Captured by Greg

My favorite part is clicking on the 7 second mark over and over to see how hard he hits.

My second favorite part is the sound it makes.

Oh...I mean, my favorite part is that he was okay.

The First of Many

We're back, and I can't even begin to explain how amazing our trip to Mexico was. Simply put, it was one of the best weeks of my life. I loved every single minute of it. Seeing as how I have over 300 pictures, I'll have to break it up into several different posts. I'll start today with some pictures of the grounds.
This is the hut that Rob, the kids and I stayed in. It was called "La Casita."Here is an inside shot of our cozy little house. The stairs lead up to the bathroom.

A few steps from our hut was the entrance to the Cenote.
Inside the Cenote. The water slide was so much fun...but we still couldn't convince my mom to take the plunge.

This is the play room that Jude spent most of his vacation in. He'd wake up, open his eyes and say, "Now I go in the play room?" I'm seriously considering remodeling his bedroom into one of these!
This is the lounge area off of the pool/dining area/kitchen. The whole area was so open, that it was easy for all of us to be doing different things, but still close together.

The kitchen and staff. The staff were so wonderful, and really funny. They didn't speak very much English, but we had a few Spanish speakers with us to ease the language barrier. The day that we were leaving, we caught one of the staff members translating what we had written in the guest book. When I laughed and called him out for knowing English, he just laughed. Makes you wonder what they overheard!

One of the other cabanas on the property. Derek, Jessica and their kids stayed in this one.

The inside of my mom and step-dad's building.

Here's a final video of the main area. The wonderful thing about TANINAH is that we were able to occupy the property all by ourselves. They only rent it out to one group at a time, so we were able to be together, yet alone: something that my entire family hasn't done in years.

I'll leave it at that for today, but believe you me, there are many more adventures to come!

Forgive My Absence

I still have two more days, but my to do list is a mile long, and I probably won't have a lot of time for blogging. My mom is taking us on a "jungle vacation" in Mexico. Picture Swiss Family Robinson living, with today's amenities, a private chef, and a cleaning crew. There's a mini-golf course on the property, an underground swimming cave, pool, hot tub, hut-style sleeping...oh, I could go on and on, but you can just check it out HERE. I'm excited BEYOND belief. The truth is, Rob and I haven't been on a real vacation in six years, so I think we're due. I'm sure I'll be posting a RIDICULOUS amount of pictures when we get back, but for now, I'll leave you with a few summer photos that somehow missed the blog...but were definitely worth posting.

Adios Amigos!

My Giant

Jude is getting too old to still be two. Too old, and too tall. I'm starting to get the nasty looks and eye rolls from places that allow kids two and under to enter free. Everyone thinks that I'm the mom who's trying to get freebies well into the threes and fours. I don't mind if people don't believe me, but I'm really starting to wish that he was three for his own sake. At our church he spends Sunday School in the Nursery (the room for babies 18 months to 3) and he seems to be a LOT bigger than most of the kids. It became apparent in the picture I took of him and his Nursery friend last week. (Actual photo below)

The good news is that as of January 1st, all of the kids that are 3 will move out of the Nursery and into Sunday School. The bad news is that Jude's birthday isn't until January 18th. He'll miss the cut off by two and a half weeks. Lehman's terms: he'll have to spend another YEAR with the 18 month olds. I hope he doesn't scare the little kids when he starts growing facial hair next year.