Spring Break 2013 - Mexico

Joe and I had a desire to take a "real" (i.e., all five of us going someplace together, far enough that it required an airplane) since Wren was born.  For a variety of reasons we did not go on a trip before Wren turned 6 months and I was back at the office.  And then once back to work the time just flew by and we spent our summer traveling via car to various State Parks and attractions closer to home.  Wren turned one year old last fall and we vowed to take a family vacation before Spring Break 2013 had passed us by.  

While I fully embrace that travel is not defined by how many miles you cover, and is about finding inspiration, discovery and celebration in everyday moments, Joe and I both wanted to break out of routine and physically go further for this vacation.  

After a ton of (relatively last minute) searching and deliberation we finally settled on Mexico.  We were so anti-Mexico when we started our search.  But then, after considering the ratio of travel time to vacation time, $/ticket, hotel and flight availability, activities to keep a 1, 3 and 5 year old engaged and more, we realized Mexico was probably a pretty sure thing.  It wouldn't be culturally eye-opening or push us to encounter our fears and insecurities around every corner like some other locations Joe and I have interest in visiting, but it would do the trick!  Five of us, traveling together, to someplace warm and sunny for a Spring Break!

Below are some highlights of our trip, photos along with little snippets of the story behind the picture.  It really was a great 1st get-away for our family.  Aside from Wren having an OK flight there and a pretty horrible flight home, it was "smooth sailing." We basically spent our time swimming, playing at the Kid's Club and exploring the beach and resort. 

Running away to warmer weather.  

Winter jackets ditched in the car, we ran through the single digit temps in the parking ramp to hop aboard the light rail to get us to the tram that brought us to the airport where we boarded a flight to Mexico!

   

And then we deplaned, hustled through customs and looked for the sign.  Costco!  Costco Travel, baby!  You can take the Mom out of Costco, but...

Silly girl.  She ran the whole length of this sidewalk pointing up at Joe and shouting "Dada, Dada!"  Might I remind you that she apparently couldn't remember who he was on either of the flights, but boy was she excited and proud to announce to Mexico that he.was.her.dada.

Quick family pic as we wait for our Costco transfer to bring us to our family-friendly all-inclusive Cancun resort.  Max was not covering his eyes from the sun.  He was ticked off that Joe held him back for this picture. Max had spotted a bird and was running to take a closer look at it.  Joe held him back and the bird flew away, so he missed seeing the bird.  Max really is such a sweet soul.  He notices so many things, including birds - when they're chirping in the morning, when they land in a tree nearby, flying south, etc.  And he gets so upset when we get in the way of his plans to check things out further.

We landed around 4pm and kept telling the kids we would have time to swim once we got to the hotel. Except we hadn't planned for check-in to take a full hour, or for the sun to set by 6pm.  We did walk to the pool our very first night, but it was pitch black outside and the pool was unheated and ice cold.  So we headed back to our room, filled up the whirlpool and let the kids take a dip there.

Our first morning.  We headed to the baby pool that was right near our room.  It was frigid.  All the pools except one (where we spent the rest of our pool time after our 1st day), were unheated and way too cold!  The one that was heated ended up working perfectly for all of us.

After playing in the baby pool for a bit we headed down to the beach for some sandcastles and exploring.

Beach picnic.  We always filled a to-go container with snacks to tide us over between meals.

Enjoying some mini golf...

...until this.  Can you see it?  The big iguana and the abandoned golf club and ball?  Max had been playing this hole and I noticed the iguana waiting there at the next hole.  When Max finished with this hole I knew he'd go darting over and probably trip on the iguana and have a heart attack (he's my kid; neither of us likes the iguanas).  So as he was playing I asked him to calmly stop and look around, that there was something at the next hole and I wanted him to notice it before he went running over.  After a moment or two he shrieked and his club flew out of his hands and he went running opposite the iguana.  Joe and Otto stepped up and finished playing this hole for Max, unphased by the iguana.

Our beach baby

Our little fish.  It's been a week since we left Mexico and the goggle mask indentations have finally smoothed out on Max's face:)  He spent all of his time swimming and diving and playing in the pool.

Our little frog.  Otto spent an hour one morning "swimming" along the shallow edge of the pool by swim-hopping, just like a frog, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

How cute are little kids in hotel bathrobes and slippers!!!

And how cute are pigtails and barrettes and dresses and sandals (and her cute little hand holding the bottom of her dress)!!!

Joe about to try his skills on the surfboard in the surf pool.  If I hadn't dropped my phone in water, I would have had a fantastic video to share of his attempt (and fast fail).  BUT, the cloud/photostream only has my photos, so the two videos i took in Mexico, both of Joe attempting and falling at the surf pool, are gone.  It's so odd, too. I had foreshadowing while videotaping.  I debated whether I should take a picture or shoot video when Joe tried surfing.  I figured video would be so much better, but kept doubting myself not taking a picture. And now I realize I should have snapped a picture at least once of him trying to surf.

Otto was intrigued by the surf pool and really wanted to try it but was too little. Pretty sure he'll be giving us all some lessons in the near future.  

A little "Miami Vice" in Mexico

Our patio, where we'd spend a few minutes each morning watching the sun come up over the ocean.  It's also where Wren and Otto would make their important calls first thing in the morning.

Just incase you weren't sure, yes, all-inclusive does include scoop your own ice cream at each meal.

The Kid's Club playground

This was one of the busier days at the pool (I think it was St Patrick's Day too, so a bit festive all around!).  We spent all day swimming, forgoing naps and generally wearing ourselves out.  The six kids (ours and the other family we met) and four adults had a blast in the pool.  Whether we should have or not, Joe and Scott (the other dad), were tossing the kids around and playing with the little tables in the shallow part of the pool...

Here's Otto about to toss a table, and Joe about to drop Max on the table into the pool.

Splash!

The four oldest boys all going for a ride on Joe's back.

Max found this palm tree brand our last morning in Mexico and carefully plucked each leaf from the branch to bring home and give one to each of his friends at school.

Check out her curls!  Wren's hair, half way down her back and wavy back home, turned unbelievably curly and shrunk up above her shoulders in the heat and humidity of Mexico.

Oh, I almost forgot.  While we were checking into the hotel, another family with three kids was also checking in.  We met them early the next morning by the pool and it was a beautiful thing!  Their three kids (two older boys and a younger girl) were all the same age (within days/months) as Max, Otto and Wren.  Max and their oldest, Jack, were instant besties and the kids loved playing together everyday there.  Definitely makes me want to plan multi-family vacations in the future.  Anyone up for it?!


This family was from Canada and they totally schooled us in the art of Family Travel.

1.  Air travel.  They're smart (and so are we!), neither of us paid for a seat for our under 2 year old "lap infants."  They're much smarter.  They brought a carseat for their "lap infant" and after take off they buckled their littlest (& wiggliest) one in the carseat and watched her fall asleep for a couple hours, placing their 3 year old upon their laps and watched him happily be entertained by an electronic device.  We (oh, and I mean I.  Big, fat, capital, italicized, underlined I) wrestled with Wren for four hours.  She wiggled and flailed and squirmed and ran circles in my lap while I sweated and strained.  Wish I would have thought to bring a car seat and give her Otto's airplane seat and let Otto sit peacefully on my lap watching a movie!

2.  Family Friendly All-Inclusive.  Again, we are both smart and booked a direct flight to a warm weather, all-inclusive spot.  But they brought travel coffee mugs - "coffee mugs" - for use at the pool.  Stop by the bar, get your drinks in your travel mug and head to the pool.  Their cups were insulated and bigger than the plastic party cups the bar was using. 

3.  Electronics Fairy.  Since their boys wake up earlier than them (& their daughter), she would place iPads beside the boys pillows after they fell asleep.  When they would wake up in the morning they would begin playing the iPad instead of waking the rest of the family up.  Duly noted.

4.  Dinner with Kids.  Most amazing to me is how they brazenly conquered family dinners while on vacation.  We were in a rush to get the kids fed, usually amidst at least one of the kids melting down, as soon as the dinner restaurants opened at 6pm.  We'd then rush to get the kids home to sleep around 8pm (Wren), a little later for the boys (they were spent by this hour, not always getting a nap while on vacation). 

Their approach?  Feed the kids some snacks in the hotel room before heading out for an 8:30pm dinner.  One night we saw them leaving for dinner as we were racing back to our room, kids falling asleep in our arms.  They said, "Oh, we're hoping the kids will fall asleep at the restaurant so we can enjoy a peaceful adult dinner."  HUH?  I kindly wished them luck and said I wanted to know how it went tomorrow morning.  

Result:  They tucked their 5 year old into the stroller and he slept there.  They pushed two chairs together, laid the three year old down with a blanket there.  And put the one year old in her highchair, letting her fall asleep on the tray.  Apparently this worked because the kids fell asleep and they enjoyed a quiet, two-hour dinner complete with a round of cocktails and a bottle of wine (the only bottle of wine we drank on the trip was guzzled and gulped down while swaying with Wren in my arms).  

Our dinners looked more like this.  One night the kids were so tired that Otto literally fell off his chair, hit his head on something and got a welt the size of a golfball that instantly turned bruised. Max was staring into space, shivering. He said he was so tired and cold (probably from the sun he'd gotten).  Wren, again, was only happy being held during meal time. I'm just not sure I'm brave enough to attempt the Canadian's dinner time trick.