Mexico 2012

Hello!

I am home.  We got home late last night at almost midnight.  I smothered Mila's sleeping little head with kisses and snuggled with Cade.  And today I have spent time trying to adjust to being back home and with the kiddos.  I had SO much fun but I am SO happy to be home.  It was really tough being away from the kids for so long, and so I found they were on my mind a lot.  But fortunately all went well and they don't hate me for leaving them.  :)

It was amazing.  Brandon and I really needed some time to spend alone with each other, without cell phones and texting and emailing and blogs.  I didn't log onto the internet ONCE for five entire days.  I can't remember when the last time I went that long with out the www.  I love my blog and Facebook and  all that stuff, but it was really refreshing to unplug from all that for awhile and just talk and laugh and be with Brandon.  We really needed it.

I am going to post a ton of pictures, so feel free to just peruse.  Most of the pictures are of just either me or him, and not really of us together, since it was easier to do that instead of constantly asking someone we didn't know to take our picture - kind of lame but I guess that's what you get when it's just the two of you!

We stayed at an amazing resort in Playa Del Carmen.  The only thing I would say that sucked about it was that there was a huge group of high school kids who had graduated, and they all went on a graduation trip together with their parents.  They were loud and bawdy and most especially DRUNK.  Which would be fine, except that their drunkeness was kind of ruining things for everybody else, because they were loud and sloppy and annoying, and then when one kid started puking all over the deck by the pool, I got especially disgusted.  Why on earth were their parents allowing them to drink when they were underage?  Didn't make sense to me.  Anyway, if  I could have changed anything about the trip, it probably would have been to try to schedule it at a time when there were not a lot of graduation trips, etc.  For some reason it was just weird to me that these kids parents were completely condoning underage drinking.  I guess the drinking age is different in Mexico, so when in Rome...
I guess get really drunk?

So I'll start posting pics, and then maybe write a little bit about them  as they come:  (I'm SO sorry, there are like 40, please don't feel like you have to  look at all of them - this documentation stuff is mostly for me, to remember it!)

Our first night in Playa.  We only had time to get from the airport to our hotel and shower and head to dinner, so no sunshine for us that day.  We are much whiter in these pictures than in the ones following!

They wrapped Christmas lights around all the palm trees.  It was so beautiful.

Bran's first feel of the ocean in years - since our trip to Brazil in 2005.

Brandon's so white here!  Hee hee wait'll you see what color he turns...

The view of our pool from our hotel room balcony.  This was our first real day in Mexico and I was excited to go to the pool!

Sittin down to breakfast.  I loved the view more than the food.  And I don't mean that in an eating disordered way...just that food from another country that is TRYING to taste American-like just didn't work for me.

Okay, the best part was the free all-you-can-eat nachos poolside!  They were SO good!  We both ate a ton of them.  :)  Oh, and please note that on this day Brandon applied sunscreen liberally.  Several times.  I think the sun in Mexico ignores sunscreen.  Poor guy got fried.  I didn't though - love me some olive skin that doesn't really burn!

The weather was so perfect that first day.  Sunny and mid-80's - but humid as hell.  But it was nice and breezy and perfect, even though I am so used to the dry air in Utah, so this was definitely different!

Love the color of the water - and it was so warm.  :)

And the sunburn begins!  Poor poor Bran.  As you can see I got color too on that day, but nothing as bad as him. 

Goin GQ.

This statue at the pool cracked me up.  Probably because I'm five and can't appreciate real art.  Anyway, I wanted to get in on the naked boobie carefree action.  Minus the naked part.

He doesn't really look so burned here.  But he was.  Poor guy was  a trooper though.  He was in a lot of pain and didn't complain.

Okay I pretty much just love this picture because I am in love with this yellow cardigan from Anthro.  Isn't it a beaut?!

This picture is hilarious because Brandon apparently can't aim and took a picture of himself  looking rather...silly.  :)

That's better!

Awkward but whatever.  That first night on the beach was so beautiful.

Okay.  So Wednesday, our second full day there, we decided to go to Xel Ha on the  recommendation of a blog reader and some of my family members.  It's this really awesome water-park type place that is all natural and in the ocean.  There's cliff jumping, snorkeling, tubing, zip-lining, dolphin watching, etc, etc.  AWESOME.  But, unfortunately, we decided to go on a day that it didn't just rain, IT POURED.  I have LITERALLY never ever experienced rain like that, ever.  In Utah, even when it rains hard, it was NOTHING compared to the torrential jungle rain we had there.  And it rained and rained and poured and poured ALL DAY.  Fortunately it was still warm, so at some point we just decided to try to have fun despite the fact we looked like drowned rats.  Unfortunately I got no cool pictures, as it was so wet and I didn't want to ruin my camera, but here are a few:

Bran decided his sunburn would like him better if he bought a long-sleeved water shirt to protect him, plus the sunscreen...good idea babe!  It helped him not hurt so much.  We spent more time than we should have eating at Xel Ha, just because it was so wet, so if we kept eating, at least we could be under a roof.  :)  We were bored and took a few pics.

I can't quite remember, but I theeeeenk I'm pointing outside, to the rain.  But at least I have a nice tan line!

We were trying to get a picture of me with the dolphins, just waiting for one to surface for some air.  It never happened.  :(  The dolphins weren't very active; maybe they don't like rain?  

This is pathetic and the closest we got to photographing a dolphin - it sucked.  But those suckers were fast and wily and we couldn't ever get a good shot.  Oh well - it was fun to see them in person, at  least.

Xel Ha had this cool giant book you could sign as you were leaving...

And this is what I wrote...

Our fun (and rain) filled day at Xel Ha is over, and we were waiting for our ride to take us back to the resort...

The hotel had three hot-tubs but I kind of have this thing with them - specifically, that I won't go in them.  I'm always paranoid I'm going to catch an STD or come out nastier than I was when I went in.  Hence the eewy face.

Poor poor Bwan.  I told you he was red!!!  And that is even with constant applying of sunscreen - seriously, what gives??

If you look closely you can see me on the bridge, but not that well because the flash couldn't go that far...

Reading Stephen King - I was just finishing up "Different Seasons."  Loved.

Yay!  We finally asked someone to take a photo of us - too bad the glare ruined it.  :(  Our last night in Playa...

At this point Brandon was so pictured out, he refused to pose for anymore.  So, you get me.

We ate at a fancy-pants restaurant our last night there - I had chicken fajitas, and they were sooooo good - I hadn't dared eat much meat that week because for some reason, having it be from a different country and prepared in a different way then I'm used to freaked me out, but this was delicious, and tasted really authentic!  (As it should have, we were in Mexico, after all!)

And that's the last of the pictures - we took none the following day, as it was mostly filled with traveling, and after spending all day in either an airport or on an airplane, posing for pictures was the last thing we wanted to do.  In fact, all I really wanted was a Diet Coke from the US and some good old McDonald's - which is what we got!  When we got to our layover city of Denver, we went straight to Mickey D's and it was heavenly!  I was not much of a fan of the food in Mexico, so I was very thrilled for some good ol' comfortable and familiar food again.

And now we are home.  And I am exhausted.  I have had a perma headache since we have been here...I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's a summer cold, maybe it's something else...I'm not sure...but I am exhausted and tired but very happy we had fun and even happier that we are home with the kids, right where we belong.   I like vacations, but I like even more coming home from them - I am a homebody at heart, and I always feel happiest and most at ease when I am in my sweats, vegging on the couch with the kids capering around and my cats on my lap.

We swam, we tanned, (or in Bran's case, SUNBURNED) we cliff-jumped, snorkeled, played with a giant iguana, walked through the jungle, saw tropical animals, saw mannnnny people in thong bikinis or speedos that we would have rather not seen, ate a ton, read a ton, laughed a ton, and rested a ton.

All in all?  I'd say the trip was a success!