Catching up with "A"

I tried to text "A" my yoga picture and one of the pictures from Tulum while we were still in Mexico, but I kept getting an error, so I texted it to her today (she likes yoga/pilates too).  We had a great chat (via text).  We still have only talked a couple of times since "E" was born, but text every few weeks.  We're both so busy and it's just so easy to send a text while still being with my family or doing whatever activity I'm doing and I imagine it's the same for her, especially with a baby that I'm sure requires her undivided attention.  We "talked" for a couple of hours and she sent me a couple of new pictures of him with one of her friends and a video of him laughing.  They are both doing really well and she is loving every minute of it.  I'm so glad that she continues to keep in touch.  It's so neat to be able to show my kiddos the pictures and how he is growing. 

Last Day in Paradise

 

Yes, it was a wonderful trip and it was our last day in paradise, but I think we were both excited to see our kiddos.  I was determined to do some yoga on the beach before I left, so that is exactly what I did.  I got up with the sun (only because we forgot to close the blinds by the desk, so it was starting to shine right in my face - all things happen for a reason) and threw on my work out clothes.  I stepped outside and realized it was a bit chilly, so went back and grabbed my sweater to head down to the beach.  It was so beautiful first thing in the morning and it was so quiet and peaceful.  Perfect for a morning yoga session.  I grabbed a golf cart (it was now a little after 7am) and headed to the beach.  I learned on the ride down that it was unseasonably cool this morning for Playa and it was around 50 degrees.  Once I got to the beach, I found a spot that I thought would be good and set all my things on a chair nearby.  I laid out my towel and started my session.  There were a few other people on the beach so early (no more than 5 or so), most just walking and a couple running along the tide line.  The water was surprisingly warm, but the sand still oh-so-cool.  My session lasted around 45 minutes and afterwards, I set up the timer on my camera to get some shots of a few poses.  I haven't taken any photos of my poses for a few years, so thought it would be a great opportunity and should make some beautiful photos.  I took a lot myself and then I had a nice lady running by with her son, take one with my phone.  (The photo below).  I think they all came out great, but absolutely love the one she took.  After I finished all the pictures, I had seen some people with really large conch shells, so thought I would walk the beach to see what I could find.  It was also really relaxing just listening to the water wash up on the shore and let the water run over my feet.  I actually found quite a few really great shells further down on the beach between another resort and ours, including 2 really large conch shells.  I thought the kids would love them and they would be something unique that I could bring back for them.  I had so many that I wrapped them in my towel, so I wouldn't drop them and placed it in my back pack.

 

 

When I was done walking the beach collecting shells, I grabbed a golf cart and headed back to the room.  On the way back, I saw the President of the company on a morning run.  When I got back to the room, I threw on my swimsuit, denim skirt and t-shirt since we were going to grab some breakfast before heading to the beach.  DH had his swimsuit and a t-shirt on.  We headed to La Lagunas for the breakfast buffet.  It was pretty good.  I stuck with the cottage cheese, fruit, some eggs and oatmeal.  Not too bad.  They had SO much food.  After breakfast, we rode a golf cart down to the beach and collected a few more shells and then headed back to the pool.  On our way, we thought we would get a few more photos of the locations around the resort before having to head back and get ready to leave.  Here are a few of them.

 

This is the infinity pool at the edge of the resort, next to the beach.

The pool bar (which was not open yet)

This was part of a maze of pools. A lot of them were connected, but there were big obstacles in the middle of them, which made it seem like they were separate pools.

It was a little bit overcast, so after laying by the pool for a little while, we decided to go ahead and head back to the room, order some room service for lunch and then get ready to leave.  Luckily, I had packed almost everything the night before, so there wasn't much left to do.  We had a wonderful lunch.  DH had clam chowder (for the 4th time on the trip - he said it was fabulous...and obviously, his favorite) and a steak.  I had a shrimp cocktail (that was phenomenal), a salad and a roasted chicken.  Once we finished lunch, we grabbed our luggage and headed to the lobby to meet the group.

 

A few minutes later, our charter bus arrived and we all loaded up to head to the airport.  They asked us to identify our luggage before it was placed on the bus (to avoid forgetting anyone's luggage I assume) and I couldn't find my bag.  Ugh!!  This is why I don't ever let my luggage leave my sight I thought to myself.  I'm frantically looking everywhere and the little bellman takes me to another area it might be.  Nope, not there.  Seriously?!  On the last day?!  Well, I walk to the other side of the bus and they are loading luggage there too.  They start unloading some of the bags and what do ya know?  There's my bag.  Whew!!  I went to get on the bus with DH.  We got to the airport, checked in and headed to the gate.  We were definitely plenty early and Mexico security was SO much easier than here in the states.  The terminal was like a mini shopping mall, so DH stayed with our stuff, while I went to grab some coffee and check out the little shops to see if there was anything else for the kiddos.  I did find some fun little, wooden whistles (almost like a recorder) and a bracelet for DD along with a bookmark for my Mom.  She has always been a reader and that's usually what I bring her back from vacations.  It started when I was back in HS and brought her a nice leather one back from Ireland.  The flight seemed so long going back, but I watched a movie, so that helped.  We arrived home, deplaned and headed to the car.  It was a little funny, because I NEVER check bags if I don't have to, so DH and I each had a carry on.  We walked through baggage claim and I saw a few of my colleagues and told them, "Have a great night.  I'm sure I'll talk to some of you tomorrow." with this big grin on my face.  They looked at me funny and one asked about our luggage.  I said, "We've got it.  We don't check bags."  Kinda felt bad for them, but glad to not have to wait for all that luggage.  We headed to my Mom's since she was keeping the kiddos to say goodnight.  We both had to work in the morning and she was taking the day off already, so we just let them stay there one more night, but definitely wanted to see them. 

 

 Here is a video with a lot of the photos from the trip.  Not the best quality, but it will do.  It was such a WONDERFUL trip.  Mexico Trip Photos

Fun Day of Activities

As part of our trip, my company covered the cost of one excursion per person.  I chose to go on a tour of Tulum and then to Xel-ha (Shell-ha), which is like a water park with an ocean lagoon instead of a pool.  DH decided to golf, since the course at the resort we are staying is the only PGA course in Mexico.  So many of my colleagues decided to get massages.  Don't get me wrong, massages are great, but DH and I both wanted to do something we couldn't do back home and we both love the outdoors.  I was so afraid it was going to rain, since the forecast had a 50% chance.  I was determined that it meant a 50% chance that it wasn't going to rain and it worked.  The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  Blue skies with a few clouds here and there. I got a decent amount of sun the day before, so I made sure to put on plenty of sunscreen.  I wasn't taking any chances.  Tulum was beautiful and has such history.  Our guide was great and really gave us a lot of information about the Mayan people, as well as walked us to some perfect spots to get some great pictures.

 

In front of the temple.

 

Standing on the cliff edge with the watch tower in the background.

 

So many beautiful shades of blue.  It was truly amazing!!  The colors are so much more vivid that it seems in the pictures.

After Tulum, we (myself and two of my colleagues with their spouses) headed to Xel-ha for the remainder of the day.  I snorkeled for a bit and then decided to explore the property.  It was convenient because they flew the orange fish kites where the fish were more prevalent.  I walked A LOT!!  Luckily, I had water shoes, so I didn't have to worry about getting my tennis shoes all wet if I decided to get back in the water.   They had so many things to do.  You could swim in the cenotes on the property, zip line, float on the "lazy river" and one of my favorite things I did.....cliff jumping.  I say jumping, because the rules said, "feet first.  No diving."  It was so much fun.  I did it three times and it was a little of an adrenaline rush.  It was probably a little taller than a high dive, but still a bit scary the first time none the less.  After jumping a few times, I finished walking the property and then headed back to the other side on the little tram they have that runs from one end to the other.  I grabbed something to eat and then relaxed in a hammock.  They had two hammock areas, where there were probably 20 + hammocks and everyone was just hanging out and some were even sleeping.





After I got back to the resort, I found DH napping after his golf game.  I woke him up and told him I wanted to go down to the beach.  After all, this was day 3 at this beautiful place, within walking distance to the beach and we hadn't even been down there yet.  We put on our swimsuits and headed down to the beach before it started to get to dark.  The colors of the ocean and sky were beautiful pastels at sunset.  We saw some of the other people in our group at the beach, so had them take a couple of pictures for us.  There weren't a ton of people on the beach at this time of day/evening, so we really enjoyed our stroll along the beach, letting the water run over our feet.  The weather was still really nice, although it was starting to get a little cooler.  The really neat thing is that we imagined the water would be really cool, if not cold and boy were we wrong.  We let it run over our feet and to our surprise, it was really warm.  The cold part, was when the water retreated back and we went up further on the beach into the soft sand.  It really made are feet cold, so we would get closer to the water where we could keep our feet in a little longer.

 

Me and DH on the beach at sunset.  Obviously, I had on a different swimsuit Friday on the
boat, since my belly really didn't get any sun.  LOL!

I loved letting the water run over my feet and thought it looked so cool, so here is the best picture I could capture.

Ahhhhmazing!

We will be here until Sunday, so today was our first full day.  The company chartered a 65 foot Catamaran for a snorkeling trip.  Unfortunately, DH doesn't do well on the open water, so he stayed behind.  We learned the hard way on our honeymoon in Jamaica (maaaaany years ago) that he gets sea sick.  I, on the other hand do just fine, so I was going to go.  I would've felt bad knowing that my company had paid for us to all enjoy this special trip if I had not gone.  It really was a lot of fun.  We all met in the lobby of the hotel at 8am, where they had a charter bus waiting to take us to the boat.  It was so much bigger than I thought.  It really was amazing.  This is the boat we were on.

 

There was a 30% chance of rain today and it was sprinkling when we left the hotel.  By the time we arrived to the dock where the boat was docked, it was still lightly sprinkling and the crew was drying the covered areas and sweeping away the water.  Our tour guide assured us that she had spoken to the Big Guy upstairs and it would be a great day.  Once the boat was untied and started to pull out of the bay, the rain cleared, but it stayed a bit overcast while we traveled along the coast to our destination.  Even though it was overcast, it was still fairly warm and comfortable on the boat.  It had a bar, a grill on the back and 3 bathrooms below deck and ran on a crew of 6 I believe.  I just had bottled water to drink, as I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible and knew I would be snorkeling when we arrived at our destination.  I just wish I had realized how big the boat was going to be and that there would be a covered area.  I did bring my "good camera" (DSLR) on the trip, but didn't want to risk the rain continuing or not having a safe place to keep it, so I left it at the hotel with DH. 



A little overcast on the ride out to the reef.



Once we got to our destination, most of the clouds had dissipated and the weather was beautiful.  They dropped anchor and we all grabbed our gear for our snorkel excursion.  We swam over to a reef about 100 yards away and I saw some beautiful fish.  I could've hung out there for hours.  It's so peaceful once you stick your head under the water.  All the fish swimming around and the quiet under the water.  It was amazing.  The snorkeling really didn't seem to last that long, but it was still a great adventure.  We all swam back to the boat and turned our gear in.  Some people decided to rest, while a few of us had some other fun in mind.

 

Napping on the netting.  This was the best place to rest, because the sun was so warm, but the netting provided a nice breeze to keep us cool.

 

 

While they finished grilling our lunch, several of us just swam in the ocean (without our life jackets, as we were required to wear them for snorkeling).  Oh my gosh, the water was perfect.  It was cool when you got in, but it felt great after we were in for just a few minutes with the sun shining.  We even had some fun jumping off the back of the catamaran.  It was like jumping off a high dive and I even did a front flip.  SO much fun.

 

Lunch!!  We had a choice before we got on the boat of chicken, beef or shrimp.  I'm in Mexico...of course I picked shrimp.  It was fabulous!  They had a macaroni salad, a traditional salad with corn, guacamole and chips too.  Mmmmmm.

 

After lunch, we headed back to the dock and back to the resort.  We were able to take a group picture in front of the boat before we left.  It was quite comedic actually, as one of my colleagues had slipped on the boat and hurt her back a bit, so she was sitting on a golf cart.  Luckily she was able to make it into the picture too.

 

When we arrived back, I found DH and took a shower and changed clothes for our Eco-boat tour and then dinner.  We learned a lot on the tour too.  The weather was beautiful and the tour was about 45 minutes and took us all around the property.  There are actually 3 properties connected to each other that are all owned by same group.  They explained that way the Cenotes work and how they had to create the canals because all of the rivers are underground.  It took them 18 years to build/create these 3 resorts because they had to ensure that they were keeping the environment protected.  They had to drill away all the limestone above the Cenotes and then the water came up through them to create the canals.  It was amazing how clear the water became as we got closer to the source of the fresh water and the closer we got to the ocean, the cloudier it was due to the mixing of the two waters.  They have over 400 species of animals on the properties and they are a refuge, so they are not allowed to destroy or capture any of the animals.  There are crocodiles, all kinds of birds, ducks and fish.  It really was a great tour.  We wanted to take another one before we left, but we just didn't have the time. 

Me and DH on the Eco-boat tour.

 

DH had made reservations at one of the restaurants at the resort, El Puerto and we headed that way.  Luckily, where the boat docked, we just had to walk up the stairs to the restaurant.  We had a wonderful, romantic dinner.  The food was FABULOUS and it was really nice to spend this time together, especially before beginning this next journey!

 

Our Appetizers - Coconut Shrimp and Crab Cake

Bonus Dessert F to B (Peach Macaroon, Chocolate,
Mango Jelly and Chocolate Pyramid)

 

Our table overlooked the area in the picture from the first day.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



"Work" Vacation

 

Today we left for Playa del Carmen, Mexico for my incentive trip for work. It is a trip that we, as Managers earn each year for exceeding our goals. This is the first one I have been able to attend, as the first time, my youngest DS was only 5 weeks old and I was not going to leave him home (even though it would be with my mother) at 5 weeks.  I was still breastfeeding and it would've just been too hard, plus I would miss all of that time with him.  The 2nd time, I was pregnant with baby "E".  I was NOT going to miss it again and I'm so glad we went. 

This trip is for managers and spouses, so DH got to come along too.  We flew out of DFW at 11:10am and arrived at The Fairmont Mayakoba around 3pm.  Here are a couple of pictures from our arrival at the resort.                    





            

              The entrance to our resort.



The view from the lobby.

  

We got into the lobby, checked in and headed to our room. There were about 42 of us all together and we all had Casitas like the ones on the right in the picture above, but ours were on the left.  The path to get there was absolutely beautiful and the rooms were just as nice.  We got to the room, unpacked a few things and then I had to get off to my one and only meeting of the whole trip.  When we walked in, the room was amazing!  The bathroom was huge and DH joked that we would just spend the whole trip in there.  hehe

The bathroom.  There are actual trees behind the glass. 

 

Luckily, it was a pretty fun meeting, complete with champagne and all.  I don't drink much at all to begin with, but realistically, I've only had 2 glasses of wine since baby "E" was born and obviously, nothing for the 2 years before that due to cycling and being preggo.  Needless to say, after the 2 whole glasses of champagne at the meeting, I had a little buzz going.  The meeting was a "roast" of sorts (the comedy type of course) where the Sr. Management team discussed the accomplishments that got each of us there, customized to our strengths and in some cases our hobbies.  It was really fun.  After our meeting, we all went to grab our spouses for a little mixer since not everyone knows everyone.  The company I work for is not huge, and most of us have been there at least 5 years or more (a lot close to 10 years +), so most of us know each other and each others spouses, but there are a few newbies too.  I met DH at the restaurant they had selected for the get together.  It was quite fun.  They had a musician playing and of course, open bar.  LOL!  I only had a pina colada, although I'm quite sure several of my colleagues had much more to drink. They also had a photographer, who took pictures of each couple, as well as a group photo (which I will have to post later due to a photoshop mistake - quite funny really). 

Not the best quality, but it's a picture of the picture.  : )  <3 him so much!!

After visiting for a while, we headed back to the room to finish unpacking and turn in for the night, as it had been a pretty long day and I had to get up early on Friday for the catamaran trip, plus it was dark and we couldn't really see a lot around the property.