get your popcorn--its slideshow time

hello cruel world. personal joke. ha ha ha. i love personal jokes. anyway, here are a bunch of pictures and things we've done that i have been meaning to post, but have procrastinated to the point that i am overwhelmed and so now i shall overwhelm the blog world with a bagillion pictures.

mexico

this was one of the most incredible trips. i am so glad that the parentals came with us. next time my mom will have to come. what did we do? glad you asked.

July 4th

Flew into mexico city and spent the night there. nick kept telling us that mexico is really cheap and that we would be able to find great hotels for 20 bucks--so this night we tried it out and what we got for that price was aweful--it was hilarious. looks like nick's standards of "nice" on his mission wasn't too high.

July 5th

drove to Temascal- there is a giant lake with an island of indigenous people in the middle of the lake as well as a crocodile farm/random small cool town. It is a crazy town, and one of nicks favorite areas because you are in the heart of old mexico there. nick took us around the place showing us the places he lived--we came to a house that nick remembered as good friends--they made bread--turns out they were still there and now the bishops family. we spent the rest of the day with them. i love this family--hermana tina, [insert names]. This family went out of their way to make us feel welcome--they dropped everything they were doing and spent the rest of the day with us--they even bought us traditional shirts--incredible people. Their son started a popular & thriving internet cafe--which we went and saw and we ended up running into a couple that nick had baptized at the market. turns out that recently their daughter was killed in a car accident and because of that loss they hadn't returned to church--the bishop had tried to get them to come, but when they saw nick, they both decided it was a sign that they should go back to church. After, the family took us to a fish farm and there was an alligator there. hello arch-nemesis. That night, we would drove back down to a city called Tres Valles which is a little bigger and safer than Temascal.

July 6th

Woke up to find out that mom monson hurt herself because she got up to turn off a fan and it was so dark she didn't see the step and she fell. sad. she was in pain all night. today we drove to Coatza Coalcos to have sacrament meeting for the ward nick was in and spent that day with friends. We got to Coatza and spent some time trying to find the church--the city had grown a lot from the time nick was there. We decided to stop at a grocery store and ask for directions. A taxi driver told us he would gladly take us there for a small fee--which we paid. We followed him out of the parking lot and across the street to the church building. yes, we were dooped. After church we went and spent the rest of the day with an incredible family--[insert name]. They made us dinner and then we lounged on their hammocks and nick talked to them while the rest of us took naps and just listened. This was so much fun. I loved this family. That night we walked along the beach and the boardwalk and had dinner. Our waitor approached us hesitantly because he could tell we spoke english--which he didn't--but was relieved to find out nick spoke fluently. He told us later he went back to his coworkers who were amazed that it went so smoothly--and he lied to then saying he knew english. it was funny--guess you had to be there. Poor dad monson got sick from the food. We spent the night there playing gnerts.

July 7th

woke up and went on a run with mom monson on the beach. she got like 10 cat calls. drove to Catemaco. This is one of those "hidden treasures" that nick had heard about but no missionaries were allowed in it because it is a huge witch-craft area. It's a legit rain forest where a lot of movies are filmed. There is an island in the laguna that is full of howler monkeys and all kinds of cool things that we saw. This place was awesome. We took a boat tour to check it out--went to a cool hotelish resort and they gave us a cultural tour that was neat. They have a white wizard that stays there-but unfortunately he was not in. That night we walked through the town and then went to our hotel room to play phase 10 on the balcony. I was set up to win the whole game until the end--dad monson won in the end. We went to go back into the room to find we locked ourselves out--how embarassado. Luckily someone was walking around to get help.

July 8th

Went on a run with the monson parentals. mom monson tripped on a root in the ground, got back up and almost tripped on the same root and hit her head on a branch. clever & hilarious. Today we drove on crazy roads to some incredible waterfalls that we hiked to and swam in. At the end of our hike it started to poor rain--it kind of got dangerous--which made it even cooler. We were amazed by how cool this place was--we decided to spend an extra night in some bungalows on the river that we saw on our tour. That night we went to our bungalows that have hammocks--and just layed there listening to the wildlife--it was beautiful. I highly recommend this place to everyone.

July 9th

Woke up and kayaked out to monkey island to feed the fat monkeys. The rest of the day was in relaxation. Part of the package deal with the bungalows was getting a traditional spa treatment--mud/mineral bath and a massage. I got to go first--so the woman took me into a partitioned off place which was easily viewed by all (family and anyone else within 2 miles)--while the others were just on the other side--she told me to fully undress. i was like--"serious?" and she said "yes" and i said "my dads are out there" and she comforted me by saying that it was no big deal and that is just how it is done and groups of people--families--do this together all the time. not normal. so of course i undressed--not. we kept it g-rated. silly mexicans. This was a great memory and so nice to relax after many days of on the go. My mom would have loved this.

That afternoon we drove to Veracruz and stayed the night. checked out the temple and had a chat with the temple president. Saw some really crappy hotel rooms and finally the guys got us a place to stay the night. We went to a restaurant nick had gone to on his mission and had remembered the pinneapple drink. It was so delicious, all of the food was--so much that I made myself so sick I felt so nauseous that I couldn't eat dessert. For those who know me--that was a first.

July 10th

Woke up and went on a run with the parentals. It was on the boardwalk and what was so cool is they had water stations set up for all the runners. We didn't drink the water, but it was nice. Today we went to the city center and saw the pier with the divers, did some shopping and got hungry so the group decided I should decide where to eat. not a good idea, I hate making decisions. We were in this cute terrace with 5 restaurants that had tables outside and they were all the same--the workers saw us standing there and they all started to try to persuade us to choose them--it got to be hilarious and a little ridiculous--but finally I made the call (I don't know if it was the right choice, but oh well). When we got sick of shopping it was on to El Tajin. I fell in love with the city of El Tajin. It is a city built on a mountain and one of the most charming places. We stayed in this old hotel in the middle of the town center and that night they had a market going--I felt like we went back to the 1920s carnival. The picture with all of us sitting on benches is here--nick got stuck talking to a drunk mexican trying to persuade him to stop drinking and go home.

July 11th

woke up and went to check out the ruins. Watched the traditional male pole dancers (it is not what it sounds like grossos) and one guy was in charge of collecting money--he needs to be fired, because he is mean. Then we went to check out the ruins. We paid for a tour guide--who was a passionate professor doing this on the side. it was incredible--these were fairly recent findings and they are still uncovering stuff. After the tour it was on to our next destination--Teziutlan. We were incredibly lucky the whole week with having mild weather. Teziutlan is one of nicks favorites because of its climate--much cooler than everywhere else he lived. This city is also on the top of a mountain. We got a room in a cool hotel with all sorts of antiques. That evening we walked around the city and ate the best taco--al hambre tacos--from a diner like restaurant that nick had heard about on his mission, but was told that it was expensive (which it is not) so he never went.

July 12th

woke up and went on an incredible run with the parents that was all hills, but worth it for the views we saw and the accomplishment. Had a mexican hot chocolate & conch breakfast at this cute town center bakery. (side note: americans, you are missing out--our hot chocolate is nothing compared to how the mexicans do it. i am not the same person--this stuff has changed me. thanks nick for making this for me all the time). Then we went to see Jesus--a long hike to a huge statue of Jesus on the top of a lush mountain. This hike was beautiful and we were all excited to get to the top--our faith was tried many times on this hike--a few of us kept thinking that it was right around the corner to find out we had another mountain to climb, but we did it! After the hike it was time to drive back to Mexico City to catch our flight the next morning. We stayed at a hotel that if we would have waited until 10pm we could have stayed for half the price, but we had to put our luggage somewhere--we found out by the next morning that this hotel was very well used by one-nighters, if you know what i mean. if you don't, ask my in-laws to tell you about their night. Tonight was our last chance to fill up on tacos--we found a street vendor that we had heard about--the best tacos al pastor of the trip.

Pretty much it was an incredible experience. I am so so glad we did this. I am extremely glad that the parents came. Thanks mom and dad monson and dad for coming and spoiling us. Thanks nick for putting this together and hauling us around and translating for us--this wouldn't have been able to happen without you. Thanks michelle for making up really cool songs during our long drives.

side note: thanks to my talented mom monson--she took all the pictures, gracias senorita.

questions? comments? ok. moving on to the next set of pictures.