(sunset on the beach with TT at iberostar last year)
last night we picked up my darling boy from the oakland airport. he survived (and reveled in) FIVE nights of mardi gras in new orleans, culminating in an all night “tequila sunrise” that rang in fat tuesday. now he is in his bed and i think he might remain there for the rest of his spring break.
* he DID have to get out of bed because on closer examination it turned out he had a sprained ankle AND a sprained wrist (skateboarding wipe out three days prior!), a stye and a rash on his neck… just what a worried mama wants to discover! so his first day home (after sleeping for SIXTEEN hours) was spent at urgent care and picking up prescriptions…we got him (mostly) tidied up by sunday. x0x
one year ago we celebrated a very different spring break in punta mita at an all-inclusive resort, that felt like a cruise ship, with a large gang of theo’s high school friends. yes, first husband, lucy and i crashed theo’s senior trip (we weren’t the ONLY family to do this) in an effort to spend as much time with him during his last year of high school as possible… and to keep him ALIVE! (i have employed various “alive-keeping” tactics/bribes when theo does dangerous things like camping or driving or skateboarding, but i didn’t think a banana split was going to cut it in mexico so we decided to go with.)
(the pizza night we had before the trip to discuss all the naughty things the boys were NOT going to do…NOTICE theo’s “mustache” - he shaved it off a few days into the trip. maybe it was too much in the heat?)
it was an wild, exhausting, over-stimulating experience. the grounds were HUGE with bars and pools and nightclubs and food stands and spas and restaurants and lakes and decks and of course, the beach! it took me several days to get my bearings and be able to go directly from my room to breakfast without getting lost.
(the walk down from the hotel to the beach!)
(i found the pineapple chandeliers in the lobby hilarious!)
(a huge mariachi band playing by the lake our first night!)
we definitey felt like we were on a giant “love boat” complete with enrique, iberostar’s “julie mcoy” engaging us in all kinds of hilarious activities. enrique got us aerobicizing, playing volleyball and trying to cross a massive slip n’ slide type float without falling in the pool (i only aerobicized), salsa dancing in the garden and organizing into teams for beach volleyball (i didn’t do this either - i don’t like games with balls!) between activities, we quickly learned the best times to hit up the different taco stands, the soft serve station and the many restaurants.
for breakfast, we settled on “el nopal” as our favorite. the parents would assemble early for mexican coffee and an outrageous buffet that included everything from egg stations to pastries to fruit displays with many varieties i didn’t even recognize. we would grab a table and then wait for the kids to straggle in. the girls typically arrived earlier than the boys, but they would usually still be in their jams. the boys would come a bit later, rumpled and bedheady and exhausted from their exploits the night before. from there we would all make our way to the pool or the beach. at this point first started round one of multiple daily sunscreen patrols, not just for our two kids, but for ALL of them. he had a big, beach satchel filled with all kinds of sun protection: VERY high spf to moderate spf. there was spray on, lotion and sticks that looked like oversized chapsticks. he also had actual chapsticks with spf for lips. he didn’t get to do many of the activities because by the time he made his way through the resort and forced the kids to apply protection for his first patrol it was either time for lunch or the second patrol.
(i never tried them but these egg sandwiches just slayed me… they look like funny monsters)
at lunch we gravitated to la bahia grill, which also had a massive buffet and a wholey different, super intriguing dessert table. at the beginning of the week we all had intentions of long walks on the beach and regular water aerobics and maybe even some yoga, but by the end of the break our goals (or at least MINE) had shifted to trying all the cakes and sweets before we had to go home. this was no small task and took a lot of planning and organization.
early evening we had cocktails on the “sunset deck” and then we bounced around trying all of the other restaurants. at this point, i normally would have jammied up and gone to bed, but our spy/mama/safety officer duties were just beginning. we then followed these kids around (at a discreet distance) to karaoke or salsa dancing or the different bars to make sure nothing nefarious was going on. by tuesday we declared the beach off limits at night because we were so worried about someone getting washed away or eaten by a shark. it was fascinating to observe these kids socializing (again, we did give them SOME space), kind of like watching TV. they had so much fun dancing and singing and rollicking around and for the most part were pretty well behaved. some of the other resort guests, however, were less so. there was a large contingency of canadians who were really rowdy. i had never heard of canadians like this… my dearest canadian friend is super calm and quite possibly the NICEST person i have ever met. she says, “SORRY” in that sweet singsong all through our mahjong games. these canadians, however, were BANANAS! on the third night we came across one canadian mom passed out cold on the bench in the lobby. we were wondering what to do when her husband showed up with a big, brass luggage trolley, rolled her onto it and wheeled her into the elevator. and on karaoke night, a different canadian mom in a kelly green shift dress just couldn’t stay off the stage and served as a back up dancer/singer for every act, even ones where she didn’t know the lead singer. (when we got home, i asked my nice canadian girlfriend about this and she knew all about those kinds of canadians… she said the beer in canada has a higher alcohol content than in the states so they probably were over confident about how many margaritas they could have.)
(the parent patrol on the sunset deck bracing ourselves for our safety rounds)
(what the sunsets looked like…)
(sunset with lu)
(the festive ceiling of one of the restaurants)
(i caught my children salsa dancing together… made my heart swell! sometimes the spying produced some real gems!)
(our boys sitting on the same lobby bench the drunk canadian mama was passed out on)
towards the end of the week, we finally left the resort and took a day trip to sayulita. i LOVE this town! we had a super yummy lunch at si, señor!, the restaurant at my favorite hotel, villa amor. then we walked around the town square and the outdoor market. i am always gobsmacked by all the color and pretty handwork.
(the beautiful terrace at si señor!)
(the pretty flags in sayulita’s town center)
(i LOVE sayulita!)
(gorgeous pink needlepoint clutches)
(pretty bracelets)
(dirty bracelets)
(i LOVE the pom poms)
we all made it safe and sound (if a little exhausted) back to boulder in time for the kids to return to school and finish out the year. so MUCH has happened since that trip: theo started university in new orleans, we all moved to berkeley, lucy started high school at my alma mater (JUICE THE JACKETS!) and hank made loads of new friends at our local dog park. this crazy, senior trip to mexico feels like a bazillion years ago, but i am so grateful for the hilarious memories. x0x0x
(i hope these boys are always this carefree!)
(spring break this year… at the berkeley marina! x0x)