Sea World

What do 3 teachers with 3 little girls under the age of 2 do on a Friday afternoon do?  They go to SeaWorld, of course!

We saw our friends from Sesame Street.

Played in the play area (well, Micah & Charli did...Addy refused).

And Micah was such a good friend, encouraging Charli to get up. 

 We visited the beluga whales.

Encountered turtles.

Watched (and danced through) a Cirque du Soleil inspired show.

 And of course, visited Shamu.

 

 Not gonna lie, I love this picture of Addy...you can see her saying "oooooo..." 

which is her favorite thing to do right now along with say "yeah" and clap.

If we were aiming to tire our girls out, I think we were successful.  Charli was asleep before we even left and 

the other two were asleep in their carseats.

 

Fat Lip

Love bug got her first fat lip today when she tripped over her own feet. :-(  I think all three of us handled the blood fairly well and Addy was all better as soon as she got to suck on the ice cube. While this is her first, it probably won't be her last fat lip, especially if she has any of my genes. :-)

Random Pics from Cancun

This is my last post about Cancun....I promise.  I just have a bunch of random photos that I wanted to share. 

A grasshopper made out of leaves by one of our waiters...

Addy ripped off his legs.  Should I be worried that she will be a bug torturer?  Hope not.

Drink in a coconut, wayyyy cooler than a drink in a glass.  Just thought you should know.

Did I mention Addy LOVES water bottles?  

Her favorite toy throughout the trip.

The lifeguard tower outside of our room through my fogged up camera lens....it was that humid.

Our tired little girl in her party dress on our last night. 

That's it folks!! 

Tulum

One of my criterion for going on a big vacation is that we visit some historical site(s).  Tim does not mind because he is just a big of a nerd and likes learning new things.  The Mayan Rivera gets its name because of all the Mayan history located within a couple hundred mile radius so we had to decide where to go. Random fact about me, I was a Native American Studies minor in college, so I was quite excited to know we could actually see some Mayan ruins, but where do we go?  I really wanted to visit Chichen Itza but it was a 2 1/2 hour bus trip one way and that was going to be a little difficult with a 1 year old.  Tim convinced me that Tulum was a better choice since it was only a 1 1/2 hour trip one direction with some stops along the way. So, Tulum it was, and I was not disappointed at all.

Addy was great on the bus ride and loved having her own big kid seat.

 When we arrived I was a little disappointed to see the lame touristy shops, but once we were inside we saw this:

Yeah, those are people up there.  5 people who were not just balancing but also playing music.  And no, they were not strapped in from what I could tell.  Here is a closer look.

Pretty cool, right?  I knew right then that this was going to be amazing.  We rode a tram to the official entrance and I took the obligatory photo of the sign/map explaining what we were going to see.

Tulum's traditional name is Zama, which means "sunrise".  It was named as such because it was the furthest Mayan city to the east and was the first to see the sunrise.  It was eventually renamed Tulum by the Spanish, which means "walled city."  We experienced the walls when we had to walk through them in walkways made for the traditionally short Mayans.

There were no walls to the east, since Tulum is directly on the Caribbean Sea.  Not only did Tulum border the Caribbean, but it was also protected from Spanish ships by a coral reef off shore. Can you see the white breaking waves off in the distance?  That is the coral reef.  You will be able to see it better in a later picture.

Then the ruins...they were amazing and so old!  And still intact after all of this time.

Even though she wasn't really that into everything our guide was saying, there were times Love Bug looked interested.

Of course, Tim & I were interested!!

 Then to look at the 2nd most beautiful beach in the world (according to my tour guide, who also said the #1 most beautiful beach is in Tahiti). We didn't go down because we had the stroller, but it sure was nice to look at.  See the coral reef in the distance?  Almost to the horizon?

Tulum was amazing and I would recommend it to anyone.  If you are ever in the area, you should definitely take a couple of hours to go visit.
Back on the bus for a 30 minute drive to Adventura Cove Palace, were we could eat and relax for a couple of hours. Tim & Addy took advantage of those 30 minutes and slept.

Adventura Cove was really cool.  It had a little lagoon where you could go snorkeling.  We didn't have enough time to figure the whole system out, but it looked amazing.

They also had indoor patio area that was really beautiful.

Then we headed back home to Moon Palace.  It was a great excursion and all three of us had a good time, but were exhausted when we got home.  Thank goodness for room service, comfy beds, and black out curtains.

Beach Palace

One of the days of our trip we took a shuttle to Cancun's Hotel Zone.  I would equate the Hotel Zone to Las Vegas' strip.  It is hotel after hotel with lots of touristy stores and restaurants in between.  We stopped at Beach Palace, so we could use our all-inclusive privileges and visit their rooftop pool and lounge area.  It rained while we were there, so we also spent some time just wandering around the hotel and found a cool little sports bar with lots of tvs and pool tables.

View from lunch (see the dark clouds coming in?)

View from the rooftop pool

View from the rooftop but in the direction of Cancun lagoon

View from the sports bar

 It was fun to see a different portion of Cancun.  I feel in love with this beach because it is exactly what you think of when you envision Cancun and the Caribbean Sea...turquoise water and white sand....gorgeous.  We spent a lot of time wandering around checking the hotel and eventually Addy feel asleep.  

The quiet gave Tim and I some time to debate the pros/cons of Beach Palace and to talk about baseball since it was the day of the All Star game (Yeah National League!!).  Then we took our shuttle back to our quiet Moon Palace.

Addy on Vacay

Adelyn loves being on vacation and is already a great little traveler.  This is great for Tim and I because she hasn't kept us from going on any trips.  Cancun was no exception.  Addy did pretty well on the planes (minus one episode when she was having a nightmare and wouldn't wake up) and great while we were on our tour.

Addy got her own seat on 3 of our 4 flights...she loved it. And we loved that she slept.

However, I would venture to say Addy's favorite part of traveling is getting to stay in hotels.  She loves hotel rooms. So many fun things to play with and hotel rooms where you can find places to hide?  Even better.

 

 

 

Even going to bed was fun.  (This routine of getting up and falling down would last a few minutes until she would finally go down and stay down for sleep.)

I must not forget.  A hotel with unlimited food and water bottles???  Addy was in heaven.

 

I think this photo looks like Alison when she was little...anyone else agree?

Addy had a great time in Cancun and I know she is just waiting for our next family adventure.

Moon Palace

I do not know where to start with our trip. I posted the professional pictures, but where do I start with the 100 + pictures I took?  I am going to start with our hotel, Moon Palace.  Hopefully through the pictures you can experience the beauty of what we called home for a week.

We were definitely in the tropics, with lots of warm weather, palm trees, beaches, and humidity.

And there were tropical animals too!  Like coatimundis (thank you to Facebook friends for helping me figure that out!!) and monkeys.

At Moon Palace there are 8 different pools.  I only got a picture of "ours" (aka the pool closest to our room).  All of them were beautiful, welcoming, and lots of shade (perfect for my husband).

We also had a fabulous beach front room, complete with a king size bed and jacuzzi tub.

Addy loved the view from her pack n play.  Can you see why?  

I am not trying to brag, I am just trying to convince you to visit Moon Palace.  It was a great experience and I would definitely recommend Moon Palace and Cancun to anyone.  Mexico has been getting a bad reputation here in the United States and this vacation reminded me how the people of Mexico are often friendly and welcoming to visitors. Add that to the beauty of Cancun and you have a wonderful vacation.