Hitting the Playa

I'm a beach girl. Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows I love going down the shore. Back in my single, child-free days, I used to hit Ocean City to see Amber quite a few times during the year. Before that, I'd head to Avalon with my college roommate. However, in Mexico, we hung by the pool. The storms from a few years ago have made the beach unacceptable to me. Well, maybe not the beach as much as the ocean. The beach had beautiful beds and umbrellas and soft white sand. But the water...oh, the water. The sea grass that is in the water is plentiful, to put it mildly. The resort rakes the beach several times a day, and they do their best, but it's just floating there. If you aren't skeeved out by the sea grass wrapping around your ankles and hanging from your hair, there is the ocean bottom to trick you. For about 2 feet, it's sandy. Suddenly, your unsuspecting feet are torn to shreds by the rocks which continue on the bottom until you're way out. Still, Dan and I braved the ocean for the following pictures. Be grateful :)

This is looking in from the ocean. Notice those beautiful umbrellas! The big building in the background houses 2 open air restaurants: The Lobster House and The Grill.

This pier looks out into the ocean, and apparently there are weddings held on it. We didn't see one wedding the entire time we were there, which was a change from our times in Jamaica where we saw several every day.

You can see the sea grass that has washed up on the beach. This is very minimal. Trust me when I say that as we walked the beach and passed areas where resorts didn't rake (or where there were no resorts) this stuff was enough to build entire villages.

Hola Mexican Michael Jackson!

For anyone who's been at an all-inclusive before, you know that the evening entertainment is not usually as fun as one would hope. We've gone to two different resorts prior to this one, and both times, the nighttime entertainment left us a bit disappointed, or confused, or both. Before going to this resort, we heard the Michael Jackson tribute show was amazing and should not be missed. So...after a night of international dancing (which was pretty lame...sorry) and a night of watching Grease reenacted (which was better, if only b/c the guy playing the sidekick was giving 200%), we had higher hopes for MJ.

We watched a 15 minute video first detailing his life growing up through music. Then...suddenly...Mexican Michael Jackson! This impersonator was crazy good...I was blown away. He had the dance moves down, he "sang" the songs perfectly...it was just mesmerizing. So...some pictures:

He ended the show with "Thriller". Right afterwards, the annoying MC rattled off God knows what in Spanish, and at the very end, we heard that the cast would stick around for 5 minutes for pictures. My butt was out of the seat before Dan knew what was happening :) So...the picture I'm most proud of from the entire vacation (if only the little worker girl taking it would have zoomed...): our pic with Mexican Michael Jackson.
And I will add this...when I was little, I wanted to marry Michael Jackson (don't judge me). This moment, although I knew he was just an impersonator, put a smile on my face for hours afterwards.

Excellence Riviera Cancun

From August 6-13, Dan and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary a little early in Riviera Maya Cancun. We stayed at the Excellence Riviera Cancun resort, and it was completely amazing! All we did was relax...no worries...and it was the best week we've had in a long time. Of course there are tons of pictures, but I figured I'd try to post them in some sort of category to make looking at them easier.

This is a view from our balcony in the evening:

And the same view in the daytime:
We got an oceanview room, which was so wonderful...we looked over 2 of the 6 pools, and the ocean was behind that. Definitely happy we did the upgrade...it was so amazing to wake up each day to this!

This is on the other side of our room (the door side). Pools and lazy rivers wound through the property. We always laid at the main pool since we liked the music and activity there, but there were many other quieter pools throughout.

And this is where we relaxed every day...under our very own palapa. Not sure what we'd have done if someone got "our" spot before us, but luckily Dan's an early riser, even on vacation, so he'd make sure we had our area :)

Would we go here again? I think definitely. Although...the resort chain has 2 other properties (one in Mexico, one in Dominican Republic) and they're building one in Jamaica, so we may try one somewhere else. More to come!

Brookgreen Gardens Part 2

Some more pictures from Brookgreen Gardens...

While waiting for the shuttle, the kids (and dad) got a bit bored. Ignoring the crazy heat and humidity, dad decided it would be a good idea to take the kids on "rides" in a buggy type contraption that was sitting nearby.

Both kids and dad were all smiles, however, I think dad breathed a sigh of relief when that shuttle finally showed up :)

Emily decided to be an Alligator Hunter...

Brookgreen Gardens Part I

On Sunday, we all traveled down to the Myrtle Beach area. First stop? Brookgreen Gardens. Dad talks about this place all the time...how great it is, how pretty it is, etc. I've never really been to botanical gardens (unless the Swamp Gardens in Charleston count), so I wasn't sure what we were in for. Well, it lived up to the hype. Even in the hottest weather and worst humidity ever, it was amazing. I absolutely loved it. And...if Amber's game, this is where she will be getting married :)

A teepee in the Children's Garden:

Owen chilling on a low branch:

A butterfly I caught...I can't believe I actually got the shot!

My favorite fountain in the entire place: it's statues of the Muses - each represent a type of art.

Holden Beach

Since dad lives about 5 minutes from the beach, it's always something we do several times while we're visiting. However, it's way different going to the beach when you've got two kids and two tons of their gear to tote along!

Day number 1 at the beach was just Amber and I. I have to say, I am pretty proud of the way we got everything down to the beach in one trip. We'll forget about the fact that poor Owen was clinging onto Amber for dear life as he slipped further and further down...no one fell, and that was an accomplishment. We did realize, however, that we aren't very adept at putting up a beach umbrella. Luckily, the beach there doesn't get very crowded; it took off in a gust of wind and wound up mangled beyond recognition.

The other day we spent at the beach we had Dad and Shirley to help, so things went even more smoothly! The kids loved playing in both the ocean and the sand. One thing I will never get used to...sand in all areas of my body from having them crawl all over me. Some pictures of our time at the beach:

Owen playing it up

Emily hard at work
Owen's first real time "jumping" waves
This girl couldn't get enough of the ocean
Dad and Shirley with the little man

North Carolina - In the Beginning

The kids, Amber, and I spent July 15-20 in North Carolina with Dad and Shirley. Amber came along to help me out with the kids, since Dan thought he was out of vacation days. Thank goodness she did...I don't think I could have made the drive or stayed sane during the trip without her!

We got started a bit later than I first planned...8:00 Thursday morning. By mile 61, Emily had thrown up in the car. So disgusting. The sad part? She warned us, but I figured it was just her being silly (sometimes she likes to pretend she's sick). Minutes later, we were in the vomit-mobile. Other than that incident, our drive was pretty fun. Amber and I got to see the booming metropolis of Mineral, Virginia, and we met these fun guys at a gas station in North Carolina.

The best, though, was in Mt. Olive, NC. Where else would you see a gigantic (and I do mean gigantic) billboard asking: Could you have SYPHILIS? I think we almost crashed while we did double and triple takes! The town mascot, Seymour Johnson (and I'm NOT making that name up) would have been proud :)

The kids, for their part, did a great job on the 10.5 hour ride. They entertained themselves and each other by playing with an empty bag and empty water bottles. Their favorite activity, by far, was sucking on their toes and screaming with glee. This was my favorite activity:

We arrived in Supply, NC stiff and tired, but ready to have lots of fun. More to come soon!