Cabo Vacation Recap (pt 3)

One of the things that most excited our kids about going on vacation—aside from the fact they'd be in a pool every day of it—was the fact that their big cousin Ian would be on the trip with them. I'm pretty sure our kids think Ian walks on water; he is marvelous with them... truly, the King of Patience. One of the activities that he devised was to make forts out of the various patio furniture cushions for Annika and Conor. They LOVED this activity... and Ian built countless structures for them... mostly because we were there for an entire week and Conor thought he was Godzilla and the cushion buildings were Tokyo in need of a good crushing.

Annika and Conor enjoying Ian's architecture skills

The creations were everything from forts to jails to bridges to boats

Ian rocks!! (just ask our kids if you need  more details)

One of the nights we were gone, Troy and Staci offered to watch our kids so we could have a date night. Sweet!!! Because we did the all-inclusive package at the resort, our dining options were somewhat limited, but Troy called the bar in the main building (aka the bar that had Eric and Troy's new best friend, aka Delfino the bartender) and confirmed that we could eat there while everyone else ate at the restaurant one level below. He was told that it wouldn't be a problem at all.... insert we think this is where the language barrier comes into play. Eric and I sat down at the bar, ordered drinks, and then asked for the menu. The waiter, quite confused, informed us that they don't serve food there, only drinks. Hmmm... so, we decided to risk going downstairs to the same restaurant as the rest of our crew; fortunately, they put us at a table hidden behind a column that blocked the kids from seeing us and, thusly, deciding to come on over for a visit. At one point, we sent drinks to Troy and Staci as a thank you for watching our kids... plus, we were on the all-inclusive, so we weren't even out anything. (Yes, we are THAT cheesy!) Even though the evening didn't quite turn out as expected, it was still incredibly fun and the added humor of hiding from our kids made it even more memorable.

Eric and his date night beer

Meredith and her date night wine

Little did we know at the time, but a hurricane (Hurricane Cosme, to be exact) was brewing in the Pacific, which caused insanely HUGE waves for us to ooh and ahh about. These suckers were a good 12 feet tall and raged as they crashed onto the beach. Because the ocean was so stirred up, the resort posted workers to patrol along the beach to keep people a safe distance from the water. I got as close as I could to get a few photos of the gorgeous waves, though.

Annika posing
(this is what I got when I said, "look over your shoulder at me.")

Did I mention the cushion creations??

 The kids were enamored with the fountain on our building. Every time we were near it, they insisted on taking a look in the collection pool and playing in its water. Once we even found two dead cockroaches in the water ... that was a bonus, just ask the kids!

This picture makes me giggle. A lot. I think Staci was either being held up by a really funny bandit or is doing her best mime impersonation. Your thoughts??

Stick 'em up, Staci!!

The last time we were in Cabo, Annika was 6 months old. Naturally, she doesn't remember anything about the trip, but we sure do. One of our favorite photos from that trip was her in front of this very swim-up bar splashing in the pool water. It tickled us to have a picture of our baby at a bar. Because of that bit of history, having the kids (again, really funny that our 3 and 5-year-olds are sitting at a bar!) at the bar just seemed to be an imperative for this trip. Before much longer, Annika is probably going to feel like Norm from "Cheers"!

Conor and Annika at the bar
(fear not, they only had a bottle of water!)

 

Annika at "her" bar

Conor ponying up for a refreshing cold one ... bottle of water, that is!

Cabo Vacation Recap (pt 2)

As I mentioned previously, we spent a portion of each day in Mexico in the pool. I'm shocked that we didn't look like a group of prunes by the time we headed home, in fact!

The resort has numerous pools, which kept the atmosphere fresh in many ways. A few pools have swim-up bars (we like those the best!) and all have plenty of space for the kids to splash and play to the point of exhaustion. 

One of our kids' favorite pool activities was being catapulted into the water by any willing participant. Eric and Troy were the primary work horses in this arena, but I did my best to contribute... and my resulting sore arms could attest to how hard I tried to keep up with the guys.

When the adults were tuckered out, we would park ourselves on a lounge chair under a big umbrella, sip on something cold one of waiters ever-so-kindly brought to us, and watch the kids have the time of their lives.

We brought our underwater camera casing and point-and-shoot camera, as well as the big DSLR, so we could capture as much of the water-based play as possible. Enjoy!

Our little fish

Conor getting ready for another plunge

Annika: up close and personal

Cheese!!

Mama and Annika

Annika took this of us

Eric and the kids at the sky pool

Staci catching up on her poolside reading
(and from the looks of the waiter behind her, drinking)

Kat soaking up the poolside fun

Our tuckered out little fishies

Conor getting in a few laps

Up and away!

Flying Conor!

Ian showing us perfect cannon ball form

Underwater Eric

Ian gives Cabo a thumbs up

Water baby

Eric's cannon ball

Conor, Eric, and Annika... one, two, three.... GO!

Conor with his treasure .. the Toypedo

Uncle Troy taking Conor to new heights

Troy sends Annika flying (again, and again, and again)

Cabo Vacation Recap (pt 1)

Two weeks ago today (how has that much time already flown by????), we boarded a plane and headed south to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with my brother and his family.

As soon as we were seated with our tray tables locked and in the upright position, I was able to take a deep breath and feel a moment of relaxation. The days leading up to our departure were borderline chaos because, not only were we prepping for our trip, we were also prepping to have our wood floors refinished, which meant we had to move all of our main floor furniture into the one non-wood floor room on that level. Our front room was furniture galore by the time we headed out, but it was well worth the extra work ... our floors look GORGEOUS!

Because of our floors needing to be cleared, which meant our main living areas were basically unusable, and because of our freakishly early flight time (6 AM) and airport arrival time (4 AM), we decided to spend the night before our trip at a hotel across the street from the airport. Smartest move ever! All we had to do was roll out of bed, get dressed (the kids remained in the PJs, actually), brush our teeth, and load ourselves and luggage on the shuttle to the airport. I'm not certain that we did any of that with our eyes open, but did manage to do it.

We had an easy time getting through security, ate a leisurely breakfast in the food court, and then quickly shifted from walking to sprinting to the gate as we heard the final call for boarding. WHAT?!?!! We thought we had plenty of time, but that was definitely not the case. Whoops!

Conor ready for takeoff

Conor and Annika watching
their VTech tablets (best travel tool ever!)

Meredith's "we're on vacation!!" face

 

So, fast forward through the flights (and countless trips to the airplane bathroom, thanks to a potty training Conor .... yes, it is possible to fit one adult and two children in one of those bad boys, by the way. Clown cars have nothing on us!), a private taxi ride that included cold beverages (thank God!) and a stop for a few supplies at the store, we made it to the ever-gorgeous Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort. Let's all pause for a collective sigh.... AHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I kid you not when I say that the view from the resort is something I could look at every single day of my life. It is a truly stunningly gorgeous panoramic view of palm trees and the Pacific Ocean. Breathtaking.




View to the right

View to the left

While the guys got our room squared away, the kids, Staci, and I hung out by one of our favorite go-to pools at the resort. We ordered something to eat and drink, and soaked in a few moments of tranquility. We also had a visit from a local gecko, who was rather curious about us ... until Annika and Conor decided to get a closer look. That was the gecko's queue to exit stage right.

 

Senior Gecko

Originally, we were told that we'd have to change rooms after 1 night if we wanted to be in the building we'd always stayed in before. The perk of that building is it's backyard is our go-to pool. We had the option of staying in another condo the entire time, if we wanted to, or moving after 1 night. After weighing out the pros and cons, we decided to give the further away condo our base camp; two things sold us: not moving was a definite perk, plus it had a hot tub on its balcony, which was a selling factor for us because the weather looked a little questionable due to an off-shore hurricane. (Now ask me how me how many times we got in it. Yup.... not once!)

 

Troy and Kat catching their breath

Eric chilling out for a few minutes after settling in at the condo

Ian taking in the view

Before leaving for the trip, we told the kids that they could swim EVERY DAY while we were in Mexico. They made sure to hold us to that deal. We were in the pool each and every day of our stay; couldn't have gotten any better!! We brought a few diving toys and the kids' lifejackets ... we were set!

Annika playing with the Toypedo

Conor gearing up for another jump into the pool

Underwater Annika

Our wet monkeys

Conor, Eric, and Annika having fun in the sky pool

The Olson Four ... soaking up the fun in Mexico

 Stay tuned for more recaps of our trip!