Stranded On A Deserted Island

One day, Candace and I took a ferry from Playa del Carmen to an island 40 minutes away called Cozumel. If you ask Cbug what her favorite day was, she MIGHT tell you this was it. And, for good reason.

About to board the ferry.

Downtown Cozumel.

HECK YES we rented a scooter! $20 got us the scooter, unlimited mileage and gas, insurance, 2 helmets and 4 hours of fun. Cozumel is an island about 10 miles wide and 25 miles long with highways that run along the coast. We toured it Dumb & Dumber style.

Similar to the rest of our honeymoon experience, there was NO ONE there. I saw more iguanas than people. Check out the beautiful views:

Nothin but us, fresh ocean air, and the road.

My beautiful ocean bug.

We eventually ended up picnicing at a beautiful, hidden beach on Cozumel. After eating, I got my snorkel on. Who knew I was born to snorkel? I love it. (We practically had the whole island to ourselves!)

During our scooter exploration we discovered a small village in the center of the island. Cbug likes this picture.

A bug eye's view.

I give Cbug a hard time that she fell in love with me cuz of my scooters. When we dated, she loved nothing more than to jump on the back of my scooter so we could paint the town. Here's to falling in love all over again...

On the ferry ride back we rocked out to these guys who were actually really, really good. Part of the fun was watching the drunk guy on the first row play his air guitar.

Cozumel!

The Mysteries and Wonders of Xel-Ha

MAYYYYYBE my favorite day of the trip was our visit to a natural aquarium/water park called Xel-Ha. Candace and I had heard good things about the place, but we didn't know what to expect. We had soo much fun there. Xel-Ha is a huge cove/inlet from the ocean that is full of beautiful fish, creatures, underwater caves, and jungle. Notice from the pictures how big the park is and how empty it was. Admission price includes access to "all you can eat" buffets and restaurants, so we had 3 meals in between snorkeling, exploring, and cliff diving.

Unfortunately, we didn't have an underwater camera. If we did, you'd be able to see the huge 4-5ft barracuda we saw (he was scary), the 3 stingrays, an octopus, and a whole variety of colorful fish we swam with.

Right when we got to the park there were these 2 huge iguanas battling to the death on a walkway. We stood and watched them for a while until one of them chased me away! Don't they look like mini-dinosaurs?

While at Xel-Ha we chased fish, explored caves, cliff jumped, and ate as much food as possible! LETS GO BACK!

Mexican Jungle Bumper Quads ! ! ! !

Like I was going to go on vacation and NOT get my atv/motorcycle fix? Cbug and I signed up for an "ATV jungle tour", but it became much more than that. The story begins when I called the place and asked what was included in the package. The lady on the phone said we'd be riding 4wheelers on a trail through the jungle and at one point we'd get off the atvs and jump in a cenote (underwater cave). I asked in a serious voice "What about the part where we chase monkeys and jaguars through the jungle?" The lady thought I was serious and Cbug and I were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. Now for PICTURES!

Our guide.

We are so hardcore!

There were about 15 other quaders in our group and let's just say they weren't very experienced. The reason I titled this post "Mexican Jungle Bumper Quads" is because every time we'd stop the person behind us would ram us with their quad. The few times he was able to stop without hitting us, the person behind him would ram him so hard that he'd ram us!! It was like dominoes every time the guide stopped! Crunch, crunch, crunch....

Going to the underwater cave.

The cenote. The cave system goes on forever underwater. Its really fun to explore and to chase the catfish around.

After a refreshing swim.....now back to chasing monkeys and jaguars on the atvs!

HONEYMOONERS!!!!

How bout this pic Cbug took?

Somehow, Candace made it past her important deadline at work, I got past finals with a week long flu, and the two of us are now enjoying Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Its a sweet beach spot just south of Cancun. Yes, we are aware Mexico is a large part of the swine flu epidemic. For this reason, we were able to get super deals on ham yesterday at the market. Dont' worry, we stalked up so we could bring some back and share it with you!!

The people here are incredibly nice and very beautiful. I've enjoyed speaking some 1/2 Portuguese-Spanish to my new friends here. We had the chance to go to church Sunday and grab some pass along cards from the missionaries there so we could hand them out to our taxi drivers.

Here are a couple funny things that have happened so far:

- When our bus was heading from the airport to the hotel, the driver got on the phone with someone to tell him the bus wasn't running right. The driver obeyed the instructions of the person on the phone and TURNED OFF THE BUS WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH down the freeway! Then he decides to try and turn it back on, luckily, it started back up and we didn't have any serious problems. SCARY!

- While at the supermarket, I was sitting at a table watching people when I saw an old lady walk over to a piece of bread sitting on the ground. She was well dressed and I thought "Oh good, someone is going to throw that away". Well, she put it back in the bread bin so someone else would end up buying it! AWESOME!

I'm using up precious beach time to type this, so I'm going to be quick, but check out our adventures thus far:

At the Tulum ruins:

The iguana on the wall is smiling for our picture.

HECK yes!!


Don't worry, we'll be tan by Saturday.

Tulum is perched right on the beach.

My favorite part was swiming in a cenote, or sink hole. Playa del Carmen doesn't have any rivers, just underground waterways that flow through cave systems. Check it out.


There were lots of caves to explore and fish!

From Cbug.....

....and I, Happy Honeymoon!

Happy Easter

This made me laugh.




Love,

The Easter Buggy (as Curtis has been calling me all morning)

Birthday & Conference

I had such a good weekend. I love conference and I love my birthday (Curtis is learning how much I love my birthday since I keep telling him it's a week long celebration. He keeps teasing me saying, "It's your birthday this year!") Alright, alright, maybe I make it into more than it should be... but I just get so excited! The beginning of the day didn't start off as hoped... I woke Curtis up by practically jumping on the bed like a little girl filled with the excitement of Christmas morning. I was stoked to say the least. As soon as he was somewhat awake I told him I had a "special secret" but that he had to guess what it was. After about 5 minutes of completely silly guesses I gave him a hint: "It has something to do with what today is." He replied with many more off-the-wall guesses including: "It's Groundhog's Day!" "It's Jenny's due date!" "Ummm... it's the day we first met 6 years ago!" (Note: we haven't even known eachother for 6 years). This continued for about 5 more minutes when I interjected, "This is getting sad. You really don't know?" He continued to guess more and more ridiculous things until I got upset. Turns out, he knew it was my birthday all along but was just messing with me. I sincerely thought he had forgotten (I'm not sure how all his laughing and silliness got past me) and it took a lot of convincing for me to believe it was all just a joke. After a few hours, I was able to laugh it off. I know, I know... I should know better from this man. He is Curtis Heyman, the teaser. And... I should really lighten up.

The day got much much better from there. Cur had a few suprises for me, we got to go to conference with our friends Becky & Troy at the Conference Center, we went to my mom's for an amazing (as usual) dinner, and I got the sweetest tribute from Chelsea on her blog. I love birthdays!

Anyway, here are a few pics from my favorite day! Here's us on the Conference Center balcony.



Checking out the tabernacle.



Majestic.



The token shot.



Getting ready... make a wish!



With my sweetheart.

These Are My Girls

Here are just a few of the fun times with my young women (I'm the YW Secretary). I can't even describe how much I love love love these girls. They are all so amazing in their individual and unique ways. I love spending time with them.

These first pics are of us after attending the Young Women's General Meeting in Salt Lake at the Conference Center. Some very inspiring messages were shared and it was amazing to be there with all women and girls. After the meeting we took over, literally, the nearest Little Ceasar's and drank soda out of the foam cups they use for dipping sauce (they didn't have real cups). We had such a blast.







This was mutual last week. The girls suprised us leaders with an April Fool's activity (with the help of our President, Maria). We all thought we were showing up for a scripture chase when they had actually planned a surprise birthday and going away/baby celebration for Michelle and I. I felt so special! I'm telling you, these girls are absolutely incredible.



Here's Michelle and one of our beehives, K. She's moving out of our ward and we will miss her dearly. She is so great at connecting with the girls, not to mention how adorable she is pregnant (she's due on the 25th of this month)!



And the birthday cake... We pretended to blow out the candles since nobody had matches.



I'm so grateful for these ladies. They constantly brighten my life. I love it.