Each year, with the summer sales contest at Northwestern, Brad and I have been able to go on some pretty great trips. This year there was no contest but Brad and I decided we still wanted a vacation. This fall has been crazy busy, but we had a long weekend in November that we could fit in a getaway. My mom graciously agreed to take care of our kids, but we (well actually I) decided to take Olivia since she is still so young. We had a wonderful and very relaxing time!
Olivia is precious and it was nice to have this special one-on-one time with her. However, the downside was that the trip kind of revolved around her and what she wanted and when she wanted it. ha ha While discussing the downsides of traveling with a baby, Brad and I actually realized that since having Eden we have never been on a trip together without a baby, or without me being pregnant. Maybe next year will be our year as a couple. :)
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| She loved crawling around the airport and getting all kinds of attention from strangers. |
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| Thank goodness for naps on the plane! |
On the way out she did really good on the plane rides. Fortunately, there were extra seats so we were able to get a seat for her in between us so we didn't have to hold her the whole time.
We were very relieved to finally arrive in Mexico and check in to our beautiful room. We stayed at the Moon Palace all inclusive resort. Brad's parents, and Greg and Steph have both come to this resort before so we were excited to explore here too.
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| The view from our room |
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| The downside of the beautiful view was that we were very close to this stage and concert area (the pink lights) so the music was very loud at night. Fortunately we had Olivia's noise maker which helped to drown out most of the sounds of the party outside that we were missing. :) |
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| The big tub became a great play area when we needed her to stay put. |
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| Olivia slept in a pack and play behind the curtains. It actually worked quite well to cover her from the sounds and lights so we didn't have to go to bed at 8pm too. :) |
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| We were definitely all up and going nice and early every day though thanks to this little beauty. |
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| The buffets were pretty good. Especially the breakfast. |
The water in the pool was pretty cold, but she didn't seem to mind too much. She loved being in there and splashing around. I'm sure Brad also loved having a swimming buddy because that water was too cold and it wasn't hot enough outside to entice me to get in there.
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| Olivia ate a lot of guacamole while we were there. She loved it. |
We spent a lot of time down at the beach hanging out. Brad and I would read, and Olivia loved playing and crawling around in the sand. It was very cute to watch her. Obviously I was enjoying getting tons of pictures of her while she was happy as ever to be there.
And then, unfortunately, she began to try to eat the sand. At one point when Brad saw her going for it he said something to stop her and it startled her and made her really sad. She started crying and just bent over in half and put her face right into the sand and then she was even more devastated. It was actually very cute and funny.
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| Brad, of course, was very happy about all the lizard creatures. |
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| We all did a lot of eating... |
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| Brad kicked my butt at chess, as usual. |
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| We went on nice long walks along the beach every day. It was beautiful. |
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| The beach entry area of the pool was perfect. Olivia loved crawling around here so much. She would just splash and giggle and get all kinds of attention. |
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| Another face plant into the sand. |
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| Brad tried to feed the cuates, which are a weird monkey animal that we were introduced to last time we were in Mexico. People passing by warned him though not to get bit or he may get some weird diseases. ha ha |
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| The sunsets were beautiful. I loved being outside enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. |
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| Brad caught this tiny little geeko outside our hotel room. I can't remember if this was before or after he chased another one right into our room. We never did find it by the way. |
Overall we had an amazing time. We read a lot, took naps, ate a lot, relaxed, and spent some really fun time with Olivia. I'm so grateful we were able to take this vacation and explore this new area in Mexico.
And, of course, I'm so very grateful to my mom for keeping Eden and Bentley for me. They were really excited to get to spend the weekend at grandma's house and were very anxious for us to leave. Here are some cute pictures my mom took while they were there.
Grandma has TONS of legos so they were in heaven.
Apparently they were put to work cleaning up the endless amounts of leaves. I'm not sure how efficient that actually was.
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| Looks like grandma and grandpa wore them out pretty good! |
