Kisses

I woke up to puppy-kisses this morning. These are the mornings that let me know the day will be good.

And it was.

It was a day full of being with my family. Just the five of us. I couldn't tell you the last time we've had that pleasure. (although i was still craig homesick - but lucky me, i see him tomorrow!)

We ate lunch. We shopped. We saw Brave. We shopped some more. We ate dinner. We talked and covered billions of topics.

It was lovely.

I'm sure its been too long since I've last gushed about my family. 

So let me just say.. I sure l.o.v.e. my beautiful family.

Also, I'm hungry.

Hum.

I don't know what I'm going to post about, tonight. All I know is I want to blog. Yes, these are the posts that tend to sound like a mediocre journal entry, but tonight I kind of don't care.

Craig left with a bunch of the guys in his family today on another hiking trip. You guys, its so cute to see how excited he gets for hiking trips. There is just a different look in his eyes and you can tell he is anxious to get out there. Its sweet. But boy do I miss him while he's gone! Even though he's never gone too long, I still get a little "homesick" being away from him. (i'm sappy, i know).

Tonight I hung out with several members of the lovely Lifferth family. We went swimming at a Country Club and then back to the Lifferth's to...hot tub. It would seem that we couldn't get enough of chlorinated water, today. As usual, I enjoyed myself. ...but can I tell you what I don't like? Bees that are obsessed with trying their very best to eat your dinner..right, Katie? Geez Louise.

Now switching gears..
Today I think it really, like really hit me that I am technically a grown up. I'm still definitely in awe that I am actually 21-years old and have all this independence, responsibility and freedom. Sometimes I swear I'm still in middle school.. But, no. I'm old.

Finally, I'll end this scattered, boring post with these two pieces of information. I have a Twitter and Instagram account. Here is my brilliant idea. If you have either of those..you should follow me?! :)

Twitter: misscheka
Instagram: chekawa 

And that, my dears, is all. Bedtime for Chelsea.
Love you.
Goodnight & sweet dreams.

Because Bigfoot Exists

This morning I, along with my family and quite a few other people, ran in the first ever Bigfoot Awareness 1k Run. I felt obligated to since Craig is a founder, plus I was just excited to run a 1k - since that is not something many other people can claim they have participated in, before. Anyway, I'd call it a huge success. More people showed up than they'd planned, everyone was happy and the race went very well. As far as I know, everyone finished it and there were zero injuries. Good stuff. Oh, also..look at the cute shirts we got!! Always a plus.

**Fun Fact: You know my daddy? He finished 11th, overall! He's awesome like that.

My family at the finish line of the big race!

 My love and I just enjoying the pretty summer morning, supporting a good cause.

After the morning festivities, my sisters and I accompanied many of the Lifferth's to 7 Peaks water park where we spent several very fun hours going down slides, swimming, enjoying each others company and all that jazz. It was such a good day, guys.

Yep. Such a good day.

Coming to an End.

Our last full day was saturday spent at Punta Sur, which is a beach and then some. There was snorkeling, hammocks, a boat ride, crocodiles, a look-out, light house, ruins, etc. This was a great place to end the vacation. It was a fun day with a lot to see and do.

It was kind of a bittersweet day as well. I was sad knowing our trip was almost over, but excited to go home and see my family, again.

hammock heaven:)

You can see a crocodile down there in the water

on top of the lookout 

we got a kick out of the 10 person limit on top of this lookout. its survived hurricanes but apparently cannot hold more than 10 people.

the little boat ride. 

jen and i on top of the light house

the beautiful view

from the top of the light house we spotted three dolphins! this was a goal of mine - to see a dolphin while in mexico and my goal was finally achieved the last day of the trip!

descending down the many stairs of the cute light house

To make our last day even sweeter and more amazing, we were able to witness the turtles coming out of their nests and going to the ocean a second time!! It was just as sweet and wonderful as the first time. Gah. Love it.

And with that, our vacation was over. Sunday morning we woke up, packed and hung around the condo until noon then Ryan drove us to the airport. The flights were good (i learned i prefer flying during the day rather than at night) and we were excited to get back to Utah's mountains and our own beds.

I am so happy that I was fortunate enough to go on this adventure with Craig and some of his family members. I truly enjoyed all of it, even the days I didn't feel well were amazing days. I'm so grateful for my loving, handsome boyfriend and his tremendous family and their kindness and friendship. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend nine days!

More Mexican Photographs and Stories

I'll be honest. Looking back on my Mexican getaway, I realize I didn't keep track of my days there very well. What I mean is, I can't remember what happened what day, really.. So you'll find my next couple Mexico blog posts will be scattered..and probably very out of order. Actually, the majority of my readers weren't there..so I guess you wouldn't have known if I didn't mention it. But I did. Oh well.. Lets get started, now.

**********

I believe we left off after only covering three days, friday through sunday. So lets start at Monday, shall we?

Monday, we went to another beach. (shocker, eh?) It was called, Mr. Sahnchos I'm pretty sure. Or as Craig liked to call it, Dirty Sanchos - I don't know why. It was very fun and provided some more exciting snorkeling opportunities. 

In the car, headed to the beach.

We all had a great time here, playing in the water and the sand and laying out under the sun - Mexico's sun is hotter than Utah's. One thing I started to learn about beaches was that the employees there like to try their best to get all the money they can from you! At this particular beach, they took all of our food we'd brought, of course so we could BUY their food and we had to pay for shade. At other beaches on other days, they'd try to charge us for sitting at a certain table.. 

Two of the cute nieces and me

I don't yet have all of our Mexico pictures, so on this particular day, I don't have many.. 

On tuesday we went to the other side of the beach. This was my favorite day in Cozumel. I'll tell you why in a minute, just keep reading.

Driving to the other side. We always drove with our windows down and as you can see, it gave me silly hair.

On this beach, there was no snorkeling, I'm guessing because there were so many waves. So instead, we boogie boarded and played in the water. Two of Craig's nieces and I spent hours laughing our heads off trying to stay upright as the waves crashed into us. Usually the powerful water would knock us over leaving us covered in sand.

At our spot on the beach..

Okay. THIS is why this day was my favorite. We were invited to participate in the most amazing, beautiful and sweet experience. Yes, we got to watch little baby sea turtles crawl our of their nests in the sand and make their way to the ocean. Oh. My. Gosh. There aren't words to describe how adorable this was! They were so dang cute booking it, moving their little fins as fast as they could, for all they were worth to get to their destination. I loved watching this. A volunteer group helps these turtles, daily and make sure that every last turtle makes it to the ocean. We learned that normally, one in one thousand turtles will survive, but with the help of these volunteers, one in one hundred survive! Although, I like to believe that they all survive. Thats happier.

Their tracks were so cute!

Look at him!! They were absolutely adorable!!

Seriously, though. Neatest experience, ever. ::sigh::

I don't have many pictures for Wednesday, either. But I do have a story or two!

But first..Look what we saw! One of Disney's cruise ships, The Fantasy! Very neat. And exciting. Probably more for me than anyone else:) Gosh, I love Disney.

My little girlfriends and I in the car..

Funny story time. On tuesday, Craig and I had spent so much time in the water in the hot, hot sun that we apparently forgot to drink much water. That night/wednesday morning, we were not feeling well. We both had headaches, felt dizzy or lightheaded and our stomachs hurt. Although this was awful, we weren't going to let it hold us back from having fun so we put on our tough faces and went to the beach. Of course, we decided to snorkel and this is where the story gets good.
As we were out in the water searching for fish (this day in particular, we weren't really seeing any), poor Craig inhaled some water and instantly felt like he was going to throw up. So he decided to go for it. Guess who was right next to him and therefore had the pleasure of snorkeling through his throw up? Me. To make it even better, Craig and I made eye contact while this was all happening.. It. Was. Disgusting. (i threw up later that day..but in the toilet) I can't swim very well, so in my haste of trying to control my body and get the heck out of my boyfriends little present, I kicked one of my flippers off and it started to sink down. I told Jen, Craig's sister and as she dove down to get it, our once boring, no-fish snorkeling trip because a lot more exciting when tons of fish came to dine on the snack Craig had provided:) Then, as Jen came up from grabbing my flipper, she saw a sea turtle behind me! We spent the next several minutes swimming after it, taking pictures, filming it and ooing and awing at its beauty.

Cozumel - So Far

Cozumel, Mexico has made a terrific first impression on me. I adore this place. Its been quite the culture-shock, too, and made me realize how lucky I am to have a stable home, air conditioning and to live in an area that isn't soooo humid. I'm realizing I could really get used to staying here and I'm sad Craig and I only have a week left. Time, slow down! 

Thursday night my mom drove Craig and I up to the airport (after i had a teary-eyed farewell with Adi..still breaks my heart! that girl doesn't do well when i leave. sweet thing). for our flight that left to Atlanta, Georgia at 12:50am. Things went very smoothly and we sleepily boarded the plane. I have only flown on one other red-eye flight in my life..and I can see why they call them red-eyes. We, along with the rest of the passengers, were very sleepy and did our best to snooze on the plane, but you can only get so comfortable doing so on those little chairs with the arm rests stabbing your back. However, we did the best with what we could.

Around 5 or 6am (i think) we landed in Atlanta. Here, we had a four hour layover. We drowsily made our way to our gate and set up camp on a couple of chairs where we took a couple little naps. The one thing I will always remember about our Atlanta layover is how dang FREEZING the airport was! Especially where our boarding gate was located. We are talking so cold your insides are shivering, cold. Luckily for us, we brought a blanket and some jackets, but even those didn't get our body temperatures back to normal. Finally, we decided to go find some hot chocolate and while we were at it, we grabbed some McDonalds breakfast, too. After that, we were back to our gate for a nap or two more and got on the plane around 10. (some of these times could be wrong - i was really tired and didn't keep great track of time).

Finally, in the afternoon sometime, we landed in beautiful Cozumel where Ryan (Craig's brother) and Brandon (Ryan's friend) picked us up and drove us to our condo we'd call home for the next nine days. 

Once home, Craig and I said our "hello's" then crashed on the couches for a while. We eventually woke up then put on our swimming suits and geared up for our first beach adventure of the vacation! (i wish i could remember the names of all the beaches we have/will visit(ed) but i guarantee i won't, so 'the beach' will have to do). 

We picked up some pizza to eat on the beach since it was friday night pizza night. While Jeff (craig's brother-in-law) picked up the pizza, we wandered around a little shop/store - it was amazing! Shops are so different here, but I love it! It's a new experience for sure.

Here some of us are waiting for our pizza, outside the little shop..

  

Then, it was beach time! We weren't at this beach too long, because we got there semi-late and you can't stay after dark because there are sea turtle nests (is that what they're called?) around and night time is when the cute little babies make their way to the ocean. However, the time we did spend there was great!

This is the cutest little girl EVER! I adore Craig's nieces and nephews..especially this cutie!..She helped me eat my food.

 Craig and I have a few cute pictures on the beach..I had a hard time choosing one to show off, so here are two..

Aren't we adorable?

he's gorgeous

Ryan is on a soccer team, here, and later that night we were able to go watch and support him as he played! Another unique, new experience. This is where I learned that Cozumel has billions of mosquitos and my blood is very satisfying to their taste.

i get poofy hair in the humidity

Yesterday, saturday..we didn't waste much time in going to another beach. This one was a very nice, touristy beach. So far its my favorite (though we've only been to two..)! It was beautiful and the water is blue and so clean and clear. Oh, I loved it. We snorkeled three times and saw some cute little fish, eels, sting rays, etc. I also got a killer sunburn. We ate some delicious nachos, swam in a pool (yep, a pool at the beach), enjoyed the ocean, jumped off a pier several times and had an overall good time. I'll tell you what, though.. Salt water doesn't taste good or feel good on your lips. It also burns your eyes. Other than that, holy cow, I love it!! Love. It.

Look at that water!

Nachos:)

Another adorable niece! They're the cutest. Also, see that burn forming on my left leg? Its like 100x worse, now. I told you it was killer.

The wonderful beach day had to come to an end, unfortunately. We came home and showered (felt good to be clean, again) and then Craig, Ryan, Brandon and I went to the Plaza for a while to look around and experience the city a little more. Another wonderful, fun experience.

Today was Sunday. Going to church here was..an experience. (yep, i've said that a thousand times). Its weird when you go to church and don't understand a single word. Its neat though, even in a different language, the spirit is the same. It was a very hot building. Oh, the people in this ward, here are the nicest people I've met! Everyone gives kisses here and I love it. Everyone I came in contact with put a smile on my face. A highlight of my day was that several people in the ward told me (actually told Jen and Jen translated for me..) that I look like Barbie! Thats a compliment I'll take:) In our Sunday School, Singles meeting, I even read the scriptures in Spanish. I'm sure I butchered every word, but hey, at least I gave it a shot. Its pretty neat, Craig and Ryan both spoke Spanish on their missions and its really impressive to hear them communicate with people, here. Its crazy to me that they can actually understand what people are saying here! Maybe on day I'll be that cool, too.

After church there were more naps. Then we went to a big dinner down by our pool at our condo. Yummy food and lovely people. After dinner, we swam in the pool a while and then came back up to our room, showered, and have been relaxing in our condo since.

I can't wait to see what the rest of this Cozumel adventure will bring! I'm so blessed to have this opportunity and to be able to spend it with my wonderful boyfriend and his family.

Until next time, my friends..
xoxo

Magic: Day Four - The Final Day

Day Four - the last day of Disneyland

Aren't you sad it has to come to an end?

Me too.

Remember how I said we like ride pictures? You'll find several more of those on Day Four's post. 

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a ride that never fails to deliver great action shots while on the ride. I think this trip we did an exceptional job at capturing some great moments. 

See?

have you ever seen a happier guy on a ride?? i'm in love with this picture.

Let me explain the fists in the picture, below. Craig introduced a more fun way to ride Big Thunder. If you keep your hands up..like in fists..you slide around more and your bum will raise of the seat a few times, even. It really does add excitement to the already soooo fun ride.

Handsome Craig's birthday is coming up, this month, so we decided to celebrate his birthday on our last day in the Happiest Place on Earth! It was cute and I think he enjoyed it. At Disney, if you are wearing a birthday pin, just about every Disney cast member and sometimes even characters and visitors will wish you a happy birthday - so cute!

Now, some more visual happiness via photographs for y'all.

Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue

Because Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti does exist..

Innoventions 

i'd say we're a cute couple, yeah?

A little Toontown fun. Craig and I couldn't quite fit in the back seat.

At one point during the day, my mom and dad happened to be by themselves and happened to snap a photograph of Kobe Bryant and his family. 

Kinda cool, I guess, yeah? 

California Adventure has a new water show called, World of Color.
To be able to view this show, you have to either get a Fast Pass (type thing) for it or do World of Color Dining, which is what we did.
We ate at, Ariel's Grotto.
YUM.
This particular restaurant was strict on reservation times..and we almost missed it.
Story time? Okay.
My mommy and daddy decided to go to Downtown Disney to do some shopping while Craig, the girls and I went to ride on Screamin' California. The plan was to meet later in time for our dinner at Ariels Grotto.
Well, as our luck would work out, Screamin' was closed down so the four of us had to change our plans. The only other ride nearby Screamin' is Toy Story Mania which had a 45 minute long wait. Really, that isn't a terribly long line - but it was 5:40 (or so) and our reservations were at 6:20. Luckily, Ariels Grotto is fairly close to Toy Story, but we still had a feeling we'd be cutting it close. And boy, did we ever.
When we finally got to the front of the line, it was nearly 6:20. Craig called Ariels Grotto and asked them about how late you could be for reservations and they informed him they hold spots for about 10 minutes. The panic sort of set in, then. We'd be cutting it very close. We decided to split our group of four into two groups of two so we could ride, sooner. It worked, too. Adi and I got on first and Craig and Savannah did a few minutes later. When Adi and I finally got off the ride, we ran, more like sprinted (no joke) to Ariels Grotto. We burst through the doors at 6:29. Barely made it. But of course, there was a line at the desk to check in. We got to the front of the line at 6:32. We were worried we'd be too late, but the lady at the desk noticed we came in before 6:30 and gave us the good news that our reservation wasn't given up.
A minute or so later, Craig dropped Savannah off at the restaurant and went to give my parents their tickets to get into the park (we had them because we'd got fast passes for Tower of Terror for everyone before we tried to go on screamin').
Finally, the six of us were back together at our table eating delicious food.
It was worth all the rushing and worrying.

at dinner - holding some of our cute dessert (this particular treat, however, was nasty)

When dinner was done, we were directed to our spot to view World of Color.The location was awesome and the show was even better!! If you haven't seen it, I'm giving you another demand: Go. See. It!!

Adi-Lu waiting for the show to start

My handsome guy and I waiting..

Standing is so tiresome

And here it is!! Two shots of the show!!

They do not even do it justice - but its a sneak peek of the amazingness!! 

After a couple more rides, the night had to come to an end, meaning the vacation did, as well.

Bummer! :( 

We snapped a few more photographs and said our goodbyes to the park and took the short walk back to the hotel where we talked, laughed, and relaxed, reminiscing on our wonderful trip!

But don't worry, I believe the plan is to return to the best, happiest place on earth in the fall!!

This was without a doubt my favorite trip to a Disney location, yet. It was truly magical and wonderful to spend quality time with my family and my love bird of a boyfriend. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing, incredible, wonderful people!! 

And, for the last time..

"MAY THE MAGIC BE WITH YOU!"

-Craig Lifferth-