Spring Break

This is our first year to have a real spring break and Ethan thought it was the greatest thing ever. On Monday morning we got up and the kids were watching cartoons while I had a shower. After awhile Ethan said, "Mom, you forgot........never mind." I knew exactly what he was thinking but didn't say anything. Then later on in the day he said, "Mom, you forgot to take me to school today." And was super excited that he had gotten away with it. I explained that he didn't have school cause it was spring break. Then everyday he would ask if it was still spring break and he still didn't have to go to school. At the end of the week he said he loved spring break and wished we could have it every week. Isn't that every kids dream.

Javan and I had to work for most of the week but decided to head up to Salt Lake to go car shopping on the weekend. So on Thursday I packed up the kids and we headed to Moab for a sleepover at Dad's house. (Which was totally weird to say. For those that don't know, and to clear up any confusion, Javan is working on a new hospital build in Moab and he and his crew rent a house and live there during the week.) The kids thought it was the greatest thing in the world, Dad has his own house with everything in it, even bunk beds.

They were so excited all week to sleep on the top bunks of the bunk beds, until we got there and saw there weren't any rails on them. I decided it probably wasn't such a good idea after that. But they still had fun climbing up and down and watching some TV perched atop the bunk beds.


We ordered some pizza and rented a movie from a Red Box (another totally amazing thing we don't have in Blanding) and invited some cousins over to hang out.


Ally and Kamron got a hold of my camera and decided to have a little fashion show. When I finally got my camera back there were about 100 pictures of the two of them in lovely poses. These were a few of the best ones.
Kamron's tricky pose.


Ally's beautiful pose.


The next day we headed up to Salt Lake to do some car shopping. We were in and out of car dealerships all day. The kids were being really good but were starting to get a little restless. So I was feeding Ryan some candies, which he was doing really good with until he got sick of that kind and started playing with it. He was covered in chocolate.


We didn't find a car that we wanted to buy on Friday and the kids had had quite enough of the shopping so we headed to our motel so the kids could go swimming. We stayed at a place called Staybridge Suites in West Valley that has a little waterpark in it. This brightened them up and wore them out for the rest of the evening. I didn't get any pictures of it and the website won't let me steal any from it either. Here's a link if you want to see it.

The next day, the first dealership we went to, Salt Lake Valley GMC, we found the car we wanted. Then we had to start on all the paper work. They had a little play place for the kids, which helped keep them entertained. All the guys at the dealership were really great, Greg, our salesman even played with the kids while we filled out all the papers.

Javan and the kids playing in the funny mirror at the car dealership.


Ethan, Ally, and Ryan smashed behind the clock.


For some reason the car dealership had this stuffed musk ox. Ryan didn't like it at all.


Here's our new car. A GMC Yukon. It seats 9, wahoo! I love having lots of room. We let the kids pick the color. It's fun and the kids are loving it too. We have threaten their lives with spilling food and getting it dirty inside. Which Ethan tried to test out when he got sick on Saturday night and was throwing up. Luckily we had a bag that we caught it in. Oh, you can see the water slide in the back ground.

The kids were telling all the guys at the dealership that we had gone to too many car stores and our trip wasn't even fun. So we decided to go do some fun stuff for the kids. First we went to Cabela's. Who doesn't love that? We checked out all the fish and animals and did some shooting in the shooting range then ate lunch.

Then we went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We all love aquariums, they are so fascinating and it's fun to watch the kids get so excited about seeing all the different things. Ryan was loving it too!

Javan and the kids petting the sting rays.

As soon as we got the new car Javan said "Great, now I'm going to have to ride home by myself." Ethan felt bad for him and said he would ride with him, but when it came right down to it Ethan wanted to come with me in the new car. So Ally decided to ride with Javan for awhile. Then when we stopped for lunch she decided that she wanted to ride in the new car too. But then I let Javan drive it for awhile, and we basically played musical cars the whole way home.

It turned out to be a pretty fun spring break for the kids (and me too!). They were so good, and now they love the trip in the new car.

Girls Trip 2010

Last month me and my "life-long" friends had our 3rd annual GIRLS TRIP 2010! Because we were all coming from different places we met in Salt Lake. It's always such a great time. It's our tradition to eat at Olive Garden the first night. Then we did a little shopping and headed back to the motel where the real fun begins. It's so fun to reminisce the good ol' days and catch up on what everyone has been doing. We're not as young as we used to be, but we did manage to stay up until 3 am the first night. By saturday afternoon we were all dragging. Nothing a little Cafe Rio and some more hot tubbin' can't fix.

We sat in the hot tub. Me, Cyndi, Lisa, Nicole, and Heather (forgot her swimming suit :( ).


Nicole got some new lip stain and let Heather test it out on her.


Don't they look beautiful!


The next day we headed to the spa for some pampering ;). Nicole needed some moral support.


So did Lisa. It's girls trip, you have to do everything together. I mean EVERYTHING!


After the spa we headed up to Abravanel Hall to see Brian Regan. He is a comedian, hilarious.


Brian Regan in the act.


Heather, Nicole, and Lisa had to wear their glasses so they could see Brian.


Cyndi and Tamia, looking cute on the bed. Trying not to fall asleep too early.


All the girls! (Look at my long arms, I can reach around all of them.)


Thanks girls for such a fun weekend, can't wait until next year!

Hola Amigos!

Well, we got another 5 inches of snow yesterday/last night and I am sinking into a deep, dark depression longing for the sunshine and green grass so I decided I would finally get around to blogging about our trip to Can Cun. It makes me happy to see the sun and beautiful water and me wearing shorts and flip flops.

Last November Javan and I went on a trip to Can Cun with some friends from our ward. We had the best time. It was such a nice, relaxing, and fun filled trip. Thanks so much Jim and Crystaleen for inviting us! And Steve and Ginger too.

This has turned out to be a really long post. I was so happy to see these warm pictures after several cold months that I had a hard time narrowing them down. So get ready. Here we go.

Jim and Crystaleen Hunt have a timeshare to this awesome place in Can Cun called the Avalon Baccarra. It is part of a larger resort but this part where we stayed only has about 10 apartment things that are all timeshares. So it was very quaint, and quite and personal. It was awesome. This is the front of the motel.

This is a view of the ocean out the back of the motel. There was a hurricane that went through the week before we went and most of the beach was washed away. You can see that little tug boat out in the ocean. It was there all week working with this huge barge thing that was dredging up sand and bringing it up closer to the shore to build the beach back up. It was such a beautiful view.

A view from our balcony, overlooking the pool and the ocean. Here you can see the barge/ship thing.

This is Jimmy and Crystaleen at Margaritaville. The amigo in the background was making us some fresh guacamole and made Crystaleen wear the hat while he was doing it. It was really good guacamole too.

Our crazy waiter made us all balloon hats (that's him to the left in the back). My flower hat was enormous, everyone that walked by bumped into it. I guess they have to make the atmosphere fun cause the food was nasty (at least mine was).

Ginger, Crystaleen, Javan, Jimmy, and Steve relaxing by the pool after a dip in the ocean. Some of us could use a little more sun.

Javan and I going to read by the pool. I was reading the book "Undaunted", it's a pretty big book, and I couldn't believe all the comments people made about the size of it. It was a good conversation piece. I had a nice talk about the Mormon pioneers with some guy from New York down by the pool.

We spent most night playing cards and games together which was so much fun. Here Crystaleen and I were dominating a game of Head and Foot.

We took a beginner course in scuba diving. Sadly, Ginger couldn't participate because of health reasons. This is during scuba school at our pool dive. From L to R: Jimmy, Crystaleen, Steve, Javan, Me and Horatio (our instructor). The little guy in the background was Sebastian, Horatio's son. It was his birthday and his dad promised him that he would teach him how to scuba dive so he was there learning with us. Crystaleen and I were pretty nervous, we both had some moments of panic during the lesson and Crystaleen decided not to continue.

Here we are with Horatio after successfully completing the pool portion of our scuba class.

Jim, Chris, Ginger and Steve on the boat on the way to our open water dive. They let Crystaleen and Ginger come on the boat even though they weren't diving. They were pretty sea sick when we got done after rolling on the waves in the boat for an hour while we dived.

Gearing up.

Javan and I scuba diving. Steve in the background taking a picture of Jimmy taking a picture of us.

Javan with a sexy scuba pose.

Me with a conk shell. I think it was against the rules to pick it up but I did and I was a little afraid something was going to come out and get me.

The group after a great dive. I love snorkeling but scuba diving really was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was so awesome to be down on the ocean floor closer to all the marine life. It was so quiet and peaceful and calm down there. It was amazing. Now we can't wait to finish our certification.

After getting lost in downtown Can Cun looking for an authentic Mexican restaurant we had a cab driver suggest this place called La Parrillas (I think). It was delicious. And such a fun place. The waiter brought our drinks stacked on top of his head. (Don't worry, they are all non-alcoholic.)

They started our food on fire.

Brought it out still sizzling hot. Those green things are cactus.

I thought the bathroom sign at the restaurant was pretty funny.
It was actually Jimmy and Crystaleen's anniversary that day. (Now I can't remember how many years.)

So a Mariachi band came and played them a love song.
Waiting out front for our tour guide Helaman to pick us up. Ginger was excited.

The group at the cenote. A cenote is a sinkhole with exposed rocky edges containing groundwater. They are surface connections to subterranean water bodies. Cenote water is often very clear, as the water comes from rain water infiltrating slowly through the ground, and therefore contains very little suspended particulate matter. In many cases, cenotes are areas where sections of cave roofs have collapsed revealing an underlying cave system. (I got this definition from wikipedia, very informative.)

A view of the cenote from the top looking down.

From the bottom looking up.
From the inside looking straight.

We only had a few minutes to spend at the cenote so the girls decided not to get in. But he boys all went for it. Here are Javan, Jimmy (diving), and Steve taking the plunge.

Javan and I in front of the big temple at Chichen Itza.

Javan at Chichen Itza.

This is Helaman our tour guide. He and his sister, Alma, run an LDS tour company. It was really neat to learn about the Mayan people and Book of Mormon and how they all tie together. Helaman was great. His favorite line was "I will esplain you, you will understand." (Use your best Hispanic accent.) It was hilarious.

We also had the opportunity to go deep sea fishing. The day we went scuba diving we stopped at the fishing boats to ask them how many they had caught and what types of fish they were catching. The most they said was 7 fish. So since there were six of us were just hoping that we would all catch at least one and that no one would be left out. But I told the guides I wanted to catch a fish as big as me. As we headed out to the fishing spot we stopped to catch the bait fish. Yes, this is the bait. (They looked bigger in real life.)

Javan reeling in a big one. These fish had some fight. They were tough to reel in.

Ginger and Steve working hard.

Crystaleen with a needle fish. This was one of the bait fish. Our fishing guide snapped off that needle part before attaching it to the hook. I was going to say "poor fish" but then we did just stab a hook into it and feed it to a much larger fish.

The crew taking a breather. We all took a couple dramamine before the trip to prevent seasickness but we couldn't fight off the drowsiness.

Here's me catching a huge fish.

Now Jimmy was really working hard. It took him about 30 minutes to reel this fish in. He was exhausted after.
And with good reason. Look at that monster. He caught a record breaking fish!

It measured 58 inches. Now that's almost as big as me, I'm only 64 inches. Our guides said the biggest fish they had caught on that boat was 47inches. They suggested he have it mounted. Way to go Jimmy!

Crystaleen

Steve

Ginger

Javan

Me. They didn't think I was strong and gave me the smallest one to hold.

In all we caught 21 fish, which they said was also a record. We were having a contest with another boat next to us. The guides kept yelling to each other how many fish we had caught, which we couldn't really understand, except for some of the numbers. We had to go back 3 different times to catch more bait fish. By the end of the trip we were worn out. The type of fish we were catching were called Amberjacks. We asked our guides if we could take some home to fry up at our motel, so they cut a fillet out of one of the fish for us, and then said "Come, let me show you how to get the worms out." What!?! Come to find out Amberjacks are like the carp of the ocean, they are basically trash fish and you don't really eat them. Needless to say we threw the fish away the second we got out of the sight of our guides. They said they use the fish for bait when they go on shark encounters. After we heard all of this we were glad Jimmy decided not to get his fish mounted.

Our fishing guides, Raul, Ed, and Charlie, with all our spoils.

Javan on the jumping contraption at the mall.

Jimmy tried it too. It was hilarious because they kept telling the guy "Ok, I'm good" meaning "I'm done" and he would nod and say "ya, you are!" and keep bouncing them higher and higher. Thinkin they were super excited to keep going. They couldn't get him to stop. Jimmy catching a nice wave on the boogie board. We learned pretty fast that we're not as young as we used to be. We were pretty sore from working hard to catch the waves.

Aaaahhhhh, one last relaxing day at the beach. So beautiful.

Well this was one of the best trips Javan and I have been on. Great friends, beautiful place, delicious food, fun activities. What could be better. Thanks Jim and Chris for a great week. We loved it! And thank you to all the grandmas and grandpas for tending the kids so we could go.