Feliz Navidad...!

(My writing skills are a bit rusty, due to the fact that it's been over three months since my last blog, so forgive me if this blog isn't interesting or whatever.)

It's true! I, the girl that dreams of big places but has only occasionally gone anywhere truly interesting, can officially say I have left our country! And let me tell you...it was the most amazing vacation I've ever been on! For Christmas my parents took my sister and I to Mazatlan, Mexico. I have to say that it has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Our hotel, El Rancho, was literally a little heaven on earth. We walked past the first two condos in search of our own temporary home and I stopped dead. It was like walking into a forest of tropical plants. Palm trees, flowers of every color known to man, and other large green plants were EVERYWHERE. But, sadly, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The morning we left for our eight days of bliss, I had to wake up at three thirty AM after having gone to bed at two thirty AM so that I wouldn't miss our flight. After two flights (one from Salt Lake to Phoenix and the other from Phoenix to Mazatlan) were as good as airline flights can be, and everything seemed all right until we landed. As we moved from our gate, through customs, and to the luggage carousel, we settled down for the long wait that usually accompanies the process of retrieving luggage from an airplane. Much to our dismay after waiting for a while, we were told that our luggage hadn't been transferred from our first plane to our second in time. We were stuck without clothes in a strange and foreign country. Whoopdeedoo.

As I said before, however, those little troubles were pushed from my mind when I saw our tropical hotel. After we'd dropped what belongings we'd had in our carry-ons off at our condo, we walked the thirty second walk to the little restaraunt beyond the swimming pool. I wasn't prepared for what happened next, so it's no wonder that the sight took my breath away. As we walked towards our lunch, I looked beyond the wooden staircase and saw nothing but a small area of green grass, white and brown sand, and then nothing but blue. The ocean was HUGE, spreading as far as my eyes could see, and from where I was standing, it looked like it went on to the left and right forever, too. I later found out, however, that there were two points about a mile and a half away on either side of us. But that was the moment when it first sunk in...I was in MEXICO!! I spent the rest of the week in one of five places. Either in the ocean with my newly purchased boogy board, lying on one of those white, long lawn chairs next to the beach in the sun with a book, playing on the beach, shopping or eating in the market or stores in downtown Mazatlan, or sleeping in my condo. Oh, and for the first time in my life, I'm TAN! Not sunburned, not completely white. TAN. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, miracles DO happen.

My favorite part of the trip? As much fun as swimming in the ocean, tanning with a book, shopping for random treasures, eating octopus (yes, the slimy thing with eight tentacles), and watching the blazingly, breathtakingly beautiful sunsets was, my favorite part was the adventure my sister Mary and I had for only $20 bucks each.

I'm one of those people who gets so bored that they do random things to keep themselves entertained, and I'm not ashamed to admit that one of those random things one day was making a list of the top 100 things that I wanted to do in life. Well, thanks to my Christmas present in the form of the ocean, I can cross off one of the items on that list. I got to go horseback riding in the surf. What was even better, though, was that as I was trotting along making myself as sore as could be, the sun was setting. YEP! I got to go horseback riding along the beach, in the surf, while watching the sunset! Oh, it was AMAZING!

Seriously, if anybody wants one of the best vacations that's humanly possible, visit Mazatlan in December, when the temperature is still in the low eighties, and you will see how amazing life can really get. We got home on Sunday at midnight after having dealt with the American West Airlines, who had lost our luggage AGAIN (luckily, the first time they'd delivered them by late afternoon the next day, and the second time was kind of our fault....long story). We talked to our family members that were here waiting for us, and then I checked my email and went to bed. As I climbed under the sheets in my sisters bed, however (I had to stay with her because my sister and brother-in-law were staying in my room for the duration of their visit from california), I realized how much I really wanted to be back in Mexico, sleeping on the only flaw of the vacation (I swear those beds were wooden boards with sheets over them) and waiting for the next day, when I could walk along the beach with my aunt (who'd met us there) waiting for the sunrise.

Still, I'm glad to be back in Provo, where I can actually brush my teeth with water from the tap. It was the best vacation I think I've ever been on, though, and it'll DEFINATELY be a place I'll be visiting again and again later in life.