Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Golden

Rodney turned 28 TODAY! 

28 on the 28th AKA his golden birthday


This is how Rodney should always be - in a swimsuit surrounded by turquoise ocean. This is how he likes it and this is how I always picture him. 

Rodney is such an amazing man. Here are some reasons why (as if you didn't already know)

He recently became a Marketing Manager at Zija International - a job he not only genuinely loves, but is really good at. 

He is in his 3rd semester of the Professional MBA Program at the University of Utah, and he gets good grades!

He is training for the St. George Marathon, and is killing it. 

He has learned to be somewhat handy since we moved into our new house, and I can say our beautiful yard is 100% his doing. 

He keeps my life exciting by constantly planning trips for us - I love his sense of adventure. 

He's such a good dad to Remy, which I realize sounds silly, but it shows that he will be an amazing father some day. 

I'm sorry for bragging about you . . . I know you hates it. 

We love you so much honey boo boo child! You're my one. 

Loves, Tan and Remy 


Sunday, August 26, 2012

Cahoots

A couple of weeks ago we did Cahoots. You basically compete in teams of two running and going through lots of different obstacles. Our favorites were ziplining into the mud, swinging on a trapeze over mud, climbing through tubes in muddy water, sliding down tubes into muddy water, army crawling through mud, climbing over steep walls while muddy - you get the idea. Oh, there were also electric fences that you had to hold hands around and if you slipped you got shocked! It was at Soldier Hollow in Midway and we did it with Tanya's good friend Tania and her husband as well as some of their friends. The market is so saturated with these kinds of crazy races (color races, mud races, warrior races, etc.), but we just keep buying into it because they really are fun!







Saturday, August 11, 2012

Mayan Riviera

Last week Rod and I were able to travel south for a little vacation in sunny Mexico. Rod had just finished a tough semester of school and he was ready for some real relaxation. We stayed at The Grand Mayan, which is about halfway between Playa Del Carmen and Cancun.

On our first day we drove to Tulum to explore the ruins and touch the Caribbean for the first time.







We played in the water and then went to Playa Del Carmen for some delicious food.


We spent the next couple of days mostly hanging out at the resort.

We read . . . 


slept . . .


and went for walks






Our building


Our classy room


fancy dinner date


The next day Rod went scuba diving while I went to yoga and laid at the pool. Our waterproof camera couldn't go deep enough for his dives, so he doesn't have any pictures.


On Wednesday we drove ourselves 2.5 hours to Chichen Itza because we really don't like doing tours with big groups of people on a bus. On the way back we took the "scenic route" through a lot of little towns, and it took us about 3.5 hours. On the way there we stopped in an old town called Valladolid and ate lunch.






Chichen Itza was amazing. We were able to walk around at our own pace and look at everything. Rodney really liked it because he got a Spanish minor in college and took some history classes about the Mayans. I love going places where he has to use his Spanish. I just listen and try to follow the conversation the best I can. At the end the person he is talking to almost always compliments him on how well he speaks the language and I can tell because I hear him say "Vivía en Venezuela por dos años" and I know he's explaining his mission. So lucky I married such an intelligent man.








The next day we went into Cancun. The beach was amazing, with pure turquoise water, but it felt a lot like Waikiki or the Vegas Strip. Not really our favorite, but fun for a day and we had the most amazing burritos of our lives for lunch; they were so good that we went back to the same place for dinner! 



The next day we went snorkeling in the Cenotes (freshwater underground caves). Rod was in heaven, but I was pretty sketched out. I didn't want to do it, but I faced my fears and actually enjoyed it. There were big tours that were expensive that would take you, but Rod just found a little podunk place that let us go all day for $12 each. There were 3 different Cenotes and the water was so crystal clear. 













Then we went to a beach called Playa Akumal. It was gorgeous. We went snorkeling some more and saw sting rays and a giant turtle!







This trip was pretty much perfect and was deemed our unofficial 2nd honeymoon. People kept calling us honeymooners and we just went along with it even though it's almost been 4 years. (we almost got bumped up to 1st class even! So close!).