This was a long awaited trip to Puerto Vallarta for the whole family to celebrate Mom's 60th Birthday. It was a GREAT trip with SO many memories made. I posted far more pictures than usual just because there were so many highlights throughout the trip. We've been to this resort 2x now and I'm a big fan. What's not to love about 24 hour room service, all inclusive food and drinks, and an amazingly friendly staff waiting on you hand and foot?! It was a rude awaking coming back home, that's for sure! The pool was just perfect for lounging (okay, and eating....and drinking) while the kids splashed around ALL day. We did a few mini-excursions, but really spent nearly the whole time just hanging out at the resort. It's not very often that you get to vacation with the entire family.... really a special trip.
Tyler got lots of love this vacation.....we ALL had so much fun playing with him and making him smile! Jake and Mia are especially good at it ;)
Card game by the pool....
Just loungin' around, taking a snooze after slurping down a fruity drink!
Mia is obsessed with soup.....she ate it every night at dinner, no matter what it was. She was most happy if it had mushrooms in it.....if not, she would add her own from the salad bar. By the end of the week, we had the napkin bib mastered.
OH, the smiles! It was hard to pick which smile was the cutest from this "set" of pictures....he was smiling at his Mommy and there's nothing like a Mommy smile! His eyes light up when he sees Julie for sure!!
Daddy LOVES snuggle time!
Grammie and her littlest grand!
Jake LOVED playing ping pong....though if you were on the receiving end of his "serves", you were doing a lot of running around. By the end of the week he was doing better!
Mia is the Prez of the Gramps fan club right now.....though Jake and Tyler are close behind. She adores him!
Uncle Brian and Tyler! Pretty sure this was before the mandatory game night. Julie utilized precious packing space with board games. It was fun.....girls won!!
LOVE!
Pool time fun!
Love this smile....he is looking SO big. Sigh :(
Waterslides!!
Love my sweet boy.
There wasn't much opportunity for photos, but we got to "swim" with the dolphins! The kids got to pet, kiss, and shake fins with the dolphins. I got to to a tummy to tummy "ride" with one of them and it was so cool! It was a great activity.....but onlookers may have disagreed. Mia LOVES animals of any kind and was excited to get up close and personal with the dolphins. We all got into the water and she was screaming and crying.....from afar, Mom, Peter and the other spectators thought she was terrified. They were probably mumbling what horrible parents we were to force her into the water and be scarred for life! Much to the contrary....she was screaming "let me goooo!! I do cannon balls with dolphins"! She was SO mad that she couldn't get out there with them.....eventually, Super Gramps had to remove her from the situation and the rest of us stayed in the water. Very dramatic.
Meet Iggy....one of the resident iguanas at Velas Vallarta.....he even swims in the pool. Super friendly and let the kids touch and feed him. Mia was always on the lookout for her buddy, Iggy when we were poolside.
You can't see it from this photo, but this was a BIG waterslide! My fearless girl wanted to try it and though her expression here is questionable, she did love it and went down again after this ride! Of course she's never be allowed on a waterslide this size in the US....but the rules in good ol' Mexico are a bit more flexible ;)
The boys didn't bring a camera with them on the fishing boat, so this is the only evidence that they caught over 150lbs of tuna! They had a great time and brought back quite a load of fish that the chef prepared for us....it was SO amazing!
Mia in her floaties....she would swim all over the football field sized pool in them....often stopping to "chat" with other guests in the pool. She made quite a few friends!
All dressed up for dinner!
Wow....it's been a long time since we've had a picture of just the two of us!
One of the cutest things I've ever seen.....baby sea turtles! We got to release them into the ocean one night and it was so cool. No flashes allowed, so it's not a good pic, but a GREAT memory! Jake got to hold one and he named it Sheldon Jake (he loves giving things middle names). Mia cheered the little turtles on...."you can do it little buddy"! When we got back to the hotel room, we were putting the kids to bed and Brian was trying to "educate" Jake about the turtles and said something like...."the baby turtles leave their mommy and daddy and go out into the ocean all alone when they're that little", at which point Jake buried his head in the pillow and started sobbing. Smooth, Brian....smooth.
I wonder what the DeMichiel family tally was for strawberry and mango "daquiris" ordered throughout the week?? Just for the record, I did try a few WITH booze....but I really do like them better without.
Seriously, could he be any sweeter?? Snoozin' by the pool
Mia and her celery. Keep in mind that she could have had anything from the restaurant OR bar....and every day, she would go and ask for a bunch of celery. Cheers!
