BRRRR! It's cold!

It is really cold here in Minnesota, especially after being in Mexico. It is almost 20 degrees, so it is really quite warm here right now, it is just that yesterday I had nearly a 90 degree temperature change from the time I left Mexico until the time I arrived home.

This picture was taken the week before I left. It does get really cold here. I just realized the picture I want is on Brett's computer, so I will have to get it later.

Storms in Paradise

We woke up today to rain storms and an overcast sky. We watched some television and then we decided to go out on the deck and enjoy the weather. We took out our sudoku books and did puzzles. It is very humid here and the pages of the books "wilted," but the rain temperature was low enough that it didn't really effect us. It was fun being outside in the rain, listening to the rain fall and hearing the thunder. While we were outside, we decided to try some favorite brands, and they are a little different. We had some Cheetos, but they have some sort of spice (maybe cayanne). We had some Sun Chip, but they are banana chips, and they taste like burnt bananas. The Twix bars are similar, slightly flatter, but yummy. The snickers were pretty good, too. We tried an apple soda, not very flavorful, and not my favorite. We will see what else we will try, as the breakfast buffet is $25 per person. It was alright to eat and eat at the restaraunts while we weren't paying for it, but it is a little pricey now that it will be on our bill.

It looks like it will clear up soon, and we will be able to go out and play.

Well, the rain ended, and we went to the beach. It was still pretty windy. On the way down to the beach, one of the workers asked us if we were cold. Brett and I were in our swimming suits, and we told him the weather was very nice. He said that for him is was cold.

We walked the beach and for a little while, and then we laid out in the "sun." Actually, we laid out in the wind and clouds. Even though it was not sunny, it was great to be outside.

After the beach, we decided to walk back to our room (they have golf carts here that you can take anywhere - the beach is less than one mile away). We took pictures with the Hormel camera of the area. We were really baffled by something we saw.

We looked out and there were a bunch of men in the lagoon. They were filling a barge with stuff from the water. We are guessing that since this will be the spot where the PGA tour is next week that they are cleaning up for that. Note the sand trap to the right. That is all we could come up with. (Oh, I think I caught one of the men relieving himself - oops.)

Not long after we got back to our room, it started raining again. We cleaned up, got dressed, and went to dinner. Even though it had cleared up, we took our umbrella to be on the safe side. The restaraunt we went to was right on the beach. It had a thatched roof, and it had windows/doors all along one side. While we were in there, it started storming. We could see lightning and hear thunder. The rain started hitting the doors. The place started to let water in. The roof was leaking and the water was coming in through the doors and under the doors. The people had squeegies that they were using to get rid of the water, but it kept pouring in. There were a couple of drips by where we were, but nothing got us. It was quite the adventure. This is where one of the drips was.

We rode back to our room after dinner, watched some T.V., and went to bed. Yes, my chest really is the color of my drink.

Sunday

Today we woke up and ate breakfast. Then we caught a taxi and went to church. During the week we drove down the high way and the first time by we saw a little church. It had a fence around it, and it didn't have a cross. We thought that it looked like an LDS church. Then on the way back we looked closer and found the name plate on the front of the building. We were excited to have found the church. We arrived about 30 minutes early and found a seat in the chapel. It was just like most other LDS meeting - there were only a handful of members there, and most of them arrive about 5 or 10 minutes before the meeting started. While we were waiting, one of the men came and grabbed Brett. He went to another room to set up chairs. There were so many people in their ward that they will be splitting the ward soon. They actually do a closed circuit broadcast into one of the other rooms. Also while we were waiting we met a couple from Texas and a couple from Utah.

It was a good meeting, as far as I could tell. I do know that one of the speakers talked about the four parts of a testimony. I know he talked about Jesus being our Savior, and he talked about Thomas S. Monson as the prophet today. The other things, I didn't understand.

We found out later that one of the speakers was the stake president. We thought that he was the bishop or branch president because they introduced him as "presidente." Brett talked to him in priesthood and found out that he was the stake president and that they would be splitting the ward soon.

The thing that I was most impressed with was how much each and every speaker and teacher used the scriptures. I think that is something we in the USA do not do as much as we should. It was really neat to see all of the men in white shirts and ties, and most of the boys were in white shirts, too. Brett was one of about four men without a white shirt on. He had to bring dress clothes, so he had on a gray shirt. There were only about three people with suit coats on. The missionaries and the stake president.

During church, there was a rain storm and we lost power for a couple of minutes.

The church is true. It is true in Minnesota, it is true in Salt Lake City, and it is true in Mexico.

Oh, just a side note: There were a couple of children sitting in front of Brett and me. They kept looking back at us and then they would laugh. They were like little kids. They started doing the "drop the pen or the book" and see if someone will pick it up. They did it five or six times, and the last time they dropped the pad of paper, I stepped on it. I didn't pick it up, but stepped on it so they couldn't get it. They looked a little nervous and started laughing, but then I took my foot off of it and let them get it. Also, on time the girl dropped her pen, I picked it up and asked her, "para mi?" (for me?) She shook her head to tell me no. I found the boy after church and his name is Miguel. Miguel is 10 years old and his sister is 8. I took a picture of Miguel in front of the church. His friend was standing by him laughing when I aked to take a picture, so I had him get in too. Miguel is on the right.

After church we walked down to the beach, and then we walked through walmart. This is what we found:

SPAM is alive and well in Mexico. Also, they sell chicken feet and chicken parts. Needless to say, we didn't buy any chicken parts.

Oh, at the beach, we saw a women who was sunning herself with only half of her swimming suit on.

After walmart, we caught a taxi back to our hotel. I guess the storm did a number on the power, because there were no stop lights that were working. There were police officers at all of the intersections directing traffic. We made it back to our room, settled down and relaxed, and it started to rain again. It has rained most of the night, and it looks like the storm might blow over.

Hopefully, so we can have some fun today (Monday).

Super Saturday Sailing, Snorkeling, and Sun burning

Isn't this a scary picture. We spent all day out on a catamaran. We got to snorkel for about 45 minutes. It was a lot of fun. After snorkeling, we got back on the boat, ate lunch and then they dropped the boom behind the boat.

(This picture is compliments of my sister, Amber. She was worried that I needed more clothes on.)

We were able to grab a hold of the rope while the boat was moving and we got dragged behind the boat. It was a ton of fun. It was nice to be to be out on the water, not drugged up, and having fun.

When we finally made it back to our room we discovered that Brett had a terrible sun burn on his shoulders. As time passed, the burns started to show our burns more and more. We are a little baffled as to how it happened because we applied sun screen 3 times. Oh well, at least we will come home with some sun, and people will be able to tell that we were in Mexico.

Tonight we went a had short massages before dinner, we got ready, and then we went for dinner. Again we missed most of the reception. This time it was because our messages were late. We went to dinner which was some fish and dessert. Then we had some entertainment. Jon Secada, a latin pop artist and song writer, sang for us. It was a fun evening.

We are not looking forward to returning to Minnesota, because we just saw the weather report and it is -8. That is nealy 100 degrees different than where we are here.

WAKE UP! It's fishing time.

We just got a wake up call. We are going deep sea fishing today. The wake up call said that it will be about 90 degrees. That will be HOT!

We went deep sea fishing today. Our boat caught 4 fish. Three baracuda and 1 trigger fish. We trolled for a while and had no success. We got bored on board the boat. I fell asleep (I'll have to get the picture from someone else). We decided that the only fish we might catch would be the bait fish. He we are with the fish.



Marshall was the first one to real in a fish.

We finished the fishing trip, ate lunch (lots of chips and quacamole), had dessert (carmel flan and brownies & icecream), then we came back to our room and slept. The dramamine really knocked us out.

We woke up late. In fact, the reception started at 6:00 p.m. and we didn't wake up until after six. We hurried and showered and changed and made it down to the beach before dinner started at 7 p.m. It was a picture perfect dinner on the beach. The wind was blowing, the ocean waves were beating on the sand, and we had a band playing some fun "classics." It was interesting to hear them sing Elvis with an Mexican accent. After dinner we took a moonless walk along the beach, and then we came back (still altered from the dramamine) and went to bed.

BRMMM

This is what we did today. We went out on an ATV tour. It was very dusty and a ton of fun. We rode through the jungle and went to a cenote (cave pool). It was hot going out to the pool, and the water was very refreshing & perfect to swim in. When we came back, we ate lunch and then took a siesta by the pool. We have a reception and an awards banquet tonight, so we are getting ready for that.

Four inch heals are not good to wear for the first time if you will be standing for an hour. The reception was outside, and then we went in to sit down for dinner. We had assigned tables and seats, and when we got in, the salad was already on our tables. We had goat cheese on our salads, and it had a strong flavor, but was very good. Our main course was beef tenderloin with lobster tail. The servers orchestrated the pick up and delivery of the plates. There were four of them for each table. They spread out around the table and at the same time they would reach in and pick up a plate, then they would move to the next person and all together they would pick up another plate. They continued this until the table was cleared. Then, when they were bring our food, they did the same thing. We ended them meal with a coconut dessert, and then it was time for awards.

There were about 40 people being recognized, and it was neat to be able to listen to the accomplishments of the people there. It gave a broader view of what is going on at HORMEL and all of the other companies involved with HORMEL. The banquet ended about 10:30 p.m. and we came back to our bunglo.

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

Here we are in sunny Mexico. We actually got rained on shortly after we arrived at the beach. It did, however, produce a fabulous rainbow. Right now it beautiful outside. Brett is sitting on our deck reading his scriptures and I am sitting by the sliding, glass door with the breeze blowing across my toes. Hopefully by the end of the trip we won't be this WHITE!


This is how our day went. We got up about 4:00 a.m. at the hotel in Minneapolis. Then, we left the hotel about 5:00 to get to the airport. We flew first class to Memphis, and as we were landing, we saw damage from the tornadoes. There were semi trucks on their sides, there were roofs torn off of houses, we saw a warehouse with the roof missing, and much more. At the Memphis airport, we had about a half hour to get to our next gate. We boarded the plain and sat in the first row. It was very nice to be able to sit in first class.

When we arrived in Mexico we walked to where they checked our passports. Fortunately, the line was not very long so we made it through quickly. The airport is open to the outside, so while we were standing there in our long sleeve shirts and light jackets, we began to get very warm. After we got our passports checked, we went to get our luggage and then went through customs. After that, we went outside where there were people holding up a sign that said, "HORMEL." We found them and waited for another couple. They got word that the other couple's flight was delayed, so Brett and I got a private van ride to our hotel.

At the hotel, we were greated with a cool, wet wash cloth (it had some smelly stuff on it). It was quite refreshing to wipe down my hands and my face. We were shown to the front desk where we checked in. One of the hotel people showed us the property, and as we were looking over the property and the mile of bungalos and "jungle" to the beach we were a little overwhelmed. We were then led down to the grounds where we were met by a driver with a golf cart. The driver brought us to our room and showed us the amenities. We waited for a few minutes for our luggage to arrive and we changes and went to the beach. We were going to ride bikes, but we couldn't find any (there are bikes all over the property for people to use to get around), so we got on a golf cart and headed to the beach. We got to the beach, walked down a little ways, turned back, ordered our non-alcoholic pina colatas, sat down on some beach chairs, and it started raining. We quickly moved under a "sun" umbrella and waited for the rain to pass. After the rain, Brett and I played in the sand for a little while, and then we returned to our room to get ready for the evening's reception.

The reception was on one of the garden lawns. There was a lot of fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, and there was a table with desserts. We talked with several people, some I knew before, and some that Brett knows from other areas of the country. As the reception was winding down we were able to come back to our room and relax.

It is very beautiful here, and after the initial shock of the "distance" of the property, it is very comfortable.

Would you go Bumblebiling?

Claire spent a day playing with a little friend. She went over around lunch time, ate lunch, played, took a nap, played, and played some more. When she got home, we sat down to eat dinner. We asked her what she did with her friend. She got a very excited look in her eyes and started to tell us. She said, "We went BUMBLEBLILING!" Now, if I didn't know some of the activities that were planned, I would not have known what this was. They put on their snowsuits and went out to play in the snow. They tied sleds to the back of the snowmobiles and pulled them around the yard. So, instead of going snowmobiling, she went "bumblebiling." She had a great time, too.

The Birds and The Bees

Last night we were getting ready to put the children to bed. Normally I will put the boys to bed, and Brett will put the girls to bed. Last night the girls wanted me to put them to bed and read them a story. Eli was in the room and said that he liked it when Brett put them to bed because he has little talks with the boys. Brett said, "Yeah, like the birds and the bees." Eli looked puzzled. Brett asked Eli what you were talking about if you were talking about the birds and the bees. Eli replied, "a Rock Band!"

We got a good chuckle out of it.

A Broken Heart

While we were reading the scriptures one night, Brett asked the children what it meant to have a "broken heart." Caleb and Eli were giving definition like; feeling bad, being humble, following Jesus, etc. Brett talked about it for a minute and then went back to the scriptures to read some more. While he was finding his place, Emily chimed in and gave her definition, "when someone breaks up with you." I replied that it was correct but it was a different kind of broken heart. Brett, finally clued into what was being said and had a good chuckle over Emily's answer.