CANCUN!!

Mike and I were able to get away for a vacation to CANCUN! This is definitly the most exotic place we have ever been. The only other trip that would even come close to equal it would be our 2 week trip to Korea that we took when I was pregnant with Kaylee. The only thing I would change would to have the trip last longer and to have all of our extended family there. We had a wonderful time!

We went with my brother, Lance, and his wife Sharon. It was a little stressful getting everything situated. Nicole was nice enough to watch all the kids for the 5 nights. Poor girl, she had all 6 kids for a long, long time. Thanks Nicole- You are the best! We couldn't have done it with out you!!!! We owe you BIG!

Our plane was to leave at 9:00am on Thursday. We got to the airport @ 7:20 am. It took them over 45 minutes to check us in because they only had 4 people working the counter. When we got up to the counter they said that they had closed the flight to cancun. Because we didn't check in an hour before the flight we had to be rescheduled on another flight. It wan't only us, there were about 20 other people behind us that they did not let board. Whoa! I was ticked! We had an hour till our flight, we had waited for 45 minutes them to check us in and we got to the counter at 8:05am. Good thing Mike was there, he definitly has a calming influence on me.

Since we missed our flight, our new flight was scheduled for the next morning. We decided that we were going to start our vacation anyway. We got a room at the Grand Arizona Resort (formerly the point at South Mountain). They had an awesome water park and so we put on the suits, went down the water slides, and floated down the lazy river. It was fun just spending time together and playing. After swimming we went to a movie. It wasn't CANCUN, but it was still quality time together.

This is us going down the water slide. At the bottom it stops you with a huge rush of water.

The slide ripped my board shorts, DANG IT! They were my cute ones! (Good thing I had swim bottoms on!)

That night we started freaking out about the weather. Hurricane Gustav was supposed to hit near Cancun. I started getting a little nurotic and was wondering if we there was a reason why we missed our flight. We called to cancel our trip, but the travel agency had closed 5 minutes before. In the morning we checked the weather report and the storm had shifted to the East. So we decided to GO! I am SO glad we did. The weather was beautiful and it was a fantastic vacation.

Yay! We made it! As soon as we arrived we went to our resort, ate, and then got our suits on and went to the beach. The water was the temperature of bath water. It was SO warm!

This is part of our resort. It was huge! Our room was close to this.

It was fun to go with another couple! Lance and Sharon were fun to hang with and we always had someone to take our picure:) Thanks guys! We had a blast!

"The water is that way."

Some Mayan dancers came to the resort. Very Cool!

The venders thought Mike should buy this get up. He felt like Indiana Jones! Yikes, let's keep the whips in Cancun!

We decided to take an excursion to Chichenitza. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world. It was absolutely AMAZING! This place was huge. It covered 30 square km. I haven't converted that to feet or miles yet, but I just know that temples and buildings were everywhere!!! And there were piles of rock everywhere that they knew where things like alters and buildings, but still hadn't been uncovered.

This is me with our tour guide, Hernan. He was born in one of the surrounding Mayan cities. He speaks Mayan, Spanish and Enlgish. He new everything about the ruin. Very intelligent!

This is the first Pyramid we saw.

This is the observatory. They lined it up with Venus. It was amazing to learn how muc these people knew!

Me and my bro, Lance.

This is the place with 1000 pillars. Very amazing!

Mike was so exicted. He bought this obsidion knife there.

There were carvings on all of the buildings. Most very elaborate as this one was. I guess all of the structures were once painted in red, black and blue. I would have loved to see what it looked like back in its prime.

After Chichenitza, we stopped by a Cenote. It was so fun and refreshing. We were so hot from the hot and humid weather. This tree's roots reached all the way down to the water below in the Cenote. Below the long things are the roots.

We also went by an old colonial town. The spanish came and settled here. When they arrived there were mayan pyramids and lots of ruins. The spanish destroyed all of the monuments and built this church, using the limestone from the ruins.

Us messing around at the beach.

The next day we sat on the beach, read our books, and drank a lot of Miami Vices. Our trip was all-inclusive, meaning that we could eat or drink anything. They got to know our party as the ones that didn't want any alcohol.

I would say that only about 40% of the tourists were American. The others were from Europe, Spain, Poland, etc. Needless to say the shocking part of our trip was when we discovered everyone doesn't have the same standard of dress on the beach. Our first trip down to the beach there were a few women topless. YIKES! Mike didn't even stare. I couldn't get mad at him if he was because I was staring more! It was just SO different then anything I have ever been used to seeing.

Mike doing what he loves best- relaxing and reading a book on the beach.

One day we went to a little town called Puerto Moralis. It was on the ocean. We bought most of our souvineers here. We bought the kids some bracelets, a cool snake for Carter and I got a ring and some earrings.

At the resort they had all kinds of restaurants. This statue of Michael Jordon was outside of one. Notice the number. Love it!