Akumal

Over the kids week of fall break this year we took a trip to Mexico. We invited my parents to come along too. We were fortunate enough to have some friends donate a week at their beach house to us in an effort to continue to help Lisa with her cancer recovery. It was another fantastic trip.

Lisa and I used points for our airfare and took Blake and Cole with us. We didn't have enough points for all of our family, so we paid for the tickets for Tucker and Aubrey and they flew on a different airline with my parents. This was the first time the kids had traveled to a foreign country. We got all of them their passports and they were excited to use the Spanish that they had been learning at school. Lisa, Blake, Cole and I arrived at the house first Sunday night. While driving on the street of the house we saw some animals that we have never seen down there before. These first pictures of animals are not mine, but they are the animals we saw.

We saw some striped basilisks.  They run on their hind legs and can run on water. The first one we saw was running across the road on his hind legs, standing up. It was quite the sight to see.

We also some some of these rodents called agouti. They look like giant guinea pigs. It kind of reminded me of the ROUS's from The Princess Bride.

We saw some more coatis as well. We have seen these before, but it was fun to see them again.

And Lisa and I spotted a small Tapir that quickly ducked back into the jungle.  It was fun to see so many different animals.

Unfortunately we lost the pictures we took from our first two days. Cole accidentally deleted them off of our camera. Oh well, that's life. We didn't lose a whole lot from Monday. It was mostly a relaxing day for us that we spent at the house. The kids loved the pool and couldn't get enough of it. We did some snorkeling, and also some relaxing in the lawn chairs and hammocks. That evening when the hermit crabs were all coming out on the beach the kids were catching as many as they could. Some were huge, the size of a softball. They really enjoyed that.

On Tuesday we took a trip to Chichen Itza. It was the third time there for Lisa and me, the second for my parents, but the first for the kids. Thankfully I took these two photos with my phone.

On Wednesday we woke up to some more sunshine. Here are some photos of the beautiful views we had right from the house. 

Here is the pool. You could usually find our kids here playing.

That afternoon we went into Puerto Aventuras for a few hours. We did some shopping and my mom bought some fun stuff for herself. While she was buying her stuff, I tried these sombreros on the two little boys.

We went and watched some dolphins training. The kids loved it. We got to see them jumping out of the water and even doing flips. It was very entertaining for them.

After the dolphin show we went to the shipwreck museum in town. I told the kids it was a pirate museum, and that got their attention.  It's a fun, smaller museum that is free.

One of the coolest things about this house is that the bay right there has a coral reef. You are mere steps away from some great snorkeling. I took the kids out and taught them how to use their snorkeling gear. Tucker and Cole absolutely loved it. Tucker in fact would even go snorkeling on his own. He's becoming so independent and is growing up so fast.

We saw the usual awesome fish like tangs, angel fish, sargent majors, parrot fish, etc. Here are some photos that Tucker and I took.

A yellow tang.

A blue tang.

A damselfish.

My favorite, a couple of spotted juvenile damselfish. Their spots are so brilliant blue. They are so fun to watch.

Tucker and I even saw some sting rays while we were out there.

Like I mentioned previously, the kids loved the pool. They played, and played, and played there. It was fun to see them enjoy it so much.

That evening a storm started to roll in. Little did we know that Wednesday was the last day we would see sunshine. It provided a beautiful sunset that night on the beach.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed out to Coba. While driving on the back road to Coba and Chichen Itza we would see these huge tarantulas walking across the road. I stopped for one on Tuesday and got a picture of it. Unfortunately it got deleted. But on Thursday we saw some more. This one wasn't as big as the one on Tuesday, but the picture still shows how big they are.

I let all of the kids pet the giant spider. They thought it was cool.

I had a pet tarantula on my mission, so it was fun for me to play with them again.

When we got to Coba, we rented some bikes to quickly and easily access each of the ruin sites. It makes the visit so much better. We all got pretty wet from the rain, but getting rained on in the jungle isn't so bad. It's already so warm that you don't mind it.

Blake and Cole weren't big enough for the bikes they had available so I rented a taxi guy to chauffeur them around. Lucky kids.

Tucker and my mom smiling in the rain.

The main temple at Coba is the tallest in the Yucatan peninsula. It has some steep steps. I was pretty nervous about our safety going up those steps in the rain. They were slick. But everybody did awesome and there were no slips or falls.

My dad and mom enjoying the view from the top.

You can see in this photo all the water that was accumulating on the ground from the rain storm. Nobody in our group was complaining though. What a bunch of troopers.

The ball court.

We have always really enjoyed stopping at this tree with all the roots going everywhere. The kids had fun climbing on them.

When Lisa and I came here 12 and a half years ago for our honeymoon, we stopped at the same tree. Here is a picture of Lisa from 2003 climbing the same roots the kids were.

The kids found a creepy spider up in a crevice of this tunnel.

Me trying to act like a tough rock climber.

We were all loving the Mexican cuisine we ate while we were there. This restaurant at Coba also provided wonderful views of the main lagoon.

When we got back to the house the kids caught this gecko and were so proud of it.

These geckos could be seen all over the outside of the house. At nights we would sit on the patio and watch them eat bugs.

We aren't easily deterred from adventure by some rain/thunder storms. So Lisa and I headed out on the kayak and took Cole and Aubrey snorkeling.

Cole loved seeing all the fish. He was hooked.

Here's a picture of my dad snorkeling.

Friday we got absolutely dumped on. It was the most rain I've ever seen come down in my life. We weren't able to get out much that day. We were hoping to go to a cenote, and we even drove to it. We sat in the parking lot in a torrential down pour and gave up after 30 minutes of it not letting up.

On Saturday it was much of the same. We still went to Playa Del Carmen anyway to get the kids out and about.

When we woke up Sunday morning we found that the massive storm had dislodged this huge tree that was stuck on the reef and pushed it up on our shore. That storm was quite the doozy.

My parents had to leave early Sunday morning with Tucker and Aubrey to catch their flight. The rest of us had several hours to kill so we went into Cancun and took the little boys around. They thought the giant Spiderman at Coco Bongo was really neat.

Despite the rainy weather at the end of the week, it was a fantastic trip. Some of our kids are even saying that they liked it more than their trip to Disney World. Success.

Elk Hunt

We had our annual family elk hunt again this year. There were some big rain storms at times, but we were fortunate enough to not get caught out in them. When my dad and I first arrived Friday mid day to set up camp, there was actually some fresh snow at the camp site. Crazy.

After Lisa and the kids came up that evening, my dad and I headed down to the BYU vs Connecticut football game. It ended up being a fun game and BYU won. After the game we headed back up to the elk camp and pulled in at about 1:00 am.

Opening morning Lisa came out with me and was carrying her own rifle and elk tag. We also brought Tucker and Aubrey along with us. Cole and Blake are still a little too young to go hiking around with us. We have an unofficial rule in our family that you have to be 8 years old to go out with us. My mom stayed back at camp with the little boys.
I made sure to pack some yummy treats and candy in their bags to keep them happy during the boring moments. We dressed them all warm as the temps were in the low 30's that morning. The mountains are so beautiful this time of year. It's one of my favorite reasons for going elk hunting.

My opening morning crew.

This is the hillside we were glassing.

Unfortunately we didn't see any spikes or cows that morning. It figures that the only thing we don't have a tag for is big bulls, and that's all we saw the first morning. Oh well, we had a lot of fun watching a big bull across the canyon from us. He was a big 6x6 that probably would have scored around 320. We followed him and watched him with our binoculars for quite a while. Here's a picture my dad took of the four of us on the side hill where we were watching.

 Here's Tucker looking at the big bull.

We were glassing across this canyon. We have such beautiful sights where we hunt. The scenery is wonderful.

The kids were great little hikers.

Saturday afternoon I went out with my dad and my cousin Zach to do some more hunting. Lisa stayed back at camp with the kids. She had fun, but ever since her tumor she struggles to stay warm. Even bundled up a ton she still will be cold. So she decided to stay back and warm her bones.

That afternoon was quite successful for us. I set up on a hill side overlooking some beaver ponds and some good cover that I was sure elk would be using as they came down to feed and drink for the evening. I got to my spot at about 4:30. Zach was up the canyon from me and my dad was down the canyon from me.

Here's the view from where I was sitting.

Right as I got to my hill side I looked across the canyon and saw what I thought was an elk in some thick trees. I pulled up my binoculars and sure enough, it was an elk. I didn't pull my gun up to shoot yet because I wasn't sure whether it was a cow or bull. I figured it was probably a satellite bull since it was all alone, but couldn't confirm it for a while. After a couple of minutes the elk was on the move. Right before it entered into some thick pines I got a glimpse at the head and saw that it was a cow! I was so excited. By the time I pulled my gun up she was in the pines. While I was watching that group of pines to see if she would step out, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. About 30 yards away from where she entered the pines I saw a 5 point bull walking through the thick aspens. I was confused as to why a smaller 5 point bull would be following a lone cow this time of year. Well the bull ducked back the direction he came and disappeared in some pines. I kept watching the pines where I last saw the cow, but couldn't see any more movement. I sat there for well over an hour and a half watching, waiting for something to step out into the open, but never saw anything. About once every 20-30 minutes I would hear a big stick break in the pines, so I knew she was still in there.  Around 5:30 I saw my dad on a ridge off to my right. I let him know through hand singles that I had spotted some elk across the canyon. He sat down for a while and glassed the area as well.  At about 6:00 Zach came strolling down to my spot. I explained to him the situation and we both sat patiently watching the hill side. At about 6:15 my dad left his spot and headed down the canyon to get to the four wheeler. The sun was starting to set slowly. I told Zach that if nothing happened in 15 minutes, we could head out as well.

Our patience paid off.  A few minutes later I saw the cow step out into the open. I pulled my gun up and through my scope I saw that she wasn't alone. There were other elk too. Zach and I started shooting. After my first shot I saw my dad come running back over the ridge he just left and was pulling up his gun as well. We were shooting at about 400 yards away. I dropped my cow on the fourth shot. Zach took a few more and dropped his cow. My dad only took two shots and stopped because he was further away than us and didn't want to have more elk down than we had tags. He said that he also saw the herd bull step out of the trees for a bit once we started shooting. Turns out it was a whole herd of elk in the trees I was hearing, not just the cow that I had initially seen. It was a super fun evening. We were pumped to get two cow elk.

Here's a picture of my cow elk where we found her after she rolled down the hill after my final shot dropped her. I know, not the most glamorous picture of her, but she was too big and heavy to turn around for a pretty picture, and the sun was setting quickly. 

We quickly gutted both elk, finishing off in the dark, then I left my orange hat and jacket hanging in a tree so we could easily find them in the morning. Zach, my dad and I then drove back to camp in the dark. It started raining on us as soon as we got back to the four wheeler and continued the whole way back to camp. Once we got back to camp, as soon as we stepped in the trailer the skies opened up and it began to rain hard. Good thing we weren't still on the mountain trying to pack out those elk.

The next morning we headed back out to that spot to quarter and haul the elk out. Lisa came with us to help pack them out. We were able to successfully haul them out in two trips. Lisa was an absolute rock star. She jumped right in and offered to help us haul them out.  Here's a fun photo of her with my cousin's elk head and me carrying the back straps and tenderloins in a back pack.

My cousin Zach took the front quarters, Lisa took the head, and my dad took the tenderloins and backstraps while I packed out the hind quarters. I thought I was going to pass out with how heavy those were. They weighed about 120 pounds, and I did that twice. Once for each elk. My shoulders were so sore and for a while I lost circulation of blood in my arms because all that weight was on my shoulders. In all it was worth it though. We are getting probably 175 pounds of elk meat after the butcher is done with it. 

Even Lisa said she had fun. It was hard work, but worth it. Here she is hiking out my elk head. We weighed it when we got home and it weighed 30 pounds. We kept the head for gender identification purposes. If a game warden stopped us, we needed to prove that what we shot was a cow elk, and not some big bull.

My dad was able to borrow a side by side from a vendor through his work. It was really handy and a ton of fun. The kids loved us taking them around for rides in it. That thing has some power and a ton of torque.

For the drive home I placed the elk legs in the bed of my truck so that they were sticking up. It was a funny sight to see.

In all it was an awesome hunting trip. We had a ton of fun together as a family and are looking forward to next year already.