The much awaited reveal

so here they are, pics of the new casa...I finally got my camera.

The entryway. Madison is our hostess for this little tour.


So, this is the hallway taking you to the kids side of the house...


This is the playroom/den which will look cool one day. not on the top of the priority list just yet.


Boys room. yes, that's coulson taking a nap.


Girl room. Myla's napping too. happy day. I have really super cute bed skirts that I made for the girl's. They look like huge tutus. I'm afraid to put them on their beds because the thought of a scorpion crawling up there creeeeeps me out!!


I couldn't resist taking a picture of her. I LLOOOVVE babies!!



And...this is how she wakes up! Why can't I wake up like this?

The kids share a bathroom. Its hidden in between their bedrooms so I never go back there, which is a really scary thing when you have boys. Boys are nasty.


This room is the bane of my existence. It is a laundry/office/mudroom. It will continue to be crappy until I get some huge built in's done, which won't be for a while so I best get used to it.

Here is the great room. The kids are enjoying some veggie tales.


And another view of the great room from the kitchen


And now onto the "east wing" as Judd calls it.

My mini library. I am a book freak! Time for more shelves though because I still have boxes of books that won't fit.



I keep telling myself that one day I will have time to enjoy this...

And this is really fun, except there is so much room in there its really cold.


I've got my own closet, which helped me to realize that I was NOT the messy one in our last house. I'll save Judd the embarrassment and wait until he gets his things in order before I take pictures of his closet. If I ever have another baby I will probably just put the crib in my closet. Behind the door their is a ton more room where I sit and put my shoes on and stuff.


And here it is....ta dahhhh. My salon. I think we're calling it ROOTS for sure. Love that name! Shampoo bowl and everything. oh yeah. It has a bathroom and a separate entrance. I'm officially official. See those curtains!!!! I am obsessed with that fabric. It was like 50 bucks a yard so I could only by like 3/4 of a yard of it and there wasn't one piece of scrap. Eventually I want to get a really cool, huge mirror.


So, there you have it. One day I will take outside pictures and put them on here. The garden is goin' crazy!!

Best day ever....

So I'm so excited to post that my salon is officially finished!!!! YAY!! After 7 years of working out of my family room and washing hair in my kitchen sink I have a place to call my own!! I'm so sad that I don't have a working camera to post pictures. But i will be sneaking to costco to get one tomorrow and I will put some up first thing! Shhh, don't tell my husband though. I put camera in the "need" department and I like I always say...."its better to repent than to get consent." Now the hardest part ever...I need to name it! This is almost as hard as naming a kid. But I think I'm really leaning towards calling it Roots. I think its funny and kinda cool. I'm not a trendy cutesy girl. You will NEVER catch me wearing heels while doing hair. I like me my jeans and t shirts and most of the time when I am working my hair is looking pretty frightening. So naming it "Beauty" anything isn't going to work. But...I am taking suggestions. So please!!!! let me know what you think of roots or if you have any names that pop into your head.

Bean Spilling

Confession: I love food. I love it too much. I'm not prejudiced either. I can eat anything. Now on to my point...After baby number 4 I feel like I haven't been able to bounce back as fast. I want to wear my cute clothes without having to stretch them out. I want to go bathing suit shopping without having to come home all depressed. My life has been so busy that I've been off of my workout routine and I am starting to really notice. Something needs to be done. So here's my plan. I started up my workout routine this week. I'm feeling sore, but so good. (BTW any of you who are reading this thinking that I am being really stupid and I don't have a weight problem, you're right. I don't think I'm overweight or even in bad shape at all. I'm not doing this for my weight. More like to get over my food addiction and get some control of my diet. Maybe I will lose weight, maybe not, but I just want to lean up and lose these rolls! I want to not feel like I have to eat things just because they look good. I want to feel good about the things I eat instead of hiding it from everyone. I want to get rid of my sugar cravings!!!!) I am a "challenge" fanatic. I started this challenge called the Whole30. I've been doing it for almost a week. I feel AMAZING!! I will not lie, that it is sooooo hard, but overcoming trials and addictions was never meant to be easy. My goal: To eat raw foods. No packaged food, no preservatives, no sugar, no bread, no dairy for 30 whole days. You are probably thinking, "what the heck am I going to eat" well here it is. eggs, (not considered dairy on this diet) lots of veggies, some fruit, nuts, lean meats. anything that I can grow in my garden. Supposedly once I get into habit of eating these foods, it will cleanse my body and I won't have sugar cravings anymore. I have been having tons of cravings since I've started, but I just tell myself that putting that food in my mouth is a decision. I have a choice. I can eat it and continue sabotaging myself, or fight through this craving and accomplish my goal! So, I figure I will report here once in a while over my remaining 25 days and let you know just how it goes. I am also welcoming anyone who wants to join me on this crazy journey. Here is the website to the WHOLE30!!
If you want to join me, just leave a comment and we can work on this together! Its always fun if its with a group!! So there you have it. My name is Kristina and I am a recovering sugar addict!!

Routine

This is something I will hopefully laugh about in the future...
My kids wake up early. They always have. No matter what time they go to bed you will rarely find a day that they sleep in until 6:30. They have no regard for weekends or how crappy the night before is. They just jump out of bed all happy. I wish I were more like them in that way. It can't last forever though. They will be teenagers and break the barrier from "but I don't wanna go to bed" into sleeping slugs that don't care if they ever see the light of day again.
Here is a typical morning in the Rich household. Coulson gets up and comes into my room around 5:30 and half sleeps with me until Judd's alarm goes off at 6:15. Judd hits snooze button about 3 or 4 times. (By the way, I hate snooze buttons. How on earth is someone going to fall back asleep and wake up 4 minutes later and say, "whew I'm glad I got those extra 4 minutes of sleep." ???) Coulson climbs out of bed, and by this time Maddy and Nolan are already up. Maddy is mom in the morning because I'm more like a zombie until 7. She makes everyone breakfast and she's very good about it. Coulson screams bloody murder the whole time because he wants someone's chair or someone's toy or is just being a really horrible morning person. Judd leaves at 645. I peel myself out of bed about every 3 minutes and do the "you be quiet or I'll...." The baby is still hopefully sleeping through all of the screeching. Did I mention Nolan yet?? He is my saint in the morning! He will come into my room to wake me up at 7. He's already dressed for school has brushed his teeth and is wearing his backpack around the house. We don't have to leave for an hour. I think he's so cute.
I go in and check on the baby. She's awake, but thankfully she is very patient and will hang in her crib and play with her toes until I come and get her. Thank goodness for babies. They are pretty much the only thing that can put a smile on my face right after I wake up. I go to feed her and find Coulson has pooed all over the bathroom. He thinks he did a great job and wants a skittle. Madison is still playing around. She is my procrastinator. About 10 minutes before we are walking out the door she finally gets dressed and brushes her hair. But then she can't find her backpack, or her shoes, or her lunch box or her homework. This drives me crazy. I've resorted to yelling. I really try hard not to. Who wants to be crazy and yelling right before they drop their kids off for a long day at school? But how are you up so stinking early and you still aren't ready right before we have to go?!?! She finally finds her stuff and hopefully her brain and we load the crew up and drive to school. The two older ones get out after lots of "I love you's" even though Madison's is more like a mumbled "bite me" because we've been butting heads for the last 30 minutes. Then they are off and I tell you what..the Angels are singing! Wooohooo. Never judge the way a mom looks in the morning when dropping off her kids. Sure, she may not be wearing a bra or have mascara smeared all over but she has just basically been through war!

life in a nutshell

I love reading my old posts. I don't know why I don't blog more often. I just want to write down random things so i will always remember them.
We are moved in. We are loving it. Although cleaning a bigger house really sucks, the mess seems to spread out better so it doesn't look that bad. What once was heaps of laundry taking over my small bedroom in the old house, is just a small pile of clothes that needs to be hung up. Its the same amount of crap it just feels better for some reason. My kids can play hide and seek and actually "hide" somewhere. Where as before they would just freeze in a corner and hope no one noticed them as they walked by. They also have room to run. For anyone who doesn't know the details, we live on just over an acre now. My kids have never had more scrapes and bruises and have never been dirtier. This of course is Coulson's heaven. This child of mine always has dirt all over him and he never wears shoes. I probably look like the white trash mom that lets her kids run around naked. He literally does. He takes his underwear off and pees where ever he wants. The other day I found him in the front yard almost naked sitting on top of Judd's car. He walks right into our neighbor's house, plays with their toys and then comes home. If you are thinking to yourself, "why the heck don't I keep a better eye on my kids" its probably because you don't have four of the little boogers running around. Its just about impossible. I can't hardly answer the phone or go pee without someone escaping.
It has been an adventure out here. I've killed the king kong of scorpions. I stabbed it with a yard tool. I felt like some kind of ninja. We have to pull our garbage can about a quarter of a mile every week. If I want to go shopping I have to go "in town". But this is so much fun. I've got a garden and an awesome porch to sit on at night. We look at the city lights and watch the bats flap around. We had our ward rodeo last weekend. We are definitely city slickers compared to the people out here. Nolan got trampled by a couple of steers. He's ok but it was horrible looking. Just a normal occurrence for all of the cowboys out here. I've also learned that having 4 kids isn't a respectable number. If I say I have 4 they're like "oh really, well I have 8" 8 is a pretty normal number for families in this area. There is no way you will ever see me having 8 kids or driving a mini bus. I'm pretty perturbed because I ruined my camera in the move. Somehow it got bleach poured all over it. Hopefully I will get a new one for my anniversary that just passed. At least I think it just passed. Fun fact in case you didn't know. Judd and I eloped to Las Vegas to get married. Now neither of us have any recollection of what day it was on. We have a pretty good estimate, but I will have to try and find my marriage license just to be sure. It gets us both off of the hook for saying happy anniversary though. So hopefully this weekend I will get a camera and take some pictures for all to see.

Shame on me for being such a bad blogger. Here is my excuse....



We bought a new house!! YAY! We are getting ready to move in this weekend. So basically my life has been pure chaos for the last 3 1/2 months. Like right now for instance...We are getting our house ready for renters (cleaning, painting, fixing up everything) getting our new house ready for move in. Its being painted, cleaned this week and fixed up. Switching the kids' school. Coulson has the flu. I am still working out of the house. Please forgive me for being such a slacker, but once we get moved in and settled I will give you the whole low down!!!

33 things I love about you

Today is my husband's birthday so I wanted to dedicate an extra special post just for him. (because he's really cheap and never wants me to buy him a present because its a waste of money) So. These are the things that I never want to forget, and things that I can refer back to the next time I want to club you. This may help me change my mind.

My husband is my best friend. I know everyone says this, but its so true. We aren't perfect, but we are perfect for each other. We laugh together everyday, we snuggle together, we make fun of the kids behind their backs, we work hard to achieve our goals. He pushes me hard to do the things I should, and I push him hard to do the things I want him to do. We confide in each other. I even tell him when I made an "oops" and bought those shoes I really shouldn't have because I think I deserve them, and I do. He lets me make fun of him. I LOVE my husband!!!

Today he is 33 years old. So I wrote him a letter for his birthday and here you have it.

33 things I love about you:
1. you are a super hard worker
2. you are great at doing laundry
3. you put up with my crap
4. you look really hot in camo
5. even hotter with your rifle, especially when y0u freak dance with it. It makes me jealous. (this is an inside joke)
6. you love our family
7. you don't snore or play video games or do other dumb stuff that most husbands do.
8. you let me make fun of you, even though I do it out of love, and because its funny
9. You dance like a dork, but its charming
10. Did I already say you put up with my crap?
11. your rockin' bod
12. Your long toenails (wait, I take that one back)
12. You are a stud when you play basketball
13. You always help a damsel in distress, especially if she's cute
14. inappropriate for readers eyes
15. how you look in your Texas hat
16. you are smart
17. you laugh at your own jokes, even if they aren't funny, and usually they aren't
18. you bake a mean cake
19. how you try so hard, even though you grumble about it
20. how you fall on the ground when you stub your toe
21. your bald head
22. your cute ears
23. your rainbow knife
24. your man bag
25. your hot cowboy wranglers
26. inappropriate for readers eyes
27. inappropriate for readers eyes
28. you can ride a horse and that's super hot!
29. how you can smell your own breath
30. how you help color my hair
31. How I can talk to you about everything
32. you keep me in line
33. You are a GREAT husband and father.

I know he may not be the scottish warrior that I fantasize about, but he's my warrior and I could always dress him up in a kilt and put a wig on him if I were desperate. But I love him just the way he is. So happy birthday my love. May we enjoy many more crazy filled years of life together.

changes

Judd and I were sitting on the couch the other night, and it hit me. There are 4 other people in my house right now. Weird. There are 6 of us and 3 bedrooms. Hmmmm....
Life has been different, but good. I feel really out numbered.
At first I was kinda stressed, but I made a conscious choice that instead of getting stressed, I'm going to think everything is funny. Example. Nolan is a dramatic child. He has these dad gum silly band things (stretchy bracelets) and every time one of them breaks its the end of the world. Well one broke the other day and he came out of his room doing is pterodactyl scream. He makes this horrible face and he was even drooling. Normally, me not being sympathetic and all, I would yell at him to go to his room and come back out when he is ready to talk like a normal person, but instead I laughed hysterically. I couldn't stop. The drool was just so funny. Judd came into the room and asked what was so funny and I told him. He told Nolan that he was making his mother psychotic. That could be true. After a while of being a parent, I think we are all crazy.
Come over to my house some time and you will see why. I came up with my own top 10 list....
You know you have a newborn when:
10: School aged children wear the same thing to school for the whole week and you don't even notice
9: Your two year old eats and watches what ever he wants
8: You walk through the house in the middle of the night and step on a squishy diaper.
7: You have spit up on your shirt and you don't even care
6: Every time you sit down you fall asleep
5: If your husband tries to make a pass at you, you smack him
4: Nothing is clean. ever.
3. You get excited and dressed up to go to the grocery store
2. The sunlight burns your eyes when you go outside
1. You get excited that you slept for 3 hours straight.

The other night Judd was at school. I was making dinner, helping a whining Madison with her homework (which is exhausting in itself, like pulling teeth) Nolan is crying because of something or other, Coulson was squirting toothpaste all over the counter, and I was nursing the baby this whole time. The only thought that came to me was "Is this really my life?" I guess so. Motherhood is the craziest hardest job there is, and no one, can ever convince me otherwise. I don't care what you do!!!

She's here!!

Myla Kerrington Rich born Sept. 7th at 12:16 a.m. 8lbs 4 oz.

Here's the dirty details, since everyone's dying to know...actually, its more for my own references, because I promised myself after this birthing experience that I didn't want anymore kids. And we all know how mommy brains tend to forget these things.

I was supposed to be induced at 5 a.m. on Labor Day morning. Well, that didn't happen. It must have been the whole "Labor" day thing, but like everyone and their sister were having babies that day. I didn't actually get to the hospital until about 1 p.m. We got there, got all set up, everything was moving at a snails pace. Then in came the epidural lady at about 6:30. She gave me the epidural and I my blood pressure dropped so low that I started to lose consciousness. I thought I was going to die. The nurse then gave me ephedrine, which I guess is like one of the ingredients in Meth. Freaky. But I did feel better and was able to have a nap. Woke up from nap feeling contractions. I assumed that the epidural was only taking on one side, so I turned to my other side hoping the medicine would work its way over and even out. Turned to other side and didn't feel a difference. So I hit the more medicine button and nothing happened. I turned on my back and noticed that I was only numb from about my mid thigh to my calf on my left leg. So now I'm really feeling contractions. I'm ticked off. I've never researched having a baby naturally so I was trying to think of breathing techniques or something. Then everything happened really fast. At least now it seems fast, but I'm sure it didn't. I knew the baby was coming but the Dr. wasn't there. I had to try and hold her in for about 30 minutes before the dr got there. stupid nurse. I told her that I would go fast and she didn't believe me. So for that horrible 30 minutes I'm fighting my body. The baby wanted out and my body was pushing and I was trying my hardest to breath through the pain and over come the urge to get her out. All the while husband asking me "what's wrong?"....really husband!! What the heck do you think. He denies asking that now, but I know he was saying it. I can see how women start name calling now. Then the Dr. got there. And was all ready to go, but I wasn't. I was freaked out. I didn't know first hand what it would be like to have a baby naturally, but I'd heard stories. I didn't want to push because I knew the worst was yet to come, but I had to stick it out. There was nothing to be done for me at that point but go through with it. So luckily the pushing part only took about a minute or two, but let me tell you, that was the worst two minutes of my life. a few obscenities shouted that I'm not going to post but...Holy painful misery. I'd had so much medicine and needles poking in me that I ended up getting super sick afterward. It was crappy. But... would I call it a bad experience? Definitely no. There was something pretty powerful about the whole thing. I could almost feel everything the baby was going through. I'd never realized how strenuous it must be on a baby to come into the world, but I realized it then. Its almost like we suffered together. I think the bond was a little stronger because of it. I could tell what she was going through and I felt so bad for her the whole time. I'm glad it happened like it did, and if I were to have any more, I would probably do it that way again. But....I think I'm done. ;)

sometimes I just need a good vent

So, as I'm sitting here drinking my almost frozen, ginormous glass of chocolate milk and eating the worlds biggest slice of blueberry bread, it hits me. I'm getting fat. Yes, I know that's what happens to all pregnant people. But right now I am hating all of you that pop your babies out and fit right back into your normal jeans. I'm actually hating everyone in their normal jeans, pregnant or not. I'm hating my husband that never gains a pound no matter what I try and feed him. I'm hating that through over eight years of marriage his body looks exactly the same! No stretch marks, no saggy parts, no skin breakouts. I'm hating that its so blasted hot outside. I hate that person that parked so close to my car that I had to climb my fat butt through the passenger side to get myself in and buckle in a two year old. You can't imagine the horrible thoughts I was having about what I could have written on their windshield. "Thanks for parking so close to my car @$$%#%!! Sorry about the dent in your door and your mirror, but that's what happens when you park 6 inches away from a huge pregnant girl's door and its 116 degrees outside." I did have my kids with me so I only shouted idiot a few times. Still, not the best example. I can't seem to help myself. I'm just angry right now. And if my husband asks me if I'm hormonal one more time, I swear I'm going to club him in the head.
There, I feel better now :)

Prayers

Nolan's Lunchtime Prayer:
"Please bless that the baby in mommy's tummy will be healthy and be born fast. And bless that when she gets here she won't attack us. And bless that Coulson will be nice and not attack us either. Amen."

Cought Red Handed

I've really got to figure out how to put video on here! Every time I try, I let it load for hours and nothing happens. Any tips???

So....This morning we are in regular routine. Maddy and Nolan wake up at about 6:30 and watch cartoons until I roll out of bed at about 7:30. And when I say roll, picture a walrus wrapped in sheets trying to get out of a mound of pillows. That's probably more like it. First thing I do in the morning is make myself some chocolate milk and put it in the freezer because I like it super cold. Then I hide and drink it so the kids can't see me. (mostly so I don't have to make them some too, because I'm kinda mean and lazy like that) Then I make breakfast for everyone. I had all of the eggs and toast ready, but I realized that all of the plates were in the dishwasher. So I grabbed a few and noticed that one of the plates still had a bunch of water on it from the wash. I looked in the drawers for a dish towel, but they are all in the washing machine and I was out of paper towels, so I was in a dilemma of how I was going to dry this plate off. I was still decked out in sleeping attire and my top was silky and my bottoms were cotton, so I figured I would use my bottoms. So I was rubbing this plate on my rear end to get it dry and I turn around and Coulson is staring at me wondering what the heck I was doing. Then I realized how ridiculous I must look and we both started laughing. So this whole morning, everything that he has picked up he has been rubbing it on his bum. Stuffed animals, sippy cups, you name it. Hopefully we get over this new trend before we go out in public.

Yay for Summer! (not so much)

So, let me put this as nice as I can. Summer sucks. Its hot, everyone's home, there's only so much I can do to keep kids entertained without breaking the bank, and I don't want to cook anything because it makes my house so stinking hot. I've been such a blog slacker!!
But.......exciting things have been happening. Baby girl is coming in 10 weeks! YAY!! I've been obsessing over decorating the girl's room! I can't wait to get it done and put up some pictures.
Can you believe that I am going to have four kids!?! I don't think reality has set in yet. But I figure I'm already insane, how much worse can it possibly be?
With that being said, I may as well take some time to update about the kids that are actually here.
Starting with my oldest little midget.

Miss Madison: Thank goodness for this child. If it wasn't for her I would have probably run off to leave the boys to fend for themselves. She is such a great little mommy. She gets Coulson dressed, she can make lunch for the kids and basically help with any little chore. I LOVE this girl!!! She is a fabulous artist. So fabulous that I signed her up for an art class and she is able to draw to her little heart's content. Here's a few samples...
sorry some of them are sideways.




Her first piano recital at our ward talent show.

Midget #2 Nolan the gentleman:
This is one good boy. I read a lot of 19th century novels and I've decided that I was going to teach Nolan to have the best manners ever. So all of my friends with little girls....Give this boy 10 years and he will be golden. He holds the doors for everyone, pulls out chairs, lets Madison go first in everything. Such a mini-man. Don't get me wrong, he is a pester-y little thing. When he is wound up all he wants to do is bug. I call him fat feet because his feet are so wide they are like flippers and when he runs across the wood floor you hear, slap slap slapping. I hope having the nickname fat feet won't be bad for his self esteem. He's a pretty good helper too, and actually loves to do chores. I think he takes after his dad.

And last but not least, the third midget, the child that can make me pull my hair out one minute and melt my heart the next. Coulson the terrible.
This child is crazy! He does the naughtiest things, way naughtier than any other child, but I can't help but be entertained by him.
He always manages to hurt himself

check out this egg from the side. poor guy.

The dog dug a hole under the faucet and Coulson filled it with water. Every day is a great one when you can get all muddy.


This is his Lilla. He sleeps with it, in his crib. That thing would freak me out at night, but he loves it.

Probably the only kid on earth afraid of his Birthday cake.

CANCUN!!!

I loved Cancun!! What a beautiful place! I'll try to start from the beginning.
Hubby and I dropped the kids off on Thursday night because we had to leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m.!! We got there, all went well. Flight was awesome! We flew Frontier Airlines. I'd never heard of them before, so I was kinda scared, but I thought they were awesome! Each person had their own TV with satellite, so we were able to watch what ever we wanted the whole time. That made it much nicer! Judd's not a very good flier, so it distracted me and helped me to not be AS annoyed by him. We got to our hotel at about 4:30 and scoped our cute room out. We had an ocean view which was awesome. The hotel is in the middle of the stinking jungle and they try to keep it as natural as possible, so there are all of these winding dark sidewalks going through jungle areas and every time we walked somewhere we saw something cool. There were little Coati animal things, which are kind of a cross between a lemur and a monkey. They were running around everywhere.


There were also tons of Iguanas. And they were HUGE!
Here is our room. They had room service come in twice a day and they always made different towel art. This one is a little rabbit with fresh flowers all around it. I thought it was cute.
The food at the hotel was Fabulous and really fancy. The waiters all pulled out your chair and pushed you in and placed napkins on your lap. We're not very high class, so this was all new to us. There was a lot of culture at the hotel. People from all around the world come to stay there. As Americans, we were probably in the minority. Mostly everyone was from Europe. Now, I'm not very familiar with Europeans, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But... little did I know, they are very proud of their bodies. No matter how old they were, no matter how big or small, they wore bikinis and speedos. I'm not kidding. Even grandmas and grandpas. I had fun one day and tried to take pictures of all of the speedos around me.

The manly speedo

the Speedo sunburn

the jogging speedo

the grandma and grandpa speedo/bikini combo

Father and son Speedo

The kids even wear speedos and the young girls never wear bathing suit tops. Well, a lot of the older girls didn't wear tops either. I had to constantly say to Judd "No looking at 10 o'clock." No one seemed to care, even if their were kids around. All of the American guys seemed to enjoy this. I caught a few staring pervs. There was this one family with a mom, dad and two little boys about 3 and 1 1/2. The baby had a pacifier in his mouth and would run around in a little speedo. I called him binky speedo baby, and I looked for him everyday because I missed my own kids and it made me happy to see other people's for some reason. I am kinda a little jealous of how comfortable they are in their own skin. There were some big girls in skimpy suits, not that I would ever wear a skimpy suit, but I wish I was that confident. I wish we lived in a place where you don't feel like you have to be a stick figure to look good. I was impressed.
Well anyway, my idea of vacation is relaxation. I woke up early, walked to the beach with a book and could sit there all day. I would even leave Judd sleeping and go out to be beach side. I realized its not that much fun trying to take a relaxing trip with a husband. He didn't quite know how to relax. I would sit there reading and watching the beach and the people and I was perfectly happy like that. But he was all jittery and waiting for me to entertain him the whole time. Geez can't a girl get a break, even on vacation!! We went for walks, and found shells and he even let me bury him once. We got really bad sunburns because I ran out of sunblock while I was out there and had to buy some Mexican sunblock. It should be called Mexican sun"burn" because as soon as I put that stuff on I could feel my arms cooking! I also bought Mexican mosquito repellant because I was being eaten alive, and I swore it was just a mixture of pine sol and lotion. I had 32 mosquito bites on my legs. 5 on one knee cap.
Anyway, here's some pics from a walk along our beach



I actually wrote that and a wave washed it away as I was trying to take the picture. Judd bent down to fix it and I snapped him. He was all embarrassed that he would look like a wimp if I posted this, so I just thought I would throw that out there.... so officially, for the record, Judd is not this smooth.

On Monday we did an all day excursion to a natural water park called Xel-ha (Shell-ha) and the Mayan ruin town of Tulum (too-loom). Xel-ha was stinking awesome. you get there and they give out snorkels, goggles and fins and then you put on a life jacket and snorkel in this natural lagoon that is the size of like 10 football fields. There were fish everywhere. All different kinds. Judd had a minor encounter with a "5 foot long" barracuda. or so he says, but each time he told me about it the fish got a little bit bigger. hmmm. He did touch his tail fin though, even though he admitted to me that the fish scared the bejeezies out of him and it had huge teeth. After about 15 minutes he got motion sickness from the waves and he just kinda had to sit around and watch while I explored. I went in to caves and over reefs. I can't wait to develop my underwater camera film. That will be so cool. hopefully i figure out how to use my scanner. Judd got over his motion sickness
for the most part and we came upon a rope swing that I made him do. He was a little nervous that he was going to hit the wall, but a little pressure from a lady can get a man to do anything, especially when it comes to his pride. So he did the rope swing and then he did some cliff diving. The water is amazing down there. You can see all the way to the bottom everywhere you go. Even at the beach at our hotel, we were swimming with angel fish and other dark unknown shadows. Kinda Freaky.
They had like 12 dolphins at Xel-ha.


Here's some pics of Tulum. This place was really neat. The temples were built right on the beach.



This is a temple for the Goddess of Fertility. I thought I was in a fitting state :)



look in the branch of the tree

We also went into a little town called Playa Del Carmen, where we were able to shop and haggle with the business owners. Judd pays way to much for stuff in Mexico!! What's up with that. I can hardly get him to buy anything here and he goes there and paid $22 for a pair of sunglasses (because he thought he it would be fun to body surf while wearing his old ones from home, they are now property of the Gulf of Mexico) and $15 for a weird straw hat that he ended up leaving on the airplane (thank goodness) We got the kids some cool little presents though that were like a $1 each, which was more my style for that stuff. One thing that was crazy about that town, besides the drivers, was that they had soccer leagues on the beach. They set up goals and play like crazy men for hours.
All in all, our trip was great. We didn't even fight once until our flight home. By then I was just ready to be alone for a little while. And, I was ready to see my kids.