After such a busy day yesterday, we “slept in” and took our time getting out of bed this morning. When Nora got up, I brought her into bed with us and nursed her. Then, she looked so cute lying there with Michael that I had to snap a few pics:

I love her grabbing her feet. So cute.

Once we were all up, we walked over to have breakfast at the beach again. Michael snapped these pics of Nora:

Once she was through gobbling down some fruit, she got a little antsy, so Michael took a little walk with her on the beach while my mom, grandma, and I finished breakfast.

And then he took these pics of Nora on the beach:

Look at her checking out the people doing yoga. Awesome.

From breakfast, we took our time walking back to our condo, snapping a few pics along the way.

This is the outside of our condo hotel.

Nora was ready for a nap, so we put her down, then Michael offered to stay at the condo with her while us girls went out to do a little shopping on 5th Avenue. I mostly just wandered around while my mom and grandma looked for things, but I took some photos as we browsed. Everything was so colorful.

We did end up buying Nora a Mexican-made embroidered dress with smocking and ties at the shoulders. SO STINKIN’ CUTE. I actually bargained for it, because the guy was trying to rip us off. We had seen them in a number of shops for 160-180 pesos, and this guy tried to charge us 380 pesos! (Equivalent to like $35!)

Me: “Cuanto cuesta?”
Him: “380 pesos.”
Me: “Oh, lo siento. Nevermind.”
Him: “How much do you want to pay?”
Me: “Well, I’ve seen them in shops down the street for 180 pesos.”
Him: “OK. How about 200?”
Me: “No thanks. I’ll go back to the other store. They’re the same dresses.”
Him: “Not as good quality.”
Me: “Well, they look the same to me.”
Him: “Tomato, tomah-to.” (No shit. He said that. My mom and I laughed.)
Me: “180.”
Him: “OK.”

Done deal. I was proud of myself, as I’m not one to be too much of a negotiator. :)

We ended up being out shopping longer than I originally anticipated, so I was worried that Michael was probably bored silly back at the condo. My mom was ready to be done shopping, too, so we headed back while my grandma stayed out to walk around a little longer.

To our surprise, as we walked into the condo, Michael met us at the door. I apologized for being gone so long and he said, “She just got up 15 minutes ago!” Nora had taken an AMAZING nap.

We were all ready to get out and swim, so we got into our suits to go out to the pool. Michael and Nora were ready before I was, so they went out before me. I ended up taking a few pics of them from our balcony, which turned out cute.

My mom and I went down shortly after, and we all relaxed and cooled off in the pool for a while.

Nora eventually got bored with the pool, so we gave her a few “toys” (most of which were objects we found in the condo) and let her play on the pool deck.

Later, Nora was ready for another nap (I guess the heat and sun were really sapping the energy out of her!), so I offered to stay behind and read my book while my mom, grandma, and Michael went to the beach to walk around for a bit. These are pics Michael took while they were out:

This guy was cracking a coconut out on the beach.

While they were out, they ran into Joe and Ava, two of Kelly and Murray’s friends that we got to know a little bit. They decided to sit down to have a drink with them, and got this cute pic:

Soon, they came back to the condo and it was time for all of us to get ready for the WEDDING! :)

Prior to the trip, Kelly and Murray booked two vans for our group to have private transportation for a tour of the Tulum ruins, combined with a trip to Xel-Ha, a large natural “water park.” The vans were picking all of us up at 8:00 a.m., so we got up early to meet everyone. My grandma arrived on Thursday night just before the rehearsal dinner, and is staying with us in our condo, so she’s now tagging along with us as well!

Here we are, on the quiet streets of Playa early in the morning:

After much frustration, we found a place to pick up breakfast to go, and brought it with us for the van ride. Nora fell asleep on the way, which was nice, since she definitely needed a nap–a short one was better than nothing!

The ride to the ruins took about 45 minutes to an hour, and upon arrival, it was already HOT. We had to walk a little ways from the parking/shopping area to the entrance to the ruins. Along the way, we saw a number of iguanas.

Because of the terrain, we had to leave the stroller, so I opted to carry Nora in the Ergo instead. Poor thing was still really tired, so I was hoping she’d fall asleep. No such luck, though–it was just too hot for her to get comfortable.

Look at the poor kid! She was exhausted. She was mostly a great sport about it, though.

We opted to pay a guide 75 pesos on behalf of our group to give us a guided tour. Just as we were about to begin, Michael and I realized that we hadn’t changed Nora’s diaper since we woke up (had been a couple of hours), and that we hadn’t brought any diapers with us (we had left them in the van). We knew we wouldn’t have a chance to change her again for another couple of hours, so Michael had to run allll the way back to the van with one of our drivers to get a diaper, and missed the start of the tour. Not an ideal way to begin.

He caught up with us before too long, just as we were getting our first glimpses of the coast from the ruins. Beautiful.

I’m not going to lie; I was downright miserable for most of our time at the ruins. It was just way too hot to have a baby strapped to the front of you. I’m glad Michael took lots of photos, because I honestly don’t even remember seeing half of this stuff. We will have to go back some day (maybe in, like, January–when it’s somewhat COOLER!).

The ruins were crowded, too. It appeared to be a really popular day for field trips, because there were hundreds of children there, who were all over the place and inconsiderate of people trying to walk around and get through the massive crowds. You know, typical kids!

Kelly (my cousin and the bride-to-be) had already been to the ruins during a prior trip, so she opted to wait back at the hotel for a few additional friends and family members who were scheduled to arrive in the early afternoon. Murray (the groom-to-be) joined the group at the ruins, and the photo above is with him. Love him–such a great guy and so glad that he and Kelly found each other!

Gorgeous, right?

After the guided tour was over, we were given the option to continue walking around for a while. As you can imagine, by this time, we were completely roasting, so my mom, grandma, my uncle’s wife, Michael, Nora, and I all started heading toward the exit to get back to the van for some air conditioning.

Michael carried Nora on the walk back to the van, which was great, because unstrapping the Ergo carrier and handing her off seemed to automatically lower my body temperature by 10 degrees. :)

Poor Nora–she was a sweaty mess.

When we got back to the vans, we didn’t get to enjoy any air conditioning just yet, but we went into one of the little open-air shops and found that being in the shade helped quite a bit. We all cooled off with some additional water, and delicious ice cream bars! Nora perked up after we fed her some of her fruit puree and dumped some water over her head. Here she is trying on her daddy’s shades:

Once our entire group was back at the vans, we loaded up and made the 10-minute drive to Xel-Ha. We couldn’t wait to get into the water, but we were all hungry, so the first stop we made within the park was for lunch! Xel-Ha is all-inclusive; for your admission fee, you get all of your food, drinks, etc. included. The restaurant we went to was a Mexican buffet. For lunch, we gave Nora some fresh fruit, but the rest of us enjoyed chips and guac with margaritas. :)

Murray tried to get her to give him high fives, but she stiffed him! Little stinker.

After lunch, we COULDN’T WAIT to get into the water. I have never been so desperate to swim in my entire life. We changed into our bathing suits as quickly as possible, which turned out to be not-so-quickly at all. It was difficult to find lockers, difficult to find towels, difficult to get Nora all set. She was so sweaty and sticky, I didn’t even have the heart to wrestle a bathing suit on her. We decided to let her go naked except for a swim diaper!

When we finally got to an area where we could swim, we discovered that life jackets were REQUIRED for every person entering the water. So I got the infant size for Nora and we went about fitting her into it:

Even the smallest one was too big for her. Too damn cute to see her in a life jacket, though.

We got into the water as fast as possible, and Nora cried. It was probably because of how shockingly COOL and REFRESHING it was. :) After a minute, she stopped fussing and started having a blast.

Here comes my mom, ready to snorkel…

Soon, Nora was cool, but she was also tired. We got out of the water, and I sat in a beach chair and nursed her. She passed out in about 0.5 seconds, so I put her in the stroller to snooze in the shade for a bit.

Michael sat with her and enjoyed a beer or two while I went out into the lagoon again to snorkel with my mom. We saw a few pretty fish and had fun swimming around for a while. Here are a few underwater pics:

When Nora woke up, we walked around for a bit and enjoyed ourselves. The afternoon went by WAYYY too quickly, though! Aside from the snorkeling, we didn’t even get to do any of the other activities–like the lazy river, zip line, cliff jump, etc.–we just didn’t have time. At one point, we tried to walk to do the cliff jump, but once we got further into the jungle area, we started getting eaten alive by bugs. We didn’t want Nora to get bitten, so we turned around and went back. By that time, it was getting close to time to leave, so we just got dressed and packed up! Next time, we’ll definitely have to plan to spend an entire day at Xel-Ha. And hopefully we’ll have older kids who will be able to run around the park and fully enjoy it!

They have dolphins at the park–you can do a dolphin encounter, but it’s extra money. It was fun to watch, though. In the pic above, Nora is watching the dolphins jump. If you look closely, you can actually see one in mid-air in the background of the pic!

Some of our group members were taking a long time to come back, so we ended up having some extra time before the van left. We ended up getting some dinner, since it was included and all!

Soon, the park was closing and everyone was gathering together to catch the vans back to Playa. We ended up getting back a little after 7:00, and everyone was crazy exhausted so we all went our separate ways back to our respective hotels/condos.

In the end, a fun, but tiring day!

Tomorrow is WEDDING day! :)

Today, we didn’t have anything going on–no excursions, no plans. We had a day to ourselves, which was a nice way to come down from the hectic traveling and 3:00 a.m. wake-up call that was yesterday.

We woke up with Nora around 7:00 a.m., and played for a little while my mom slept in. Nora was already ready for a nap by about 8:30, so we put her down for one and we all lounged around, waiting for her to wake up.

Our condo hotel, Porto Playa Condo Hotel, is affiliated with the Indigo Beach Club. As a result, we have free breakfast at Indigo Beach every morning, so once Nora was awake again, we walked there (a few blocks away) to check it out for the first time.

It was so nice to be able to eat with our toes in the sand. Paradise, I tell you.

The breakfast includes buffet items like toast, fresh fruit, sweet breads, cereal, etc. Then, you can also get eggs, quesadillas, hash browns, bacon, beans, etc. to order. Good stuff.

We asked for a high chair for Nora, and they brought one for us. It was hilarious, though, because it was super high up! She was essentially sitting above us when we were seated, too. It looked like she was perched on a throne.

Looks like a milk mustache, but it was actually yogurt with some fruit cocktail mixed in. :) She gobbled down the first little bowl that I got for her, so I went to get her a refill. As I walked back to the table, I could see that she had turned around to watch me go, and her little eyes were peeking up over the back of the chair!

After breakfast, we walked the couple of blocks back up to 5th Avenue, which is where the majority of the shops and restaurants are. We walked around for a little bit, checking out some of the shopping.

Nora helped Daddy select some tequila!

It didn’t take long until we were all sweating and hot as hell, so we went back to the condo to hang out by the pool.

Nora sported her bikini and shades. She seemed to fit right in.

Although she enjoyed the pool (it was so refreshing!), she was tired again, so we went inside to put her down for her afternoon nap. While she slept, my mom, Michael, and I headed up to our private rooftop patio and relaxed in the sun.

After a little while, it suddenly began to pour, so we took cover and ran back inside. We settled in again on our covered balcony to watch the storm.

Soon, Nora was up, so we brought her out with us and fed her on the balcony, then she played with my mom.

We were invited to Kelly and Murray’s rehearsal dinner, so we gave ourselves plenty of time to get ready. Nora was first–she needed a bath! Since the condo didn’t have any bathtubs, we settled for the kitchen sink. :)

We were all ready with some time to spare, so we ended up heading back to last night’s restaurant for more fabulous margaritas. Our waitress from last night, who absolutely adored Nora, remembered us, and continued to dote on our girl.

Once again, Nora was a big fan of the margarita straws.

The rehearsal dinner was great; we were honored to be included. It was fun to get to know some of the other wedding guests and hang out with all of the other family members in town for the nuptials. Once again, we had Nora up way past her bedtime. Poor kid.

Tomorrow, we have a big group excursion planned–the Tulum ruins and Xel-ha park!

As I mentioned in the previous post, my mom taught Nora how to give “high fives” at dinner. It was so cute, because it was like it immediately clicked in her head. Plus, she was getting plenty of praise for doing it, which made her want to do it over and over.

Here is a little video clip:

Happy Birthday, Mom!

After the “poo incident,” we got through the hustle and bustle of the airport. Once we had our bags and were through customs, we stepped outside to be greeted with oppressive humidity. It felt like someone sucked the air right out of my lungs.

Of course, as soon as we were out there, we were bombarded with taxi drivers trying to get us to ride with them. We already had a driver arranged through our condo, so we walked along the crowd, looking for the sign he told us he’d have. Unfortunately, we didn’t see him during our first pass-through, so we had to turn around and go back the other way–making us even MORE attractive to the other drivers, since we probably looked confused.

After a few minutes of arguing with the dudes, we finally saw the sign and Carlos came to the rescue, and we loaded up and were on our way to Playa del Carmen. Over the last couple of weeks, we debated about whether we should rent a car or hire a driver. Although I don’t think the drive was as complicated as some people made it seem, we don’t regret hiring the driver. It was a lot easier to just get in and not worry about having to find our way.

We were soon dropped off at the front door of our condo hotel, and upon picking up keys, we let ourselves in. My mom, who arrived Tuesday, was out on an excursion with the group, so we made ourselves at home. We decided to take a walk down to Mega, the grocery store in Playa. We picked up some beer, chips, and salsa, and headed back to the condo to meet my mom.

Once we were all in the same place, my mom walked us over to my cousin’s condo to meet up with her and her soon-to-be husband. Kelly decided to come to dinner with us, and we walked to a little Mexican place that had been recommended to us by several people (our taxi driver and Kelly included). The menu didn’t have English translations, so Kelly helped us along, and our waitress answered a few questions as best she could. We ordered a variety of dishes to share, and everything was great. The highlight of the meal, however, was the margaritas. BEST.MARGARITAS.EVER.

Nora was so great at dinner. She was in the best mood, happily people watching and playing while we ate. We were all sweating our butts off, so I was especially impressed by her demeanor.

My mom taught her how to give high-fives, which was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

We took our time at dinner, so by the time we were done, it was pretty late and we were all exhausted after a looooong day of travel. We headed back to the condo to go to bed to rest up for our first full day in Playa.