Mexico--Xplor

Mike took the big kids on an adventure of their own, while Summer and I relaxed at the hotel one of our days in Mexico.  It was a day full of zip-lines, cave exploring, and AV driving.  They came home with a hilarious stories of "almost drowning" in the waterfall and the lifeguard pulling all but Dad to safety, Dad's wild and crazy AV driving, and many more amazing memories together.  

 

Mexico--Cenote Azul

We had plans to visit multiple cenotes, but somehow we only managed to get to one (not counting the one at Xel-Ha).  We chose Cenote Azul because it was pretty close to our hotel, had the clearest water, and was kid-friendly.  It was a pretty unique, incredible experience.

The kids got to jump from the cliff.

Look at that clear water!!  It was so refreshing after a hot day at the beach.

 Summer, Tyson and Dad spent a LONG time trying to capture little fish for Summer's bucket. Mike even got stung by a dragonfly in the process.  

The girls relaxed in the jungles while iguanas scurried around them.

Mexico--Tulum

Tulum was something we wanted to do for sure, but somehow it got pushed to our very last day in Mexico.  Unfortunately, that day was HOT and most of the kids were just kind of done...especially Summer.  But it was pretty incredible.  If I was to go again, I would go without kids and with a tour guide...and also go to Chichen Itza as well.   

Most of the ruins were roped off so you couldn't climb on them, but a little three year old managed to climb this one without anyone noticing:)

And the number of Iguanas was kind of unsettling....not to mention the enormous ones you could have your picture taken with---YUCK!

After we exited the ruins, we spent an embarrassing amount of money on ice cream bars and got to sit on these bar swings that everyone thought were pretty cool.

Mexico--Akumal

Akumal was my favorite thing we did in Mexico!  The beach was beautiful, the water was clear, and we got to swim with sea turtles!!  

We arrived early enough that the beach was pretty empty and by the time it got busy we were ready for lunch.  We ate at the beach side restaurant, which actually had GOOD American food...and you can't complain about the gorgeous view!

Mexico--Xel-Ha

Xel-Ha was one of the two "theme parks" we went to in Mexico.  The attractions included: tubing/snorkeling down the huge river, all you can eat buffets, dolphins (which we saw jumping so many times, yet nobody managed to get a picture), clip jumping, cenotes/caves, a super tall water slide (which unfortunately was closed for kids 18 and under because of the windy conditions on the day we were there), and tons of Iguanas!!  It was awesome...but not without it's stressful moments.

We did the river first.  Mom and Summer in a tube and the rest of the family with snorkels and flippers.  Sounded like a good idea...only problem, the two groups got in the water at different places and when Mom got in the tube with Summer, it was totally awkward and uncomfortable.  It felt like hours before we met up down the river and I had someone to help me get out of the tube without flipping Summer out too!  

Once I finally got situated with Summer (with a lot of help from Mike), we turned around to join the kids and Tyson was gone.  We spent a good 10-15 min searching the water.  I even got that panic in my voice and started thinking who we needed to talk to to get a search party going!  Turns out, he had no idea we were working on fixing my tube situation and he thought we had went ahead without him, so he went ahead searching for us.  Yeah, I guess we should have started the river by telling everyone to stay together.  Scary!!

Down the river there was a place to do some cliff jumping so the big kids got out and did that...and in the process lost one set of snorkeling gear.  By 2/3 of the river Summer was done.  Luckily we had life jackets because it was a long swim back to shore once we ditched our tubes!!   

 After the river and lunch we explored a cave and swam a bit more.  It sure was beautiful.

Summer was completely exhausted (from being pushed and carried around I guess) so she slept through dinner.

Mexico--Our Hotel

We planned a trip to the US Virgin Islands for mid-winter break, using Mike's United miles and we were very excited.  Well, a hurricane hit the Island in the fall causing so much damage that all flights were cancelled through April...including ours.  So we had to hurry and switch our flights....we still wanted the Caribean Ocean-type experience so we finally decided on Playa del Carmen in Mexico (40 min south of Cancun).  We found a hotel on the beach (which really turned out to be a privately owned condo) that had a great pool and was close enough to all the things we wanted to do.

We were not disappointed.  It was a gorgeous condo,with a kitchen, a maid, plenty of beds for all of us, a private wading pool off the patio, a huge pool, a beach club restaurant, beach access 2 min. from our room, and even our own hot tub.

We spent a lot of time at the pool....watched the sunset on the beach...and the kids finally got to play in waves (one of the things they miss most about California beaches).  

When we first arrived, it was super windy and cloudy...but still nice and warm.

Summer got to sleep with Mom and Dad the entire vacation because we had a KING-size bed.  

She was in heaven.

Finding food to eat was a bit of a challenge....even the groceries didn't taste quite right.  But the kids were actually really good sports about it...much better than me.

The amazing view from our patio.

  

In the hot tub 

The hotel pool was spectacular.  Just enormous and never busy.  There was even a little kid area with shallow water and a playground!

  

There were hammocks everywhere!

 

The kids enjoying the waves...and the palm trees

 

 We got up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean...magical (despite the looks on our faces--I couldn't stop laughing at my face in the corner--hahaha)