Day Four

Bright and early, Brad woke up and he took the boys fishing.  I don't have much to say about it cause I didn't go, but they had a great time and even caught a fish, a barracuda.  They didn't go out as far as they were supposed to or they might have caught more but there was a hurricane coming in, and lots of boats coming in from Cozumel to get away.  They did get to go snorkeling with the turtles though, and they had a lot of fun. 

 

  

  

  

 

 

  

While the boys were gone, I was able to drop the girls off at the Explorers club and have the morning to myself.  It was fabulous.  I just sat on the beach with a book while the waiter keep bringing me water and fruity drinks.

When the boys got back, they joined the girls in the Explorers club til they paged me and said that Amy was tired.  She was actually feeling a little under the weather and had a bit of a fever.  She slept it off that afternoon and evening and by mid morning the next day she was feeling much better.

 

 

 

So I mentioned earlier a hurricane.  I had heard rumors while I was on the beach in the morning, then we got a note in our door warning us that Hurricane Paula was headed our way and that they were taking all precautions to keep us safe in the event of bad weather.  Later we got a phone call saying they were going to move everybody from the ground floor to higher levels in case of flooding so we had to pack up and move to the third floor.  Brad was checking the hurricane website and it looked like it was headed straight for Cozumel and was then going to hang around til Sunday.  That would have been a real bummer, but throughout the day, its course changed and it headed up to Cuba, but not before they made all the preparations at our hotel.  They boarded up windows, stacked and moved tables and chairs in the restaurants, stacked and moved the beach chairs, filled sand bags and moved everybody up from the ground floor.  It was kind of exciting in a way, but I'm really glad we did not get hit with the hurricane.  The waves got a little larger, we got a little rain that afternoon and some in the night but that was it.  The rest of the days were beautiful.  

That nights show was a fire show on the beach.  It was amazing.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it cause I didn't take my camera but they probably wouldn't have worked out too well anyways.  Amy was still not well so she and Brad stayed in the room but fortunately, we were now on the beach side and on the third floor so they could watch some from the balcony.  All told, it was a great and exciting day and we even ended up with a bigger room.

Day Three

Besides seeing Santa, day three was great for a few reasons.  October 11th is our anniversary.  We have been married for 14 years and I love Brad more than ever.  This was originally going to be a trip for just us but we decided to take the kids along, and I'm glad we did, but we were able to celebrate just the two of us when we went out to eat the night before without the kids.  And it was also Thanksgiving.  And I had so many things to be thankful for; a wonderful husband who loves and supports me and our kids (and takes us on great vacations where it is warm and sunny), being able to be somewhere warm and sunny, my four fantastic kids who I love, all the rest of my family, my health, my home, being able to be a stay at home mom and the list goes on and on.  And I was thankful for this day where we just relaxed and had a lot of fun at our resort.  Here's a few pictures.

Billy and Adam loved snorkeling, especially Adam.  We had a reef a little ways off our beach where they snorkeled and there where also some rock pools just down the way where there were tons of fish, and that is where I enjoyed snorkeling for sea shells.

 

 

 

Later on they played a game at the pool where they had to jump off the side and try to catch the football in mid air.  Here is one of Adam's attempts, he caught it.

 

And then there was just some pool fun.

Then they brought in Poncho.  Poncho was the donkey.  You could dress up and get your picture sitting on Poncho (for a small fee, of course).  I settled for a shot from a distance of a pat on the head.

We went out to eat that night at the Seaside Grill.  The food was great and we even tried some escargot.  There was mixed reviews from the kids but I'm glad they tried it.  I really wanted them to try some new things while we were on our holiday as it was all you could eat and I didn't have to worry about whether or not they liked something.  If they didn't, we could just order another or get more from the buffet.  And we did try a few different things.  But even if we thought we were ordering something normal we were in for a surprise.  Check out Amy's shrimp ceasar salad.  It was a piece of lettuce with cheese and dressing on it through a very large crouton with shrimp on the side.  Cool!

 

 

Next, it was the Mexican show at the theater. Lovely costumes, great dancing, we all really enjoyed it.

 

  

 

 During or after each of they shows, they asked for volunteers for contest or to help out, like Adam and the clown, the roper had some guys come up and try to rope, etc.  Well this night, they asked for three guys to come up on stage.  No one really went, so Brad got up and finally two others.  While they were on their way up, the guy says "Don't worry, it not a beer drinking contest"  Whew!  They get up on stage and he says "It's Tequila!"  Oh no!  So Martin says (he the guy from the entertainment team) "You have to say '.......' (something in Spanish), drink the shot of tequila, and make your best bandito face." 

So the first guy goes, makes his attempt at the face and then it is Brads turn.  He says to Martin  "I don't drink". 

"Oh yeah right"

"No really, I don't drink"

"Whatever"

So Brad goes ahead and attempts the Spanish, ignores the drink and makes the face and they move on to the next guy.  Well, it turns out that for their tequila drinking, bandito face making contest, they got two out of three Mormons (number 87 didn't drink as well).  It was quite ironic.  Brad ended up winning the contest after a vote for the best face and we made some new friends, Jacob and Alma and their three girls.  And that's the end of day three.

 

 

 

Santa's on Vacation

So we had been having a great time in Mexico so far.  The hotel room is great, the weather is fantastic, the food is yummy and we were all behaving really well and its a good thing because while we were sitting down for breakfast on day three, in walks Santa.  No joke!!  He had long white hair, a snowy white beard, a round belly, red shirt, red shorts and a red visor.  I said to my kids "Hey look, it's Santa".  The girls couldn't believe their eyes.  I told them even Santa needs a vacation and that he was just relaxing before the Christmas rush.  Apparently, they saw him later in the hot tub, still in his red shirt and shorts and they said "Mommy, we asked him if he really was Santa and he said yes."  It was absolutely hilarious!.  I saw him later at the swim up bar and couldn't help but take a picture.  It just goes to show, you always need to behave yourself, even on vacation, cause Santa's watching!

Day Two

So our first day was great.  Our room was on the first floor.  It had two queen beds and a pullout with a walkout to the adult side of the hotel and after a good nights rest, the kids woke up to THIS on our lawn:

 

It's an Agouti, but it looks like a big ugly rat with no tail.  I remember taking a picture of one at the Calgary Zoo in the summer but that one was behind glass.  This was just a little creepy.  It's the first and only time we saw him on our lawn.  We saw a few others around, but that is not the only wild life we saw. 

Later that morning on our way back from seeing the dolphins, we saw THIS:  

We saw these guys all over the place, big and small.  Sometimes they were on the path and you don't see them till last minute as they scurry out of your way.

So anyways, back to Sunday morning. We wanted to go to church in Mexico just for the experience but seeings how it was our first real day there and we weren't sure how to get there, we just read our scriptures together and then prepared to relax for the day.  We did walk down to the marina that was near our hotel to look at the dolphins and other marine life.  Here's what we saw:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of our day looked like this:

A swim in the ocean - the girls didn't much care for the salt water but Billy and Adam loved the 'toys'.

 

A scuba lesson in the pool,

A game of chess,

 Cuteness,

One of the first of many, many, many fruity drinks,

An evening out to ourselves while the kids were having a bonfire and a movie on the beach with the Explorer's Club,

And it ended with a little cowboy roping.

Another fantastic day!!