Merry Christmas!

A Mexican Adventure (Part Two)

For our second full day in Mexico, we decided to take it easy and spend the day exploring the resort. The resort was full of tons of huge, gorgeous and unique pools to choose from, so we went looking for one to settle on for the morning. We quickly realized that the while the weather that day was lovely for walking around and hanging out (mid 70's), it was not so perfect for the pool - it was a bit chilly in the water. The kids pushed through and swam a little, but even they got a little cold after a while. Elise spent some time in the kids activity center making bead bracelets and other art projects, and then we all went down to the beach.

The beach on the resort was not the same as the beach in Playa del Carmen - this beach was rocky at the waters edge so it was more of an exploring beach than a swimming beach - but it was still tons of fun. It was less windy and warmer on the beach than at the pool, and we had a great afternoon hanging out in the sand building sand castles and exploring the reef for wild life. We saw sea urchin, starfish, jelly fish and other exciting sea creatures along the shore.

We went back to the room and turned in early that night, because Wednesday was our big day out. We'd made arrangements with a cab driver (who was approved by the hotel) to take us out to Chichen Itza, a city of Mayan ruins about a 3 hour drive from the resort. We'd looked into taking a standard tour bus, but having our own driver was not only cheaper, it was also more convenient, as we could leave when we wanted and go where we wanted along the way. The taxi driver, Carlos, picked us up in his van at 7am Mexican time (about 10 minutes late) and we hit the road. Carlos was not only a great driver who made us feel very safe, but also spoke English well and was happy to engage us in conversation so we could learn more about the culture and customs of the area.

When we arrived, Carlos hooked us up with Manuel - a really knowledgeable (and patient!) tour guide to take us around the ruins. The tour was supposed to last about and hour and a half, but ended up going over by about an hour. We were inland and the weather was much warmer here than at the resort (upper 80's) so the kids were restless, hot and a little cranky pretty much from the get-go, but considering everything they did an amazingly good job. The grounds were huge and we only covered about a mile or so but thanks to Manuel we learned a lot of really interesting things about the ruins and the life of the Mayans at this place 1500 years ago. By the last half hour all of the children were hungry, hot and exhausted from all of the walking and the crabbiness really came out so we decided to hit the road to our next adventure.

As soon as we left Chichen Itza, we ate our (prepacked) lunch in the car on the way over to the nearby Cenote, a sink hole with exposed rocky edges in what looks like a cave in the woods. We swam around in the cenote for nearly an hour and the children delighted in Marty's huge jumps from the side. From there, we went to explore a nearby town called Valladolid. After walking around the town for a bit and checking out the gorgeous church (built in 1550!) we had a very authentic dinner at a local restaurant (delicious!!). We finally got back on the road a little before 7pm and began the long drive home. The girls fell asleep almost immediately, but Lucas (who had napped on Marty's shoulder while we walked around Valladolid) was wide awake.

I put on a movie in the portable dvd player for Luke to watch and he sat in my lap quietly watching. I am not sure whether it was the food from the restaurant, the motion of the bumpy car with his head down watching the movie or my arms a little too tightly secured around his waist (no car seats!) but whatever it was Lucas took that moment to...you guessed it...throw up yet again! All down my leg, on his lap on the floor of the van...it was a mess. Luckily, I had learned from my mistakes along the way and had a change of clothes for both me and Lucas readily available. We pulled over in a little town, jumped out and scrambled around, changing, cleaning and re-situating (while Lucas continued to try to watch his movie). It was probably more excitement than the sleepy little town had seen in a while because the people sitting out on the street couldn't stop starring! When we finally got back to the hotel, the kids were both sound asleep and Marty and I also quickly passed out! It had been a long and wonderful day!

Thursday morning we happily realized that Lucas had fully adapted to Cancun time and once again was waking up at his normal time 6 or 6:30am (which was waaaaay better than 4:45!). We decided to spend another day lounging at the pool and the beach. From nearly sunup to sunset, we laid around the pool, swam, ate and relaxed. Lucas continued to be like a celebrity at the resort - his red hair and friendly demeanor made him stand out and it seemed that everyone knew and greeted him with a "Lucas!" and a pat on his little red head. That night we went to one of the restaurants on the resort for a "Mexican Fiesta" which was a dinner buffet and a show. The show started with the kids getting to go up on stage and hit a pinata - so from the beginning the kids were completely sold! We pretty much each ate our body weight in Mexican food and then watched a really great show before retiring back to the room at nearly 9pm.

Friday we once again headed back to Playa del Carmen to enjoy some beach time. Marty, William and the kids hung out on the beach while Jennifer and I wandered around the town and did a little shopping. I learned a lot about haggling and decided that I absolutely hate it! I love a bargain, but everything in all the shops was priced ridiculously high and then you are supposed to haggle over the price until you reach a price that seems fair to both parties. This process was time consuming and exhausting and after about an hour I'd had it with the haggling. The Molloys headed back to the hotel for naps and then spent some more time at the pool in the late afternoon.

For our last full day on Saturday, Marty and I went out for a romantic breakfast while all of the kids did crafts with Jennifer and William, and then we all hit the pool and spent the entire day there. The weather was the warmest that it had been all week (probably low 80's) which was perfect pool weather and we had a blast hanging out, swimming and doing water aerobics (which Elise begged me to do with her!) That evening, William and Jennifer went out and we stayed in with the kids - which was perfectly fine with us because we were exhausted. We packed up our stuff and began preparing for the trip home bright and early the next morning.

We got to the airport a little earlier than scheduled the next morning, which ended up being good because we waited for nearly an hour and a half to check in! The kids proved that they are amazing and the best travelers ever, as they behaved like perfect little angels the entire wait (even Marty and I were getting restless!) and strangers kept commenting on how good they were being.

The flight back was blissfully uneventful, and while the last hour of the plane ride was a bit tough on Lucas (who couldn't fall asleep on the plane and was completely exhausted) it was a very successful return flight (with no throwing up!)

We had such an amazingly fabulous vacation and the kids were so great - we can't wait to travel again.

Where to next?!

A Mexican Adventure (Part One)

This summer, we met up with our friends, the Sparks, for an afternoon of fun and food. We met them years ago when we all lived in California (aka a lifetime ago) but they moved to the east coast right around the same time as we did (more than 6 years ago now!). We live about two hours apart, but don't get to see each other nearly as often as we'd like to now that we have kids and serious jobs and such. Anyway, during our wonderful day together, Jennifer mentioned that they were going to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico in December and we should join them. Her mother has a timeshare at a resort that is near all sorts of amazing things - including one of the 7 wonders of the new world. We smiled politely and nodded a lot but I don't think that Marty and I seriously considered going at that point.

Of course the idea of going to a resort in Mexico was appealing, but it would mean 1) Going through the process of getting passports for everyone, as Marty and the kids didn't have passports and mine was about to expire and had my maiden name 2) Taking our children to Mexico, which has been in the news practically every day for the absurd violence and crazy kidnappings 3) Spending lots of money - which we generally don't do 4) Taking a 2 year old and a 4 year old on a 4-5 hour plane ride to a country where we don't speak the language, aren't familiar with and aren't comfortable in.

We, as a family, are not really risk takers. We don't do things like take vacations in Mexico...or do we? A few days after our meet up with the Sparks, Marty and I started talking about how stressed out we were at work and how nice it would be to take a relaxing vacation. We could really use a vacation. But in Mexico? I approached this - like I do with everything - with caution and lots and lots of research. Through my endless researching, I discovered that 1) Getting passports is annoying but can be done relatively quickly and painlessly. 2) There's very little violence in the Cancun and Mayan Riviera areas of Mexico - it's really more the border towns that we keep hearing about with the crazy gun violence and kidnappings. 3) I found plane tickets for absurdly cheap ($200 round trip! You can't get a flight to Florida for that price!) 4) Other people take their kids all over the place, why can't we? Plus the Sparks are very experienced world travelers that speak Spanish.
Lucas with his great grandfather the day before the trip
So the decision was made. We got passports, booked our plane tickets (the cheap flight was out of an airport about 2 hours away but at HALF the cost per person - $800 total - it was worth being slightly inconvenienced) and began talking to our kids about Mexico.

Finally "game day" arrived, and Lauren generously drove us to a hotel next to the airport (so we could just roll out of bed and get to the airport for our 7:30am flight instead of driving the two hours to the airport at 3am). We've traveled plenty of times before, but have never stayed in a one room hotel. Now I can see why. The kids were WILD. They were excited about the vacation, excited about all of us sleeping in the same room, excited about sharing beds (Marty and Luke in one bed, me and Ellie in the other), excited that they could jump from bed to bed...it was just exciting. For everyone this is, except me and Marty. To add to all of the excitement, we all also had colds. After more than an hour of trying to settle down all of the excitement, the coughing began. Lucas fell asleep but coughed every five seconds and it was keeping me and Marty up. We tried all sorts of tricks to get him to stop - Vicks, laying with him upright to let his nose drain, saline solution, steam from the shower...Eventually Marty was patting him on the back and he threw up (on Marty). Marty handed him over to me to get him cleaned up and Lucas threw up again (on me). In the end, we finally got him to sleep and the coughing stopped, but Marty and I probably got a collective two hours of sleep between the coughing and kicking children we were sleeping with. 5:00am came waaaaay too early.

This vacation was not starting off quite the way in envisioned. LESSON LEARNED: Do not stay in a tiny one room hotel with your children right before a vacation (or possibly ever). We got to the airport, checked in, breezed through security, grabbed some breakfast and before we knew it, it was time to board the plane. That part was much easier than anticipated... kids were great in line, good listeners and the full-body-scan-groping-security was not even a part of it. Actually, the kids loved being able to take their shoes off at security. Hey, maybe that's why they do it... 'it's for the kids!'

Our first flight was a quick 20 minute flight to a nearby city with a short layover, and then we'd board a different plane to Cancun. Because it was such a quick flight, the plane was one of those tiny puddle jumper planes and we got to walk out onto the runway and climb the stairs to the plane. What an exciting first ever flight for Lucas! To add to the excitement, it was rainy and fairly turbulent. It wasn't scary turbulence, just not a smooth ride. Right after we landed, Marty look over at Luke, who was sitting there starring at the back of the seat. Marty said "You ok, buddy?" and Luke responded by throwing up all over himself. And it turned out that while we had lots of carry on bags, all of Luke's clothes were packed in the checked baggage. LESSON LEARNED: Always pack a change of clothes in your carry on bags, especially when flying with children.

So, we went into a gift shop at the airport and got a clearance t-shirt (about 3 sizes too big) for Luke to throw on for the final leg of the journey. The flight to Cancun was good - the kids were fairly patient and well behaved considering that it was about 4 hours and they typically don't sit still for more than 15 minutes at a time. Lauren had given them both backpacks filled with activities, which kept them entertained, we brought out the DVD player, which helped, and we also took many, many trips to the bathroom (I think they just liked having an excuse to get up!).

We arrived and went through customs and met up with the Sparks, whose plane got in about 30 minutes after ours. Elise and Vienna (who is 6) began holding hands and acting like best friends within about 45 seconds! When we all stepped out of the airport, it was a shock to the system - in a good way. It was at least 40-50 degrees warmer than it had been when we left for the airport that morning. Of course we were all dressed in long sleeves and long pants (except for Lucas who was sporting his airport t-shirt) and Elise immediately began complaining that it was hot. As we made our way over to the Taxi's, I looked over at Ellie and realized she didn't have her shirt on! I immediately grabbed her shirt, which was in her hand, and began putting it back on asking her what on earth she was doing? She simply relied "I'm HOT!" LESSON LEARNED: Elise will never travel to Cancun for Spring Break when she is a teenager, as this area apparently makes her randomly take her shirt off in public.

Turns out that we arrived in Mexico on The Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is a festive occasion where Mexicans celebrate the day that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on Tepeyac hill to Juan Diego. Once we got to the resort and settled into our room, it was decided that Marty and William were going to head into a nearby town to catch some of the celebration, and Jennifer and I would hang back at the hotel with the kids, who were exhausted and probably not up for an adventure like that on the first night. Once the guys left, Jennifer, the kids and I headed out to walk around the grounds of the resort to get a lay of the land and find something to eat for dinner. About 10 minutes into the walk, we realized this was a mistake. The grounds were HUGE, slightly confusing, relatively dark and not great lighting. We walked for what felt like miles and both Elise and Lucas were seriously melting down. They were so hungry and so exhausted (Elise hadn't napped and Lucas only napped for about an hour and we'd gotten up that morning at 5am and hadn't slept well the night before) I felt bad that I'd even attempted to take them out in the first place. LESSON LEARNED: On the first night of a vacation that requires lots of travel, order room service and turn in early. We finally found a little grocery store, headed back to the room, through together a quick dinner and we all went to bed, completely exhausted! (Marty and William enjoyed getting the flavor of a local Mexican custom, but really, I need to stress, the lesson is, first night... No one leaves, Room Service.)

On Monday morning, Lucas woke up at his usual time, which unfortunately is an hour earlier in the Mayan Riveria. 4:45am! We were definitely thinking this was a bad sign, but he was in a very chipper and happy mood, so we rolled with it and hoped that his body would quickly adjust to the time change. Once everyone else was up (much later!) we got ready for the day and headed to the nearest big town, Playa del Carmen, to do some grocery shopping so that we'd have food handy at our place and not always have to eat out. The taxi dropped us off about a block from the beach, so we decided since we hadn't seen the water yet, that we'd run over to the beach to check it out before getting our groceries.

The beach was GORGEOUS and just what you'd think of when you think of Mexican beach - fine, white sand and crystal clear water. We hadn't planned for a beach trip and didn't have bathing suits, but of course we couldn't resist the temptation to dip our feet in the water, which led to the adults soaking in the gorgeous view and gorgeous day and the kids playing at the ocean line, which eventually led to the kids getting a little wet, which eventually led to the kids getting drenched and covered in fine white sand. Reminding us that we were, indeed, in a different country though, at one point a bunch of police dune buggies pulled up to the lifeguard station near where we were sitting and the adults were slightly surprised by the bullet proof vests and machine guns that all of the police were armed with. We weren't sure whether to feel incredibly safe or incredibly worried. Go figure...there is something about heavily armed paramilitary that makes one feel unsafe. The kids didn't even notice though, so luckily there was no explaining that needed to be done about firearms on the beach!

All the the fun came to an abrupt stop when Lucas rubbed one of his wet, sandy hands in his eye and began to freak out. We tried to find somewhere to wash them off, and eventually ended up using one of the beach hotel's outdoor shower while William distracted the hotel security guard who definitely did not want us using it. Once everyone was soaked but sand-free, I realized that I did not have a change of clothes for anyone. LESSON LEARNED: Do not ever leave the hotel room while on vacation without a change of clothes for everyone. This one complements the never go on an airplane without clothes... basically keep a change of clothes with you at all times. We quickly walked up to the shops with our soaked children and bought a bunch of Playa del Carmen clothes at a very expensive price (because we'd lost our bargaining power dragging in our wet half naked children!)

Once everyone was dry and decked out in their new clothes, we went back to the beach to a restaurant on the sand for lunch. We had a wonderful lunch on the beach with great food - and we were even serenaded by a two-man band! After lunch we went to the grocery store, which turned out to be way more of a process than we imagined. Knowing very little Spanish was definitely to our disadvantage, as we had to rely almost solely on pictures to figure out what stuff was, and the warning to avoid fresh fruits and such made things limiting (considering that our kids practically live on fresh fruit.) Also, because it was right around nap time, Lucas essentially passed out on Marty's shoulder and the two of us took turned carrying him around the store (sleeping kids are heavy to carry around!). We finally got all loaded up, got in a taxi and headed back to the resort. It was later in the afternoon and a little cool (mid 70's) by the time we got back, but we took a quick trip to the pool anyway! The pools in the resort were amazing, and most of them were very shallow, which gave the kids lots of freedom and independence (which they loved)! We all crashed that night ridiculously early but completely content.

Our first full day in Mexico was such an adventure. And we had so much more in store for the week...and many, many more LESSONS LEARNED.

Elise Navidad

The turkey had barely gotten cold from Thanksgiving before all of the excitement in the Molloy household shifted over to Christmas. Mind you, Marty and I are not overzealous Christmas people. We do not listen to Christmas carols for months or go shopping on Black Friday or decorate the house to the nines. We listen to Christmas music on the day we put up the tree, Christmas Eve and Christmas only, and do our shopping a few days before Christmas and complain when the stores have any sort of reference to Christmas before the month of December, and put up a tree and a wreath and call the house decorated. But this year, Elise was jazzed with the Christmas spirit very early and it seemed to be infectious for the whole family!

On Saturday we took a trip to the aquarium and to our surprise the place was completely Christmas-ified. There were Christmas trees and packages and reindeer and wreaths decorating the whole aquarium - not in the tanks of course - but there was a special appearance by "Scuba Santa" and his "scuba elf" in one the the large tanks. Perhaps a scuba diving Santa Claus sounds bizarre - and it was - but the kids thought it was spectacular. Then there was also an appearance by (dry land?) Santa. Elise actually ran up to him, climbed into his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas without a thought. This is particularly odd because, if you remember, Elise was absolutely terrified of Santa last year and was shaking in her boots at the thought of being in the same room as Santa, never mind sitting on his lap. But she appears to have gotten over that whole breaking and entering Santa is scary situation.

Later, she excitedly told us that she was guaranteed to get the toy she asked for from Santa (walk and giggle doll) because he was the real Santa and "there is only one Santa. I can tell." (perhaps a reference to he fact that she doesn't think Scuba Santa was the real Santa?) When Marty asked her why she didn't ask for a Pillow Pet (the gift that she has been absolutely hounding us about for the last three months) she said "because we can just get it at BJ's." Perhaps she is a little too cleaver for her own good.

Anyway, Sunday morning Elise was full of Christmas spirit so much that she nagged us into going ahead and putting the tree up. This is unheard of for us - as it was still NOVEMBER - but she really, really, really, really wanted to put the tree up and three hours of constant begging finally wore us down. When Marty finished putting our tree up and got the lights situated, she said "when do we put the condiments on?" (we then proceeded to let her call them "condiments" instead of ornaments for about 20 minutes before correcting her because it was so cute). She was absolutely full of adorableness that morning - while we were decorating the tree listening to Christmas music, the song Feliz Navidad came on and she said "This is my song! They are almost saying my name! Elise Navidad!" Apparently Lucas felt left out so he started saying "My song! Lucas Navidad!" which just added to the adorableness of it all.

The Christmas spirit was fleeting though, because on Wednesday, Elise came home from school completely distressed that we weren't planning to celebrate Hanukkah. Turns out that her best buds at school this year (Audrey and Anna Mercedes) happen to both be Jewish and she was feeling a little left out. I promised her that we could put up some Hanukkah decorations if she really wanted to and we could talk to Audrey's family about how they celebrate Hanukkah so we could learn more about it. When Marty dropped Elise off at school on Friday, the teacher asked Marty if we were Jewish, because apparently Elise was telling everyone at school that we celebrate Hanukkah.

But by Friday night, the Christmas love was back in full swing. We went to a Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony/Christmas Carol singing session at the Seminary across the street from our house with Audrey and her mom. It was very cold, but the kids enjoyed listening to the songs and then were asked if they wanted to lead the group in a familiar tune. So the girls actually stood in front of a microphone and sang Jingle Bells (Elise! Singing in front of 50 people!). She actually thought it was pretty great and did an excellent job remembering the words. We were so proud of our littler performer!

Afterward, we took all the kids to the local florist to visit with Santa (Santa is popping up in the strangest places...). Lucas sat on Santa's lap first - and was shy for a minute but then asked for "a truck" and smiled and chatted with Santa for a bit about trucks. Then Elise and Audrey went and sat with Santa together and had an adorable yet semi-irrelevant conversation about how eating egg on top of pizza for breakfast is delicious (according to Santa who learned that from children in Italy) before getting to their gift requests.

Christmas overload continued on Saturday when we all headed downtown to Macy's to watch the Christmas light show and visit the Charles Dickens Christmas Village. There was a lot of waiting around, standing in lines and patience required for these activities and while the adults were not exactly feeling the Christmas spirit by the end of it, the kids had a great time (and were very good, all things considered) and were already asking if we could do it all again next year.

Elise Navidad!