Dickson Family: May 2015

This trip was long awaited and perfectly planned. I'm so thankful my parents set aside time for everyone to be able to come. We had such a lovely time.
Our trip was simple and casual and everyone did as they pleased as well as doing some scheduled activities that were really fun for different groups. With a lot of family time (small and large) mixed in. The kids loved having Daddy there 24/7 and having ultimate freedom to go to the pool, the beach, or whatever adventure we chose that day. We had a wonderful time and made lots of fun memories.

April 25th - May 1st
Saturday:

-Flew from LAX to ZIH airport. Paul got upgraded and gave me (the birthday girl) his seat but luckily we all had plenty of space on the plane and the ride went great. I also got a massage in airport. We arrived and met my family at the airport then rented our cars and went to the hotel. Zihuatenejo is an old fishing village with some really nice resorts built into the rocks cascading down to the conch shell shaped beach. Our Club Intrawest was very nice and the staff was so friendly. Our family had our own villa for the 5 of us that almost touched balconies with my parent's place housing all the others. Our "villa" had a dipping pool, 2 hammocks and layout chairs on the patio, fold out bed for kids, a crib for Maverick and Us in king bed. It was amazing. Our kids swam in the dipping pool everyday and we laid out in the chairs during nap times. We all got settled, went swimming and then to dinner at the hotel. There weren't a lot of kids there so we had the pool to ourselves more often than not. The pool was like bath water and the ocean was refreshing, not freezing. The weather was in the 90's all week and a little humid. It was perfection.

Sunday:

-Got breakfast and went to church in town. The people there are so sweet and friendly and they love our kids and love to touch them. Our kids are taking a while to warm up but learning to say "hola". They were all wanting to pinch Nolan's cheeks and he was getting scowly because they were "messing up his hair." The locals were very complimentary of my Spanish which made me feel good, luckily their accents were easy to understand and they were fun to talk to. Everyone said that Maverick was "bien gordita" (nice and chubby) but his name was the hardest for them to pronounce or understand.

-Swimming and beach. Caitlin is the most dedicated seashell searcher you've ever met. Nolan likes making sand castles and car ramps. Maverick likes eating the sand.

-Took naps and I got a massage with Chelsea which was a very interesting half naked experience on the beach. One that we decided not to repeat and taught us the lesson that you do get what you pay for.

-More swimming then dinner at the hotel.

Monday:

-The boys all went fishing in the morning and came back in the afternoon. They caught a big 8 foot sailfish and a few tuna.

-The women and kids went to the pool for the morning, Maverick napped poolside. Then we lunched and did some coloring inside. The kids loved playing with Zoey and having a little cousin play mate all week. And Zozo kept up with the big kids and they all had so much fun together.

-That night we walked down the beach and had dinner at Rossy's which us known for their coconut ice cream and fried plantain dessert. YUM. We ate dinner on the upper balcony and overlooked the ocean and sunset.

-Caitlin keeps saying how cool it is that we can just walk to everything and it's so close and we don't even have to drive in the car.

Tuesday:

-Paul and I ate breakfast in the restaurant with just Maverick which was a treat then we all went into town for some shopping at the flea market.

-We went to the marina and caught our boat that took us out to a private island. We caught about four fish on the way and a lot of us got sick on the boat. But the crew was super nice (same guys who had taken the boys fishing).

-The private island had a rocky coral beach but really fun snokeling. We put the kids across an air mattress and they went out with their goggles and tried to snorkel too. Caitlin really liked it, Nolan didn't want to put his face in the water.
-Caitlin got her hair braided and so Dad decided he couldn't miss out on the fun either... luckily one person's lasted longer than the other.

Wednesday:
-The girls and Tyler did a cooking excursion in the morning with the resort. They took us into town to the market and showed us around, let us taste test things and showed us local products. Everyone in town was so nice and excited to show us their wares and let us try things. Although the preservation techniques were non existant in some cases, all the food I tried was delicious. The chef bought ingredients for our meal and we all went back to the hotel and met for our class. We made: pico de gallo, guacamole, shrimp tiritas appetizer, and a chile relleno entree. It was all delicious and fairly easy, I'm excited to try it at home!

-That evening we went to visit my dad's uncle Gary and aunt Zoe who (randomly) live about 25 minutes from Zihuatenejo. We saw their house and played at their beautiful beach, body surfing and digging for sand carabs. and Maverick eating more sand. Then had dinner at their friend's bed and breakfast.

Thursday:

-Paul, Chelsea, my dad and I got to go scuba diving in the morning. We did two dives both around reefs and had a great time. The water visibility wasn't the best but we were able to see some fun things. Along with a bunch of different fish I couldn't name, we saw: puffer fish, rockfish, spider crab, starfish and sea anemone, moray eels, and a big sea horse!

-Went back and played in the pool then hit the beach later that afternoon and tried stand up paddling boarding with the older kids and then Paul took Nolan in a kayak.

-We had Pizza and a movie night at my parent's that evening. The kids have been going to bed late but sleeping great and taking naps most days so I feel like the trip was very restful. I've never stayed in a hotel where I could so clearly hear the sound of the ocean all night! It's made for great "white noise".

Friday:

-We took family pictures in the morning then had breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
-Hit the pool then went into town to do some souvenir shopping.
-That night we went to the hotel restaurant where they prepared a special BBQ for that evening. Most of the employees float between meals and locations and they all knew us well by the end... knew that Nolan liked to get the Ninja turtles plate, knew that we needed two high chairs, and plastic cups for the kids, knew to get the kids meals out first thing and give us extra breadsticks for Maverick. They were so cute and accommodating and my kids warmed up to them and would say "hola" and "gracias" and give them high fives.
-The kids did another movie night at Grammy and Papa's while Paul and I got packed up.

Saturday:

-We had until the afternoon at the hotel so we did breakfast at my parents then went to the pool. Then the older kids did jet skis with Paul and my dad and we played at the beach. the waves were huge that day and it made for some fun beach time. Paul and my Dad had Caitlin and Nolan on their shoulders and the waves began to get so big they were breaking even taller than that. One wave came and it was just too late... it took out all 4 of them! Luckily everyone was fine and we consoled the kids by saying they had conquered the "big kahuna"! It definitely made for a good laugh for everyone watching. Another good laugh was when I was feeding Maverick and Nolan came up and said he needed to go potty so i told him he could go in the ocean. I looked back down at Maverick and heard snickering around me. I looked up to see Nolan's naked bum and his swimsuit down by his ankles, about ankle deep 8 feet out into the water. No shame.
-We finished up at the pool then had lunch and then get changed and packed up.
-Our flight home was from ZIA to LAX then we had to go through customs and change airlines within about 2 hours and the flew to Salt Lake and got in around 11 PM. I was definitely nervous to see how the flight would go after a long week and exhausted kids but thankfully it went great. We had a whole row to ourselves again and the kids were amazing. They ended up sleeping the entire second flight home and Paul and I just kept looking at each other wondering how we got so lucky?! Definitely a perfect ending to a great trip.

Beacause we wanted a direct flight to Mexico, we ended up flying to LAX and then from there to Zihuatenejo. Our flight was in the morning so we flew to Los Angeles on Friday afternoon and were able to have a really fun quick stover visit there! We decided to hit Downtown Disney (closest we could get to a quick Disney trip and the best place to kill a few hours with kids!) Our flight to LAX was fine, Maverick decided not to sleep at all and further proved he's entering the wiggly stage for planes. But we made it and took a cab to our hotel which was right by the airport. We got checked in and re-packed up for the evening then took the cab to Downtown Disney. Luckily we snagged naps on the way. We got there and met up with the Turnbulls! They were so nice to drive up from San Diego and we had so much fun getting caught up with them and having the kids play together.
We had a could major stops in Downtown Disney: first was the Lego store. The kids raced lego cars and built their own things outside and then picked out some legos inside. Nolan lately has been getting really into legos so he was in heaven. And the legos definitely came in handy for the rest of our airplane rides and trip! After that we looked in more stores and went to the "Anna and Elsa Boutique" It was a darling store with all the Frozen merchandise in the front and then a small salon in the back where you could get your very own Anna or Elsa coronation day makeover. Of course Caitlin had to do it. She chose the Elsa hairstyle. They had her sit in the chair and chatted to her about all things Princess as they did her hair, painted her nails and even put makeup on her. She was in heaven, but in her shy smirky way until she opened up a little bit. At the end she chose "rainbow snowflake sparkles" for her hair and they said this cute little poem as they dusted her hair with sparkles. I wish I remembered it, something including "snowflake wishes and troll kisses" then they announced to the whole store that Princess Caitlin was ready and everyone said "Let it Go!" and they turned her around to see her reflection in the mirror. She kept the emotions under control in the chair but as soon as she was out that's all she wanted to talk about all night. And her reaction when they told her she got to KEEP the brush, nail polish, tiara and makeup!! Priceless. She re-applied her lip gloss about every 5 seconds. And at dinner she told me "I really feel like I probably shouldn't eat because it might mess up my lipstick."
We ate at an Italian restaurant then did more shopping around, got dessert and made our way over to in front of the Disneyland Park to watch the fireworks! We watched the firework show then played for a bit. The kids were in heaven being so close to Disney and being with their little friends. The boys were chucking legos everywhere and racing their cars and running around and we all congratulated ourselves afterward for not losing anyone, thankful that our kiddos were happily using the buddy system. After then made our way back to the hotel. It was a great night.