Mexico Day 5

On our last day in Mexico we decided to take the ferry to Isla Mujeres - Island of the Women. Once over there were rented a golf cart to explore the island. It is a fairly small island, but I'm thankful for Google Maps! Our first stop was a turtle farm.  At one point we pulled over to ask for directions.  It was a local man who spoke no English.  We were pretty impressed by his ability to communicate and our ability to understand.  We found it fairly easily.  The girls really enjoyed feeding the turtles after a week of visiting their turtle friends at the resort.

We walked out on the pier and when we saw this fella Brooke shouted out "turkey!" We obviously have a little more work to do before kindergarten starts in August. :)

We found a local restaurant for lunch and it was really good.  Everyone filled up their bellies which is something I can't say for many of the other meals we had this week. We then headed to the North Beach for some playtime.  The water was amazingly clear and the girls finally had their waves to jump.

Brooke will take any opportunity she can to show off something she had learned (or made up) from tumbling class.

Someone was a little excited to be in the water.

 

Cool kids. 

When I was searching out places to visit on the island I came across a gelateria that was opened by a couple from Italy. Ummm.... yes please. That quickly made it on our must stop list. They had white chocolate and strawberry so I was thrilled.  Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as good as the place we frequented in Italy. But it was cold on a hot day, so I'll take it. Shortly after grabbing our gelato the rain started.  We decided to go ahead and take the next ferry back and cut our afternoon short. By the time we got back to our resort it had cleared up so off to the pool we went.

We ended our evening early because we had a 7:00AM flight to catch.  That meant our airport shuttle was coming at 4:15. And that meant we had to be up E.A.R.L.Y. We had an amazing time, and I am so thankful that we were able to experience this with our children.  We made some great memories that I will cherish for a lifetime.

Mexico Day 4

The Tuesday of our trip was our anniversary. 14 years celebrated in Mexico with our children.  That wasn't part of plan when we looking at places to go on vacation, but the way the sky miles worked out put us in Cancun on June 2nd. I wouldn't change a thing.  We had such a great, relaxing vacation with the girls.

Marc and the girls had a surprise for me for the evening.  They were very good about keeping the secret, and they were super excited too.

We went on a pirate ship dinner cruise! I'll admit I was a little concerned about three little GIRLS enjoying this with no nightmares, but Marc assured me it was a kid-friendly adventure. We made sure to get to the dock early.  The pirates were roaming around talking to the guests.  They were in full on pirate mode, but I really think that seeing and talking to the pirates in advance helped calm any fears that might have arisen. In fact, at the end of the night Kayla said it wasn't scary because she was so used to the pirates that the show was just fun. Anyway, in our waiting we met Pirate Johnny. He was the ship's drunk. Figures. But he came and spoke with our girls several times and remembered their names all night. He had all three of them saying "argh" like a real pirate too. At one point Marc asked him where a good spot to sit would be.  He said that he would show us once we got on board. Not only did he show us, he actually had them save the front row for us!

 Since we were now buddies with Pirate Johnny, who happened to be one of the main characters, Marc was hand picked to come up on stage for a little performance.

Part of this performance was to gargle while singing La Cucaracha. The catch was that they were gargling rum. Marc was able to tell one pirate that he doesn't drink alcohol so they were able to get him some water instead.  The new catch, they told him very clearly NOT to drink the water and to spit it out when he was finished. I'm not sure which option would have been worse! ha!

The pre-dinner entertainment had me looking over at Marc wondering what in the world he had gotten us into. Thankfully it all went over their heads. Dinner was yummy, steak and lobster for the grownups and hotdogs or nuggets for the little ones, and then it was back on deck for the pirate show. The girls loved this so much and I'm so glad that we were able to do this as a family.  I would never have planned it, but I'm so grateful that Marc did.  The girls had a blast. We ended the night with a dance party and balloons.

Johnny came back over and made swords out of the balloons for the girls. I'm thinking he may have young girls at home himself.

Once again I'll try to add a few more pictures of the show from Marc's phone when he gets it back. What a fun and different way to celebrate 14 years with my hubby!

Mexico Day 3

The beautiful weather had disappeared by Monday. We had been in the pool 15 minutes when the lightning began.  Back to the room we went and games were pulled out. By mid-afternoon the weather had cleared enough for us to embark on our next adventure. We got dressed and planned to take a ride down memory lane.We were going to walk down to catch the local bus, but the hotel shuttle was right outside the lobby.  We jumped on and that took us halfway to where we were headed.  It dropped us off at a sister resort so we took a few minutes to walk around.

We then took the bus to La Isla.  Marc and I went to this outdoor shopping mall when we were on our honeymoon.  It was fairly new at that time and we have had a running joke in our family about my "Mexican filtered water" experience there. We walked around for a bit and grabbed some ice-cream

 

We did a little souvenir shopping and the girls made a "tough face" while wearing some sombreros.

Another quick ride on the bus took us to Pancho and Willy's.  We enjoyed a Mexican fiesta and a show of Mexican dances.

Kayla and Macy even joined the dancers on stage at one point.  Brooke wanted nothing to do with it, but we had a great time watching the girls.  Once Marc gets his phone back (another story for another post) I'll add the pictures of the girls dancing.

 We returned to our hotel a little after nine, but when you are on vacation that doesn't mean it's bedtime...

it's pool time! The pool lighting changed colors at night and the girls were dying to swim in "colored water." We only had about 30 minutes to swim before the pool closed, but they of course had a great time.

Another day ends and we headed to bed exhausted once again.

Mexico Day 2

Saturday morning brought another day of sunshine. We rented a kayak and Marc took each of the girls out for a little adventure.  They absolutely loved it.

We only had the kayak for an hour so each girl got a 20 minute ride. Sweet Brooke was having a great time, but she told her Daddy that she wanted to give up half of her time so I could go too. Because the water was so shallow we were able to let the kids play while we went out for a bit. Don't worry, we stayed very close by.

Macy's turn!

And then of course it was eventually time to head back to the pool.

Yesterday the girls were introduced to the strawberry daiquiri.  You can see below how they felt about that. And they were also introduced to the Shirley Temple on this trip. That was another huge favorite.

Of course Mama had to have some pictures taken.

LOVE these monkeys!

And LOVE their daddy!

 

After pictures we went to have dinner at a nice Italian restaurant on the resort, but we had to make another stop to see the turtle friends on the way.  Everyone loved their dinner and ate very well. I guess swimming all day makes for hungry babies!