Mexication Recap

Pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee, and settle in for our trip recap! It's a little long but I wanted to document our wonderful vacation so I can look back on this!

We are back from a wonderful 4-night stay in Mexico! We had the absolute best time away and I am so glad we did this. Neither of us really felt a sense of anticipation for the trip. Thanks to covid, it's hard to really look forward to things because there is always a chance that someone will get covid and a trip won't happen. But the stars aligned and everyone stayed healthy!! My body was clearly very ready for a vacation because I got a flare in my right hand the Saturday before the trip. I am not too surprised I got a flare - the pace of life has been really hectic leading up to this trip and the trip to Chicago the week before was so jam-packed. Flares are sadly my body's way of say - 'hey, remember that you have a chronic illness.' I still have the flare a week later despite taking steroids so it's a nasty one. (Flares are when a joint swells up in your body - it's the main symptom of rheumatoid arthritis.)

Before having kids, Phil and I liked to be out and about while we are traveling - our vacations featured tons of hiking and exploring. But we needed something far different from this trip. We just wanted to relax and, honestly, sleep! So Mexico was perfect for us. We stayed at the same resort we went to last time - Valentin Imperial in the Riviera Maya area, just south of Cancun. We really like this resort because the buildings are really spread out so it doesn't feel like this super huge resort. And the beach is amazing there. 

Monday 

Monday was a travel day. I thought we might get to the resort mid-afternoon since we landed around 1, but customs in Cancun was INSANE. It was the longest wait I've had outside of my return to LAX from Australia when I was studying abroad. Several flights must have landed at the same time or something. And they routed flights to different queues. But what REALLY irked this enneagram 1 is that some people in the flight that landed after us cut in our line! So by the time we got to the resort it, was around 4pm. We dropped our bags in our room, grabbed a snack from a restaurant and walked on the beach before grabbing dinner later that night. 

Phil HATES taking posed photos but I was able to convince him to take some pictures on this trip so we could send them to my mom to show the kids!

Tuesday

It was pretty windy while we were in Cancun but the weather was gorgeous - in the 80s and sunny. The humidity felt amazing on our dry Minnesota skin. Even though I could have slept as late as I wanted to, I was up at 6:30 that day, which was actually 5:30 am Minnesota time. I guess I am programmed to be up early. But I felt very rested since I wasn't woken during the night. The boys don't wake us at night all that often, but when you are programmed to listen for kids in the night, it takes away from the restfulness of sleep. 

Enjoying a morning latte on the beach!

I watched the sun rise that day! 

This was the view from the hammock on our patio - we couldn't quite see the ocean but we could hear it. I spent A LOT of time in this hammock, reading and playing spelling bee and wordle! 

On Tuesday, we took an aqua biking class at the pool in the morning which was super fun - we took the class the next day, too. The wind was the lightest on Tuesday so we spent most of the day at the beach. I alternated between swimming in the ocean and reading my book - I read 4 during our trip! 

Each night, we'd have dinner at one of the restaurants around 7 and then we'd get drinks at one of the outdoor bars. It felt really good to not have to plan anything and just wander around and enjoy the warmth. We talked about our kids a lot, of course, but also had lots of great discussions about work, family, friendship, and where we might live when we retire. 

Post dinner photo - Phil did not want to smile!

Wednesday

Wednesday was the windiest day - it was too windy for a morning beach walk so I enjoyed my latte in the hammock. 

Phil made friends with a kitty that we saw by one of the restaurants nearly everyday. 

We saw lots of wild life during our trip. The animal on the left is a "Coati." It's a cross between a raccoon, anteater, and monkey! We also saw lots of iguanas. Paul is obsessed with Wild Kratts so we sent him lots of wildlife photos and he told my mom all about iguanas. Did you know they can run up to 21mph!!

Posing by the Christmas tree on Wednesday night after dinner

Thursday

On Thursday, the winds were calmer so I enjoyed my latte on the beach. I was typically up around 7-7:30 and Phil tended to stay in bed until 8:30-9 each day. But he doesn't drink coffee so that gave me a chance to get a latte at the coffee shop and walk on the beach. 

I took a water aerobics class that morning and then we spent some time at the beach since it was calm enough for some swimming. 

I will never tire of this view!

Last dinner out!

Friday

Friday was another full day of travel, especially since the shuttle company insisted we get to the airport SUPER early. Then our flight was delayed by an hour so we ended up spending almost 4 hours at the airport. BUT - we were not traveling with small children so it was fine! Seeing families with kids at the airport did make me especially miss my kids but I was glad to not be entertaining them in an airport! We landed around 5:30 CST and were home at 6:30 CST. There was a pretty big snowstorm while we were gone so guess what we did shortly after dropping our bags inside? SHOVEL! Woo hoo. Phil snow blowed and I shoveled the sidewalks he can't get to with the snowblower. What a return to reality!

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And that is a wrap! All in all, it was a fantastic getaway! We came back refreshed and relaxed. I missed the boys but it was not as hard to be away from them as I feared it might be. Nicole's comment (Hi Nicole!) about keeping in mind that the kids are making memories with their grandparents was super helpful! I got lots of pictures and updates on the kids. They slept like champs for my parents and Paul got to help with lots of baking projects. We ended up facetiming with Paul on Wednesday afternoon while Will was sleeping. I feared that Will might get upset seeing us but I knew Paul would handle it ok. Other than that, we just exchanged a lot of pictures and updates!

I feel incredibly lucky that my parents were willing, able, and excited to watch our boys for the week. If not for them, a trip like this never could have happened. If you have young kids and have been on the fence about taking a trip but have someone that would watch your kids, I highly recommend doing something like this. It was really wonderful to get time to reconnect with Phil without interruptions. But I do not take for granted how lucky we were to be able to do this!

I'll be back later this week with some other reflections from the trip!