Stout Hearted: Mexico Trip

In October, we took an amazing trip to the Yucatan Peninsula with most of Alan's family. Alan's parents were so generous to pay for accommodations, so we just had to get new passports and pay for airfare and personal expenses. Even though we had already maxed out on our vacation budget this year, it was just a deal we couldn't pass up! We loved hanging out with the Stouts (even Alan's sister flew out from NY to meet us all there!) and doing so many fun things.

Alan's parents convinced us to bring Jared along since he is getting to be such a grown-up, big kid. He really enjoyed seeing all the Mayan ruins, swimming, and playing games with his aunts and uncles. Alan's sister Rachel and her new husband Justin definitely get the Aunt and Uncle of the Year Award for staying at our home and taking care of Maggie and Evelyn for EIGHT DAYS. Whew. I am actually surprised how well the girls did while we were gone. I had so much anxiety about leaving them and lost tons of sleep in the few weeks leading up to our trip, but we got to Skype with them a lot of days and talk with them on the phone. Evelyn hasn't even been clingy since we got back, like I assumed she would be. And Rachel and Justin were so cute with the girls, took them out to eat a couple times, and planned fun activities with them ALL WHILE MANAGING THEIR COLLEGE CLASSES AND HOMEWORK. Wow. Talk about an amazing couple! We are so grateful for them.

I need to get pictures of the whole group together from one of Alan's sister, but I haven't gotten them yet. But here is a pretty good idea of how big our group was. We were eating at a yummy restaurant near Tulum:

Here are some of the highlights from the trip, in no particular order:

We got to see three Mayan ruin sites--Chichen Itza, Coba, and Tulum
We went swimming in a pool called a cenote that was inside a cave (complete with bats flying above our heads!) It was named Xkeken--pronounced shke-ken. I forgot to take pictures, but here is a picture I found on the internet of it. It was beautiful, and we had the whole cenote to ourselves!

We got to see brand new baby sea turtles and release them into the ocean that was right behind our hotel. I was kind of freaked out to pick one up, but now I wish I had. :) They were so tiny, about the side of a deck of cards!
We went to sacrament meeting in a Spanish ward. The members were so nice to us and many came up to us to shake our hands. I really loved it, even though I don't know any Spanish.
We stayed in a fabulous resort called the Grand Mayan. We, of course, had to try out all the different swimming pools. I especially loved playing volleyball with the family in the pool. (Everyone is bad playing volleyball in the water so I didn't feel so bad about my lack of skills.) It rained every single day of our trip except for the last day we were there. That day was BEAUTIFUL. I am so glad that the weather cleared up for that last day. :)
I loved trying lots of authentic Mexican food. Alan was in heaven, of course.
One of Alan's highlights was going scuba diving near Cozumel Island with some of his siblings. He hadn't been since he was 17, but he said everything came back so easily and now he is itching to go again soon.
I loved seeing the beach. There were rules that we couldn't swim in the water, but it was fun to wade in it a bit. Jared loved building small sand castles and watching them be washed away by the waves. This was his very first time being to a beach in his life (that he can remember--I guess he had been to one when he was 9 months old.)
(And, as a little cherry on top, it was pretty cool to get a glimpse of Bill Nye the Science Guy in the Houston airport on our way home. Alan's siblings totally had to convince me that it was him, and I still wasn't convinced until I saw someone go up to him to take a selfie with him. Even Jared knows who Bill Nye is because he has seen episodes at school!)

Well, here are all my pictures. I will see if I can organize them a bit.

These first few were taken at our hotel in Cancun, the first night we were there:

View from the beach to the back of our hotel

View from the balcony of our room

Alan and Jared walk along the beach

Jared's first time on the beach!

So pretty. I think Jared took this picture.

Pretty sun breaking through the clouds

Turtle egg shells! We saw the baby turtles late the night before.

These next pictures are all from Chichen Itza, which was the most famous ruin site we went to.

El Castillo, the most famous landmark. It has 91 steps on each side.

Side view of El Castillo

Jared loved the feathered serpents on the temples

There were also lots of carvings of jaguars

Jared and Uncle Mason

Another building at Chichen Itza

Detail of carvings on a pillar

The Observatory at Chichen Itza, where the Maya people would look at the movements of the stars

Another cool structure

Jared found this carving that looks like a tic-tac-toe game!

A cool tunnel

This is the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza. The people threw sacrifices and precious jewels in the cenote.

Yes, we were here together!

These next ones are from a ruin called Coba. I forgot my camera, so these are all phone pictures. I really liked Coba because the jungle hadn't been cleared away. We had to rent bicycles to get around. We also got to climb to the top of one of the temples and look out over the tops of the trees.

In front of the temple we got to climb up

The view from the top!

Most of us rented bikes, but this was how Grandpa Stout and Jared got around: someone biked them around in this cart

This was part of the sports arena

Cool tunnel

These last ruin pictures are from Tulum, which was right on the coast. It had a pretty beach behind it.

We have our swim clothes on underneath because we were hoping to swim at the beach. Alas, it rained on us. :)

Jared in front of an iguana. We saw lots of these guys.

Jared and Grandma in front of the beach at Tulum

A selfie attempt

I helped Jared write a report for school on these three ruin sites, so we did learn some interesting facts about them. I won't share them with you here. :)

These last pictures were taken at the resort.