Mexico Trip–More Beach Days
MONDAY
Monday morning we heard the birds early. Out Mexican beachfront property is shared by loud morning birds, a bat that lives in our kitchen wall, five iguanas that live in a rock pile and come out for the hottest hours of the day, lizards in the girls room (and apparently in our room too! Ug!) and a jungle full of jaguars and scorpions on either side. But thank goodness no mosquitos.
Emily woke up feeling weak but much better, and me too. The kids built a sandcastle, we sat out by the water in our beach chairs, played in the waves, saw three pink flamingos fly overhead, and played beach volleyball.
Like the rest of us, the teen girls loved having their freedom to head to the water, head back to the porch and hang out, listen to music, pose for pictures and talk on the hammocks. So much freedom for everyone.
Chris was so happy to have some downtime to read and edit videos. He loved this big hammock in the covered living space.
Jacksons were in charge of food today and brought us lunch to eat under the pergola. What a great location.
Romney, Lizzy and Megan – the 12 and almost 12 crew
Love this little saying posted above the seating under the pergola.
After lunch Chris and I hung out in the hammocks and then Amy and I went on a snorkeling excursion with Jon. We kayaked out to the far reef and Jon manned the boat whie Amy and I snorkled for about 40 minutes. We saw some great schools of fish, little happy bright blue fish darting around, and a big sea turtle which we followed for awhile. It was a good adventure. We got back at 4:00 and hung out in the shade. Chris had been reading his ‘history of cancer’ book. Everyone played a big game of kickball and then soccer.
Amy and Lizzy
Everyone played a big game of kickball. Jane was so cute trying to hold Chris on the second base so he couldn’t run.
Then some more playing in the waves as the sun went down.
Scott doing a little fishing
Heading back to the house for dinner… Pasta night.
Monday night after our pasta dinner we decided to head back into the ocean for a ‘night swim’. It was so fun! We took a couple of lanterns from the house to walk down to the beach. Our location was so remote that there were no other house or building lights as far as we could see in either direction. Even our beach house lights were off since they were testing the generator. It was PITCH DARK except for a gazillion bright stars overhead. Chris had everyone get into partners so we could keep track of everyone a little bit better. We turned the lanterns off and headed into the water with our buddies. Chris whispered “Lisa?” as I approached – just to make sure it was me before he reached out to grab my hand. The water was warm and as we walked we could see the occasional bioluminescent algae flash right in front of us. It was a little scary for the little people (and the big people) since they couldn’t see when the waves were coming, but it was so fun.
Then showers and pajamas and a movie night with Moana.
TUESDAY
Tuesday we woke up, hung out and ate breakfast in the outside living space. It was so nice to never even know what time it was. It was unlike any trip we’d ever been on – we didn’t even carry or check our phones until bedtime. No Wifi-ing pictures, or instagraming. There was nowhere to be, and no schedule to keep. It was fantastic.
We all headed to the beach, a big group went off to snorkel including Chris, Katie, Emily, Megan and Matt. Some played with Boogie Boards, some placed in the sand. I sat with Megan and talked. When the snorkelers got back we ate a ‘leftover’ lunch and then played a couple games of Splendor with Jon and Megan. I won the first and then Chris. Then music and a dance party, more relaxing, spying on the iguanas, Luke went fishing with Scott and Andrew, more playing in the water and then big group pictures.
Lip-syncing dance party…
These wind chime shells and several like them hung around the outside living space. It took me almost the whole week to figure out that the sound was the wind chimes and not my phone ringing. We had one wind chime inside the house that had to come down since we could hear it all through the night.
And coconuts everywhere. Every day Augustina would cut a coconut and bring us pictures of coconut water. Most of us didn’t like it – but Scott doctored it up with ice and limes and such and it wasn’t bad.
Andrew and Luke
All the kids…
The group of us… wind blown, sun scorched beach bums.
The Richins and Jacksons…
The Johnsons…
We sadly left the beach and headed back to the house. Everyone started packing while Megan and I got out all the leftover food and made a buffet dinner – which worked out rather nicely. Chris looked through snorkel footage (He borrowed Jon and Scott’s gopro’s for the week since his SUNK after an accidental dropping from Matthew on the first day. Poor Matt was devastated – even though it really wasn’t his fault. Chris had the clamp on it ready to attach it to the front of the kayak. He was fixing something and gave it to Matt to hold while he got it ready. And then the kayak capsized. Poor Matt dropped it as he was flung overboard. Chris looked around for it forever and everyone helped but it was gone. Matt sat next to me on the beach and through tears said, “How much does it cost?” When I said ‘$400’ then Matt started to cry harder. Then he said, ‘You and I should put our money together and get him a new one for his birthday.’ Ok, Matt.) We sat around the table and talked for awhile before heading to bed.