The Poco Loco Olsons: 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!