Hola Amigos!

We survived our trip to Mexico for my brothers wedding!  A few things made this trip not only survivable, but fun for the whole fam...

1. Zach is a great traveler.  We were shocked.  I traveled with Zach and my mom last summer and he did awful...just awful...on the plane and acclimating to the new surroundings.  I was dreading travel and having minor anxiety attacks all week, but low and behold, Zach decided he would like to see somewhere besides Northwest Ohio because if it went poorly we were never taking him anywhere outside of the state again...ever.  He slept on his flights, cried maybe a few seconds on each flight and was taking his normal 2 naps a day and going down easy at night by the second day.

2. My entire family was there.  There were more people to entertain and distract Zach when he got crabby.  There was even a few hours during nap time one day where my mom stayed with him (she napped while he napped, perfect) and me and Matt got to go to the swim up bar and hang out together.

3. We realized before hand this was not going to be overly relaxing.  We have a toddler, nothing is overly relaxing.  It was fun, but we knew our days of vacations where we relax by the pool, read, get a tan and have drinks were long gone.  We needed to nap during those nap times just like Zach to recharge.

4. Matt aka husband/daddy of the year.  This trip was for my brothers wedding, which I was in, including a rehearsal so Matt had the majority of parenting duties for the better part of 2 days.  I took over one of the days and set him wild (he may have shown the family blonde hair Matt, his wild alter ego) so each of us had a little time to cut loose.  Matt is such a wonderful partner and dad he made this trip almost stress free.

5. Zach now likes sand.  On the Florida trip mentioned earlier, he hated the sand and the beach.  He cried and would life his toes so they didn't touch the sand.  He now likes to run like the wind in the sand and I think we ended up bringing home about a pound of it in his hair and clothes.  He does not like the waves.  The water washing up to the beach freaked him right out and was met with a chorus of no, no, no mama.

6. They had a kids play area.  We could have technically left him there for the people of the resort to watch, but that seemed sketchy at best, but it was a pretty awesome play area that was air conditioned and made specifically for 1-3 year olds.  That helped a ton since they had cars, videos and pretty much all the toys he has here.

I'll have to make a list of travel must haves for our next trip.  Nothing warms the heart like seeing your little guy playing in the sand and experiencing new things.

Matt napping and Zach watching Thomas the Train

Proof he wasn't good the entire time...I wanted to use this for our Christmas cards, but Matt said no, even though this is usually what we look like

This is the one I actually used on our cards, so if you don't get one in the mail you just received one via internet....you're welcome

Happy baby in the sand

Please note that we are far away from the water, just the way Z likes it

Playing in the sand with Daddy....which means Matt was building sand castles so Zach could crush them...the kid is destructive and hates order, I should be worried