oh one oh one eleven?

This is a long post and I will put up pics of the rest of our cruise soon! But I forgot that I didn’t put any of Mike’s wedding!

Dan’s older brother Mike got married on December 21. His new wife is also named Hailey so there are now two Haley/Hailey Hill’s in the family! It’s pretty confusing for the kids but she’s awesome so I don’t mind sharing the name with her .

The temple was amazing and watching them get sealed was beautiful. It made me love Dan so much and I’m so grateful that we could share that special moment with them.

This kid is funny.

It was pretty cold at the temple and really hard to get any pics with everyone smiling! But it was still fun and the boys got in a snowball fight afterwards.

The reception was at Hailey’s aunt’s house in Farmington and it was an amazing house. It was massive and beautiful and I had to take some pics of the gorgeous kitchen!

All the siblings (minus Jon) with Mike and Hailey.

Theses pictures aren’t the greatest because someone just took them for us and it really is impossible to get everyone smiling at the same time with their eyes open! But we tried…

The kids are so funny and I love looking at all their different expressions. Hilarious.

Awkward Hill Family Christmas Photo 2010 below.

Less awkward Hill Family Christmas Photo 2010.

Dan and I had our first Christmas morning together at our own home and it was great! We had a small budget for gifts this year because we just went on a cruise and we bought a bunch of tools and other things the day after Thanksgiving. But we still loved our gifts!

Dan got a backpacking towel, a church book, running underwear, and a neck gaitor for running. I got a punch bowel set, lotion and a cute purse.

After we had our Christmas morning together, we spent the afternoon with Dan’s family. We had lunch with his grandparents, and all the great-grandkids got cute hats.

Then we went to Dan’s parent’s house and exchanged gifts (we draw names). It was really crazy and chaotic, but so fun. The whole family was there (except for Jon in Brazil!). There are 27 of us total and Amanda is due with a new baby in March and I can’t wait to meet him!

Dan and I got a sweet measuring tool thingy and a iHome from his parents!

We got a set of Christmas movies, popcorn and of course Diet Coke from Jon and Julie (they drew us).

After that, we headed to my parents for dessert. We hung out and watched Elf on their big comfy couch in the basement (I seriously love it!).My parents bought us an air compressor combo kit and I was ecstatic! It has two nail guns and a staple gun and I can’t wait to use it! I have so many projects and I think I was more excited than Dan was to get this (and he was excited). Steph got Dan a sweet Jazz shirt and got my a home décor thing I have wanted for awhile.

On Sunday after Christmas we invited everyone who wanted to come up to our house for dinner and everyone ended up coming! We honestly thought Walmart would be open on Christmas so we could get a few things, but nothing was open! I couldn’t believe it! But luckily everyone pitched in and brought food so we were fine.

We turned on a  Christmas movie for the kids (love Comcast onDemand!). It was awesome to have everyone in our home and it seriously brings me so much joy to have people we care about in our home-whether it’s close friends, a few family members,  or 30 people! We had a great holiday and we’re so thankful for all our amazing blessings this year! We can’t wait to see what 2011 has in store for us…

Numero dos

 

Here is the second installment of pics from the trip! Enjoy! In Belize, we went cave tubing and this was definitely our favorite part of the trip. We booked the trip with an independent company and we were so glad we did!

Our guide was so awesome and told us all about the Mayan and Belizean culture, and then we got to hike through the rainforest to the underground rivers. He told us all about different kinds of plants and animals.

We came across a termite’s nest and we ate some fresh termites! Weirdly though, they were way small (not cruchy or anything) and they tasted like a squirt of mouthwash! I’m not joking, they were way minty and not gross at all. So try termites if you ever get the chance…

Most of our pics from cave tubing are on an underwater camera getting developed right now, but it was amazing! The water was so warm and we floated on tubes through some huge underwater caves.

Another towel animal…what is it?

We went to the formal night twice and it was fun to get dressed up, but we both definitely prefer the casual look most of the time!

Our last stop was at Cozumel, Mexico. Since we didn’t get to go to Grand Cayman, we got a lot of extra time in Cozumel. We booked an excursion to the Mayan ruins of Tulum.

We had to take a ferry across to Playa Del Carmen (beautiful!), then take a bus to the ruins. It was a bit of a trip, but we’re glad we went! And since we had extra time, we were still able to shop and eat dinner in Cozumel that night.

The beautiful beaches at Playa Del Carmen! We are planning a trip back there for sure!

This is at the entrance to the ruins. The Mayan people were extremely short, so all the entrances were way small!

The views were absolutely amazing! The only place I’ve seen that is comparable to this is Cinque Terre, Italy. It was awesome.

The water was so perfectly turquoise blue and I couldn’t believe it! The ruins were on a cliff/hill overlooking the ocean.

It was really warm and super humid and we were there in mid December! I guess it gets up to 120 in the summer and it’s always way way hot so we were lucky that it was in the 80s! But we were still hot and we were able to take a dip in the ocean and we loved it!

Part 3 to come soon….