Cancun Last

 

We spent the morning slowly.

We had to check out around noon so we went to the beach one last time and walked around the resort.

The Cancun airport was insanity.

I have never been in an airport like that before and I kind of hope I never will be again. 

It was basically a mall with doors to get on planes.

And there were SO many people and they were all talking in different languages and I was definitely overstimulated.

However, this trip pushed me in the MVP Gold status with Alaska airlines and once we got on the plane, I got a special chocolate! 

That was kind of fun. 

I'm glad we went and am so grateful for the time away from our lives for a moment. 

 

Cancun Last Full Day

 

I have left my phone in our room a lot of this trip.

So I don't have as many pictures of everything that we did, which I think is totally fine. 
Being in the moment is important. 

Today I did bring my phone out some of the time and we took a couple more pictures than the other days. 

I'm so grateful that we had this time to refresh ourselves. 

It's been so good to just be together as the two of us. 

I'm so grateful to have Matt Hale in my life! 

 

Cancun Christmas

 

I can say for sure that I have never had a Christmas quite like this one. 

We started the day reading Luke 2 together and talking about it. 

Then the rest of the day was just relaxing in the sun. 

There was this weird Santa parade thing, where this guy dressed in a santa suit rappelled off the hotel and then came down to the pool. 

They were handing out santa hats and bags of candy. 

There was also a grinch.

It was just weird honestly. 

But fun too. 

We spent the day relaxing and just being together. 

There was this one point when a baby eagle came and landed in the pool right in front of us. 

That was really cool! 

I missed the kids but really enjoyed relaxing and just being still. 

It was a good day.

 

 

 

Cancun Day 2

 

Today started slow and smooth.

We ended up sleeping 11 hours, probably because of the jet lag.

We had a wonderful breakfast and then found our way to the pool.

We ordered some virgin drinks, like pina colada and blackberry mojitos.

We actually had to google non-alcoholic drinks to know what to order. 

After we tired of the pool, we went down to the beach and laid down there listening to the ocean. 

We jumped in for a little while too and got pummeled by the waves.

As we laid around we watched parasailing happening and thought we might want to try it. 

It looked amazing and I wanted to add it to my done list.

They took us out to the boat on wave runners and we got strapped in to the parachute.

Everything was going great for awhile. 

Then they started to reel us in and the wind shifted or something.

We were plunged into the ocean and the boat just dragged us under the water for what felt like eternity.

Matt said he had the thought, "So this how we die. At least we get to go together."

And I had the thought repeating in my mind, "Do not breathe."

The boat finally stopped and we popped up to the surface of the water coughing out the water that can in.

It was actually quite traumatic. 

I definitely will never be parasailing again. 

We looked up statistics on parasailing accidents and there have literally only been like 60 in the last 30 years! 

Of course, we'd be a statistic like that. 

But here are some happy pictures before the incident occurred.  

 The rest of the evening was spent calming down from that. 

We just relaxed in our room.

We ordered all the desserts from room service and hung out on the balcony looking at the stars. 

Grateful to still be alive. 

 

Cancun Day 1

 

Well, we escaped. 

I have been having such a hard time this year.  

Not like anything crazy has happened or anything- haha!

But Dallin wasn't coming home for Christmas this year and Corban had moved to Juneau and Makenna was only coming the days before. 

And we still don't have a house for everyone to gather in.

And my life has felt quite heavy for some time. 

So I told Matt we should just leave. 

It took us a little while to decide what we wanted to do.

We looked at cruises, but none of the dates would work for what we needed. 

Then I remembered some of my friends talking about their trips to Cancun and thought that might be an option. 

Matt and I aren't really lay around at the beach type of people though, so we were kind of hesitant. 

But we got a good deal through Costco travel and decided to see if we could become beach people. 

The answer to that is yes, we can! 

Day one has been amazing. 

The sounds of the waves coming in as we napped in a cabana on the beach waiting for our room to be ready was amazing. 

The weather is amazing here and the sun feels so good on our white skin. 

 

Hayes Family Christmas Party

 

Tonight was filled with family, food and laughs. 

Mostly potatoes for food though.

I think we literally had 5 different potato dishes and three different kinds of meat. 

I was definitely missing mom and her multiple food dishes that she would always bring. 

The gift exchange was hilarious. 

There was this amazing Nicolas Cage blanket and a pair of elephant pants...

Weird things were happening for sure. 

The only gift that got locked was the puck game that I brought. 

And we didn't get it, even though I really wanted to keep it. 

I'm grateful for my family. 

It was good to be together again.