Ole!

First, be sure you have ten minutes handy for this post ;)

We just got back from our family vacation of the year so far - Playa del Carmen, Mexico! My sister has always had a dream of celebrating her big 4-0 birthday in Mexico, with a birthday dinner on the beach. So, that is what we did! It was nice to travel with my family again, and this time bring along Josh and the boys. We had such a GREAT time! It was a rejuvenating week away.

This was our first time at an all-inclusive resort. I would recommend it. It was really nice to have all the food and drink already taken care of without having to whip out money each time (and have the kids wait for the bill to come, card ran, etc etc!) The resort had so much to do between pools, the beach, kids clubs and other activities and shows that we didn't find it necessary to do excursions. Plus, the kids weren't old enough to do any. And, with Josh just coming off of a long trip, we all just had "lounging" in mind. Doing nothing but sitting on our bums, playing in pools and the ocean was just fine with us.

Especially for the mama who does all the cooking, shopping...it was so nice to be spoiled. Someone who re-stocked our fridge daily, we had unlimited drinks at our private pool and private section on the beach (along with snack bars)...and bless Josh, as the kids were very much "daddy daddy" the whole time. He swam, boated, built castles...the whole nine yards the whole time.

The boys are very into modes of transportation so they were excited about all the planes, shuttles, etc that would take us on our journey. They did well...Aaron took cat naps whenever he could. Our only little "con" of the trip was sleeping...it's still hard for everyone to sleep in one room together. Well, it's hard to sleep with Aaron yet ;)

Anyway, enough dialogue...time for pictures! 

The Resort

One of the pools- swim up bar

A lot of statues along the walkway

~10-15 walk from the lobby/restaurants to our room. But beautiful views along the way :)

Rest stop

The boys would spend a good hour each day in the bath

Inside or outside :) We had a nice jacuzzi on our porch.

Housekeeping always did something cute with Aaron's blankets and stuffed minion

Lobby

Our private pool area

Wildlife

Iguanas!

....and more iguanas!

They were everywhere. We started to name the animals - we called iguanas "Dotso".

Dotso loved jumping on top of bushes to eat

Coati's. Racoon like creatures that staked out the beach for food.

We called them Madagascar. Not pictured are cats - a lot of cats just roaming around. One black one in particular liked to sit outside our room - we called him Gilbert. He almost ran in one time.

Kids Club

We were closely situated to another "sister" resort that had a wonderful kids club. There was a waterpark, playground, ice cream parlor, and buffet. It was the only thing we paid out of pocket for and we went two different days. I loved that the water was shallow enough for Aaron to walk through so we didn't need to be right near him the whole time. There was beverage service there too ;) 

(I usually don't drink all that much but I totally took advantage of it!)

Water park fun!

Even had poolside kid food service :)

Feeling safe with Aaron on patrol

Kid size lounge chairs...yep we're on vacation!

Playground!

Hard to see..but the buffet even had a cute section for babies/small kids. Teeny pieces of fruit, yogurt,etc.

Kids dessert section

Aaron and me at the ice cream parlor

Other Activities

Archery

Fire show

The boys' first ride on a catamaran! Nate in particular loved it. Uncle Brad was nice enough to take him out twice.

Family

 

Food and Beverage

Cutest little shot of tequila

First night - love our little tea

I miss the fresh guacamole and salsa so much...I'm pretty sure half my weight gained was from that alone!

Sandy toes, magazine and a mojito

Sissy's porterhouse steak. Bigger than her!

Gigantic lobster tail all for me!

Fresh juice

 More Water Fun

Such clear water! Once we got past the seaweed.

Building and playing in the sand. Buying sand toys there was totally worth it.

Thankfully for family and a tad bit of kids club, Josh and I got some time to ourselves to lounge a bit one day.

 

Time with Nana and Pap Pap in the pool

Our private beach area

Last but certainly not least, we have my sister's big day! My younger sister surprised her with a spa appointment the morning of, then we preceded to lounge at the beach and pool.

Sissy's Big Day - Daytime

Ding, ding! Drink please :)

We loved ourselves some Mango Tango

Birthday Entourage!

Swimsters?

Yep we spent all afternoon being beach bums. 

Sissy's Beach Fiesta!

That evening then we rented out a cabana for dinner on the beach. It was the greatest, most relaxing three hour dinner I've had! 

Aaron with his mango/Sprite concoction

The adults got mango champagne

Cheers!

"We Are Family...."

I think on Take 100 we finally got it!

"40" props!

Sissy got serenaded

What a great place - on the house appetizers and shots too!

 

So pretty

We're so happy to be creating these memories with family and our boys...especially now that they can remember and recall things (Nate and Aaron still talk about our trip to Chicago almost a year ago!)

Til next time....adios!