The Nugent/Tepper Thanksgiving 2008

What I did on my Mexican vacation-by Nicole, Morgan and RaeRae

Here are a few pictures of what the girls' vacation looked like. I think they really enjoyed themselves and were just plain exhausted after each day. Morgan liked to start her day with a cup of hot chocolate. Rachel did too, but after many mornings of spills, we had to discouraged that.

Morgan and Nicole loved to go to Kids Club. They would have stayed all day every day if we would have allowed it. These are two of thier favorite staff members.

Nicole loved the pool and continued her quest for the perfect stroke.

Outdoor fun by the pool.

Kids Club put on a Disney show for the resort one night. Nicole is starring in the role of a mouse in Tarzan and in Cinderella.

Nicole met a really good friend from the UK. Her name was Alex. We had to meet up with her every morning at the same spot by the pool.

Bad picture of Nicole as a fish in Little Mermaid.

Morgan got to paint the man one night in the plaza.

Rachel took her swing at the pinata. Nicole was later to rip it right open.

Face painting night. My three butterflies.

Vacation Souvenirs

When I go on vacation, the souvenirs I like to bring back are my pictures. I am not one to buy much from the vacation spot to remind me of my trip, I just take lots and lots of pictures and spend all of my money developing them and displaying them in my home. So bear with me, I have a lot to share and there may be many posts related to our vacation. With that said, we had a GREAT time in Mexico. We went to the Sandos Playacar resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. This is about an hour bus ride from the Cancun airport. The resort was awesome. Everything we could have wanted and more. It was beautifully kept, service was friendly and good and we felt safe.

I would definitely recommend this resort if you are ever wanting a warm vacation spot for families. The resort had 7 restaurants, lots of snack bars (and the beverage kind also), nightly entertainment, fun poolside and beach activities and most importantly a "Kids Club". Samuel, pictured here was one of our very friendly security guys. All of the Mexican staff seemed to really enjoy seeing three small blond, blue eyed girls.

Our typical day started with me working out, YIPEE, then going to breakfast and to the pool by 9:30am. The pools, were perfect for the girls. A good mixture of shallow areas and deep. The girls really built up their confidence in the water this trip.

After the pool, the big girls begged to go to Kids Club and participate in the craft, games or other morning activities. Rachel would stay with us and then Mike and I would take her to the beach.

I can't even begin to describe to you the color of the water. Pictures just don't do it justice. I know others have said that before and now I believe it. We had many days when the waves were big and fun to swim in.

This resort was BIG. We had to take golf carts to certain parts of the resort. The girls got a kick out of riding these carts. The drivers quickly learned their names. Ricardo, our favorite driver, loved "Rachelito". The back seat was the preferred spot.

Not sure what happened to this picture it won't download. OPPS

After the beach and lunch, Rachel and I would go back to the room for a nap. Pablo, our great housekeeper, would leave Rachel fun towel creations. She thought these were great.

The resort had it's own photographer. Every day she would walk around with a certain "exotic" animal and she would take your picture. The only problem was, she was quite clear you could not take your own picture. She wanted you to buy it from the resort. We did sneak a few though.

One miracle of a day, Rachel decided to stay with the big girls at Kids Club for an hour. Mike and I got to walk the beach. This beach is very beautiful and we were the last resort on a strip so we walked where there was few people.

Nicole holding the very heavy Iguana. I thought for sure it would end up in the pool.

The grounds were beautiful. Flowers and palm trees everywhere. They had colorful fountains everywhere.

This is at one of the entrances to the pool/beach area. We had great weather. Half of the days were completely sunny, and the other half a mix of clouds and sun.

One of my favorite parts of the vacation was the fact that we were fed great food on demand whenever we wanted it. I kinda felt like a kid. The buffet's were wonderful and had a lot of choices even for the girls. We enjoyed eating things we would otherwise save for special occasions like soft serve ice cream cones at EVERY meal.

The girls really enjoyed making sand castles, jumping the waves and being able to walk out really far into the ocean without it getting too deep. Nicole did have an adverse reaction to the water. She often threw-up because she was working so hard and the salt water didn't agree with her. Once dad's arm got in the way, YUCK.

Nights after all of the swimming and sun could get tricky. Dinner time was not always pleasant. The girls were exhausted and many times our dinner reservations weren't until 7pm. But the nightly entertainment always perked them back up and we had pinatas, a Mexican festival, a Disney show, a mini disco and face painting. We never really spent more than sleeping time in the hotel room.

We had a lot of fun with the international crowd at Sandos. We didn't hear English being spoke that often. This was really a resort where the majority of the people were from Europe and Mexico. I loved that part about it. The girls, and Mike really got into trying to speak Spanish to everyone. We met friends from Italy and England. It was a very relaxing vacation. The Mayan ruins were minutes away and we couldn't get ourselves to go anywhere off the resort.

Vacation on the Brain

Playa Del Carmen anyone? Having a hard time getting motivated to pack and get ready for vacation because I am spending too much time looking at resort pics and checking the weather on the computer. I am sorry to say, but the forecast calls for sun, sun and oh yeah, more sun. A horrible 87 degrees today. I am sure there is plenty of room at the resort for all who want to come. I think I can see my self in this picture walking the beach.

Rachel's 3rd birthday party

Halloween

Our family had a great night last night. The weather was perfect and the girls were really into trick or treating this year. Our sub-division seems to get into Halloween more and more each year. We saw a lot of smoke machines, adults in costumes and even had a tractor pulling trick or treaters on a hayride. Highlights of our night included (but not limited to):
1. warm weather
2. lots of company on our walk ie: Conkey's, Timm's, Kirk's, Puls', Helman's and Demchik's
3. An over abundance of candy-Mike's favorite Reese's cups
4. Houses that served up more than candy-hot dogs and drinks
5. Bon fires and fireworks after the festivities had ended.
and last but not least
6. Our girls' old enough to walk up to the houses and say "trick or treat" themselves. We still had some stroller riding, but we'll work on that next year.
I posted photos below in a slide show. I apologize for the slow speed, I need to figure out how to speed it up.

Halloween Slideshow