one of the 7 wonders of the world: chichen itza

Dave and I as we start our journey for the day to the mainland, this is the ferry that we had to take from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen and then make a two hour drive to the center of the Yukatan Peninsula to Chichen Itza.

'The girls' at the entrance to Chichen Itza, and I'm obviously really excited. Tara harassing the tiniest ancient Mayan I've ever seen...
ok maybe she was buying her wares.

Me and my honey hanging with Chak Mul (the tiny sitting statue on the top of my head between the two pillars). Muy famoso in Mexico.

The gang in front of THE temple of Chichen Itza.

The crazy natural pool which for years historians had thought the Mayans had made human sacrifices at, turns out they probably didn't.

The snake head at the corner building by the giant pyramid. The Mayans had a thing for snakes.

These last two were a few of my favorite shots of the pyramid. We were lucky to go on a day where it was cloudy and drizzled slightly, otherwise we would have melted. I'm a big history buff so wish I would have studied up on this place before we went. We 'rented' a guide (can you say that or does it sound like slavery?) for about $50 and he gave us a little of the Mormon take on Chichen Itza. I'm not sure that he really knew what he was talking about (mostly because he talked so fast and with his Spanish accent I really couldn't understand what he was saying) but needless to say, it piqued my interest.

So thank you Mario!

or whatever your name was...

me and my pondering ways

While hanging out in the Denver, CO airport (for 5 hours.... yup) I got to thinking about a few things that I absolutely loved about Mexico, and since I'm a foodie (definition: someone who adores good food), I have to say that the food rankes up there with the biggest highlight of my trip. And I can sum it up in three beautiful words.

Pico. De. Gallo.

+ Guacamole

Ok so that makes four words. Remember that recipe that I posted for New Year's Guac? Nothin' compared to the goods they have here. I was blown away. So I was thinking that since I've never made pico de gallo and I'm a huge, huge, fan, I thought I might ask my loving friends if they have any spactacular recipes they would care to share with little 'ol me? Pretty please?

My requirements:

lots of lime.
lots of cilantro.
not spicy.

Any takers?

an awkward moment from kirst

Life is sometimes hard being a redhead. Let me say that I can get tan but it takes a long time and I lose it fairly quickly, so normally it's just not worth the effort. I also hate the feeling of being burned so I usually make sure I'm pretty well lubed up, I haven't gotten burned this whole week because I'm so diligent about it. Yesterday, however our amazing spray sunscreen (I'm a HUGE advocate of this stuff btw) ran out right when we got to the beach after I sprayed my arms, and only my arms. Luckily we had a teensy travel size bottle that Dave had to hike back to the car for. We both tried to use it sparingly so we wouldn't have to buy another bottle since we were leaving in a few days. The results took a few hours and were somewhat embarrassing.

Have you ever gotten a bad tan line, like a farmer's tan? Or even got burned in an awkward place (tanning beds anyone?)? Try getting splotchily burned all over your entire body! My poor sputtering spray sunscreen lovingly left splotches of unburned skin amidst bright red skin. And since we both {again lovingly} tried to skimp on the sunscreen we both have sections of skin that resemble red lobster and white fingerprints.

Kind of embarrassing yo! Needless to say we ran to the store that night, bought a ginormous bottle of aloe and sunscreen. Our last day in Cancun consisted of Dave and I dodging the dreaded sun as much as possible and reading. Not that I mind a day of reading but when the beach is calling to you and you're in Me-he-co, it kind of sucked. Oh well! Lesson *hopefully* learned.

I might post a pic of that when we get home if I can swallow my pride ;)

not like i'd hoped.

An update:

I did not eat dinner that night as hoped, still a little too queezy.

P.S. Chichen Itza was truly amazing. I'll post pics soon.

Peace out.

what's going on down south...

Dave and I are in Cozumel, Mexico right now. Why, you may ask, are you blogging when you're in this beautiful country? Well I'm a little sick. Somehow I got a bug and I've had to kind of take it easy (and before hoards of you ask me, no, I'm not prego ;). Hopefully I'll be up and running at full speed tomorrow as we'll be in Chitchen Itza, the amazing Mayan ruins that happen to be part of the new 7 Wonders of the World - hope I make it! It's been absolutely awesome here. We came with some friends, mostly from our ward. Right now they're all out shopping for souveniers while my sweet husband and I are watching Star Wars (my inner nerd comes out while I'm sick - well, that's not totally true. It shines through even when I'm not sick). So here are a few pictures of our adventures thus far.

Yes, it's that beautiful.
When Dave and I flew in to Cancun and waited for the ferry to take us to Cozumel we got to watch some flame throwers.

Flame throwers + Being in Mexico = Awesomeness.

We also discovered that we had booked our trip, quite by accident, over Carnival (which is like Mardi Gras) and is a BIG deal here. It's been like a huge party on the streets every night with dancers and parades. The boys had fun...

Maybe a little too much fun... especially Chris (what the?!! Just so you all know that particular night of Carnival involved many boys cross-dressing and Chris ate it UP, as you can tell ;D)

Everyone was dresses up for Carnival - Anthony did a little reading on it and found out that Carnival is the time for you to be anything that you're not (like the cross-dressing boys). We saw the cutest little girl (below) who I think Tara might have stolen some candy from just to win a competition we had going of who could get get the most free stuff. Whether it was done ethically or not, I'm not sure... I'm just sayin'....

Fireworks...

Oh I got bangs on my birthday btw.

THE best coconut shrimp I've ever had - and I am not a sea-food kind of gal. Everyone ended up trying it, even the die-hard non sea-foodies and they ALL loved it.

Soaking up some sun with Gina.

Ok this is one of my life-long dreams to check off the list - swimming with dolphins. We spared no expense for this and it was totally worth it (and we got the DVD to prove it ;). Gina, Lauren, Chris, Tara, Malachi and I got to do this while sweet Anthony and Dave watched our stuff and got some great pictures. (There was another family in our group in case you were wondering who the other no-names were, really nice fam btw).

Ladies in the house! We've been having a great time. Luckily my bug hit me around sixish last night and today we just chilled so I didn't have to worry about doing much. I've been kind of weak from loosing a lot of fluids (too graphic for you? tried to keep it from being too descriptive!) but I'm on the mend. Might even eat dinner tonight!

More updates to come...

thought for the day

detergent of choice:

So I'm one of those people who is happy to try out different things to see if I like them, to see if they're worth it and then, after quite the deliberation, I'll stick to whatever I think is the best. One of those things is my detergent. I don't really know what my mom used growing up but whatever it was, it did the job. My cousin's clothes on the other hand always smelled deliciously clean, like they had soaked for hours in detergent and came out Downy fresh or something. I decided that I wanted detergent like that. I tried out many different brands. I even stuck with the liquid kind because I thought "hey it's more expensive, it must clean/smell better than the powder kind." Not so my friends. The liquid kind I even noticed can leave like super clean areas of your clothes that stand out (only if you apply it directly on the clothing before you start the load - but who wants to risk that?).

I have decided that powdered, Gain detergent is the very best. I also decided that I love the lavender kind - it's supposed to calm you. Dave likes it too. And it's cheaper than the liquid kind!

A win-win in my opinion :)

Saturday is a special day...

So my day today has been anything but exciting. Since I finished my play I kind of don't know what to do with myself on Saturdays. I mean there was tons of stuff I could do and probably should do... but just didn't.

Like here's my list of stuff I really intend to do someday in my home:

paint a group of frames that I got like 3 years ago for Relief Society Super Saturday and never did it...

sand and paint my chest of drawers...

sand and paint my bookshelf...

organize our growing junk room and make it look cute...

frame some adorable vintage Italian pictures and put them up in our spare room and our room...

make our backyard look presentable once again...

Instead of doing all of these things I:

watched Fantasia,

went to When in Rome (decent but NOT great fyi),

attempted, for like the 3rd time mind you, to see Avatar -- I swear I'm the only person who hasn't seen it yet! (and it didn't happen this time either - long story. And yes, I was attempting to see two movies in row - lazy you call me? Why yes, today I was).

blogged (duh),

and pretty much sat around, relaxing.

Is that so bad? I LOVE the feeling of actually accomplishing things and getting them off my to-do list, but I also LOVE relaxing.... today, unfortunately, the relaxing side of me won.

Better luck next weekend Mrs. Smith...

nostalgia

Do you ever get nostalgic for the movies you used to watch when you were a kid? I bet I haven't watched

Fantasia

in like 15 years but I've been dying to watch it recently. I love the beautiful, classic music in it; so much so that I rented it from the library (well I have yet to pick it up), but I'm so excited to watch it! This has been happening lately with a lot of those classic Disney movies from my childhood.

Anyone else crazy like me?

2 things.

Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell!

Wish you were still around. I heart your work.

K seriously how good was Lost last night? From 1-10? A 10, no question. For those people who do not indulge in it's goodness, what the heck are you thinking??

Love, love, love this show.

Thank you Mr. Abrams.