Cancun:: Tuesday & Wednesday

Wednesday morning, Oma & Opa treated the whole fam to a delicious breakfast buffet. We woke up and headed to the turtle pond to kill some time before breakfast. 

"ooh ooh ooh" 

"crawl, crawl, crawl" Brooksie would say these two phrases over and over again when he watched or chased the turtles around. 

Breakfast was so good, but a little chaotic! Brooks was chucking his food everywhere and Nolan fell down 2 stairs while carrying his Belgium Waffle and the plate shattered. He actually handled it very well, he didn't get hurt, but he was embarrassed. After a new waffle he was just fine. And boy did he love it! He ate plenty that morning and loved the watermelon juice too. We all walked out with full bellies, that's for sure! 

Then, like usual, it was time for Water Aerobics, Bingo, and pool time! 

Playing "The Color Game" with Auntie Cara. 

You have to name a color, if it's not the one the leader is thinking of then you get thrown or dunked until you guess the right color. Wes played this game with me too. He had plenty of fun dunking and dunking me until I guessed right! Two dunks in a row if you named the wrong color twice! I couldn't stop laughing! 

"Roar! Roar!" 

 Train rides with Auntie Cara too! She's SO fun! 

More evening beach time...

Mark, Nolan, and Oma took a long walk down the beach this evening and found some GREAT shells! Nolan had quite the collection by the end of the week, but chose his 5 favorites to bring home with us. 

Brooks wasn't super smiley in these pics, he's been teething hard, but I still love them. 

Heathy taking a break from the sand with Oma. 

Daddy and Brooksie hit the waves

Cara made some pretty cool sand creations! 

And Brady got buried.

Wednesday morning we planned a boat ride and snorkeling excursion. The day did not quite go as planned, but the kids had a good time regardless. It was just the adults that were a little annoyed. First of all, the shuttle was about 30 minutes late to pick us up. Which in turn, caused us to miss the boat we were supposed to take and push us later into the day into lunch and nap times. 

But once we got on the shuttle, the kids loved sitting in the back row up high. Nolan loved the ride and smiled from ear to ear the whole ride. He also comforted Landon who was a little nervous. 

When we got to the snorkeling place, they couldn't get us on another boat trip because they were all full. So we waited awhile and they finally shoved us all on the next over crowded boat. We were the last ones on and there weren't many seats left so we got stuck right next to the driver and sat on a cooler. The view wasn't that great from where we were sitting, which was a bummer. 

When we got out to the snorkeling location we could spread out a bit and the kids saw some colorful fish in the water. 

 Jayne and I had planned on staying on the boat with our smaller children and having a relaxing time watching the water, fish, and snorkelers. Well, that didn't really happen. They moved us all onto a platform that they continued to cycle other groups of snorkelers on and off of. So we couldn't put the babies down and it was so crowded. Since the day was later then expected Heath was starving and begged me for snacks the entire time. They did get to feed the fish and see them swarm to eat Cohen's Cheese Its, which they thought was cool. 

When Mark returned from snorkeling, which he said wasn't that great, the boys got to get into the water with him. 

They had fun bouncing around in the water with him. When they got back on the boat, I had hoped to be able to go out to snorkel, but there was a boat coming to take people back to shore just then and I knew the boys could not wait another hour on the platform for me to snorkel and to wait for the next boat. So we decided to hop on this boat and take off. Brad and Jayne got on with their kids and then they shut the gate. The workers said there wasn't room for anyone else. Which caused a Titanic moment to happen! Everyone wanted to get on that boat, but they said it was full! (Which it wasn't!) It was crazy. People were shouting and complaining. And finally they let our family of five on because we were the only ones with little children. I felt kind of bad that we were the only ones that got on, but the ride back was actually the best part of the day! 

We sat on top of the boat and had a great view! 

The wind felt so good, the boys were great, and Mark and I enjoyed some complimentary beers! When we got back to shore we saw a stingray in the water too! It was neat! We hopped off the boat, jumped on a shuttle back to the resort, and were so relieved that this crazy day was over. Even though it was hectic for us adults, the boys have some great memories. They even got to hold a parrot while waiting for the boat, which was something they still talk about from the trip! Mom & Dad and the Syers fam waited for the next boat and had fun having some drinks, jumping into the water, and checking out some creatures the snorkeling professionals brought up from the ocean floor while they waited. We all eventually made it back to the resort and reunited for some relaxing pool time.  

Nolan loved swimming with his floaties on from one deep end of the pool to the other! He was quite proud of himself. 

Once again, we ended the day on the beach. That's Nolan getting crashed by the wave. Cara checked out some boogie boards that night that they had fun with. And I even got some good time out in the water. I love the waves too! 

Payton and Nolan were so excited when they trapped this crab under a bucket! They came running over so excited to show Opa what they caught! He was pretty cute!