Playa del Carmen

When Evan sat down with my dad to have "the chat" to ask for my hand in marriage, my dad had two main concerns. The first was making sure that Evan knew that his future wife "is not so...low maintenance." Ha. Thanks Dad. The second concern was that in order to join our family, Evan was going to have to get scuba certified. Done! So after last summer's lessons at Scuba Teds, he couldn't wait for his first real dive trip! And what better way to escape our recent fiasco than head to Mexico.

 
Day one was beach day. I am obsessed with the beaches in Playa del Carmen. We have been a couple of times now, and I still can't get over the turquoise water, it is SO blue! We spent the day playing in the ocean, practicing a little soccer, reading, and thanks to our consumer report approved 50 spf sunscreen, getting completely fried even after 3 rounds of reapplication. You know you've lived in Utah too long when even 50 spf doesn't cut it.

 
We took the ferry over to Cozumel every day because that's where the best diving is. My mom and Sami aren't scuba certified yet, we call them the beach sitters because Sami has to wait until she is twelve to qualify. She is eleven this year so they signed up for a "resort course" which is pretty much a crash course in scuba to try it out. They loved it and hopefully they'll be able to join us next time!
 
We spent the next two days 60 feet under the water. Every time we entered the ocean we did back rolls off the boat as the boys yelled "Navy Seals!" Haha they think they are hardcore...hence the flexing in all the pictures. We did drift dives for all four dives along the coral reef and saw some amazing wildlife. Everything from sharks and barracudas to sea turtles and sting rays, a few of the boys even got brave and started petting things. Yikes!

  



On our last full day there, we decided to change things up a bit and visit some ruins. We went to Tulum with "Alma's LDS Tours" and it was amazing. Ruins are always pretty incredible in the first place, but instead of focusing on the negative things you hear all the time like human sacrifices and such, our tour guide pointed out remnants of religious aspects in their culture, beliefs in the descending God (Christ), his healing hands, etc. It was really interesting to think about it from a Book of Mormon perspective.


After Tulum, our tour guide took us to a "cenote" which is an underground sinkhole with fresh water. They are pretty cool... but we went scuba diving in one a couple years ago and the combination of a dark cave with stalactites and stalagmites plus being underground and underwater with only a little tank of oxygen for air was a little too much for me. I sat out this time but everyone else had a great time jumping off the high dive!



Our condo was right near downtown so for dinner every night we just went walking up and down the main streets looking for some authentic Mexican food, you really can never get enough. We also celebrated Evan's 24th birthday while we were down there! They brought in a mariachi band playing "Happy Birthday to You" and cake and even a shot of tequila and started chanting for him to down it... haha he had a fun time trying to explain to them that he didn't drink alcohol considering they only spoke Spanish... but the cake was great!

It was the perfect little getaway week and we had so much fun! Thank you Mom and Dad for taking us on such a fun trip! We love you!!

Comments

  1. WHOA! Those pictures are amazing, but really difficult to look at seeing as though I was just growing in jealously the entire time. Ha...jk! I am so thrilled you were able to get away from the mess of life and spend some time with family! I am also proud to see many dive shirts sported! LOVE YOU!

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  2. That "low maintenance" comment from your dad cracked me up. I showed a picture of the wedding advice my dad gave: http://llcall.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/wedding-quilt/ Namely, "don't be so demanding" and "increase culinary skills." I love a dad who doesn't mince words ;)

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