Saturday, July 24, 2010

Summer 2010


Wow. It's almost August and summer is almost over! It has gone by really fast. We have had so much fun this season and have had many great adventures. Bonus: I still have my sanity...well, sort of.

In June we took a trip down to Playa del Carmen, Mexico on the Mayan Riviera. Although we had an awesome time jet skiing and kayaking in the ocean, eating good food, relaxing by the pool and building sandcastles on the beach, Rod and I decided our next vacation will be a trip to downtown Ft. Worth. We are going to stay in the tallest hotel we can find, since apparently, the elevators were our boys' favorite thing about our vacation. One day, we even had to have a "no elevator day" rule because deciding whom should push the buttons on a 3 story building can cause quite a ruckus. No need to spend thousands of dollars on 5-star resorts! A tall Holiday Inn with a great pool and an elevator with lots of buttons is all we need to make us happy! Rod and I will take our vacations separately, of course. We will be beach side.

The highlights from our trip, though, are the laughs and the adventures we had along the way. Our flight was delayed an hour so we were stuck in the DFW airport eating Popeye's chicken. Strangely, that was the best fried chicken I ever had. We all woofed it down like it was our last meal. Then, once boarded, our plane sat on the tarmac for another hour due to a leak in the restroom sink. But we were full from the chicken, and I brought lots of games, so all was good. We finally arrived at the resort, the boys were hungry again and we ordered room service which was another highlight for them. Hey, it's the small things in life; right? The food was incredibly good at this resort and would prove to be a big highlight for all of us. The waiters would graciously bring the boys these amazing non-alcoholic drinks that looked too good to drink and we spent a good bit of time making chocolate-covered strawberries at the dessert bar/lounge. Each day, the boys would have a running contest to see who could get to the elevator first and push the button to go down. We were on the second floor so it was quite a thrill. Rod and I would take the stairs and beat them every time, but, darn it, that elevator was fun! One night, after dinner, they were running down the long corridor to our room and Aidan was lagging behind but proudly yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'm in third!" When saying "third" you must rhyme it with "turd" because Aidan's Bostonian accent pronounces "r" words this way.

A must not do of our vacation was going to the Mayan ruins. If you have kids, skip it. It was miserably hot and brutal in the whining and complaining department. We met a nice Canadian restaurant/hotel owner in Talum when we stopped to have a drink. He was from Toronto and lived in Mexico 6 months out of the year and absolutely loved it. He gave Rod and I some interesting prospectives on retiring. We also went to Xel Ha, which is a natural river that we snorkeled and tubed down. The older boys jumped off a 20 foot cliff after betting each other to do it. Andrew had to pay Alex $7.00 when we got home...but that Andrew is always throwing money around.

Rod and the older boys rode jet skiis and kayaked in the ocean while Aidan and I searched for shells. The water is tamer on the Caribbean side and we decided we liked the Pacific side better for boogie boarding. We ate great food! I weighed myself everyday and managed to hit the gym a couple of times, so I only gained 2 pounds. Whoo-hoo! Our resort had three natural rivers flowing around it so we kayaked down the cenotes into the ocean. That was fun except for the mosquitoes, which never bother me at home but strangely ate me alive in Mexico. We also got to watch a lot of soccer because the world cup was televised 24/7 on 11 tvs in the sports bar...the buzzing of the horns in grand stereo was not a good memory.

Overall, it was a great vacation.

The month of July has been spent going to movies, swimming, having Ronald come in for a visit, camps,playdates, spending the night at grandparents so Mom and Dad can reconnect and sometimes just being lazy. It has been great!

Oh...and we didn't sell our house, but it's okay. I unpacked (mostly). God is good and He continues to bless us.