Cabo!

Twelve glorious days......eleven wonderful nights....= one amazing vacation!  Actually, BEST vacation ever!

Cabo holds a special place in our hearts.  Jeff and i honeymooned there almost eighteen years ago and this was our seventh trip back.  It's guaranteed good weather.  Mid eighties most days and almost always a breeze.  You hardly break a sweat while soaking up the sun.  How perfect is that? 
Every time we step foot off of the plane, because it is open air to get into the terminal, Jeff and always ponder the same thought...."why do we live in Washington'?  We LOVE the sun, we love the heat....we are solar powered.  My whole mood changes and i know it is because of the natural vitamin D, the REAL stuff, it does a body and soul good.

We've stayed at resorts, which we enjoy but opt to stay at privately owned condos rented through the nifty VRBO (vacation rental by owner) website.  Had a lovely 1700 square foot condo that gave us easy access to the pool and lovely balconies that gave us amazing glimpses of the waves that were constantly crashing but also serenaded us to sleep at night.

Our days consisted of Jeff getting up most mornings for a quick little throw of the rod in hopes that one of those fishys in the ocean would like to come home with him.  They were smart little fishys....they opted to stay in the water.  He'd be back early enough for me to enjoy a nice little warm run around the marina and through town.  I would catch the town just as it was waking up.  Shops and the flea market would be putting out all of their pretties for us silly tourists to barter over. Restaurants and cafes grilling breakfast to make my stomach rumble and run that much faster to get home and pretty dark skinned people with big chocolate eyes would greet you with a genuine smile each day.  All those things combined, made my runs pretty enjoyable. 

I'd return, Jeff may have taken the girls down to the pool for breakfast or i would whip something up and then the regimen of sunscreen would start.  Three sweet little naked girlies would line up and i would go to town in hopes that i got those secret places that always almost seem to burn no matter how much block you put on them.  Then we'd head for the pool, comb the beach for treasures, laze around, drink way too many fruity little creamy drinks that had way too many calories in them but were totally justifiable because i had run earlier in the day....Right? :-)  And then our biggest stress of the day would occur.....what and where should we go for dinner.  We always seemed to make good choices, spent way too much money on meals but let me tell you, they were all worth it and tasted so wonderful because 'I' was not cooking them!

We'd walk into town each night and it was a good mile route back and forth and our girlies were troopers.  They enjoyed the nightlife but i think they stuck it out more in hopes that their Mommy, whose heart strings were pulled by those dear little chocolate eyed children selling everything under the moon, would get them just 'one' more treasure to bring home.  Yup, i am a sucker.  For those who know me well, you know i've lost my mind when i spending a $1 on 5 pieces of hard as rock Chicklet gum. :-)

The rest of my narration will be done through the enormous amounts of photos we took.  I asked Jeff, "How many photos do you think we snapped on vacation"?  His response, "You, 250...me 50".  HELLOOOO...we were there for 12 days, 11 nights, and you are married to me....Momtographer-wanna-be!  I shuffled through over 1100 photos!  Don't be alarmed, i will not bore you with all of them but, i will warn you, you will see many. :-)

Adios Washington....Hola Cabo!

First day and she hiding from my
camera already. :-)

Not Lily though!

Favorite thing to do in the pool....
have Daddy throw you in.

Combing the beach with Daddy while
i'm out for a run.

Daily treasures found.  I should have photographed all of the
shells we had to siphon through at the end of our trip.
Probably 10 lbs worth!

First sandcastle.  All we had was a cup
from the bar to use but the girls didn't mind.

One of our favorite eats....The Shrimp Factory.
You can autograph the wall.

No, we didn't buy this hat for Bella.....

But came home with these little gems instead.
No help from Mommy picking these out,
they chose them all on their own and i
LOVE them!

Mario...our bartender and friend.  He has been at the
Terrasol for 17 years!

LOVIN' the beach!

Whales decided to come visit us...
Could you imagine being that close to God's creation?

Fiesta night!  Don't worry, i know you see tequila shot glasses
on the girls....they only had one. :-)

Beautiful ladies and handsome men dancing for us...

Live mariachi music....

And even fun games for the children to play!

Fishing right off of our beach.

Not caught....just dried up on the beach.
Sad little puffer fish....

Tell me, this is not the cutest!

Who are they?  I don't know, but it took
my breath away.....so romantic!

Oh the treasures for Mommy.....

Seriously...i know you think i am a bad
Mommy for snapping this shot but they
saw this little fellow and did this all on
their own.  I couldn't resist.
For those who are wondering, he is a Viagra pill.

Really?  No thanks!

Every little boys dream!

Our favorite place to eat.  You walk through the doors and it
is actually open air.

Amazing freshly made tortillas...

Can you believe a clown found us? :-)

Tres leche....my favorite Mexican dessert!

Lovely walk home from Mi Casa with
our crazy balloons!

The next morning we are scheduled to attend a time share presentation. Now we are only attending to get three free tickets for our girlies to swim with the dolphins.  Mind you, these tickets are $139 a piece, so we thought 90 minutes of our time and a free yummy breakfast for our family of five was well worth it but let me tell you, boy were we sucked in.  We almost signed on the dotted line...but i brought us both back down to reality.
Okay.....it was BEYOND worth it!  We had been warned that because our children were 10 and under they would most likely not be able to swim with he dolphins but they would be in the 'water with them'. 
Friends, let me tell you, this was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives, of our little girl's lives.  After witnessing the encounter, $139 is totally justifiable. even though we will NEVER pay it because we will again and again sit through time share presentations to get this for free. :-)  I almost had tears in my eyes when the girl's dolphin came out to greet them.  They danced with the dolphins, they kissed the dolphins and the dolphins reciprocated and they SWAM with the dolphins!  It was more than we ever imagined! 
We just might have to barter in an encounter for me the next time. :-)
P.S.  Had to sign a waiver that i would not photograph or video tape while we were there.  Otherwise i would've ended up with a total of 2100 photos from our trip.  The dolphin photos were taken by their staff.  I suggested to Jeff we could move to Cabo.  I could work for Adventure Photos and snap photos of the dolphins while he sold time shares. :-)  Good idea...right?

At our free breakfast with their matching dresses i found
on way home from Mi Casa. 

Done with breakfast...on to the dolphins!

Ahhhh....missing th Cabo sunsets....

More shells.....

And our friend Mr. Crab!

Oh and the waves!

Daddy never caught any fish but
Grace found a dead one on the beach.
I know...YUCK!

Locals surfing in the non-swimming beach.
So brave...so dumb...but so cool, all at once!

And cute little tan lines showing on cute little bottoms.

Thumbs up for Cabo!

Since there were no little boys to smooch  on, she had
to settle for Daddy.

And this is what the pool was lined with most days.

Such a lovely sight.  Even though i don't like to swim in
the beach, i do love the sand between my toes.

Learning how to dive....

On our way out.

Photo compliments of Bella.

Dolphins whistles from this darling little Amiga...

Headed to the beach the last couple of days.  We avoid this side of town because it is always full of crazy Spring breakers and loud drunk half naked people but we promised the girls we would head over and it did not disappoint.  We fortunately hit the tail end of the craziness and found a perfect little spot on the beach to be catered to.  We were willing to pay a rental fee for chairs and an umbrella and instead we found a nice server at one of the hotels who offered us to use their beach amenities if we agreed to spend at least $10 in food and drinks during the day.  SOLD!  And even though were not hotel patrons, Martin offered us happy hour each day.  Cabo is so good to us!

When we honeymooned in Cabo, Jeff convinced me to try a jet ski ride.  Friends, for those who know me, i am not a water person.  I don't swim and i am just plain afraid of the water.  But....we were on our honeymoon and i wanted to make my husband 'happy' so i agreed to one quick ride.  We hop on, the darn thing would not start, a wave hits and the jet ski turns completely over with ME on it.  I am submerged and think i am drowning.  End of joint jet ski ride and it hasn't happened again for almost 18 years even with Jeff's relentless begging.  Well guess what?  Your 40's do crazy things to you or else this Mamma did not want to be shown up by her three youngins' and i went for the ride my husband has been pleading for and you know what?  I did not like it at all....i do not like green eggs and ham, i do not like them Sam i am, i do not like them in a tree and i do not like them on a JET SKI! 
But my three girlies enjoyed themselves and so did their big kid of a Daddy!

The girls had an amazing time doing their own version of body surfing.  The waves would take them out and i would hold my breath and the wave was my friend and would bring them right back in with huge smiles on their faces.  But the sand....YUCK!  This is why i swim in the pool.  It was stuck in every crack and crevice ones body could have and boy does it love a little child's scalp.  Seriously took a full day to get rid of the stuff but so worth it!

Here we are almost 18 years later in our favorite spot
and my husband is HOT as ever!

This was a sight to behold.  Pedro had only been doing this
for 15 days and selling for one week.  He whipped three of these
bracelets out in about 15 minutes flat. 

She loves all creatures....

Seriously, didn't even flinch!

This is where the wet t-shirt contests were being held
and lots of b(o)(o)bies were being shown.

Sunbathing beauty....

Where's Bella?

There she is!

I did it!!!!

Our new friends Garrett and Ethan.  Their Mom Heather
watched our girls so i could risk my life for my husband's enjoyment.
What kind of Mommy leaves her kids with complete strangers for
a jet ski ride?   I take that back, we knew them for one day. :-)

Full moon on our last night.

Can you see why we didn't want to come home.
Couldn't you live here too?  Miss you Terrasol!

And this shirt says it all!

If you made it through this whole post...Bless you!
Now start saving your money so you can come with us next time! :-)