Hyatt Family Blog

First Birthday

Today Marin and Annelie are one year old! I suppose technically it isn't their first birthday, since they first one was a year ago. But it's definitely the first one we could have a proper celebration for. To celebrate, I got a cake from Dianda's in the Mission district. Their rum custard cake was highly recommended to me. During the day, Greta took a lot of pictures of them, and at night I videotaped them trying the cake. Annelie quickly grabbed big handfuls of cake and stuffed it in her mouth, while Marin just played around with hers. Annelie tried to grab Marin's cake, but was too far away. She cried when hers ran out. I can see why Annelie liked it, the cake was delicious! You can definitely taste the rum. Ah, babies first rum...

Here are the pictures. To see the cake eating, you'll have to wait until I finish editing their baby video (could be a while). Click on the pictures to enlarge:

Halloween 2003

Halloween was very fun this year. Jordan was a doggie and Allison was a ladybug. They both had parties at school where they had special treats, activities and craft projects. Our family all helped out decorating our own Jack-0-Lantern and then we went trick-or-treating with our friends in the neighborhood. Here are photos from all the Halloween fun.

Trip to Cancun

For Steve's upcoming 40th birthday, we took a trip to the Aventura Spa Palace in the Riviera Maya section of Cancun (actually about an hour away). The resort was fabluous and we had a great time. Here is a photo journal of our trip...

The grounds of this 1-year old addition to the Palace Resorts were truly amazing. There were several pools, immaculate gardens, statues, courtyards and spectaular views.
Our room was great, with a double jacuzi inside and a hammock on the balcony. Each night we came back to find a special treat in our room. The strangest by far was a half-eaten wedding cake and floral bouquets! (There was some sort of mix up where we were mistaken for a honeymoon couple). One of the best features of the room was a FREE mini-bar and full bottles of alcohol with a built-in shot dispenser!

There were seven restaurants, all very good, and we took advantage of the all-inclusive eating and drinking to the max! One of our favorites was the flaming coffee drinks they made. Steve didn't listen to me when I told him to bring slacks, so we had to purchase some in the hotel gift shop. He thought he looked quite debonaire in them. So did I!<\br>
There were lots of activities to keep us busy - spa treatments, exercise classes, nightly shows and an evening shopping excursion to Playa del Carmen where Steve got a birthday serenade by a Mariachi band.

We also took a day-trip to one of their sister resorts, Xpu-Ha, where we went to the beach, saw the animals in their eco-park, snorkeled, had lunch and a few drinks! We then went on to see the Mayan ruins at Talum.

But most of all, we just relaxed and enjoyed the time to rest and reflect.