Water Park Fun

Yesterday we went to a local water park "El Rollo" with my previous home from Veracruz. The whole home came and visited Cuernavaca for 3 days. It was nice to hang out with them and do some fun things together. Unfortunately we have no photos of the team that visited and we only have a few from the water park itself. But the kids had a blast and was one of our big events from this summer.

Adrian, Jade and Alex.
I think Jade is practicing for being a swimsuit model.

Kids play area.

Wave Pool.

The Wave Rider.

Some of the slides.

Kids Summer

Adrian and Jade have been here over the summer and will be going home to Texas on August 10th. Besides having the baby and me needing to make two trips to Texas in the past 5 weeks we have been able to do somethings with the kids and will do a few more in the coming days, so for those of you who are interested I will do a couple of posts about those things.

Alex, Adrian and Cielo (another girl their age in our home) spent a week going to summer camp style courses that last for one week. From Monday-Friday they would get up early and be at camp from 8 am - 2 pm. They did lots of fun crafts and activities. Here are some photos.

Alex, Adrian, Apollos (camp team leader) and Cielo

Alex, Cielo and Adrian preforming with the other children for the parents, family and friends.

Jade enjoying the show.

Vacation: Day 10

Today my back is completely out, I can barely walk. It's the last full day here and I am just resting staying in bed Please pray that I can heal quickly.
The boys went to the beach today for some water and air sports. They said it was great fun and something they would do again. Just a few photos I stole from Bruni.

Fran taking off from the beach pulled by a motor boat.

Fran about 60 feet about the water.

Gabo at takeoff.

Gabo, high above the sea.

Vacation: Day 9

Today we went out to the island again for a lazy day at the beach, I read a short book about the importance of small talk and how to make people comfortable in conversations. The kids went snorkeling and shell hunting. By the time we got back in the evening my back was hurting quite a bit so I just went to bed early.

Alex, wanting to drive the boat to the island.

The Island Beach

A cave Lena and Alex found that was littered with thousands of sea shells.

Lena, Fran and Alex snorkeling.

Sailboats were a common sight today.

Vacation: Day 8

Day Eight: Laguna de Potosi
Today the 8 of us went to a lagoon about half hour from Ixtapa. We intended on taking a boat tour of the lagoon which takes about an hour and a half, but after swimming and shell hunting and having a good lunch no one was up for it. After just lazing around in hammocks and drinking from fresh coconuts we ended up heading back to the hotel in late afternoon, a good all around relaxing day at the beach.

Restaurants lining the lagoon.

Alex with fresh coconut.

I guess I was wondering if they added rum to mine.

Later that evening Bruni and I went to the beach to watch the sunset, we sat on the beach taking photos, me drinking Baltika 9 and her sipping on a French wine. We got so many photos of that sunset trying to get the perfect one, you know where there was either a pelican flying over the sun, if the shadows were just right and getting annoyed that two collage age girls were sure set on ruining our perfect photo by having picked the setting sun as thier backdrop for thier splasing around in the waves. All in all I think we got one or two good ones so I will put them up here for you to see.

The beginning of the end...

The pelican...

The reflection...

Final moments...

Vacation: Day 7

Day Seven: Zihuatanejo
After spending the morning at the beach we headed into the local town of Zihuatanejo. Since Ixtapa is the expensive touristic town catering to Canadian and US tourists, Zihuatanejo is the cheaper town where almost all the locals live. It is the small fishing port and commercial heartbeat of the area. We do all our grocery shopping and things here. But tonight we spent some time to just explore the town in the cool of the evening, we got a few trinkets and took some photos and had dinner at a quant little side street resturaunt. It was a very relaxing day.

A trinket shop where we got a few inexpensive items.

The bay at dusk with table's set on it from a local resturaunt for romantic dinners.

It took us nearly half hour to get Alex to let us take his picture.

Bruni and I

Dawn, Phillip, Fran, Bruni and I at dinner. Gabo took the photo and the young ones, Lena and Alex sat at " the fun table."

Our dinner of chicken fajitas and vegetable soup.

Vacation: Day 6

Day Six
Today we just lazed around on the local beaches and hung out resting and relaxing. Bruni, Alex and I had a buffet breakfast at a 5 star resort. It was pleasant and a nice way to start the day, we also took a tour of the hotel and we ended up about 12 stories up with good views of the beaches and city so here's a few photo's for you.

My breakfast. Chilliquilles with srambled eggs, potatoe wedges and rolls, accompanied with a fruit plate and fresh grapefruit juice.

The town of Ixtapa, looking inland.

The beach and pools below.

Lena and Alex riding horses up the beach.

The sunsets here are spectacular.

Vacation: Day 5

Day Five: Offshore fishing.
Early morning before dawn five of us headed out for 7 hrs of off shore fishing. We were hoping to catch a couple of sailfish like they did last year, and even though we were about 14 miles offshore in the end didn't catch anything at all. We did have dolphins swimming with boat part of the morning and spotted a couple of large sea turtles. But most of the time was spent sitting with one hand over the edge in the water lost in my own thoughts while watching the waves.

This is what we were hoping to catch.

The sunrise over the open sea.

The fishermen laying the lines.

Gabo slept most of the trip.

And since I had been out for most of the day with the fishing trip Bruni and Alex hung out at one of the luxury resorts where some other Family members were staying. It has been amazing running into so many brethren from different parts of Mexico all vacationing here this week. At the resort they have a turtle release program for introducing hatchlings into the ocean they get the kids involved which is quite nice and helps the kids learn about the species.

The little turtles in a holding tank before being released.

Alex, holding one of the turtles.

Vacation: Day 4

Day Four: Ixtapa Island
Phil and I got up early before dawn to try at get a fresh fish for our lunch later today while on the island Here's a couple photos of the fish market right on the bay.

A fisherman offloading his cacth.

Fish displayed for sale right on the beach having been caught only hours before.

We then headed out mid morning to Ixtapa Island to laze around for the day. The pristine offshore islet is a wildlife preserve featuring several crescent cove beaches, fleshy green orchids, multi-colored fishes in underwater gardens, tall cacti and shady native acacias. And to sustain this ecological paradise, the whole island is cleaned every evening. No one lives on the island so it is only a day excursion. There are two swimming beaches and one snorkeling beach. The water is clear and calm makes for excellent swimming and easy time seeing the fish and wildlife. Shells are in abundance scattered on the beaches and rock edges circling the island, making the hutn for the perfect one a time consuming activity for the kids.

One of the swimming beaches. Each of the three beachs on the island are lined with resturants a bit pricey but if you bring your own food they prepare it for you for a fair price.

The coral beach.

A view of the snorkel beach.

Bruni very content with her fressh pineapple drink.

The fish we got at the market this morning prepared by one of the local resturaunts on the island.

Vacation: Day 3

Day Three:
This morning we went to the free breakfast buffet at The Pacifica resort. They offer the buffet in exchange for having the opportunity to show you their resort and then you sit through a presentation to try to get you to invest in their resort and buy a time share to get your vacations for the next 30 years. 3 1/2 hours after arriving we were finally out of there.The breakfast was good, the resort amazing, and the views spectacular but having to sit through the presentation and the sales pitch as a real damper.

This is the view from our breakfast table at the resort of the beach.

In the afternoon I took a quick trip into the local town and found a great deal on a Russian beer that I had never tried. Bruni suggested I just get one or two before stocking up. I got two and enjoyed them so much I went back the next day and bought plenty more.

Baltika #9 is the best of the three I tried. The number system for the beer 1-9 indicates the amount of hops used in the brew. I tried 3, 7 and 9. The last was the best and for an 8.0% beer it is worth every cent I paid. Elliot and Jen I got enough to bring some to you guys to try.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach. Here's a photo of Alex having fun in the waves.