Mexico Vacation {Part 1}

After having such a great time on the Disney Cruise, we were eager to plan another vacation. I started the search for the perfect family resort, but got overwhelmed quickly. We wanted to go to Mexico because we love the all-inclusive resorts, but finding a place that really catered to kids as young as ours was difficult. So I turned the search over to a travel agent and she found a great place for us in Playa Del Carmen.

The dates we chose were only six weeks away and we had to quickly get a passport for Hudson. Savannah got her passport at just six months old when we took her on her first cruise {yeah, that wasn't the smartest idea we've ever had}. Between the end of the school year, Hudson's birthday, Savannah's birthday and their party, our departure day seemed to get here super fast!

Our flight wasn't until 11:15 a.m., so we were able to let the kids wake up on their own around 8:00 {I hate waking them when they are sleeping so soundly}. We left the house just after 9:00 and planned to be at the airport a good hour before our flight left.

Before I continue, let me tell you about a little difference between Caleb and I when it comes to traveling via airplane {or anywhere}. I really don't like to "hang out" at the airport a minute longer than I have to. I'm perfectly happy going through security about 30 minutes before my flight is scheduled to depart and I absolutely LOVE being the last person on the plane. I mean, who wants to sit in those dirty and uncomfortable chairs in a stuffy plane for any unnecessary time? Not me!

But Caleb does.

He wants to have bags checked, get through security and be at the gate an hour before departure time. And he'd almost fight you to be first in line to get on that plane. Drives. Me. Crazy.

So keep all of this in mind as I continue with our departure day...

It's Wednesday and there is no traffic mid-morning, so we are cruising down the highway just fine to the airport we have driven to our whole life. We are almost to the airport and the kids are watching all the planes fly overhead when Caleb decides to needs to talk on the phone to his buddies. And MISS the exit as a result! On normal roads, this would be no big deal. But there was construction that had certain roads closed and even though it looked like there were about five roads that lead to the airport, there was in fact, only one. The one we just missed. The one that is not easy to get back to.

Caleb's frustration level rises quickly and it took us and eternity {about 10 minutes} to get back to where we needed to be and head in to the airport. I'm not worried. I don't like getting to the airport too early anyways. Caleb now thinks we are going to miss our flight and decides we don't have time to do the remote parking. Instead, we need to park at the terminal. We know this is a pricey decision, but better to pay a little extra than not get on our flight. So we drive on in only to find that all the parking garages for our terminal are full.

In panic mode, Caleb told me he would drop me, the kids and our four bags of luggage off at the curb while he went to park the truck. Where? He had no idea.

It's a little after 10:00 when I get out of the truck, load Hudson and as much "stuff" as possible into the stroller. I had Savannah be in charge of her little rolling suitcase. Then I stood there dumbfounded as to how I was going to push a totally weighted down stroller and pull three large and very heavy suitcases. It was impossible. I ended up just pushing the stroller and one bag about 10 feet, then going to get the other 2 bags and wheel them to where I left the stroller. Repeating this cycle 3 or 4 times before a man offered to help me get it all over to the curbside check-in. Also, to add to the misery, I had been cramping all morning and I was getting very uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Caleb apparently decided he didn't have time to find a parking space and opted for valet parking instead. He knew this was really going to cost a pretty penny, but says he had no choice. His next dilemma was how to get back to our terminal. Evidently there was some construction going on at that end of the airport leaving no way to get from where he was to where I was. This resulted in him paying a bus driver to take him a few hundred yards over to the entrance of our terminal.

After I finally made it to "curbside" check-in and was able to dump the four bags of luggage off there, the kids and I went upstairs to go through security. Then I suddenly realized that I can't. I have all of our passports and Caleb is no where in sight. And that's when I get a phone call from him.

The brief conversation went something like this:

Me: {slightly annoyed} Hello.
Caleb: {hurried} Where are you?
Me: {still annoyed} At security.... waiting for you.
Caleb: {in super stressed tones} Well I couldn't find a parking space and I'm trying to get back to our gate.
Me: {frustrated} Well I have all of our passports so I can't do anything until you get here.
Caleb: {frustrated AND annoyed} Well I guess you and the kids can just go have fun on vacation without me!
Me: {irritated that he blows things out of proportion} We obviously aren't leaving you and don't act like you've done all the hard part. I got dumped off at the curb with 2 kids and 4 suitcases!
Caleb: {over it.} I'll be there in just a minute!

And he was. Then we waited in the security line for 15 minutes.

It's just before 11:00 when we finally made our way through the metal detectors and then our bags needed to be "searched." Of course they did. We most certainly looked like we're up to something, in our frantic mode to catch our flight. We can see our gate, just a couple hundred feet away, as we stand there waiting for them to give us our bags. And then, from just past the security check-point, we hear someone yell towards the crowd we were in, "Braddock family?"

Oh my goodness!! The people who were checking in the people for our flight have literally come looking for us! I was slightly embarrassed, Caleb was probably furious that we are about to miss our flight, I say "Yes, we're here just waiting for our bags." She replies, "Okay, it's fine. We just wanted to make sure you were here." Caleb told me to go ahead and take the kids over to the gate so they knew were were coming, while he waited for our bags.

Finally, we are all on the plane. And then guess what? We sat on the plane for half an hour waiting for food to be brought that would be served to the first class passengers. All of that stress and rushing around, the very last ones on the plane at the very last minute and take-off was delayed. But not because of us! The good news is that we didn't get left and all of our stuff made it, too.



Caleb and Hudson sat together while Savannah and I had seats one row behind them on the other side of the plane. It was probably good that we had a couple hours to cool down away from each other or Caleb might have strangled me! Haha. Savannah did great on the flight, just watching movies.





Caleb said Hudson was great, too, and he fell asleep just before we landed. He stayed asleep until after we got our luggage, giving him about an hour long nap.

Once we arrived in Mexico and walked out of the airport, we were welcomed by hot and humid air. There were a ton of vans and transportation workers from various companies, but we had no idea which one was there for us. We looked at the email from the travel agent, but it didn't have any information about who or where to find our transportation {which we paid for at the time of booking of our trip}. Somehow we missed that line of communication, but we were able to figure it out after calling our travel agent.

By the time we got on the van that would ultimately take us to our resort, I was beat. I had some serious cramps and a low back ache, I was very hot and super hungry. All that food we waited for to be put on the plane wasn't an option for us to eat. So I had only had a snack size bag of chips since breakfast and it was now after 3 p.m.

The drive to our resort was about 45 minutes long, then we had to check-in. Once we had finally made it to our room around 4:30 all I wanted to do was crash on the bed. But with two little kiddos, that wasn't an option.

We went down to see the beach instead and got a little bite to eat at a hamburger shack that was on the beach. At this resort, there were several restaurants, but they all required reservations. Since we had just arrived, we had no dinner reservations that evening and the buffet dining wasn't open for another hour. Hamburgers just didn't cut it, so we went back to the room and called for room service to bring up more food.

After we ate {again}, we changed to go swimming. But by then, the sun was setting and it was actually kinda cool to be in the water, so we didn't last long. We put on some dry clothes and went to the theater area where there was entertainment every evening. We didn't stay there long either because we were all just so tired and ready to get a good night of sleep so we could have a fresh start the next day.

Before we left our room to go to the theater, we had called the service desk and asked for a baby bed to be delivered to our room. When we came back to our room, there was no bed. Caleb called and asked for it again. That's when he was told that "the bed wasn't delivered to your room because we are out of baby beds."

What?! No bed for Hudson? Oh, this was going to be fun!

We had already planned for Savannah to sleep on the sofa sleeper, as she has done several times before. For Hudson, we ended up using the couch cushions to make a pallet on the floor next to me. And he actually slept great there, thankfully!

We were all in need of a good night's rest and were excited to actually enjoy our vacation, tomorrow.