Day 3

Our Monday started out with disappointment. The girls were supposed to swim w/dolphins, but the Tropical storm/hurricane Dolly changed our plans and we moved it to Wed. However, I wanted to get the girls shopping done, so we headed out to 5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen. This is about a 30 block area of shops with Mexican crafts and tourist type stuff. We took a taxi w/the family and did fine for a few hot hours until....the RAIN came. Man, did it rain. We tried to fight it, but gave up after an hour or so and got a taxi back to the hotel. Todd did not enjoy the day at all, but he was a trooper to put up with us. We were trying to get to Senor Frogs to meet up with the rest of the crew, but the rain was so intense that we just gave up and moved on. It finally let up later on and we took a few beach pics...the wind was still a mess to deal with.

Finally on the beach!

We got out on the beach on Sunday. It was a beautiful beach and the water was great. The girls had so much fun and we stayed out there until it began to rain in the afternoon. They had a bunch of hammocks set up in the shade whenever we got tired of the sun.

That night we went out to a "fancy" (Tara's word) dinner at a brazilian restaurant. It was really good. They brought all different kinds of meat cooked on these long skewers and cut them off right on your plate. Interesting presentation for the girls. Hannah's salad consisted of chips, pickles and pecans... her response to me was "I got something green." Kayla then responded "You mean pickles count, oh man...." Priceless. After dinner, we went out into the courtyard and they were playing music, so Doug, Jill and Randy danced with the girls for a while. Then we all crashed in our "fancy" room (Tara again).

Travel

Don't you hate the days that it takes to get to the vacation destination? I do. I am not a good travel companion, but my girls and Todd did fine on the way to Mexico. We drove to Dallas and spent the night at the Hyatt the night before our flight. We got to eat dinner with some friends (Pam and Ron) and their babies Avery and Rachel. It was worth the drive for that. Todd hated Dallas and kept growling at the highways/people/etc... He is definately not a city boy. Here are some pics of us on the travel day. We got to Cancun and there was some sort of malfunction going through their passport area, so we waited 2 hours to get into Mexico. I mean really...what could we bring in that isn't already being sold on the street there? Our matching t-shirts were a hit and many people stopped and asked us about them.

Life is A Beach

We are back and I am in the process of washing a mountain of laundry and editing 915 photos from our trip. Here is one of the whole family. Stay tuned for the rest when I get them done.

Happy Birthday America!

What a great weekend my girls had at the lake with the family. They got to go early with Papa and Re, then Jill, Randy, Todd and I, Doug, Dan and Sara all joined them. We swam, searched for shells, went tubing, rode the wave runners and ate too much. It was a fun filled few days! The photo of Kayla is after she swam the "triathalon" that Doug had devised... it was he and Kayla against Randy and Hannah. The football retrieval kept them behind a little. Tara decided that she had to dress up at the lake and somehow snuck a dress in her bag... I had already explained the logistics of "lake attire" to her and had packed nothing fancy, but somehow she managed to pull this out and dress up while the rest of us are lounging around and smelling like fishy water.

Swimming

Seems like my girls favorite times are swimming... I do not know if anything makes them happier. Tara is a little fish this year and a little too brave for me, but I love watching them have fun! We had a ball swiming with the Watkins clan (pic is of Hannah and Madi) and at Darlene's. The last pic is of Hannah and Logan...sure they are "discussing" something. They tend to fight more like brother/sister...too funny. I was watching them play the other day and Hannah was giving Logan an ear full, he was ignoring her and Trevor was rolling his eyes. So much for the backyard softball game, huh?

Swim Team

The girls have been practicing so hard at their swim practices and their first 2 meets. Kayla's first year this year, but as usual she is doing great and Hannah moved up an age group but continues to do well. Kayla only got to swim 2 races before the rains came to Paris last weekend and the meet was cancelled, so she was a little bummed. She won her heat in both and got a blue ribbon, so all is well. The first and third pictures are of Hannah swimming and the second of Kayla and last of Kay and friends "waiting" for their team mates to finish.