BEST WEEK EVER!!!
For Christmas we gave our kids a vacation in Cancun, Mexico- but it was really a gift we gave ourselves... To have every single person in our family together in one place at one time, with the complete impossibility of Mike being called away to the hospital or to some Stake crisis was just magical!!! Mike and I know we are the luckiest parents in the world to have such a herd of incredible-unique kids with spouses we love as much as if they had always belonged to us... Each person brings so much to the family and we love each of you completely and uniquely...
*On our way out to an island where we are to begin our snorkeling adventure...*
Whilst we were snorkeling we saw beautiful fish and Barracudas that got progressively bigger and madder. We knew it was time to go back when the last Barracuda menacingly looked at Sophie and licked his chops... We did run into a guy that had a shark that had apparently "lost the will to live" and would let tourists hold him and largely tip his master...
( Sophie's thinking: "I want to take this shark home and keep it in the bath tub! Hey mom!")
(Thayne's thinking: "I'll tell everyone I caught this! Pay no attention to the crudely constructed fence...we are in open water...")
(Michael's thinking: " I could dissect this thing in a second and see what's goin' on inside or possibly try my cancer research on it....".)
(James is thinking: "I could make a model of this, computerize it and make an animated short that would lead to my complete take over of the Disney corporation...")
(Emily is thinking: "Awww...it's just a baby.. I want to nurture it" Tick tock biological clock...)
Sweet Haven
Haven loves her uncle James...
We loved the beautiful warm water and waves...
We wondered why a group of serious professionals were gathering around a mound of moving sand by the hotel...It turned out to be about 150 baby turtles hatching out of their eggs before our very eyes!! We got to play with them (some sort of felony in the U.S. but hey- it's Mexico!) and that night we got to set them free in the ocean! We had a starting line and cheered for our own little guys.. All of them made it to the ocean and we're just hoping they are well on their way out to sea and don't meet too many critters higher up the food chain...
We had an amazing Thanksgiving feast at the hotel. I am overwhelmed at my blessings and the fact that I didn't make a Turkey dinner or wash a single dish!!!!
Bestest buds...
Nana's joy...
We played some crazy volleyball on the beach. Don't let that pretty pregnant girl fool you- she's a killer
player!!!
player!!!
Mike, Ashley, Haven (and Brooklyn hiding!)
Em and Thayne rockin' the abdominal enhancing snorkeling floats...
Our mighty leader- Mike- loaded us up in the rented van and hauled us to ChichenItsa. These were incredible ruins which left us marveling at the Mayan culture. We marveled further as Mike took us "offroading" on the way home-hitting at least 2000 enormous speed bumps with our only shock absorbers being the spaces between our vertebraes... It got so we were betting on the number of seconds between bumps that hurled us across the Mexican vehicle. We'll laugh about it in a year....
