Playa Del Carmen

We took the Red Eye to Cancun on the last day of school.  We wanted to start summer vacation with a bang!  And leaving the kids at Grandma's and going on a tropical vacation with the Clark fam was the perfect way :)  We spent the first 3 days waiting for the rain to quit!  Did this stop us from our adventures?  Absolutely not. (Plus, Matt and Kate were leaving early and we wanted to make sure they got to do the fun stuff!)

We want to Xel.ha- The most perfect, "Disneyland" ever!  Instead of rides and characters, there's snorkeling, rope swings, hammocks, cliff jumping, zip lines, all you can eat buffet, dolphins and more.  Unfortunately for us, the rain put a bit of a damper on the whole "tropical feeling"  but we still had fun and made great memories :)  We spent the second half of the day at Talum- ancient ruins.  We finished off EACH AND EVERY night walking the "boardwalk".  A mile long blocked off road full of amazing Mexican restaurants and fun shops.  We always ate at fabulous authentic places and then headed over to the ice cream shop :)  Our resort was only a block away so it was just perfect.

The next day, we went cave snorkeling.  The caves are called cenotes and they are pretty amazing.  There were lamps throughout the caves and a little bit of daylight.  Our guides were great and took us to 2 sites.  The second one looked like a beautiful giant pond in the middle of the garden of Eden.  I could have sat there all day and just stared.

The next day....the sun finally made its appearance.  Sadly for Matt and Kate- that's just when they left :(  I spent the rest of my vacation laying at the beach!  When we got hungry- we'd walk to the other end of the beach where there were fruit stands with the best Mango I've ever tasted.  $2!  We played paddle ball, catch, searched for shells, swam in the Ocean, got sunburned and just enjoyed relaxing.  I spent one day reading a book while everyone else went scuba diving.  Why didn't I go?  Well for starters, I somehow developed a nasty sinus infection that basically wasn't allowing me to breath!  And secondly, I'm pregnant!  Yes- but that will be for a later post.  But naturally- when I'm pregnant, I'm very sick- and that put a bit of a damper on my vacation.  But I was just so happy to be there :)  The plane ride home almost killed me and I spent a good amount of time in the bathroom.  But to wrap it up- it was a much needed, much enjoyed trip and I'm grateful to be able to do these fun things every now and then.

*The cheap smoothies and quesadillas on "that one street".
*Papa's tat.
*Bracelets for the girls with their names on them.
*McDonalds.
*Facetime in the Lobby.
*Canadian TV