Random Spring Break (and some other stuff, too)

While James and I were in Mexico, Charlotte had a showoff day at dance. I was sad to miss, but this is their third one this year, so they do them pretty regularly. I was so thankful that my friend, Jennifer, was able to take Charlotte home so that my mom didn't have to fight with Grey for an hour in the tiny waiting room. It's one of my most stressful hours each week! Jennifer also got some great pictures of Charlotte. Thanks, Jennifer!

Char and her friend, Madison (Jennifer's daughter)...

Such cute friends!

Tuesday of Spring Break while I was at work, Aunt Melanie and Grandee took Charlotte and Cousin Brooke to American Girl for lunch, an art activity, and some shopping...

Charlotte always loves to drink out of these little cups whenever we go.

Charlotte bought an Our Generation doll from Target with some money she got for Christmas, but we weren't sure if it would be looked down upon to bring that brand of doll to the AG café, so she brought her Bitty Baby instead. She's really hoping to get an American Girl doll for her birthday this year. I'm sure she will:)

Thursday Grandee and Poppy took Hunter, Charlotte, Brooke, and Carson to the skating rink, and then everyone came over to our house to grill out. Those cousins have so much fun with each other and are always sad when it's time to say goodbye.

Sadly, we didn't do anything on Friday. I worked that day and when I got home it was all rainy. I didn't feel like getting out in the rain again, so James picked up a pizza on the way home and we just hung around the house.

Saturday morning, we met Amelia and her friend Ava (and her sister Lillianna) at Northpark to see Cinderella...

Best move ever, y'all! We loved it and can't wait to buy it when it comes out on DVD!

Sunday I had plans to go to the zoo, but there were too many errands to run. Thankfully I hadn't told the kids, so they didn't know what they had missed. Traveling to Mexico the week before spring break makes you a much less fun mom!

Today I have the day off work, so Grey and I ran some more errands. I've been thinking a lot lately about how birth order affects who you become. I have more patience with Grey than I did (and do) with the other two. I think a big part of that is that I don't care nearly as much what others think of my parenting now that I'm 8 years in. So when Grey runs around the post office throwing rolls of bubble wrap and maniacally laughing, I just laugh with him and decide to come back later. He did this today on our errands, and as I was strapping him back into his car seat laughing at him, I made a vow to myself to try and have the same attitude and patience with my two big kids. I certainly love and cherish them just as much, but they have had the disadvantage of a much less experienced momma bringing them along the way.

We headed to Cane's for lunch where Grey cracked me up even more...

He kept dipping his fork in the Cane's sauce, eating it, and saying, "Yummy!"...

I think it's safe to say that he's going to be the clown of the family!

Tomorrow is Hunter's 8th (EIGHTH!) birthday, and I have several surprises in store for him! Can't wait!

Spring Break - Arboretum

Yesterday was Poppy's birthday, so we spent most of the day playing at their house with Brooke and Carson. Today, we headed to the Children's Garden at the Arboretum. Char always loves this celery slide, but this was the first time that Grey rode on his own...

He loved it, and rode over and over!

Of course we had to pose in the pea pod. One of the kids actually asked if they could take a picture in it before I even mentioned it this time!

More sliding...

It was so cute to watch him slide with glee and then run around on his short little legs back to the stairs to do it all again...

Hiding in the artichoke...

Then we moved to the nature area and each kid found their own area to explore...

One of Hunter's favorites is the water play, and it looks like little brother will love it just as much. He kept exclaiming, "Wah-duh! Wah-duh!" and pointing...

They both hit their targets!

Then we stopped to check out the kaleidoscope and build puzzles for a while...

 

It was kind of cold and gloomy (and wet from the rain yesterday), but we had a fun little visit! Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow so we can spend more time outside. This is too wet for spring break!

Spring Break - Dallas World Aquarium

We hopped right into spring break after we got back from Mexico, and Sunday, we headed to the Dallas World Aquarium. We're pretty sure the last time we went was on Hunter's 3rd birthday. He had a meltdown, which is probably why we haven't been back in 5 years. He did great this time, but Char kind of started to lose it at the end...my kids just aren't animal lovers. I think Grey may be a different story, though. He seems to love to look at them and talk about them.

 

It was way crowded, so there was a lot of standing around and waiting or trying to get past people taking pictures.

 

Grey was excited when he saw the waterfall and shouted, "water!" which sounds like "wahtuh!"...

Hunter liked reading fun facts about all of the animals on the computer screens. We read about the giant otter, but then couldn't find him. We were stuck in front of his area for a long time because of the line, so I thought we'd get a photo since we were just standing around even if the otter was nowhere to be found...

The other side of the waterfall...

The big aquarium wall...

Everyone except Charlotte was fascinated by at least one of the sea animals in there. She was just frantic that they were going to hurt her.

Then we headed to all of the little aquarium tanks...

Look at those crazy seahorses!!

Moon jellyfish...

Grey reached out like that at most of the tanks. I think he really loved it.

We headed outside to see the penguins and got to watch them have lunch...

Shark tank!

I always love this part.

The flamingos are waaaaay behind them...

Everyone was crowded around the jaguar, so it was hard to get a good picture of him...

Charlotte was particularly over it at this point, so we rushed to finish and headed to El Fenix for an early dinner.

Today, we made cookie monsters and watched The Secret of the Wings after I got home from work. Then tonight we headed to Grandee and Poppy's house because Aunt Mel, Uncle Bob, Cousin Brooke, and Cousin Carson are in town. The kids were all giddy with laughter and so excited to see each other. Excited for our week of fun!

Mexico!

James and I headed to Riviera Maya on Tuesday morning to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We almost cancelled our trip because Grey had a double ear infection and RSV, and my grandmother was having an angioplasty as we were flying out. My mom, who was watching the kids, encouraged us to go, and I'm so glad we did. My grandmother got 2 stints, and Grey took his antibiotics without difficulty. So by the time we got back home on Saturday night, they were both feeling better.

 

Heading to paradise...

Right as I took that picture, the man behind us said, "Photo bomb" in the funniest little accent. I told him that he totally should have! Our flight wasn't full, so we had our entire row to ourselves. The extra seat was a nice bonus. We read our books the most of the way so the flight went by super quickly.

Our resort, El Dorado Seaside, was about an hour from the airport, so by the time we got there and dumped everything in our room, it was after 3pm (their time). We headed to the Sandwicherie for a lunch outside. Here's part of our view...

Margaritas all around!

We met a fun couple from Austin and had a good chat during lunch. They were married in Dallas the exact same day as us!

That night we went to an Italian dinner and then to see a Comedian Magician. It was a good show...

They handed out these strawberry banana flavored drinks when you walked in the door...

I didn't care for it, so James got two:)

The next morning we slept in and ordered room service for breakfast...

Then we headed to relax on the beach! They had a stand were you could paint a coconut, and they would place them all around the resort. This one was sitting outside of our room, so we had to take a picture because Char's name was on it...

We couldn't find a spot on the beach, so we went to the pool...

We were on a bed under a hut, so it was completely shaded. I was feeling kind of cold with the wind and complete shade, but thought I would tough it out. Then, I put down my book to people watch for a while, and the girl across the pool from us took off her string bikini top right in the middle of everyone. I gasped because I was so shocked. I hit James's arm and said, "This is Ameri-" and stopped when I realized that we weren't in America anymore. When a second girl did it, I thought it was time to move. I was cold anyway, right?

We found a much better spot with a view of the beach...

This bed ended up being our go to spot for the rest of the trip. It was the perfect, relaxing spot for us...

The food was really good. I don't even know that I have a favorite place because there were so many good choices. Here's one of our lunches at the Mexican restaurant...

We also had Italian, Asian, beach barbecue (which was kind of Mexican), burgers, pizza, and a formal garden grill place.

These little guys were all over the resort...

Housekeeping left towel animals with flowers on our bed everyday...

Our room was a swim up, so this was our patio...

The second night we ate dinner at the Asian restaurant...

We had fun chatting with a couple from Wales as we waited. They were celebrating their 30th anniversary. There were lots of people from the United Kingdom and Canada there, and we really enjoyed getting to know about the different cultures.

Back to our spot on the beach the next morning...

(My book, The Husband's Secret, was an excellent recommendation for a beach read. Loved it!)

This was Thursday, our actual anniversary. 10 years with this man!

And I still love him so...

After lunch, we went to the room to hang out on the patio/by the pool...

Housekeeping came while we were on the patio and left us another elephant...

That night we had reservations for a candlelight dinner on the beach...

It was wonderful!

And windy, but we loved it:)

As the sun set, it was pretty romantic...

By dessert, the sun had completely set. They served baked Alaskan, which we'd never had...

So. Good. Y'all.

While we were eating dinner, they came and decorated our bed for our anniversary...

It was a great surprise! The customer service at this place was amazing. Nearly every person that walked by said, "Hola!" and they always said "my pleasure" when we thanked them for everything.

That night we went to the fire show...

It was good, but it really stressed me out. We were on the front row, and I was so afraid that either I or one of the performers was going to catch on fire. I kept running through scenarios in my head of how I would save myself or someone else if we caught on fire (throwing sand on myself; running over to perform CPR...you know I was going over all of the steps in my head to prepare myself).

We sat by another couple from the UK...he was from Wales and thought it was crazy that there was another couple from Wales at the resort. She was from England. We had a good little chat with them and then headed back to our room.

Back to our beach bed the next morning...

This was the hottest day, so I needed to go back to the room after a little while. We had a short break from the heat and then decided to go play tennis. We had been laying around, eating and drinking for 2.5 days and needed to do something active!

James has played waaaaay more tennis than I have (which is none), and he was a great, very patient teacher...

If you look closely, you can see that all 5 balls are on my side of the court. I actually hit the 6th one over the fence and into the foliage next to us. I did that 3 times, but we couldn't find one of them until James went back to look for the 15th time right before we turned everything back in. 15th time's a charm because he found it!

We got cleaned up and headed to dinner at the Italian restaurant and then went to the Reggae party. There were these swings around the bar that we would swing on at night. This night, we found a Texas one!

This night we met a Canadian couple briefly and spent the rest of the night chatting with another couple from the UK...somewhere in southwest England that they said was touristy, but I can't remember the name.

He was a fisherman and she also worked with animals. Their lives sounded very different from ours, but they were so fun to talk to. They were really interested in America, and we loved learning about their culture, too.

The next day was our last day, so after breakfast we headed back to our same spot one last time...

I had to get a shot of our beach bed so we wouldn't forget...

 

After about an hour, we headed to the room to get ready for our flight home. We bought the kids and my mom some souvenirs and then went to our last meal. The kids have decided to start a band with the maracas and ukulele we bought them:)

 

It was such a relaxing getaway. I'm so glad we went! Thankful for 10 years with the man I love and for time away to focus on each other.