Puerto Vallarta with the Johnsons

I firmly believe we should always travel in January. It was so fun to have this trip to look forward to after Christmas was over. Chris’ mom gifted all of us with a great week together at Velas Vallarta Resort in Puerto Vallarta, which was really great. We love being together!

We had airplane tickets from Denver to Puerto Vallarta and when we got to the gate, the Johnsons were already there waiting for us. Fun to fly together. We took a few taxi’s to the resort and checked in. The first day of a vacation is so much fun. So great to be together. Cute to see all the older cousins holding younger cousins.

We headed to our room, and the boys got straight into their bathing suits, barely able to contain their excitement. We headed down to lunch, ordering far too much food and then headed to the pool.

Such a great resort. Big enough that there was plenty of food and pools to choose from, and small enough that the kids could wander around by themselves – like straight over to the ice cream – which they did several times a day.

Our little corner of the pool. We just sat and enjoyed every bit of sunshine as it dropped below the horizon.

We got cleaned up and enjoyed a late dinner and some games… and then stayed up entirely too late talking. It ended up being the recipe for every evening – which was just fine, since we slept in and casually made our way down to breakfast whenever we felt like it.

Morning two we headed straight to the pool after breakfast and the guys went golfing.

Lots and lots of virgin Miami Vice’s were ordered. Delicious.

We ate nachos by the baby pool and then headed to the waterfall pool just in time to see this big guy slither into the pool and swim right through the middle. Crazy!

Ice cream and chocolate cake right before heading back to get cleaned up for dinner? Totally. Love these three.

Loved these peacocks roaming around the resort.

Dinner at our favorite restaurant. Such great food. Probably the best lasagna I’ve ever had. Every night had a different theme. They were so good to us. Serving a group of 24 every night was quite the task, especially with how many drinks and meals we ordered. All the kids sat together at a big kid table. They had a great time ordering for themselves. : ) The teens sat with us but really did their own thing and just left to go hang out at their own apartment and order room service dessert whenever they felt like it. Such freedom.

Late night. Late morning once again. We knocked on the cousins apartment and found them eating their room service breakfast on the balcony. Chris and the boys and I headed to the restaurant for breakfast with the other little guy cousins.

Bode, Matt, Dallas, Luke and Derek

After breakfast we headed down to the beach to play volleyball, play in the sand and order our first Miami Vice’s and ice creams.

We took our kids and headed to the beachside restaurant for lunch. Chicken tacos for me. Minus the onions that snuck into Luke’s tacos, the food was really great. ; )

Matt, not wanting to leave his Sprite at the table… so he poured it back into the can so he could take it with him.

Tyler and Emily playing volleyball.

Dinner #3 was deemed yellow shirt dinner. We showered and got all dressed for a group pictures and then dinner all together.

Another lazy day at the pool.

Nikole relaxing very close to a iguana. Chris reading his John Grisham book.

More playing at the pool, eating lunch at the beachside restaurant and drinking Winnie the Pooh’s and Miami Vice’s poolside. As the sun was setting we headed over to the beach and got some fun sunset pictures. One of the best moments of the trip.

Day #4 we got dressed and headed into the city of Puerto Vallarta.

Instead of taxi’s we took the city bus – super inexpensive – all the way downtown. We filled up the back of the bus. The girls sang the whole way there.

It felt so good to leave the resort and have a little adventure. The boardwalk was fun.

After walking down the boardwalk we headed to the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I love the unique top of the tower and all the Mexican colored flags hanging across the street.

The courtyard outside of the church: Brigette, Haylee, Katie, Payton, Megan, Kayla and Brooklyn.

Grandma gave all the little kids 20 peso to spend – roughly a dollar. The girls started searching for colorful bracelets. Luke approached me and asked why there was a woman sitting on the church steps with a hat. I told him that she was asking for money because she was very poor. He immediately asked for his pesos so he could go give it to the lady and then promptly told me that he had felt the Spirit. I’m so grateful for this boy and his sensitivity. : )