Cancun

Jon and I were lucky enough to go to Cancun last month for a special vacation. Nick and Heidi were kind enough to watch our kids for 6 whole days, and Jon and I got to have 6 duty-free days -- we didn't have to worry about anyone but ourselves and what we wanted to do with our time. It was fantastic!

We went to Cancun for our honeymoon, so it was fun to walk down the beach to the hotel where we stayed the first time, and remember about how scared I was and how poor we were. This time was definitely a bit different. Since Jon has all his points from traveling we were able to have free flights and hotel, which meant we had more money available for the extra things (food/activities). It was quite an experience.
This was the view from our room, so any time we wanted we could just walk out onto our balcony and listen to the ocean. I would sit out here in the mornings and read my book.
We spent our first day walking along the beach -- 8 miles of walking. My legs were so sore for the rest of the trip, and they were sore in places I didn't know had muscles like behind my knees, etc. Totally worth it.

On Saturday we went to see a few of the Mayan ruins. They were amazing. And what was even better was that we had an LDS tour guide. It was called Helaman Tours. I really liked the way Helaman presented the information and then showed scriptural references about how the things we were learning about could have resulted from the Book of Mormon/Bible teachings. It was pretty amazing. I especially liked it because he didn't present his ideas as fact, which is always something that irritates me. He just let us know that as he thought about all the things he was learning, these were the different ideas he had about where the Mayan's religious beliefs came from.

We went and saw Ek Balam and Chichen Itza. I had never heard about Ek Balam, but I was familiar with Chichen Itza (although, my knowledge was mostly based on hearing it in the Backyardigans show). We were expecting to see just a few buildings, but Chichen Itza is a whole town. There was the main section that has the huge pyramid and ball court and then a few other buildings, but then you go down a dirt road, and you come to a whole new section with 4 or 5 buildings. Pretty awesome, and you're feeling like you totally got your moneys worth, when you walk down another dirt road, and there are even more buildings. It was crazy how big the place was. I mean, of course it would have been big like that while the Mayan's were living there, but to still have all of those buildings is pretty amazing.

Can you even believe how ridiculously huge these buildings were? We got to climb up the temple at Ek Balam, and it was so high. I felt so silly for being so scared, but truly, those steps were so steep and skinny. Plus, there wasn't even a rope or anything to hold onto for balance. I thought for sure I was going to slip off and go crashing to an unhappy end. But, the view from the top was simply amazing, so it was worth it in the end.

On the way to the ruins we passed through some small towns, and it was sad to realize how truly poor the people were. Most of the houses were little huts, literally. Just cement huts with branches for roofs and curtains for doors. As we drove by we could see people just sitting in their houses and see the kids toys on the floors of the huts. It made us wish that we could just stop and give them all the money we had (which admittedly, wasn't much). It also made me realize how truly blessed we are. I always knew that we were, but when faced with such poverty, it makes me extra grateful for the wonderful life that I have -- that I don't have to try and be positive and happy in the face of such want. It was just crazy to see.
On our last day, Jon got to go scuba diving. I decided to opt out since I had a hard time with snorkeling (like, when I tried it I went crazy and started thrashing around in the 2 feet deep water and ended up smashing my knee on the rocks). Even Jon said that he felt pretty claustrophobic at first, so that made me feel a little better about ditching him. I went with him for the training part and then read by the pool while he actually went out into the ocean.

Our trip was amazing, but we were glad to come home and see the kids. They had so much to tell us about. Kale talked the entire drive back to our house from Nick and Heidi's. They loved their vacation too, so thanks to Nick and Heidi for making it something special for them.