Cancun - the end

Here are the last of the photos... finally! Sorry about that... I really haven't felt well at all since we got back from our trip so I haven't spent as much time as usual at my computer.

After we got back from Chichen Itza, all we wanted to do was get showered and go to dinner (and then go to bed). But after dinner we heard that they were having Salsa dance lessons and Clara wanted to check it out (although she refused to participate for quite a while on the grounds that she would be "cheating on Ms. Rebecca" - her Latin dance teacher). She finally got up there for the last song but stood in the last row so I have no photos. Well... we found out that the dance lessons were a way to get people to stay for the big show later.... a fire show. So, of course, once the kids heard that.... we were there for the night.

Here's a photo from the show...
I took quite a few during the show but I was trying to achieve a certain effect that just never happened, so I only have a few worthy of posting.... I decided posting one was enough.

The next day we didn't have to leave for the airport until 11:45 so we decided to get in one last trip to the pool.

I got brave and took my big camera into the pool with me.

Here's Alex about to make a splash....
Clara mid cannonball...
My two goofy kids in the pool....


After about 2 1/2 hours in the pool it was time to go back to the room and get showered for our trip home.

Here are the kids relaxing in the hammock on our patio while they waited for us to get ready...
(gotta love how the wide angle lens makes them look like coneheads...lol!)

Then it was off to the airport for the flight home. Alex still had a little spending money left and he spent it all on these...
Kinder Surprise eggs (5 of them to be exact). The link is to the Canadian site. Alex LOVES these but we don't see them very often. If you live here in Chicago and know where to find them, I would love to know (thanks!).

Uneventful flight to Chicago... easy ride home... it was a very good trip and it was very good to be home. :-)

Cancun Day 4

On the fourth day of our trip we went on a tour to Chichen Itza. We debated about this trip the whole week. We really wanted to go (plus Alex REALLY wanted to) but it was an all day bus trip. We figured it would be worth it.... but still over two hours of driving there and over two hours back just didn't seem exactly the way we wanted to spend our last full day in Mexico. In the end.... we decided that we HAD to go and I'm very glad we did.

Our first stop of the day was at a sink hole where you could go swimming. Since we were only there for a brief time, only Jeff and the kids went down to swim.

Here are the kids ready to jump in...
Alex getting ready to jump and Clara climbing out...
They probably would have been fine without life jackets but I was being paranoid overprotective mom that day and rented them life jackets.

Here's a view from the bottom up...
Our second stop was for lunch.

Here are a couple of shots of the dancers who entertained us during lunch....

The next stop was actually at Chichen Itza. I have to say... if you could look past the hundreds of people trying to sell you stuff and all of the tourists.... it was absolutely amazing.

We had a really good tour guide who did a fabulous job explaining the different structures to us.

This is from the ball court...
also from the ball court...
the observatory....
Alex in front of something :-) ....
the nunnery...
the kids in front of "El Castillo"....
the backside of the ball court...
the temple of the warriors (back) and the snake head from El Castillo (front right)....
the top of El Castillo....
Alex clapping in front of El Castillo....

If you stand in the right place in front of the pyramid and clap, the echo will come back as an almost birdlike sounding noise. It was really fascinating. Alex was obsessed with making it happen.

I wish I would have explored Chichen Itza more. However, it was so hot that day that we ran out of steam before we saw even a fraction of it.

Just a few more photos left!

Cancun Day 3

Okay... the text of this post will be brief as I am still not feeling well and I have a to do list a mile long today (and with not feeling well.... everything is taking me twice as long... sigh).

Anyway... on our third full day in Cancun, we all went to Xcaret. Xcaret is a cool little eco-park with trails to walk, snorkeling, lagoons, an aquarium.... lots of stuff (more stuff than we had time for actually).

Since I knew we would be spending part of our day in the water and since I wasn't entirely comfortable with leaving my big camera in a locker half the day.... I only brought my little waterproof point and shoot.

Here are the kids on the Jungle Trail....
After wandering around a while we ended up at the aquarium and then at the sea turtle exhibit.

The kids LOVED the tanks and tanks of baby sea turtles...
They also loved seeing the adult ones too....
Once we had some lunch, it was time to snorkel down the underground river. We made some rookie mistakes.... we put our flippers on entirely too early and had to navigate a big long downhill trail with them on (and add to that, we went down the wrong trail at one point too).

This pic is a little blurry.... but I had to include it... doesn't Clara look thrilled? :-)
Alex getting ready to start down the underground river...
Alex and Clara at one of the openings along the river...
Off they go!
The boy near the end of the river...
It was pretty cool. We didn't see much in the way of fish but it was cool to see the rock formations... the bottom was a loooooooooonnnnngggg way down at some points.

Here are the kids after we got out of the river....
We headed over to the beach for a bit of playing before we had to start towards the bus. It was a really good day but I feel like we missed sooooo much... we definitely could have used more time there.

Off to work on my to do list! Hopefully more photos tomorrow!

(Jocelyne... with as much as your son loves the water.... you really should look into this camera.... it is soooo much fun!)

Cancun Day 2

On Tuesday morning Jeff and my dad went to play golf so mom and I took the kids to breakfast and then to the pool.

I took a few underwater shots again...

I used the "underwater" mode this day and the photos came out too blue for me... so I switched back to "auto".

I had also brought my 5d along... so the rest of the shots are with it.

The resort we stayed at was an all inclusive resort that had a swim up bar in the pool.... the kids loved swimming up to the bar to get virgin strawberry daiquiris.

Alex made short work of his...
Clara enjoyed hers a bit longer....
After the boys got back from golf, we all had lunch together and then headed down to the beach in front of the resort.

Clara wanted to go snorkeling...

so she headed into the water....
She didn't last long.... I think you can tell in this photo but it was not a good swimming beach.... lots and lots of seaweed. Clara came out... announced that all she could see was green and was done with snorkeling.

Alex was doing what Alex does... building...

Then he decided to see what the water was like and took off toward the water doing some odd Tarzan chest pounding thing (not sure why though)....
It was soooo nice out on the beach.... we found empty chairs under one of the hut/umbrella things and all hung out together while the kids played. There was a nice cool breeze off of the water too. If the water just would have been nicer for the kids, we would have spent a LOT of time there.

I've almost got all of my photos ready... so there's still more to come!

Cancun Day 1

Or perhaps a better title would be...

Fun with My New Toy :-)

For our trip to Cancun, I purchased a new point and shoot camera. I got the Pentax Optio W60
based on the recommendation of a friend. (I actually purchased my camera through B&H, but when I looked it up to link it, the camera is showing up over $60 higher than what I paid for it a couple of weeks ago... the one on amazon is closer to the price I paid.)

Last year when we went to Hawaii I bought several disposable underwater cameras. They aren't particularly cheap and the kids went through them in under 5 minutes... mostly blurry photos of rocks or each other. By the time we purchased the cameras and then paid for film developing and having the photos put on CD we had invested quite a bit and really didn't have much to show for it. This is how I justified my purchase :-)

Well... let me just say that I'm in LOVE! I had so much fun taking a camera places that I normally wouldn't have. Our first full day in Cancun we went to the Wet 'n Wild Waterpark. Typically, I wouldn't have brought a camera at all... not even a disposable. But this time, I had my little waterproof camera!

I took it into the wave pool!


and then to have some ice cream...

(Alex LOVES his ice cream!)

Then the camera went with me to ride the "bubba tub" waterslide....
(I tried taking photos going down the slide but only ended up with one blurry photo of my foot...lol)

Next it was off to the Lazy River...
(I think Clara is doing the salsa... something from her latin dance class)

Clara was making faces underwater and the current of the river kept pushing her forward, so some of those photos became extreme close-ups....
(Hmmmm..... do you think she'll need braces?)




I didn't take a ton of photos this trip... but I do have quite a few more to post. They may be slow going as I came back with a chest cold and haven't been spending too much time at my computer.

More photos to come....