Viva La Mexico!

We just returned from a fabulous trip to the Yucatan Peninsula. We stayed at a resort that was an hour and a half south of Cancun. The water temp was in the mid 80's and it was crystal clear - so perfect! We became expert Catamaran sailors and Mason tested out his boogie boarding skills. I am bummed that these pictures don't show the real beauty of the water, it was so much prettier in real life!
When we weren't at the beach we were at one of the many pools. The kids loved to jump off anything they could find. Mason was all about his "moves", here he is in the middle of a 360, while Morgan does a ballerina leap, and Logan lunges in fear. The funny thing is, on our last day of the trip Logan was jumping into Eric's arms off that bridge you see in the back of this picture. I guess he got over his fear of jumping!

The resort also had this great kids area with all kinds of slides and water features - of course the kids loved it!

One day we explored the ancient Mayan city of Coba...

We rode on these deluxe taxis to the base of the temple...
While the men cruised in style on these sweet rides...
We climbed the steps of the highest temple on the Yucatan Peninsula, the view was amazing from the top, see the top of another temple in the middle of the jungle?
Climbing down, pretty steep steps...

We were really hoping to see a monkey in the jungle, and we did see one, except it was chained to a leash...definitely not as cool, but the kids were excited none the less After Coba, we found two cenotes (sink holes) in the jungle. These sink holes are big caverns underground that have a pool of fresh water. The local mexicans charge you to get in and in turn they set up lights so you can see what you are doing. There are stalagtites and things flying around that I swore were bats, spooky but cool. The water was crystal clear, as you can see.

The second cenote was deep and dark and had platforms for you to jump off. Here I am on a platform 60 feet up scared to death to jump, but I did it! Here's the proof - me in the water swimming back to safety.

Another outing was to the island of Cozumel, a short ferry ride away. We did some diving and shopping. The boys thought these hats were the perfect souveniors, too bad our suitcases didn't have enough space for them!

The water in Cozumel was the most turquoise water I have ever seen and the visibility under water while snorkeling was amazing - we saw so many beautiful fish!
Chillin' on the tiny piece of sand waiting for our turn to dive...

Many thanks to Nana and Papa for such a great trip, we owe you big time!

Climbing Protoges

We went climbing on Thursday to a place called Chickies Rock. Mason was so excited to use his new harness and floored me and Eric with his fearlessness on the rock. You'll have to click directly on the pictures below to see Mason climbing. He is the little speck with some blue and yellow. Starting with the picture above of Eric and Mason follow the pictures to see Mason's progression through the climb.

Chalking up like a pro...
A funky move...Almost there despite being barefoot...
All the way to the top!!!

Logan loved climbing too. He would climb around for a while and then just hang there. He got so sad every time we made him come down off the rock. He would point up to the top and whine like he expected us to just whisk him up there. Funny kid!

Eric and I got a little climbing in too, but not as much as we wanted because our kids loved it too much!

TIMBER!!!

Yesterday we had a thunder and lightning storm and lightning hit this tree that was right outside our gate. When the lightning hit, I thought it hit our house because the crack was so loud and our whole house shook. When I looked outside, I expected to see something burning, but instead I saw this entire tree uprooted, laying across the street, all the way into my neighbors yard. It took all the power lines down with it. Our car is the first silver one (closest to the tree) and if I had parked just 1 foot up the street my car would have been a pancake!
The boys loved looking out our window as the firetrucks came and neighbors swarmed to see what was going on. It was quite exciting!
That is Eric standing in our yard so you can see how close it was to our house. Thank goodness it didn't fall the other way!
Isn't is crazy how the sidewalk is sticking straight up?
The best part was that the energy company and tree service arrived at 1o pm to start working on the project. I fell asleep sometime after 11 pm to the sound of chainsaws and beeping trucks, the perfect lullaby!

Beachin' It - Ocracoke Style!

What is Ocracoke you say? Ocracoke is a charming little island off the coast of North Carolina, south of the Outer Banks. My aunt Belva has a home there and invited us to come stay for a week. I only stayed four and a half days so I could get home for a baby shower I was hosting, and although I was tired of being a single parent (Eric couldn't come because of school), it was hard to leave such a beautiful place!

My cousins, Nate and Mina, came with their 3 kids (Maria, Jack, and David) and they all had a blast together. Alison was also there with her 2 month old baby, John Patrick, who was an angel!

Logan's pants kept slipping down, so I took off his swim diaper hoping that his pants would stay on better, but as you can see, that wasn't the case!

The worst part of the trip was that Mason got an insect bite that became infected and gave him a fever of 106! He was a sick little guy, but after a trip to the Urgent Care and some amoxycillin, he was feeling much better. I wish I had a picture of the bite, you wouldn't believe how nasty this thing got!