the rundown

My first installment on our trip to MAZ....enjoy.

We left for Mazatlan on Tuesday December 18th. Cali drove us to the airport at 4:15 a.m. Man thank goodness for sisters. I felt so bad that the flight was so early. We had a wonderful couple of flights to Maz...and the kids were really good despite being tired. Both Oli and Rob slept from Phoenix to Mazatlan. It really was ideal. And oh what a sight for sore eyes when we walked through customs and there were my mom and dad. Not only were they waiting for us but they had fresh hot bread from a bakery by their house and we downed it as fast as we could.

I just have to say that I love mazatlan. It feels like home to me.

We spent the next couple of days lounging around the beach and my parents house. Rob on Saturday had a SUPER fever. It was scary. Then the next day every surface in his mouth was covered by kanker sores. he was miserable. Not sleeping or eating. It was really hard. He did however love to swim so when he was awake he would swim.Here is Oli's first feel of the ocean. Needless to say he loved it and regardless of how cold it was he would go in the ocean everyday.
Rob was obsessed with the parasailer's he would sit an watch forever.
Me and Rob playing in the sand.
Rob swimming. He is wearing a swim diaper. I had a swimsuit to go over but I was too lazy and it just seemed of no use. I think he looked adorable in his speedo.
My sunburn from the first day. ouch...


Robbie hand feeding the turtles a tortilla.
Now Oli's turn this time with a burnt cookie.
Here we are heading back...the kids were obsessed with the turtles. Rob would wake up in the morning and say "tuhootah"...and she would say "cheeto? no... Um potato...no??" Finally we realized what he was saying and that is all he would say.

Sam and Kyle and us on their first official day. Doesn't that look like fun??

Slowly but surely my brothers and sisters started coming. First Sam and Kyle and the twins on the 22nd. Then Justin and Angelique and Isaac and Linh on the 23rd and the Emig clan on the 24th.

We spent Christmas eve around the pool at the Inn at Mazatlan. My dad had a wonderful place that opened up right to the pool and the ocean. It had three bedrooms and 3 baths. It was awesome.
Here is the Inn at Mazatlan. I have been staying there since I was like 14 or so. Maybe younger. All of the same people still work there. I love this place. The two lines point to the rooms we had. They were right a ground level and had a private patio with sliding glass doors opening up to the ocean. (Emigs, Millers, and Shane stayed here).
Here is the patio...it was really convenient because the babies (all 5 of them) would be sleeping inside and we would be lounging out side.

Isaac and Linh and Justin and Angelique were down the road at Mayan Sea Garden. Anyways...right when Cali and her fam came Oliver was so excited to have someone to play with. They were all running around looking at the pools and Oliver fell in to the deep pool (I wasn't around him too). Carolina tried to help him out. Luckily our friend Shane was right there and saved them. When Carolina heard him ask "who's watching these kids??" She said, "I am". Classic Carolina. Anyways. we were really lucky to get through the whole trip SAFELY.

We ate dinner that night all together (all 21 of us) at El Bamboo. One of our favorite places.
We went everywhere all together in the suburban. It was awesome.
Then home for the nativity...Oli Ty and Jack were wise men. So cute. We had to make due with my mom's beach cover ups for costumes...luckily she has like a million.




Here we are in our Christmas PJ's. How fun. Kate isn't in the picture because she was sleeping. Man this is all my kids will let me post in one day. I will post the rest of the trip later.