Cancun Day 1 and 2

Feb. 7, 2013 - Michael and Genevieve came over to our house around 4:00 p.m. to watch our children while we went on a quick get-a-way.  After some explanation we left around 4:30 p.m. for the airport.  We flew out at 7:00 p.m. to spend the night in Denver.  We bought a Fun Jet package that started in Denver and flew to Cancun.  Byron used some of his United miles to get us to Denver.  The Denver airport is absolutely massive!  We stayed at the Town Place Suites which is a Marriott.  It was really a fun European feeling place.  We got to bed around 11:30 p.m.

Feb. 8, 2013 - I woke up at 7:02 a.m. to a text from Carter on my I-phone saying "Good morning Mom!"  This boys is loving this IPod Touch just a little too much!  We had our shuttle waiting at 8:00 a.m. to go back to the airport for our 10:55 a.m. flight.  We ended up getting a window and aisle seat with nobody in between us.  It was so nice to not be sitting next to somebody else.  During the 3 hour flight, we watched "Count of Monte Cristo" on Byron's Ipad mini.  It was nice to speed up the flight time.  I moved over to the window seat upon landing so I could take some fun pictures of Cancun from the air.  Cancun airport is absolutely crazy!  People are pushed through customs with long lines then we can't get away from people trying to grab us for the time shares.  We finally made it out to the shuttles where we had reserved one to get a ride 1 hour away to our hotel - The Occidental at Xcaret.  The guy that drove us was really nice.  Byron had fun talking to him in Spanish practically our whole drive.

Our hotel is really nice.  It is very tropical.  Our room has tile floors.  We have a balcony that over looks green trees.  I walked outside to see what the view was from our balcony, when I noticed a lady next door sitting on her balcony.  She said that you can see monkeys swinging through the trees.  I am excited to sit out here to see if I can really see them.

Our hotel is an all-inclusive resort so the food is free.  We ventured out from our room to get dinner at 5:30 p.m.  We are in building 21 and at the entrance to our building there were some workers feeding a huge rodent looking thing.  I grabbed my iPhone and snapped a picture. 

We ate at a buffet style place next to the pool.  We only had about 15 minutes to eat before it closed.  The fruit and pizza were my favorite.  I was eating so fast I couldn't really enjoy it.  Afterwards we took a tram over to the beach area.  The sun was almost down so we didn't have the best views.  It was so gorgeous.  I look forward to seeing it during the day.  We walked around for about 1 1/2 hours checking out the resort.  We watched a little bit of "Tangled" on a large screen while drinking a pina colada.  It is so humid that the drink was very refreshing.  We decided to call it a night around 7:30 p.m.

It has been so hard not getting Wi-Fi.  My dad went in for an angiogram today and I have no clue how the procedure went.  He was admitted at the "U" last night and went in at 10 a.m. for the procedure.  We took off for Cancun before he came out of the procedure so all day I have been wondering how it went.  Byron and I broke down to get Wi-Fi for 1 hour.  It cost $11 - pretty crazy.  I guess I have gotten so dependent on the Internet that it is hard to be without it.  I found out my dad's surgery went well and that he is recuperating in his hotel room.

 rodent by our hotel building

Cousins, Scouts and Sego Lily Teachers

 We always look forward to having family come over.  For Christmas Byron & I had Allyson's family.  We gave them a day away with some gift cards.  It was fun to have their children over.  They were all great to watch and so delightful to be around.  Myles spent about the whole time clearing the trampoline of snow one shovel full at a time.  Eliza and Rose had fun doing stickers and other girl stuff - which isn't very common in this house.  Cute Briant was so fun to be with and the kids loved taking turns holding him.  Eliza or Rose had the idea of putting snow in bags.  This kept all 3(Bradley, Eliza and Rose) entertained for quite some time.

Carter and Parker attended a Webelos Day Camp at our Stake Center.  They loved being able to make different things.  They did Showman and Craftsman activity badges. 

 Carter with a cool instrument he made and Parker with his rocket.

For Parent Teacher Conferences I always look forward to hearing how my kids are doing in school.  Bradley has progressed so much the past year.  He loves school and has the most amazing teacher - Mrs. Narvaez.  He has taken off on reading and really enjoys doing math.  He is also a great friend to those in his class.  His teacher sent me an email recently about a kid in his class who was struggling every day with having his mom leave.  This is the email from her, "Hi Tricia.  I wanted to let you knowhow wonderful Bradley is!  One of my students has a hard time this past week.  As we were lining up for recess I heard Bradley invite this student to play with him.  I am so proud of him for being so kind to this other boy."  I am so glad Bradley notices those around him and jumps in to help if need be.  This kid and Bradley have become really great friends this year.   Below is a cute penguin that was on the wall outside of his classroom.

I cannot say enough about Mrs. Knutti - she is such an amazing teacher also.  I am really not sure how I got to be so lucky but my kids truly have amazing teachers.  She is so great with Carter and Parker and knows just how to help them enjoy learning.  She makes me laugh every time we talk about how fun it is to have these two in her class.  She said that most twins will help each other out with assignments but these two act like each is on their own in class.  They typically don't help each other which I would actually consider good.  It is great that they are their own separate being with different strengths and weaknesses.  Carter with blue stripe in shirt.  Below was a paper they both worked on together that was hanging in the hall at school.

Bradley celebrated his 100 days of school and was so excited to earn more spirit sticks.  He had a party at school and loved it.

Byron Singapore trip

Byron once again had a business trip to Singapore.  He left on January 29 and returned on February 3.  He was able to escape the cold frigid temperatures to enjoy a very nice 85 degree weather with tons of humidity.  Below are some cool pictures Byron took while there.  I cannot believe how crowded it is - He also was able to attend a Night Safari - he had never done this before.  He drove around in a safari bus enjoying the night life of different animals.  He really was glad he was able to do this.  He took a lot of pictures, but they all turned out pretty dark.  He also saw a show that he called absolutely amazing!

 

 

 

 

Never Ending Snow

Ice Fishing - January 26 - The 12 year old scouts went to Utah Lake to experience ice fishing.  Tanner and Johnathan enjoyed going.   It was on a very cold day, so a little chilly.  Johnathan was hoping to catch a fish, but only Brother Hodge (who was teaching the boys how to do it) ended up catching one.  Byron was able to go along with the boys for this fun activity. 

Snow - January 29 - We got hit with a huge snow storm and it just kept on coming.  We had quite a few days where it kept on coming down.  We didn't see our street for about a week as the temperatures didn't get above freezing.  Byron was lucky enough to be in Singapore during this time.  He was in 80 degree weather living it up.  Below Bradley was enjoying playing in the snow with Luke Lavery (in burgundy) and Logan Lane (in green).  I measured 10 inches of snow for this day alone.  The kids were all so excited to come home knowing that they would have a lot of fun playing in this fun stuff.

More Snow - January 30 - It kept on coming down and here Bradley is walking through our yard on his way home from school.  It was up to his knees deep and he was having such a fun time.  Logan came home with him after school and was having a ball playing in it also.

More snow fun and mess time - January 31 - Tanner made goo at school and came home to make some again.  It was mixing the cornstarch with water and adding food coloring.  Bradley had to get in on the action.  Then I went outside with Tanner and Bradley and made a fun slide where they could go down with their sleds.  It was a hit, but pretty small since it was in our front yard.

The eating is always the best with fresh snow.

Tanner being silly.

Carter and Parker needed to make a shoebox decorated with a book they recently read.  Parker and Carter are so great at getting all of their homework done without being asked.  They took this assignment seriously and spent a lot of time doing them.  They both turned out awesome!

Parker in white and Carter in blue.

Bradley with his snowman that he decorated at home. 

February 2 - I was looking outside as the boys were walking home from school and this was as far as these 2 got - Parker was eating the snow and Carter enjoying a slippery part with ice.  What it would be like to be a kid again:).