One of the other really cool things about our vacation was that they had daily and nightly activities. Making it all the more like summer camp for the kids. The kids had a ball playing water polo and both did quite well given they had never played nor even seen it played before. Josie and the activities director took special care of Benjamin since he couldn't quite touch in the area of the pool they were playing.
On Valentine's Day they had a special mascot come and hand out lollipops to the kids. The poor person inside the costume must have been SO hot!!
One day they had a piñata for the kids to break out.
The kids had fun playing croquet, horse shoes and shuffle board too.
This guy, Manny, was so patient with the kids and because there normally less than 10 kids at any given activity and Benjamin was normally the youngest he got special attention.
They also had arts and crafts each day. Sometimes there was painting, sometimes there were things to make with beads and other times there was face painting... which seemed like a strange choice given that they jumped right into the pool minutes after getting their faces painted..
Josie and her friend, Syvi
Benjamin choose spider man and the entire face was supposed to be painted white but mid way through I said that was enough...
We turned it into a kitty instead.
About mid week Josie realized that she could just go help herself to any of the food and drinks available at the bar. After that she was rarely seen without a strawberry smoothie (margarita) or ice cream cone in her hand.
Carnival games were also a big hit
They had a playground jungle gym on right above the beach that also got a fair amount of use by the kids throughout the week.
The meals were often an activity as well. Each night they had a theme. The Mexican night was the best by far.
They also had nightly entertainment. We didn't go every night but when we did it was fun.
Below: Sabina and Benjamin before the traditional Mexican dancing performance.
Shaking their booties in the dance contest.
Josie and Sabina
Josie loved having a little sister for the week.
The four of us waiting for the show to start.
One night they had an auction where they used the fake money they had won during carnival games that afternoon. Benjamin did surprisingly well in the games and was able to bid on and win this hat. Big sister Josie did a great job helping him accept his prize and help him down off the stage.
Benjamin and his hat that he later traded with Josie for a crab hat that she won doing the limbo.
Marty reading a German book to Sabina. Caetano and Sabina both speak Spanish and Japanese fluently. They found this German book and figured Marty could read it... which he did. Sabina loved it.
Here is Josie and her friend, Sylvi during the boogie board races.
The towel art on the bed each day was also something the kids looked forward to each day. We think this was a dinosaur.
The weeks leading up to Mexico Josie really wanted to learn how to play chess because she saw the picture of this huge chess set that was at our hotel. I've got to hand it to her. She really did learn how to play and then was able to teach Caetano.
Of course all that activity demands a drink to cool you down and refresh you.
For the first time in years the kids took a two hour nap in the lounge chairs nearly every day!! Amazing. Marty and I were able to just sit and read books while they slept. I finished an entire book - start to finish in the 8 days!
Benjamin often preferred to be covered up completely in the towels and then would fall asleep in his little cocoon or fall asleep laying on my stomach. Either way, once he was asleep it was for a solid 2 hours.
Josie also had several two hour snoozers.
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