Viva Mexico!

We've been back a week now, but can't stop talking about what a fantastic time we had in Mexico last week. Yes, we're incredibly spoiled. So...we were at Pam's house in Tulum (south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen), "Mayan Riviera," and it was truly awesome. The house is fantastic. The beach is perfect.

We ate lots of homemade guacamole and tortillas (pretty much at every meal), ended each day with fresh paletas (popsickles) made from coconut and some random fruits we were unfamiliar with. We read. I actually finished an entire book for pleasure! We spent time lounging in powder white sand.

Here are some shots (in a very random order):

Ms. Rebecca enjoying a little R&R in her swimsuit. (She actually had a cough when we left and came down with a fever while we were there which made for a couple of difficult nights and abnormally sleepy days.)
The house is on the beach, but we spent 2 days hanging out at another beach just a few miles away called "Paraiso" which means paradise. And it was. Can you see the big beach beds? We rented a huge round one--soooo fun!
My and Rebecca's favorite spot at the house.
More R&R.
Owen drinking a little "leche" form a dox equis glass. Perfect. Drinking out of a real cup (sans straw) is still a supervised activity, but he's getting better and better at it.
Owen and Kyle building a sand castle. Owen LOVED playing in the sand, but was pretty cautious when it came to the water--we never could get him to go in the waves.
See that lighter blue/aqua color in a circle out a ways in the water? That's a "cenote" (sinkhole) which is essentially where an under-ground fresh water river empties into the ocean via an underwater cave. Awesome. We got to go snorkling in it and it was very Discovery Chanel. A gazillion fish and other things, super clear water, pretty perfect. We used the traditional hand signs for up, look, swim, okay, but we added one for "creepy" because swimming over the cliff opening was just that.
Paradise. The view from our 2nd story room. You can see the pool, my hammock, and the beach.
The flight from Dallas was about 2.5 hours. I had SOOOO many little diversions, tricks, treats, games, etc. planned to make it smooth traveling. And of course, what's the one thing that really really really does the trick without fail and without effort? Our borrowed DVD player and a Thomas the Train video. (The Dr. Pepper was Kyle's, not Owen's.)
Both kids did really great travelling. The flights were a breeze. The hardest part was waiting in some of the pretty crazy lines getting through customs, immigration and security (yes, they both have passports now, which is crazy).

We also had a few firsts occur on the trip:

1) Owen made Rebecca laugh--like a real, hard, belly-laugh--for the first time. It actually happened in the Dallas airport on the way home. We had deboarded and were about to get in the immigration line. We were encouraging Owen to run around a bit in an open area to burn off some energy and stretch his legs. He started bowing (popping in and out of RSM's line of sight) and she just started cracking up. He continues to be the only one who can make her laugh. What a special thing to see and hear.

2) Owen went #2 in the potty! His idea. And then he made everyone (including a couple of other guests at the house whom we had only just met) come see it. "You want to SEE it???"

3) If you've been following the blog for any period of time you probably know that Owen calls my dad "Stan" because we've never been able to agree on a "grandpa name". I had pretty much given up and just accepted that "Stan" would be his name. However...Owen out of the blue, took matters into his own hands. He started calling him "Dahdo" (official spelling still pending). He just walked up to us one afternoon and said "Stan's name is Dahdo". We were like what? So we asked, Owen, who's that (pointing at Stan). And he's point at my dad and say "Stan is Dahdo". Well, okay! We'll let you know how the story develops....

4) "Dora the Explorer" helped us bridge cultural gaps...I had a really fun conversation (in Spanish) with the nice man who drove us from the Cancun airport to the house (about an hour and a half). We bonded over the fact that Owen loves to watch Dora and pick up random Spanish words and his 4 year old daughter watches it to learn random English words! Owen picked up the following Spanish while we were there: hola, adios, playa, perro, uno, dos, tres (now we're up to 8--he really really likes ocho), gracias, and de nada. We've added te amo, and por favor since being home. Oh, and luna and estrella. Not to get all serious, but with as quickly as a 2-year old can pick up another language, it seems insane that our public schools have taken foreign language out of elementary school education...

Okay, that's it for now. Gracias to Pam & Stan for such a great partial week. They were right..we should have stayed longer!