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Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2014. As part of their celebration, they took all of us to Mexico to their favorite resort, the Krystal. The weather was beautiful the whole time. We enjoyed our all-inclusive stay and the boys especially enjoyed all of their choices of food and poolside virgin Mango Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris.
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This was the view from Mom and Dad's junior suite on the 7th floor. Our daily routine consisted of the breakfast buffet, poolside lounging, choice of lunch buffet or burgers, more poolside lounging or beach activities and then sometimes out for a nice meal away from the hotel.
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Beach Bums |
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Tony and I spent a good amount of time playing beach volleyball, more than we anticipated - including sunburn. It was a lot of fun and we met others from the midwest and Colorado. Colin also joined in on some of the games.
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The ladies enjoyed their shopping of fine jewelry. And the guys, well... they got cool hats.
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One of the nice things about the resort was the poolside activities. There were scheduled events each day such as volleyball, water polo, Loteria (Mexican Bingo) as well as a place to book trips for zip lining, snorkeling and ATV rides. There was also stuff for the kids to do such as paint pottery. The boys really had a lot of fun with that and made a good friend, Antonio, who detailed and glazed each project once the boys were finished.
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There was a fun night of entertainment which included great music and traditional Mexican dancing.
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On one of our last nights in Mexico, we went to the hotel's fancy restaurant, Bogart's. The atmosphere was awesome and the food was fantastic! While we were there, Michelle surprised all of us by arranging for a special anniversary cake for Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary. The pianist there was playing all kinds of wedding music prior to the surprise, so once the cake came out, it all made sense.
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Parasailing |
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The boys had many great "firsts" while we were in Ixtapa. First parasail, first zip line, first snorkeling and first jet ski. Lots of great memories.
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Zip Lining |
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The zip lining in Mexico was much different than what Steffanie and I had done while in Jamaica. They seemed to work you a little harder in Mexico as some of it seemed to be an obstacle course. We went over rickety bridges, planks and tight ropes in addition to some long and short traverses.
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The zip lining site was on a farm where they had chickens, a donkey, bull, dogs and turkeys. Our guide grabbed one of the friendly turkeys and gave it to the boys to hold. They also had a parrot named Sanchez who liked to say "Hola".
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Snorkeling |
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We took a trip to Ixtapa Island for an afternoon of snorkeling. One of the guides showed the boys and Michelle around by having them all hold onto a body board while he floated them around the coral and pointed out different kinds of fish.
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After the snorkeling trip, we stopped by an Iguana and Crocodile habitat. This is a nature preserve where they bring nuisance crocodiles.
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Jet Ski |
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Not much time for good pictures on the jet skis as it was pretty fast-paced. The boys and I each had about 15 minutes of wave-running fun, but the trips to and from shore were pretty bumpy with the strong and persistent waves and undertow.
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There is a constant show of security on the streets. You often saw the Policia driving trucks around with armored patrols carrying semi-automatic rifles. I was lucky enough to get a picture of one of the armored patrolman here with the boys.
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This was our last night in Mexico. We went to The General for some great traditional Mexican food. However, I had the fettuccini pollo alfredo that night. Luckily I was able to help Steffanie finish her quesadilla with guacamole. Thanks so much to Mom and Dad for a wonderful vacation!
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