Inpromptu Going Away Party

Taking a little break from vacation pictures tonight.  I'll pick back up after we move.

When we moved into this house two years ago, I was a little concerned b/c our house faces a busy road with fast cars. I never could have dreamed that this would actually be the ideal setting for Miles to play.  Behind our house is the safest spot for Miles and his neighbor friends to run back and forth between houses.  He has grown so close to his friends, Sammie, Chloe, Cambry, and Savannah.

We close on our new house tomorrow, and even though we don't officially move until Saturday, tonight is the last night that Miles will have to play with his friends. Tomorrow we'll be busy cleaning, packing, moving, painting, etc. at the new house.  I didn't know exactly how to break the news to Miles. I really wanted to just pull away and not mention it, but I knew that wasn't fair to him or his little friends.

I told him yesterday that he only had that night and one more to play. He immediately burst into tears and broke my heart. To help ease the pain, we planned a little pizza & cupcake party.

I'm sure there will be tears when it's time to come inside tonight, but he's happy at the moment and understands that tonight is the last night. We will miss these cute little friends!

Mexico - Part II

My days all kind of run together as I'm looking back on the trip, but on this night there was a Disney show. 

At the resort, they had a kids club where they could play indoors in a daycare environment.  At the kids club, you could sign them up to participate in the nightly shows. Ava was in the Disney show. At the end of the show, you could go on stage and get your picture with the characters. When I asked Miles who he wanted his picture with, he said, "only Ava".

She even had rehearsal and hair & make up. She knew all her moves and rocked them on stage.

At the end of the show, they dropped balloons down from the ceiling. Such a little thing brought such happiness.

We played in the gift shop on the way back to our room.

The next day we decided to go into Playa Del Carmen for the day.

I was super happy to find a Mt. Dew.

Miles had $8 burning a hole in his Spiderman Duct tape wallet.  

After much deliberation, he landed with this, which closely resembles Sparkles and Little Penguin McClure. Both of them made the trip to Mexico in case you are wondering.  We now have a little penguin/raccoon family of three.  He named the new one Squirts, which is prophetic considering we bought him in Mexico.

We have visited Cozumel, and several Caribbean cities such as Belize, Dominica, Barbados, St. Thomas, Jamaica, etc.  I have to say that Playa Del Carmen was probably my favorite town. 

It was cleaner than most and had a nice mix of old and new.    

Aunt Crystal hooked the kids up with tattoos. 

As soon as he finished getting it he said, "I want another one."  And so it begins.

Miles broke out in some crazy dancing while we were walking around.  He said, "my moves are full uploaded."  Then he stopped and said, "Now they are downloaded."  We were cracking up.  Usually he gets embarrassed, but he was pretty confident in his moves.

 

Darrin, Miles, and I came back early afternoon to get in some pool time.

Miles developed a strong love for Shirley Temples on the trip.  I loved them at his age too.

The resort was really big...not sure if I mentioned that in my last post.  It was quite a walk between our rooms, the restaurants, the beach, and the pools.  We were able to catch a ride on a golf cart some times. 

Dinner that night was a Japanese restaurant.  It was our second favorite meal of the trip.

Miles tried sushi for the first time.  There were several different kinds and he seemed to like about half of them.  

We all skipped the show that night and just went back to the room for some much needed sleep.  That gets me thru the first 365 pictures.  I'll try to make it back one more time before our move.  Good night all!

Mexico - Part I

We just spent a warm, sunny week in Playa Del Carmen with Darrin's sister & her little family.  Above all, I just wanted to sink my feet in the sand and soak up the sun for a solid week.  I can proudly say that we did just that.  It was a laid back, relaxing week with nothing but sunshine.  There's so much to say about our vacation.  I took over 600 hundred pictures, so I'll do my best to talk my way through them in the next few days.  We are also dealing with this little thing called moving this week, so we'll just see how this goes. Mmm-kay?

We started our adventure on Memorial Day, pulling out of the driveway at 5:30am, heading for the Memphis Airport.  Miles with his cousins, Olivia & Ava....

Our trip started very rocky.  Let's just say that when your travel documents state that "some countries may require your passport to be valid 6 months after you return from your trip" this isn't a suggestion.  Mine and Darrin's passports expire in August of this year, so they told us that we couldn't go. After some begging, phone calls, emails, and 30 minutes of waiting, they allowed us to go. Turns out this is the booking company's policy (Vacation Express), not Mexico's.  After a customs agent said it was fine, Vacation Express said it was no problem.  Needless to say Vacation Express will be receiving a call from us this week about their nonchalant disclosure verses reality.  I'm not sure if how I've stated this actually makes sense, but the lesson learned is to make sure your passport is valid 6 months after you return.

We finally boarded and set off for Cancun.  Miles sat with Ava for his first ever flight. We were a little concerned about him, but he was unfazed, probably b/c we weren't around.

They sat next to the nicest lady that even gave them gum so their ears wouldn't pop. 

After checking in and throwing our bags in the room, we immediately went to the pool, b/c Miles was dying to swim.

Off he goes...

We swam all afternoon, grabbed a quick dinner at the buffet and went to watch the nightly show in an open theater.  It was a very cute show with super heroes and fun music. Miles LOVED it.  Darrin and I thought it was pretty fun too. 

Iron Man was Miles' favorite. 

The next morning, we found a great spot on the beach.   The kids much preferred the pool, but they humored us for a little while so we could enjoy the sand and ocean.

 

We always spent the afternoons at the pool. The pool was perfect for Miles b/c it had a 3 foot ledge that you could sit in about 6" of water. It was fun to sit or play on, especially since he's not the best swimmer yet. It allowed him to always be in the pool even if we weren't.  He did a great job swimming. We even had several people comment that he was an excellent swimmer for five years old.

Miles was very excited to eat some seafood.  He really wanted crab legs, but we never found any.  He loved the shrimp though.

A long day of swimming gets you tired kids at dinner.

The next day was more of the same...breakfast...

....beach time...

...afternoon pool time...throwing the football around...

 
...and dinner...

 

The resort had several restaurants. We ate at the Mexican restaurant on this night.  It was Darrin's favorite meal all week.

That covers the first 199 pictures.  I'll be back soon with Part II.