Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Happy Birthday Noah!
At preschool Noah got to bring in a special treat for his birthday. He chose frosted sugar cookies in the shape of autumn leaves (he is loving the changing of the season). Happy Birthday Noah! 
Noah's 4th Birthday!
Noah had the most fun Under the Sea party! Jason and I decorated the family room with wavy blue streamers, seaweed strings, hanging fish, and over 200 balloons! We hung blue cellophane over the lights to make the room have an eerie blue hugh and covered the windows to black out the sunlight.
Our 1st game that we played was to make sea shell fans and try to fan the paper fish into the sqares on the floor. It was really cute to see these little 3 - 5 year olds fanning away. They did a really good job!
The next game we played was pass the present. When the music stopped playing the child holding the present got to unwrap it. The trick was that it was wrapped 8 times, one for each child playing. But when they unwrapped their layer, they also unwrapped a coloring book for them to put in their goodie bag.
The sunken treasure hunt came next. A bottle appeared with a map inside. The map had a clue of where to look next. Each clue was then found inside shells around the house. At every other clue there was a basket of treasures for the questers (stickers, go fish cards, bubbles, candy, etc.) The last clue told them where to find the hidden birthday cake, which was magically sitting on the table when they all came back into the room.
Here is the very happy octopus cake! Noah really loved his special birthday cake and helped mommy frost it the day before.
I think that the real hit of the party was the 200+ balloons that Jason blew up and scattered around the room. (Yes, he used an air pump!) The kids had so much fun kicking, and punching the balloons, hiding in them, and running through them. Noah loved his party, it was a success!
Our 1st game that we played was to make sea shell fans and try to fan the paper fish into the sqares on the floor. It was really cute to see these little 3 - 5 year olds fanning away. They did a really good job!
The next game we played was pass the present. When the music stopped playing the child holding the present got to unwrap it. The trick was that it was wrapped 8 times, one for each child playing. But when they unwrapped their layer, they also unwrapped a coloring book for them to put in their goodie bag.
The sunken treasure hunt came next. A bottle appeared with a map inside. The map had a clue of where to look next. Each clue was then found inside shells around the house. At every other clue there was a basket of treasures for the questers (stickers, go fish cards, bubbles, candy, etc.) The last clue told them where to find the hidden birthday cake, which was magically sitting on the table when they all came back into the room. Here is the very happy octopus cake! Noah really loved his special birthday cake and helped mommy frost it the day before.
I think that the real hit of the party was the 200+ balloons that Jason blew up and scattered around the room. (Yes, he used an air pump!) The kids had so much fun kicking, and punching the balloons, hiding in them, and running through them. Noah loved his party, it was a success!
Fish Hatchery With Grandma & Grandpa
The kids had a fun day with their grandma and grandpa at the fish hatchery. They got to feed the little fish and loved watching them jump and splash out of the water.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Our Adventures in Mexico
Our vacation to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico was AMAZING! Gina's mom came with us and we all had a blast!
We visited a place called XCARET where we saw a lot of wildlife. The kids loved the Scarlet McCaws!
The scarlet mccaws loved Gina!
This was an ancient ball court where the men would hit the ball with their hips and the sides of their legs. It was a cross between soccer and basket ball. They had to try to get the ball through the hoop on the side of the court to score a point. They mostly played it for fun, but if you played it at Chichen Itza you played tribe against tribe for honor. They would play for blood and the losing team captain would chop off the heads of all of the winning team (yah, doesn't make much sense) I guess that the winners felt that they would go into glory for their win and the losers would have to live with the shame. If it were me... I think I'd like to be a loser!
They liked to carve into stone and we saw a lot of skulls.
Usually I wouldn't take pictures in a cemetery, but in this particular case it was like an art exhibit, the headstones were amazing! There were representations from all over Mexico.
There were animals everywhere! Emma loved them all and was not afraid to get close.
The kids favorite animal in Mexico was the manatee, or sea cow. Noah has been asking for a toy manatee for about 6 months now. Thank heavens we found one for him and Emma at XCARET.
We saw baby sea turtles or tortugas
and huge sea turtles!
We went to a show at night where they showed us costumes and traditions of the tribes of the Mayan people.
Emma loved it! She wasn't afraid at all!
Crococun Zoo! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves!
Swimming With the Dolphins!
TULUM! Tulum was beautiful. It was an ancient Mayan city that was the only city built right next to the ocean. They were the first to spot Spanish ships. There was a lot of religious symbolism here. We met a guide that was named Abinadi, his aunt Alma, cousin Helaman, and cousin Nephi worked here as tour guides also. I'm not sure how he picked us out, but he asked us if we were LDS. I asked him how he knew and he said that he was and he could just tell. He showed us some pretty interesting things about the ancient belief in the white god who came out of heaven to the people. As Mormons we know this story too. It is told in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and it was in fact, Jesus Christ visiting the people of the ancient Americas after he died on the cross. There was also a carving found in Palenque that is said to depict the tree of life from Lehi's vision in the Book of Mormon. We bought a reproduction of this and it is amazing. Abinadi also showed us an ancient baptismal font. 
COBA! Coba was really neat. Instead of the buildings being close together they were spread out in the jungle. There was a small pyramid, some smaller structures, another ball court, and an observatory. The observatory was at a cross roads that watched the Mayan road that stretched from Coba to Chichen Itza. The roads were eleveated about half a meter and covered with crushed limestone. They shone white at night, the preferred time for travel. This road was approximately 60 miles long! The big Pyramid in Coba "Nohoch Mul" is the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula and is 138 feet tall. Emma, Jason, and Gina, climbed the pyramid, it was taller than it looked! 
Cenote! A cenote is a sinkhole in the ground where an underground river or lake flows through. This sinkhole was in the middle of the jungle and is little known. Our driver suggested it to us and it was amazing! The water is so clear that you can't tell how deep it is. Our guide told us that he has swum as far as he could and said that at one point the water is 60 feet deep, but the rocks you see in these pictures are about 20-30 feet deep. There is just a tiny hole in the ceiling that is covered. It is amazing how blue this water is without the reflection of the sky. AMAZING!
Welcome to Paradise! Our resort was called the Paradisus Riviera Maya and it was indeed Paradise! The attention to detail is amazing! It was an all inclusive resort which means that we could have all you could eat, all you could drink, 24 hour room service! The staff was amazing our favorite waiters being Ishmael (the little Mayan) and Carlos (who got the chefs to give us a copy of their famous banana cake). The kids were spoiled rotten! What am I saying, we were all spoiled rotten!
This was a little crab, that the kids affectionately named "Snappy", that greeted us at our hotel door in the evenings. He wasn't very friendly and snapped at us when we came to close, so we had to shew him away with sticks to get into our room, yes, we were very close to the Caribbean Sea.
Every night our hotel hosted a dance show. We loved these! They displayed traditional dances from all around the Caribbean.
La Playa, The Beach!
There was a taste of Mexico through pictures, I know I put a lot of pictures in, it was hard to choose, I took over 600 pictures throughout the vacation!
We visited a place called XCARET where we saw a lot of wildlife. The kids loved the Scarlet McCaws!
The scarlet mccaws loved Gina!
This was an ancient ball court where the men would hit the ball with their hips and the sides of their legs. It was a cross between soccer and basket ball. They had to try to get the ball through the hoop on the side of the court to score a point. They mostly played it for fun, but if you played it at Chichen Itza you played tribe against tribe for honor. They would play for blood and the losing team captain would chop off the heads of all of the winning team (yah, doesn't make much sense) I guess that the winners felt that they would go into glory for their win and the losers would have to live with the shame. If it were me... I think I'd like to be a loser!They liked to carve into stone and we saw a lot of skulls.
Usually I wouldn't take pictures in a cemetery, but in this particular case it was like an art exhibit, the headstones were amazing! There were representations from all over Mexico. There were animals everywhere! Emma loved them all and was not afraid to get close.
The kids favorite animal in Mexico was the manatee, or sea cow. Noah has been asking for a toy manatee for about 6 months now. Thank heavens we found one for him and Emma at XCARET.We saw baby sea turtles or tortugas
and huge sea turtles!
We went to a show at night where they showed us costumes and traditions of the tribes of the Mayan people.
Emma loved it! She wasn't afraid at all!
Crococun Zoo! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves!
Swimming With the Dolphins!
TULUM! Tulum was beautiful. It was an ancient Mayan city that was the only city built right next to the ocean. They were the first to spot Spanish ships. There was a lot of religious symbolism here. We met a guide that was named Abinadi, his aunt Alma, cousin Helaman, and cousin Nephi worked here as tour guides also. I'm not sure how he picked us out, but he asked us if we were LDS. I asked him how he knew and he said that he was and he could just tell. He showed us some pretty interesting things about the ancient belief in the white god who came out of heaven to the people. As Mormons we know this story too. It is told in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and it was in fact, Jesus Christ visiting the people of the ancient Americas after he died on the cross. There was also a carving found in Palenque that is said to depict the tree of life from Lehi's vision in the Book of Mormon. We bought a reproduction of this and it is amazing. Abinadi also showed us an ancient baptismal font. 
COBA! Coba was really neat. Instead of the buildings being close together they were spread out in the jungle. There was a small pyramid, some smaller structures, another ball court, and an observatory. The observatory was at a cross roads that watched the Mayan road that stretched from Coba to Chichen Itza. The roads were eleveated about half a meter and covered with crushed limestone. They shone white at night, the preferred time for travel. This road was approximately 60 miles long! The big Pyramid in Coba "Nohoch Mul" is the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula and is 138 feet tall. Emma, Jason, and Gina, climbed the pyramid, it was taller than it looked! 
Cenote! A cenote is a sinkhole in the ground where an underground river or lake flows through. This sinkhole was in the middle of the jungle and is little known. Our driver suggested it to us and it was amazing! The water is so clear that you can't tell how deep it is. Our guide told us that he has swum as far as he could and said that at one point the water is 60 feet deep, but the rocks you see in these pictures are about 20-30 feet deep. There is just a tiny hole in the ceiling that is covered. It is amazing how blue this water is without the reflection of the sky. AMAZING!
Welcome to Paradise! Our resort was called the Paradisus Riviera Maya and it was indeed Paradise! The attention to detail is amazing! It was an all inclusive resort which means that we could have all you could eat, all you could drink, 24 hour room service! The staff was amazing our favorite waiters being Ishmael (the little Mayan) and Carlos (who got the chefs to give us a copy of their famous banana cake). The kids were spoiled rotten! What am I saying, we were all spoiled rotten!
This was a little crab, that the kids affectionately named "Snappy", that greeted us at our hotel door in the evenings. He wasn't very friendly and snapped at us when we came to close, so we had to shew him away with sticks to get into our room, yes, we were very close to the Caribbean Sea.Every night our hotel hosted a dance show. We loved these! They displayed traditional dances from all around the Caribbean.
La Playa, The Beach!
There was a taste of Mexico through pictures, I know I put a lot of pictures in, it was hard to choose, I took over 600 pictures throughout the vacation!
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