School's out, school's out!!!

Well, almost! Only 4 1/2 more days until school is out for the boys. Only eleven days until my u/s where we found out the sex of the baby. Only two weeks until Brandon's completely done with school for this school year! And, in the middle of that, we all get to go down to Salt Lake because Brandon has a conference down there. The boys and I get to hang out at the hotel, swim, play at parks . . . Should be fun!! Yeah! Summer's (almost) here!

Awesome music video!!!

Playa del Carmen & liver

Okay, here we go with the next day of our Mexico adventures. Wednesday morning we slept in - again - and woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. A really loud ring. It was Wayne & LaRean asking if we were ready to go to breakfast. Um, no!! So, we got up, showered and dressed really quickly, and ran downstairs to meet them for breakfast - wet hair and all!

Ahh! Hurry and get ready!

Breakfast was DELICIOUS - they had an assortment of things from sausage and bacon, to pancakes, to breakfast rolls, cereal, omelets cooked with the fixin's you wanted, to some authentic Mexican breakfast "things." They also had at least a dozen juices - from the normal orange and apple juices (both with pulp and without), as well as pineapple juice, tangerine juice (YUM!!!), mango juice, pomegranite juice . . . They had a lot of things, but my fav. was the tangerine juice. Wow!

One of the things, though, that I didn't like was their hot chocolate. They made it with milk (very creamy milk, too), and I don't like h.c. with milk. It's too creamy and thick for me. Brandon also found some batido's - basically a "shake" with milk and banana (and I'm sure some other things. We make them here at home with ice cream, milk, and bananas. Sometimes we had strawberry flavoring.) Anyway, he's talked about batidos from his mission in Ecuador and how great they were, so it was fun to finally taste the real thing.

Various shots of the buffet where we ate breakfast every morning

Enjoying my batido

After that, we wandered to the lobby at the top of the stairs to decide what to do with our day on Thursday. Brandon & I wanted to go off and do something, but Wayne & LaRean were content to stay at the resort, get a massage, wander the beach, take a nap . . . As soon as we found a seat and sat down, Wayne wanted another pinada. (Keep in mind, we had just finished breakfast literally 5 minutes ago.) So, when a worker wandered over, Wayne asked for a "virgin pina colada." She nodded her head yes, and walked off to get it.

Another view of the resort

I was singing as we were walking and Brandon had to get a picture

This was the "roof" above the stairs. It was HUGE!

A few minutes later, she brought back his drink, but we knew at once that it was different. First, it was in a real glass. All the other times that we've asked for a pina colada without alcohol, they always give it to us in a plastic cup. I guess only those with alcohol get to feel special and get the real cups! :) Second, it had a slice of pineapple and a cherry garnishing the top of the glass.

So, LaRean and I decided to smell it, and boy was the smell of alcohol STRONG!! But, Brandon & Wayne couldn't smell anything, so Wayne proceeded to take a drink. "It doesn't taste any different to me," said Wayne. "I can't smell any alcohol, either." LaRean & I tried to convince the two men that there was, indeed, alcohol in the drink, but neither of them believed us. He drank a few more sips, but just to be on the safe side, he didn't drink anymore. What a good guy!

Wayne and his "virgin pina colada!"


What about doing this tomorrow?

Just to show you how much father and son are alike. (And, apparantely, the guy sitting behind Brandon. Maybe it's a "guy thing.")

After that, we went back to our rooms to do the usual getting ready stuff - brush teeth, apply makeup, dry and curl hair . . . Brandon perused the TV channels finally settling on CNN where they had breaking news about the pirate attack on an American ship. Kind of interesting, but (very selfish of me) it wasn't what I wanted to hear about. This was my vacation - I didn't want any gloom and doom.

Once we were ready, we headed back to the front of the resort to catch our bus into Playa del Carmen for our shopping excursion. There were only about four other people on the bus. Of course, being the teenager at heart that he is, Brandon wanted to sit in the very back of the bus. (He wouldn't make out with me, though! Hmm.)

But, we enjoyed our trip into the city very much. We saw some very American type stores - Sam's Club, Home Depot, Chevy, Sherwin Williams - and some very authentic Mexican types. One guy was riding along on a backwards tricycle pedaling his wares. It was very interesting to see. Oh, and there were people walking down the middle of the street selling newspapers to the commuters going past. I don't think I could have brought myself to do that line of work, but they seemed pretty good at it.

Our very empty bus

Workers making breakfast for the people that worked at the resort


Pedaling his wares on his backward tricycle

Once we got into Playa and got our bearings, we headed down to the beach to see about catching a ferry out to Cozumel. (We saw the ferry coming in, but could never find a place with ticket information. They had a "You Are Here" map, but no contact information for anything to do with the ferry. So, we decided to bag it, and just do some shopping instead.)

The ferry pulling into the dock - the water was INCREDIBLE and such a pretty blue color

Along the way, we wandered into a couple different stores, and at the very first one, a dress caught my eye. I turned to LaRean to show her the dress and how pretty it was, and the next thing I know, this dress is being shoved over my head. The lady of the store said, "Here. You try on. Hand made. Very pretty." And she literally took it off the maniquen and put it over my head. So, I guess I was trying on the dress. It was a VERY pretty dress, and you could tell that it was hand-stitched just by looking at it, but with my blossoming figure (all right, all right, it's more like my ever enlarging figure), there was no way I was going to pay $75 for a dress that I could only wear a few times the rest of my life.

The lady "helping" me try on the dress

Once we started the "real "shopping, I was SO glad to have Brandon there to help us bargain and understand the store owners. (I mean, I was glad to have him there anyway 'cause he's my hubby, and we had a week-long date with no kids, but to have his knowledge of Spanish and bargaining was wonderful.) Brandon went to put his sunglasses on that morning, and the snapped on him. In the middle of the ear piece. So, we were looking specifically for sunglasses. We found a store that sold some name brand ones - Ray-ban, Ralph Lauren, Polo - and Brandon & LaRean haggled with the store owner for a while. As they were arguing, I walked into the next store and looked at jewelry.

I'm a sucker for a pretty piece of jewelry - earrings, rings, necklaces . . . I found some BEAUTIFUL rings that were silver with amethyst, and blue/green opal in them. Gorgeous. The store owner was having fun watching Brandon debate with his next-door neighbor, so didn't notice me for a while, so I was able to browse in peace. He finally saw me, though, and then came over and tried to "sell" his wares.

I had found one that I was absolutely in love with, but the owner wasn't sure it would. I had told him I was pregnant, and he kept insisiting that I was going to "swell up big" (sure makes a girl feel good, huh?) and that a bigger size would be better. He insisted that he could make one a size bigger in a day and that I could pick it up tomorrow. *sigh* That wouldn't work because we weren't coming back. So, we decided to keep looking at jewelry stores to see if they had that same ring in the size I needed. As we were leaving, he offered the one that I wanted for $80. Still a little high, though.

Anyway, Brandon finally talked the sunglasses guy down to $10 each for his and LaRean's sunglasses. The guy was not pleased (so he seemed) and went on muttering about how he had to feed his family, too, and that selling glasses at $10 each wouldn't do that. As we left, LaRean asked, "Are you mad at us? Or are we friends?" He grinned and said, "We're friends!"

The rest of the trip was pretty much the same, although, we did find one store that had set prices. (SO nice after having to haggle for a while.) We went in and bought some souveniers for us and the boys, then went to find some lunch. We found a little bistro type place and ordered some ham and cheese quesadillas. They were really good! While we were waiting for our food, a guy came up to us and offered to make us some grasshoppers. Huh? He showed us how he was making grasshoppers out of leaves. It was really cool! Wayned ended up buying two of them and managed to get them home without them being ruined.

One of the many stores in Playa del Carmen

Waiting for lunch

The making of the grasshoppers


The finished products - Mama and Baby grasshopper

We still hadn't found me the ring I wanted at the price we wanted, and we had to start going back to catch our bus. So, we tried the first store again, hoping that he saw we had come back and he'd make a better deal. Still no go, though, so we headed back to our bus. As we stood there waiting, I asked Brandon to go back one more time and try to haggle with the guy. Brandon walked up to him to ask about the ring, and the guy said, "No! I give you the ring for $160!!" I think he was irritated at us that we wouldn't accept the ring for $80, so we ended up not getting the one that I really wanted.

Ring shopping

We headed back to the bus and found out why it was empy when we left this morning. Apparantely, they ferry a bunch of people throughout the day, so they only allow so many people on the bus each trip. That way, they can tell everyone to meet at a certain time and a certain place and not have to make six different trips to pick everybody up.

Once we got back to the hotel, we dropped off our purchases and freshened up for dinner. Tonight's dinner was at an international restaurant - La Fleur. *sigh* Shouldn't have done it. :) You had to make reservations for the restaurant of your choice the morning you wanted to eat there. And, you had to make it early, or it would fill up quickly. We had tried an authentic Mexican restaurant a few nights earlier, and it was pretty good. So, we thought we'd try the international. I was a little skeptical - I thought they might be serving something like frog legs and snails - something I'm not a fan of, even if they're not cooked and on my plate.

But, we got there, and had to order our food. Yikes. Most everything on there was a seafood dish, and I DON'T do seafood. So, I ordered a dish with a fried egg, and some liver. I thought I could at least eat the egg, and I decided that I'd at least try a (tiny) bite of the liver. BIG mistake!! The liver was sitting on top of the egg, so all of the flavor drained down into the egg. So, I couldn't even eat that. I did try a tiny bite of the liver, though, and regretted it in the middle of the night. (I sat by the toilet for 30 minutes thinking, "Okay, just throw up. No, don't throw up. Oh, just get it over with and throw up. No, I don't want to throw up. Ugh, I feel sick!")

Hmm - should I really try it?

My liver plate (all taken apart)

Uggh - did I really try this? Gross!


Brandon & Wayne had the seafood soup

Brandon opening one of the clams in his soup

Wayne trying an octopus (or a squid) tentacle

I don't remember the rest of the meal - who could after eating that? - but for entertainment that night, they had a couple of guys dressed up as Mayan warriors and they did a war dance with their tall drums. After that, we headed back to Wayne & LaRean's room to play some pinochle. I'm fairly new at pinochle, and Wayne & LaRean have been playing for a long time, but we won them that night. That's twice in a row that we've won. But, don't worry - we won't get over-confident!! It'll probably never happen again!

The Mayan Warriors

Kickin' back - playin' Pinochle

Hmm - what do we have?

A view of one of the many swimming pools at night

Happy Mother's Day!!

I just wanted to do a quick post and say Happy Mother's Day to all of you awesome women out there! Some of you are mothers, and some are not, but I appreciate you all! You've been a big influence in my life, and I appreciate all of you! Thanks so much, and have an AWESOME Mother's Day!

Xel-ha & Tulum slide show

Xel-ha & Tulum (very long)

So, on Tuesday in Mexico (yes, I'm finally updating!!!) we got up early, ate some breakfast, and then were herded onto a bus that was taking a bunch of people to Xel-ha (pronounced Shell-hah). Breakfast was included at Xel-ha, but if I don't eat for a long time, I start to get sick to my stomach. So, we decided to eat first, and we're SO glad we did.

When we got there, they gave us the rundown of where everything was, told us to be back at the bus at 2:15 (promptly) and let us go off on our own. Most of the group went off to breakfast, but we decided to hit the snorkeling first. It was AWESOME! We had pretty much the entire cove to ourselves. The water was, again, cold when you first got in, but our bodies adjusted very quickly, and it soon felt warm.

LaRean doesn't do water "sports" so she wandered around and took some awesome pictures of Xel-ha while Wayne, Brandon & I snorkled. Wayne was done after about an hour and went to walk the beach and the area with LaRean, but Brandon and I stayed in for a while longer. We saw a lot of cool fish - the Dory fish (from "Finding Nemo") being the most heavily populated. And, they were HUGE! Sadly, there weren't a ton of fish to swim around in (we found a better place to snorkel AFTER we were finished snorkling and were dressed), but it was still cool.

Separating the cove from the open ocean was a boardwalk that ran around the cove. As we got closer to it, was saw a HUGE dark mass underneath it. When we finally go there, we realized that they were fish. HUGE fish! I was seriously a bit concerned, but they never did cross under the boardwalk into the cove. In "Finding Nemo" toward the end where those fish get caught in the net, and Nemo saves them from being pulled out of the water - those were the type of fish we saw, only they were HUGE and LONG! It was kind of amazing to see these fish just hanging out here. I don't know if they were waiting for handouts from people above, or what, but it was neat.

As we snorkled, we gathered some shells from the bottom of the ocean to take home to the boys, and finally decided to be done. By this point, we were exhausted! It takes a lot of work to move against the current, and to flip our flippers and dive . . . But, it was SO neat!

When we got out, Brandon & Wayne decided just to stay in their swimsuits, but (you girls will know what I'm talking about), it just wasn't comfortable for me. I knew we wouldn't be getting back in the water, so I opted to get fully dressed. (I'm so glad I brought a full change of clothes with me.) By then, I was freezing because of my wet hair and the nice breeze coming off the ocean. My sister gave me a long sleeve shirt (very lightweight) before we left, and I'm so glad she did. That shirt was perfect, and kept me warm without overheating me, and also protected my already badly sunburned arms from getting more sunburned! Thanks so much, Anne Marie!

We ate lunch at Xel-ha, then wandered around for a bit. Brandon & I grabbed some bikes they had there (all-inclusive), and rode around for a bit before we had to go. Then, we started towards the entrance, but had to stop and watch the dolphins. We weren't really able to watch them when we came in because we had to keep up with our guide, so now was our chance. I REALLY wanted to swim with the dolphins, but the price was VERY prohibitive for us, so I had to be satisfied with just watching. Someday, though, I WILL swim with dolphins! Wanna join me, April?

We finally got back on the bus, but were so tired that we were dreading going to the Tulum ruins. As it turns out, we could have saved our money (and maybe swam with the dolphins) or gone home right then to take a nap. It was hot, dry, dusty, and frankly, kind of boring. Our guide on the bus spoke three languages (his native Spanish, English, and French), but his accent was still SO strong that it was very hard to understand him.

When we got off the bus and went to check our group in, apparantly there wasn't a guide for us. He got a guide for the Spanish speakers, and the went off, then one for the French speakers, and they went off, and then the English speakers sat around for a few minutes just waiting. Finally, our guide got impatient and didn't want to wait anymore, so he said that he'd be our tour guide. He spoke F O R E V E R at each of the ruins. And, he was hard to understand, and there were many times I just wanted to tell him to hush and let us explore by ourselves. But, that wasn't possible, so many times, LaRean and I found a nice, pointy rock to sit on for the ten minutes between stops when our guide was talking. He finally let us go off on our own to swim in the Caribbean, or just wander around the ruins, or go shopping at the markets they had there.

Brandon & I wandered a bit, while Wayne & LaRean went back to the bus. When we were finished, we were lucky enough to hit upon the "train" taking people back to the buses, and it was only $2. Totally worth it. I was dragging at this point, and not feeling well at all, so I was very grateful to get off my feet for a few minutes.

We got off at the marketplace, where Brandon bartered with a guy over an onyx chess set. The guy started out at $60, Brandon said no and we walked off, but he followed us and kept lowering the price. Brandon offered $25 for it, but the owner said, "NO!" Finally, though, we won. We got it for $25! And, it's beautiful!

We made a pit stop at a bathroom, where you had to get your toilet paper BEFORE going into the stall, and where there was a tip bucket on the sink. I didn't tip anything. I didn't have any money, and when I first went in, there was no toilet paper anywhere. The lady attendant just sat outside the bathroom staring off into space. She finally got some toilet paper in there, but didn't clean up anything. So, no tip for her.

We finally made it back to the bus, bought some water, then went back to Xel-ha to pick up the others who had stayed all day. Two guys apparantely found their own way home, and we had to sit there for 20 minutes waiting for them. The guide finally decided to go, but made us sign a paper saying that we had waited for the guys for the alotted 20 minutes. *sigh*

We finally got home, showered and rested for a bit, then went to get some dinner. Afterwards, we went and sat in the open air lobby and listened to the sax player. There were people up dancing again, and the mood was just infective. I jumped up and asked Brandon to dance just one dance with me. His response? "No. Are you kidding?" I begged and pleaded with him, but his response was still the same. *sigh* That HURT! So, needless to say, I was upset at him for the rest of the evening, but it still ended on a good note.

We got up to leave, when we noticed that there were some people milling around one of the bridges. Suddenly, they lit some batons on fire, and a group of people came and did some fire tricks. Twirling, dancing on the fire, lanterns . . . It was neat, but Brandon didn't have the camera, so we didn't get any pictures of that. After they were done, we went back to our rooms and fell into bed. Around 9:00! Brandon got up the next morning to walk down to the beach with his dad, but I stayed in bed until about 9:30, then got up to get some breakfast. It was so nice to sleep in without kids coming and jumping in bed with me!

There are WAY too many pictures to post on this post, so I'll do a slide show above it! :)