This past weekend we spent the day at Daybreak, have you been there?  I’m lucky enough to have a brother who resides there in a pretty red house. We began with a bike ride to a local breakfast joint for some delish pancakes covered in gelato, yes gelato the ice cream, I mean what a way to start the day right.  With the outdoor eats and the cool architecture and sculptures it was a feast not only for our bodies but for the eyes.

Then we continued the bike ride taking a tour of the landscape; which has lakes and streams, a million unique bridges and fun uses of rock walls. Lavender grows along the paths and a board walk leads you through a sea of cat tails and marshy terrain without even getting your feet muddied.  The sun was shinning as we rode along and our puppy ran next to us, getting all worn out for the day (excellent!), stopping at one of the many parks to play on the rocks and water, and lay in the soft grass as the breeze brushed.  I think I sound like an advertisement, but yep it’s pretty much the reality of the place.  The homes in daybreak come in every color and I could and probably will at some point, devote an entire post to the different colors of homes that can be seen in the area; turquoise, purple, orange, red, blue, purple, green, grey, and yellow.  I mean really it’s like a 1950′s style neighborhood I can just see the aproned women, and block parties with everyone sitting on there porches and that is pretty much how you can describe Daybreak.  So if your up in the South Jordan area, take a minute and wander around, there a surprises everywhere.  We loved our Day in Daybreak.

Last week is literally a daze.   I caught a wicked case of Bronchitis last week, which wasn’t the best timing since I was expected to help with our wards Youth Conference.  Rest as I may by Wednesday I had to see the Dr and he pronounced the sentence.  Which wasn’t much time to recover for Thursday’s departure, he then gave me some cough medicine to help me sleep and sent me on my way.   I went back to bed and by the evening I was feeling a little better and packed for the trip.  Took my prescription and returned to bed, with hopes of a restful night!  NO SUCH LUCK, I work up heaving, The “COUGH MEDICINE” made me sick to my stomach and puky.  At that point I had 6 hours till I needed to go leave on the trip.  I was miserable, My Mr. continued to get ready, he was slated to go and so he moved forward with his plans.  He went to meet with the others and said he would be back to check and see if I was any better and if I felt like I could get myself off the floor.  I crawled to the bathroom for one last trip, then I laid there, and the nausea slowed.  With that, my sense of duty to my ward took over and I told myself, YOU CAN DO IT!! I girded my loins, quite literally and got ready.  My Mr. helped me into the car where I laid back and tried to get the rest of the nausea to go way.  And hour and a half into the drive it was gone, only my bronchitis was I left with, and I had a box of tissues for that.

So here are some photos from the trip this weekend.  I was lucky to have a camper trailer to lounge in when I needed to, and still helped to fulfill the commitment I made to my youth, they are incredible and even though there were times when I wished I was at home in a warm bed, I’m so glad I went!

An Update on the Adventure, later this week.

(photos by ME)

Sorry for the long post, but it’s worth a read!

Our last off shore adventure started with a short boat ride from our island like boat to the docks of CABO San Lucas! We got to shore and rounded up the rest of our excursion group then took our private bus to the middle of what looked like no where!  I said to myself “I thought we were ATV’ing on a beach and all I can see are rolling hills covered in sage brush, this reminds me of the deserts of UTAH, NOT the beach!” But I figured what the heck, it will be fun and went with it!  Now I’m no ATV’ing expert, in fact the last time I went ATV’ing I kept running off the paved road, and then later assisted in a rescue operation of a wheeler that ran off a cliff!  Yes, excellent examples to reflect on!  But I was going to face my fear and hope that I have grown up enough to be able to control one on my own!

We got out fitted in what I called our “BANDIT” gear, since nose scarfs were an essential (don’t I look like I’m ready to hold up a stage coach?)!  Then we got our wheelers and lined up to head out!  I of course had trouble from the beginning!  While trying to get my wheeler in to neutral I pushed the shifter through the foot board and it practically fell off.  OK THAT WAS TOTALLY NOT MY FAULT!! So they suited me up with a different blue wheeler and with a little bit of struggle and practice I was shifting like a PRO!  We wheeled through the desert terrain, then like a mirage between two hills there is was a short distance away . . . . . THE BEACH.

The beautiful blue and white capped waves rolling in, with soft grain like sand.  Truly amazing!

We took our conquering group photo before we plummeted on to the beach for fun!  Everyone went to one end of the beach and then hit the gas, but me I was off the wheeler and taking photos!  Everyone else thought I was crazy, including our guide who came back to check on me multiple times.  When he asked what I was doing I said, “They came for the sand I came for the photos!”  I’m not pro at the wheeling, but I love drinking in the sights and sound and trying to photograph the moments.  I could have built myself a hunt and lived there forever, it was perfect!
Soon My Mr was pushing me to get on the wheeler and ride, I appeased him and the others by positioning myself in the middle and having them drive around me while I snapped the photos!  My Mr got a little too close and in a split second I had a camera and face (really entire body) covered in sand!

In no time we had to head back.

We made our last stop to the flea market before saying Bon Voyage to Mexico.  We peaked over the peer to see the pelicans scratching away and the tiny crabs crawling all over the rocks.

And that was it, we were gone and heading back to our floating island on the sea!

(photos by ME)

We began with a taxi ride which made me feel like I was being herded like cattle into the back of a pickup truck with wooden sides and a tarp for a top (OK it was a little nicer but you get the picture (and you can see it to the right). Then it was on to a tour boat that took us out to sea in search of Sea Lions and we found them!  They were bathing in the sun on a small island howling in what I hoped to be delight at our appearance.  They jumped into the water and seemed to be doing some sort of synchronized swimming, lifting there flippers & faces out of the water every so often.

Then it was off to Stone Island for an adventure and some serious beach time.

We were herded into a larger trailer and pulled by a tractor to the private beach to enjoy several different activities on the beach!    We enjoyed a banana boat ride out to a smaller island and back, while Taylor tortured us with his constant and FREAKY bouncing, we really didn’t want flip.  We made it back to the beach unscathed and decided to go back out for a relaxing kayak ride.  We did awesome at this and were about to make it into shore without the slightest hiccup when the tides, literally, turned and sent us and our friends The Cline’s tumbling, it was a MAJOR WIPE OUT!  Leaving me drenched, with a mouthful of salt water and bleeding with a cut about 2 inches long on the palm of my hand!  I felt so tuff, shedding blood is total proof of wicked’ness!  So after that salt water on the wound was out of the question and so I took to taking photos, Christina snapped the one of me in all my glory doing what I do best, photoing!  My Mr. took to the ocean to finish the island trip with some boogie boarding with the boys! (Brady, Taylor & Justin) Then it was back to the boat for some well needed grub and rest.

Calling it a night on Mazatlan.

For a day we got to swing like monkeys. My Mr. and I took a zip lining tour, the largest and highest in Mexico, the highest being 500 feet off the ground and quarter of a mile long! Even with my slight fear of heights I got over it in no time and was flipping upside down hundreds of feet off the ground without a care!  It was truly amazing. Our guides were great and CRAZIER than we were, they would hop on and ride down the zip lines in tandem spinning us in circles as we were going a million miles an hour (madness)!! They made the whole experience so much fun!  Who knew that risking your life (ok not really) while flying through the air hanging by your behind could be so fun?

Feeding the monkey’s seemed only fitting after our adventure.

With yogurt smothered all over our hands they got to the licking and we tried to take photos.  As you can see they were more interested in my camera than my yogurt coated hand, and even just getting a shot of them was difficult!  But Thank heavens My Mr. had a camera to catch the madness.  We entered the cage and before I knew it I was covered in monkey’s, I kept thinking say calm it’s ok!  Even after the yogurt was gone the Monkey’s treated us like there own private jungle gym.  They were so cute, the cage manager even had to ask us when we go out if we had stowed away an of them in our pockets, for I split second I thought “why did I think of that!”, Clancy might love another fuzz covered friend.

It was an awesome experience in the jungles of Puerto Vallarta!

(photos by WE)