diary

NOW JADE

Alicia, Chris,Shawn,Mason,Levi, Kayla and

 I flew down to NOW JADE in the Cancun area on the Yucatan peninsula yesterday...we flew from Appleton to Atlanta and then on to Cancun...arriving at around 2:30 pm.

We had lunch at the buffet and by then our rooms were ready...they are nice...have a balcony over looking the water...with the doors open you can hear the waves!!

Our first lunch at the Carnival

Mason liked being able to going outside...except he threw his bottle and a cosmetic bag down to the balcony below!!

Everyone was very tired after getting up at 4 am to get to the airport...Kayla's mom and Grandparents were our chauffeur. We had an early night...



over the balcony!!

Wednesday:  Up at 7 am and then out to the buffet for breakfast...there was rain this morning but did not last very long. Levi and Kayla met their wedding planner..they will meet with her tomorrow. Today was spent on the beach and in the pool....Shawn liked the ocean and playing in the waves..Alicia helped with it...I sat on the beach with Mason...he loved playing in the sand and every once in a while that waves would wash around us. He even had a mouth full of sand a few times cuz he would put his sandy hands in his mouth.  We tried to get a sunset picture...but can't get a good view because of the landscape.  We booked our tour to Chichen Itza for Monday and will take Shawn to swim with the dolphins on Sunday.

This was the night of Chris and Alicia's date....Levi and Kayla and I entertained the kids. After a walk on the beach for sunset pictures we came to my room..  Levi and Mason fell asleep early. While they were napping Kayla , Shawn and I went out to look at some of the "shops" set  up by the main building...didn't buy anything.. Once the kids were asleep for the night Levi and Kayla went back to their room..

Alicia and Chris came to our door because the staff came in their room and turned down the bed..decorated it with swan towels and rose petals....ran a bubble bath with rose petals on top in the shape of a heart. Also a Happy Anniversary sign on the door!!! None of us said anything about their date night to anyone of the staff....so it must have been the wrong room...but so appropriate!!!


Mason playing in the beach sand for the first time.






 









Mason and Levi napping together.






Shawn playing in the waves.







Enjoying the sun by the pool.



Mason taking a break!

Thursday:  Joe and Luann missed their connecting flight in Chicago so did not arrive as planned yesterday...

Cody and Allie got here this afternoon.
Today I have felt queasy...so did no swimming..just sat on the beach for a while and then by the pool and took a short nap.
I went with Levi and Kayla to meet with their wedding planner....that went good!!! Have seen several weddings since we have been here...they do a nice job.

Levi and Kayla meeting Ana for the first time.

 Friday:  Today we spent the morning on the beach in the preferred area...they have nice tiki huts that you can sit under....we all were together....the water in this area is really rocky but because it is close to the harbor it is more calm than further down the beach. While we were in this area the photographers came around with some parrots for picture taking. The Van Thull family had their pictures taken and so did Chris and Alicia...that was fun for the kids. Later we went to look at the pictures taken....of course they are something you want to have. We found out that they do not take credit cards...only cash!!!! That presents a problem!! Yesterday they had taken pictures of Shawn and Mason when they were in the pools...some nice ones in the bunch.

Tonight we decided to try the Mexican restaurant.....it turned out to be a fun night for what would have been a rehearsal dinner. We could not all eat at the same table...one table for six and one for four...worked out okay.  They were quite entertaining in their service to us....at one point they came and put BIG sombreros on four of us....that kinda scared Mason!! Later there was a four piece band that came and played and sang some love songs in Spanish.

Saturday: WEDDING DAY!!!!! I spent last night with Kayla....Allie and Luann were over for a while on Friday night...fixing fingernails and making sure the flowers were all ready.
Kayla and I just had granola bars for breakfast rather than going out or ordering room service.
It was dawning a nice clear day...they was a canopy set up on the beach near them...so we wondered if that would be for their wedding....later.....they set up another one further down the beach for them. We were surprised to have a canopy...cause it had sounded like there would just be a table.
Kayla ordered fruit plates from room service to have for the girls while getting ready...they were fixed up so pretty.
Alicia did Kayla's hair and Allison did her make up...the photographer got there around 12:30...they got lots of pictures of Kayla getting ready....the second one went to my room to get pictures of the guys getting ready.
The wedding was set for 2:00pm...but was done more by " Mexican" time about fifteen minutes late.
The judge was a nice lady and she had a nice way about her.
Our CD player did not make it here in Joe and Luann's luggage....so Ana, the wedding planner, set it up to have someone do the music for us...for a tip of $20!!  They did a nice job and then we did not have to worry about that!!
The wedding took place on the beach with the sound of the waves in the background. Instead of a Unity candle they chose to do a sand ceremony with the song...    Pictures...eating at Caper's.

Wedding supper at Caper's.

Sunday: Still saw the power of God in the waves and the sunrise..
Alicia, Chris, Shawn, Mason, and I left to go a ways south of here so they could swim with the dolphins. Mason and I were able to be there and watch for a fee of $10  and I was surprised that they let me have my camera to take pictures while they were out swimming. Shawn was feeling scared but soon was having fun!!! We met around 4pm for supper, then took a mini van tour to Playa del Carmen... its a loooong street lined with shops and restaurants on both sides.  That evening we had supper at the Asian restaurant...they served us appetizers, a sample of their food. The BBQ pork ribs..the sauce had a very good flavor!  Our meal was very good.

Monday:  Cody and Allison left today.  This was our day to go to Chichen Itza...which was an all day tour...it was 2 hours one way..we had a pit stop on the way at a souvenir store. The road was through what they call jungle..very different from what I always pictured a jungle...this is more like woody shrubs and some palm trees.

We spent about 2 hours at Chichen Itza, first the tour guide took us around and explained the different ruins...then we could look around at our leisure. Shawn and Mason had fun just running around in the grass.
There were a lot of Maya people there selling their wares...they were kind of annoying...meaning they would come up and try to sell when our guide was talking.

The next stop was the cenote's....which is like a sink hole with good clear water and also stalagmites and stalactites...I was not able to go down there, but Levi took pictures for me. While the others were looking at the cenote...Mason and I had a visit with the guide.... All of the palm trees in this area were painted white on the bottom 3-4 feet...so we asked why....it really is some kind of pesticide to protects the trees from ants during the rainy season...the ants can't stay in the ground because of the water so they climb the trees and burrow into the trees...this causes the trees to die. It began to rain so we left and went to the van.

Our next stop was back by the souvenir shop where there was also an eating place...lunch was served and also some entertainment...dancing to music...more like a tap dancing and then the danced with a bottle on their heads and later with a tray of bottles. They had another girl by the door with a sign asking for tips for the dancers.

Piramide de Kukulan

Alicia, Mason, Chris and Shawn

Levi and Kayla

some things that I bought from one of the Mayan children

cenote

church in Valladolid



city hall in Valladolid

 The nest stop was a village called...Valladolid....where a lot of the buildings were made for stone taken from the old Mayan cities. There was a church that you could see had a lot of the same carvings in the stone that you saw at Chichen Itza. Beings as I like old things this was something I liked seeing...the woodwork was really beautiful and lots of carvings in the wood. The town was built with a center square with an iron fence around and a fountain in the middle.  Very pretty...

Now it was back to the resort....most of the trip being made in the dark and in the rain.  It was a long day...the boys did really good considering  there was a lot of  riding  in a van full of people.

Joe and Luann, Kayla's parents went with us on this trip...kinda a 25th wedding anniversary remembrance.

Tuesday:   Kayla's parent left very early this morning to head back home. The rest of  us were up early as usual...got the packing out of the way and then went down to the Carnival Buffet for breakfast...it was a beautiful morning and they offered a place outside to eat!!  After breakfast was back to the room for the boys to get a bath and then get a bellboy to take all our luggage down to the lobby  and wait for our ride to the Cancun airport.  We were there early so we had a wait for our flight...

I got to have window seat!! I like watching the landscape below and the big fluffy clouds once we get above them...once we were on the ground in Atlanta we had to wait for a gate. The kids had arranged that there would be a wheelchair for me ... which was really nice and a plus was that this person knew where to go and made getting through the lines much faster and easier!

The flight to Appleton was nice...looking down at the lights bellow and trying to guess where we were... We were met by Kayla's Mom and Grandparents....while getting our luggage we discovered that my suitcase did not arrive...thankfully I had my carry on with my meds and my pajamas!!!  The luggage came the next evening.

A very nice vacation.   AND a very pretty and simple wedding... Wishing Levi and Kayla a very happy life together!!!!!!!!!