Mexico 2012

Two weeks ago we were invited to join my parents and siblings in Mexico for our first family vacation in almost five years! And it was marvelous! Simply marvelous!

This is the view from our hotel restaurant. We could literally eat our meals with our feet in the sand...and eat with our feet in the sand we did!! 

Unfortunately, my camera is dead so I relied on my brother and sister to capture our precious memories...especially since this was Grace and Charlotte's first time out of the United States. 

Lots of people ask me about my stroller...

It was awesome on the cobble stone streets and narrow sidewalks. It is the UppaBaby Vista with the jump seat attachment. 

Out at a dinner - the girls were troopers - a BIG thank you to the iPad! It has saved many-a-meal...especially when loaded with The Sound of Music!

With every family trip there is always some form of drama. Some sort of problem that has the possibility of destroying a vacation.

Enter The Black Gecko.

On a particularly long and hot outing I told Grace she could pick out a little special outing if she could just hang in there for a bit longer. We went to three different junk stores that all contained virtually the same thing and FINALLY she chose a gecko. A black, ceramic gecko.

An interesting choice but it was $5 and it made her happy. It saved the day!

Unfortunately, ceramic geckos aren't the sturdiest toy for a constantly jumping three year old. Against all warning of being careful that gecko, it was dropped and it broke. Small panic because the gecko hadn't left her side in 48 hours but when we told her we'd get a new one in the morning, that seemed to calm her nerves.

Fast forward to the next day. We miraculously found super glue. But you know how super glueing ceramic geckos can be....shotty at best?

So I decided to retrace my footsteps and find another black gecko just to be on the safe side.

My mom, dad and I went into almost every junk store within in a mile's distance from our hotel...which is A LOT! This little main street is LINED with them!

NONE OF THEM HAD A BLACK GECKO!

They had pink geckos and white geckos but no black geckos.

Are you kidding me?

Did Grace really choose the hardest to find item in all of Mexico?!

Apparently so!

Finally, like a McDonald's rising out of no where when all you have had to eat is weird foreign food (this has happened to me for reals and it is the BEST feeling ever!) we found the store that holds the monopoly on black geckos.

Can I get a hallelujah? 

[On a side note, Grandpa treated the first black gecko in the gecko emergency room and guess what? He had a full recovery. So yes, we are now the owners of two black geckos!)

Brave Grace waited patiently in line to have her picture taken with two large macaws. Our favorite picture of Grace only features one parrot but you get the idea of how big and colorful the birds! She loved it!

On our very last night, we got all fancied up 

and went out to a spectacular dinner at Punta Bonita. 

We call this the Robot Family picture. I tried and tried to get the red eye out with a bunch of photo editing but to no avail. Robot Family it is!

The girls were good as gold at our very long dinner so as a reward they earned a brownie...

covered in M&Ms!!!

It was an awesome trip! Warm and relaxing!

Muchas gracias a mis padres!

SIDE NOTE: Grace juuuuust came up to me with no idea what I was writing about and with no prompt and said...."I want to go back to Mexico!" 

Me too little girl...me too!