Mexico!

We had a wonderful time on vacation... and wish we were back there now that it has been cold and rainy yesterday and sort of today. When we found out Dan's mom would be out of the country for a few weeks we knew we needed to take time off to watch Bethany for a few days so we decided to go on vacation. There were some great deals in Mexico since it is hurricane season so we chose an all-inclusive resort in the Riviera Maya district south of Cancun. It was an amazing resort with wonderful service. We had lots of fun swimming in the pools and in the ocean. Bethany enjoyed her first real experience in the sand and had a lot of funny expressions tasting it as well as the salt water! We just hung around the resort and ate, slept and swam all day. Sometimes we'd nap at the same time as Bethany, and other times we'd take the video monitor out with us to the pool to relax and it even reached one of the outdoor seafood restaurants. They had a big screen setup on the beach so we watched the Vikings game Thursday night and also parts of Avatar another night. The variety of restaurants was nice and the people were so friendly. I realized that with a baby we are only known as "Bethany's mom and dad" and all the locals loved picking her up and watching her for awhile. While dining we'd see someone take her on a "kitchen tour" and try to "sell" her to other tables for $20. She loved the attention and would crawl right over to new people to meet them. There were 2 older couples we met on the van ride to the resort that we ran into all the time and they would yell "Bethany!" and come over to talk to her. She always had big smiles for them and would happily babble away. She did great on the plane rides and it was nice to have a layover in Atlanta to let her get out and crawl for awhile. She enjoyed looking over the back of our seat on the plane and saying hi to other passengers. It was her own game of hide and seek and she would laugh contagiously until she had the attention of everyone around us. I was so glad she didn't get too antsy on the plane and slept most of the way. Everything was so much fun that we are already talking about our next vacation. It would be fun to go with another couple with kids to trade off watching the babies but we really enjoyed the family vacation together. So relaxing!!

View from our room over the marina and adult pool- we had great weather except for one brief shower (while we were taking a nap)

family pic along the ocean

Bethany's waiter friend

Bethany's football game friend

The two ladies that loved Bethany

Someone smiling at Bethany

On September 11th they had a whole program on remembering the event and flew the American flag at half-mast

Our "babysitter"

Wearing my swim diaper

They had these awesome lounging beds along the ocean - fun to watch the sunrise from

Trying all the fun new food

I love the beach!

Yea, sand!

Hi, Dad

They had these fun swings along the ocean too

We took a ton of pictures, but this is a good sampling for now. Bethany is soooo close to walking. She pulls up to standing all the time and stands for 20-30 seconds sometimes. She pushes her walker around like a pro and even turns sometimes although ramming into furniture doesn't bode well for her driving skills quite yet. She tries to sound out new words sometimes, like saying "brr" for bird because we saw a lot of those near the open-air restaurants. She was so brave in the water and could crawl out of the pool on her own. She does "so big" and claps when she is happy and bounces up and down too. Her laugh is so funny and cute. We love you Bethany and really enjoyed our first family vacation together!!!