THE NEWTON'S

That night we went to dinner.  Our friends had gone to Chichen Itza so we knew we would get to compare stories from our excursions that day. They surprised us and did a theme night.  Now we knew they were going to dress up and do an 80's night, but we didn't know what night they would dress up on.  I didn't get any pictures, but they definately did a great job dressing up for it.  After dinner there was a disco dance class that three of them went to.  The photo's not the greatest, but they are there on the far right, then the 3rd from the right, and the 6th from the right. The next day we were in Cozumel.  We decided to do some shopping and then spend some time at the beach.  We went to Paradise Beach and were able to go kayaking, and play on the inflatable water toys. We got a few pictures on the way back to the ship at the pier.  Our ship was the closest one... the smaller one. We had so much fun during the week.  The next day was ...

On Wednesday we woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast and got in line to disembark at Progresso, Mexico.  Progresso is a small port that only has two cruise ships dock per week.  There were lots of different shore excursions we could have choosen, but we choose to go to Uxmal.  It has a larger area than the more popular Chichen Itza and we had been told that there are less tourists there.    We had a bus ride that was about an hour and 45 minutes.  The tour guide spent about half the time talking, and the rest of the time we sat back and watched the scenery. At Uxmal right outside the gates was a courtyard with the gift shop and a restaurant.  They had these neat topiaries in traditional Mayan shapes. Uxmal- The dwarf pyramid is unique with it's rounded corners and it's stepped design.  Stories say that it was built overnight, but the construction of it leads to the belief that it was built in sections over time. Here our tour guide is ...

We have good friends that went on a cruise last year, and due to the swine flu epidemic in Mexico- never got off the boat until they were back at the original port.  The cruise company gave them 1/2 off a cruise this year because of that and they talked Rich and I and another couple into coming on the cruise with them. :) We had a great time!  It's always great to have a chance to spend a few days reconnecting as a couple without the kids along. On Sunday it was Mother's Day and we went to church with the kids.  I had missed Mothers Day the previous year and I didn't want to miss it again.  We went to sacrament meeting and there were some really great talks.  Then the primary kids got up and sang- always a little tear jerker... :)  Then when Sacrament meeting was over we gave the kids hugs and kisses, passed the car keys off to their wonderful babysitter for the week and we took off on our trip. A quick stop at the house to grab our suitcases and change ...

You'll never guess where Alyssa's first grade class went for their field trip! THE ZOO!!! :) We had a great time... I feel like I know the zoo inside and out now, but the kids had fun.  We had an all girl group that was all wearing pink. So we called them the "Pink Ladies"