Returning

I know you've all been anxiously anticipating my next post.  I feel like you should feel like I did last year after finishing the Season 4 finale of MadMen and having to wait until March.  MARCH.  To watch Season 5.  Especially because this blog is so full of culture, sex, stunning clothes, and beautiful people.  

Here's where we left off last season...

• We had another boy, Jude, who is really cute and a bit elfin.  He kept on growing even though I told him not to.  He is as sweet as ever.  He had a birthday, but that's for another post.  

• Evelyn learned to say her name and write her name.  She is compassionate and moody.  She always sings and often screams.  She loves me and hates me.  She LOVES her daddy.  

• Max went to Kindergarten and is totally a cool nerd.   I love cool nerds.  I married one.  I think I am one (except usually not so cool).   He has grown up a lot and is a real sweetheart.  He and Evelyn are inseparable.  They play well and they fight well.   

• Jason started his graduate studies at Purdue University pursuing a Master's degree in Structural Engineering.  He decided to do 4 semesters of classes in just 3 which was very intense.  But it is SO good to just be done and not be students again next fall!  The last 8 months have been busy for him.  He would leave at 6 am, come home for dinner, then go back to the school until 2 am.  Even on Saturday. 
• We celebrated our 10 year anniversary in February and it didn't even get a post.  But I'm going to write more on that later. 

Currently:

• Our family decided to stay in West Lafayette for about 2 more years because Jason accepted a job at Purdue working as a Research Engineer.  It is a good opportunity to get him into bridgework and gives us a little breather from moving again.  The stability will be good, but I do get the itch to move every now and again. 
• Jason graduated!!! and we did not attend his graduation.  We were busy trotting the continent. 

Somewhere around the middle of April, we decided to go on a vacation.  Just the two of us.  It was completely crazy of us.  We've never really gone anywhere just the two of us except our honeymoon to Jackson Hole.  I say that, but in reality, we've lived in pretty cool places with their surrounding locales.  But we have never left our kids for more than a weekend once, and of course I've never left Jude.  Planning an actual trip with plane tickets and childcare just felt much more important.  We wanted to celebrate our 10th anniversary, Jason's graduation, and my 30th birthday.  

So here is what we did:  On Thursday, May 3rd, we picked Max up from school and headed straight out of town.  We drove 24 hours with only a couple of short stops and driver switches until we made it to Twin Falls, ID.  Then we booked a week at the Shilo and had the time of our lives...that probably didn't happen.  We spent that night with my amazing sister Julie who more than willingly joined my three children with her five without a worry.  Not even about an unweaned baby.  We got up early the next morning, leaving the kids, and drove to SLC where we boarded our plane and landed in CANCUN on Saturday night (May 5th).  

Now I will warn you:  The following contains boastful content and is extremely LONG.

  

We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres and it was AMAZING!  Absolutely beautiful and a little secluded.  If we had just spent the whole vacation there I would have been happy.  It was an all inclusive and really, honestly, so amazing that when we went to Xel Ha, we were disappointed.  Talk about spoiled.  When we checked in, they somehow had us down as being on our honeymoon so they had set up our room with a banner on the door and a little celebratory spread of cakes, fruit, champagne, and rose petals.  We had to show our wedding license for these romantic notions to continue, but it was a fun surprise that made us laugh.  

Our room was a swim-up suite so the river-like pool that meandered through the resort came right up to our little patio.  There was a jacuzzi tub that could be opened up completely to the outside and it was situated on a very quiet end of the resort.  There were fantastic restaurants and the service at the resort was outstanding.  They had different shows and bands every evening.  It was wonderful.  

Our "Honeymoon" banner.

The picture honestly doesn't do the room justice.

Looking into our room from the pool.

Looking out of our room.

On Sunday morning, we took the ferry to Isla Mujeres.  I love riding ferries.  I find them relaxing--especially on a quiet Sunday morning over the pristine Caribbean Sea.  We rented a scooter and rode all over the Island.  The weather was perfect the entire time.  Not too hot.  No rain.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at our resort and dressed up for a fabulous French dinner with delicious crepes for dessert.

Ferry ride to Isla Mujeres.
(Yes, I chose the better picture of me instead of Jason, you can't say you wouldn't do the same!)

Holding sea creatures at the turtle farm on Isla Mujeres

 On Monday, we had booked a tour to Tulum and Xel Ha.  I learned from our Mayan guide that the Mayan's never claimed that the world would end in December 2012.  What they did claim was that there would be an enormous climate shift (such as what happened when the dinosaurs became extinct). I can't decide which one is more worrisome.  Anyway, Tulum was cool but HOT and Xel Ha was very fun.  I'm always a fan of a Mexican buffet and there were hardly any fish in the water.  There were 2 areas when we were snorkeling where the fish started swimming up close to Jason ready to attack and I turned around and flipped my flippers as fast as flippers can flip to escape the danger.  I'm also getting really old and snorkeling made me SPIN!  I don't usually get motion sick, except on spinning rides, but it was crazy.  We had lots of fun riding bikes and taking a siesta in the hammocks.  During naptime, a worker walked by with a squawking parrot and in my sleepy mind I thought, "They have parrot alarm clocks!  I want to whack it on the head."

Tulum.

I have no pictures from Xel Ha but it is probably better that way.
We were honestly the whitest people in the entire country of Mexico.  All tourists included.
(Even the Russian with sunscreen plastered all over his face and wrist to ankle clothing.)

Tuesday was our final day in Cancun and the best day of all.  We went to XPLOR and it was such an adventure.  It is a relatively new park and it is set up so well.  It only has a few activities and each activity has two routes but they all take at least 45 minutes to complete.  Without lines.  There was no waiting in line on our entire trip.  They suit you with a helmet and if you didn't bring aqua socks you pay a small fortune for them in gift shop and then you are off!  Also, the helmets have codes on them and they have cameras hiding all over the park to snap you being adventurous and it then they organize it by your helmet code.  The pictures are also a small fortune and it would have been near impossible to take pictures yourself.  

First we rode the amphibious vehicles (which aren't as adventurous as they sound, but much more so than vehicles on a track at an American amusement park.)  We decided to opt out of the second run on those and went to the underground rafting.  

The rafting was great!  They put you in a two person raft with hand ores and you paddle through the caves filled with stalactites.  Completely on your own, unassisted, and pretty much isolated.  There were no crowds.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  We did the second route later in the day and it was even more amazing.  

Our next activity was zip lines.  They have very long, very tall zip line courses and we spent all afternoon zipping from tower to tower, into waterfalls, tandem or alone, there was even a water slide.  Such a blast.  

Our last activity was swimming through the underground caves which was even better than the rafting.    There was a 25 m or a 350 m course.  At the end of the longer course, you are rewarded as you swim through the stalactites into a circular waterfall.  Breathtaking.  The whole place is clean and natural.  We loved it.  

We spent our final evening at the resort.  The band closed on a very tender note with a sweet rendition of "Hey, Jude" and I knew our time had come to an end.  We left early the next morning to fly back to our precious children.  

We spent a couple of days in Twin Falls with family, even my mom! (who got permission to come for a couple of days) and celebrated Jude's birthday with his twin cousin Scarlett.  Then we made our way back to Indiana on Saturday through Sunday, May 12th (which I'm sure Jude didn't think was much of a party.)  The birthday post is coming soon.