Cancun, Part 1

Emily and I had a fantastic time on our trip to Cancun!

August 26, Monday

Well, I got about four hours of sleep and that's the best I could do. I was so proud of myself that I got everything in my carry-on and backpack and we didn't have to check a bag. We originally planned to leave at 6:15 AM, but last night Michael said he would take us so we had a little extra time this morning. We had a prayer and said goodbye to the boys. I think it was around 6:30 AM when we left. We got through security easily, even though it was a pretty long line for TSA pre-check. We got Emily some breakfast and I got myself a croissant at La Madeleine. Emily got an egg and cheese biscuit at McDonald's and we sat at La Madeleine to eat our food. By the time we got there, they were already boarding our group so that worked out perfectly. Across from us, two of the seats were empty so the lady on the aisle by us moved over with her husband on the other side so we had the three seats to ourselves so that was nice. 

It was nice that there were no customs cards to fill out. And they had an automated customs line that was pretty easy to get through. It was really nice to skip getting our bags to go through customs. We found our shuttle driver and headed over to the resort. There were many beautiful resorts on the way. The Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach Cancun is beautiful! The entrance is gorgeous and so is the lobby and they greeted us with a cool towel that smelled amazing. 

We got right up to the counter for check-in and they upgraded us. Apparently, it's because of my Expedia status. They offered us twice as big of a size of room but it only had a king size bed. Emily and I both agreed that we'd rather have our own beds so they still upgraded us a bit and we got an oceanfront instead of an ocean view. It still kind of seems like an ocean view to me because it's not on the side of the hotel where you're actually facing the ocean but it's pretty close. We made our reservations for dinners. At first, they couldn't get us the one we wanted for the steakhouse but later we got one. I tried to get a beach bed reservation but they only had one left and it was by the pool. We had to go exploring a couple times to figure out which one it was and ultimately decided not to bother because I want to be facing the ocean. Also, it's literally a bed and not loungers where you can sit up. There seems to be plenty on the beach so we'll just do that on Wednesday. We love our room! It's big and beautiful and has a sitting area and nice big bathroom counter. The balcony is amazing! You can see everything and the view is gorgeous. We took a few pictures and hung up our dresses and then went to find food. 

It was a little confusing to figure out what was open and what wasn't. We did a big circle around the resort. We were also trying to look at those beds but we couldn't figure it out. We finally figured out that this is the one that was available, but I wanted to be close to the ocean, not the pool.

We finally ended up going back into the hotel and going to the Coral Café to get some food. Emily was starving. She really wanted pizza but it wasn't open but the guy offered to get pizza for her so that was very nice. We also had some pastries and I tried the pineapple flavored gelato. We sat and had our food at the café. 

We went back to the room to get our suits on so we could go to the pool. At first there weren't any reservations for tonight for Teppanyaki, but we were able to get one so that was great. It was at 7:30 PM. We relaxed in the pool for a while. Only problem was we couldn't tell what time it was. We finally had to ask some other people at the pool and by then it was 6:30 PM. We hung out a little bit longer and then went to our room to get dressed for dinner. Emily turned on the TV while we were getting ready and she was pretty happy that Crazy Rich Asians was on so we watched a little bit of that. The dress code for the restaurant said formal and we were concerned what that might mean so we wore dresses but everybody was just dressed in normal clothes. I feel like formal just means you can't wear your bathing suit to the restaurant. The restaurant that had the Teppanyaki was called Torii. It was wonderful! We were confused because they didn't give us menus, then we realized they were just going to give us whatever they were going to give us and it ended up being delicious anyway. Our chef put on a really good show. We had miso soup as our appetizer. There was a lot of fire, a lot more than we get at Osaka. The only bummer was that they didn't have yum yum sauce. Emily was happy to get two Coke zeros in a can with a glass with ice. The rice was still delicious even without the yum yum sauce. There was a mom and her young son sitting next to us and they were so cute. He got a Shirley Temple. The chef didn't throw zucchini chunks, but he threw broccoli so that was fun. It took me three tries to get it because he was a terrible shot and not because I didn't do a good job, haha. Anyway, the guy was really fun and we enjoyed the meal. They made us chicken, steak, and shrimp along with some vegetables. They even had a dessert. It looked like a bao bun but it was really like a whipped cream thing with some raspberry filling in the middle. 

Emily didn't like it so I had a little of hers but even after that I felt like we could do better on dessert so we went back to the café and I got some cheesecake. Emily was too full. We headed back to the room. It was so cold that we went out to the balcony and enjoyed sitting out there for a long time. I think we were out there for about an hour. We sat in silence and played on our phones for a little while, then we talked, read scriptures, and had a prayer. It was awesome. It felt like sitting in paradise. We could even see the stars. I think we were in bed by about 11 PM. Even though that's only 9 PM Phoenix time, we were completely exhausted and we needed to get up in the morning to get ready for our excursion.

Andrew has made it to the Australia Brisbane Mission!

August 20, Tuesday

Andrew was so worried about his flight to Australia. I went online and we found out that Delta would charge you if you were overweight but Qantas doesn't start charging you until you're at 70 pounds or more so I knew he would be fine. Qantas charges $200 for the second check bag which is ridiculous, but supposedly the Church is going to reimburse us for that. I got a text from Ashley Lee asking me how I was doing because she knew our boys were going to be on the same flight. I told her she read my mind because I was going to text her about that today. She was feeling pretty emotional today about it and worried about Finnegan. I told her I was mostly worried about Andrew packing his suitcase because he was so worried about it, and she said she was too for Finnegan. Thankfully, Andrew had packed his own suitcase so that was helpful. It was also super helpful that Andrew had those Air Tags. 

Andrew gave Finnegan the book he bought for him. So glad they were on the same flight to LAX!

And that they were able to sit so close on the plane!

I knew when he left MTC and I knew when he was on the train and I knew when he made it to the airport. I knew when he landed in LAX. And then thanks to the credit card alerts, I knew that he didn't have to pay any overweight fees. He was nervous about getting his checked bags and then checking them back in with Qantas, but it was nice to see the charge from Qantas for $200 so I knew that he did OK and he was going to make his flight. He even sent me a message tonight at 8:18 PM to tell me he was about to board the plane. The flight was at 9:15 PM. I'm so relieved that he is on the plane to Brisbane and all seems to be well. I'm so proud of him. He's going to do great as a missionary. I just know it. I had a long list of tasks to work on so that was a nice distraction from Andrew's travels but I still checked it multiple times. I made the boys country fried steak for dinner. Michael did the dishes. We read a chapter and a half of Alma. 

August 21, Wednesday

We had Elder Jensen and Elder Bolinger here tonight. They both had second helpings of the beef stroganoff so they must've liked it. I also had quite a bit of fruit for them that they enjoyed. They talked to us for a little while about our canvas prints of all of our travels. It was comforting to have them here, since I had been so worried about Andrew. They shared a message with us and then we had a prayer and they left. I tried to get some more computer chores done. I got almost everything done but some things will have to wait till tomorrow. Apparently, Bishop got word of the fact that Finnegan and Andrew were on the same flight from Salt Lake City to LAX. He found it out when Jonny was there last night for his interview and they were talking about Finnegan's flight and made the connection. Andrew landed safely today. I wasn't too worried about it because I knew he got on the flight and I knew he would land at noon our time, 5 AM Brisbane time. About half an hour after his flight landed, I saw the bags from the Air Tags that he had them all with him so that was good. He called us today on Messenger while I was in the kitchen cutting up fruit. I almost missed his call. It didn't occur to me that he would be calling that soon. They had taken him to church by the temple and they were waiting for missionaries from another flight. Apparently, he got to ride in the car with the mission president so that was nice. He said he was tired but he seemed to be in good spirits. He sat right in front of Finnegan on the LAX flight. On the Australia flight, he had a window seat so that was pretty lucky. Apparently, he tried to sleep but only got about 3 to 4 hours. He probably got more than that but who knows. He said they fed him and he did fine. I'm so glad he's there and safe. He called when Michael was at the gym so we were able to add Michael to the call so he could talk to him for a little bit and he got to say hi to his brothers. I'm so proud of him and so excited for him!

Elder May's Mission Begins!

We are so proud of Andrew for making the choice to serve a mission! Saying goodbye was so hard, but we know he is right where he is supposed to be!

Here are a few fun pictures from his time at the Provo Missionary Training Center.

Family video call on p-day

Andrew's Birthday at the Provo MTC

There was a bit of debacle with Andrew's birthday cake, but he finally got it. Unfortunately, it was smashed by the time he received it. He didn't seem to mind, though. It still tasted good! It was red velvet, his favorite.

Elder May and Elder Lee at the MTC! It's so fun that these great friends get to see each other there!

This is what it looked like before it left the bakery. 

The cake was delivered on the 17th, so that is when the other elders celebrated with him.

Happy Birthday, Elder May!

Jonny's Birthday Party

August 16, Friday

I picked up Jonny's cake at Safeway and did some Amazon returns. I came home and made a veggie tray and got everything ready. Michael picked up the pizzas. Jonny's friends started coming at 6 PM. It was kind of funny because they all congregated in my office area and were sitting on my blue chairs. I didn't say anything though because I didn't want to embarrass Jonny. They played some Jackbox games and then once Michael got home with the pizza they ate dinner. Then they all went and played in the pool for over an hour. When they came in, we did cake and presents. 

Then they played some more Jackbox games. I went upstairs and laid down after the cake and presents. Michael went down when it was time for them to leave. They were all gone by 10:30 PM.

Happy Birthday, Jonny! 

Jonny's 15th Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 15! We had so much fun celebrating Jonny's birthday! He was especially glad that Emily is here. 
Today, Emily and I went to get pedicures and then we picked up the cake. Emily asked Jonny if he wanted to go somewhere and do something but he didn't seem to want to so they just stayed home and played games together. I think they played some board games and maybe some Mario Kart. I helped Dad order some treats for Andrew at the MTC. He's sending him two dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, one original and one assorted, and four Monsters. We went to dinner at Osaka even though we were just there last week. That was the first thing Jonny suggested and Michael and Daniel and I said we were just there last week but then he wouldn't say anywhere else he wanted to go. So I decided let's just make a reservation and take him there anyway so that's what we did. When he got home from school, I asked him what he would rather go to: Osaka, Oasis Bay, or Texas Roadhouse and he said Osaka so that's what we did. When we sat down, it was funny because there was a family right next to us at the next table who were clearly out with their missionary. I'm guessing he leaves tomorrow. We did our new trick of getting no veggies and double rice so that was awesome. Michael had the veggies, though.

We had to stop at the Apple Store on the way home because Daniel had gone there yesterday to get the battery replaced but it wasn't working. They said he could bring it back in the next five days and they will give him a new battery because apparently, they gave him a dud. We read scriptures in the car. When we got home, Jonny opened his presents and we had cake. They spelled Birthday wrong, without the H, and it didn't look good but it didn't matter because it was just for our family. However, I did call Safeway about it and they did a replacement for us for his party on Friday.

Jonny still had homework, unfortunately, so Emily and I watched Name That Tune and the 1% Club. We decided we really like the 1% Club and we'll have to watch it again.

ANOTHER Surprise visit from Emily

Emily's classes were canceled, so we snuck in another visit! She arrived on Monday and we surprised everyone! I thought it would be nice for her to be down here for Jonny's birthday, and she had had a rough weekend and wanted to come home. 

August 12, Monday

Emily's flight arrived at 11:30 AM today. I picked her up and we went to Panera. Then we went home and pretty soon it was time for Daniel to get home. He was pretty surprised to see her. We kept it a secret from everybody. 

They played backgammon and then Mario Kart together. Daniel left for swim practice. Jonny came home and was so happy to see her, as we expected. Surprisingly, when he was done hugging her, he came over to me and said, "more importantly." Meaning he was grateful to me for making it happen. That was so sweet. 

I finished the laundry and did a bunch of chores while Emily and Jonny played Rummikub and a trivia game on the PS5. I made chicken tenderloins and fries and zucchini for dinner. Daniel had gone to the Apple Store after practice and had to go back later to pick up his phone so Emily went with him. It was a good thing she went because they needed an adult to sign for it. They changed out the battery for him. I spent the rest of the night on a chat with Mint Mobile trying to get Jonny's phone number moved from Tracfone to Mint Mobile and then switching the phone. It was way more complicated than they made it sound. Eventually, I had to get off the chat so we could read scriptures. We read scriptures and prayer then Michael went to bed.  Emily and I watched AGT and then we got ready for bed.