Well I haven’t updated in so long, it’s hard to remember everything! So I’ll just go through the photos and try to remember everything.
Here’s a huge praying mantis we found in our stairwell, for starters:
We got to spend another day with our friends from back home who were in town, and so we picked them up at their hotel again and first we went to the Peluqueria so their daughter could get her hair braided.
(that’s not her) 
Kelsey decided to get some braids also:
Here is a good place to buy roasted chickens:
After that we picked up some beer for the cooler and headed to our favorite beach north of the Reef Club. We had a great day of playing in the sand and water with them and just visiting. Here’s some assorted photos, starting with Jorden making sand (snow) balls!
Jorden’s buddy and his dad:
It always seems like I have more photos of Kelsey, but it’s just because she’ll sit still long enough to pose for me!
We said goodbye’s at the end of the day, sad, but knowing we’d keep in touch.
The next day we went for dinner at our new Mexican friends’ place. The food was absolutely unbelievable, thanks Luis and Lucy!
here’s kelsey enjoying it:
Kelsey tried on her friend’s traditional Mexican dancing dress, she looked so cute.
After dinner the kids went out to light up their fireworks that the dad’s had gone and bought for them. They had a great time with these.
It was a great night and we really enjoyed ourselves.
The next day we headed to Paamul to stay at our friend Susie’s place for 5 days while she was up in Cancun on a little holiday herself. We absolutely loved Paamul! It’s basically like a trailer court on the beach, quite a nice and friendly little community. The kids loved it because they could trek around the park and to the pool and along the beach on their own (but no swimming in the ocean without an adult!), and we didn’t have to always insist that they be in our line of sight. It made them feel very grown up! And they made friends quickly with another little girl that lived in the park. It kind of felt like when we go camping. And the beach was about ten steps away! Also, I could lay down and relax on the beach without hearing the kids complain that they were bored and wanted to go!
Having a snack at the restaurant:
Here’s a couple of Kelsey on the beach:
Basically we just hung out for 5 days. One day John and I took a walk down the beach south by ourselves while the kids were playing at their friend’s place. We were amazed how rocky the beach became:
then we were surprised by all the GARBAGE that ends up on these beaches, quite sad really.
On our last full day in Paamul, the kids, their friend and I took a long walk north on the dirt road that runs along the water, heading towards a nice beach I was told was there. On the way, I took a picture of the Paamul pool
and then the kids all did some bird watching:
There was some beautiful vegetation along the way.
and some interesting architecture:
and finally we made it to a beautiful and barren beach (albeit, garbage-strewn!).
We hung out for a short while, it wasn’t the warmest day, and the kids did some shell hunting. Here’s a photo of them with all their shells (and Jorden patting the head of his littler-big sister, she looks nonplussed)
The next day it was time to return to our place in Playa, and in four days Uncle Rob (one of John’s brothers) was going to be arriving!
We arrived at the airport the day of arrival quite early, and had to wander around for a good hour. Then we waited and watched for Rob to come down the walkway. The kids were very excited to see their uncle! We went back to our place where he could freshen up after the 7 hour flight from Vancouver, then we went straight out to Babe’s Noodles for some dinner. After dinner we took a short walk around town to show him downtown Playa, but he was tired so we returned back to the condo for an early night.
We had a great time with Rob, and visited a lot of sites and beaches. The first place we took him was to Tulum. We started with visiting the ruins. It was already a scorching hot day, and we didn’t arrive at the ruins until 9:30 and the lineup was huge. Oh yeah, we thought, it’s the busiest time of year here right now! Should have arrived early. After sitting in the huge line for about a half hour we finally made it to buy our tickets then headed off to the brand new entrance around the North side of the ruins. I’ve posted a lot of photos of Tulum already
We drove south to the Boca Paila road, then at the Y junction we took a left and went to the Playa Paraiso beach. We first decided to grab something to eat at the beach restaurant. The kids enjoyed the swings while we waited for our food to arrive (note Jorden sporting his new just-like-dad hairdo!).
After an OK lunch (not the greatest food) we went down and planted ourselves on the beach. I took advantage of finally having someone to take a family picture of us!
Then I took some posed shots of the kids:
and John and his brother:
Then I took a photo of a kitesurfer going by, making it look oh-so-easy:
Jorden and I built a sandcastle replica of Chichen Itza:
Soon it was time to head home. After showers all around, we went out for Christmas Eve dinner at Yaxche. This restaurant is raved about by many people for it’s Mayan cuisine, but none of us really enjoyed our meal very much. Probably we’re just not ones for this kind of cuisine.
We walked around a little, then we had to head home and go to bed early because Santa was coming in the morning!