Mexico!

 Our family had the wonderful experience of spending a week near Akumal, Mexico (70 miles south of Cancun) for a week over Thanksgiving break.   It was the best vacation ever, and we'll have memories of our time there to last a lifetime.  The first pictures I'm showing have to be one of my top three favorite things about the trip:  THE VIEW.  This is what we got to look at everyday.  I couldn't get enough of it.  This is what I call paradise.

Me, Mike, Jess, Brad, Jake and Cam journeyed together from SLC to Cancun, meeting Ky and Brody in Mexico as they'd come from Denver.  One of my other favorite parts of the trip was how we spent every evening.  We would start off with "topic presentations."  Before arriving in Mexico, everyone picked a topic that would teach us something, then they'd present it, and we'd discuss it for awhile after.  For example:  Mike taught us how we get water in Logan, Brody talked about space, and Brad talked about gratitude being a part of having a winning and successful attitude.  It was very informative and interesting, and fun to discuss topics we wouldn't normally. Then we'd either play cards or watch home movies.  Both activities were very amusing and fun.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at a park called Xel Ha.  We had a blast riding bikes, snorkeling, cliff jumping, going on zip-lines, rope swings, enjoying the beauty,  eating the delicious buffets which were included in our entry, AND swimming with dolphins!  It was a perfect day.

Friday we enjoyed a lovely, relaxing day at our beach house having fun going kayaking, laying out, swimming and snorkeling, playing a little volleyball, lazing in the hammocks, getting covered head-to-toe with sand (something only Jake would do. . .) climbing coconut trees (something only Brody would do. . .), and going out for dinner that night at a quaint Mexican restaurant called La Buena Vida. Does life get any better than this?  I submit that it does not!

 Saturday was spent at a park called Xplor.  It was amazing!  We went on these zip-lines that took
1 1/2 hours to get through all of them, and because it wasn't crowded at all, we were able to do them twice.  It was so much fun to go flying through the air.  We also rode the rhino jeeps twice, swam and rafted in the underground river (which was so cool and pretty) and enjoyed two more tasty buffets, again included with our admission.  We all loved this adventurous day. 

 Sunday we went to nearby Akumal to snorkel at Turtle Beach and swim with turtles!  It was so cool!  Jake and I saw one with three gold fish on it's back, and when it came up to the surface for a breath, we touched it!  It was probably three feet long.  It was awesome.  Also seen were swordfish, stingrays and various colorful and huge fish.  Jess and Brad made a cool sand castle.  The picture on the left is the back of our beach house, and on the bottom right is the front of the house.  I absolutely loved that the house was right on the beach.  It was literally 40 steps from the back door to the water.  SOOO cool!

 We all got cleaned up and spent a little time taking some family pictures right outside our beach house.  I'm so happy with the way they turned out.  Kylee had borrowed a friends tripod and remote, so we just clicked away!

 These are some of my favorites of the kids:

 We then headed over to the town of Tulum to check out the Mayan ruins.  It was so cool to walk around and see everything in such a beautiful setting.

 Monday we spent more time relaxing on the beach, then in the late afternoon went to our last park- Xcaret.  It was mostly a zoo and aquarium (nothing exciting like the other two parks) , but still cool to just walk around looking at all the exotic creatures in a beautiful setting.  We had our last delicious buffet (again, included with our admission) then headed home to enjoy our last night in Mexico.

More pictures of the boys having fun and keeping themselves entertained.
 My last favorite part about the trip was seeing my kids all enjoying being together and having fun with each other.  I loved that there were no distractions like we have at home: school, jobs, friends, electronics, etc. and that we just had each other to enjoy and make memories with.  I will end with the sight I can't get out of my head and wish that I could wake up to every day here like I did for 7 days in Mexico.