Akumal

We're home from our first big family vacation! We went to Akumal, Mexico. My parents rented a beach house for 8 days. We vacationed with: My mom and dad, sisters Tegan, Kamryn, Leslie and her family, Jad, Jada, Cole, Steve, Jodi and Kelsey. 17 of us in all! Akumal is just south of Cancun. We spent our days on white sand beaches and the most beautiful torquoise ocean you've ever seen! And we thought after 8 days we would want to be home, but it actually got better the longer we were there. I think Jayli could be a beach baby. With Jake's spanish and familiarity with the culture we could live there one day!

Day 1:

4.5 hour flight, car rental nightmare that we ditched and took a van with all 17 of us, luggage, and groceries to our beach house, explored the beach house and white sand back yard, dinner, bed. The first night however was not fun. Jayli got croop, probably from the drastic temperature change and humidity. We called her pediatrician at 2 am and made a plan to get her a steroid the next morning.

Day 2:

Dr came to check out J brought her medicine, long nap, pool, beach, sunshine, relax.

Day 3:

We hung out with Jarrett and Cole while everyone shopped. Jake brought tatoos for all the kids. He burried the boys and gave them bikinis :) built and sand race track, swimming, beach bumming, we made taquitos for everyone for dinner, bed.

Day 4:

We rode the "traffic" bus to Akumal bay with Jad's fam. Played on the local beach, snorkled. We saw turtles, fish, sting rays and lots of sunshine! 

Jake got up early with Jayli every morning and let me sleep in. She woke up before 6 right when the tropical birds would start to sing. They played on the beach and explored. I dreamed :)

 Day 5: After J's nap we went to the farmer's market in Akumal with all the girls. We bought J a wooden toy dog, Jake sunglasses and a bracelet and snickers for me which Jayli is demolishing here. Ice cream and nachos at Lucy's. Played on the beach and laughed at the tide.

Day 6:

Best day of all. Jake and I played on the beach with Jayli that morning. Then we put her down for a nap and took off on our own. My mom and Jodi stayed to babysit. 

We rode the bus to Dos Ojos. A place with all of these natural cenotes. They were like caves filled with bright blue, fresh water. We brought snorkel gear. When you put your face down in the water to look around it was an entire world underneath! So much bigger than we thought. Big jagged rocks and openings between that went on to other cenotes. Only the divers could swim from one to another with dive lights. There were little fish and big dark holes that went down so deep it was scary to even swim over the top. We found one area where we could snorkel to another cenote. One spot got so narrow and tight Jake kicked his foot on some rock and scraped his snorkel on the cave ceiling. We took an underwater camera so we're hoping the pictures turn out!

When we got back we played on the beach with J and told everyone about our adventure. After we put J to bed we strolled down the beach to this little place for dinner and ice cream in the moonlight.

Day 7:

The last full day we walked along the beach, found a little pier and had oreos all before breakfast. Later we played in the pool and sipped coconut milk. We went back into Akumal to meet everyone for dinner.

 We got up early....as usual, the day we left. Rode to the airport and flew home. J slept for a little bit on the plane. Got a burger in Salt Lake and drove home. Jayli traveled better than I thought she would. She was pretty content with movies on the plane. Just a little wiggly but she didn't cry. We brought a nice tan home with us and some fun stories.