Monday, December 29, 2008

Mexico Trip and Christmas

Things have been crazy at the Hill house over the last month. Here are a few of our big activities:

Wedding in Playa Del Carmen

We were asked to do photography at a destination wedding in Playa Del Carmen on December 13th. We left the DFW Airport on Thursday December 11th and got back on Sunday December 14th. It was a fun and tiring trip. We flew into Cancun and rode on a tour bus for 45 minutes to get to Playa Del Carmen. The driver got very close to obstacles and structures in the road but somehow managed not to hit anything. We arrived at the resort in one piece.

We stayed at the Gran Porto Real Resort which was right on the beach and was very nice. They gave us our room keys and we headed up to our room. Rebecca inserted the key into the door, swung the door open and found an older man in boxer shorts standing in the room. After slamming the door shut, and the little man sticking his head out asking if we needed something, we headed back down to get an unoccupied room. The rooms were nice and we had an ocean view if you looked past the swimming pool. We ate at a very tasty Italian restaurant that night and walked around the shopping area. The resort was all inclusive so our food and drinks at three restaurants were included in the price.

On Saturday morning (December 13th) we went on a snorkeling tour of their coral reef. It was pretty cold that day but the water was warmer than the air so it was tolerable. We did see some pretty sea fans and acropora as well as pretty fish and a sting ray. One of the guides caught a sea turtle and we got to take pictures with it. Saturday evening was the wedding out on the beach. During the ceremony while running for the best shot, Darrin broke his middle toe. He finished the wedding and even did family portraits afterwards on the broken toe. We joined the family for dinner and then went to find a bandage to wrap the toe. By that time it was a real nice purple. Darrin has broken a toe at two weddings and in both cases he wasn’t wearing shoes so it may be a new rule that Darrin wears shoes at weddings.


Christmas with Family

We celebrated Christmas a little early with Darrin's family. We all gatered at Duane's house on December 23rd for pizza and gift exchanging. It was a fun time and we enjoyed watching Casie and Ryan's excitement over the gifts they received.

I had to work Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning we drove to San Antonio to see my family. We all gathered at my parent's house. It was a small group of my parents, grandpa, aunt and Darrin and I. We ate and played some 42 before my grandpa had to get home. Then we went out to the movies and saw Bolt---very funny....the hamster is really cute.

We jumped into the day after Christmas shopping frenzy at the outlet mall in San Marcos for a little while. It was fun and we found some great deals. We headed over to Kerrville that afternoon to see my grandpa and enjoyed Thai food for supper that night.

Saturday, we (My parents, Darrin and I) drove up to Abilene to see my brother Jonathan and his wife Lauren. It was nice to see them--we took them out to lunch and went shopping together. Jonathan just started a new job as an Assistant Manager at Walmart. He is in the middle of training and is enjoying it. I think he is going to do great.

Sunday we went to church with my parents and ate a quick lunch together. Darrin and I spent several hours driving around San Antonio picking up his Christmas Presents. They included, many coral frags, two clams and two sea urchins as well as some corals from an aquarium store. He was of course very happy. We ate dinner with my parents and headed back. We got all of Darrin's new purchases into the tank and headed home. We are both tired but enjoyed our weekend in San Antonio. It was nice to have a full 4 days with my parents and family.

Avalon

Avalon is doing great! We have 11 weddings booked for next year and we got two calls just today about coming out to see Avalon. We purchased 53 more strands of lights to decorate the trees and deck as needed during weddings at Lowes this weekend. They were 99 cents each and quite the bargain. We also bought a whole lot of bulbs.....I wish we would have counted how many bulbs we have already planted but it would probably be safe to say it is over 300 and we bought another 200 or so. So we will have lots of flowers in February and March (hopefully) for our wedding in March.

We hope that you are doing great and had a wonderful Christmas!

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