December Fun

Christmas Celebrations: Christmas is always a fun time of year as we celebrate Christ's birth. We started off the month with our Stake "Night in Bethlehem" activity which was fun and helped to bring the spirit of Christ into the month. Our ward Christmas party, "Christmas Around the World" was the following weekend. We enjoyed dinner and a fun evening learning about Christmas celebrations around the world. And of course decorating the tree is always a favorite December activity...Other December Festivities: One of Tyson's friends in our ward was in a Children's Theatre production of "The Best Christmas Pagaent Ever". Several families in our ward joined together to attend a Saturday matinee performance. The play was great and the kids enjoyed sitting with their friends.

School was in session until December 23 this year which helped those final few days before Christmas go by in peace! I volunteered at Alyssa's holiday craft day which was fun and Emily had her DARE (Drugs and Alcohol Resistance Education) graduation...Christmas Eve: On December 24 we had our good friends, Scott and Jenny Archibald, and their family over (Jenny is my running buddy that I ran the marathon with). We enjoyed a yummy dinner (our tradition is salmon) along with lots of yummy desserts. We read and performed the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew with our all-star cast...
Tyson "wowed" us with some magic tricks......and we sang Christmas carols accompanied by Alyssa on the piano or Blake on the guitar (sorry the photographer failed to take pictures of this event).

Then the traditional opening of one present (pajamas) on Christmas Eve. Every year it surprises me how excited the kids are to open the present since they already know that it's pajamas. I do try to find some pajamas that they will enjoy, but it still amazes me! This year Tyson accidentally got the "wrong" present and ended up with a cool "hoodie" and shirts on Christmas Eve. He had to wait until Christmas to get his new pjs!Christmas Day: On Christmas morning we get up no earlier than 7:00 (not early enough for some kids and too early for Kaylee) and read the book "A Night Without Darkness" together before heading downstairs to the tree.The gift highlights were: Kaylee - ski boots, Twilight shirts, Zune accessories (her mp3 player). Oops wrong order...Twilight shirts definitely were the #1 hit!Tyson - snowboard, boots, and bindings, a cool watchEmily - a cool mp3 playerAlyssa - a gymnastics balance beamEmily and Alyssa also enjoy their roll-up balance beam from Grandma and Grandpa. It lays right on the ground and is easy to transport!Blake & Cheryl - weren't supposed to get much due to our extravagant Thanksgiving vacation, but I ended up with a new running GPS since mine was having troubles recharging (thanks, Santa, for not sticking to our "arrangement"), Blake was happy with several books that were on his "wish list" and a book about MesoAmerica which was an interesting read after visiting the Mayan ruins in Mexico. Oh, yea, and a nice warm BYU fleece blanket!We enjoyed playing Cranium Family Edition (at least 7 times) on Christmas day...thanks Bryce and Staci...we love this game!!After-Christmas Fun: Blake & I waited until after Christmas to spend our Christmas cash from Mom and Dad and some cash from my employer. We hit the New Years sales and scored a bargain on an Entertainment Center cabinet to clean up the mess of cords around our TV - I should have taken a "before" picture so you could see the transformation! On December 29 we headed to Duluth where we spent a few days skiing at Spirit Mountain with a group from our old ward. Tyson really enjoyed having his own snowboarding equipment and not having to rent this year. It was fun to watch the kids improve on their skiing and boarding this year! I tried to avoid renting equipment this year and had decided to use my old equipment from high school since the boots fit just fine. We took one trip up the tow rope with Alyssa before heading to the lifts to make sure she was doing OK. Then Blake and Alyssa were going to take another run on the tow rope hill while I ran into the lodge real quick to get something. As I was walking to the lodge I thought my boot was making a funny sound as I walked on the pavement. At first I kept walking but then eventually looked down to see that my boot had fallen apart! I'm glad we took the run on the bunny hill first and that it didn't fall apart while I was skiing down a bigger hill (not that any of the hills are that big in Minnesota compared to Utah skiing, but still it would have been an interesting fall and an interesting trip down the rest of the hill!)
Kaylee's favorite part of the trip was playing with the babies...
We had a great time skiing and boarding and hanging out at the hotel. It's a nice little get-a-way! We headed back home on December 31 to get Kaylee home in time to work.

New Year's Eve: Kaylee got off work at 7:30 and then prepped herself for the New Year's Eve youth dance. Blake and I drove the kids from our ward to the dance (about a 35 minute drive) and then went to see Marley and Me at a nearby theater. At midnight we were just sitting in our van in the parking lot of the church waiting for the dance to get over which was a little odd - no fireworks or silver ball for us!

Tyson enjoyed a gathering with the youth at one of the bishopric counselors house playing games and Guitar Hero. Emily and Alyssa enjoyed the night at our Bishop's house playing with their friends, Emily and Mandy Johnson and sleeping over at their house.

Even though we didn't spend the night together as a family, everyone got to do something fun and had an enjoyable night!

Under the Sea

Blake and Tyson took a disposable underwater camera on their dive with them and we just got the prints back. Here are a few shots of the scuba divers...




This is a crab...

This is a starfish...

Brain coral...

Jason Mraz Concert – November 20

One of Kaylee's favorite musical artists is Jason Mraz. I surprised her with tickets to the sold out show on November 20. The tickets were general admission so we went and stood in the cold for 2 hours to get up close to the stage. The concert was great and she was so excited to be so close. I like his music too so we both had a great time!!

Thanksgiving in Cancun

This will definitely be a Thanksgiving to remember! We had a great time in Cancun with so many new experiences and fun memories! Here are the highlights of what we did...

Tuesday, November 25:
We arrived in the evening around 6:00. When we went through the Mexico immigration the officer asked if "all these kids were ours". We responded that they were and then he asked what religion we were. We thought this was odd questioning to be able to come into Mexico for a vacation, but responded that we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said, "Oh, the Mormons" and then called to his supervisor to come over. OK, so don't they let Mormons into Mexico or something? He pointed to us while talking to his supervisor (in Spanish, so we had no idea what he was saying) and then informed us (in English) that he was a member of the church as well, but his supervisor was not.

We ate dinner at the Japanese restaurant at the resort and then explored the resort a bit. There was a Japanese, Italian, Mexican, International, and Grill restaurant at the resort. Our room was awesome and had a huge balcony overlooking the ocean.



Wednesday, November 26:

We visited the breakfast buffet and then Blake and I booked our tours for the remainder of the trip. That took longer than we had planned, but we were able to get in to all of the activities we wanted. It took a little juggling since some tours were booking up due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Then we boarded the shuttle bus to visit the Moon Palace, another resort in the chain we were staying at. The girls hung out by the pool, while Blake and Tyson tried sail-boarding. It's a difficult sport, but they both were able to get a few good sails in.

We had originally tried to book at the Moon Palace but they didn't have the suite available that would fit our family. We had the option of getting 2 separate rooms there. But after visiting, everyone agreed that they liked the Cancun Palace where we were staying. The ocean view was much prettier and the kids liked playing in the waves and body surfing at the Cancun Palace beach.

Wednesday night we ate at the Italian restaurant, which ended up being one of our favorite restaurants at the resort (not only for the good food but for the cute waiter--ask Kaylee about that one)!

Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving):

We ordered breakfast in our room since we were boarding an early bus to Chichen Itza, a Mayan archaeological site. We drove through a modern-day Mayan village and stopped for some shopping. Then we continued on to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. It was a very interesting tour and helped us be able to visualize what cities might have looked like back in the Book of Mormon times.

The Chichen Itza (or "chicken pizza" as our tour guide liked to call it) site was about 2 1/2 hours away from our resort so it was an all-day event.
When we arrived back to our hotel there was a Thanksgiving buffet being served with turkey, prime rib, shrimp, crab legs, and various side dishes, salads, and desserts. I enjoyed the shrimp the most, but took a little piece of turkey just for tradition sake! Following the buffet was a "Circque de Mexico" show that was very enjoyable. We had a great Thanksgiving day!

Friday, November 28:

The guys headed off for a scuba diving excursion while the girls boarded a boat to the Isla de Mujeres (Island of Women). Tyson LOVED scuba diving and will definitely be doing this again. He wants to get certified so that he can go on longer dives. Blake said he was glad to have the experience but isn't sure what the future holds for him in scuba diving. He had a difficult time regulating his ears and feeling a little bit of panic while down in the ocean.


The girls took a boat ride out to a nearby island. The water was beautiful! We fed some fish, swam in some clear blue water, watched the dolphins, and did some shopping. Then we ate lunch at the Palace resort on the island and hung out on their beach. The girls collected a lot of coral and shells there. It was a fun afternoon in the sun!

Saturday, November 29:


We tried out the zip line on Saturday. This wasn't a particular favorite for Alyssa, but she gave it a try anyway. Kaylee was quite nervous since she is afraid of heights, but she ended up LOVING it! Actually, we all loved it (except Alyssa who just tolerated a few zips on the line)!


Enjoy a few "zips" with us... (push the button to play the video)




Everyone but Kaylee and Alyssa did the upside-down zip and now Kaylee says she wishes she would have done it...that's a lot of progress for her!!

After the zip line, Blake took Tyson, Emily, and Alyssa to the waterpark, the Wet 'N Wild, while Kaylee and I were pampered at the spa with a back massage, pedicure, and manicure. Kaylee and I rode the city bus downtown to do a little shopping and then we all met up again for dinner. We tried out the Mexican restaurant, which ended up being our least favorite restaurant. Imagine that, a bad mexican restaurant in Mexico!

Sunday, November 30:

The closest thing to church we could find was to take a "Book of Mormon" tour to the Mayan ruins in Tulum. Alyssa asked me why so many people were on the Book of Mormon tour if they didn't even belong to our church. I explained that they just didn't know they were on a Book of Mormon tour! I guess it's debated whether these ruins are Book of Mormon sites or not, but I'm sure even if they aren't, they certainly are similar to what they would have looked like!


Tulum is a Mayan city on the coast south of Playa del Carmen (about 1 1/2 hours south of Cancun). This was a beautiful city with tropical vegetation and a gorgeous view of the Caribbean Sea.

Monday, December 1:

Monday was a bitter-sweet day for us. Bitter because we knew it was our last day in Mexico and sweet because we got to end the trip by swimming with the dolphins! Too bad we couldn't have swapped Sunday's weather for Monday though! Sunday was very hot and little wind, which made for a hot day touring Tulum. Monday was cooler and windy which made for a little chilly swim for the dolphins! It wasn't too cold, it's just that Sunday was soooo hot compared to Monday. Anyway, here are some photos of our fun with the dolphins....





After the dolphin swim we went back to our resort for swimming at the beach, taking pictures, and more time at the spa for facials. We ended the day with dinner at the Hibachi bar at the Japanese restaurant. It was good food and fun watching the chef prepare our food and toss his utensils around...

Nightly Entertainment:

Besides the Cirque show on Thanksgiving, there were a few other shows we attended...

Saturday night was the Fire Show by the pool:


And Sunday night there was a Mexican dance show in the ampitheater:


Some Miscellaneous Photos:

We took hundreds of pictures while in Cancun...it's hard to pick out the few to share! Here are just a few more miscellaneous pics...






Tuesday, December 2:

The downside of the trip...getting up at 3:00 a.m. to go catch our 6:00 a.m. flight back to Houston. Really, why does an airline even have a 6:00 am flight out of Cancun? Anyway, that was the price we paid for our affordable airfare for Thanksgiving week! And then coming back to Minnesota to the cold...and waking up to snow instead of sand on Wednesday morning wasn't very fun either! But we are grateful for the opportunity we had to escape for a week and enjoy the time together!!