The kids and I had the opportunity to go to Puerto Vallarta with my mom, Tucker and Missy's family. Spring break is pretty early now that the kids get out of school before Memorial Day and since it was so close to mine and Craig's trip to St. Lucia, he didn't feel like he could miss another week of work so close together, so it was just the kids and I. It actually worked out great because our house was recently on the market and so Craig was able to keep it ready for the realtor to show it and it sold while I was gone. It was such a stress relief to be able to come home and not have to worry about keeping the house spotless for potential buyers. The kids and I flew out on Tuesday March 17th, it is so much cheaper to fly on Tuesday's so the kids missed a couple days of school on the back end of our trip. Each family had different flights but luckily all got to the Puerto Vallarta airport within an hour of each other. Once we got through customs we took a shuttle to our resort and got all settled into our rooms. We shared a condo with my mom and tucker, McKay slept on the pullout couch and Brooklyn and I shared the king bed. The kids quickly changed into their swimsuits and we headed for the beach. They played in the ocean for a while and then we grabbed a quick dinner form the market at the resort. Once we headed back up to the rooms Missy, Tucker and I took an Uber to the grocery store to get us food for the week. We usually eat our breakfast and lunches at the resort and then a couple of dinners we go out.
Wednesday morning after a workout and breakfast, we headed right out to the beach. The resort had boogie boards so the kids loved that and just body surfing. They played in the sand and in the water so much. The kids then both went parasailing for the first time. McKay was a little nervous because they wanted him to go first and he wanted Brooklyn to go first. It was also a little hard to understand their instruction in their broken English, but he did great and had a blast. Brooklyn went second and did it like a pro. I love that my kids are willing to try new things and they are excited to be brave. Their 8 year old cousin Brinley even did it after she watched them. Each day we would head back to the condos to eat some lunch and get out of the sun for a little bit and reapply lots of sunscreen. Brooklyn and I were in charge of dinner that night and made spaghetti with meat sauce and some salad and then Grandma treated all the grandkids and tucker to some ice cream from the market.
Thursday was much the same as Wednesday, beach, sand, pool. We found the churro man on the beach, who then became a staple for us the rest of the trip. McKay bought a necklace from a vendor on the beach, Brooklyn never did find anything she wanted to buy. That evening we took a few ubers to Fajita Republic for dinner. Most of us ended up with plenty of food leftover for lunch the next day.
By Friday the kids were getting a little sun burnt so I made them wear shirts for part of the day. McKay was getting a pretty good sun rash so the salt water didn't feel great, but they still spent plenty in the ocean. The kids each got a mango on a stick, we found the resident iguana wandering around the pool and that evening we all went to Missy's condo for dinner and to play card games.
On Saturday the kids, Tucker and I decided to head out of the resort to go zip lining. It was quite an eventful day. We took an Uber to the excursions head quarters and then got on a speed boat that took us out of the bay and to a small fishing town where we then got into some safari vans that took us through a bunch of tiny towns on this winding dirt road. We finally got to where the zip lining was and after we got harnessed up we hopped on some mules to ride up to the start. Each kid had their own mule and mine definitely had a mind of its own so I wasn't able to keep McKay in sight, but luckily a worker stayed right with him. We then did a bunch of zip lines, water slides and even a zip line coaster. We were wet and having a blast. We couldn't take our phones so I don't have any pictures but we all had smiles on our face the entire time. After a quick snack of quesadillas and chips and salsa we were then back into the safari vans and then back into the speed boat. We finally made it back to the resort around 4:00 pm. We then all showered off and then the adults all walked into a neighboring town, Bucaria's, for dinner at Karen's while Brooklyn watched the other kids.
Sunday we stayed at the resort and kept it a little more low key. We started the day with a little "church", Dallin gave us a lesson and we sang some songs. We took it a little slower and eventually made our way out to the beach and pool. We walked along the beach and read a lot. After everyone showered my mom made dinner and we hung out at our condo.
Monday was our last full day and we made the most of it. We were out at the beach and pool as long as possible. We chased down the churro man and bought him out. We all had some pesos left so we bought some candy and nuts from the candy man. For dinner we walked into Bucerias again to a yummy whole in the wall taco place and then stopped for gelato on our way home. As we were walking into town we got a message from our realtor that our home had been sold, which was an amazing feeling. There was even some fireworks at the resort that night.
