Mexico...

Well we are back and Mexico was AWESOME! I got to spend a week with this studly man...

We had so much fun and it was the perfect length trip...we did a lot, relaxed, and were so ready to get home to Riley! It's kind of nice to avoid the dulldrums of ending a vacation with the anticipation of seeing your baby girl! Riley did great with DiDi and Doc and we talked to her everyday while we were gone! We got in late last night and even though you're not supposed to wake a sleeping baby we so did! She was so cuddly, gave us some huge grins, and showed us her improved "motoring" skills! We loaded up our baby, dogs, and all our belongings and got home in the wee hours of the morning but it was good to be home as a family! Today we skipped church and got settled...unpacking bags, doing laundry, and restocking our kitchen with food! This is our life truly getting back to some level of normalcy...it was a nice day! Since Jason has been home we have had the holidays, company, and a vacation so now it is time to get on some sort of routine!

Here's a recap of our beach getaway...

We flew to Cancun and stayed at the Aventura Spa Palace in the Riviera Maya...it was an awesome resort with great service, food, and with beautiful grounds! We left NASTY weather in Little Rock to get to sunny 80 degree weather in Mexico...what a transformation! Here's some pics of the weather we left behind...

We had an interesting ride from the airport to the hotel with an unexpected stop at a military checkpoint...apparently the Mexican federales are out in full force with increasing problems due to drug trafficking and the mafia and we looked somewhat suspicious...we had to get out of the van and they pulled all of our luggage out and had a drug dog sniff it out...all the while we stood next to the federales who were fully armed with M-16's...nice! Luckily we were "clean" and quickly made our way to the hotel which truly looked like a palace all lit up at night! We decided to have a nice dinner to celebrate making it to the hotel "safely!"

The next morning we finally got to see the resort in daylight and this was the view from our balcony...
Here are some other pics from the resort... Our first day we planned all of our excursions and enjoyed an afternoon at the spa...I have never had a spa experience like the one we did here...it was AWESOME! We started with an hour of hydrotherapy which included an incense infused sauna, a vapor steam room, whirlpools, and reflexology...then we had an 80 minute couples massage and were served tea afterwards...so relaxing! I made several trips back to the spa just for the hydrotherapy treatments!

The next day we visited the Mayan ruins of Tulum...one of the only ruins that sits on the ocean...we had a hilarious tour guide and learned lots about the Mayan culture and then had time to venture through the sites...


After our exploration of Tulum we walked around the local market and got our picture taken with some "Mayans"...

After Tulum we were off for zip-lining, repelling, and swimming in cenotes...LOTS of fun!

We had three ziplines with each one getting taller and longer...I thinking climbing the stairs on the towers was scarier than the actual zipline...we both had a blast!

After zip-lining we were off to the repelling tower...I was a little nervous about this one but it was a blast too!

After repelling we swam in a cenotes...a cenotes is an underground river and there are apparently hundreds that feed from the gulf. Many of them have not been uncovered and the one we swam through had only been known about for 3 years. You basically walk into a cave and there are your typical stalactites and stalagmites. The river was SUPER cold...65 degrees cold and we snorkeled through it. Eventually we got used to the temperature and it was beautiful!Our next day we decided to head to Playa del Carmen to hang at the beach...we found a beach club called Mamitas that had chairs and umbrellas and we laid out all afternoon. It was a lot of fun, yet interesting to quickly find out that topless sunbathing was widely accepted...weird!

After our afternoon at the beach we strolled the streets of Playa...there were tons of stores...a mix between name brand and local mercados! We had the opportunity to take a picture with these cute monkies for a small price of course! They kind of freaked me out, but we were both cracking up and the monkeys were convinced Jason had something good in his front pocket...it was hilarious!

After our stroll we decided to have an authentic Mexican dinner at a local restaurant called La Parilla...it was very good and we had TONS of food!

Our last day we took a deep sea fishing trip in the morning...we shared the boat with a couple from Liverpool who were exceptionally nice and we all had a great time and caught some trigger fish and baracuda! The waves were HUGE and it was a daunting task to take photos of our catches as we risked flying overboard to get these pictures!

That's a wrap folks!