Tulum: Royal Catalonia

These are just a couple pictures of us lounging. We have never spent so much time actually relaxing on a vacation before. It was a fun change. The second picture is us at the all you can eat pizza bar. Spence loved this place and each day we would go there to eat "second lunch". A must for Spence on vacation.

Tulum Ruins

In Mexico, we went to the Tulum ruins. These are more Myan ruins that were pretty neat to see. They were right by the most beautiful beach and the buildings they built were amazing. Toward the end of the morning trip to the ruins, it started pouring rain. It was insane. It happened so fast and we were soaked to the bone. Good thing we were dressed in swimming suits to check out the ocean over there. We stopped at a little hut and bought a Mexican blanket to put down on the Colectivo (locals transportation) before we rode home. It was a fun morning not ruined at all by the rain.

I know the pictures are terrible, but we didn't realize we had bought the worst disposable camera ever when ours broke.

Tulum: Playa del Carmen

One mellow day, we went to Playa del Carmen in the morning and shopped. What is a trip to Mexico without some great, cheap jewelry? We had a great time looking around and, of course, eating some great Mexican food- Spence's favorite part of vacations.

Tulum: XPLOR

One day in Mexico, we went to a park called XPLOR. We did about twelve zip lines, swam in more cenotes, rafted in the underground rivers, and rode the ATVs. It was really cool to look down over the jungle as we rode the zip lines.

Tulum: Mayan Encounter- Coba

In the afternoon on the Mayan Encounter trip, we went to Coba. Coba is the last of the Mayan ruins that you can climb up. It was so neat to see the cool buildings and how they made them. As you look around at Coba, you can see hills everywhere that are actually more ruins that have yet to be uncovered.

Tulum: Mayan Encounter

One day in Tulum, we did something called "Mayan Encounter." We went swimming in the cenotes, had authentic Mayan lunch cooked by some women in the village, went kayaking, and repelling. It was so cool to see all of the jungle everywhere we went and the cenotes were awesome. We loved the fresh water, being underground, and the super warm water.

Tulum, Mexico

This was a while ago, but I'm still updating to get my blog ready to print for last year.

After Fall busy season in September, Spence and I took a trip to Tulum, Mexico. We loved every minute of it. A guy that works with Spence went there in August and it sounded so great we had to do it too. We stayed in the Royal Catalonia Hotel which was an all-inclusive resort. This is wasn't something we ever really wanted to do, but most hotels we found were like this and it turned out to be a fun change. We loved it.

The first few pictures are from our hotel and the rest are at Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha is a park we went to the second day. We snorkeled down the river with spots to jump off the rocks and and did lots of other fun water activities. It was a great day until the new underwater camera we bought days before leaving filled with water and stopped working. The rest of the pictures from our trip were taken on terrible disposable cameras. Spence was totally bugged the rest of the day, but not near as bummed as were were when our good camera got stolen in Costa Rica in November...

Uncle Morgan

My kids absolutely adore their aunts and uncles. They are especially partial to the young, unmarried ones- Miranda, Kayla, Morgan, and Austin. Since Austin is on a mission, Blair and Davis get excited to see Uncle Morgan every time we say we're going to Grandma and Grandpa Davis' house. (Morgan doesn't live there, but it turns out he like to see Davis and Blair too, so he shows up almost every time we go there.)

Morgan loves to play with the kids, tease them, and teach them new things. Lately he is working with Blair so that when he gives her the cue she says, "I love you, Uncle Morgan." He thinks this will be a lady killer when he perfects it and takes Blair on an outing just the two of them.

In an effort to drive me crazy, Uncle Morgan has also taught the kids to says "Nazi" when he says "What is Mommy?" It's awesome. They do it pretty good for him, but they hadn't really said it any other time until one day recently.

We've moved the kids to toddler beds so Blair can get out of bed and go potty when she needs to. It worked really well at the first and then Davis started going crazy. Every time we put him in bed he would sneak out. This obviously resulted in punishment. One day at nap time, I was done with Davis and his antics. After three or four times of getting him back in bed, I spanked him and let him know he wasn't going to like it if I saw him out of bed again. This was when he remembered what Uncle Morgan had taught him and as I shut the kids' door I heard him say "Mommy Nazi". Then Blair chimed in, "Yeah, Nazi Mommy." They both laughed and repeated it a few times. I was standing at the door listening and laughing myself. Not only did they use the term without being cued by Uncle Morgan, but they used it at a perfectly appropriate time. What little goof balls.

Toddler bed note: Blair is a champ. She only gets out of her bed to go potty. Davis got worse each day for a while until I had had enough and Spence put the side back on his crib. We are now happily back to good naps and bedtimes with one kid in a crib and one girl happily in her "big kid bed".

Our Funny Little Man

I haven't updated forever and I have a million posts to do prior to publishing our blog for the year 2009, but I have a spare minute (a very rare thing lately) while the kids are sleeping, so I thought I'd get going on a post or two- we'll see how long this miracle nap keeps going. My new goal is to post the funny little things our kids do each day instead of waiting for something we have pictures to go along with.

Davis has this terrible habit of sucking on his blanket. It drives me and Spence crazy, but we can't get it to stop. He never wanted a binky when he was a baby, but now he always goes to sleep with his blanket in his mouth. I worry that he'll choke on it, so we always pull it out when we see him do it and we make sure it isn't in his mouth when Spence and I go to bed. I think this is totally gross and it make his blanket soaking wet and due to the wetness, his chin has a major sore on it almost all the time. In our effort to get him to stop, when we see him do it we tell him it is yucky and it makes his blanket stinky. In order to keep Spence and me from gagging the blanket is washed often, but it gets gross the second he goes to bed. A yucky, stinky blanket is no problem for Davis. In fact, now instead of saying he wants his blanket he says "I need my stinky blue blanket." It makes me laugh every time.