Hola y Hasta Luego

Oh boy! Where to start? What to say? There is just so much!

Joshua loved the airplane. He doesn't remember his first flight as he was just a little over a year old, but this flight was terrific. He was so excited! Every time the plane would move he would yell "We're going now!" only to have his excitement diminish when we didn't take off...this happened time and time again for the 40 minutes we waited because there was an air traffic jam over Charlotte. Once we were airborn, he looked out the window and talked the entire time. We arrived in Charlotte just in time to board our next plane. The flight to Cancun took 2 1/2 hours, Joshua slept a little over an hour. We arrived without incident.

There is just so much to tell about Cancun...I'm going to give you all the condensed version...

Joshua played in the sand building castles and digging holes. He played in the ocean and let the waves crash over his head without once crying. I get the tiniest drop of bath water on his nose and you would think it was burning him like acid, but let a wave crash over his head and he coughs and gags and spits and smiles and gets right back in every time. Not one time did I have to wipe his eyes with a towel!

The resort had an amazing childrens program. My Joshua, the boy who used to hold onto my legs and not play anywhere or anything or with anyone unless I played too, participated in a water balloon fight, painted a t-shirt, had a Batman face painting done, played freeze tag and musical chairs. He made a friend while there, another 4 year old boy named Jack. Jack had some great water toys so he and Joshua had shoot outs with water squirters and water guns and played with some other water toys. In just a few days, he was reaching down to the bottom of the kid pool, water covering his mouth, to pick up toys and he was floating unassisted with his ring floaty.

We rode on busses, saw iguanas, ate at McDonalds. Joshua had a daily drink during happy hour by the pool...a strawberry/banana/orange juice smoothie. Except for our McDonalds dinner, we ate our meals in. After a hard day of swimming, sunning and sanding, Joshua didn't want to shower, dress and go out.

The second portion of our trip took us from Cancun to Playa del Carmen.

We had more sunning, sanding, beaching and pooling. Joshua has now mastered his ring floaty and can kick to move through the water forwards and backwards.

Playa del Carmen is a great little town. 5th Avenue is open to pedestrian traffic only and is filled with bars, restaurants and junk stores. There are tons of cruise ship people shopping during the day and eating, drinking, music and dancing at night. We ate lunch on the beach, table and chairs in the sand; we ate dinner on the street, people walking by and a mariachi band behind us. We went into every other junk store and t-shirt store. I thought the junk stores were funny, half filled with souveniers, half filled with tequila...although I guess tequila could be considered a souvenier by some.

Our last day, we went to Xel-Ha, an all inclusive water park. What a fantastic way to spend the day! We floated down a lazy river, we swam in the water, we swam into a cave, we played on the playground, we watched others swim with dolphins, we lazed in hammocks, a lot of people snorkeled, we ate breakfast, we ate lunch, we ate ice cream (all food, drinks-including alcoholic beverages-were included with the price of admission).

The airplane rides home were uneventful, except for all the standing in line...baggage check-in, security, customs, in both Cancun and Charlotte. It's rather tiring standing in long lines with a tired, hungry 4 year old and carrying a backpack, a purse, Joshua's backpack, 2 pieces of luggage, airline tickets, passports and a bear...and then Joshua holds up his arms for me to hold him too...Uh, no!

We made it through an entire week without any serious incidents, only minor ones...Joshua didn't have his pillow and wanted to go home; McDonald's didn't have milk or apple juice or Pirates of the Carribean toys so he wanted to go home; Joshua got up from his hammock and someone else got into it he had a meltdown; I opened the locker and returned the key without Joshua so we had another meltdown; and finally, a wave carried his shovel away, he loved his shovel, he will never see his shovel again, the wave wasn't very nice to take his shovel away...2 days later, he still gets teary eyed thinking about his shovel....ask Joshua if he had a good time in Mexico, he tears up and the first thing he says is a wave took his shovel away...

I hope that he always has fond memories of this trip and not just sad memories of the lost shovel...