r: August 2008

The kids went back to school on August 6th. It really seems that summer gets shorter every year. I'm not sure if the kids were really ready to get back but it's here now. They were excited to see all their friends again.

Joey started 2nd grade.

Nicole is in 4th grade this year.

Katie was a little disappointed that she got left behind. She will start preschool in a couple of weeks. She is excited to be a big kid and leave home with the kids. Next year Katie!

Nicole wasted no time finding her friends and saying goodbye to me. It seems like not to long ago that I was taking her to her first day of kindergarten. She has grown into such a beautiful young girl. She has made some great friends at her school and always has a group of kids around.

Good Luck kids in another school year!

We are so lucky to have Sean and Lyssa McAleavy for friends. They are just so much fun and they are the perfect couple for us. Lyssa and I grew up together and Sean and Geoff grew up together. After we were married we set them up on a date and 10 years later they are a great couple and family. We have missed them so much since they moved to Texas a couple of years ago. It had been too long since we had just hung out so we planned this trip together. It was a wonderful, relaxing and so so fun time. We laughed so much, (especially late at night) played hours of card games and just had the best time.

We stayed at a beautiful resort that was an hour drive south of Cancun. It was right on the beach and right next to the jungle. We saw so many diffrent animals. Especially these guys. The first time we saw one it right outside our door and we hurried and took pictures. We didn't realize that they were all over the place. By the last day of the trip we would just causually point and say "There is another iguana." Some of them were really big.

The best day of our vacation was when we booked with a tour group and got to pick the things we wanted to do that day. They picked us up from the hotel in the morning and then we were off to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. There are ruins all over in that part of Mexico. It was really hot and we were having a hard time enjoying and appreciating them. But it was neat to think that people built these and used to live like this. Although I can't imagine living there with no airconditoning.

Although I don't have any pictures of this. The highlight of the day and really the whole trip was when we went to an underwater cave. They are called cenotes. We went to the Don Ojos cenotes. We traved through a Mayan village that the Mayan people still live in. Their homes are really just huts with straw roofs. But the cenotes was so unbeliveable. We jumped in the cool water and everyone got used to the snorkling mask and then our guide took us in the caves. We had flashlights so we could see and it was so beautiful. It is hard to explain what it was like in there. I wish I had pictures but it was so dark and my underwater camera had no flash. There were huge columns and it was so fun just exploring. It was a true adventure.

This little monkey was in the Mayan village. The children take care of it and if you pay them a little they let you feed him and hold him. He looks cute here, But.....

He didn't seem to like Geoff too much. It was so funny. He started to pull his hair and then a few seconds later he was totally biting his head. Geoff kept trying to get away but he had a tight grip on his hair.

Geoff had little scratches all over his head. I hope that monkey didn't have any diseases. Maybe we should check about a rabies shot for Geoff. We seriously laughed about this for hours. It is still funny when I think about it.

After that adventure we went back to the ocean to swim with the sea turtles. We rode a small boat about two miles out in the ocean and jumped in. It didn't take long before we spotted some huge turtles. They were just swimming all around us. Our guide said to just stay still and they don't even notice we are there. They were so neat to see so close. We even saw a little baby turtle. We saw other sea animals too. Everyone was getting excited about something and I turned to see what it was and there was a huge baracuta behind me. I was a little freaked out but once I moved away a little it was cool.

The boat came back to pick us up and took us to La Buena Vida, a resturant on the beach. The whole thing was outside built on the sand. The view was so beautiful and the food was great. There were two other couple with us on the tour and it was fun to sit and talk with them at lunch. We needed to break after all the snokling we had been doing. But it wasn't over. After luch we went to a lagoon that was FULL of every kind of fish. In the lagoon there was fresh water that pours in from a cenotes and saltwater from the ocean. So we saw both both fresh water and sea fish. They two types of water didn't mix very well so some parts were really cloudy. The salt water was the warm water and that was at the bottom because it is more dense. Lyssa and I had fun diving to the bottom and hanging onto rocks to stay in the warm water. It was an amazing day and we were dead tired that night. But we still had a fun game night that night.

Lyssa and I went parasailing one morning. It was really fun. There wasn't too much screaming. Just on the take off. There was a beautiful view from the top.

Don't we look like we are having fun?

The view from the air. Beautiful!

Geoff and I went kayaking in the ocean. This isn't as easy as it looks. We didn't last too long. By the time we paddled out very far the big waves would push us almost all the way back to shore.

Sean and Lyssa did much better. They must work better as a team.

We ate at a diffrent resturant at the resort everynight. It was so great not to have to cook. The food was fabulous. This night was at the Steak House. They played country music and the Mexican waiters were dressed like cowboys and were trying to act very western. So funny!