Brooklyn Turns 3!

Okay, so Brooklyn's birthday was really 2 weeks ago now (June 4), but I am just now finally getting around to posting the pictures from her little party that we had for her, which also happened to be late (we were in Cancun on her actual birthday--isn't that mean? Thankfully she isn't old enough to know any better!)

Brooklyn loved her little party, which was complete with balloons, party games that Jacey made up, presents, and a Starburst cake. Her big presents were a little Dora bike and a Dora scooter, so now she can keep up with big sister Jacey! It was fun to have California Grandma and Grandpa, as well as Uncle Michael at her party.

It's hard to believe that our baby girl has now turned into a little girl, complete with her own personality. She loves to sing songs, play outside, and has somehow already mastered the computer and the internet--she loves to play nickjr.com! Brooklyn is full of life and energy and is always making us laugh. We love her a lot and she is such a great part of our family!

Vacaciones de Cancun!

As many of you already know, Jon and I had the opportunity to take a "real" trip (i.e. one that involves flying in a plane and DOES NOT involve taking the kids) to Cancun, Mexico last week. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary earlier this year and decided that we had better commemorate the occasion in proper fashion. Up to this point, we had never really left the kids overnight before, and I had never been outside the U.S., so it was a pretty exciting event.

Jon and I decided to splurge and stayed at a beautiful, new 5-star resort on Playa Mujeres, just north of Cancun. It was an all-inclusive resort right on the beach with 8 restaurants and beautiful gardens and pools all over the place. We ate like kings (we even tried sushi for the first time), ordered virgin drinks in everything, laid in the hammocks over the pool, played tennis, ping-pong, water polo and pool volleyball, and, of course, relaxed on the beach. It was awesome! The service was amazing with people always getting you drinks and 24-hour room service, all included! The only regret we had was in not trying out the amazing on-site spa that they had there. It was expensive but we heard from many people that it was well worth it. Below are some pics of the resort:

The highlight of our trip was probably the "Jungle Tour" we went on, which was an excursion where we rode a waverunner-type of boat out across a lagoon to a live coral reef, and then went snorkeling. It was amazing and there were tons of tropical fish and sea life at the reef. We took pictures with an underwater camera, if we got some good pics I will post them later.

To sum up the trip, we spent a wonderful, relaxing 6 days mostly in paradise, with the exception of one day when we ventured out to Tulum and Chichen Itza (one of the new 7 Wonders of the World) to see the Mayan ruins. While the ruins were awesome to see, it was a lot of driving, very hot, and probably one of the longest days of my life. We definitely felt like we were in Mexico that day as we drove through all of the little Mexican villages on a little two lane road, complete with random dogs running all over and trash lining the roadways. Here are some pics of our day there:

Lastly, thanks to all of our family who helped us out with the kids while we were gone! Mom and Dad, Michael, Jeff and Amy, Cathy, Arryn and fam--we could not have gone without your help! The kids had a great time with all of you!