The Riviera Maya!!!

Well by now a lot of you know that we celebrated our birthday weekend in the Riviera Maya!!! We were so fortunate with weather (having narrowly missed a hurricane on either end of our trip!) and also to have Mark's folks watch Tristan for us. What a blessing! It was so comforting to know that he was being so well taken care of and it was wonderful to reconnect as a married couple!!! I also want to post some pictures of T's time with his Pop & Mimi so I'll start there and then put up some pictures of Mexico :) !!

Tristan also just got his 3rd haircut. His first haircut was pleasantly uneventful. The second was a nightmare beyond all comparison and this third time was somewhere in between. They did a "scissors only" cut which seemed to help but he didn't like wearing the cape. Although the fire truck seat and the Thomas the Train video did help a little :)

Tristan had loads of fun helping Pop & Mark plant some new trees in our backyard and then helping Mimi water them. He got soaked but he loved every second of it! While we were gone they had tons of fun in the backyard. T even helped Pop put up some beams around the fort so he won't fall off the ledge when he wants to go up and slide! But I think the FAVORITE pasttime was looking for airplanes and helicopters. We don't live far from the Centennial airport (a small airport for private planes) and of course we're relatively close to the Airforce Academy so there is never a shortage of air activity.

And of course we had to go to the zoo :) Man we are getting our money's worth out of that family pass!!!
While we were gone they went to Belleview Park and rode the choo choo train and went to the petting zoo! Already a favorite I know - T told us all about it! He especially liked the pig (he got to pull the tail!) and the train :) Thanks SO MUCH Pop & Mimi for such a wonderful time!!!

Our trip to the Riviera Maya was AWESOME. I can't say enough good things about it but my favorite part was just reconnecting with my hubby. It's hard for me to "decompress" from being a mom and switch hats to wife in the evenings, even when we do get the occasional dinner out. I didn't realize just how much I needed this personally - a whole weekend away, just me & Mark. It was fantastic.

On a less sappy note :) Our hotel was INCREDIBLE. We stayed at the Iberostar Tucan and it was GORGEOUS. Possibly one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed in. There were marble floors but everything was OPEN and there were pools of water and waterfalls everywhere with koi, ducks, swans, flamingos - all of this natural wildlife surrounding you. It was literally in the jungle - but still in a luxurious setting! On the path way down to the beach we saw monkeys, peacocks, and even some wild chickens! It was incredible! Here are a few pictures of the main hotel:

We spent our first day relaxing on the beach. Mark played beach volleyball while I sat on my lazy bum, read my book, and drank virgin pina coladas all day :) We tried to do a little sailing in the afternoon but unfortunately there wasn't much wind so it was back to my lazy and Mark's athletic ways :)

The next day we went on a snorkeling excursi0n. We went to 3 sites - The first was a cenote, or underground river/ lake, only the top of the river had caved in a long time ago to reveal this large lagoon. We felt like we were in Lost!

The second site was an underground cenote complete with stalagtites and stalagmites - SO COOL! Probably our favorite just because it was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. It was COLD! (or as the guide said "a little bit refreshing" !) but definitely worth it. We also got to see where the scuba divers could go deep into the underground river, way past the cave. It was EERY looking down into the dark nothingness - Too scary for my taste!!! But what we saw was SUPER COOL.

The third site was an ocean inlet where the freshwater from the cenotes meets the saltwater of the ocean. Because saltwater and freshwater can't mix, it made the water seem kind of greasy and murky. It was really interesting but we preferred the saltwater portion of the swim where we could see the sealife better!

All in all it was a fantastic, wonderful trip. We wished we had more time there - You could easily fill 10 days with lots and lots of things to see and do including visiting some Mayan ruins (which, regrettably, we just didn't have the time for). But we did get the #1 thing we wanted which was time together :) !!!