Punta Mita, MEXICO

Viva El Mexico!

The fam and I headed to Punta Mita (30 minutes from Puerto Vallarta) Mexico over the Memorial Holiday Weekend to celebrate our friends Sabina and Justin's wedding!  We love destination weddings…. destination occasions…. destination ANYTHING! LOL …. another excuse to travel with our 2 love bugs in tow!  The boys' passports got stamped once more (making that #3 country outside of the US), and we were excited to introduce them to the Mexican culture and language, and muy delicioso mexican food!  The boys did great on the flights (from Cleveland, layover in Houston TX, then to Puerto Vallarta).  They were short flights.  We shared a beautiful 3 bedroom villa at La Tranquila Breath Taking Resort & Spa for 4 nights with our friends Salma and Eric (and their baby girl) from CA who were also going to the wedding.  We were also fortunate to have a prearranged babysitter for the 2 evenings of wedding festivities, and to our wonderful surprise it was our concierge lady who took care of our reservation, airport shuttle, etc... right from the beginning, so we felt a peace of mind to have someone so responsible (with a child psychology background too) and the high status at the resort, taking care of the boys.  She called in a dinner for them on both nights, played games, and even brought along a yoga mat for some child yoga! Her service was not cheap but it was well worth the good hands the boys were in, and we were able to enjoy ourselves into the late hours. 

This was our view from the villa… our first evening Pacific coast sunset!

And this was our villa…..  our Mexican home away from home!                                 

The boys felt right at home, and had so much space to run around and play!  If we weren't literally in the pool then we kept cool in our air conditioned villa because it was SO dang hot outside!

the outside terrace with our own dipping pool!

The Master Bedroom and Bath that Eric and Salma stayed in...

There's our dipping/ soaking pool…. 

This was supposed to be the boys' bedroom, but it turned out that since Jax was too big for the crib the hotel provided, he ended up sleeping with me in a big bed.  Brad and Taji took this room and shared the bed, and Jax and I got the other room and bed :-)  We each had our own bonding time with the boys…. the sleeping arrangements made it so!

the boys'  bathroom

Mine and Jax's room!

The other bathroom that Brad and I used and got ready in

Welcome drinks upon arrival at the resort!

The day we arrived we spent all afternoon at the incredible infinity pool, and waited for our friends to arrive.  Then we all had dinner together at the hotel's restaurant with the kiddies, and later had these "Coco Loco" cocktails delivered to our room for us to enjoy after the kiddies went to bed.

The next day….. beach and pool time!  Every morning we rolled out of bed and went down to the pool cafe to have a delicious breakfast….. followed by a dip in the pool to cool off.

The boys LOVED the pool….. they had a shallow part to start with and with the outside temperatures always close to the 100s and sweaty humid, the 80/90 degree pool was so refreshing…. even for night swimming (which we did on our last night!)

The boys practiced their diving with daddy:

IMG 3097 from jana grover on Vimeo.

The first night of wedding festivities, a hosted dinner and cocktails at popular beachside restaurant Rose's.  We met the rest of the wedding guests, connected with Sabina, Justin, and their families.  We had amazing authentic food, refreshingly strong Margaritas, a live performance by a Mariachi band….. and the singer even got Brad to sing a few words to a Spanish ballad!

The couple of the weekend, Sabina & Justin

Brad caught on camera, participating in the song!

On Saturday, we slept in of course, ate breakfast, hung out at the pool, and then hopped in a taxi to go see Sabina & Justin's luxurious jungle like resort Imanta, same location and same day of the wedding.  

It was a tropical paradise, and really did feel like we were in a jungle!  The resort had golf cart drivers that would take you to where you needed to go since it was so spread out.  Glad we had this family time before we came back for the wedding.

Later that day….. we were back at Imanta, without the boys.  On the back of the golf cart, heading to the beach where the wedding ceremony took place.

Here comes the bride!

The couple had their first dance on the beach…. very romantic!

The reception dinner and party was fabulous and intimate.   The DJ got everybody dancing on the beach and at the end of the night we had a big bonfire and all the crabs came out!

The next day, Sunday, our last day, we ate another yummy breakfast and took the boys to neighboring surf town I read about: Sayulita.  It was so adorable and quaint, and so much Mexican culture!

We had incredible fresh fish tacos, only in Mexico can you really find the BEST. 

beach time...

Glad we did some sightseeing outside of our resort.  One has to truly step out of the resort bubble to experience culture no matter where you go.  The boys enjoyed strolling the streets of Sayulita, visiting the hand crafted stores, and each picked out an authentic Mexican woven toy from a street family vendor.  On our last evening we ordered room service and took a family evening swim one last time at the amazing pool….. especially since both daddy and Taji were sunburned from strong Mexican sun, and we needed to avoid the sun!  

I must say the highlights of our Mexican vacation was all the family pool time despite being there for our friends' wedding.  The boys LOVE to splash around in a pool, we could spend hours playing and the four of us had such a great time! The boys also loved finding hermit crabs on the beach, and picking them up.  One of Taj's vivid memories of Punta Mita is thinking he was picking up just an ordinary sea shell when out popped a crab and startled him!!  He thought that was hysterical! 

I am glad the boys had a good exposure to the Mexican culture!  They enjoyed the food, learned a few more Spanish words and phrases, remembered to say "hola" and "gracias" everywhere we went, and even watch Dora in Spanish! As a joke, Brad kept calling them by their Mexican nicknames!

Another hilarious (but not at the time it happened, of course!) is the time that Jax accidentally got left behind on one of the hotel's elevators and rode the elevator all the way up, screaming the whole way.  While Brad raced up the stairs to be there if the elevator should open on another floor, I waited with Taj at the main lobby elevator entrance.  We weren't too worried since there were only 4 floors and the resort was pretty empty….. we just didn't want Jax to exit the elevator on a different floor and wander off.  Poor little guy!  He ended coming back down to the lobby floor, and when the doors opened, he raced into my arms!  It was a traumatic experience for him, and even though he's long forgotten about it, we still think of it every time we get on an elevator and always make sure that one of us is in front and in back when entering/exiting!  Some elevators are just so quick and do not have good sensors. Our little Jax seems to always be the casualty on our tropical vacations….. we remember all too well how he got the booboo on his forehead in Turks & Caicos.  

I must say, whether its airport travel, road trips, hotels, restaurants, and now, elevators, we always learn a new lesson and grow in how we handle and approach things with 2 kids!  I guess that's the evolution of parenting….. you learn as the kiddies grow and when we encounter new scenarios!

Our boys are awesome travelers…. they nap on each other, they help with luggage, and they even push their own strollers!  I love how comfortable and versed they are in all of this…. it gets easier every time! Travel is a huge part of our life, and its now second nature for the boys!