Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

In May, Dave and I decided it was time to leave the boys and go on a trip by ourselves. This is the first time we had left them since Charlie was born. Back when we got married, we had planned a trip to Playa Del Carmen for our honeymoon, but it didn't end up working out so we decided to finally go.

Playa del Carmen is about an hour south of Cancun. It is less of a party place than Cancun, and is more resorty and relaxed. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort called the Riu Playacar. It was pretty nice, and we got all the food and drinks (including Tequila...JK) that we could eat.

Each day when we would come back to our room there were these awesome towel sculptures. There was something different every day. I had to take a picture of each of them because I knew our boys would love them!

Here are a few pics of our hotel. The pool area was super nice, although we hung out at the beach more than the pool.

Ha ha! This one is pretty funny. Playa del Carmen has actually been pretty popular with the Europeans for years, so they were all over the place. Most of the men wore speedos and honestly, there wasn't a single one that was worth looking at!

Pathway to the beach.

View looking down the beach. It was beautiful and the sand was really nice and soft!

We went to this giant sinkhole or "cenote" on our way to see the ruins. We were able to jump off the cliffs on the side into the water.

Here we are at Chichen Itza, one of the Ancient Wonders of the World. It was huge and amazing, but it was SUPER hot. It was also a pretty long trip to get there, about 3 hours on a bus each way, but it was worth it to say that we actually went and saw it.

The giant Mayan ball court. This was one of Dave's favorite parts of the tour.

The back side of the main huge pyramid. The actually took a lot of stones from one side of the pyramid to put on the other side so it would look perfect, that is why it looks like it is crumbling.

It was so crowded with vendors trying to get you to buy their souvenirs.

Another day we took the ferry over to Cozumel and went snorkeling. Then we rented a moped and drove around the island.

We also went swimming with dophins and shopping in downtown Playa Del Carmen. Plus we got couples massages a couple of times, which was heavenly of course. It was super nice to get away and enjoy a vacation by ourselves. Of course we missed the boys and were excited to get back to them, but every couple needs a few days to themselves every now and then. Thanks, hon, for such a fun trip.

Charlie's 2nd Birthday

Okay, so I know I have slacked big time on this whole blogging thing, but I am going to attempt to get back into it now. I am just going to backtrack a few months and start with Charlie's birthday.

This little guy is so fun! A few things about him:

• He is a ham and knows how to make people laugh by being silly and showing off.
• He is noisy and loud and loves to talk.
• Right his favorite thing to ask is "What you doing? He does this about 20 times a day, whether I am getting dressed, cleaning, making dinner, doing laundry, even going to the bathroom.
• He loves cars and trains, much more than Davey did. Davey loved blocks, puzzles, and drawing.
• He also loves rocks. Without fail, if we are walking somewhere, he has to stop and pick up any rocks he sees. He even loves small pebbles in parking lots. The he loves to clutch the pebbles in his little hands wherever he goes.
• He is extremely stubborn.
• He loves Diego. I try to get him to watch other kid shows, but he always wants Diego.
• He loves to sing. He actually does a pretty good job of it too. He sings kid songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle," and "Bingo" but will also sing grown up songs like James Taylor's "Handyman." I think his favorite is "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz.
• He loves to wash his hands, and then instead of drying them on a towel, he pretends to sneeze on you and yells "AAAACHOOO!" while spraying you with water. He learned this from his father.
• We call him "Echo" because he repeats everything anybody says, especially his older brother.
• Speaking of Davey, he loves his older brother more than anything. If he is hurt or sad, he goes to him for hugs.
• I am sure I could go on and on, but one thing is for sure, we love our little Charlie and can't imagine life without him!

Here are some pictures I took of him helping to make his birthday cupcakes.

Mmmm......Yummy!! I love his long eyelashes!

And his big black eyes!!

His cousins came over for cupcakes!

He had fun playing with the doctor's kit he got for his birthday.

I hope I can do a better job of blogging for a little while at least. Dave keeps reminding me that this is the best way for us to remember all the little things we love about our boys.