2 Little Chiefs: A Mexican Thanksgiving

We were so lucky to be able to spend Thanksgiving in Mexico with Amber and family. The eight of us have so much fun together and we made some awesome memories! First, the resort was beautiful. The weather was fantastic. The kids got along so well and everyone stayed healthy. What more could we ask for?

And this picture will haunt Brian for years to come - good form Brian! (karma has had it's revenge, Amber and I haven't been able to win a game of cribbage since!)

That is a pool that over flows into another huge pool that looks right out into the ocean. Guess where we spent a lot of time? By the pool! A few family members detest the sand, but they were good sports and still came to sand between their toes a few times!

These two are thicker than thieves! I can only imagine what he was whispering to her!

A little pool side game of Wet Head

We let Elizabeth get her hair braided - one piece - this was a really big deal to her. There was some purple hair added in as well. I was finally able to throw that away last week, but don't worry we still have the shell dolphins that were woven in!

And then there are these two! Someone for EB to mother and Briggs accepts it because it isn't his sister bossing him around!

This is the boys doing aqua aerobics because they lost one too many games of cribbage.

In case you didn't know I have done a cartwheel in the sand at every beach I have been to since I was able to do a cartwheel. I hope I am still doing this when I am 50!

The kids did the aqua aerobics too, but they really got into it!

First day...our toes must be in the sand and ocean!

A little tie-dye shirt project in the kids club

Is there anything better than your kids at the beach pictures?

This was us during the aqua aerobics :)

The resort featured a Mayan ruin. I took it upon myself to try to make this an educational vacation and really learn something. The kids lack of interest was hilarious as I read them the wikipedia information on the Scorpian's Temple. On the last day we walked over to it and I gave it my best effort to import my Mayan knowledge to them. They were really interested in the exposed roots that acted like trampolines. We got out alive.

Happy hour happens on the beach too, not just by the pool :)

We didn't just sit by the pool everyday - most days, but not everyday. The men went diving one day. One day we all took a boat to Isle Mejeures - Brandon just calls in Hairy Island. Our intent was to find a place for the kids to snorkel. Elizabeth was the only that had tried it before but she didn't have a great experience so we wanted to let all the kids try it. The water was way to rough by our resort and there wasn't a reef. Thus the trip to hairy island. On this island you could rent golf carts and tool around. Somehow Brandon ended up with the all the kids in one golf cart and I was with Brian and Amber in a less than functioning cart. After we got on the main road and backed traffic up for 200 yards it was time to get a new gold cart. We have no cell service and come to find out the golf cart place was on a one way street...long story short, we got a new ride that could actually accelerate! Our first stop was to a sea turtle sanctuary. It looked like a hole in the wall but it was absolutely amazing. We saw tons of baby sea turtles and big ones too. A worker there took a liking to Grant and kept puling out aquatic life for him to hold - sea urchins, horseshoe crab, lobster. It was really fun.

on the boat to Isla Mujeres

Next we were off to find a snorkel spot. It became apparent that this was not going to be free and we needed to select a "day resort" to enjoy the water access. We searched for quite a while before deciding on a place. Of course a free meal and drinks were included as well as a freezing cold pool and bungee trampoline that just about put Grant over the edge! We ate a horrible lunch, I mean really not good. The kids were such troopers we sung their praises later and told them what an awesome job they did to get through that meal because not one of them complained. They knew they needed to eat and they made the best of it. It was a proud parenting moment. Then we made our way to the water to attempt the snorkeling. The kids all really tried and at some point they all got the hang of it, but it took a lot of coaching. I looked up at one point and Amber had Briggs on her back heading back to shore! Grant thought that looked fun so he climbed on my back! Elizabeth had a better experience and Stella hung in there. The aquatic life was not abundant but what the kids saw they were impressed with. It just didn't keep their interest for terribly long. That's when they discovered the pool, that had freezing water. The moms declared we all deserved ice cream and then we waited for the trampoline attendant to finish his siesta. Grant was given some super high bouncy pulls that scared the $%*& out of him! Apparently him screaming STOP did not translate to the attendant. We all look back at the video now and laugh but he was not laughing at the time! And with that we told hairy island goodbye and enjoyed our serenaded boat ride back to the resort.

This was a priceless moment. I am not sure how or why but we let the kids go to the other side of pool alone where there happened to be vendors. Actually I think they might have been checking to see if the hair braiding lady was in yet and we decided there is strength is numbers! They all came back with jewelry and told us they needed $40 to keep it all. So we sent them back and told them we give them $10. It was a pretty funny negotiation and at the end of it we did not reach an agreement and all of the jewelry was returned along with 4 long faces.