Cancun, Mexico (with fixed pictures)

This past week Michael and I were lucky enough to get to travel to Cancun through Michael's work.  (Yes, I still say "lucky" despite the recent troubles in Mexico!)  We stayed at the Dreams Riviera Resort and Spa located a little ways outside of Cancun, almost the in the middle of nowhere. 

Our first view of the resort

The view from our room

Our room

When we first arrived at the resort we literally felt like we were in a dream.  It was like no experience Mike or I have had so far in life.  We kept thinking, this is the stuff you see in movies!  Michael earned the trip through his hard work at Catholic Financial Life and we both felt like it was a wonderful reward.  We both got some much needed relaxation and enjoyed socializing with his fellow co-workers. 

Mike had some mini meetings each morning, but I was lucky enough to get to sleep in everyday, one aspect I was looking forward to the most!  Michael and I were also looking forward to not cooking meals:)  The resort was all inclusive, so we enjoyed dinning on some very fancy meals.  One night we checked out the French restaurant and experienced our first "Gastronomic Tour."  Let's just say Mike left still feeling quite hungry- who can blame him when his main course consisted of two shrimp, a silver dollar size amount of mashed potatoes, one cooked carrot, and a lobster head (for decoration only)!

If we had to find a down side to the whole experience it would have been Wednesday.  We signed up to go on a catamaran/snorkeling/shopping/para sailing experience- sounds like fun, right?  Well, it may have been if the catamaran wasn't actually a extremely slow moving party boat with music blaring, the snorkeling wasn't in the middle of the ocean with waves carrying you all around and very little sea life to see, the shopping wasn't really very pushy people trying to get you to severely overpay for things, and the wind wasn't so strong that you couldn't para sail.  Not to mention, the only food provided that day was at an outdoor restaurant that I would only dare to eat the chips and spaghetti (and I wouldn't even consider touching the water). 

Our last day there we tried the shopping thing again at a little town just down the beach from our resort.  We got a crash course in haggling before we left and without our bright orange tourist stickers, like we had had the day before, we hopefully didn't get too ripped off.

Overall, we had a wonderful time, but were anxious to get back home to see our little guys!  I guess that Vance did great while we were gone- this is usually the case with him-  a sort of out of sight, out of mind thing.  Andrea was the perfect substitute for his real mom- even with her extra large belly;)  It was Weston, however, that had a harder time with us being away.  I guess each night he cried for his mommy and by day five he said he didn't want to be at Grandma and Papa's house anymore- he wanted to go to Weston's house.  I had packed one of my sweatshirts that he often sees me wearing (even wore it the Saturday before we left so it would smell like me) with the intent that it may be comforting for him to hold if he was having a hard time trying to fall asleep.  I guess that went straight back into the bag and didn't make an appearance again after the first night because it just made him cry harder when he saw it.  He also noticed, probably for the first time, my senior picture on the wall and that didn't help the last night he when was having a hard time.  Needless to say, when we returned home and they picked us up from the airport, I got a death stare from Weston when I asked him if he wanted Mommy and Daddy to go to Mexico again!  This is not to say, however, that he didn't have EXCELLENT care when we were gone and didn't love being at Grandma and Papa's house with Aunt Andrea, cousin Gigi, and Grandma Kitty 90% of the time.  We are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful family to help us out and be so supportive of us going on this trip.