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I know people think we are crazy for traveling with our children. There were many times on this trip Eddie and I thought we were crazy for traveling with them! Ha! But then there were times, when the four of us would be doing something fun together and we would look at our sweet family and were just so thankful to be all together.
We left Sunday morning at 9am. Miraculously, all flights were on time and all bags made it- do you feel like you are reading someone else's blog at this point? I was surprised too! Stunned, actually.
The first flight, we flew 2 and 2-- Eddie and Cal sat together and me and Nug sat together. To say Eddie had it easy would be an understatement. Cal is seriously the BEST flyer ever. He climbs up in his seat, fastens his seat belt and waits with his hands in his lap until he hears the person say it's okay to turn on the iPad. Then, he puts on headphones and watches a movie silently and perfectly still the rest of the time. Andy, on the other hand, stands on his seat, turns on and off the over head lights no less than 49 times and then opens and shuts the window shade, slamming it down each time. He refuses to wear his seat belt and learned early on how to unbuckle it. He loves releasing the tray table in front of him and then shoving it closed--a real treat to anyone sitting in front of us. We landed in Dallas and my arms were like jelly from wrestling him into his seat.
We got to ride the train in Dallas to our connecting terminal and both boys thought that was just the greatest thing. They were so happy to see everything go by as we rode along!
The next flight, I
We landed in Mexico and the clouds rolled in. A quick storm came in as we were driven to the resort. We headed to our room to wait for our bags and to check things out...
The boys had to discover the beds...
We did this same trip over a year ago (Andy was about 10 months old) and loved it, so that's why we came back again.
By the time the bags came, the sun came out and we headed down to the pool to swim a little. We had the welcome dinner that night and I knew the boys were exhausted after no naps so I bathed Andy and let him rest in the bed.... can you spot him?
We had had a BIG day and there were NO naps at all, but we headed out for the welcome dinner...
I tried to get a picture with them, but both put their heads down and told me they were sleepy-- it was 6:30 Mexico time, so 7:30 at home. Bed time!
We went to the dinner and the boys ate quickly and then both laid their heads on my lap and both asked to go night night. I ended up taking them both up for bed soon after the dinner started!
The next morning, I chose to skip the spouses meeting-- so bad of me, I know, but I couldn't bare having to tell the kids they would have to wait to go play in the pool. So, I called up room service for breakfast (something we did every single morning!) and the boys enjoyed some French toast! (Did I mention the resort is all-inclusive?? We certainly wouldn't be calling up for room service every morning otherwise!)
I took the boys to the pool by 9 and it was SO nice down there-- before everyone got there! The last time we went to this resort, it was never crowded.... not so much the case this time!
My spidey boys shot me with their webs.
In an effort to have them last longer, I made them take some rest time-- this lasted all of 30 seconds and only happened on the first day!
Cal wanted to swim in his sunglasses.
Just a quick note here about the boys' swimming.... before we left, Cal was doing great swimming. I was super proud and thought he was rocking it. Well, he blew us away in Mexico. He swam and swam and swam and seriously spent more time under the water than above it. He dove to the bottom of the pool over and over and over again. He looked like a fish! Andy did not want to be left behind, I guess, because he impressed everyone with his swimming skills too! Normally, he goes under on his own-- like, standing on the bottom, he will squat until he goes under. In Mexico, he was actually swimming under water and jumping off of things and going under a TON-- almost as much as Cal! It was sooooo fun to watch them swim together.
After Eddie's meetings, he joined us in the pool and the boys learned how fun these tricks are!
That night, we went to dinner at the Italian restaurant. Andy took a brief nap this day due to an overly excited CalBoy. They were okay at dinner, but it was challenging keeping them (read: andy) in their seats. Andy took Lala with him (lala went everywhere with us on this trip) and he kept throwing it at other tables.
After dinner, I took the boys out on the lawn to run around a little and hopefully get a good picture. It was H-O-T and super humid.
We came up from dinner and put the kids to bed and I watched a gorgeous sunset from the balcony while reading!
The next day we were up and at um early to play at the pool and beach!
The boys loved jumping off of these platform things into the water. It looks like Eddie is catching Andy, but after a few jumps, Andy would just go and then swim over to Eddie-- not being caught at all!
Andy swimming...
More tricks...
We got into a nice little routine of going down in the morning to play, and then I would bring the boys up to the room around 1:30 for rest time-- both boys slept every day (Cal didn't the first day, but every other one he did)-- and then Eddie would come up after an hour or so and I would go down to the pool for some mommy time, which usually consisted of me in the water with a drink and my kindle. I was happy.
There was a much more casual restaurant on the beach that we quickly learned would be better for the boys. We tried it this night and they did GREAT there. It was more acceptable to be standing up and the kids loved it. Of course, I had to try to get some pictures before hand...
I almost titled this post "Lala goes to Mexico" because it is in almost every picture-- that thing was pure nasty by the time the trip was over. Lala and pillow made its rounds!
Andy was showing me with his finger that he was done with picture taking...
Look at those sweet eyes...
Eddie and Andy at Azul...
At the end of the meal, the waiter brought out chocolate ice cream.... they boys devoured it!
Love Cal's eyes in this one...
Brothers! I love these boys soooooo much!
A sweet lady offered to take our picture after dinner. The boys are both covered in chocolate, but I thought it was a cute picture with their arms around each other!
Then the boys looked at the fish...and Cal appears to have to pee...
The iPads were awesome on the trip. While sitting on the balcony waiting for breakfast, the boys could watch their shows or play their games. The Disney Channel on the TV in our room was in Spanish and Cal kept saying "I don't know what they are saying to me!" haha!
This was what I looked like most of the time in the pool-- holding or throwing or catching a kid....
So, this night, we headed to the Mexican restaurant (there is an Italian, Mexican and French...the French is off limits to anyone under the age of 12, so we didn't do that one, and then there is the casual beach one.).
As we waited for our dinner, Andy hopped down and demonstrated a new way to wear his shirt.... this wasn't the typical Mexican restaurant where people might find this funny/acceptable. It was wayyyy nice.... Awesome, Nug.
He was told he had to put his shirt on and you can see the excitement in his face below.
After dinner, we headed back out to the lawn to play. We took a few family pictures...
And then our friends that we met in Turks came out from dinner so we took pictures with them too-- they were all traveling kid-free, so we didn't want to bother them at meal time.
While we were taking the above picture, a family came out with three kids, ages 8, 10, and 12. Well, the 10 year old was SO SO sweet to the boys. They had the BEST time playing with him! And he was REALLY good with them-- like holding their hand when they were near water and helping them with their shoes-- it was awesome to watch it! Well, they kept the kids so happy and entertained that we ended up staying up until after 10:30-- which, for us on this trip was late! By the time we got to the room, the kids were drenched in sweat and their little cheeks were bright pink.
The next morning, we woke up to a storm. Well, I should say, Andy woke up at 4:30 and was READY to go play! I kept telling him it wasn't time to get up, but he was ready to go! I stayed up with him until 6:30 and then let Eddie take over. Eddie and Andy went down and had breakfast and watched the storm roll in. I was dreading the day-- two kids in a hotel room with no hopes of being outside all day is miserable. BUT, since Andy got up so early, he was exhausted by 10, so we put him down for a nap and Cal watched a movie on the iPad. Around noon, the rain stopped so we headed down to the pool to swim a little before another storm came--which it never did! The kids club had a sea lion come in and do tricks. The boys were crazy about Flash! Andy was giggling the entire time and Cal kept saying "did you see that, mommy????!!!"
The offered pictures with him afterward, but the line was long and the boys weren't interested in getting that close-- so we just got one with him in the background.
After the show, we went back to Azul to grab some lunch. Halfway through lunch, the sun came out! We left the restaurant and the sunglasses were needed...
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| notice lala and pillow... |
So, after swimming and drinking, Eddie wandered over to the kids club area and saw they had all kinds of fun things set up. He came back to get us so we all went in to check it out. They had a trampoline with a harness thing to lift you up, an obstacle course and a zipline! Eddie and I both said there was no way Cal would zipline--EVER. He is our little nervous one and there was no way he'd do it.
Well, there was a line for the trampoline and they were shutting down after the last one, so Cal walked right over to the zip line and got his harness on!
My little three year old, in a wet bathing suit, no shirt and no shoes... about to zip line.
We honestly, honestly thought he would back out at this point.
But, instead, he started climbing the wall.
And then he climbed the little side ladder that led up to the tippy top. (eddie was a mess by this point)
Then he was on the top platform and getting harnessed in to the line.
He didn't even look nervous! He was smiling the whole time and giving thumbs up like it was no big deal. Eddie, on the other hand, was nervous enough for both of them.
And he was off!
Eddie sprinted down to the end to get him and Cal was just laughing away saying how great it was! I was so proud of him!
Then the leader guy asked Andy if he wanted to do it and he said NO. But then we turned around and saw this:
That night, we cancelled our dinner plans and decided to go back to Azul-- the kids did well there and we loved the food we ordered.
We got all ready to go and took our pictures...
And then got to Azul and were told there was no menu. You could get the buffet if you wanted to. Well, we didn't want a buffet. We really wanted the same menu we had the other night. Soooo, after all of that, we turned around and ordered room service for dinner. We were able to see a beautiful sunset and I made the boys all sit on the porch with me to watch it go behind the mountain. We did a countdown as it dropped. I don't know if they will remember watching it, but I know I will never forget watching it with them.
The next day was our last full day there! We got up and sun screened up and out the door!
The boys started out in the kiddie pool, going under over and over again...
They ate lunch poolside with their Shirley Temples...
And, for dinner the last night, we skipped the Jones dinner (gasp!) and instead went out with our Turks group. They insisted they didn't mind us bringing the kids so we did-- and they were pretty well-behaved...especially after I went to the room to get the iPads....
Before dinner, I saw a family take a picture like this and we tried it while we were waiting on Eddie to get down. It'd be better if it was closer, but you get the point.
Finally a picture of me and Eddie!
Sitting at dinner...
Cal and Andy LOVED Ms Andrea and Ms Jackie-- they were all about flirting with them!
After dinner, I snapped two quick pictures of the boys and I think they might be the best two I got of them the whole trip-- both smiling and looking at the camera! It's a miracle!
It was SUCH a wonderful trip and I am really glad we decided to take the kids. I never want to forget the way they sat next to each other sipping their Shirley Temples and laughing together. Or the way they looked jumping in the pool together. Or listening to them talk together. Or, just how happy it made ME to be all together. I am a lucky LUCKY momma.
