Pinewood Derby- The Golden Bullet

What a fun racing day!  Although he didn't win, he had a great time!

Mother's Day Skype

So, after waiting over 4 hours in front of the computer, we were finally able to Skype Valesca on Mother's Day...totally worth the wait!

Playa del Carmen- Anniversary 2013

We finally made it on our anniversary trip!  It was Brad's year to plan it and he took us to Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

We stayed at the Gran Porto Real.

This is what some of the interior hallways were like.

Our room.

Brad out on our balcony.

We felt like we were on a cruise since we found towel animals daily and had a turn down service with chocolates on our pillow.

This was the rooftop where we spent some time lounging in the hammocks.

We enjoyed this rooftop hot tub with the views.  We thought it a little strange that it was only open until 6:00pm.

Akumal- Mayan for "place of the turtle".  A very beautiful beach where turtles come to lay their eggs.  The water was crystal clear.  Brad went snorkeling and saw several turtles.  While we were walking along the beach in the shallow water, Brad felt something brush against his foot.  When we investigated we found a 5 inch sting ray...kinda cool.

We walked about a mile to 8:00am church on Sunday.  The meeting was so full that everyone couldn't fit in the chapel.  It was fun to sing the hymns in Spanish again and hear testimonies.

View of the beach from the street.

Don't know what that guy is doing in our picture, but we always try and take one of us like this on the beach.  Our hotel is the farthest one in the background.

A photo of our awesome hotel

Ball court at Coba.

Coba

Climbing the steps at Coba.  Coba has the tallest Mayan temple in the Yukatan.

This is after we climbed the temple at Coba.  All you can see is jungle.

Coba- very hot day!

It was so hot at Coba that we decided to get a ride back to our van instead of walk.

The steps to the top of the temple in Coba.

It is not the easiest thing to climb down from the top.

The Mayan village we visited and had lunch.

It had just finished raining.  Brad had the whole cenote to himself for swimming.

The canoes that we had to come back in after you did a zipline to the far side of the lake.

Brad in his zipline gear.  The stick in his hand is the brake.

The best picture I could get of Brad on the short zipline across the cenote.

Just as we got off the zipline it began pouring.  We had to wait in a little hut for over 30 minutes to see if the rain would let up.

Brad searching for his token souvenir magnet.

Tulum

Tulum

Tulum

Tulum

Tulum from down the beach

Two sunburned people in love.

A sand sculpture of the Mayan months.

40 days in the MTC- now she's off to New Jersey

Well, she's on an airplane right now (10:30 am on April 29th) heading to New Jersey.  We got to talk for a few minutes on the phone and I didn't cry until about the last 5 seconds- so I did pretty well. 

Interesting how some things never really change.

Webelos badge, 7 pins, 1 belt loop, compass point & Religious Knot

Elijah worked very hard on his scouting while he was off track and earned a boatload of bling!