Merry Christmas to us!! As our gift this year, my parents took the entire family to.....
....MEXICO!! We spent the week leading up to Christmas in San Jose del Cabo at an all-inclusive resort. Talk about an incredible gift! We had a fabulous time of course and came back with many stories to tell. One of my favorite parts was that they have this thing called sunshine down there. Here's proof:
It took 4 large, hotel-like rooms to sleep the 12 of us. My parents were able to get 40% off the room rates by agreeing to have the three couples attend a time share presentation (more on that later!) Isla and I were the early risers in our room so liked to hang out on the balcony before breakfast.
Who wouldn't with a view of the pool and ocean like these?
We'd never traveled on an all-inclusive style vacation. I think most of us determined it really isn't our style as what really makes a trip for us is the cross cultural experience. But we had a great time and made lots of fun memories! It certainly was nice to have access to "free" food and drinks at all hours of the day.
The beach outside our resort was supposedly too dangerous for swimming but we went ahead and did it anyway and are alive to tell about it. Notice the crowd of people in white in the photo below. They are the local Mexicans, selling their wares. There is rope surrounding the resort that they are supposed to stay behind but if you so much as make eye contact with them, they'd cross over to show you their stuff, with the resort "security" looking on.
At the last minute, I realized it could be quite challenging to keep Emma shaded on a beach/pool vacation so I ordered this little (errr, bigger than expected) inflatable pool with mushroom sunshade to keep her cushioned and comfy both poolside and at the beach. It was definitely the talk of the pool goers. I almost passed out blowing the thing up and was almost finished when one of the resort workers came up and asked if I might want to use their electric pump. Ummm YES!
The mushroom pool worked great when she was awake...
...and asleep
It proved a bit more challenging than I'd expected to take a beach vacation with two kids who couldn't swim. Graham and I did a lot of baby trading as someone was almost always needing to be held or taken back to the room for a nap. Thank goodness we traveled with family-more hands available to hold! One morning, my parents took all the grandkids so Lani, Michael, Graham and I could go out and play in the waves. I'm scared to death of waves so stayed pretty close to shore but went out far enough to get sloshed full of sand. Emma of course needed to eat when I got back to the pool so I pulled out my nursing cover and latched her on without looking. It wasn't until she was ready to switch sides that I looked down and saw her face was completely covered in sand! She even had a mouthful of sand to go with-her first solids!! Poor girl but all present had a pretty good laugh about it until I realized it was next to impossible to wipe the sand off the other side without a shower and I had a screaming baby in lap....
On our second full day there, we all trekked into town on foot to do a little exploring. We should have known right then and there that something was up with Isla--she fell asleep on the SUPER BUMPY stroller ride at 10 AM (4 hours before her usual nap time). She totally rocked the glasses and hat while she slept though!
Josh's beautiful girlfriend Silver was able to join us and experience Mexico for the first time. I loved having her along and having a chance to get to know her a bit better (she kicked booty on the beach volleyball court!) I wish I could take credit for this picture which is pretty much the cutest ever but I stole it from my mom...
We spent our time in town dinking around some souvenir shops....
...admiring the Christmas decor in the city square (I mean, what doesn't speak Christmas to you about these shiny things?)...
...and peaking into a church.
Emma got to experience the joys of facing outward in the front pack for the first time where she discovered the pack doubled as a built-in chew toy.
We were all craving a true Mexican meal experience since all our other meals would be at the resort so we set off in search of the perfect taco stand. I'm not sure we found the very best one, but we were able to give Silver a taste of local Mexico, flies and all (it was her first time south of the border!) It was here that Isla discovered they do time outs in Mexico too! She put on an epic performance that lasted the entirety of the meal, with Graham and I taking turns standing outside the restaurant with her until she was ready to apologize to Uncle Mikey. Man is that girl ever STUBBORN! We stood our ground though and weren't about to let her win. Finally, after buckets of tears, she gave in and obeyed and there was uproarious applause as she rejoined us at the table just as everyone else finished their meal.
Want to hear more trip tales? Well, you're in luck because this is to be continued...
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