Our 10th anniversary was in July. Part of Paul's gift to me was he would take me anywhere I wanted to go. All I really wanted to see was white sand and amazing blue water. Paul picked an amazing place in Tulum, Mexico. Before I write about it though, I have to say that there are some things in Mexico I wasn't expecting....
I really like the movie Nacho Libre. I just think it is so funny. I just never realized how accurately it depicted Mexico. It first started when I saw these wrestling masks in most of the stores there. The little boys that sat behind me in church brought action figures that were wrestlers in masks similar to these.
These little trikes were all over for carrying food, people, and whatever else would fit in them.
So this isn't the real guy that I saw. But I couldn't believe it when I saw a guy trying to get on his bike with a mattress. I'm not sure how or if he was able to do it, but it looks like this guy had the same idea and was successful.
I was also very shocked that entire families could fit on a motorcycle. This also isn't the family that we saw, but it was very similar. There was a little boy on front. A baby between the mom and dad. Then a small girl on the back with her backpack on. And I thought Paul's motorcycle wasn't a family vehicle. What was I thinking?!?
Well we had a great time. Tulum is just south of Cancun. It is beautiful without the crowds of people. It was the perfect place for the right mixture of relaxation, culture, and adventure.
Here is the cabana that we stayed in. It was right on the beach. It was like a dream come true. I would have never guessed that I would be staying right on the beach.
Here is what we saw every morning when we woke up. I am laying on the bed in our room. It was pretty sweet.
The view on the porch of our cabana.
The cabana had a restaurant next to it. The restaurant had tables right on the beach and this nifty beds.
Our first full day was a little overcast, which turned out perfect for exploring the Mayan ruins in Tulum.
The jungle there is very dense.
You can walk down from the ruins and go swimming here and hang out on the beach.
I never got over how amazing blue the water was and how soft the sand was. I loved it!
Paul has been to this area before, so it was nice to have him familiar with what was around. It was super awesome that he speaks Spanish so well.
We had another perfect overcast day that we spent at the ruins in Coba. They were much bigger than Tulum.
Here is Paul by the sports court. They had to make goals into the ring you can see above Paul's head. I just wouldn't have wanted to be the loser, because they had to pierce their noses and other body parts and drip the blood onto the picture you can see in the stone.
This was a fun ruin to climb.
Little did I know that the next day, I would be driving for 5 hours through that jungle. =)
Another cool ruin.
The next day, Paul and I decided to take a leisure drive to the end of the peninsula. We had fun exploring this area.
Next we stopped at an abandoned visitor center. Behind the visitor center was a path leading to the lake. We decided to see what the lake was like. On the way to the lake there are kayaks and life vests. I couldn't believe that they could just leave them there and no on took them or just went for kayak rides. So I started thinking maybe it would be cool to just take one out for a bit. While I'm thinking about that we get to the dock and there are two motor boats there. It is the middle of the jungle, but I'm still amazed they can just leave them there. There were a ton of fish around the dock. I'm still wondering about the kayaks when we spot a huge crocodile in the lake just in front of us. I no longer have any desire to get on the lake, and I'm questioning how safe we are on the little wooden dock we are standing on. Now I understand why they just leave the kayaks and boats. =)
Well our leisure drive road turned into the roughest, pot hole filled road I have ever been on. Between Colorado and Idaho I thought I had been on some rough roads, but this was far worst than any of those.
If it wasn't filled with little pot holes to dodge it was filled with giant ones that made me worry that water was going to get on our engine.
So this road kept going and going and going, but neither Paul or I could be the one to say to forget driving to the end of the earth and turn around.
We did make it to the end of the land. I was amazed that at the end was a small town called Punto Allen. If you are into snorkeling or diving, there is a really cool reef there.
So our leisure drive turned into a 5 hour bouncing adventure. At least we made it back to the cabana just under the rainbow. =)
The next day we went to XPLOR. It is a really cool adventure like park. The entire area has many places were you can go in the cenotes, which are underground rivers.
So this off road vehicle adventure was fun, but seemed like nothing compared to the ride the day before.
We swam in the cenotes. It was nice. The caves here are amazing.
We got to paddle with hand paddles on rafts through part of the cenotes.
The only time I can carry Paul is in the water. ;)
Not quite 7 peaks water slides, but it was fun.
This was my favorite part. I loved doing all the zip lines. We did a total of 14 zip lines above the jungle.
Three of the zip lines had water landings. There were also hammock water rides that we did that were pretty cool.
So our last day we saved to do absolutely nothing, but hang out on the beach. Which was a little harder than I thought. I think Paul and I just like to go, but it was nice to be grounded to doing nothing. It was a great day for being on the beach.
It was so beautiful. I was able to read without any interruptions or feeling guilty, which was a special treat.
I had fun swimming in the ocean and jumping waves with Paul. He was a good sport and let me hang on him, when I thought the waves were going to suck me out into the ocean. =)
I loved the trip and the time that I got to spend with just Paul. I can now say I have walked on white sand beaches and seen clear blue water.
I love my friend, Paul, very much and I'm excited to have an eternity of adventures with him.
I can hardly wait for our next get away.
The kids had fun helping Madelyn open her birthday presents. Here are a few of her favorites. She really likes the Leap Frog cell phone. Which is by far the closest toy out there that resembles my cell phone. So hopefully she will leave mine alone now.
Grandma Oman (Paul's mom) has given each of the kids their own chair. They all love them of course. Madelyn really likes hers. She climbs in and out of it all day.
First birthdays at our house are pretty low key. They get a couple of presents and we let them eat bites of cake out of the pan with their hands. We decided to celebrate the weekend before her birthday, so Paul would for sure be there. I had the cake and presents on the table. We were ready for the big celebration, so I went to wake up Paul....
while I was gone, Hannah decided to try and peek in one of the presents on the table. The result was the table tilting and the cake landing face down on the floor, and the glass pan shattering all over. Since it was late in the day, the cake celebration had to be put on hold for another day.
Two days later on Madelyn's real birthday we did take two of the cake. (good thing I didn't try and do any fancy decorating or I may have been really upset.)
