Summa Vacations!... CANCUN!!

We took a trip to Cancun this summer with Nick's family. We had a very busy summer... we were out of town like every other week! We had way too much fun... we're sad to see summer go! Definitely not ready for winter and snow yet! :( Anyways, it was my first time in Mexico (except for a brief stop in Tulum on our cruise) and I loved it. This is Croco-Cun, an interactive park where we got to hold and feed lots of the animals. Here we walked right through a crocodile pen! There was no fence, no gait, no nothin in between us and the crocs! Scary! My favorite part was the monkeys! There was a mommy one that had a brand new little baby monkey and it was sooo cute!

For those of you who haven’t heard of cenotes, they’re these underground pools of fresh water. There’s so many of them in Mexico so they’ve turned them into tourist attractions. Here is nick at the entrance to one of the cenotes we went to. They had tubes to float on and platforms to jump off of, one probably 20 feet high. I was so proud of Nick's Dad for jumping off the highest one- way to go Craig! Since it’s basically a cave, the water is freezing!

Maire & Bri

El Shrimp Bucket restaurant. Our waiter kept trying to get us to buy beer and was shocked when we said we didn’t drink! He said he’d never met anyone who didn’t drink and wondered what we did “for fun?!”…little does he know! Haha They were hilarious, we asked our waiter to take a picture of our family and the next thing we knew the entire staff ran over to our table to take this picture and made us all wear sombrerors (Nick’s dad is the one in the honeymoon heart!!)

Coba Ruins

Our taxi for the day

Beautiful view from the top of the ruins

Our "Survivor" challenge!

Our famous fountain poses! Having way too much fun in the pool!

Um ya, that's Patrick!

Xcaret- we got to snorkel and float down this underground (well most of it was undergruound) river. It was so cool! One of the highlights of the trip. Thanks Craig and Maire!

Paddy, the sea weed monster!

All the DeWaal boys with matching swimsuits! How cute!

Our hotel had its own private balcony with a hot tub and hammock. Can life get much better?!
Look we’re pregnant! Just kiddin…ate a little too much at the buffet! I had like 5 pina coladas, hmmm! I was in heaven!

Punta Allen

B.C.

The "Road to the Sun" in Glacier National Park, on our way up to Canada last month. We drove on the side of this cliff for over half an hour. Glad I wasn't driving!

The boys were so proud that they started a fire w/out matches or flint! Watch out Bear Grills!

The boys eating some breakfast at our camp site in British Columbia. See those train tracks in the background?? Well, trains didn't stop all night, no joke! It was soo loud, ya couldn't sleep very well those 2 nights! :) Luckily we were able to stay with my Dad's aunt for most of the time. We took a ferry from Vancouver to Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. It was awesome there and we had a great time w/ Auntie Dale. She was a trooper and came with us on most of our excursions.

Jenessa, my sista, getting stared down by a big horn sheep! It walked right up to our car!

They had purple and orange starfish everywhere, cool!

Kayaking in the ocean in Pender Harbor. I had a close encounter with a sea plane! Thought I was gonna die that day!

Our day boat tour up the Princess Louisa Inlet took us to this beautiful waterfall, Chatterbox Falls. Nick and my Dad said it musta been named after me! haha Very funny guys!

Skookumchuck Narrows (nice name huh?!) These are not rapids, this is the ocean and the tide that was coming in. People actually kayak in this, craziness!

Here we are wet again! I really wore like 2 outfits the whole week and half we were there cuz it was rainy and cold everyday! But we had a lot of fun just us three!

Ahhh! Long way down!

Banff, British Columbia

Hiking in Johnston Canyon near Banff. We hiked up these catwalks for a few miles then decided to keep going to the "Ink Pots" and ended up hiking like 7 miles (in the rain of course, it's B.C.)

Florida

So I had the opportunity to tag along with Nick again for the director preview trip he takes for work every summer. We went to Jacksonville to get ready for the Gator Bowl and Orlando for the Champs Sports Bowl again. This is the view from our hotel in Jacksonville, right on the river. And the picture below is Nick about to dig in to his plank steak! We went to this really nice restaurant on a river with his directors and co-workers. He loved it as you can tell!

So we added an extra couple days to the end of our trip since Nick had to be in Memphis about 4 days after his Flordia trip, we figured we'd just stay longer and then he could fly straight there and I'd fly home. Jeremy, who works w/ Nick, came to staff the event and brought along his wife Aleece for her 1st Florida trip. We got a 3 day Disney World pass, and went to the oldest city in the U.S., St. Augustine. Good times and lots of funny memories! Does "I'm survived he surprised" ring a bell?!! hehe

This picture is great! Look at the look on everyone's faces...Aleece's is a classic! It was the lamest ride too so don't ask me why we all look terrified!?? (It's the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom by the way- don't even try it guys). And the picture below is the best ride in Disney World- Rock N Rollercoast at MGM! I love the really fast rollercoaster in the dark!

Well like every trip Nick and I take, it rained on us...shocker! It was a massive downpour and it didn't stop for hours. We were absolutely drenched as you can tell. We tried to make a run for it from Tower of Terror to the Rock N Rollercoaster (which is right next to it) and this is how wet we got- our clothes were soaked through and they didn't really dry all day. Ponchos were $8 each (rip off!) so we didn't get any. We were mad at first but it actually turned out to be really fun. People left the park in masses and we wanted to get our moneys worth so we toughed it out and rode Splash Mountain like 4 times in a row (we figured we were wet anyways- we walked right to the front of the line). Then guess who we saw in the park?? Kobe Bryant! It was awesome- my brother, Erik, is a huge fan and was pretty jealous!

They all talked me into going to this "haunted" lighthouse in St. Augustine late at night, and I reluctantly went. I hate being scared, and it was pretty scary. There is actually an A&E special of this lighthouse. Apparently it's one of the U.S.'s most haunted places...hmmm... haven't watched it and probably won't but check it out if you have nothing better to do. :)

St. Augustine beach

Palm Desert

Catching some rays in Cali with the Tondevold fam

Road trippin it with my favorite nephew! Ok so he's my one and only nephew but he is the cutest kid ever! I had so much seeing him everyday for a week! He has the cutest little personality. He loved his Auntie Bri keeping him company in the backseat for the long drive.

Picture perfect family!
While Dave and Chelsea weren't around we made fun hairdos for Josh! Don't ya think he looks good with a mowhack?! J/k

Mugotu!!

Going on our night time "bunny walk"

Hittin up the big rollercoasters at Six Flags. Nice hair Jen!
It was so fun to watch Josh's first swimming experience. He wasn't a fan at first, but grew to love the fountains after awhile.
Guess what/who they're all looking at?!