Playing on La Playa

I really am pathetic when it comes to updating this. I guess that's what happens when you have a SLOW computer that takes 500 years to upload any pictures.

Well, let's take a time machine back to June. Actually, to back up, we got buddy passes from my brother for Christmas last year and hadn't cashed in on those puppies. June rolls around and we had all these places we wanted to go to, but we finally decided on going to Cancun. And my two brothers came with us. AND my cousin Joey ended up coming with us last minute. It was so fun. And having 5 people go to split the cost of rental car and hotel? Yeah, I'll accept that. We flew to Cancun, but didn't want to stay there because it's expensive and touristy and not that exciting. So we rented a car and drove a couple hours to a smaller town called Tulum. I had been there before when I was like 10 but didn't really remember it, so it was great.

Beware of picture overload. I didn't even put of half of what we took.

This is the hut we stayed in. How cute is it?! I loved it. Despite the hot nights of no AC and trying to fall asleep, it was totally worth it. It was literally right on the beach and only about 25 bucks a night.

This is the view from walking outside our hut. If you walk down the path about 20 more feet, your little toes-ies are in the white sand and crystal blue 80 degree ocean water. It was perfect.

One day we went to these ruins. They were so big that you could rent bikes to ride around so you didn't have to walk so much. So that's just we what did.

This was a game the Mayans played. Now it's been too long to remember what it actually was. Something about using  your hips and elbows to get the balls into that hoop on the top, hence Luke and Sam demonstrating.

Posing triumphantly after making it to the top of the ruin.

This was our meal for basically the whole time we were there. Chicken, salsa, tortillas. Accompanied by hungry, annoying flies swarming all around trying to get in on the action.

This is the beach from 20 feet outside our little huts. It was amazing. We stayed in a not-so-touristy area so the beach was basically just us out there. Which made it that much more better.

Yep.

Boys having a mud fight.

Can I live here, please?

Ruins round two. These was were much prettier, being right on the ocean. We paid like 10 dollars to have a tour guide walk with us and talk about the ruins because there were speculations that there were some correlations between church history from Book of Mormon times and these ruins. We had a Mormon tour guide named Abinadi, haha. It was neat being able to ask him questions and things.

I totally remember going to these ruins when we came when we were kids. My mom took us small three  children all through Mexico all by herself for almost a month. Yeah, she rocks. Anyway, I remember we had taken a long taxi ride to finally get to these ruins and it ended up being CLOSED. and the taxi driver had left us all alone  by the time we figured that out. So my mom, being the rebel she is, decided we should ignore the locked gates and no trespassing signs and hop over the wall and explore the ruins ourselves. So that's just what we did. I remember walking through those beautiful ruins all by ourselves exploring everything. I remember it was raining a little bit. So there was something about being alone in these ancient ruins with no one in sight, hearing the waves crash against the cliff. It was unforgettable.

Then we went snorkeling in some senotes! Senotes are water wells in caves with really fresh, clear water. There were a lot of fish to look at. I'm not one to get worried or nervous, but the boys were going really deep into the caves where you really need scuba gear, because the cave ceilings go really low, so there's not many pockets to come up and take a breath. But they insisted on going and exploring and they'd just feel around with their hands for air pockets to come up and take breaths of air before having to continue to swim. I thought they were going to drown! And I'd yell for them from the open part of the cave and they wouldn't answer because they were so deep into the cave and they were gone for like almost an  hour! Almost gave me a heart attack. 

I'd like to think that it's the camera making me look so ghostly, but no, it's  not. I gained ZERO color that whole time we were there! So disappointing.

This is the supermarket we spent so much time at making this trip as cheap as possible. We went there for breakfast everyday to eat 25 cent donuts.

We ate either at the supermarket or at the taco stands on the street. Best tacos of my life! They were like 20 cents each and I never got sick of them by the end of the trip. Jeff was the only one who got sick from eating on the streets. He threw up several times in the middle of the night (in our poorly ventilated and hot, muggy hut due to no air conditioning-- have I painted a pleasant picture for you, yet?)

We decided to stay in Cancun the last night we were there since we had an early flight and so that way we were closer to the airport. We found an awesome deal to where it was only like $17 a person to stay in this all inclusive resort! Equipped with tennis courts, pool, gym, SHOWERS, buffet, etc. It was pretty heavenly.

Luke obviously won at tennis. I was his partner, but I guess I'm too humble by not posing in such an ostentatious manner  :)

I love my family. How am I the shortest one?! So strange.

The sunset kept changing in such beautiful colors every 10 seconds that we kept on taking pictures.

We're so lame.

There you have it! Finally. Mexico 2011. It was a too short of a trip and I wish we could go on endless adventures together.

Bedroom Re-do!

So, ever since we've been married I've been always wanting to decorate our bedroom. Well, the picture below is what it's looked like for the last year and a half. Orange and bare. We painted it burnt orange right before we got married and I had big plans to make it look awesome with decor. Although, I loved the color, soon after I realized I had no clue how to decorate around it. So, Jeff allowed me to repaint and redecorate! I thought now is the best time time to do it, because hopefully before too long we'll have a little babe and then I know it will just be put off for years. 

My aunt is the queen of decorating. Seriously, that's her talent in life. She is the one that did my whole wedding. She just lives a skip away in St. George, so she was so kind enough to come down and help me with it all. She's awesome. And now she's redoing my boss's whole house after she had seen pictures of my room! 

BEFORE:

So much junk everywhere! That whole pile in the corner has literally sat there since I moved in when we got married {embarrassing, I know}. The main reason Jeff gave me the ok to redo it all is so that pile will be out of there forever! So without further ado...

AFTER!:

The only thing we had to work with that we already had was the duvet cover and the black frames we had gotten from IKEA {which I still have to fill with black and white pictures}. Pretty much everything else you see we got from thrift stores or garage sales.

We already had the duvet cover, so I just picked out the fabric and my aunt made that headboard and the cornice! {I didn't know what that was either, but its the box thing above the window} See, I told you she's awesome.

She also made those wood wall hangings. She got the wood from Home Depot and just did her thang.

My picture collage that took forever. Spray painted all the garage sale/thrift store frames white and put black and white pictures in them. I still have to put pictures in the small ones. I'm gonna put a baby picture of me and Jeff in each of them. That little picture of a clock is set at 1:00... that's the time Jeff and I got married :)

We found that dresser at Salvation Army for $25!!! We were SO happy. It's in great condition. We just painted it white {which also took forever!}. I still have plans to do something with that lamp shade. Maybe put lace all around it or something.

And now we just have to paint the bathroom. I'm thinking apple green to tie in the green pillows on the bed.

There you have it folks! We're really happy with it {when I say "we", I mean "me". Jeff couldn't care less}

It was a fun weekend garage sale-ing and painting and decorating with my Aunt. Thanks Sue!!! I'm in LOVE!

Nastolgia

I have a few trips I need to update on, but I'll start with our last-minute trip from last weekend. We decided to go the night before and I'm so glad we did! We went to my grandparent's cabin in Pine Valley, UT. My grandparents built this cabin before I was born and it has been one of my favorite memories growing up. We would go there every year for Thanksgiving (we'd find our own Christmas tree in the woods and cut it down and haul it back to Las Vegas on the roof of our plum colored Toyota Previa and our house always smelled of fresh pine for the holidays), Labor day, Memorial Day, Pioneer Day... basically any time we got a chance to go up there we would and spend the time with all our cousins running around playing kick the can. I love it.  I hadn't been there in years for whatever reason and I just had been aching to go back! And Jeff had never been there so I wanted to show him where I spent so many holidays growing up.

AND there was the annual Corn Fest in Enterprise, UT (a small town kind of near Pine Valley where we always had our Holt family reunions. My grandma also grew up in Enterprise). I had never been to the corn fest, because it was probably always the weekend BEFORE Labor Day and we wouldn't be there.

I didn't take hardly any pictures. What's new.

So we drove up to St. George to visit my Grandpa before heading up to the cabin. I love my Grandpa. Have I mentioned he'll be 90 years old in November and still golfs three times a week? How awesome is that? I guess drinking a gallon of milk every 2 days will do that for ya.  Oh and 20 years in the FBI. Yeah, he's a stud. It's funny, because Jeff always wants to talk to him about his days doing that (I mean, seriously he was in Chicago during the 60s), but my grandpa is not a talkative guy and all he says is, "Oh yeah, it was a good job...." Haha. 

My Aunt Susie, mom, Luke, Sam, me

So this is in Enterprise. It's a super small but cute town in the middle of no where. This is the house where my grandmother was born and raised in and the house where my mom spent her summers growing up.

After going to the corn fest we went to our family cemetery and visited there for a bit. Then we drove out to the Meadows Mountain Massacre site. I had actually never been there. It was so sad to see the names of all the women and children that were killed.

This is the cabin I love so dearly. So many memories flooded my mind throughout the weekend. Jeff probably got so sick of hearing all these boring stories, but I can't help it! I love this place. We spent the evening playing cards, ping pong and pool. It was fun having my brothers there, too, and spending that time with them. We played doubles in pool and our last game lasted until I think 2am. It was fun.

Before dinner, us and my brothers drove out to the reservoir and walked around and skipped rocks. This is my brother, Luke, swinging a stick at the dragon flies.

It was such a nice getaway and I'm so glad we went!  I really miss that place. It was great not having any phone reception so no one was distracted and we all just hung out. Jeff and I decided we HAVE to buy a cabin someday. He grew up going to Big Bear, so he knows how great it is to go to one growing up. We want our kids to have the same memories.