Los Cabos!

(This post is picture heavy!  But today even my 85 year old Papa asked me why I haven't posted lately, so I thought I better get my act together!)

Joel and I just returned from our long awaited week in the sun.  Alone.  Without our darling children.  And when I say, "long awaited," that means about 10 years.

We enjoyed ourselves immensely!  We slept in late.  On the days I did wake up early, I would go sit on the deck and read and read while the sun came up.  (I read 5 books during the course of the week!)  Most mornings we'd get up and go lay by the pool.  When we'd get warm, we'd swim, or go back up to the room for a nap.  (A nap every day!)  We ate when we wanted, enjoyed the swim up bar, and took long walks on the beach.  Cliche!  Yes, and perfect.

We arrived Friday and headed straight to the pool and happy hour.  We took a long walk on the beach that evening, and enjoyed the great restaurant on the property.

This is Joel trying to draw a diagram explaining to me where we were on the Baja.  My usually excellent sense of direction was apparently on vacation as well.

Saturday we spent the entire day at the pool.  It was glorious.

Some days we went on outings.  Sunday we walked to the big grocery store to get water, and later to San Jose, via the beach for part of the way, and I got hot and whiny.  Why I thought it was a good idea to walk 3 miles in Old Navy flip flops, I'm not sure.  San Jose was quiet (Sunday), but it was fun to check out the statues, fountain and old church.  Interesting how different the churches of Catholic Mexico are so different than those of Catholic Italy.

No idea what all that was about.  Can you tell I was nearly in breakdown mode here?  I was so hot!  (It was like 80.)  My hands got all swollen!  (I shouldn't have walked there in flip flops.)

Dinner at our new fav, Sardina Cantina.  Well, tied for fav anyway.  I felt much better.

Monday we went parasailing in Cabo.  (Our resort was about 30 minutes out of Cabo 'proper'- closer to San Jose, actually.)  Such a fun adventure, it was on my 'bucket list' for quite a while, but I'd never had the right combo of guts and opportunity before.  As it turns out, I'd definitely do it again!  Joel and I were able to go tandem which made it all the more fun.  We could see so far (we were SO high!), and it was really peaceful and calm, not scary and jerky like I'd imagined.

Taking picture of dead puffer fish.

Dead puffer fish.

Up, up, and away!

Not sure what I'm saying to Joel here.  Either, "Can I open my eyes now?" or "Did we really just do that?" or "That was so freaking awesome!"

We survived!

After our adventure, we walked around the Cabo harbor.

On Tuesday we laid in the sun and read.  We watched the hilarious resort director host various activities, including water aerobics.  Lots of old ladies.  It made me think of my Grammy.  She was a big fan of water aerobics, no matter where they were.  Sometimes she'd attend two different session at 2 different aquatic centers on the same day!  Anyway, we just watched and chuckled.  The old ladies were so cute and the director was very into it- he was awesome.

Wednesday was more relaxing.  After our morning run, (we ran 3 miles every other day, and while I know running isn't a very vacation oriented activitiy, it is so rare that Joel and I get a chance to run together.  It was fun . . . even though he smoked me!), I received a massage.  ON THE BEACH!  It was seriously incredible.  Later we cleaned up and took the local bus to Cabo for our sunset dinner cruise.  There were 2 cruise ships in the port, so Cabo was pretty busy.  We were happy to get on board.  We picked the Ecocat cruise because it seemed a little calmer, more intimate compared to some of the 'booze cruises' out of Cabo.  It was a small group, maybe about 20 passengers and 8 or 9 crew.  A gorgeous evening and such a fun trip.  On the way out to sea we watched the sun set while we sat on the large deck and sipped margaritas.  Once the sun was down the boat turned around and we were served dinner.  Later there was dancing and lots of laughs.  So much fun.  Thankfully we figured out how to get back to our resort on the local bus, called our kids, and slept hard!

Where I got the massage!

Ecocat.

This pelican was flying next to the boat for a long time!

Thursday was another full pool today.  Today all the older ladies were gone when Victor, the activities director came around looking for water aerobics participants, and Joel and I felt a little bad for him, so finally we caved and joined.  (I know my Grammy would appreciate it if she could.)  It was actually pretty fun, and thankfully a few more people joined.  Most of the people were fairly fit and he really took it up a few notches- my arms were actually sore the next day!  That evening we walked to San Jose again (I wore better shoes this time), purchased some gifts for the kids and had a nice dinner.

We enjoyed a leisurely morning on Friday before we headed home.  Slept in, a run, and a late breakfast before we went to the airport.  And a walk around the property to take pictures of all the bushes that were sculpted likes animals- for the kids!  We were so anxious to see our babies that the trip home seemed to take FOR.EVER.  There was much hugging and snuggling when we got here, that's for sure.  Despite some teary goodbyes, (Maddy, me, and Joel, mostly!), the kids had a great week.  They stayed with my mom and spent a lot of before and after school time (and a little on the weekend too) with various friends- our village that I speak of now and then.  We missed our kids, but we were really okay leaving them because we knew they would be in wonderful hands with so many people that care about them.  It is a very good feeling to have people that are so good to our kids, and I am so grateful!  Thank you so much Mom, Judy, Dave, Allison, Teresa, Mary, Kim, Jim (Allison's dad- seriously, this village is far reaching!), and everyone who was willing to step in.  We are SO blessed!