Xichen Itza

 I checked off a bucket list item to finally see Mayan ruins.  They are incredible!  It's two and a half hours into the Yucatan jungle to get there, so we made 2 stops on the way there.  We stopped in the town of Valladolid.  It's a lovely colonial town built in 1543.  The cathedral is actually made out of the stones from Mayan ruins that the Spaniards tore down.  The Mayans had disappeared as a civilization by the time the Spaniards showed up. This area has such an interesting history.

We drove to an open air cenote.  Rebecca and I swam in it and it was SO much fun.  It's over 150 feet deep, so you're required to wear a life jacket. 

From there we headed to Chichen Itza.  I loved learning about the history all over again.  I studied this in depth in college, so it was like visiting with an old friend.  Our guide was fantastic.  Every other sentence was English then Spanish.  He was super talented and knowledgeable, but I know Joel and our friends had a hard time following him sometimes as he switched languages.  

(The platform of Venus)

The White Road was the longest road.  It was a walking path all the way to the ocean in Tulum.

The Mayans worshiped the serpent God Kulkulcan, so you find serpents in a lot of their temples. 

The Mayans had a great interest in Astronomy and they had multiple calendars. 

I love the serpents and jaguars in their stonework. 

This is the largest ball field in this area.  In the later years they adopted the practice of sacrificing the winner of the game (the tradition came from the Aztecs).

This is the temple of their warriors.  Each pillar is a warrior.  They recently found 5 female warriors, so I thought that was pretty cool.

It felt a bit rushed.  I would have loved to spend more time there, but it was still an amazing experience. 

Heading to Paradise

A friend went on a trip during Spring Break to Mexico with her mom and sisters, and she came home raving about how amazing it was to stay at an all-inclusive resort.  After talking about it for a couple of months we started researching possible places we could go to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary (they're celebrating their 25th).  We considered a couple of different locations, but we ended up going with Tulum, Mexico.  I love to explore and see new things, and my husband loves to sit in one place and not move.  Tulum was a good compromise.  We could do excursions but also have lots of time to nap and lay on the beach.  

We had to leave at the crack of dawn, but we had a long layover, so there was absolutely no stress getting to the Cancun Airport.  We played Skull King, and Joel would like it documented that he went from being 200 points behind to beating me by 10 points.  It took us a while to find our driver, but once it was arranged it was an easy 90 minute drive South. 

We stayed at Tulum, but it was connected to 2 other resorts: Acumel and Coba.  You could take a cart around to the different resorts. 

Coba lobby:

 

Acumal lobby:

Our Tulum lobby:

We loved where we stayed.  It was a 3 minute walk to the beach and a pool.  We had very special neighbors.  We were greeted by iguanas every morning when we left our room.

It was paradise!

I loved all of the bright colors, and it was so fun to see bananas growing outside our building and coconuts falling everywhere. 

There were all kinds of interesting animals around the resort as well.  We saw agoutis (kind like a big rodent) and coatis called nasuas (their version of a raccoon).

Everyday we saw something new and unexpected.  It was so fun!

Fly Away, Kites!

As per usual, I waited until the final weeks of Aunt Summer's pregnancy to make a quilt.  Thankfully, the kite quilt got there right around when Baby Susie was born.  The kiddos are excited to have another cousin!

This one was a bit more work since the top of the kites have to be paper-pieced, but it was worth the extra effort.

I'm a little bit in love with this candy backing.  I also happen to really like the model for the quilt.  Tee hee.

Winter Magic

We decided to ring in the Christmas festivities by going downtown to Swope park to see Winter Magic.  We don't often get out to see the lights, so it was fun.

It's not the best picture, but I loved the sugarplums.  The kiddos loved the lights, and it wasn't too busy, because it's still early in the season, so it was a win-win.

How You Know You've Hit Midlife

 I got shelving installed yesterday and yes, it brought way more joy than it probably should have.  

I originally looked into getting it done this summer in anticipation of Joel's parents coming to stay with us, but there was a several month wait.  We were sad it wouldn't be done in time, but I'm thrilled to get more storage space.  I'm excited to get Lego bins off the floor and onto the shelving.  Wahoo!