Anniversary in Mexico, Part 1

Josh and I went to Mexico for our 25th wedding anniversary in April. As spoken of in a previous post, the Leadore School District schedules their spring break in a strange way. Instead of having one entire week off, they split it up with 2 days off the first week of March, and then another 2 days off surrounding the Easter holiday. Since our anniversary this year also coincided with the Easter holiday weekend, we decided to utilize those days off I had from school and integrate them into our travel plans, so ultimately I only had to take off one and a half days from work. 

Josh picked me up from Leadore after school on Wednesday, April 5, and we drove to Salt Lake City that night. We stayed overnight with my sister Tabbi, and then she drove us to the SLC airport early the next morning for our flight, which was scheduled to leave at 5:50am. We had a 3-hour layover in Denver before our next flight that took us to Cancun. The flight was delayed, and we ended up arriving at the Cancun airport at the same time as a giant plane from Europe, so the airport was super busy and we had to wait a LONG time in the long lines at customs to get through. Plus...once we finally made it through customs, Josh was picked randomly to have an "extra" bag check, which took us even longer to get out of that airport. I'd booked a van to pick us up, but as a result of all the delays, the van had picked up other customers, and we had to wait (once again) for it to get back to pick us up to take us to our resort. Josh was extremely irritated at this point; we were both exhausted and starving and ready to be done traveling! We were grateful when the van arrived and we were both SO glad to finally get to our resort, which was the same one we went to last time. Thankfully, we arrived while there was still some semblance of sunlight so we could enjoy the sight. We checked into our room and went straight to the restaurant to eat. While we were eating, the sun set and the moon rose. We felt immediately better: eating and being surrounded by the sights and sounds of the ocean just about made up for the frustrations of the rest of the day. It had been a long day: we'd watched the sunrise that morning from the plane as our day of travel was just beginning, and we saw the moon rise after we finally reached our destination. 

View from the airplane of the sun just starting to rise

It snowed the night before we left Salmon, so the contrast
of snowy Idaho vs. warm Mexico was very apparent!

Our first view of the resort after our late arrival. 

The moon over the mountains as seen from
snowy Utah the previous night, compared to
the moon over the ocean as seen from
the beach in Mexico the following night. 

This was our second time at this resort
because we loved it last time so much!

Day 2 of our anniversary trip was our first full day in Mexico. We slept in, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing in the best ways possible: eating at the onsite restaurants whenever we got hungry, getting drinks from the poolside drink station whenever we felt thirsty, and laying on beach chairs by the pool or on the beach to read books. We also broke up the monotony of all that laying around, reading, and eating by getting an hour-long couple's massage in a large tent by the beach and swimming in the ocean for about an hour (which got us sunburned as a result, which surprised us both because we'd been to the tanning beds for weeks leading up to our trip so our skin would be prepared to see the sun!). 

The poolside bar is the building adjacent to the
pool with the thatched roof. They served drinks to
people in the pool as well as people on the patio.

I read 3 books on our vacation. This was my favorite!

The big circular building is the main restaurant. 
Downstairs is the buffet which serves 3 meals
 a day. Upstairs are the fine dining restaurants with
Italian and Japanese dinner options. 

Day 3 of the vacation was another beautiful day in Paradise. It was much like day 2 for us...eating & drinking, laying around reading, getting another massage...except this time, instead of swimming in the ocean, we took a mid-day stroll walking to the nearby town of Playa Del Carmen. We walked down the shop-lined pedestrian cobblestone road and did some souvenir shopping. We were smarter this time not to get pulled into shops by salesmen begging us to come in or saying they knew us from the resort (once they saw our resort wristbands) or saying they had amazing sales ("nearly free!"). We only went into the stores we were interested in. When we got to the end of the street, we walked back to the resort along the beach, which was SO crowded with spring breakers! This was our first time going to Mexico in the spring, and we couldn't believe how unbelievably busy it was! We were so grateful to have a semi-private beach at the end of the hotel row, because it was SO much quieter there! Also, another difference this time was the appearance of armored guards perusing the beachfront all day long on 4-wheelers. There had been a few recent murders of Americans in Mexico due to gang-related activity, and as a result, the Mexico National Guard was in full force on the beach and in popular crowded areas, in order to be more visible and help the tourists feel more safe.

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The resort's buffet restaurant had a differently themed menu each day, so the food was never the same, which is nice, especially if you stay at the resort for a week and choose not to leave. The items would be labeled in English and Spanish, but sometimes the translations from Spanish to English weren't correct. It took Josh a couple days to figure out that "jam" items, were really "ham" items! 

The assortment of appetizers, fruits, veggies, side dishes,
and especially the dessert spread was always visually pleasing!

March 2023 Randoms

We love being able to talk to our elders via video call each week! Jonah's P-day changed now, so it's not often that we get to talk to them both at the same time anymore (since they call on different days), but it's been such a wonderful opportunity to see and hear them both at the same time most weeks up until now!

Elder Jonah sent us a Valentines package that arrived at the beginning of March. He sent a Canadian gift for each of us: Josh got a tie, I got a magnet, and Kanyon got golf balls. It was a fun surprise to get in the mail!

The first weekend of March, we cut down the poplar tree that's right next to the carport. When we first planted it many years ago, we thought it would be a good shade tree for the house, but it really only shades the end of the house from Jonah's old room to the edge of the house. It's become more of a problem than a help: we have to hand-water it every summer because it doesn't have any water flow into it naturally, its leaves fill the garage every fall and winter, it always has dead branches that fall in storms year-round, and it's growing too close to the power lines so the tree-trimming crew hired by the power company (that come out every 3 years) always have to cut it back. We decided it would be nice to have 2 more parking spots right across from our front door where the tree currently is, so we cut it down before the new spring growth began, which would make the tree heavier to cut and haul. When the ground thaws, Josh will pull the stump out, and I'll remove the rocks around the ring, and then he'll flatten the ground to create more parking spots for visitors and guests to use.  Our driveway has always been so problematic for people to park their cars, and hopefully this solution will help with that.

BEFORE

AFTER

Kanyon helped with the high school play "Big Fish" on the backstage crew for a couple of weeks in March. He liked it more than he thought he would. He especially liked that parents & community fed the cast and crew dinner each weekday night. He also used that volunteer time to complete his service hours requirement for school AND he got extra credit points in Mr. Pace's class for doing it, too! Kanyon took a break from helping one night to watch the play with Josh and I one night. It was really good. Cayden Logan was the leading role and he did well portraying the part and staying in character as the script went back and forth between his past when he was a kid, as a young adult talking to his young son, and as an old aging man. Hannah Richins was his wife, Daniel Davidson was his adult son, and Liberty Sommers was the son's wife. Other major characters were Sean Sapp as the circus master, Nic Sessions who was the giant Carl (and he even wore stilts for half the play), Kennadi Reagan played the witch, and Briella Pace was Jenny. The kids did an outstanding job! There were less cast members this time, so when they danced on stage they actually all fit! They added two parts to the stage: a full wooden backdrop behind the back curtain for 2 of the scenes, and a river on the floor in front of the stage. The "water" came out in a semi circle jutting out from the stage, and it was basically PVC pipe or something with blue fabric draped down, so when the mermaid was behind the blue water "curtain", it looked like she was swimming below the stage.

There was even a trained lion/dog in the circus scene!

the backstage crew

Josh and I went to Pocatello to watch Jeff Crosby's band in concert on the evening of Friday, March 17. They played at a bar in old town from 10pm to midnight. I wore St. Patrick's Day clothes and accessories, and I fit right in with the crowd that was there. Although the bar itself was busy, the dance floor in front of the stage wasn't too packed, so Josh and I mostly were in the front of the dance floor by the stage the whole time. We had a good time, but we weren't used to staying up that late! I was basically sleep-standing for the second half of his show! That night, we stayed at a cute airbnb rental in the basement of a house near the ISU campus. On Saturday morning, we slept in and then drove to Idaho Falls to go to the temple. Kendra went through for the first time and invited us to join the session with her. There's been a few changes in the temple ceremony since the twins went through in July, and I really liked the updates! It was a fun mini-getaway weekend!

Our airbnb room--I LOVED the travelling theme in the room, 
and especially the hot air balloons on the wall map!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We played games with some of our friends on a couple different Sundays in March. I'd been working steadily at the movie theater on Sunday nights for months, but they hired a new assistant manager in March, so now I'm just a sporadic fill-in, which is nice and gives me more time with family and friends on the weekends. At the beginning of the month, the Hobbs family came over for games. They hadn't come over for 6 months (since I've worked on Sundays or have been out of town on Sundays ever since last September). We played a few rounds of Tetris on the XBox (much to David's dismay), and then we played Mexican Train Dominoes and SkyJo. On the last Sunday of the month, Josh and I went to Phil & Darcy's to play games. We hadn't spent time with them for months either! We ate, talked, laughed, and played Spades, and the girls WON this time (which is a rarity!), much to Josh's dismay!

Kanyon's post-season wrestling team dinner was at the end of March in a huge shop in Tendoy owned by a friend of some of the teammates' parents. It was a nice meal, and each of the teammates was recognized individually by the coach afterward. We are so grateful that Kanyon participated in the sport this year!

It snowed all month long; I think it snowed more in March than it did in December and January combined! With all the snow so late in the season, it seriously felt like winter would never end! One day in late March, Leadore and Tendoy got about a foot of snow and the power and internet went out as a result, so school was cancelled for me that day. I'm not sure I've ever had a snow day in late March before! 

Beginning of March--several feet of snow at 
the hot springs resort we stayed at in S.E. Idaho.

Mid-March--this fence bordering Highway 28
is nearly completely covered with snow and ice!

First Day of Spring!

March 21--Leadore had a snow day, so I got to
sleep in and have a morning soak!

March 24--photo taken at the cemetery with artificial flowers

March 30--blizzard conditions continue!

In addition to the depressing weather, our finances were rather dismal in March as well. We found out that we owe more in taxes than we ever have before, and it was a rather shocking $5,220!!! Last summer when I drove for River Shuttles, they didn't pay us out of payroll with tax deductions like they always did before. Rather, they had us fill out 1099 forms, so we were self-contracted drivers, which was nice at the time because no taxes got taken out and I used that money to help get the twins prepared for their missions, but it really hurt us at tax time. We also encountered costly mechanic problems with several of our vehicles throughout March. The camper van that we bought last fall has had temperature regulation problems and hasn't run right, so Josh worked on it multiple times throughout the month, but then realized it also had gasket problems, so he took it in to Myron and then Quality Motors to have them work on it. The Mini had brake problems, so he fixed that too. The Acadia I drive was having problems with the tires (it's never run right since the accident I had in it December of 2021), so we took it to Bird's to have them rotate and balance the tires (again!). I'm extremely grateful that Josh is a good problem solver, and that he's willing and able to work on our vehicles, but it was a rather frustrating time for him to have to constantly be fixing vehicles nonstop! 

Ouch. $5,220 was quite the shocking blow!