MEXICO-BOUND!

On July 22, 2009, we left Austin for a momentus occasion - the first Phillips family vacation including grandchildren. Since this summer marked Shannon's 40th birthday and Gramma & Bippy's 45th anniversary, Gramma decided a trip was in order. Hawaii was my first choice but after much deliberation, we decided none of us would survive the plane ride. So we settled on Mexico using one of Gramma & Bippy's timeshare about an hour outside of Cancun near Playa del Carmen. This required us to take a plane to Dallas where we met up with Gramma, Bippy, Aunt Amy, Uncle Russ and Russell and then another plane all together to Cancun, then a van to the resort. The boys loved (almost) every minute.

We chose a hotel that had a jungle/nature theme - it was entirely outdoor with exhibits of native animals throughout the resort (pretty much a mini zoo with monkeys, deer, an aviary, turtles, flamingos, and crocodiles) and thatched roof huts for each room. The resort provided free bicycles for the guests to use to get around but the boys much preferred the golf carts that circulated (somewhat) regularly throughout. These are some pictures showing our first day of travel and arrival at the resort, Cal's first real bike ride, the boys in their hats with their walkie-talkies Gramma & Bippy bought them and other random shots.

Let me also say here that you should now click on this link and check out Aunt Amy's near professional grade blog description of our trip. She did a far superior job of photographing the resort and all the cool things about it. Since we were all together most of the time, our photos are pretty much the same, except that hers are much better than mine! She also blogged everything in real time and I'm recreating it a couple of weeks later so my version will be much briefer. So read here for her vacation write up: http://rcp4.blogspot.com/2009/07/mexico-day-1-july-22.html