the beck family: July 2010

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Blessings

This evening we had a dear friend over that has MS. It was so hard to see how this disease has made it hard for her to do the day to day things that I totally take for granted. She is not able to bathe her children at night, walk down one stair without a rail to hang onto, pick up something off of the floor, carry around a child or play a sport with her boys. She is pretty dependent upon others at this point in her life. I can't help but feel absolutely grateful for my health and abilities to not have a terrible disease take over my body. I have amazing health and have taken it for granted so much. I am grateful for experiences like this that help me reflect on my amazing blessings and all that I have in my life.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Cancun part 3

May 27, 2010 – Thursday – We were able to relax and sleep in – not being woken up by an alarm is so nice. We woke up around 8:10 a.m. I have been feeling pretty sick so far this morning. I don’t know if it is something that I specifically ate yesterday or if the change of food is catching up with me. While getting ready this morning, I found the smallest – cutest little gecko crawling up the wall next to the bathroom sink. It was probably 3 inches long. We ate breakfast in an outside buffet right next to the golf course. It is called the “Green Break” restaurant. I had one of the best omelets I have ever had before there. It had bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and green peppers. I enjoyed watching some people come through and golf while we were eating.

After hanging out in our room for a few hours since both of us weren’t feeling very good, we decided to venture out to Playa del Carmen for one last time. We took the resort’s shuttle bus for about $8. It is really cheap to go that route, but the bus takes so long to get there for some reason. The taxis are so much quicker. We had a few more souvenirs to get for our children.Byron is so good at bartering – we got some great deals. We had fun going through quite a few shops for about 3 hours. I was able to hold two squirrel monkeys and was able to get a picture with them – one being on my head. They were really cute just eating some vegetables. One tried to nibble on my finger, but it really didn’t hurt either. My kids will be so happy to see the picture since they were excited for me to be able to hold a monkey on this trip. Then we decided after spending too much money that it was time to go back. We took a taxi back which cost us $20.

We are both still feeling sick, but I think it is better than earlier today. We will be relaxing the rest of the day and enjoying our room. We watched ” Sahara” and then headed to bed.

What a fun trip this has been! We have both loved every part of it.

May 28, 2010 – Friday – The day of going home finally arrived. We got up around 8 a.m. to pack up. Our suitcases were definitively fuller than when we arrived. Byron is an amazing packer and surprised me that everything fit. We ate breakfast at the hotel’s store. There was a little area where they served different pastries, fruit, and sandwiches. We got a donut, muffin and some fruit.

We checked out at 11 a.m. and then had 2 more hours until our shuttle to the airport. We walked around the resort for one last time enjoying the beautiful place we called home for a week. When 1 p.m. arrived, it was pretty exciting to know that we would be leaving and seeing the kids in about 9 hours. Eight days is too long to be away for me. I loved every minute we had to get away, but missed my kids also. Maybe the children will appreciate Byron & I more after being gone for so long J.

We arrived at the airport and enjoyed relaxing after checking in our luggage and going through security. We enjoyed going into the shops and had some yummy sandwiches. The plane ride home was about 4 hours 15 minutes long. We were able to watch “Letters to Juliet” on our way home. It was a good show, but more than anything it helped pass the time.

Our flight came in a little early – around 7:50 p.m. We had to go through customs and security which ended up taking so much time. We were ready to leave the airport around 8:45 p.m. and then had to take the shuttle to get our truck. As we walked outside of the airport to get the shuttle, it felt so cold outside – nothing like the hot and humidity we were used to for the past 8 days. It felt great to be home, though. The kids were going to meet us at Grandpa & Grandma Beck’s house. As we walked into their house, the kids all ran up to give us hugs. Bradley was one of the first ones to see us. He just stood there staring until Grandma told him to give us a hug. I think he was in a little shock to be away from us for so long. He quickly warmed up again and wouldn’t quit telling us how his week went with Grandma Beck.

I’m sure Sharon was relieved to see us also. After going so long without having children at home and then having 6 all at once, I’m sure that does a number on you. She was so nice to watch them and I’m sure was much nicer than Byron or I would have ever been. Grandma Beck is all about fun and the kids look forward to being with her so much.

We brought back some souvenirs for Sharon - some hot sauce, candy bars and a shell necklace.We waited until we arrived home to get most of what we had bought for the kids out. We got them all t-shirts and then got Camille a sun dress, Tanner a replica of a small alter from the Mayan ruins, Johnathan a replica of the snake from the Mayan ruins, Carter & Parker jackets and Bradley a cool drum. We also got them some candy that was pretty typical for the children in Mexico to eat. The kids definitely didn’t find it good at all – I had a hard time eating it also. We pretty much just threw it away. The kids couldn’t quit telling us about how much fun they had while we were gone. Their last day of school was today and how excited they are to be done and have the summer start.

I will never forget our amazing trip to Cancun. What an amazing experience it was! I don’t think I will ever read the Book of Mormon the same again. We saw so many amazing things that testify to me that the Book of Mormon was really true. It isn’t just a story that we read about, but about actual people who think and feel just like us. I also gained a deep love for the people of Mexico. It was so fun to see Byron communicate with them and hear him speak Spanish like he had been speaking it his whole life. I look forward to returning again someday.

The cute gecko on my bathroom wall.

Eating breakfast on Friday next to the golf course.

Living area of room

kitchen

bedroom

view out patio - such dense thicket

resort pool - beds that could be rented for the day - had never seen anything like this before

pool at resort

This pool of water was located right in front of the "Green Break" restaurant. I think they dyed the water color to match the name of the restaurant.

Bradley with his cool iguana and drum we brought him back from Mexico.

Johnathan with a snake that was also seen at the ruins.

Tanner holding a cool alter that was typical of the way they were at the ruins we went to.

Carter & Parker both got these cool jackets. Parker's just has a little more green than this one.

Cancun part 2

Here we are in front of the entrance to our resort. We stayed at the "Mayan Palace."

May 24, 2010 – Monday - The morning began at 5:45 getting ready to head to Tulum on an LDS tour. We got all ready and were out by the resort gates at 6:50 a.m. When our tour didn’t show up, I ended up calling. We found out that because we didn’t call and let them know our room number they didn't put us on the calendar. So we are going tomorrow on our tour instead.

Since our plans changed, we headed back to our room and rested for the next few hours. It felt great to relax and take a nap.

We then headed out after lunch to go snorkeling with a group from our resort. We got on a boat with 18 other people and headed north to a reef that took around 20 minutes to get to. It was pretty scary riding on the boat at first with the huge waves making the boat lean to either side. After going for about 5 minutes with the crazy waves, they subsided and it was more enjoyable. Our tour guide was so fun. He was like a Mexican cartoon character cracking one joke after another. He called Byron & I the “honeymooners.” We didn’t tell him that we have 6 children. We were able to get unlimited water, pop and beer on the boat. There were many taking full advantage of the beer.

When we got to our first place, we jumped off the side of the boat. From the top of the water to the bottom of the ocean was only about 10 feet – it wasn’t very deep at all which helped with me being nervous. We saw some amazing fish. They were so colorful and so different. Our tour guide brought up a conch shell from the bottom of the ocean that was alive and let us feel it. Byron held it. We also had him point out a sting ray that was pretty small on the bottom. Byron took off his life jacket and went down to the bottom of the ocean to try to touch the sting ray. He came very close, but never touched it. We kept on floating around looking at amazing fish for about 40 minutes. Before getting into the boat, our tour guide found a starfish below a rock. It looked like a large tarantula and was moving its legs all over. I would have never believed it was a starfish. I held it in my hand and it almost walked right out a few times. It was amazing! At our second location pretty close to the first, we saw less fish than the first, but it was still pretty cool. The water was probably 7 feet deep here. The tour guide had some fish pellets with him that he carried while snorkeling and would every once in a while throw some out. IT was really cool seeing all of the fish swim towards him. One time he came up to me and threw about 7 pellets all over my body and all of a sudden tons of fish swarmed around me. It was really cool!

We had a great time and then headed to a secluded beach area that was absolutely amazing! There was nothing but white sand and very warm turquoise water. We stayed there about 40 minutes and enjoyed playing in the water. The beaches closer to our resort are very rocky and so we can’t go out very much to enjoy. This beach was so sandy we could sit on the bottom and just enjoy relaxing. This reminded me of enjoying our beach experiences at Hawaii – it was just so gorgeous – something from a movie!

On the way back in the boat because of the way we were riding the waves, every once in a while huge waves would come into the boat and just soak the side Byron & I were sitting in. It probably did this over and over for about 15 times in a 20 minute time span. We were dripping wet by the time we got back. We couldn’t help but laugh every time the water came in because that was about all we could do about the situation. We paid $45 for the snorkeling excursion and it was worth every penny! We had such an awesome time.

We went back to our room, showered and headed out to the shuttles to go to Playa del Carmen. We ate dinner at a small pizza stand. It was delicious! I had spinach and dried tomatoes pizza. Byron had a pepperoni and peppers pizza. We had to go back later to get some more since it was so good. We had fun going down 5th avenue bargaining and shopping. We bought some cool stuff for ourselves and the kids. Byron is just a natural at bargaining and got us some great deals. So many people are totally desperate at having us go into their shops as we pass by. I hate the part of them trying to force is almost into their shops. We just walk away quickly and say we aren’t interested. We found an internet café and used their restroom. While there we decided to phone the kids for about 50 cents. We tried, but didn’t get anybody who would answer – it was 7 p.m. at home so they were probably having FHE somewhere fun with Grandma. We stayed until our shuttle was about to leave around 9 p.m.

It has been a long and tiring day – the snorkeling wore me out. It is definitely a great exercise for your legs with the fins. We have an early morning tomorrow. We got a fun email from Mom Beck that I am going to attach to the end of this entry.

Byron and Tricia,

Things are going well here. I am enjoying your children. I will have to admit—it’s an adjustment being around six active children. But I’m loving it and looking forward to the next five days.

It’s been basically cold and rainy since you’ve been gone. It sounds like just the opposite of what you’re dealing with. Warm sounds good though to me!

John came down Friday evening, ate dinner with us—and actually spent the night. He spent all day Saturday with us. We went to the mall to walk. I know, the children were saying “walk???” They wanted to stop at the Game Stop, toy stores, accessory shop (Camille), but we told them that we are “window shopping”. Carter said, “window shopping—why do we want to go window shopping??? “ It made no sense to him. But on the way back around, we stopped at the different places and they were happy about that. Tanner and Johnathan found out that the game they want is $50 and they were out of it. We found out that “heelies” are only $39 at Journey’s Kids. Hmmm….maybe if we give them money at their birthday—and Adamson grandparents give them money, they could have “heelies”. We found out that they come in size nine—and so they would fit Carter and Parker. I told them, “See—window shopping is good, because we find out what you like and what you need!”

We stopped at Costco and tried all the samples. Grandpa bought us all a hot dog and drink.

Camille showed me the watch faces at Walgreens. They had a white face watch that I loved. We bought the beads at Wal-Mart and she came home and made it up before she went babysitting. She’s amazin’! Grandpa stayed for dinner (mini pizzas) and even played “I Got Mine!” before he left at around 8 p.m. So Saturday was a full day. We also went to the library and paid the fine and Camille, Tanner, Carter and Parker all got a book. Actually, Camille got two books because a book she had on hold came in.
We invited Melissa and Eric down for Sunday dinner. Camille fixed her delicious lasagna, which we loved. They stayed and played games with us. We played Matthew Mark, Luke, and John, only using our own names instead. Bradley was sitting by Eric, and he said, “who am I?” Eric said, “You’re Bradley”. Bradley said, “No, I’m Carter!” LOL Bradley catches on quickly.

Well, gotta go get ready before the others wake up. I need to go to a viewing/funeral today up in Taylorsville. Debbie Bass’s mother passed away and I was her visiting teacher before she went to a care center. I’ll just take Bradley with me.

I’m going to have the children write a little something before they go to school. Hope you have a fun day today and that you just enjoy your time together. Thanks for all the food you’ve left for us to have. It’s been great!

8:07 a.m. We woke up to snow! The children were as surprised as I. Tanner noticed that the sprinklers were on so he went out and turned them off. Glad he knew how to do it.

Camille’s ride came by today, so that was nice because Bradley slept in today. Bradley’s slept in Camille’s bed every night—and that’s worked out great.
I’ll send this now and have the children write to you this afternoon since they have early day.

Have a fantabulous day!
Mom

Our tour guide going to the bottom of the ocean finding treasures for us to see. He found a conch shell, star fish and other finds while doing this.

Such beautiful and colorful fish.

Here I am snorkeling.

Byron got really daring and would go to the bottom of the ocean - here he is bringing up a conch shell he found.

In our boat while on our snorkeling expedition.

This is the beach we were taken to after snorkeling - can I just say pure heaven! The sand was so nice and the water was so warm.

Tuesday – May 25, 2010 – Our morning started out getting ready for our tour of Chichen Itza and Ek Balam. We found our tour guide at the front of the gates to our resort – Miguel. He is a 21 year old that is so down to earth and fun. His mom owns “Alma’s Tours” and he helps run them. This poor guy had quite the day with us. It all started when we tried to drive away from the resort. He was in a car today instead of a van since the van was in the shop . So he was driving his dad’s car that has United States license plates. Other taxi drivers were questioning Miguel on how he knew us and why we were going with him. After explaining that we were friends through our church, they pretty much still said that we can’t go with him. He was in an unmarked car without Mexico plates. So Byron & I got out of the car, walked about 100 feet and jumped back in with Miguel. At this point there was a car that went right in front of his car and a car right behind trying to block us from leaving. Miguel started to leave and was able to weave around the car in front of us barely missing them. I was totally insane. I kept waiting to have a policeman poll us over. I will tell more about Miguel’s crazy day through out the post.

We went to the other side of Playa del Carmen to pick up Steven & Lacey. They are here from Logan on their 5 year anniversary – so nice. We enjoyed chatting with Miguel, Steven & Lacey for the 2 hour trip to Ek Balam. This ruin is only about 3 years old and was so cool. It has so many amazing sights and we were able to climb up to the top of the pyramid. It was so steep – pretty scary to climb. The people couldn’t walk up the stairs facing forward, they had to walk in a zig zag up the stairs out of respect. After going up it, I could see why they did anyways – it was very hard to walk straight up without anything to hold onto. The humidity was almost unbearable – it was so hot today. We barely survived at the sights with tons of water and shade during the tour. There are many different things that are just like the Book of Mormon times. One of them is what some of the pictures on the temple says. It mentions about white man and dark men living together like the Lamanites and Nephites. This pyramid goes back to the time of the Nephites and Lamanites There is also mention of a baptismal font and other sacred ordinances. We loved Ek Balam and were sad to leave. Miguel’s tour guide certificate needs to be renewed every year. He is in the process of taking a class for it right now to renew and was pulled aside by one of the guys at the ruins. He wanted to see Miguel’s pass and when he noticed that his is past due, he wasn’t very happy at all. He pretty much took his pass and told us to leave. Luckily we were ready to head out anyways. Then after getting on the the road (about 10 minutes later) we were pulled over by a policeman. He asked Miguel to get out and was talking to him for a while. Then the policeman came over to talk to us in the car without Miguel around. He didn’t speak English at all, so Byron talked to him in Spanish. He asked why we were with Miguel and some different questions. I guess the police were called from Ek Balam and came after Miguel again. It was absolutely CRAZY!!! Luckily Byron is so good at persuading so they gave Miguel a warning.

We then headed to a really nice Mexican buffet right next to Chichen Itza. The food was just delicious. I loved their pork and chicken the best.

Afterwards, we went to Chichen Itza – what a huge contrast form Ek Balam. Chichen Itza was so commercialized – huge vendors all over, costs more to get in and Ek Balam was pretty much holes all over the roads to get there, cheaper entrance fees and a lot smaller. The pyramid at Chichen Itza was amazing! It is huge and also one of the seven wonders of the world. Nobody is able to climb up it anymore since in 2007 somebody fell off it and died. After climbing up the pyramid at Ek Balam, I was fine to not have to climb another steep pyramid. There is so much symbolism here also – especially to do with numbers. This pyramid’s time is later – after Christ was born. There are 2000 columns which probably symbolize the “2000 strippling warriors.” There is also reference to the importance of April 6th. The Mayan’s were big in creating the lunar calendar and have many things that point that way. If you add up all of the steps to the huge temple and then add one more for the building on top – that equals 265 (days in a year. Everything was just so cool – I want to read a book about it now that I have been introduced to this cool time period. Some pretty gory thing also happened after they started to become prideful – one of them were sacrificing to their gods that included using real human hearts – so they killed the women and children saying they had the purest hearts. There was a lot of sacrificing and many alters all over the place. There is also a place next to the huge pyramid where they have recently began excavating under ground about 10 feet. They have found the base of another pyramid that dates back to more the time before Christ. The huge pyramid we can see actually has another pyramid built inside of it – so not the thought is that this inner pyramid used to be the first one and then some years later they built another one on top of it. So all this time they thought the pyramids were dated after Christ when in reality the inner one is probably before Christ. It is just so amazing and I learned so many cool things!

We had fun going around to a few street vendors and then headed out to a cenote close by. This was so amazing! We were so hot and sticky at this point that we were so ready to jump into water. We changed in a dressing room into our swim suits. Then we went and looked down into the cenote – so amazing! Way down in to the depths was a huge swimming whole. There were cliffs that many people were jumping off of into the water. It was like something you’d see in a movie, but never in real life. To get into the water, you have to either jump all the side which is about 8 feet into the water, or climb down one of 2 ladders. I chose to climb down and Byron jumped in. The water was actually pretty cold feeling, but so refreshing. There was small fish swimming all over the place. We had fun swimming around for a while, and then Byron decided to jump off the higher part. I got out to take some pictures as Byron went up 6 stairs to jump in – he is way more daring than I. Byron & I also held hands and jumped in from the base (the 8 or so feet). I was so scared to jump and then just did it. I got so much water up my nose – it was great to overcome a fear, though. We only stayed here about 45 minutes then headed home.

We dropped off Steven & Lacey and then Miguel took us to Carmen del Playa since we wanted to do more shopping and get dinner here. We ate at a really great place that Miguel suggested. We had tacos and some delicious fruit drinks. Mine was orange juice, strawberries and pineapple. It was like the real freshly squeezed juices – so delicious. After eating we headed down to 5th Avenue to shop for about 1 hour. Then we got into a taxi and headed to our resort. Byron is always so good to talk with the taxi driver in Spanish. He does so good at remembering how to speak the language. I love hearing him talk to the locals and hear their surprise when he talks. I can probably understand 25% of what is said. I would love to freshen up on my Spanish one day so I can feel comfortable speaking it.

Our tour guide, Miguel, at Ek Balam.

This is the entrance to the temple at Ek Balam.

A baptismal font

A gorgeous view from the top of the temple.

On the steps of the temple at Ek Balam.

Next to the writings at Ek Balam on the Temple.

Lunch's entertainment at the Mexican Hacienda we ate at.

Byron enjoying his food and pepsi.

Chichen Itza - such a massive temple.

The snake down the side of the temple.

Part of the ball court

The columns representing the 2000 Strippling Warriors.

This cenote just so beautiful with the vegetation hanging down.

Eating at the yummy restaurant at night that had the delicious drinks.

Wednesday – May 26, 2010 - This morning we met Alma Tours out in front of our resort at 8:15 a.m. – it felt great to sleep in one more hour than the past 2 days. Alma, Miguel’s mom, and Miguel picked us up in a van. There was another couple already picked up from Draper with us. We had a great time going to Tulum first. What can I say about Tulum other than absolutely GORGEOUS! It is on the edge of a cliff overlooking the most beautiful water ever. The city of Tulum was actually pretty small compared to other ruin sights. There were iguanas pretty much everywhere we turned. We also were lucky enough to see something that looked like a raccoon run across the grounds in Tulum. The sky was absolutely gorgeous which made for amazing pictures.

Some cool things that we learned about the people of Tulum from the ruins. They dated back to around 600 A.D. which was pretty much after Book of Mormon times. You can tell from some of their beliefs, though, that some pretty important things were handed down from generations to generations – either from writings or from their children. One of these is the main temple has 3 doors. Above the first door is a depiction of Heavenly Father – the 2nd door has a depiction of Christ – and the 3rd door is left empty symbolizing the Holy Ghost. So these people knew that there were 3 separate beings. The depiction of Jesus is with him upside down meaning that he came down from the Heavens – Ku Kul Kahn (their Christ). The taller the temples were built, the more wicked the people were since they were trying to get to heaven. An non-LDS archeologist decided that a certain grouping of words that is seen mostly in the beginning of many pictographs literally means “It came to pass.” That was so cool to find out. Omni 1:20 it tells about a huge stone that was brought unto them with engravings on it. This stone is known as a “Estela.” This is a large stone that usually had a picture of a person on it and then was filled with the ranks and many things that this particular person did in their life. We saw many of these around the ruins the last 2 days. We also learned about kiasmus which is where the most important part of something is in the middle and then first and last are pretty much the same – the second to last and the 2nd to the first are almost the same. This is depicted in many different pictures and also in writings. Alma 36 is a great example of this. The first and last versus are pretty similar and so on. They know that April 6th is a very important day and know that Christ was born on this exact day. There is also a cool stone that is the profile of a man and next to it is a profile of the woman and on April 6th the sun comes directly through the whole and goes over to the temple of the fertility God and hits a specific whole in that building. It is so cool. They had human sacrificing there where they actually used a real heart from a person. The gruesome part is also where they would then eat the flesh of this person and drink the blood – they literally took the sacrament. They also had burial tombs that were buried right below the houses and temples. These tombs had stairs coming up from them always to the East because they knew that after we die we would eventually be resurrected and go towards the east. The tomb was also shaped like a cross depicting Jesus.

We took walked around the main temple and right behind is the gorgeous water. There is a huge cliff that has water down about 100 feet that is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The water is crystal clear and the visibility in the water is pretty far. There were many people in the water enjoying the beauty.

After leaving Tulum, we headed Coba. We ate at a Mexican Buffet near the ruins. The food was very similar to yesterday’s buffet. I love their black beans, chicken, pork, and rice eaten with corn tortillas. The food was delicious!

We headed over to Coba. Coba was pretty much in a jungle area and covered a huge area. We each got bikes and were able to ride them from ruin to ruin since the distance is so great between them. Cute Alma got into a tricycle and was ridden by a taxi around. She looked so cute being taxied around while we rode bikes. I was pretty rusty at first, but it was actually very fun and felt great with the wind behind us. There are around 5 ball parks in Coba, but we were only able to see 2 of them. It was similar to the others we saw at Ek Balam and Chichen Itza. There was a huge temple we were able to climb up here. There are 120 stairs at Coba, 113 at Ek Balam and 91 at Chichen Itza. The temple’s stairs are very random and not very straight. There is also much damage since it hasn’t been fully renovated. The steps are also steeper than Ek Balam. It was pretty scary climbing up and then going back down. Luckily there is a long rope that goes down the middle of the stairs where you can hold on for your stability the whole time. I didn’t trust myself very much on the stairs much less have my children go down and up them. It was quite scary – one fall and you would be dead. After reaching the top, there was an amazing view. I am glad we ventured to the top. Going down was scarier, but we just went slow and steady. We also saw the Saba tree which is known as the “Tree of Life.” It is the largest tree around in this area and has thorns that grow along the trunk creating its own defense system.

In Coba, they sacrificed animals instead of people’s hearts. There was a road there that went in between Chichen Itza, Tulum and some other towns with ruins.

Alma was so sweet and a great tour guide. She doesn’t speak as well English as Miguel, but does really well. Miguel usually stayed in the van while we went into these places so we didn’t get to see him much. We did start the day with a word of prayer, so apparently that is what we missed yesterday when everything went crazy.

After Coba, we went to a really cool cenote. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There is a pretty scary set of stairs that heads in a circle straight down into the depths under the ground. The cenote probably sits about 200 feet below ground. It looked like a cavern with a huge body of water and was completely covered on the top. The water felt awesome and we had a great time relaxing and cooling off for about 30 minutes.

We headed back to our resort after the cenote and returned around 5 p.m. We had a full day and were totally worn out. My thighs ache and I feel worn out right now. I think all of the temple climbing and bicycle riding that isn’t something I am normally used to is catching up to me.
We ordered room service so we wouldn’t have to leave our room. I ordered some yummy french fries and a club sandwich. Byron got a mushroom hamburger with fries. We also got some guacamole and chips to go with it. The guy who brought us our food set our table with glass dishes and put our food on it. We had a delicious dinner – the food was great! This was probably one of 2 times I have ever had room service. The guacamole was probably one of the best I have ever had – so delicious! We have been relaxing all evening and watched “Sweet Home Alabama.” I am excited to sleep in tomorrow for the first time this vacation.