Photos of My Boys and Some Great Friends

On our last trip to O-Town, we had a great time!  We packed a lot into this visit.  We had fun taking pics near 25th St. and the Union Station.  The boys loved the balloons and the train!  We even got to catch up with two of my great friends, Miss Carly and our favorite seminary teacher Bro. Humphreys.  It was so nice to chat and catch up with them.  I also got to see most of my Valley Girls at Kristi's baby shower.  I was so excited to be in town at the right time to attend.  And finally, I had a wonderful girls night out with some of my BFF's Rachel, Natalie, and Morgan.  We stuffed ourselves silly at Red Lobster and chatted the night away.  It was just what I needed!

Our Mexico Trip

Ek Balam

Chichen Itza

In the Cenote!

Ben chillin' in Valladolid

Dzibanche, Kinichna, and Kohunlich

The amazing pop drinking, french fry eating spider monkey

Lamani

On top of Lamai 

Tulum

Flying men on Vera Cruz?

Ben & I went to the Yucatan Peninsula in February.  We were gone for 9 long days (the 6th - the 14th)!  Although we missed the kids a lot we had a blast.  They were in good hands with all the grandparents pitching in to watch them.  We flew into Cancun late Sunday night.  We boarded a bus with our tour group...organized by Brent & Marsha Fieldsted.  We then drove a few hours southwest to the beautiful colonial city Valladolid.  This was such a cute little city.

The next day, Monday, we went to some nearby ruins called Ek Balam.  This is a newly excavated Mayan city with spectacular architecture and beautiful carvings.  We then went on to Chichen Itza.  This is one of the most excavated sites in the Mesoamerican world.  It was the largest or most "touristy" we went to.  It had a lot of neat ruins and things to see.  We then went to a Cenote...or a cave with a fresh water pool that we swam in.  And finally that day we went to a nearby Mayan village.  We brought items to donate to these local people.  They were in such desperate need for these items.  It was a very humbling experience, one I will never forget.  We had the opportunity to see inside a home and it was like looking into a one room pioneer home.  Very humbling. That night back in Valladolid we enjoyed a delicacy of the Yucatan...penuchos!  Delicious! Wish we could get this around here.  And to top off our day the fair just happened to be in town.  The highlight of this was the double decker party bus with blasting music and strobe lights we traveled on to get there.  We definitely arrived in style.  The fair itself...not much to see.  I've heard this one was very mild compared to most in Mexico.  There was only one...how do I put this delicately?  Freak show...for lack of a better word.  It was a two headed boy, aka, siamese twins.  It was sad to see this was their life. But I'm usually all for fairs and that kind of thing, but word to the wise, skip these when in Mexico!

Then on Tuesday we left this little town and headed south to Chetumal.  Along the way we stopped at a freshwater lagoon that looked like ocean water, called Lake Bacalar.  We spent some time here but unfortunately it down poured like there was no tomorrow.  Luckily we were under the restaurant pavilion.  So, we mostly just got to know everyone and ate yummy food!  We then arrived in Chetumal and stayed at the Holiday Inn.  Thank goodness for Holiday Inns in Mexico.  This was the best hotel by far on this vacation.  It was in this lovely town we experienced another Yucatan delicacy, machucados!  It was finely shaved ice, soaked in one of my personal fav's sweetened condensed milk, and then mixed with your flavor of choice.  I of course tried coconut and it was good...but surprisingly did not turn out to be my fav.  I actually loved the chocolate banana the best.  However, coconut ice cream in Mexico is awesome!

On Wednesday we went to three archeological sites called Dzibanche, Kinichna, and Kohunlich.  These sites are recently excavated and this area was different than most in the Northern Yucatan with more dense jungle and taller trees.  Many LDS archeologists believe these ruins could have been the area of the Land Bountiful, spoken of in the Book of Mormon.  They did have a more peaceful, serene feeling to them.  We saw a howler monkey which was stressed out by our fearless leader, Marsha, who got him going by howling at him herself.  The howler monkey was later outdone by the cute little spider monkey that was a pet to a convenience store.  She would drink Pepsi/Coca Cola and preferred one over the other...but I can't remember which.  She also chowed down on the french fries one of our tour friends was feeding her.  She normally liked Cheetos, but turned her nose up at them when the fries were in the picture.  It was quite the site to see.  For dinner this night we had super yummy steak and pork tacos.

Then on Thursday we were off to Belize!  We had to cross the border and it actually went very smoothly.  About an hour south of the border we went to the  city of Orange Walk.  We then hopped on boats and took what was supposed to be an hour long ride on New River but ended up being much longer b/c one of the boats kept breaking down.  Along the way we saw more spider monkeys, bats, the Jesus Christ bird (walked along the lilly pads), and crocodiles.  We finally arrived at the ruins of Lamani.  This area was also in dense jungle.  It had a more "Lamanite" feel to it...for lack of a better word...again. This had the steepest ruin that we were able to climb.  It was cool!  It had a rope going up the center of it for people to hold onto b/c it was so steep.  It reminded me of the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan!  I loved this...give you more of an adrenaline rush!  On top it was cool.  You could see for miles and miles.  Finally when we were returning there was another down pour.  The whole hour long ride was non-stop rain.  Our friends Brian and Raleen were the only ones smart enough and brought ponchos like instructed.  Everyone else was soaked!  I think they were even wet too.  It was a lot of fun!

Friday...finally we were on our way to the coast/beach!  On the way we stopped at the ruins of Tulum.  Tulum is an ancient seaport situated directly on the crystal clear coast of the Caribbean.  Here we had a great LDS tour guide who pointed out many religious significances to this site.  After the tour we headed to the beach and swam in the clear blue waters.  It was great.  There was only two women on the beach going topless.  And much to the men's dismay they were leathery old grandmas!  I'm sure that was the first time most of them had been to a potentially topless beach...they probably had their hopes up?  Haha...serves them right!  The rest of the time we stayed in Playa Del Carmen, right on the coast.

Saturday was one of our only free days to enjoy the beach.  Everyone was planning on going snorkeling nearby and enjoying the day basking in the sun!  Unfortunately from the second we woke up throughout the entire day, it rained!!  So, needless to say we had a relaxing day and got a lot of souvenir shopping done.  We even managed to find a Domino's with Brian and Raleen...it was great for a change!

Then on Sunday it was finally time to go to the much anticipated X-Caret.  I'd heard a lot about this place and knew I wanted to visit if I was ever in the Mayan Riveria.  It was a lot of fun.  It is an ecological theme park of sorts with a lot of activities and cultural events.  We swam in the underground rivers, visited the coral reef aquarium, saw dolphins, huge turtles, got to hold parrots (actually Ben held three at once...one on each arm and one on his head...a site to see), saw a replica of an ancient Mayan village complete with Mayan men dancers (finally some eye candy for the ladies to see),  saw a Mexican cemetery, rode in a giant rotating scenic tower,  ate our hearts out at a fabulous Mexican buffet, and finally enjoyed a spectacular show that included a replica of an ancient Mayan football game, and saw cultural dances from each state in Mexico.  A fun-filled, action-packed day!

Finally on Monday, all fun must come to an end.  We spent about an hour on the beach in the morning then headed for the airport.  We arrived in SLC at midnight.  Ben drove straight home and we arrived around 3 am!  What a whirlwind.  It was a great vacation.  We met some wonderful people, got to know others much better, and had a blast.  Can't wait to do something like it again!

Maddix Turns 5!!

Our big boy turned five on January 24th!  Hey I'm only a month behind in my blogging...that's progress for me!  He had a fun day of non-stop celebrating.  He woke up to have his favorite breakfast treat...powdered donettes!  He then was off to pre-school in which he got to bring the treat since it was his b-day.  He took home-made sugar cookies.  He got to hand them out and the kids sang to him.  Then after school he had a party with his friends at our house!  The theme was Iron Man which later morphed into superhero's in general.  He got an Iron Man costume and electronic hand from Santa and was going to wear that to the party.  But he changed his mind and wanted to wear his beloved Wolverine costume instead.  So his buddies Stetson and TreDyn got to wear Iron Man instead.  I must say Maddix is a stud with the ladies and several little girls have a crush on him.  It was fun to have some of those little sweeties there too!  They played pin the helmet on Iron Man, and Super Hero X-ray vision guessing game!  Then they had superhero adorned cupcakes and ice cream and then watched Astro Boy!  All in all it was a fun little party.  He still had another party to come with the relatives!  We had everyone over for pizza and cupcakes/ice cream and of course gifts!  He was once again spoiled.  Ben and I thought it was time he get a bike...finally!  We haven't taken it outside yet since it's too cold but he's been cruising around on it in the house a lot.  All in all it was a great day.  We're very lucky to have such a sweet, smart, handsome, funny, all around great kid!  I'm elated that he likes to give his mom cuddles still!  I hope he never outgrows that!

Home Improvements...

We've had a busy fall/winter.  We (mostly Ben) worked on finishing the basement.  It was our goal to have it done before Christmas.  And we did it.  It was a lot of work but not so bad when you have a professional in the house.  Our basement has a home theatre room.  We have really been enjoying it so far!  We thought we'd really only watch the big screen for movies and sports.  Well think again!  We're down there every night.  We've had several movie nights with family and friends.  Ben had a guys night and watched sports with his buds.  I had a girls night in which we had all the female relatives around come over and watch 'Gone With The Wind' which was Granny Helen's special request!  It was a lot of fun.  Maddix's birthday party even ended with the kiddo's watching a movie.  The kids have a small play nook, and I finally have a full sized guest bedroom again.  I've always wanted a soft blue and white room and finally got it.  Although the paint is fine, I would have preferred it a tiny bit softer.  But oh well, I'm not complaining!  And the final pics are of my latest sewing project.  I wanted a new bedspread for the boys room, one that tied in with the nautical decor.  However, I could not find what I was looking for.  Therefore I had to make it.  It was a lot of work, especially with my pain-in-the-butt-piece-of-crap machine!  Can I just say sewing machines drive me nuts.  I think they all are probably a pain, but mine is especially irritating!  I know it's only an entry level one and that must have a lot to do with it.  Oh well it's done and I like it.  I also painted the boys bed.  It was black...don't you just love spray paint!  I finally feel like I can relax for the rest of the winter....until the dreaded spring cleaning/organizing.  

Christmas 2010...

The Christmas season started off with a bang.  After Thanksgiving at our house we went to a fun little Christmas festival in Vernal where the boys got to pet a real camel, ride a pony, play in some bouncy houses, get cotton candy and churros, etc...all free of charge (Vernal rocks!)  It was a lot of fun.  Later that weekend we went out to our niece Kaitlyn's 3rd birthday party.  Man they know how to party.  They had a princess party with the birthday girl dressed up as Snow White.  They had a full course meal, a balloon artist, a giant pinata, cake and ice cream...the whole nine yards.  It was a lot of fun!  Later the boys and I went to Ogden's Christmas village.  They just loved looking in all the little houses.  It was pretty cold but they didn't want to leave.  It was Carter's first time going and Maddix's second or third.  They loved it.  We did however miss Santa Clause there and had to go visit him at our local grocery store later on.  We got a ton of snow right before Christmas and Maddix and I built a "bucket snowman"...(we couldn't get the snow to roll so we had to pack it in a bucket.  A trick we learned last year from Grandpa Lou).  This year the boys even received a phone call/message from Santa.  It was really cute and they both enjoyed listening to it over and over.  We still haven't deleted the messages.  Santa knew that Maddix is an artist and that Carter loves chicken nuggets.  He even knew they wanted another ride-on vehicle.  The tractor they got last year was too hard to share anymore.  So Maddix wanted a "by side by side" aka a yamaha razor-side by side just like grandpa and grandmas.  They got really lucky and got a very similar arctic cat side by side they can both enjoy and even haul some stuff in the back.  We were able to enjoy Christmas morning in our newly finished basement.  Maddix was worried Santa wouldn't know to bring the gift downstairs so we left him a note.  Along with their ride on they boys got a few other toys.  Maddix got some Iron Man paraphernalia (which is why he's in a costume in our family pic) and Carter got some "Chuck" dump truck toys.  He loves anything to do with trucks or tractors.   It was a great Christmas for all of us.  We enjoyed spending time with our families, my brothers, dad, and Brenda all came out here this year so it was a lot of fun being together.