Wednesday my family arrived home from an amazing vacation. My parents, sister Julie and her husband David, niece Charlotte, and my family spent a week at the Crown Club Paradise in Puerto Vallarta. The week went by far too fast... and so many great memories were made! And if you can believe it, I didn't access computers the whole week!
We loved our resort! It had been recommended to us by friends and although it was only rated a 3 and a half star, we were told it was perfect for people with kids, and it was! We enjoyed dinner together every night at the various restaurants (Mexican, Japanese, Italian, and French) and loved the outstanding nightly shows. Daytime was spent lounging by the pool and beach - jumping waves, reading, dancing, swimming, napping, playing bingo, shopping from the vendors and meeting new friends. The girls had their hair braided, my father para-sailed at the age of 74 (on his bucket list), and the kids enjoyed participating in crafts at the kids club and the watersides. Scott, David, and Matthew had fun playing water polo, water basketball, beach and water volleyball, and bowling.
Our resort was the perfect size, as Matthew could wander at leisure and we didn't have to deal with elevators. We woke every morning to sunshine! This resort catered to kids and had ice-cream, hotdogs, hamburgers, nachos, fries, onion rings, served daily at the snack bar.
Being altogether made the trip extra special... And we became friends with Paul, one of the entertainers at the resort who organized the sports during the day and danced in the shows at night. He took the time to get to know our family, especially Matthew and let Matt call out the numbers for Bingo. Matthew and Paul switched ball hats for the week too. On Sunday, Paul's only day off (he works from 9 - 6pm at the pool and then 7:30 - 11:30pm in the shows daily), he was running in a half-marathon so we went out and cheered him on as we all wake early even on vacation. He commented "it made him so happy, he almost cried". We knew his family lived many hours away and I have ran a half marathon before and know how much support from others means. On Monday our last night, we left the resort and went to Pepe's or Pepitas (Not sure???) with new friends we met from Williams Lake, Cliff, Lynda and Abby. We took Paul to dinner too (the only night there is no show) to celebrate his race and it was a wonderful night!
Above is a video of our photos put to music... and below are some snippets of the Saturday night show which was over the top outstanding. They had princesses, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Madagascar, StarWars, Pirates, and so much more!
Tuesday night they pulled Scott and I up to represent Canada in a dance off (it didn't help that our kids kept pointing at us, encouraging them to pick us). We went up against two other couples, one Mexican and one American. We ended up winning ~ I think it was because Scott almost dropped me twice... sorry folks, no video!
Anyway, I have found myself really sad since we came home. Tomorrow is David's surgery to remove the cancerous brain tumour and I am so glad he was able to come away for the week to Mexico. We all kind of forgot about reality for a short little while.... I think the taxi driver must have thought we were a crazy family because when we got into the cab my daughter who was waving at Paul started to cry, then my son's eyes welled up, then my sister Julie started to cry, and then mom and I. No one wanted to come home...
I welled up a little reading your post. It sounds like an amazing trip. So nice that you went to watch Paul run his race and took him for dinner afterwards.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a wonderful trip! Did you read the kids drink menu (the picture on the right)? Every time I read it, I was reminded of your husband, Captain Canada, as there was a drink called Captain America. I am surprised Matthew's tongue isn't permanently green from drinks he drank throughout the trip. Megan's favourite was the Papa Smurf which was mostly blue.
ReplyDelete