Cancun Christmas! Part 2

~ DECEMBER 24th (CHRISTMAS EVE) ~

We all have tired faces because we went on a snorkeling trip first thing in the morning out to the reef nearby. It was pretty good snorkeling! We saw a manta ray, which was pretty awesome, and some lobsters.  Fun stuff!

The whole group just before departure.

After snorkeling, all of us on the little boat that took us back to our resort.

Almost the whole crew just before our Christmas Eve program in the main courtyard

Christmas Eve program amidst the palm trees--slightly different feel from the usual Christmas Eve program. :)

 During the program, we sang Christmas carols, read Christmas stories, acted out the nativity, and listened to Hallie and Claire perform a couple of Christmas songs from their choir program--Joy to the World and God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen. 

Sharing!

Grandfather laying out the bells for all of us to ring as we sing Jingle Bells.

Listening to Christmas stories

Tim reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

I love my awesome parents!

The girls singing their songs

Our nativity cast--half of the members of the cast loved it and the other half were unwilling participants forced by their parents (Jake, Brooklyn, and William) :).  We even have little Kallie in there, laying next to Hallie.  Too cute!

Hallie and Jake were best buds throughout the whole trip.  They were so cute together. 

Claire collected a whole coconut family.  She had a daddy coconut and a mommy coconut and once they got married, she found them a baby coconut.  The whole family lived on our room balcony for the week.  We even brought baby coconut home with us as a souvenir. 

~ CHRISTMAS DAY ~

On Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad stayed up late playing games.  Then Mom stayed up a little later finishing the cousins' owl hats for their Christmas gifts.  But Santa's elves stayed up latest of all making those snowflakes.  They were a lot of work! 

Santa knew that we would be in Cancun for Christmas so he only brought 2 gifts to each girl--Stompeez (the toy most requested by my kids this year), and a movie each.  They got all their other gifts at home before the trip.  But I tell you what, they were still just as excited with their two gifts on Christmas Day as they were with tons of gifts at home.  I love my daughters!!

Merry Christmas!

New slippers!

On the way to breakfast sporting their new stompeez

Look at that awesome white crane on the railing! This is right in front of the Asian restaurant, Spice.

Fully enjoying her Christmas breakfast!

 Gift exchange time!  We all gathered in Grammy and Grandfather's room to exchange gifts.

We got a picture in the split second before he ripped it off his head!

Why are you making me wear this?

Jake wasn't too sure about his owl hat either and ripped it off immediately.  But Chris told me that now he loves it and wears it all the time! That makes me feel good. 

New Squinkies!

I got a lovely scarf from Lacey

Chris and Rach got this 10 puzzle set

Great game!

Jessica was heartbroken because that morning my mom had discovered that Jess's gift (from Matt) had been stolen out of their luggage.  So Lacey gave her some sunglasses so she wouldn't be left out of the gift exchange. 

This picture makes me laugh a lot.

Mom and Dad's gift from us kids...a photo book of things that have happened in 2012.  It is gorgeous!

All of us looking through the photo book.  It is so fun to leaf through!

And a good time was had by all!  Then, of course we went swimming and went to the beach.  What better thing to do on Christmas? 

That afternoon, we all gathered in the main courtyard for our family pictures.  There are so many great ones, but I will try to pare them down a bit. 

Mike and Lacey went first.  Can't beat that background, eh?

Cute little family!

I love this one.  Lacey looks like a movie star!

That William is so adorable!! I love his red hair so much!

My cute girls!

The Vegas Merks :)

Attempting to get a grandchild picture.  This one has everyone except Jake.  He likes to wander, and does NOT like to stand still. 

At least he's in the picture here :)

Grammy and Grandfather with all the babies!

Our turn! I love this family!!

The Doha Merks

I love the coconuts!

And the whole group! Isn't that a great picture?  This one came from Rachel's awesome camera and was edited by her.  Thanks Rach!

Watching some birds flying overhead

Sweet.

I love my baby!

We now have a large family picture from Christmas Day in Cancun hanging above our fireplace.  It makes me happy every time I look at it! What a perfect Christmas gift to be together with so many people I love on Christmas Day! Merry Christmas!

~ DECEMBER 26th ~

Xel-Ha Day!!  Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell-Ha) is a natural water park formed around a large freshwater lagoon which lets into the ocean.  It is spectacular for snorkeling because it contains many tropical ocean fish in an environment with no waves and only slight currents.  The snorkeling there was the best I have ever seen! Fantastic!  It also has lots of attractions, like caves, water slides, kiddie pools, little rivers, treehouses, ziplines, and a lazy river.  It was gorgeous and although we spent all day there, I wasn't at all ready to leave! 

All of us just before entering the park

We're ready to play in the water! And boy oh boy, we saw some VERY...interesting...swimwear there.  Yikes! I never want to see that much of perfect strangers, thank you very much!

The iguanas were everywhere! Gotta love Mexico!

The girls playing in the kid treehouse.  It was super cool!

Super silly!

Playing at the park in the kids' section

Ready to swim in the beautiful lagoon!

Even Lacey and Tamera got in the water--briefly. But we had to get a picture of it! You couldn't get my kids out of the water if you tried! They were going down the water slide over and over and swimming back over to the platform.  They loved seeing the fish, there was a few blue fish that looked like Dory from Finding Nemo that hung out under the dock.  Every time the girls found one they would say "Here's another Dory fish!"

We had a "home base" where everyone gathered when they weren't off snorkeling or doing something else.  It was right near the kiddie pool and playgrounds so anyone who was there could watch the kids and babies easily.  Plus, it was nice and shady. 

Xel-Ha was so cool because it's a natural theme park, so they didn't mess with nature if they could help it.  For instance, the pathways from one section to another were all paved, but they didn't rip out the trees to pave, so the pavement would just go around the trees, and it looked like the trees were growing up right out of the pavement.  Also, they didn't want people using regular sunscreen because the chemicals in it would damage the reef, so they provided everyone with their own all natural sunscreen.  We definitely got yelled at for trying to use regular sunscreen.  Pretty interesting.

Kallie was thoroughly enjoying Xel-Ha

Another awesome thing about Xel-Ha is that all the food and drinks were included in the admission price! And it was good food, too!

Look at that beautiful lagoon!

They had this plastic board that you could paint on, then when you were done it would all wash right off.  Very cute.  My kids loved it!

This little river was a perfect way to let the babies "swim" without having to hold them the whole time. 

The kiddie pool

Hallie being a turtle

Climbing on the octopus

What's wrong with this picture?

A cool fountain

Every so often, there were these entire sections of hammocks where you could just go swing and relax. 

For an extra $100 or $150, you could touch and play with the dolphins they had there.  We didn't do that, but it looked cool.

The reggae players. 

Xel-Ha was super awesome, and we played hard and were all very worn out by the end of the day.  All my girls fell asleep on the bus ride back to the resort. 

~ DECEMBER 27th ~

This was Tulum and Coba day.  Unfortunately, not all of our group could afford to pay for the extra excursion, so some of us stayed at the resort and played, and some went to see the famous ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum and Coba.  They sure looked pretty awesome! Here's a few pictures:

As I understand it, there was quite a bit of hiking through the jungle involved

Mosiah, their Mormon tour guide at Tulum

And the rest of us played at the beach again--this was an ideal vacation for our group because those who wanted to could go and do fun things and those who didn't want to could stay and swim or play in the ocean.  

I sculpted a mini Chichen-Itza, since I didn't get to see it in real life :)

Shaelyn loves the beach too!

The white sand there is so perfect for building sandcastles--much better than Pacific sand. 

We built an entire landscape from the Wheel of Time books, with rivers, Aes Sedai, and Aiel holds.  Plus Chichen Itza.

That evening, we had dinner at the Italian restaurant Capers, my favorite one.  And all my kids were worn out!

Hallie asleep sitting up was my favorite!

That evening, they had a Mayan fire show in the main courtyard.  It was way way cool.  You can see the line of drummers, pounding out a driving rhythm for the fire dancers.  Super awesome!!

Once again, they're all tuckered out. 

Game time! I believe it was this night that Chris gave us our favorite quote of the trip: "Tammit!"

~ DECEMBER 28th ~

In the morning, Rob and I took a taxi into Puerto Morelos, the nearest town to our resort, to do some shopping.  All the souvenirs at the resort were definitely way too highly priced.  We found some good stuff in town, though.

The inside of a giant palm thatch hut

Back at the resort, there was a man with these monkeys letting kids hold them.  Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take any pictures.  I snuck this one and the next one, and got yelled at for it.  If you wanted a picture, you had to pay something ridiculous like $25 or something.

The man with the fruit kayak! He was just kayaking around the pool with this bouquet of fruit kabobs.  Super yummy!

We all enjoyed some fresh fruit!

And more beach fun!

On this day we made a Lord of the Rings landscape.  This is Mount Doom.

That evening, we had our formal night where we all got dressed up! 

Look at my gorgeous, grown-up little sister!

And a smiling Brooklyn!

Poor Evie got super sunburned in the morning, that's why her face is all red.

Playing some Mo Bridge before dinner

A family dinner all together at Capers!

 ~ DECEMBER 29th ~

Pool Day!

Cute babies!

I love that Shae-baby!

She loved this volleyball

What a gorgeous place!

Hallie and Claire were hanging onto this volleyball net and practicing their swimming skills.  They got pretty good!

That evening we went to Spice, the Asian restaurant and got a seat at the highly requested tepanyaki table. I have never been to a tepanyaki dinner before, so it was a really cool new experience!

The tepanyaki guy flipping and tossing the utensils

Evie dressing up Uncle Mike

Yes, that is an onion volcano and yes, it is spouting flames

So cool!

 ~ DECEMBER 30th ~

Last day. :( Well, last full day anyway.  This morning we got up early to watch the sunrise.

Rise and shine!

Beautiful sunrise!

About midday, my dad took us on about a 30 min. walk down the beach to see a blowhole.

Along the walk, we found this little guy.

Picking our way out to the blowhole.  Those porous rocks surrounding the hole are sharp, especially on bare feet!

At the blowhole!

It's pretty cold right there when it shoots up onto you!

Bye bye, blowhole!

Grammy got these cute little Mexican dresses for Evie and Shae.

Brooklyn's and Shaelyn's dresses match.

Lots of little ones!

 And the following morning, we departed to go back to our respective homes.  It was such a wonderful trip, packed with fun times, new experiences, and family time.  We'll never forget it!