Caleb and I love to travel. Starting with our first year of marriage we made a goal to go on a family vacation somewhere new every year. On a tight med school and then residency budget we managed to always keep our goal, although it was always pretty simple. While in Vermont we went to Quebec, camped in Maine, went down the coast visiting historical sites to Philadelphia, and did a Boston/ Cambridge trip. All of them were road trips and very low budget, including once sleeping in the car in the rain in the Boston Temple parking lot to save money! In residency we did Zion's and red rock (Caleb had obviously been but I had never been so it was new to me, kind of cheated that year). One year Caleb did not have any longer stretches of time off so we went really simple and did Disneyland passes (I think we managed to go 28 times that year even with our super cheap SoCal passes with tons of blackout days). Another year we did a Road trip down Hwy 1 along the Orange County coast and San Diego. Growing up in California I had never really explored much of Orange County and had only been to San Diego once. Anyway, now that all our training is through we wanted to celebrate this year with an exciting different family vacation that we actually had to fly to! Being budget minded we looked online for the most affordable, family friendly, all inclusive vacation we could find. We found a really great deal on a seven night package to Cancun Mexico, and booked it.
The kids were so excited! At first they were most excited about being able to roll around their own suitcases at the airport, and go on the people mover belts (I don't know what they are called). They each rolled their own suitcases all the way through the Dallas airport and got lots of smiles and high fives from other people.
I was a little nervous about bringing the kids out of the country and especially to Mexico. I researched and researched online, and we talked to several people from Caleb's work that go to Cancun every year with their families. Everyone said the same thing, as long as you stay in the Hotel zone it is very safe. When we arrived we felt very safe and everything was surprisingly Americanized and clean. (The humidity was a little shocking, though). Our resort was wonderful, the people, beach, pool, and all inclusive food was amazing.
For almost the entire seven days we hung out at the beaches and pool near our hotel. It was very relaxing and the kids could not get enough of the warm Caribbean Sea. I had never seen such amazingly bright blue and warm water. It was all very relaxing. Especially the all inclusive meals. Their were several restaurants in the hotel all food was included. It was so great to not have to worry about getting food or clean water or how much whatever costs to eat. They brought everything to you and it was all really good and fresh. I have been on cruises before and never enjoyed the food because it always tasted kind of processed and not fresh. This food was so much better.
We did two excursions together. Our first one was a snorkeling cruise to one of the national protected reefs. It was so great! We got to take a boat through the mangrove forests to a floating platform over the reef. We snorkeled for a full hour and the kids loved every minute of it. Their little mouths were to small for the mouth pieces so they just wore the mask and kept going under the water to peek at the fish. Abigail was crazy; she kept telling me "I can do it myself" and would only come up for air when she was totally out of breath. She would try to let go of my hand and would start floating away. They both loved the fish and talked about them for days.
The other excursion we did was Tulum. It was the major set of ruins that were still relatively close to our hotel, since we really did not feel like driving three hours through the jungle with the kids to Chichen Itza. They were amazing. The whole city was built right on the ocean, and had breathtaking views. I have to say the kids favorite part was the iguanas that were crawling everywhere, and the awesome beach.
It just happened to be that we were actually reading in the end of Alma in Book of Mormon. It is all the war chapters with Captain Moroni fortifying the Nephite cities against the Lamanites. So we read some parts from those chapters and explained to the kids that we were going to go see a city like where Captain Moroni would have lived. We got to the wall of the city and Joshua was all into and saying "is this the wall Moroni built"? He was really excited to see it all and I think it helped him picture what life was like for them and to bring the scriptures to life. Since then when we read he has asked several times if where these people lived was like the town we saw. It was a really fun experience.
It just happened to be that we were actually reading in the end of Alma in Book of Mormon. It is all the war chapters with Captain Moroni fortifying the Nephite cities against the Lamanites. So we read some parts from those chapters and explained to the kids that we were going to go see a city like where Captain Moroni would have lived. We got to the wall of the city and Joshua was all into and saying "is this the wall Moroni built"? He was really excited to see it all and I think it helped him picture what life was like for them and to bring the scriptures to life. Since then when we read he has asked several times if where these people lived was like the town we saw. It was a really fun experience.
We spent several hours swimming and playing at the Tulum beach.
Overall it was a wonderful and super relaxing vacation. We wanted an opportunity to all be together with no distractions, and for that it was the perfect vacation. Abigail keeps asking when we will go on vacation again! I think after the years of training and being strained for family time it was exactly what we needed.
