The Prochaskas: Cozumel 2012

I apologize because I have a feeling this post is going to be rather long. But I have soooo much to say!! :)

So this story begins last week - when I was a mess, thinking about leaving my baby girl for 5 days. Don't get me wrong, I was really excited about going on a vacation, but I wasn't sure if I could handle being away from Charlie for that long. I was mostly worried that she was going to have a hard time because she's been extra clingly lately and that she would think we left her forever.

Knowing that the weekend would be my last few days with her before we left, I wanted to spend every waking moment with her. But it was Jason's birthday on Saturday, so we had our sitter come over so we could hang out with some friends. It was a good test to see how Charlie would react when we left. She did cry, but Lauren said it lasted less than 1 minute and then she was good. Thank goodness for a short attention span. Sunday was spent packing all. day. long. Oh my gosh - that was a pain. Then on Monday, we headed to EC to drop off the kiddo before heading to Houston for the evening. Charlie was going to spend the first half of her time with Grandma and Grandpa (Jason's parents) and then the other half with Bebe and Papa (my parents). I left detailed instructions with both sets of grandparents, said my tearful goodbye, and got out of there before she could realize what was happening. Truthfully, I don't think she realized we left - and maybe the whole trip seemed like one long day to her because she didn't really seem to miss us (more on that later).

Jason and I rode with Dean and Jen to Houston. We stayed the night there because we had to be at the airport by 7am the next day. The other 4 (Jackson, Laura, Slade, and Alicia) met us there and then the party began. I was fine once everyone got there and it felt like vacation. Of course I missed my little bug, but I knew she was in good hands.

The flight to Cozumel was good. I was a little ticked because I tried to download a movie on my iPad the night before at our hotel, but the wifi was soooo slow that it never went through. So I read instead. Going through customs was a pain because the airport was hot and understaffed, but before I knew it we were on the shuttle to the resort. Ok - I do NOT understand the driving rules/laws (or lack of them) in Mexico. I wasn't so much worried for our safety, but I seriously thought we were going to hit a person on a bike or a moped. I probably should have just closed my eyes.

Now we got to our resort (Sabor Cozumel "all-inclusive"), and this is probably the biggest (maybe really only) complaint I have. The check-in process was SLOW. We were on the exclusive side (adults only, special pools/bars/restaurants), so there was a separate place to check-in. Luckily, they started bringing us drinks right away, so that helped. But, Jen and Dean were the last to check-in and they told them there wasn't a room on the exclusive side ready for them, so they were going to upgrade them to the resort next door. WTF - not cool. We all wanted to be together. It all ended up working out and they got to be in the same place as us, but it was kind of a mess. It doesn't help that some of the workers don't speak very good English, so sometimes when they say they understand, they really don't. Anyway - no harm was done in the end so all was good.

We couldn't get into our rooms til 3pm (it was about noon), so we decided to go to the beach (and the snack bar because we were hungry). The water in Cozumel is crystal clear and a beautiful green color. It was a little rocky right at the edge of the water, but it wasn't too bad. The water is also so calm. At 3, we went to our rooms. This is the best part - we got rooms that have their own pool. You walk out of your sliding doors and immediately step into a pool. This pool has a slide that you go down to get to the main pool - awesome! I loved that. So we went down the slide quite a bit and hung out at the pool bar until dark. My only other real complain - the pool bar closed at 6pm. WTF! This was really only a problem on the first day. Usually the rest of the time, we were so tired of being in the water by 6pm, that it wasn't a big deal.

The first night, there was a beach party with a buffet and a fire show. The food was pretty good. The resort uses tiny glasses for drinks, but we were warned about this ahead of time, so we brought our own cups that the waiters filled for us. I was not expecting much out of the fire show, but it was awesome. I don't know how any of those people have hair. Afterwards, we watched a limbo contest that was hilarious. Sadly, none of us took part! :)

The next day we mainly hung out either at the pool or the beach. The guys went snorkeling for a bit, so us girls decided to partake in some activities. First, there was the coconut toss. Those things are freaking heavy. Jen almost won, but was beat out by some guy. Boo. Then we did the egg toss. We had to throw it over the volleyball net, which made it a little more challenging. Jen was my partner, and she ended up with the egg on her. Haha. Sorry Jen. After that was the best activity - water balloon volleyball. You had two people hold a towel, with giant water ballooon in it, and they used the towel to throw the balloon over net and also to catch it. It was hilarious. There were balloons flying everywhere. After lunch, we walked a ways down the beach to a pool to get on a catamaran to take us snorkeling. We went to 2 differnet spots. The thing I hate about snorkeling is that I feel like I rip out so much hair getting the goggles on and off. After the snorkeling, the boat took us to a beach and gave us more food and drinks. There were infltable slides, trampolines, etc out on the water. That had my name written all over it. I was like a little kid. Jen and I also go to try out paddle boarding. That is a lot harder than it looks. I fell off quite a few times before I got the hang of it.

That night was the 4th of July party. Let me tell you - the resort went all out with their decorations. I mean American flags everywhere - who would have thought. They had a cover band play - which was awesome. The leader singer didn't always know the words which made it even more comical. We had a great time.

I don't remember why, but Jen and I went back to my room for a bit and I noticed our AC was off. And by off, I mean broken. Not cool my friends. Maintenance came out right away to fix it, but it broke again. They said they would have to fix it in the morning and would move us to another room for the night. I wasn't mad because I get that these things happen. I was just hoping they would get fixed ASAP. So we slept in a different room. I got sick off a something so I had a bad night, but I woke up feeling fine.

Thursday morning, we got up at the crack of down to go offshore fishing. It was my first time. I came prepared with some sea sickness patches (which I slept with on wrong the entire night, duh!!). Luckily, it was really calm for the first hour or so. I didn't realize how slow offshore fishing is. There was a lot of just watching the water because nothing was happening. I even dozed off a few times. Jen reeled in the first fish - a mahi mahi that was so close to making in the boat, but our helper "Pollo" dropped it. Dang. I don't know what Pollo's really name is, but I'm almost sure it's not really chicken. And we couldn't be mad at him because he worked so hard. He was always doing something. The next fish was a tuna, and Slade reeled that one in. Yum - I was hoping we were going to get to cut him open right there and try him, but that didn't happen. Oh well. The next fish, Laura actually saw swim next to our boat and then it hit - a white marlin. Awesome. Laura tried reeling him in, but he got off. We did get to see him jumping though - it was an amazing sight. The guys that took us were pumped because they don't get to see those very often. And it was getting pretty close to our time to go back when another fish hit, and I got into the seat ready to go. Ok my friends - I've heard about this "fightiing" a fish thing, but I apparently did not know what I was getting myself into. OMG that thing was so hard to get into the boat. Pollo was awesome, but it took me a while to figure out what he was telling me to do. And I felt like I had been reeling in this fish forever and I look out and I swear he was not close to the boat at all. The girls were cheering me on and turning up the music loud so I had some jams to work with. We finally got the wahoo into the boat and me and Pollo celebrated with beer. I think that made the rest of the trip worth it.

We gave the wahoo to our crew and we took the tuna to one of the restaurants at the resort to cook for us for dinner. We spent the afternoon playing and then had the freshest, most amazing tuna for dinner. It was awesome. Oh and our AC was fixed when we got back from fishing! That was important!!

Friday was our last real day there (since were flying out Saturday around noon). We went to town to do some shopping. Laura and I bought some cute mexican dresses for the girls as well as some morroccas (sp?). We tended to go into the stores that also sold beer - haha. We ended up doing lunch at Carlos and Charlies (which is where Jen and I went 10 years ago on our cruise stop in Cozumel - oh memories). Those people are crazy. They threw a fake roach on me. I'm pretty sure everyone else knew it was fake, but I was able to take the whole table down with me. Everyone thought that was pretty funny. We got crazy balloon hats and shots poured down our throats. I'm pretty sure we were all drunk on the cab ride back to the resort. We made the most of our last afternoon/evening.

We left the resort the next morning, and flew back to Texas. We got to Houston around 2:30, and then we went to pick our cars and headed back to EC. I think we made it to my parents house around 4:30. At first Charlie looked at us like what is going on. But then she got this huge smile on her face and was giggling and moving her arms like "come here." It was so sweet. I was so happy to see my little girl.

We got back to Austin around 1:30 yesterday afternoon. I hated unpacking, but I wanted to get it all taken care of so I wouldn't have to do it this week.

Now and update on Charlie. Remember she hadn't really been standing or taking steps that last time I blogged. Well the week before we went to Mexico, she started sitting in her rocking chair on her own and taking 2-3 steps to me or Jason on her own. It was awesome. Then over that weekend she started standing on her own more and more. Well now she will stand on her own for about 10 seconds at a time. Still only taking about 3 steps at a time, but we are getting there. She is so much of a copy cat. She tries to put either mine or Jason's shoes on her feet. She is too funny. She is an expert at blowing kisses now. And she has learned how to take bites of her food. My mom gave her a grilled cheese sandwich cut up into bite size pieces, but no - she wanted my mom's whole sandwich. So she gave it to her and she would take little bites. Oh my, she is growing up.

I am hoping she has a good day at daycare today. It might be an adjustment for her again, but she seemed excited to be there when I dropped her off this morning. Now if I can just get excited about being back at work again!