Cancun

The Marriott Casa Magna

(March 1st through the 6th)

Let me first start off by reminding myself of why we were so fortunate to go on such a FANTASTIC trip. Rachel, you were husbandless for 7 months! Yes, nearly 3 years later Bill and I were able to reap the rewards of his training and vacation for 6 days in the beautiful Caribbean. I really could not believe the colors that were so perfectly painted onto that canvas. The sand with the lightest hint of tan fading into the shallow pale blue waters and then on to the amazing turquoise hues of the Caribbean Sea. Breath taking. Had my mom ever seen it in person, she never would have come home.

Man, am I lucky or what?!?! What a great view. Perfect guy, perfect beach...

The locals said it was the coldest winter they've had in YEARS! It was high of...72. But we still laid out by the pool everyday in hopes that the clouds would separate and our skin could be kissed by the sweet sun. (In between the clouds we would quickly cover with extra towels.)

On Wednesday we walked a few miles down the beach to get to the flea market and some malls. I was determined to find great shells for the kids. Well, along our walk I found a great conch

shell and decided to lighten its load by rinsing the sand off of it. As I waded into the ocean Bill must have been searching for sharks because the next thing I know a huge wave and just kissed my face "good-morning" and drenched my body. Bill didn't even see it. I couldn't stop laughing

at myself. And the conch, I ended up trading mine for one under a stair case where a bunch had been piled up. It was just as heavy but in better repair. The shopping was fun. We went through two malls that have all the regular stores that you'd find here and then caught a bus to get further on down to the flea market. This is where we bought the kids souvenirs.

We stayed by the pool until at last Friday, our last day came and

the wind had died and the sun was shining and we ventured out to the sand. We let our youth come back to play and swam in the ocean and tried out body surfing. It was a blast. We swam out to the buoys, to see what we could see... still just a lot of ocean. The sun did start to play

peek-a-boo so we made it back up to the pool deck where we ordered the tastiest
burgers ever, poolside. HOW FUN! What a treat to have such a perfect day. Later we went out to a Thai restaurant on site. I had never had Thai and Bill wanted me to try it. It wasn't bad. This day we finally got color.

Bill, a little too much on his trunk, I said he looked like a strawberry. For me, it was my legs and my back. I'm pretty sure I had Bill put sunscreen on my back...hmmm?! That night in bed even the sheets were a little too much for our lobster crusted bodies.

Tuesday we did zip line tours at a place called Selvatica. There were 12 different zip lines through the jungle. Bill said what I was thinking, "I wish there was more to look at than just... trees." But I suppose it is the jungle. According to the staff we just missed the monke

ys. They say they come out and hang around the lines at lunch time. We did our zip tour in the morning and then had the opportunity to swim in a cenote, a natural pool in the jungle. Pretty cool if you didn't look at the garden hose... it couldn't have been supplying all the water, perhaps just pumping water up for the planted vegetation?.?. Bill did the bigger zip line into

the pool where the little one was enough for me, even though my feet were practically touching the water by the time you let go. The water

wasn't too bad. A little cold but I stayed in for a while. After our swim we went back to

the hut and had fajitas, YUM, and watched video of our group from throughout the day. Bill and I both were able to do some of the lines upside down which was a fun experience. We both bought shirts for memorabilia, Bill's states that, "I did it upside down" and has the jungle trees upside down. Great experience and would highly recommend it to anyone. (They even said they could accommodate kids as little as 3 years old.)

I loved being able to see coconuts on all the trees. Not everything in Cancun is different, they still have McDonalds which we took advantage of for a cheap meal one night, but I even took a picture of that because it was in CANCUN! We bought the kids mexican candy bars and other souvenirish things. A shirt and pajamas for Aaron, a swim cover up and bracelet for Livi and of course post cards and shells. (The post cards...argh the post cards. I wanted to mail them home so they would have all the neat stamps on them. Bill, being practical, said, "No, we'll get home before the cards." Well he let me win and gave them to the front desk to mail, we've been home almost a month and still no cards. I'm pretty sure they don't travel by donkey anymore... ARGH! They were great. One was even of the coast line and our hotel was front and center.

On Thursday we took an all day excursion to the Yucatan and saw one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, Chichen Itza Pyramids. It was incredible to stand at the base of the 31 meter pyramid and learn only a small part of it's history. (The largest one is in... Brazil, I think, and stands at 90 meters!!!) Even more incredible to tie it to everything we know from the Book of Mormon and the ways that people worshipped. The

mayan culture was fascinating to me and if given the chance I would love to go back and study it from the church's view. Something that was so different to me was that the mayan people are a small people and look very much like the chinese. Because they are small, they build things, well, small. (It was just really funny to me. I don't know why. When you're having such a great time joy is found everywhere. Even in small bathroom stall doors.)

They said that the concrete that was under foot was all the ruins that had yet to be uncovered. The mayans built cities on top of cities. When crops would die they would move to new territory. Only to come back many of years later and rebuild on top of what was already there. Many of the buildings were ruined due to french explorers who heard of "Mayan Treasures" so they used dynamite to get in to the temples and other buildings. The treasures were the bodies. The french were obviously disappointed but it helped archeologists discover once hidden rooms.

This was the observatory and to build it took mind boggling calculations. The sun comes through the door shown at an exact time of year, one of the solstices, I think. Everything about the pyramids had to do with the calendar. The main pyramid, above, has 91 steps on all four sides = 364 days with the 365th day being the last step up to the temple on top. And on and on and on. It really was incredible. It's also said to have perfect acoustic sound and has had several famous singers perform. Pavaratti was one I remember and Elton John was due to perform for the spring solstice. There is a fun echo that is heard if you clap near the base of the pyramid you can hear a bird calling back to you. In another courtyard of sorts one clap would echo 7 times.

7 and 13 are very important numbers to the mayans. The information was all very amazing. There were peddlers along the way that were selling everything from marble carved domino sets to

jaguar heads, jewelry, pot holders, etc. we bought the kids each a pyramid. AND there were iguanas everywhere. This one on the left, was next to the the cenote that I'm kneeling in front of, on the right. I walked past again, later and wasn't paying attention, the lizard moved and scared me so bad I nearly fell over.

Our tour guide was fantastic and after the tour we were able to relax at the Mayaland hotel and enjoy their buffet lunch and dancers. The food was just what I needed to satisfy my authentic mexican food craving.

On Saturday it was time to go home. We enjoyed one last deep breath of ocean air from our balcony, from which we had heard the ocean crash on the sand every night we were there, and then headed downstairs for one of the highlights of the week, which we benefitted from 3 times... the breakfast buffet.

Needless to say we didn't lose any weight on this trip. Between the buffet, the pool side service and room service, oh yeah and the icecream shop downstairs, we ate like kings. WHAT A BLAST! Thanks babe. I'll vacation with you any day. It was awesome. And all within budget, I LOVE IT!

And then to come home to this! And this wasn't even comparable to the decorations that flooded our garage or our kitchen, banister and bedroom door! Thanks Dad and Sue for helping the kids have such a great time while we were gone.