Anniversary vacation

Yesterday was our 7th wedding anniversary.  That meant it had been 7 years since we'd been on our honeymoon and our last vacation.  I decided we needed to get away for our anniversary, just the two of us, before we had another baby and it was harder to get away.  We left Thursday morning and arrived at our resort around noon.  Neither one of us had been to an all-inclusive before, so we didn't have a preference on where to stay.  We ended up booking an Apple square deal where we were guaranteed a 5 "apple" resort, but we wouldn't find out where we were staying until we got to the airport in St. Louis the morning we flew out.  The Apple representative at Lambert told us we were staying at the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda in Riviera Maya.

Our vacation didn't start out very good.  We got seated in the last row of the plane, which are the only seats on the plane that don't recline.  It made taking a nap on the plane a little uncomfortable, but I still managed a small one!  We were starving when we got to the resort, so we headed straight to eat.  After eating and walking around the resort for a little bit, we were both hot and wanting to get into our room and get a shower.  We were able to check into our room a little early and when we got to our room and turned on the shower, there was no water!  I called the front desk and they said it would be back on in half an hour.  Sure enough, it came back on and Joel took a shower first.  He didn't say anything about the water, but as soon as I got in, I looked down and the water was brown.  I didn't care at that point and just wanted a shower, even if it was in brown water!  Joel thinks they must have broke a water line.  The water was clear later that night when we got back to the room.

Yummy chocolate covered strawberries!

It didn't take me very long once I got out of the shower to realize I forgot my hair straightener!  It was still at home on the bathroom sink, right where I left it because I never ran back in to grab it before heading to the airport.  I called the front desk to see if they had a hair straightener or curling iron I could borrow, but of course, they didn't.  We stopped by the couple of shops in the resort to see if they had anything with no luck there either.  I finally stopped by the spa to see if they had one I could use, but the manager had already left for the day.  I went back the next day when the manager was there and they told me I could use their straightener at the spa (that was a good 10 minute walk from our room) that day but they didn't know about the rest of my stay.  I decided it was too much trouble and just pulled my hair back the first night for supper. 

After our rough start on our vacation of getting stuck in the back row on the plane, having no water when we got to our room, and then the major issue of not having a hair straightener, we thought it could only get better from there.  We woke up the next morning and got something to eat and then headed to the beach in search of a shady spot.  We were lucky to find a shady spot and enjoyed laying around reading the rest of the day.  The rest of our vacation went pretty much the same as the first day:  wake up, go get breakfast, search for a shady spot on the beach, lay around reading/drinking, eat lunch, back to the beach for the afternoon, shower, eat supper, watch a little of the nightly entertainment show and then crash when we got back to the room.  It was so nice to be able to go to sleep whenever we wanted and sleep in a little in the morning.  I don't know if I enjoyed sleeping or being able to read/relax more!

A coconut fell off a tree

Just swingin' at the bar

Nap time!

The second full day we were there our afternoon got a little messed up.  Everyone would get their beach towels and lay them on their chairs to "claim" them.  I drank a few pina coladas that morning and by the time we got up to go eat lunch, I was a little tipsy.  We left our towels on our chairs and after lunch we headed back to the beach to our chairs.  Keep in mind, that I was still tipsy from all the pina coladas that morning.  As soon as we walk around the corner and see our chairs, Joel says:  "Someone is in our chairs".  I didn't believe him, but the closer we got, I could see someone was in "our" chairs.  With each staggering step I took toward our chairs, I could see a woman and man in our chairs and the woman was laying in the sun.  Just our luck!  Well, our luck was even better when I could finally make out that the woman laying in one of our chairs was topless!!!  Yep, the first topless person I see on our vacation is laying in our chair.  Again, I'm glad I had been drinking already.  I walked right up to the guy, while trying NOT to stare at the woman's boobs, (who was European and had a very strong accent) and asked if the towels behind him were his and he replied they weren't, so I grabbed them and off we went.  He asked if we wanted the chairs back, but there was no way we were going to say yes.  By that time, all the shady spots on the beach were taken so we headed back to the room, which was probably the best thing that could have happened to me because I needed to sleep for a little while and give the pina coladas a break

I was a little tipsy and thought this towel animal was pretty cool

I don't know what prompted this, but on the way back to our room that afternoon, Joel had the nerve to say to me:  "Why do I have to be the responsible one?"  Really?!?!  The responsible one???  I hardly ever drink and the one time I do, he's worried because he has to be the responsible one?  Let's just say I wasn't very happy and it didn't help that I had been drinking. 

The rest of our vacation was pretty calm and relaxing.  I was able to read a couple of books, and take a few naps.  Joel enjoyed all the free alcohol and watching people walk the beach.  Even with sitting in the shade, wearing a big hat, and applying and re-applying either SPF50 or 85 sunscreen, we both still got burnt.  Joel looked like a backwards raccoon one night because his face was so burnt!

There wasn't much of a beach on our resort, but we had another resort right beside ours.  We walked over to the pier and then on down to the other resorts beach one day and it was a lot nicer than ours.  A big portion of our beach was covered in seaweed and had sandbags along it.  I don't think we'd stay at the resort we were at again, but we know what to look for if we do it again. 

Our beach....

Looking at our resort/beach from the pier

Beach at the resort beside ours...much nicer!

Monday morning before heading to the airport

We headed home on Monday and we both were ready to see our baby girl.  We sure missed her!!  Our shuttle picked us up from the resort around 8:30 and our flight was at noon.  We didn't get to Mom's to get Ainsley until 5, so it made for a very long day.  But, seeing her face when we walked in was priceless!   She looked at each of us and just stared at us for a few seconds like:  Is that really Mommy and Daddy?!?!  She then came over to me and once I picked her up, she laid her head on my shoulder and just hugged me.  She NEVER does that any more and she made my entire week.

It was so hard to leave Ainsley, but we knew she'd have lots of fun staying with everyone and getting spoiled rotten.  She stayed with Jim and Rita Wednesday night and then Mom picked her up Thursday night and took her home with her.  Mom and Mark then loaded her up and took her down to Thomas and Jamie's Friday evening to stay for a few nights.  Ainsley had her first taste of alligator on Saturday night and they said she liked it.  My poor baby was out in public for the first half of Saturday with her dress on backwards before Mom (or someone) noticed.  I'm glad she was down in Missouri and not around home so noone really knew her!  Ainsley then went to Dad's Sunday afternoon to stay the night.  We picked her up from Mom's on Monday evening after we got home.

I got the picture below from Tanner on Thursday night.  Attached to the picture was this text:  bananas + milk + Little Einstein's=Ainsley thinking I'm the best Uncle.  And this was at 10:45 at night!

Tanner says Ainsley said Tanner over the weekend, even though it sounded more like "ner", but I don't know if I believe him.  She won't say it for us.  She did, however, come home knowing how to make a "fart" sound.  Mom got her to say Grandma again, but I think she was saying it a few days before we left.

I know Joel and I had a good time on vacation, and I'm pretty sure Ainsley had a good time while we were gone also.