Our first official "beach" vacation as a family was a success!!
We could tell when - the kids asked if they could live there?! Haha.
And because they were always smiling, didn't want to leave the water and were already crying,
about leaving, 2 days before we actually had to leave!
It was kind of a spur of the moment decision to go. My cousin Niki texted me in March and said she was booking the next day and wanted to know if we were coming. Now this has been an ongoing invitation (joke) for years now and we've always had a reason (excuse) to why we couldn't go. But this time I was like
O-M-Gee it might actually work out?!
Soooo...I put it into my calendar and sent an invite to Dino - you know, just to see if he wanted to join us or not LOL!
It only took him a couple of hours to call me and ask what we were scheming...
and he wasn't opposed to the idea, so we went with it.
YESSS!!
Finally a relaxing vacation. It's only been....hmmm...9 years and 2 months...since our last one!!
Yes we have had vacations since then, but the last time we were at an
all-inclusive, do nothing, beach getaway, was that long ago (right after WE got married, for another friends destination wedding).
We told the kids about 2 weeks prior to leaving (having it a surprise was too much work last time!). But we didn't tell them we were going with other people - being my cousin Niki's family, her kids & their BF & GF and my Aunt & Uncle.
The only people that knew WE were crashing the trip were Niki, her husband and her daughter.
So for the unknowing, it was a great surprise at the airport!
I think next trip my kids will have caught on that we always seem to have a surprise at the airport and might start asking prior haha.
So from May 11-18, we spent a mucho caliente vacation at the
Ocean Riviera Paradise Resort in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico.
We couldn't have asked for better weather.
It was 31-32C everyday, a bit cloudy and a little breeze to make it bearable.
The first half of the trip was really humid, so it felt more like 37C!
The hardest part of the entire trip was trying to keep the kids and ourselves from getting super crispy.
It happened anyway, but we tried.
The kids loved ALL of it, except the routine of getting sprayed with sunscreen, every single morning. Whiners I tell ya!
They caught on that by day 3 our lazy routine was:
sleep in, put on sunscreen, hit the buffet for brunch around 10:30 and then be in the water from about 11am-4pm straight, go back and shower and then go for dinner around 6pm.
At night we would walk around, go bowling, check out that market,
play some games or just hang out.
There were theatre shows that looked really good, but they only started at 9:30pm, and by then we were fading from a day in the sun.
Skye got to practice some of her Spanish words and learnt a few more thanks to Niki, Bronte & Griffin - who are fluent.
The only new word Rhys brought back from Mexico was TEQUILA..hmmm....
He DID get engaged though, to his borrowed (from my cousin Griffin) girlfriend Molly!
That kid had it bad LOL. Poor guy is in withdrawal.
But I'm sure Molly is ecstatic to be back home and have a little space!!
Other favorite parts of the trip, when polled by Dino, were said to be:
Skye - "the pool"
Rhys - "the ice cream" every night after dinner
Dino - "spending time with my family" (he HAD to say that...)
Me - "the buffet and not cooking at all for a whole week!!!"
(sadly I didn't get a photo, cause everyone was always in a rush to get food!)
Of course, the company was the highlight of the trip for all!
It was a great group to travel with and the kids were so lucky to have all the extra help and entertainment the entire trip.
My cousin Niki was nice enough to use her talent and snap some updated family photos of us as well! Thanks Nik - they are amazing!
