Keeping Up with Claire and Ronin and Soren

It’s probably our last vacation for a while, not because it wasn’t fun, but because it was a decadent splurge.  We went to Puerto Vallarta over Christmas for a too-short trip consisting of five days and four nights.  We convinced both grandmas to come along and Dinah and Manuel.   We had fairly limited options for places to stay, for our family of five.  One hotel would let us stay all in one room, but that would have been very difficult for Soren’s naps and his late-night scream fests.  We looked into getting two rooms at other places, but couldn’t find any with rooms that adjoined, and they couldn’t even guarantee the rooms would be next to each other.  Since we can’t leave children alone in a room, we pictured Justin stuck in one room down the hall, awake and trying to be quiet while some children were trying to go to sleep, and me trying to be quiet down the hall in another room, with no one to talk to with another child or two trying to sleep.  It just didn’t work.   We ended up getting a 2-bedroom suite at Marival Residences and World Spa.

It was a beautiful resort.  The rooms were lovely and spacious.  The pools, especially the kiddie pool, were fantastic.   In the picture above, Claire is standing next to an eternity pool next to a tapas bar/restaurant on the top floor of the resort with a beautiful view.  We had Christmas dinner at that restaurant, and Soren had a meltdown about an hour after the first of our food came and I had to leave with him.  He was getting progressively louder and louder and we were trying to clap enthusiastically when he put his napkin in his mouth so that he would get positive reinforcement for that and stifle his own yells (it worked temporarily), but eventually even that failed.  Still, the dinners were the main problem.  Everything else was lovely.  It’s just difficult to seat and serve nine people in a timely manner and keep antsy kids and an impatient and loud baby happy for hours when they’re stuck at a table.

We had Christmas Eve dinner poolside, and were fortunate enough to witness the arrival of Santa Claus and his elves.  Claire and Ronin ran over and waited in line to sit on his lap, and they each got presents.  Much to our dismay, right before we left for Mexico, they started talking about how Santa Claus was going to find them in Mexico and bring them presents.  We reminded them we’d already had Christmas, but I guess they’d been talking to their preschool friends and developed certain expectations.   At the last minute, I took some of their new little toys I’d gotten for the flights down there and put them in stockings to appear on Christmas morning, as well as some presents that had arrived from friends before we left on our trip.

They were delighted with their presents, but a little confused about why we didn’t hang stockings on the fireplace (umm, there wasn’t one?) and why Santa just came to the balcony.

The children had an absolutely wonderful time.  They loved the swimming pool.  Actually, swimming pools.  Even Soren, who has been a little reluctant to try new things lately, liked paddling around in Crabby, and became almost as attached to it as Claire was the last time we went to Mexico.

Soren cried immediately when we tried to get him into the sea water during the dolphin encounter tour, just because it was cold.  He wouldn’t touch the dolphin and only calmed down once he was out of the water.  I held him on the edge while the dolphin did tricks and kissed everyone and raced around and let us pet her.  It was a wonderful experience.  The children also all got kissed by a sea lion.  Soren cried for that, too.

We were able to go back and forth to the sister resort, which was right on the beach.  The kids loved riding in the golf cart along the palm-tree lined avenue.  The other resort had a pool with water slides and a beach.  That is where the splashy pool was, and where Justin ate the food that made him sick (foreshadowing), but the twins loved the water slides and everyone had fun in the sand.  We also tried the buffet there one night, because we thought it might be easier than waiting a long time for food.  Instead, we had to wait a long time for a high chair and beverages, although the tacos were delicious.

Here is a video of Soren dancing in a puddle by the sea:

And a video of Claire and Ronin going down the water slide:

One morning the grandmas watched all of our kids and we were able to go off on our own for an ATV tour in the Sierra Madres.  Well, we went with Dinah and Manuel, but it counted as going off on our own because Dinah and Manuel let us have conversations without interrupting and we were able to just sit and be quiet occasionally, too.  The resort had a Kids Club, and the twins wanted to go play there and do arts and crafts, so the grandmas were probably not too challenged, which is always something I worry about leaving all three kids with someone.  We were a little late coming back because the bus left without us, but we found Soren asleep and my mom and Doris relaxing in our suite with no problems at all.  The ATVs were fun!  We cruised up and down dirt and gravel roads, through streams, stopped at a waterfall, and saw some beautiful views.  It made me miss my motorcycle.

The last night we were there we were fortunate enough to help release baby sea turtles.  They had hatched that morning and we all stood behind a line on the sand at sunset and let them go, to scamper toward the waves.  We had to rub our hands in the sand first to get any scents or oils off them, and we watched the turtles go.  Some didn’t go very fast or far, and some were very quick.  Some started slowly and caught up.

THE GOOD.  So, overall, the best things?  By far, the kiddie pool at our resort.  It was long and shallow, and surrounded by lounge chairs.  Staff would come by and serve drinks, food, and towels.  The kids loved it, I loved it, and I think most of the other grown-ups loved it, too.

All the parents lounging around the edge of the pool with one or no kids were elbowing and whispering to each other. I like to imagine they were saying, “Look, three kids is easy! Maybe we should have a couple more!” or else they were thinking, “Aren’t you glad we only have one?” We were all having a ton of fun, though.

The suites were awesome, too.  I was particularly happy with having two separate bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a washer and dryer.  I did a load of laundry every day while I was there, and didn’t have to come home to spend two whole days of constant washing.  Since we came home, Ronin asked if we could stay in a hotel here, and I asked why.   He said because he could do anything he wanted in a hotel.  Honestly, this is probably the reason:

THE BAD.  I already mentioned the long dinners, the crying baby, the squirmy twins, the lost high chairs.   What I didn’t mention is that we experimented with doing no naps for Soren two days in a row, because he occasionally skips naps anyway at home, and he had a lot to keep himself occupied here.  It was a mistake.  Lack of sleep in a baby usually can mean problems, and if it doesn’t come out in crankiness in the evening, it can manifest in other ways.  In our case, it showed up as a two-hour night terror that resulted in a middle-of-the night screaming Soren.  He could not be comforted.  He screamed and screamed and screamed, “Mommy Mommy Mommy Daddy Daddy Daddy” and blew snot all over both of us as we held him and tried to soothe him.  I’m just happy the rooms were fairly soundproof.  The next night he was happier, but still woke up for several hours and sang songs in the middle of the night.  I’m trying to forget about the plane flights.  Let’s just say it was good we didn’t go any farther.

THE UGLY.  The last night we were there, Justin got stricken with a nasty illness.  He was up all night with some painful gastroenteritis accompanied by chills and fever.  I got sick right after I asked the front desk for a late check-out, but probably from cross-contamination, and it only lasted a few hours.  I was able to pack and recover for the flights.  We sent my mom to the local pharmacy because both of us were incapacitated for a while, and kept the kids out of the room until it was time to go, which was the best thing we could have done.  It was nasty.  It is four days later and Justin is just now starting to eat meals again.  I guess it was good that it was at the tail end of our trip, but it would have been better to not happen at all.

All in all, it was a really pleasant vacation surrounded by our loved ones, and I’m really glad we went.  I think everyone had a great time, and I feel closer to everyone because of it.  We just need a few days to rest now.