Remember me? Back from the cruise

Hey everyone! It's been a while! Thanks for waiting so patiently. I had a super fun time on the Stampin' Up incentive trip and although I really did enjoy 8 full days unplugged, I thought of you guys ALL the time! There was so much I couldn't wait to share with you. I didn't even have my phone once we sailed off! That was hard, as I never realized before how much I google random stuff that I am curious about during the day. I did cave and brought my laptop along at the last second, but I am really proud of myself that I didn't even open it until I got back to Florida and was in the airport headed home.

So hang onto your hats, friends, as I post like a madwoman and get us all caught up!

I decided not to post things in chronological order, because I don't scrap that way either. And I know you all are more interested in the stampin' news than the touristy stuff anyway, am I right? I'll try to intersperse the trip pics with the awesome samples we saw.

So my first post is about the awesome Mayan ruins at Tulum, Mexico, which was my very favorite part of the whole trip, since I'm a history nut. I am so glad we chose that excursion on the advice of friends who visit the Riveria Maya often, because I would have hated to miss it! The ruins were amazing!

So bizarre to think that they performed human sacrifices right there on the top of that building. It was a little eerie to stand there and imagine what the scene was like. We had an excellent guide who showed us photos of the painted murals inside the buildings, which are no longer accessible to the public. And it was interesting to note that, like many ancient sites all over the world, these buildings would have been stuccoed and painted in quite gaudy colors and look completely different than they do now.

The only thing that could have pulled our attention away from the fascinating ruins was the absolutely astounding ocean views. Look at that gorgeous blue water.

You'll see my sister-in-law alot in these photos, so I'll introduce her. Tancy and I went to college together and she married my oldest brother Jeremiah (brave woman! Just kidding. Love ya, big bro). They have four cute homeschooled kids and currently are pastoring three mission churches in the Rockford, IL, area, so when it turned out that Mike couldn't go with me due to graduation duties at the university, I figured Tancy could probably use a break. We had a ridiculous amount of fun.

You can't go anywhere on the Yucatan Penninsula without mentioning the iguanas. Holy cow. They were HUGE, and they were EVERYWHERE! It was funny to take a picture of the ruins and look at it later and realize there were four lizards sitting there blending right in. At first we were like, "ooooh, look!! It's an iguana!! Take a picture!" and after a while it was like, "there's another iguana." By the end it was like, "Don't step on/sit on/trip over the iguana."

Our guide came prepared with red hibiscus flowers for them, which is apparently like candy to them. They were pretty happy to see him. This next pic is actually in Jamaica, but Tancy was brave enough to actually hold one. I was brave enough to stand close enough to take a picture. With the zoom lens. Lizards are so not my thing.