Sunshine, Sand, Ocean and the Pool

*BEWARE-Lots of picture to follow*
We are back, reluctantly, from our 2nd family vacation to Mexico. About 5 weeks ago, Mike and I decided we should take a family vacation. Knowing Mike, you know that to him that meant, "great lets go tomorrow". And basically, three weeks later, that is what we did. We decided to return to Mexico because we had such a great time there a year and a half ago.


We stayed first in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico at the Gran Porto Real Resort. It was beautiful, clean, right on the beach and in the middle of the quaint town of Playa.


"Yeah we are here. Now when can we go swimming"

We stayed in a great room with beds for all of us! The bunk beds were a hit.

The view from our room was spectacular. This is the best view we have had out of all of our vacations. It was right over the pool, but we felt like we were right on the beach. Wow!

Just in case you wanted a massage on the beach. Mike did get a massage, but not on the beach!



This is one of the restaurants on the resort. The girls loved the buffet and were independent with their choices, not always well balanced, but yummy!

Rachel met a friend from Toronto. Ava and Rachel were inseparable.


Mike and I had a dinner on the beach. We decided this may be the most romantic thing we have done since being married. It was so much fun. We had our own table right on the water, with our funny waiter and violinist. We ate dinner with our feet in the sand. Mike orderer surf and turf, and me just the turf! The waiter was a bit confused on my choice. It was so much fun. Then we had a photographer come and take staged pics of us and we were cracking up. The highlight of the dinner was me almost being hit right in the head with a soccer ball by some late night beach walkers. Luckily, I was saved by the Tiki torch.






The kids club at the resort had some fun activities for the girls. This night was, "puppet night". This was not an ordinary show. They were marionette puppets. The show was funny and entertaining and the girls got to try out the puppets.




We could walk along the beach at Playa. There were fishing boats along the shore waiting for some tourist to want to go out and fish, for a price of course. We played in the waves most days, the water of the ocean is the prettiest color I have ever seen. The pictures really can't capture the color. Wow God, it is so beautiful!






We were up most mornings by 6:30am and on the beach by 7:00am. It was calm and refreshing and already in the 70's. What a way to start the day.


The staff at the kids club were so much fun. The kids were welcome at any point of the day. Morgan was always looking at the schedule for the club and making sure she made it to special activities like these mini piñatas!

On Sunday morning, we decided to transfer our vacation to a sister hotel in Cancun. This is the original hotel we had reserved, but to make a long story short, someone messed up on our reservation and there wasn't room for us. But, a suite became available for the end of our vacation. This was a resort that catered more to the kids. It was bigger, had better food, more kids activities but was also inhabited by lots of "young adult" spring breakers. So lots of fun for the girls, not much sleep for us. This is the Cancun beach. Lots more bigger high rise hotels. It felt a lot like being on Virginia Beach to me.

They had a great big water slide for Morgan and Nicole and a fun Pirate ship water park for Rachel.




Mike taught Nicole how to Boggie Board on the waves. She was cracking up.





Mike found his new "dream" job. On the resort was a church that over looked the beach. He felt pretty confident this would be a great fit for him.

Most of the time you would find Mike walking along the beach.










The vacation was wonderful. On most days we had the big decision of either starting off at the beach or the pool. We were wiped out at night, and the girls were usually falling asleep at dinner. Mike and Morgan did make it out a few nights to watch the nightly shows, but still we were all back by 9:30pm. It was another great time to make memories as a family. Thanks for sharing in our memories.