Graduation Trip: Cancun, Mexico-Day 1

So these next few blogs will be a bit more journal like than I usually write as I want to remember this trip in detail.

We had been planning this trip for a very long time--I decided like 10 years ago that I wanted to go to Mexico when I graduated college. Nicole and her Mom were wonderful in planning this trip and pulling everything together, Nicole especially. We decided that we wanted to go to Cancun and spent a lot of time figuring out where to stay and getting everything booked and confirmed.

Andrew was very excited! For weeks prior to the trip, he kept saying that he wanted to go the beach, or the airport, or to Mexico--some aspect of our upcoming trip. After hearing this every five minutes or so, Nicole decided that we should make a chain attached to a paper airplane. When only the airplane was left it would be time to go to the airport. She came up with this idea only 4 days before we left, so the chain was not very long but Andrew had fun cutting of a link every morning until it was time to leave.

One down, only three days to go.
Two days and counting.
Only one more day. He was so excited!
And we headed out the door to go to the airport. He brought his airplane with him.

We had to be at the airport around 8:00am last Friday to catch our flight to Cancun. Nicole and I woke up at about 4:30am and couldn't sleep anymore. We played one round of Monopoly Deal and then we took showers, finished packing, and tying up all the odds and ends. My mom took us to the airport, so we picked her up a little after 7:00am and headed to the airport. For any of you that have traveled with kids, it is quite an experience. We had 3 large suitcases, a pack-n-play, a carseat, a double stroller, and 4 carry-on bags. Even after we checked the bags, it was still insane getting all of that stuff through security. We finally made it through, and headed towards our gate. There was a fun little shop with a bunch of toys that the kids looked around for a little bit. It worked out really well because Mom and Trish had a layover in SLC and then we flew on the same flight to Cancun. Mom called me when she landed in SLC and I told her we would meet them at the gate our flight was going to leave from. I told Andrew that Meemaw was here and that we had to go meet her. He was more than ready to go see them. We got to the gate and sat down and then I saw Mom and Trish walking up. I took the kids and when Andrew saw Meemaw he took off running and almost knocked her over. Rory was also excited to see them. I ran and got some breakfast at Burger King, we took turns going to the restroom, and then it was time to board the plane. Oh, when I came back from getting breakfast, Nicole told me that she had seen Danny Farnsworth (a friend I grew up with); and when we sat down on the plane he was sitting right across from us. It's definitely a small world. We had 3 seats on one row and two seats two rows up from that. Andrew wanted to sit with Meemaw and Trish, so I put his carseat back with them. Nicole, Rory, and I sat up in the two seats. I was so nervous that we were going to get stuck sitting next to a grumpy, old, fat child-hater. Luckily we sat next to a very nice lady named Daren. She and her husband John were staying in the same hotel as us in a time-share they own there. The flight was about 4 1/2 hours long. The kids did pretty good. They both fell asleep soon after we took off and slept for a little while. We had packed up their carry-ons with toys, movies, snacks, and other things to keep them occupied. This was Rory's first time flying and she did very well. We finally got to Cancun at about 3:30pm. Going through immigration and customs wasn't too bad. The lines were a bit long, but moved at a pretty good pace. As we headed out of the airport to find the shuttle we had arranged for, a nice gentlemen offered his "help". On my mission I developed a great love for the Mexican people, but I could not get that guy to shut up. Finally after everyone had walked out, I was able to get away and catch up to them. Our shuttle was there waiting for us. We got everything loaded into the van and headed to the Westin Lagunamar. The scenery was beautiful and our driver was very nice and pointed out a lot of different things. Andrew was in his carseat, but Rory wanted to go all over the place. She was curious about everything. It was cute! We arrived at the Westin Lagunamar and got checked in. Thankfully we had a bellman and a cart to help us to our rooms with all of our luggage. By this time we were all very hungry and we just decided to eat at the restaurant down by the pool. After that Nicole, the kids, and I went for a walk on the beach. We met some people that were originally from Morgan, UT but had just moved back east several months ago. They were very nice. After walking on the beach for a little while we headed back up to our room where we just vegged for a little bit, and then we all went to bed.