travel

Our last two days in Cancun were spent hanging out at the hotel and relaxing (my favorite part!). Day six was Chase’s 10th birthday and that evening we celebrated his birthday at Senor Frogs. After enjoying a yummy dinner the staff came out and sang Happy Birthday to Chase and smashed some ice cream in his face. Chase was laughing so hard, it was hilarious!

These aren’t the clearest because they are photos of photos, but the boys had their picture taken with some creatures around our pool.

Here are some photos we took around our hotel. As always there are more that you can browse through in our photo album here.

I look at the photos of the beach and wish I could wake up and have this view every day. So beautiful! I miss it already.

Link to days 3 – 5
Link to days 1 & 2

Well I certainly didn’t think it would take me 10 days to get back to posting more vacation photos. Life has been crazy between work and getting ready for Christmas. All of my shopping is done and there are only a few more gifts coming via UPS that will need to be wrapped.

So, back to our vacation photos. If you missed day one and two- check those out here. Also, I added them to the same photo album as the others so you can view that photo album here. Again, there are photos in the album that are not included in this blog post.

Day Three of our vacation was spent getting up at 6am and heading off on our private tour to Ek’ Balam ruins, Chichen Itza, and the Cenote Ik Kil. I will spare you all the photos of the rocks. LOL, I laugh because I wasn’t overly interested in driving two and a half hours to look at ancient ruins. It’s just not my cup of tea. I would rather be soaking up the sun by the pool. But we all agreed that we would do activities 3 of the days and 3 of the days hang out and relax.

Ek’ Balam was cool because they allowed you to climb the ruins.

The Ik Kil cenote was beautiful but the water was so cold! It was very clear and you could see all the fish swimming around you and okay, I have to admit, I just really don’t like that. We have a bunch of photos from the boys and Ken jumping off the cliff into the water with a waterproof camera, but I haven’t gotten those developed yet. If you don’t know what a cenote is: It’s a deep natural pit, or sinkhole, characteristic of Mexico, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula, and some nearby Caribbean islands, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings. (Thank you Wikipedia)

The kids favorite part of the day by far was our driver Javier. We had decided to pay a little extra for our own driver rather than go on a bus tour where we have to stop at a dozen other hotels. We wanted to be able leave each place when we wanted and truthfully just not deal with other people, haha! Javier was so friendly and did a great job explaining much of Mexico to us. If we were on a group tour we never would have had the conversations and learned the things we did that day.

When we got back to the hotel we spent rest of the day before dark out at the beach.

Day 4 was Thanksgiving Day and while they don’t celebrate this in Mexico they had some real turkeys. Karli was upset later on in the day when one was laying down and she was worried where it went. Before she seen that it was laying down I told her they cooked it up and she was shocked! I truthfully don’t think my kids understand where food comes from sometimes. We spent the day at the pool and then we went out for dinner to a really nice restaurant Harry’s Grill. We asked our hotel to recommend a steak and seafood restaurant and made reservations. It was much more expensive than we thought it was going to be, but the food was very good.

On day five we went swimming with the dolphins at another resort. It was such an amazing experience! The dolphins feel so soft, kind of like wet leather. They charge a ton extra for photos and video that they try to sell you afterward, but we didn’t even go look at the photos. I read online that it is like $35 a photo and three times that much for the video. Karli and I went first and then the boys went after us so we could try to take photos and video of one another. They aren’t the greatest because the angle and distance was bad (on purpose I am sure).

Video of our experience here.

That night we ate dinner at the hotel and then we went to see this show at our hotel of Michael Jackson. It was pretty entertaining, kind of funny though because it was all lip syncing and I swear the dude did not know all the words!

The fifth day was another totally relaxing day. By this time I think I was on my third book already. I had the best time ever just laying by the pool and reading. The kids were able to get food as they pleased, such as Karli and Chase getting ice cream about 4 times a day. The hotel had an entertainment crew that had things going on around the pool throughout the day such as trivia, zumba, and bingo.

Days 1 & 2
Days 6 & 7

Over Thanksgiving we took a 8 day family vacation to Cancun, Mexico. We took about 400 photos, but don’t worry I won’t be posting them all. I do have a photo gallery that will include all of the photos, including ones that I won’t have in my blog posts. You can find that photo gallery for this blog post here.

We left for our trip the Monday before Thanksgiving and the kids were so sad to have to miss a few days of school. Okay, not really, but I sure regretted it when we got home. Blake and Andrew had a lot of work to catch up on as well as trimester exams the week we returned. Our flight was direct from Detroit to Cancun and left at 12:30pm so we didn’t have to be to the airport until 9:30am, which was nice.

I sat on the plane with the other Dramamine takers…

And across the aisle sat the non-motion sickness prone…

The flight was about 3.5 hours long and went pretty smoothly for the most part. I read Bared to You so the time flew by. I started using my FlipCam on the airplane and thought I was going to make this awesome vlog when we got back from vacation. However I have to admit my kids are not the Shaytards. They don’t like being videotaped and they definitely don’t “put on a show” that makes them full of entertainment. If anything they shut down when I start recording. Oh well, at least I can take photos and you can’t hear them objecting!

After arriving at the airport we got through customs pretty easily, changed into some shorts, and went to look for our scheduled transportation to our resort. I have to laugh and share how Ken allowed himself to be stopped by the time-share schemers at the airport. He was convinced they were there to help us, but I knew from all my review reading that they were there specifically to talk you into booking excursions from them or attending their time-share meetings. Even when they did pretend to tell us where to catch our van to our resort they gave us the wrong information. Finally I got Ken away from the guy and we found our van. It was about a 20 minute drive to our resort, the Crown Paradise Club.

The infinity pool at our resort was pretty sweet. (notice the clouds, the weather was cloudy the first two days.)

The room itself, not so much. I didn’t like the family suite at all. When you walked in the door you either went up the stairs to our room, or down the stairs to the kids room. We each had our own separate bathrooms, but the kids only had a shower and if you had the curtain even slightly out of place the floor would flood. I thought our floor had a balcony, but it didn’t. The kids had doors that walked right out to grass and a patio, but birds crapped all over everything so you couldn’t really sit out there. Not that you would want to because the view was the worst. You could see the ocean in the far distance, but right in front of you was the kids play area- the waterslides, the soccer field, zip line, etc. One might think, how awesome, there is so much for the kids to do right outside your room, but our kids did not use the amenities at all! Chase and Karli went to the kids club once for like an hour and they hated it so they never went back. I don’t know why they didn’t want to participate in any of the other activities. They just liked to hang with us all the time I guess. I’m not complaining though- they never got bored just hanging out by the pool and eating endless snacks, especially ice cream. The resort was all inclusive so they were able to eat whatever they want at no extra cost. More than anything Chase and Karli enjoyed painting these ceramics and they ended up doing this activity three different days!

Don’t think for a minute we didn’t enjoy our trip, we had a fabulous time. I just wanted to give an honest review of the resort. I wouldn’t go back there or recommend it to anyone. It was not very clean, the food was mostly cold and very bland, and the hotel staff were not very helpful- you had to figure out most things on your own. That is the last time you will read a complaint though- the kids loved the vacation and it’s not like you spend that much time in your hotel room.

The kids loved hanging out at the beach and we spent time there every day. There were parts of the beach that had a high cliff that they loved playing on. Or there were other parts where you could walk right into the ocean. It was perfect. The first two days were really cloudy and we actually got nervous about the weather, but after the third day the weather was in the low 80’s and beautiful bright sunshine every day.

The second night we took a bus about 15 minutes from our hotel to do some shopping at La Isla Mall. We ended up having dinner at Baby Lobster only because when we were walking by the waiter told Ken to stop here for dinner and if we don’t love it- it’s free. The food was great and the kids loved our waiter Andy even more. Karli had asked for cheese for her French fries and since they didn’t have any our waiter went somewhere (another restaurant there maybe?) to get some.

We walked around the mall and took tons of crazy photos. There are all these guys dressed up in different characters that you can get your photo taken with. As you can tell if you look at all the photos – Chase loved get his picture taken more than anyone else. Don’t forget you can see many more photos from our first two days here.

Days 3 – 5 Post Here
Days 6 & 7 Post Here

At the last minute we decided to take a two day getaway to Niagara Falls with the kids over Spring Break. Luckily my dad agreed to stay at our house to take care of the dogs. We already had passports for the kids from the trip to Mexico that we were supposed to take last year that never happened. Ken and I have had our passports for awhile now…we went to Riviera Maya 5 years ago. We left about 7:30AM and arrived in Niagara Falls by 1:30PM. We crossed into Canada from Detroit and the drive went pretty easily.

Going through tunnel to get to Canada

We had lunch before we reached Niagara Falls and we also stopped for a quick look at Lake Ontario.

Lake Ontario

We were standing there taking a few quick photos and all of a sudden Ken seen a sign that read:

Yikes!

Next thing you know we see a guy dressed in camouflage walking with a red flag. As we quickly got the heck out of there, we heard gun shots. That was crazy!

We checked into our hotel, which was on the Canadian side of the falls, the Marriott Niagara Falls Hotel Fallsview & Spa. Then we quickly left so we could go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride which is the only way you can get super close to the Falls. We got so lucky because the excursion actually just opened for the season that day! We didn’t even know this when we planned our trip. You get pretty wet, but the view was amazing and the rainbows were spectacular. It ended up being a good distance to walk, at least 2 miles if not 3, from our hotel. Good thing I have been exercising because we were going as fast as we could to assure we got on the boat before it closed for the day. Karli was scared at first, but was fine once we got out there on the water. She kept asking all these questions based on the movie Titanic. Oh my! I guess we won’t be going on a cruise anytime soon.

After the Maid of the Mist, we explored Clifton Hill which is a street filled with activities, stores, and restaurants. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, stopped at a few stores, and Ken, Andrew, and Chase went through a Haunted House. We walked and explored and honestly there wasn’t much that appealed to us. It was nice and clean and all, but everything was sort of like things that we really didn’t care to do, but considered doing just because it was there. Like a mirror maze or a large ferris wheel, even a laser tag joint. We talked the kids out of most of the activities thankfully. We had a even longer walk back to our hotel at that point, about 4 miles, and we stopped at a Starbucks for a snack and hot chocolate. We rested up a bit and then about 10:30PM Ken and I left for the casino which was just a couple minutes from our hotel. It was a nice place, sort of dead, and we didn’t win big unfortunately.

It was so cute when we left for the casino (it was dark out) we were crossing a bridge off to the side of our hotel (you can see the bridge in the bottom of the photo below, as well as the casino) and the kids wanted us to wave to them as we were walking. Andrew used the flashlight on his iPhone, flickering the light off and on, so were we able to see which window was ours so we could wave to the kids. I told Ken that it’s moments like that, that make all the craziness of our lives worth every minute. I don’t know, it was just a sweet moment.

View from our hotel room

The next day we had breakfast at our hotel and loaded up to drive around to see if there was anything else we should do before we leave. Unfortunately other than the things we already seen on Clifton Hill, there isn’t much else to explore. Not that we wanted there to be either. The trip was about getting away and seeing Niagara Falls as a family…knowing that it is something that we will only do once in our lives. Maybe someday our kids will visit there with their own families.

We decided to take cross back into the U.S. right there in Niagara Falls and drive home a different way. It probably wasn’t the best choice because traffic is much busier and the highways aren’t as nice. I tell ya, Canadian roads are the best kept roads I’ve ever seen. We did stop in Buffalo to eat at the Anchor Bar – the home of the Original Buffalo Chicken Wing. Yum! It was nice to get home earlier than we had planned. A couple of the doggies were getting sick while we were gone. I guess they missed us.

After the Maid of the Mist, just a little wet!

Overall it ended up being a really nice getaway and it felt nice getting away from computers, phones, and such for a couple of days. Now it’s back to the grind- kids back in school and back to work for us too.

There are many many more photos…check out the entire set here.

How did you spend your Spring Break?

We had a great time in Chicago earlier this month. It was chilly, but not so much that it wasn’t tolerable. We just had to keep bundled up when we were outside. The drive there went pretty well. The kids didn’t complain at all since they had more room in our new Yukon. It is bigger inside compared to my Acadia, but the trunk space is quite small. We liked that we were driving into Chicago at night…it makes it so much more exciting for the kids since it was their first time there. They were awed by all the lights and traffic.

We stayed in a suite on the top floor (46th) of the Marriott Downtown – Magnificent Mile right on Michigan Avenue so we were right by all the shopping. I have no complaints about the hotel, it was very nice and I would certainly return. However I did call down to complain that they wanted to charge us an additional $15 a day for internet connection, haha! They gave it to us at no cost after I said we were already paying so much for our room. I wouldn’t even have cared about the internet, but Ken freaks out if he can’t check email at least once a day because of our business. Truth is he was probably worried his mafia would die off or something (from Facebook, nevermind if you don’t know what I am talking about.) We didn’t take our car anywhere while we were there. Which the hotel charges $45 a day for parking your car in their lot. I have heard that some people will find a cheaper place to park and take a taxi or walk to the hotel, but we opted not to do that will all the luggage and stuff the kids had brought with them.

Our hotel and views from our room

Nothing is cheap in Chicago. We took a taxi a few times, like to the Navy Pier, but most of the time we walked everywhere. We did take a horse and carriage ride one night. The kids thought that was pretty cool. We ate at all really good restaurants- Giordano’s, Ditka’s, (we made reservations for this place) Rockit Bar and Grill, and Pizza Uno. We did lots of shopping of course! Karli had a blast at the American Girl store and had no idea what we bought for her for Christmas. She also picked out some stuff at the Disney Store. Andrew bought a winter coat at North Face which we allowed him to wear because he was “too cool” to bring his heavy coat to Chicago, but later realized he made a mistake. After we returned home I made him give me the coat and told him it was part of his Christmas presents! Blake and Chase didn’t really get anything big, just some small stuff. I bought my very first Louis Vuitton purse. Well actually it’s not a purse…it’s a Pouchette, which is basically like a clutch. I wanted something to carry just my money, credit card, keys, and cell phone around. I’ve joked and said whenever I close my own job I am going to treat myself to a matching purse. My pochette is a Christmas present too.

We also went ice skating at the Wonderfest at the Navy Pier. The kids all did very well except for Karli. She had a hard time and was either hanging on me or the wall. Chase was a total natural. The funniest and possibly most annoying (in a funny way) part of Chicago is the boys all kept doing these “Parkour” tricks. They would jump off walls, benches, etc and yell “Parkour”. The funniest part is the entire time we were in Chicago I thought they were saying Hard Core…not Parkour! LOL!

Tips: Giordano’s is the best thickest pizza – a must have when in Chicago. If you go to the Rockit Bar and Grill the macaroni and cheese it to die for! Wear comfy shoes because you will be walking a lot! And bring lots of spending money – they are a lot of unique stores you don’t see in many cities.

Giordano’s

Horse & Carriage Ride

Navy Pier

Wonderfest

Rockit Bar & Grill

Around the City

Ditka’s Restaurant

Pizza Uno

We also made a pit stop at the Notre Dame bookstore on the way home and everyone got lots of goodies from there as well.

This is our second year in a row vacationing in Myrtle Beach. (first time post here.) This time we were primarily there for Andrew’s travel baseball team who was participating in a tournament at the Cal Ripken facility. Some of the families stayed in the same hotel, but several stayed in other places. Since we had just been to Myrtle Beach the year before the kids were begging to stay at the Dunes Village resort because every time we drove by it they seen all the cool indoor waterslides.

The resort was not nearly as nice as Island Vista that we stayed at last year, but it was a very fun hotel for the kids. They had a lazy river outdoors, waterslides indoors, and several pools so there was always a place to find lounge chairs to relax and hang out. On the downside the hotel isn’t kept as clean as it could be, sand everywhere, carpets need replaced, furniture not in the best shape. These are all things that the kids certainly don’t notice so we still had a fantastic time.

We did go to Hershey, Pennsylvania on the way to MB, which ended up being way out of the way, which we knew, but didn’t care. We had time to kill. We ended up not arriving in MB until 2am. While in Hershey we visited Chocolate World the day we arrived. It was pretty neat, the kids thought it was cool. Believe it or not it was free admission and the chocolate tour ride was free. We rode it twice! Not that we didn’t spend plenty of money on t-shirts and stuff. We bought some yummy chocolate too. They had these new chocolate meltaways, they are really soft kisses.

The next morning we spent about 6 hours at Dutch Wonderland. It is an amusement park for kids in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There were some rides that Andrew enjoyed, but for the most part it was for the younger kids. We rode the Sky Ride, which are those cable cars, kind of like ski lifts. They go really slow and I hate them so much!

Like I said, we chilled a lot at the hotel, went to Magiquest (interactive game) 3 times, and ate at various restaurants. The vacation still cost us a lot of money. Don’t ever go to MB if you are trying to find a cheap vacation. Andrew had some great memories and he actually ended with a bang. He hit a triple and the whole team was cheering for him. I was so happy he ended on a positive note.

On the way home we ended up driving straight through and getting home at 4am. I drove from like midnight on. I just wanted to get home to my babies (dogs) and my own bed.

Overall we had a great trip and the weather was perfect the entire time!

Photos:

Kids back packs all ready to go. Nintendo DSi’s, games, favorite Webkinz, books, extra clothes. They are all set!

Packed like sardines in the car.

Hershey, Pennsylvania – Chocolate World

Hershey, Pennsylvania, Dutch Wonderland

Karli collecting hotel keys, she loves them!

Myrtle Beach, Dunes Village Resort