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.
