We celebrated Easter a week early, but we got a few picture from the celebrations of individual families on the actual day:
 |
| Easter in Texas |
 |
| Dojin |
 |
| Weekend getaway (Galveston) |
 |
| Ori and Effie |
We are usually pretty good about not planning other events
Conference Weekend, but when we made plans to go to Cancun, we didn’t think
about that fact that Easter Weekend was Conference weekend. Luckily, we were able to tune in for both
Sunday sessions, though sometimes the Internet connection was a little
spotty. We also received KSL news
updates on our phone so we knew of the announcement about combining the High
Priests and Elder’s quorums into one quorum.
It is amazing how quickly the talks are on-line, so we have been
reading through a few talks each day.
One quote from conference stood out to me. It was one of the 1st talks in the
Saturday morning session.
“To mothers, especially young mothers, who often feel
overwhelmed and under-water while striving to raise ‘a sin-resistant
generation,’ never underestimate your central role in God’s plan. In stressful moments—perhaps when you are
chasing little ones and a charred smell from the kitchen informs you that your
lovingly prepared dinner is now a burnt offering—know that God sanctifies your
most difficult days. ‘Fear thou not; for
I am with thee,’ He peacefully reassures.
We honor you as you fulfil the hope of Sister Joy D. ones, who stated,
‘Our children deserve to understand their divine identity.’”
This stood out to me because of my daughters and
daughters-in-law dealing with a lot of sick kids this winter.
The most recent being poor little Ori who was
diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease.
Caitlyn had this once when she was about 12 and we know it is
painful.
We had a wonderful time on our trip. The resort we went to had fabulous food
(fortunately and unfortunately). It was
an adult only resort. Our travel agent had told us it was a quiet resort, not a
big partying one, and that turned out to be true. It was a little weird
for Caitlyn because there weren’t many families. I think we saw only one or two other young
people without a partner. She didn’t
mind too much, though, as there was plenty to do.
We spent most of our time at the resort. We were right on the beach and the hotel had
equipment for us to play with. Small sail boats, paddle boards, and
kayaks. It was difficult to paddle board
on the ocean, but we made a good attempt.
We also spent a lot of time reading, resting pool-side, and eating.
On one of our vacation days we went on a snorkeling excursion. Every time we have snorkeled in Mexico, we have been
required to wear life-jackets and stay right with the guide. This was a little frustrating as we
were in a large group (and we're used to snorkeling without life jackets). One of the men
didn’t swim well and had to hang on the guide’s safety tube. He and his kids made it difficult to stay
with the guide and we didn’t see much.
The guide also chummed (fed) the fish, so that they would swim up and
around us. While it was fun to see so
many fish, it seemed artificial. We
were somewhat disappointed in the experience since we’ve had many better
snorkeling trips, but after the 2nd dive, the guide put up a spinnaker
on the Catamaran. There was a swing
attached. Everyone got a turn to
swing. They pulled us 30 feet or so into
the air. As we were lowered we were told
to jump off. This time we weren’t
allowed to use life jackets. They said
we had to be able to swim around the boat on our own. That is better with me. I have always loved to swim. Dad was a tiny bit queasy from the snorkeling
as the waves were rolling, so he didn’t swing, but Caitlyn and I did.
We took one other excursion, a trip to Xelha. We have been there several times now and we
love it. The snorkeling there is
great. They require a life jacket, but
you can take it off because nobody would ever notice 😊. I found a huge lion fish, which I have never
seen before in the ocean; a stingray, and many other colorful fish of various
sizes. They also have a ropes course
with a zip line. We zipped down several
times.
Now to the food. We
thought the food at Occidental was pretty good, but this hotel far surpassed
it. They had a lot of papaya, so I was
in Heaven. We figured out towards the
end of the trip that we could ask for things (like cut-up jicama and mango)
that weren’t on the buffet. Alberto was
the waiter that let us know this (he brought me jicama when I told him I was
disappointed that they didn’t have any).
The last day he had the cook cut jicama, mango, cucumber, celery and
pineapple for us to take on the plane.
I think I need to stop telling everyone “Happy Birthday” in
this letter because I sometimes forget someone.
This month while saying Happy Birthday to Hyeji (She’ll be baptized soon
because she turned 8 on the 8th), I totally skipped over Finn’s
birthday. He was 3 on the 7th. So Happy birthday Finn. Of course, we didn’t forget his birthday when
it mattered. Ruby will be 3 this month as well.
Happy birthday Ruby (I have time yet because her birthday isn’t until
later this month).
I will probably be helping with the Green boys a lot this
coming week because Adrienne is scheduled to have her baby on Tuesday.
I’ll have Grandpa Roy take Finn to pick out
his present.
The girls have all received
a homemade gift this year.
 |
| Happy Birthday Finn |
I have a lot of pictures from the trip, but I'll publish some of them separately so I can get this letter out. I wrote it on Sunday, and now that it's Tuesday we have more news for the next letter (namely Adrienne's baby that is currently on its way),
 |
| non-alcoholic pina colandas |
 |
We all tried the slide (it was long and had a drop-off
at the end that was scary--and we took the "slow slide") |
 |
| On the sailboat |
 |
| The waiter brought me my favorites, papaya, jicama, and cucumbers. |
