A Break in the Spring is a Marvelous Thing

Mexico is the place to be, when the weather at home is 23.

This is a story all about how, our lives got twisted and turned upside down. I would like to take a minute just sit right there, I'll tell you all about Mexico and our trip down there.

It started early last Thursday morning. Well, it started before that
when B brought a cold home from school. Hers was better by
Tuesday, but Chuck and I got on the plane with runny
noses and big coughs.

I took Chuck to the doctor on Wednesday, just in case.
She said Charley had three teeth erupting. Yeah! Love a
teething kid on holiday.
(See the new one coming in on the bottom right of her mouth?)

This is our first full day. We hit the pool after (a late)
breakfast and after the 1/2 hour it took us to lube up with sunscreen.

Charley's nickname? Powder.

My girls of the too-big bathing suits tribe.

Really neat, right? Too bad someone else made it.

This is B's handy work.

B loves the ocean. The beach's name is Mexico Beach.
According to B anyway.

Charley was not a huge fan of the beach at first. Didn't even
like to walk on the sand (OK, OK, who can blame her?)

The view from the condo. Sucks right? Did my sister
get the right one or what?

We lost Charley everyday around 11. Once she slept
almost 3 hours.

We never lost B. She is a beach trouper.

The place had 4 pools, this was the little one.
Perfect for my little...

...fishies.

Or maybe B is a dolphin.

Charley is a little flamingo.
Isn't his suit cute? Aunt Lee bought it for Christmas.

Dinner one evening. The only downside where we stayed was the
never changing menu of the restaurants.

B bored at dinner.

B's lizards, Lizzie and Flowers came with us. They
went to breakfast every morning.

Cousin Jeana and B coloring.

Chuckie decided she is a climber and climbed
up every dangerous thing she could find.

I don't have pictures from every day. Sometimes I
forgot the camera, one time the batteries died.

B was all over. The pool, the beach, the ocean.

The front of B didn't get a lot of sun. She was always
squatted down digging for something. Hoping
to find a pet to bring home.

This is the mountain range we built.

There was even a river running through it.

By the third day or so, Charley was into the beach.
She liked the waves and the wet sand.

She is seriously cute in a bikini.

This is the condo building.

This says dead bee. B buried one here.

Lots of Daddy daughter time. I was still sick.
Heck, I am still sick. All the vitamin D and I
am still coughing up crap.

Remember the tribe my kids belong to? The
Too-Big-Suits tribe. They are both little twigs.

Lord only knows what B is holding.

B found at least 40 sand dollars. She would reach down into
the sand and pull one out. Big, tiny, everywhere in between.
She had some in cup with ocean water and sand - to bring home.
There were tons of tears when we put them back.

B was a beach baby all day, and wanted to stay warm.

Charley had a long nap and was raring to go!

It was nice that on the LAST day,
the girls finally decided to play together.

I should mention that is was also late afternoon.

So we are home now. It is still cold here. I missed home, but traveling kind of stinks. You know, the airlines treat you like cattle. The kids traveled pretty well. Not too much plane sleeping, and it took most of the week to get into a grove. Charley was out of sorts the first couple of days. Charley did well with the potty. Especially on the travel days. She had some accidents in the condo (love tile), mostly when no one was watching her. She still has lots of false alarms. Mostly her looking for attention, book reading and getting out of her dinner chair. This was the first year B wasn't too much of a problem. My sister might not agree, but I like traveling with her and her family. It is really important for my kids to have memories of them. They don't have a lot of family, and my sister just loves them. Cousin Jeana too. She is so sweet with B. Carrying her around, helping her out. So thank you to Lee, Dick and Jeana! (They got to condo too, so double thanks!)

So, this is the end of our story. Not too much to our journey down the Mexico way. It was a lot of work with the kids, but they had so much fun it was worth it. The best thing is traveling with them will get easier and more fun. Next year we want to do a dolphin tour. This is something we learned about on out way out of dodge - literally as we were leaving. It gives B something to look forward to next year. Adios for now!