw the sunrise over the ocean

i think it was worth it

my dad arranged another day of visiting the mayan ruins.  this time, we were going to ek balam.  a site about 2 1/2 hours away from where we were staying and a place where very few tourists go because of its distance away from the coast.  we were picked up by 2 returned missionaries that work for alma tours and traveled with another family from georgia to ek balam.

on the way there, we traveled through a small mayan village of about 3,000 people who actually had an lds church house right in the middle of their town!  the rm's told us that the book of mormon stories correspond so well with the stories the mayan's have been told from their ancestors that teaching them the gospel is easy.  we were allowed inside the building for a mini tour and we even got to meet a cute little mayan lady outside.

when we arrived at ek balam, there was a mayan lady who handed us this weird looking creature for us to take pictures with.  we still have no idea what on earth it was.

i can't even tell you how amazing these ruins were.  this site was huge and had some amazing mayan art and architecture here and is an active archeological site.  again, our tour guide connected so many of the ancient ruins, statues, and carvings to the book of mormon and the gospel.  it was such an amazing testimony building experience that brought the book of mormon stories to life.

 the city has a wall that surrounds it, but they believe that it was not for protection, but rather was built for ceremonial purposes.  the arch that is shown is called a mayan arch.  it was used extensively in mayan architecture.  the entrance actually sloped upward toward the arch because you always walk upward toward the temple.  this is symbolic of entering higher, more sacred grounds.  

ek balam had a ball court, just like other mayan ruins like coba and chichen itza.  one thing that our tour guide showed us was a circular rock structure that current lds archeologists believe to be their baptismal font.

this is the temple (el torre) and the largest structure in ek balam.  we were able to climb to the top of the temple (on some of the smallest and steepest stairs you ever did see) and got quite the view.

this shows the temple facade including the mouth of ek balam, called the black panther or black jaguar.  this was absolutely amazing to see.  there was a lot of symbolism carved into the facade including symbols used in our temple ceremonies.  there was also a painting on the wall that depicted several darker-skinned people surrounding a light-skinned instructor.  these are mayan stories of three white men who would travel around together and try to teach the people about God.  

i thought it was interesting how they found this facade- the mayan calendar is 52 years long and a new ruler would take over as each calendar turned.  the new rulers would add new construction or "layers" to the temple, making it bigger and better and covering up the prior temple.  when the archeologists were excavating this part of the temple, an entire wall came down revealing this un-touched facade.  here they found the opening to the tomb of the ruler of ek balam and the doorway is made up of a jaguar's mouth with fangs all around it.

these are pictures of the ruins where the priests and their families would live.  the area where the priests lived was inside the first outer wall and there were usually two walls.  the temple is inside of the innermost wall.  the two walls create three areas- symbolic of celestial, terrestrial, and telestial glories.

the rest of the plaza is surrounded by high structures- two of the biggest ones are still un-excavated and covered by the jungle.

after spending a few hours in the hot hot sun, we headed to another fabulous cenote to cool off.

we also headed back to the same little buffet we went to the day before for round 2 of yummy mexican food.

a little giveaway

feeling lucky?

head on over to 

{sassy blossoms}

to enter the awesome giveaway!

hurry, giveaway ends tuesday, august 31st!

because i grew up a ute fan

i applied to the u way back in the day and got accepted

but going to usu just felt... right

it was a good choice.  i still say that being a student 8 years later.

but my family (immediate and extended) are all still die-hard ute fans

i even have a cousin who is playing on the football team this year.

so a ute onesie only seemed fitting

{find it here}

in love. part deux

after reading the comments from my last post (especially katie's, haha), i found it necessary to do a "part two" of my "in love" series.

this is josh at last week's impromptu bear lake trip.

just like the cute grandma styled bedroom in the previous post,

this boy also makes my heart go pitter patter

especially when he buys me a cute new ruffly apron in hopes to entice me to spend more time in the kitchen, and when i do attempt to recreate greg cox's caramel brownies and they fail miserably, he still eats the entire pan.  now that's love.

more on our fun summer adventures... but not until i finish my capstone (thesis) paper

my goal was to have it done by the end of the summer. 

and i'm determined to stick to this goal.

well, summer ends in a week and i started working on it about 8 hours ago.