Dancing through Life: 2013

July 6-13, 2013

Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year, Mari asked about our next vacation. Eric and I needed to use up some time share points, so we thought sure, let's do it! We were officially planning our next big family vacation...and our first with little Mallie!

As a family, we decided to go to PuertoVallarta...because the Marival Residences looked amazing (ah-maz-ing!), because it was on the same coast line as us (no traveling ALL day to get there), and the hotel was all-inclusive and didn't cost us very much up front:)

Here's what we did on our family vacation...

We left on the morning of Saturday, July 6th...my dad had coordinated a shuttle to pick us up at our house, then pick him up, and take us to the airport. Leaving the house is always hectic, but luckily our flight was NOT at the buttcrack of dawn. Still, a 945am flight means we were up at 5am, especially since I was so afraid we were going to forget something for Mallie. We were all actually ready to leave the house on time and were sitting around waiting for the shuttle...waiting...waiting...waiting. He was 15 minutes late and drove right past our house...my mom actually ran outside and down the street a bit to get him to come back to our house. Minor hiccup.

We got to the airport where we met up with Andrew, Mari, and Aiden, checked our luggage in and headed to the gate to wait to board our flight...

I was super nervous about how Mallie would be during our flights. Was she going to be one of those babies that just screamed the whole time? Would she be too wiggly? Nope! She was great...not really an issue even...as long as she was fed, she was a happy camper!

We had a short layover in Phoenix before getting on a second plane and arriving in Puerto Vallarta...talk about tropical! Flying in, it kind of looked like a big jungle...and the humidity! The PV airport, at least where we landed, didn't have the walkways to get on and off the plane, so as soon as I walked out of the plane, the heat hit me like a ton of bricks...and then I had to try to make my way down the stairs with Mallie in the baby bjorn. I'm lucky I didn't seriously injure the both of us;)

Going through customs is always a pain, but it was relatively easy...and then we got to the timeshare room. I had explicit instructions from our hotel to walk straight through, ignore everyone and everything around you, until we saw the people from our hotel transportation company, wearing a light blue shirt and tan pants. Um...every which way you looked, someone was trying to get your attention...and I didn't see a sign with our name on it anywhere. The very last desk called me over, as if they were trying to help me find my way, and I was suckered in.

Thank God my brother kept looking for our name on a sign, and he found our guys on the other side of this gate. My dad bailed me out with the timeshare folk and we were on our way. Our luggage (something like 12 pieces!) barely fit into the back of the van, but at least it was a short trip to the hotel. The weird thing is...we had to go into a different state, and technically a different time zone, to get to our hotel.

Upon arrival at the Marival Residences, we were greeted with drinks and seats in a nice cool (air conditioned) lounge. We were already so impressed with the place! The staff gave us kind of an orientation to our hotel, and explained how to get to and use the facilities at the sister hotel, the Marival Resort. Eric and I were roped into attending this time share meeting the next morning, but we were there and ready to start relaxing!

The bell boy walked us to our room, a 3 bedroom/4 bath suite! He tried to pull a fast one on me and say that he really hoped we liked our room, like there was any question whether we would like it or not. The room was ridiculous...in a good way! Huge living room, ocean view, with plenty of room for everyone...this was going to be a sweet home for the next week!

I'll spare you the details of our timeshare meeting...it was long, my dad tried to bail us out...enough...time for vacation! We had to get all sunscreened up to go out in the Mexico sun and check out the pool...doesn't Mallie look cute in her sun hat?

Mallie loved being in the water soooo much!!!

After spending the afternoon in the pool, we had to check out fajita night!

The next morning, we had to check out the rooftop pool and restaurant...after pausing for a quick photo op in front of the cool fountain:)

More pool time...

Mallie loved her floaty so much, she wore herself out and fell asleep on mommy.

The next day we took a short golf cart ride over to the sister hotel of where we were staying. They had a VIP area right on the beach for people from our hotel. We grabbed a cabana and enjoyed the the sun, food, and service from the cabana boys.