SB in Mexico

For spring break this year, we traveled to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. At last year's Newcastle Elementary auction, Tommy and I "won" a week at the Vidanta resort. I put "won" in quotes because we paid a lot of money for it. Several other Newcastle families won the trip too, and three families planned trips to Nuevo Vallarta over spring break as well. These families are not families we would normally travel with, but we had the best time! Poor Taylor was the only girl in the group. There were three 4th grade boys, one 5th grade boy, one 6th grade boy, one 7th grade boy, two 8th grade boys, and one 9th grade boy. I was very nervous about this dynamic, but everyone got along well and even Taylor will say that the trip exceeded her expectations.

Highlights from the trip include pool time and smoothies from the swim up bar, a very expensive Teppanyaki dinner, the solar eclipse, a lovely afternoon in Sayulita, a day trip to Las Caletas, and the feeling that everyone was relaxed and having a good time. Lowlights include a scary health episode for Tommy and late night/early morning construction directly beneath our condo. 

Matty, who has historically hated beach vacations, is now all in. He loved roaming the resort with boys - going to the weight room, throwing the football around, and drinking endless smoothies. Thankfully, he avoided an ear infection this time around too.

I will let the pictures do the talking. I am excited for more relaxing beach vacations to come!

Brayden was playing a flight simulator game on the plane - he was flying his plane from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta, trying to follow our real flight's path.

Morning #1 in Nuevo Vallarta - the kids and I hit the weight room (Tommy was already not feeling well).

Sunset from our resort

The rest of the group arrived one day after us - here we are celebrating in the Santuario (Brayden named it "POC" - Point of Chaos)

Me and my girl

My three plus Eli Nguyen getting ready for the pool

Brayden and Asher

My dear friend and neighbor Dana

Teppanyaki Dinner

Solar Eclipse!

So cool to view from the beach

Post-eclipse pool time with the whole group - the kids will say this hour or two was the highlight of the week

Photographic evidence that Taylor had a good time with all the boys

Ben, Jeff, Quang, Tommy

Ali, Dana, Rebecca, Whitney

Bottom right to left: Matty, Ollie, Eli, Taylor, Reid
Top left to right: Ethan, Owen, Brayden, Asher, Noah

After our fun happy hour in the pool, we headed to La Cantina for dinner (and to watch the NCAA basketball finals - I could not tell you who played or who won, but the men enjoyed the TVs)

Sayulita! Ben is an amazing photographer, so we benefitted from his artistry in this cute little town.

Aside from Ben, the rest of our crew is pictured here.

Mango on a stick!

One of Matty's many, many, mango smoothies on this trip!

Thank you, Ben!

Boys on the beach!

Couples shot - The Nguyens, Walkers, Blighs, Kinghorns

On the ferry to Las Caletas

So. Many. Boys.

I did not take any pictures of people on this cute little island, but it was a very relaxing day. Great food, unlimited drinks, water slides, snorkeling, paddle boarding, naps, etc.

After we returned from Las Caletas, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant outside of our resort. The adults plus Taylor and Eli sat at one table and the rest of the boys sat at the other. We laughed when we saw the server bring out the most enormous tray of smoothies for our boys, along with steaks, burgers and fries. We did not know they had ordered (we had not), and here they were, living their best lives!

More smoothies

One night, Taylor and I went down to the beach at sunset so I could take "Insta" pictures for her. This is me mocking her after...

Sunset on our last night

And to wrap up the spring break pics, we had a little friend at dinner on the last night. He was not scared to walk around the restaurant, begging for food.