I’m already sad to report that this may be our last Spring Break trip!  As you know, Reece is very dedicated to gymnastics and the Kansas state meet always occurs around our break, and you aren’t allowed to compete if you miss that week of practice.  UGH!  We will need to get creative on our spring break travels going forward.  This year, however, our trip was already planned, in the books, paid for, and no one was stopping us from getting on that flight to Mexico!  When your family rarely gets to be together as a full crew of 6, scheduling time together becomes a priority.  I started early this time with the packing process because it can really get overwhelming.  Of course, the girls turned it into a fashion show…they always make things fun!And there is nothing cuter than Reece’s lists!  She wanted to make double sure we were prepared!

The boys were no where in sight during the packing.  Next time I’m going to forget their underwear on purpose and see what happens 😉

 

We had 6 suitcases and 6 packpacks loaded and ready for a 3:30am wake up call (holy moly, that’s early!)

 

When we arrived in Cancun, we stepped right into our transportation to the resort in a flash but it eventually took an hour to get there with heavy rain showers and traffic.  My sister and brother-in-law were anxiously awaiting our arrival…so they say ;)!  They spent a few days at the resort alone.  They’ve traveled with us before…they fully know the mayhem that sets in when we arrive!Take a peek at our 3 room villa – with a rooftop deck…it was awesome and the perfect set up for the 8 of us.  Thanks to Shauna & Scott for getting this booked through their membership!

 

Shauna and Scott had a room, Reece & Morgan had a room, and me, Brian, and the boys had the main suite.  This is a view of the resort…

 

Within minutes of our arrival, the kids were already ordering strawberry daquiri’s…this was only the start of a week-long plunge into endless junk food and sugary drinks. 

We have been lucky enough to travel to many destinations, and stay at some pretty great places, but what was unique and my favorite part about this resort, was it was in the center of a jungle/cenote.  We saw so many monkey’s, Coati’s, Paca’s…all kinds of wildlife.  I know this was a high-light for the kids as well.  It was a daily routine for us to walk through here and see how many monkey’s we could spot.

As you can see, they get really close to you!  It almost seems like they will jump on you!

 

We spent the first day parked at the pool as we had not gotten our request in yet for a beach cabana.  The kids played endless amounts of water basketball – we brought along a blow up hoop from home, and Reece did gymnastics and pool flips constantly.

 

The rest of the week we parked ourselves in two cabanas on the beach and had an absolute ball!  Brian and Scott had to stand in line each day at 3 to get them reserved…we were lucky to have them.  Despite the fact that there are tons of them, many are already reserved by members, so only a few are left for the taking.

There were large tide breakers in the water that were the hit of the beach.  Everyone loved swimming out there, standing on them, and jumping off.  Hours of fun!Our daily to do list was plentiful….take a walk, see monkey’s, eat & drink, play basketball, eat & drink, play beach soccer, eat & drink, run a race on the beach, eat & drink, play pool basketball, eat & drink, play catch, eat & drink, do back handsprings and handstands constantly, play cards, order room service, hang out on the rooftop, eat & drink, read a good book, play beach paddle ball, eat & drink, do yoga.  Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating on the eating and drinking, but I’m not exaggerating on the daily activities.  We had a lot we wanted to pack in each day!!

One day in, and the boys are already sunburned and ordering pizza from room service.  Note to self: never let them go on a high school or college spring break trip!

 

Morgan has read this book 4 times now.  We think it’s time for her to put that one back on the shelf and venture on to a new one!  We joked that she truly is a “heartbreaker” since she has now broken up with two boyfriends!  Most recently, she broke up with Zach on the last day of our trip.It’s just too much work to have a boyfriend…she’s too busy playing basketball with a fancy drink in one hand and learning how to play blackjack.  You know…really important stuff!We got dressed up for dinner each night and laughed about our daily adventures, talked smack about who was the best card/”rollers” player, filled out our march madness brackets, enjoyed a magician, and came home with some awesome souvenirs!
Drew ate more bacon for breakfast each morning than I thought was humanly possible, and I think he still weighs less than 60 lbs.  La Brasserie quickly became our breakfast favorite.  By the end, the waiters knew exactly what we wanted…shrimp omelette, extra crispy bacon, hash browns, chips & guacamole.  Of course, Brian & Scott would hit the taco stand on the way into breakfast – just a pre-breakfast snack 😉

Jake and Drew ate so many cheeseburgers on the beach, we weren’t sure if their bodies might go into shock when cheeseburgers weren’t readily available at home!  So far, we’re managing, but a full blown detox is on the to-do list!

 

The final day is always a hard one.  We are thrown right back into the madness the minute the plane lands back home.  You can see Reece is thrilled….this is what a week of sun and sugar will do!

Morgan got to sit in first class on the way home and Reece never did stop flipping!

 

 

This vacation meant so much to our family…to be together, to have so many laughs, so many memories, so many stories to tell!!We are already exactly one month post Spring Break and there were so many funny things the kids said that we wished we had written down!  Next time!Bye Bye Mexico, hope to be back again!