Mexico Vacation Part 3

I'll never forget the looks on the kids faces when they woke up and saw the ocean right outside their window. Each child got a new stuffed animal on their bed and they carried them around the entire trip. They played games together where their animals were alive and exploring, or going on adventures together. I most enjoyed watching the kids just play with no technology, no overwhelming amount of toys or things, but just their imagination and the outdoors. The next few days were a glorious blur of playing on the beach. The boys were a little intimidated at first, but LOVED digging in the sand. Grayson dug and dug the first few days burying things, and discovering them, running to the ocean to get water, just barely reaching the edge and getting a little so the waves didn't overtake him, was so fun to watch. I enjoyed kayaking and teaching Kenna to kayak. She was a natural and did great right from the start. By the end of day 2 on the beach she was able to handle her own boat, even though she was a little scared at getting it back to shore with the waves trying to knock her over :)

Zachary was ever on the hunt for coconuts, and marveled in the fact that they grew on trees here.

Here is a view from our room on the second floor....just beautiful.

Grayson's never ending hole. By day 2 he had a tent over him and his buckets. 

One of the best parts of this trip were the family dinners. One day one of the locals came by with fresh lobster he had just caught! He butchered it in front of us and we dined on lobster and salmon for dinner! We also had steak, chili, chicken....really were spoiled with the pantry of supplies that Kathy had purchased and brought in! The closest town and store is at least 30 minutes away and we definitely did not want for a thing!

By day 2 or 3 on the beach the kids definitely were brave. Josh did a great job of acclimating them to the waves and was basically the designated kid protector/wave guru everyday thereafter. Grayson was fine as long as he had a deathgrip on someone that would pick him up when a wave approached that was over his head. Zachary and Kenna enjoyed doing karate moves on the waves, and eventually both because very good boogie boarders, riding waves from mid beach all the way in!

This was the vacation I was hoping for. Nothing to do but play, sit, relax and eat. I even got to read an entire book....I cannot remember the last time that happened! Life here was so simple, letting the kids dictate what we did for the most part, which kept them very happy and extremely exhausted by about 7 every night :)

Mexico Vacation Part 2

So, day 2 we ventured to Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell-ha.) I don't think the kids knew what to expect, but then again neither did I! The park is really a very shallow inlet that is great for snorkeling, tubing, rafting, meeting dolphin and manatee, riding ziplines, and bike ziplines, exploring treehouses, going on water slides, cliffjumping and probably like a million other things that we didn't even get to see because the park is so big!

As we entered the park, I am on a quest to splatter every square inch of my children in spf50 sunscreen. We are midwesterners who haven't seen the sun in many months! The kids thought these hammocks were the coolest ever, and by the end of the trip they had logged many hours in hammocks, and we even brought one home for our backyard come summer!

The kid area of Xel-ha was very impressive! Gona and I took the boys there to play on the immense tree-rope house while daddy, baca and kenna went snorkeling out in the lagoon.

Grayson fell in love with this crocodile. It is a large underground tunnel that kids can climb through like they are being eaten. In retrospect a little creepy now that I type it, but he thought it was funny that he would go in the mouth, through the belly and be "pooped" out the back....hmmm...

Zachey quickly discovered this immense treehouse. It was a series of 6 or seven tunnels that each had their own flare. From ropes to wooden tunnels to stepping on elevated bear paws the whole thing was quite impressive and perfect for a 5 year old boy! I think he probably went through it at least 20 times on his own! Halfway through the day I decided to try it out, and discovered there was a photo booth inside, by scanning your bracelet a picture would quickly snap (of course you could purchase these gems for a small fortune as you left - yes we did buy them.) Zachey has at least 50 pictures as he loved to scan his bracelet and pose.

Toward the end of the day we even got daddy, gona and baca to venture up into the trees and got this group photo.

Another feature at the park was this dumping bucket pool. The boys were a little intimidated to go in, but it was just beautiful as you could overlook the lagoon as they played.

Luckily the kids area was in close proximity to the bathroom. I think about 25% of my day was spent taking kids to the bathroom. Here Grayson shows off a treasure he found (bead from one of the chairs) as we are waiting for Zachary to go.

The floating faucet was a huge hit, especially with Zachary as he attempted to figure out how it worked! What I loved about this park is that I would sort of compare it to a Mexican six flags or Disneyworld, but you weren't bombarded with so many rules and regulations. They had life jackets available all over the place, but no one was hounding you to wear one with endless reminders and staff. When we road the tram to the zipline bikes, there was no repeated message to keep your hands in the vehicle, it just started up and you sat down - duh! I really liked that!

Zachary insisted I take pictures of the birds and fish. He was a little intimidated at first, but after Daddy grabbed his hand, both he and Grayson ended up loving the raft and got all the way out to the water feature.

This is the iguana I have dubbed Earl....he sat on that rock ALL day :)

I attempted a panoramic shot...the pictures don't do this place justice - was so lovely!

Toward the latter part of the day, Kenna was super excited to try the zipline bikes. I had faced a couple of little boy meltdowns, so a bike ride in the sky sounded like the perfect break! Again, there were very few rules or suggestions with if Kenna was old enough/heavy enough to ride the bikes, I was a bit nervous. What would happen if she got stuck? You were moved only by your own leg power. But, Josh Kenna and I decided to give it a shot, and gona, baca and the boys headed back down to save us a spot for lunch.

As you can tell from the sky photo I absolutely loved the experience. We got to pedal through a cave and near the water, over gorges and got to see parrots and birds up close. Kenna got increasingly frustrated as we continued because she was having a hard time pedaling up the inclines. I had to talk her through a few scary moments, but she did it! I hope that she remembers the experience as positive...maybe we can try again when she is a little bigger :)

 We tried to leave Xel-ha at a reasonable hour because we knew we had 3+ hours of driving to get to Mahahual. After dark the roads are a little more traitorous because of the very overgrown foliage. At times the road into and out of town looked more like a one lane road than the only major artery! Glad I wasn't driving!

We arrived around 630 and by the time we had unpacked, had a tour of the house and listened to the ocean from our room the kids were spent! Gona had our room perfectly arranged with three comfy cots that the kids jumped right into. Once again, I didn't hear one peep as they all fell asleep instantly! I was happy to have a "base camp" and a place to get settled. Was looking forward to lots of ocean play, kayaking and relaxing!

Mexico Vacation Part 1

Oh my, I truly don't know where to start as we had the most unforgettable family vacation! Gona and Baca have had their beach house complete for nearly a year, and we have been debating about when the right time was to take the kids. I had toyed around with taking them over summer break in late May/early June so they wouldn't miss school. But, there is something wonderful about leaving the snow and cold behind and flying off to wear shorts and flip flops! So, we decided that we would take them out over MLK day so they would only miss 6 days of school for a week and a half long trip to paradise!

The night before we left I sat there tossing and turning in bed, trying to envision what I could have possibly forgotten. We not only had to fly for 6 hours to get there, we then had the task of driving another 5 the following day. Along with the added challenge of entertainment for a week of doing nothing on the beach, as well as unknown sleeping arrangements, sparse places to buy food (probably little food they recognized) and packing just the right amount of fun things to do without having to check bags....I can happily confirm that I definitely over packed in the clothing department, but really didn't forget anything! Next time we know to pack far fewer clothes for sure!

Because I picked the ONLY dates that overlapped McKenna's national testing time (waita go mom!) she took her Iowa tests early, and I am sure she did a great job! Was also pleased with the kids' teachers in their willingness to prep the kids homework so they could stay caught up on vacation! After sitting for a few days I learned that I would be a terrible homeschool parent! Hard to focus with the waves pounding on the beach I suppose.

We woke up around 5am on Thursday morning. The kids were very agreeable and excited! I made sure to have a fun breakfast and to pack all the lovies and toothbrushes and we were off! We met Baca at the airport and got there in plenty of time to ditch the coats and park the car.

The kids were great on the way to Minneapolis - quick 45 minute flight, Zachary asked me to take a picture of the snow on the ground, stark contrast to the beaches in Mexico!

We sort of raced through the MSP airport. I tried to snap a shot of Grayson because he was so cute running with this bag to the international terminal. Because each kid had a backpack and we had 4 rollerbags, we had them help as much as possible, but realized about halfway through that Josh and I would be carrying most of it :) Next time I will pay to check at least one big bag!

We landed in Cancun early and met Gona there with a rental car. With the 5 of us, we couldn't all fit in her jeep! Between movies, games, toys and ipads I really was surprised at the kids behavior! A few little tiffs here and there, but the vacation was off to a great start! The kids couldn't wait to kick off their shoes and pants in exchange for shorts and flip flops! We stripped in the parking lot!

Zachary was not used to the bright sun, so he borrowed Gona's sunglasses :)

We stopped at a little Mexican restaurant on the way to our hotel. It had a wading pool and outdoor kids play area, along with the kids first taste of real mexican food. The tacos were not quite what they were used to here, and we had to emphasize not drinking water from the tap and throwing toilet paper in the waste basket - which was just mind blowing to them - ha!

After lunch we practiced a few Spanish words in gracias, adios, etc. Then we loaded up and headed to the hotel for the evening. The hotel was actually a condo that we rented that was part of a larger complex of houses, shops and boardwalks with a dolphin exhibit in the middle. The dolphins were quite playful jumping and splashing if you were walking by the large lake. The kids really got a kick out of it!

We made another stop of what I would call the walmart of Mexico. It sold everything from tires to lemonade, and the kids were allowed to pick out one special toy, boogie boards, and hats. The kids agonized over which toy to chose, finding it funny that all of the descriptions or sounds they made were in Spanish :) Then we waited in a very long line as many people were obviously there doing their once a month shopping. I was blown away at the amount of produce the lady in front of us was buying - at least 50 limes as an example! Grayson stood very stoic waiting to place his items on the conveyer belt. I never really thought about this compulsion he has until Gona and Baca thought it was so funny that he had to do it. Quite the character.

While all that was great they FLIPPED out when we got to see our condo. It was ginormous. two large bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen living room all with a large patio that led out to a somewhat private pool. The pool had hanging loungers, and was pretty much zero depth throughout. There was also a large wading pool that looked sort of like a keyhole - while pretty was sort of odd :)

The kids played and splashed for quite a while in this pool. I took some pictures of the docks that were in the center of the large marina that the various homes surrounded.

Papayas growing right outside our door! 

After the kids were sufficiently worn out from swimming we decided to walk on the boardwalk in search of dinner. This is when we met the dolphins and goofed around trying on various hats.

The popular choice was a small outdoor sports bar. The kids gobbled up the largest strawberry smoothies I have ever seen! After that they barely ate dinner. Kenna ordered plain noodles with butter and cheese on it....I fear she may not survive at this point as the mexican food she had tried so far was a thumbs down. 

After gigantuan smoothie consumption we headed back to the room where the boys shared a room. I am pretty sure they fell asleep as they were laying on the pillow they were so tired. Kenna slept in Gona and Baca's room and had a total giggle fest with Gona. Apparently the pillows were so large that their necks were bent in a less than comfortable fashion. So I think that the jokes revolved round giraffe necks and other things that I would have had to have heard to fully understand I am sure. The next morning we ate breakfast in our room and piled in the car to head to Xel-ha!