Dance Recitals!

 The girls had their first big recital at the State Theatre in Oroville.  It seat almost 600 and they absolutely loved performing!

 I'll be glad to have a break from doing dance hair for awhile!  There are a whole lot of bobby pins up in there!

 Megan's hair is natural though.  After she gets out of the shower, I comb it, run gel through it and twist it around her head using bobby pins to secure it in place for a few hours.  I take out the pins and voila, the cutest little Shirley Temple curls all over her head!

 Megan's group trying to do their can-can high kicks, she's in the middle here.  Her group of pink ballerinas was just the cutest thing ever!  She had a tap number and a ballet number.

 Mikayla's group in their cheetah-print getup.  They did a jazz dance and she is a born performer, smiling through the whole thing and shaking her hips better than we wish she would!  They both did a great job!  We got to go back Saturday and watch them again and I just love watching my girls shake their booties up on stage.  So fun!

 Magaw and Papa brought them flower bouquets and we gave them candy bouquets.

 Mikayla and her friend Julia.

 Kendra, looking quite sad that she doesn't have any chocolate.  Of course I had extra for her, but man she was sad at first seeing all the stuff they got!

 Thank you Magaw and Papa for coming and supporting the girls in their first recital!  It was a long night of dances, but it was a great performance!

 Mikayla and Paige

 Mikayla and her dance teacher, Miss Brandy

 Mikayla and Riley

So proud of my girl!

Our Last Day...

 Trent after one day of laying out, after 3, he was lobster-red!  He's one of the lucky ones though who's sunburn fades to a tan and is now brown.  He spend all day at work from sunup to sundown in an operating room with no windows and receives no sun all week, so a full week with no shirt on a beach makes for quite the sunburn!

 I will miss the view!

 We went for a walk through the resort that night, loving the aqua-colored water and sea breeze.

 This cracked us up!  There were so many Europeans visiting the resort that were smokers.  I was not prepared for that, since it seems there are fewer smokers in CA.  These packs have huge signs on them saying "Smoking Kills" and "Smoking seriously harms you and others around you."  Why on earth would you pick up a pack, read this, and still buy and use them!! 

*The other thing I was not prepared for was how many Europeans wore thong bikinis on the beach.  Wowza.  But that's another story...

 We brought each of the girls a pair of maracas, hand painted with flowers and the word "Mexico" on them. 

 Mikayla also got a hair clip and a bracelet.

 Megan got a hair clip and a necklace.

And Kendra got a bracelet and a pull toy.  The little carousel spins around when you pull the horse on the floor.

We had a fabulous trip and immensely enjoyed our time together.  It's been 6 years since we last went on a vacation and we were overdue!  We enjoyed the break from life, work, responsibilities, and loved exploring new places together and reconnecting.  Happy 10 year Anniversary Babe!

Days 4 and 5 in Cancun!

 Another day of laying out, sipping drinks, playing cribbage on the beach, and wave jumping.  We tried to ride the waves into shore, paddling hard to stay ahead of the waves without getting knocked down when they break near the shore.  I caught a hard wave that spun me and flipped me under the water and sent my legs crashing in the sand beneath me.  It was fun and almost exhilarating to be flipped around by the strength of the waves, but I lost my sunglasses in the process and wasn't too happy about that!

 I swear I think I ate my body weight in mangoes while we were there!  We had juicy, delicious fruit with every meal.  The french toast was not battered and cooked in egg like ours is, but more like buttered toast that is coated in cinnamon and sugar afterward.  It was delicious!  There was a topping station with sweetened condensed milk, Nutella, peanut butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar syrup which was caramelly in taste and was sinfully tasty. 

 The girls wanted to know if there were coconuts in Mexico and there were in fact so many palm trees around and every one of them was bursting at the seams with the fruit.  Most of the trees were shorter than the ones we tend to think of here in the U.S. and this tree had coconuts just hanging down at my eye level.  Pretty neat!

 We had amazing veggie and goat cheese pizzas at this Italian eatery as well as a Mexican meat lasagna that was to die for!

 Here I am with yet another pina colada.  It's a dang good thing I'm not an alcoholic! I loved this fruity drink so much I wouldn't have remembered much of my trip if they weren't virgin!

There was more entertainment that night including drummers and fire dancers.  The girls were hula hooping with rings of fire, guys were juggling sticks on fire and dancing with all kinds of dangerous things.  When they would light a new apparatus we could feel the heat of the flames on the balcony where we stood.  Another fabulous day!

Day 3 in Cancun!

Happy Birthday to me!  I turned 30 this day and spent my day the best way I knew how--sitting on one of these chairs, sipping on pina coladas, reading a book, listening to the wave crash and the mellow music play.  Heaven!  I actually got to read 3 books on our vacation between beach time and plane time and I think I only read 3 books total all of last year, so that was quite a treat!

Trent's not much of a reader, he's much more of a sleeper, so he thoroughly enjoyed our day too.

My goal was to feel comfortable wearing a bikini on a beach on my 30th birthday.  So, for the first time in my life I wore one and I know it's silly, but it was actually a huge deal for me to feel confident and embrace my body, stretch marks and all.  It's probably the one and only day I'll ever wear a bikini, but at least I did it!

Outside our hotel.  We decided to venture into the city a bit.  We heard that the bus tickets for the city bus were $.80 for an all-day pass, so we hopped on the first one we saw and headed toward the mall to walk around.  We walked for a bit downtown, then hopped on another bus and the bus driver started driving before Trent had both feet onboard!  He showed the man our tickets and the driver shook his head and held out 2 new tickets demanding money.  He spoke no English, so in my broken Spanish I tried to tell him we've already paid.  He demanded more money for new tickets and Trent kept telling him "No" over and over again and to just let us off at the next stop.  The man would NOT let us off the bus.  He even stopped at bus stops demanding money and would not open the doors thinking we would flee the bus.  People outisde were banging on the doors trying to get on and he would not open the doors!

It was getting pretty heated and I was trying to urge Trent just to pay the man and we'll talk about it later.  When I understood the bus driver saying, "You pay me or I will call the police and take you to the police station," I told Trent to pay him NOW and quite arguing just to get us off the bus!  It was CRAZY!!  So, Trent paid him and the man gave us some of our change back, of course not as much as he should have, but I was done arguing.  We got off the bus and Trent said, "I don't like that he took advantage of us.  We should have gone to the police station and told them we've already bought tickets, they'd understand."  Uh, sorry.  Reality check.  Police in Mexico don't work like the ones in the States.  They will not be on our sides and a police station in Mexico is the LAST place I want to be on my birthday on my vacation!!  Ugghh, only stressful, scary situation we were in all week--it was awful!

So we walked to a flea market area to get souvenirs for the girls and then took another bus back to the mall area where we went to an aquarium.  We saw this shrimp eating an anenome.  It was pretty crazy to watch him pick at it and eat it and the others came and helped him too.  We saw lots of fish an dother sea life that are indigenous to the Caribbean ocean.  It was a great aquarium.

We also saw and touched huge sea turtles and stingray in this tank.

We saw a dolphin show and sharks as well.

That night, we went to a Mexican restaurant at the resort and had the BEST steak and shrimp fajitas, chips and salsa/guacamole, and salad.  The mariachi band even came over and serenaded us with their rendition of "Happy Birthday."

Here we are at the restaurant enjoying yet another meal without a drink being spilled, silverware being thrown, or having to clean up anything after eating!

We saw this man making pictures with spray paint as his medium.  It was enthralling to watch him spray the page with many varied colors.

In between colors, he'd point a blow torch toward the painting to quick-dry the paint.

He used paintbrushes and combs and sponges dipped in sprays of spray paint to create his art.

This was his final product.  I was QUITE impressed that it was done only in spray paint and though I didn't buy any of his varied designs, still appreciated the work he did in a mere 10 minutes.

Day 2 in Cancun!

We woke up bright and early to eat breakfast and head out to catch our tour bus bound for the Yucatan.  We went to Chichen Itza for the day and were astounded by the expanse of the grounds and many temples, buildings, and archaelogical wonders that reside there.  We were fascinated to learn more about the Mayan people including their traditions, customs, religious beliefs, ways of building, and ways of living.  Each building was used for something different, whether it be astronomy, schooling, a religious site, commerce center, sacrificial tower, ball court, or other ceremonial centers.

 El Castillo.  We've seen pictures before, but nothing could prepare us for its grandeur!  I had no idea there's a smaller structure inside that was originally built, but as the city grew, the people decided it didn't have the "wow factor" they wanted and thus built a larger, more massive, more impressive structure around it.  I found it fascinating that there are 91 steps on each of the 4 sides  totaling 364 steps with an additional platform symbolizing one more step to total 365 steps.  Everything around the pyramid and all other structures are facing certain directions so as to align correctly with the stars and the sun or to cast certain shadows at certain times of the year to signal the start of planting season or harvesting season. 

 We ate at a local Mayan restaurant.  I thought it funny that the chefs wore surgical masks.

 Street tacos, lime soup, cochina pibil, some fabulous chicken, and fruit.  Delish!

 Our tiny ice cream cones!  I had lime and Trent had coconut and yes that is sweat beading off my face all over the place!  It was crazy hot and humid and we were sweating anytime we weren't in a pool or by the ocean!

 Our lunchtime entertainment: This couple danced and spun with bottles on their heads showcasing their incredible balance.

 At the cenote!  Trent chose to dive off the ledge into the 150 ft. deep waters below.

 I took the more conservative jump and cross your arms in front of your chest so nothing pops out as you hit the water approach.

 We were amazed that there are Mayan people living in villages and in the jungles throughout the Yucatan that still live in homes like this.  Thatched roofs, dirt floors, and several families crammed into each one.

 Even though the people seem to have next to nothing, I was surprised how many still had rock walls surrounding their homes and bars on the windows.  Very sad.

 There's a boy here selling hiw wares in front of a restaurant.  The conditions look deplorable, but there's a nice big HD receiver on the side of the building.

 All these pictures were taken while on a bus so I know they're poor quality, but I wanted to remember it all.

Here's the tiny police station outside Vallodolid.  The disparity between the clean streets, high-rise buildings, and money of those that live in and tour Cancun is astounding compared with the broken, dirty streets, barely clothed children wandering the streets, and huts that reside in the nearby villages and towns.  Our trip to Chichen Itza was very educational, informational, insightful, and eye-opening on many levels.