Kindergarten & Seventh Grade

School year 2018-19

Adrian J is in Kindergarten and is 5 years old 

Steven J is in Seventh grade and is 12 years old

I cannot believe my oldest is mid way through his junior high years. I mean, where did the time go? It feels like it was just a couple of years ago that I was dropping him off in Kindergarten. Now I'm dropping off my youngest at Kindergarten! What is happening here!?

They both have grown so much this year. My mommy heart is extremely happy yet at the same time sad that there are no more babies in the house. Some days I sit back and just watch you boys. Watch your personalities and how much you have grown. I think back on those days when you were just a few months old and I would cradle you in my arms and rock you to sleep. Those days that you you depended on daddy and I to do everything for you and now you can do pretty much everything for yourselves. 

This past summer I came across several posts that said "we only get eighteen summers"and I started to think on how much truth there was to that. Eighteen summers, that's all we get before they run off and start making their own plans and decisions. *sigh* Lord have mercy on my momma heart as I savor in the summers that remain.

Fearless Five

If there ever was a word I had to use to describe you, my sweet Adrian, it would be fearless.

 

You have always been fearless but it wasn't until the last couple of weeks that I've come to terms on how fearless you truly are. At five years old you have gotten on a big boy roller coaster. The same one your brother got on about five years back. This summer you surprised me by jumping into an 8ft deep pool and swimming to the edge, floating in the middle of it, swimming to the bottom to touch the floor, and swimming back to the 4ft deep end of it. You even tried attempting doing back flip into the pool but I drew the line at that. While at the beach you got on boogie board and rode the waves just like your big brother did. A few months back we signed you up for Taekwondo and you got your yellow belt three months in. One day during class you walked in to older kids doing hand stands and very quietly you sat and observed only to mimic their movements and succeeding at a handstand several minutes later. Of course that I was not expecting that so my heart skipped a beat, or two I think, and lucky for you I caught it on camera. 

 

You look up to your big brother so much. As well your daddy. You are without a doubt the younger version of your daddy when it comes to his personality. Your brother definitely is your hero which I find that to be adorable, until you start picking up his bad habits which is a big no no. You both have your own rooms yet you sleep in the same bed each night. You fight with each other all day long but you both go the extra mile to defend one another when you get in trouble or are being picked on by others. You are super caring and thoughtful and always think of him when he is not around. If we got to a store you make sure to get things for you and him and if you are eating you save him a piece of whatever that is. Unless is a donut, then you eat yours, his, and any leftovers. Your donut addiction has not changed one bit. 

 

This school year you started Kindergarten and I have to admit that I am both excited and terrified. Excited because you are so smart my sweet boy and you are a fast learner so I have no doubt that you will succeed in school. Yet I'm terrified because you have a very strong personality (you take after daddy in that department like I mentioned earlier) which means that you want things done your way and on your time. You're known to be the class clown and well that means you'll likely be disrupting the class so I'm just praying that you are past that stage.

 

In regards to height and weight you have been having quite the growth spur the past year and a half. I don't know what you and your brother have been eating lately but if you both keep growing at the rate that you're going you will sure be a lot taller than your daddy. At five years old you are over 50lbs and are about 44 inches tall. I'm not sure where you fall in the growth chart but I remember that your pediatrician sent you for labs on your yearly check up due to the increase in weight compared to the year prior. Thankfully your labs were all normal and you just needed some vitamin D. Which brings me on noting that this was the first time you ever had to take medicine in a pill form and well it took several attempts. That was quite the experience and laugh. 

 

You are less of a picky eater compared to what you were at 3 years old that's for sure. You eat more types of meats now and have even tried several types of seafood. Water and milk are your go to drink of choice, you're not a soda or juice kind of boy thank God. But you definitively have a sweet tooth. Actually you have always had it. You are sucker for chocolate and candy. I hate to admit it but in the last two years you've had seven cavities (I know go ahead and judge me, but if it helps Steven Jr has had 0 cavities in 12 years. You win some and lose some I guess). 

Earlier this year you lost your two bottom teeth and they have grown in since. There has not been any signs of any loose teeth since then either. Funny story, the tooth fairy left you dollars under the pillow and you were so upset about it because you were expecting loose change instead. It took quite the while to convince you that dollars are better than loose change now all you want is dollars, no quarters allowed. That worked out well didn't it, NOT! For the next tooth you lost we put a DD gift under your pillow (because you know, we're parents of the year and we did not forget to get cash out) and well, as expected you didn't take that as well as we may have thought you would. So both of your tooth fairy experiences have not been what you have expected my sweet boy, I'm sorry for that.

 

Of course that I cannot forget to mention your beautiful curly hair. You have yet to get a big boy hair cut since birth and your hair now is down to your butt. We have all agreed, yourself included, to donate your hair but I'm not too sure how that works. Another thought is to even out your hair since you have different lengths right now then allow it to continue growing and donating it after but we will be donating it for sure, God willing. 

Well my handsome boy I think that's it for your five years old update. I skipped your 4 years old update but we are back on track now. I pray tons of blessings over your life and I pray that God grants you a long healthy, happy, and peaceful life. I love you to the moon and back sweet Adrian. Thank you for bringing so much joy to our lives

Love Always, 

Mommy

I’m a Registered Nurse!

Y’all! My journey is finally over. It truly is surreal to me. I still can't believe it to be quite honest. You all know how crazy and wild this journey has been. Many tears shed, many sleepless nights, many precious moments that I missed out on. And now, as I wake up each morning to get ready with my new nursing scrubs and as I'm going through this orientation with a new title on my badge is like wow, I did it. I really did it. God is good! several years ago this day felt like it would never come and here I am now, a week into my nursing career. 

My nclex experience was not the greatest. I graduated August 9th and although I had gotten the green light from my school I didn’t get authorization to test from the state till five weeks later. Then I scheduled my nclex for two weeks after that, on October 5th. It was all very confusing and frustrating but nonetheless it was all worth the wait.

Early September I got a 30 days subscription for Uworld. I was working on it slowly the first couple of weeks but then when I scheduled my nclex and reality kicked in I started to really do questions upon questions. I had aimed for 150 questions a day with reviewing the rationales whether I had gotten it right or wrong. But as the test date neared and I started to panic I found myself doing anywhere between 150-300 questions a day. It was tough guys. Very tough. But I broke it down in sections. I would do a set of 75 then take a break then another set of 75 and repeat. My entire day was spent doing questions. I truly do believe that Uworld prepared me well. Whether it was the very detailed rationales or doing so many questions in one day (because I ended up getting all 265 questions you know) all that matters is that I passed and I am now a licensed registered nurse!

I also did lots and lots of praying. I truly do believe in the power of prayer, and so this victory is due to many factors.

Now in regards to taking the actual nclex let me just say that I found this test to be the hardest test ever. Maybe because I have major testing anxiety and because I’m a super slow tester with a short attention span. I felt that I was doing good. But when I had reach question 133 I was starting to doubt myself which led my mind to wonder talking away from my precious timed test, which then brought on even more anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. I ended up taking a five minutes break (or so I thought it was 5 minutes) because I had to shake it off. Then I started to run out of time and I started to rush through reading and answering the questions, worse thing to ever do. I honestly felt that I was going to have to repeat this test again. It was the worse feeling ever. I felt so defeated. Yet somehow, deep down, I felt that I had pass. But I knew that this would only possible through God’s grace because WOW! That test felt like the hardest thing to ever exist hahaha. 

Nonetheless, here I am starting my career as a nurse. So for anyone that ever comes across this post I encourage you to read my journey through nursing school. It was not easy, it was not fun, it took a lot of perseverance but I never gave up. It didn't even crossed my mind, it was never an option. Never. I am so glad I pulled through, I am so glad to be living this reality, my reality. 

I will never forget my roots

 

A few weeks back I was having a conversation with a coworker who I like to think of as a friend. We were discussing how I've been feeling that she has been changing with me and I wanted to know what was up with that.

I have trust issues, I have been betrayed one too many times by "friends" to the point that I keep my circle of friends very small and I reserved that title to those who truly deserve it. I thought she was one of them, maybe she is, who knows but she made a comment that bothered me and apparently it still bothers me because I'm writing about it here. 

This friend said something along the lines of "soon you'll be a nurse, you'll make nurse friends, and you will change because that's what people do, they change." For a split second I didn't understand what she meant by "you'll change" butt then I quickly remembered a doctor in my HIV Clinic experience who told me "after graduation people will say that you have changed and it's true you will change. You will change the way you think, the way you see things, and even possibly the places that you will shop at because that comes with the territory. You will lose many friends because of it and it's okay because you must change and they will never understand why you must change." Now his talk was more involved of course and he went on to explaining exactly what he meant by how I will be changing and he was right, I totally agree with him, nursing school is no joke and it forces you think differently and it trains your brain on seeing things different compared to lets say my husband who did not go through nursing school. 

However, I am sure that what my friend meant by "you'll change" is that I will think that I am better than "them" and eventually I will stop talking to them and I will surround myself by other nurses. And frankly that hurt me a lot more than she think it did and this is why, which by the way I also made it known to her.

I was born in a third world country. At one point I was homeless, alongside my mother, in said country. I came to the USA and lived in the projects for many years while being raised by a single mother of four. I had my first child at nineteen years old. I was made fun of and bullied growing up, I didn't have many friends, and I was the ESL student that couldn't pronounce words let alone use them correctly. It took me many years, trials, tribulations, and hard work to make it through nursing school.   

I don't say all this for people to have pity on me, I say this because I know what it is to have nothing and how much work it took to get where I am today and I'll be damned if I ever forget my roots. Yes maybe I will buy myself an expensive item once in a while but that doesn't mean my principles and morals have changed. If anything I love using my life experiences to encourage others to follow their dreams and fight for what they want. 

Is inevitable, I will make nurse friends but it doesn't mean my trust issues will disappear and I'll forget about those who have proven themselves trustworthy. Her comment really did bother me and like I mentioned maybe she will never realize just how much. But it's okay because my roots will never change and neither will I forget.

I did it! I'm a Graduate Nurse!!!

OMG! Y'all! I'm a Grad Nurse!

August 9, 2018

Can you believe it?! Can you really though?! Because I'm still in shock. I mean yeah of course it was the ultimate goal but now that nursing school is officially over is like surreal. I have so much to blog about. I still have two specialties to talk about and then my precepting experience and then that's it in regards to nursing school on this blog. Well Nclex is the final step but its ok because there's no turning back now. I got this!

Nursing School Update

Guys! So much has happened in the past couple of months. Life has been super busy but is a good busy. If you would have asked me several years ago about how I thought life would be like today I probably would have not been able to say nothing compared to how I feel right now. I probably would have said that I’d hope to be “done” with nursing school but to actually be where I am today is indescribable. 

Back in May I started my last semester of nursing school. 7 weeks of lectures and 7 weeks of precepting with a RN. I am officially one week away from ending the first of half of the semester. This feels surreal. I am so thankful. So grateful. So full of all kinds of emotions I can’t even explain. 

And it gets better! 

So... I was hired! Yes, you read right. I got a job offer back in mid April by my current employer. This was kind of expected but I didn’t think it would be as easy as it was ☺️ 

And even better! 

I’m doing my preceptorship in the mother baby unit. And y’all know how I feel about this specialty right?! 

Maternity has always been my passion and although I have decided to dedicate the first couple of years of my career learning and being exposed to as many experiences as possible in med surg I know deep down that my heart and soul belongs to women’s health. 

Honestly I didn’t think I would get the opportunity to precept at mom baby. I was told from the beginning that it was nearly impossible to get it because usually students who work for the department get preference and GPA plays a big role. Yet I couldn’t just let it go without at least trying. And that’s exactly what I did. I kept my grades good. I made sure to connect with the right people (because many times is all about who you know and not what you know), and I made sure my name was known. I went to speak with the nurse manager of the unit simply to make her aware of my passion for OB and my background experiences in the field. Also my first name is not an easy name to forget. Even if not easily pronounceable and I knew that if she ever saw my name again she would remember it 😉 (Thanks Mom!). So yes I may have cheated a little bit but I like to say that I was being proactive and took matters into my on hands. Well first I prayed about it and allowed God to guide me to the next steps. 

It’s not always peaches and cream however. In the same email I got informing me of the great news I also received news that I would be precepting over night. 7p-7a. Nooooo!!!!! As you might remember I did two years working nights at the mom baby unit for my current employer and it was tough. Needless to say I was less than thrilled about it. For a slight moment I thought I had jumped into the tiger's mouth and F***ed my own life. But the more time I’ve had to think about it the more I’m starting to get a good feeling about it. There’s a reason for everything and I have a feeling that this is exactly where I need to be in order for the next phase of my life to take place. 

I am extremely excited, thankful, and feeling super blessed. And to be honest, I don’t understand how things have fallen into place the way they have with school, home/family/finances, my employer working so well with school schedule, the precepting days and hours and so many other things. I just don’t know what I did to deserve all this goodness but I am very much thankful for it all ☺️ God is good y'all, God is good.

Cheers!
Here’s to my last 7 weeks in nursing school!!! 

My Perfectly Imperfect Husband

 

  Once upon a time, in the midsts of some trials, I had a wonderful stranger reach out to me and pray over me, my husband, our marriage, and our family. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were at a baseball game and I got this call by said stranger. I took the time to speak to her because I figured it was God’s way of reaching out to me. And indeed it was.

We spoke for over an hour. At one point I was standing by a tree trying to get some shade and as I looked up in front of me I had the most perfect view of my husband. In that exact moment she said, you have your trials which are making you a better woman and a better christian and although you don’t understand why things are the way they are don’t forget that you and your husband are still individual persons at the end of the day and God has a plan for him. He has his own trials and his own testimony. God has a plan for him and the things that are happening to him are happening for a reason. He is meant to go through the things that he has gone and is going through because in the long run, God will use it for good.

Her words touched me. I never looked at it that way. I never thought of our trials as individual trials. It was definitely a reality check for me. Since then I’ve been more aware of the things happening in our lives as individuals not just as a family.

I say all this because my husband is amazing. He is far from perfect but he is a dream come true. He is Humble, hard working, loving, and caring. He never stops. He’s always on the go taking care of him self whether is by eating right and working out, he’s involved with our children in all areas of their lives. And I mean like every area. I am both lucky and blessed to have him as my parenthood partner. And he’s always going the extra mile to help me out. He’s willing to cook, clean, take a day off to stay with the kids, the list goes on. But most importantly he’s always pushing me to be the best version of me possible. 

I don’t think he truly knows the blessing that he has been in my life. I want to tell the world how amazing of a man I had the privilege of marrying but I can’t brag, not in social media, not to those that wouldn’t understand or those would take it the wrong way. Instead I’ve decided to post it here so that our children and grandchildren can read about this awesome man. I have decided to be thankful to God for this precious gift. For this man that although very far from perfect is truly the most perfectly imperfect man I have ever met.

My love, I love you beyond words. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you. Of growing old together and reminiscing on the good old days and the not so good old days. Thank you for all that you do for me, for us, for our little family. I wish tons of blessings upon you. I pray that you never loose your humbleness and that you never stop caring and trying your hardest. I pray that you reach your full potential in this journey that we call life. I love you far beyond the moon. 🌙

Psych Rotation

I loved psych! I feel that psych is full of interesting diagnosis that truly do impact the personalities we encounter out in the real world. I've always loved it, at one point during my pre reqs days I contemplated minoring in psych so I chose to take psych courses as my free electives. I never proceeded with that plan because schooling for me was already taking too long to finish but if I do ever decide to have a change of heart I have a good amount of class credits towards it.   

I honestly did not know what to expect or what I would be learning. All I could think about was depression, anxiety, bipolar, and some Personality disorders. And even with that little did I know that a personality disorder what not what I thought it was. 

The whole rotation was such a great experience. I honestly learned so much and was exposed to so many things that I didn’t fully understand. The course was so much different compared to the regular med/surg rotation and the disease process. I was very intrigued and this experience will stay with me for the rest of my career, as I am able to see patients from a different perspective. I never thought of it that way but these kind of patients are complex all on its own then to add other health issues on top of whatever else they are dealing with mentally is very challenging.

Clinical at first was definitely intimidating. We had our psych simulation that first week which was meant to give us an idea of the things that might happen while we are there and boy oh boy was I shitting bricks, excuse my french. The clinical units experience for me was so much difficult. For starter I simply didn’t know how to interact with the patients. I didn’t know what to expect, what lines not to cross on term of communication and asking them questions. I just felt out of place. Then as the weeks passed by I started to feel a bit more comfortable and less “shy” to start up conversations with the patients. I’d say more than anything it was frustrating not being able to help them more. Mental health disorders are not just a quick fix with a simple pill and some adjustments. I truly felt for the patients and more often then not I’d imagine myself in their place. Whether it was a depressed patient, or a manic patient, or simply an autistic patient. I can’t imagine a day in their shoes and thanks to this rotation I will be more empathetic to the needs of these patients in the future. More importantly I have learned to be less judgmental.

For my community experience I had to complete seven hours of anonymous meetings. I attended narcotics anonymous, alcoholic anonymous, and eating anonymous. These too were quite the experience and I'll just say that I now have a great appreciation to the groups and the people who find the courage and the dedication to attend and take that step to change their lives. Addiction is not easy, addiction is real and as nurses we need to understand it a little better in order to offer the proper care that those patients require. I also attended day programs and inpatient treatment programs.

My overall psych rotation was phenomenal, the instructors were amazing and very knowledgable, the lectures were always interesting, and as you've already read there was never a dull moment in the clinical setting. I honestly find myself falling in love with nursing even more after each rotation :)

Inspired

The one thing I love about my current job besides my coworkers are my patients. And I mean those that are 70+. It wasn’t always this way. I had to learn to love them by actually taking the time to sit with them and learn about them. More recently I have learned to see them with different eyes (Thanks Prof M.F.)

I’m in the Gero rotation now and being able to better understand the aging process and what things are not considered “normal part of aging” has really helped me gain better understanding of these patients and be more patient with them. Not that I wasn’t patient before but I’d always thought of my grandparents and family being in their position and how I’d like them to be treated given their situation. However, now I can put those comparisons aside and see them as who they are, individuals with lots of cool stories and wisdom.

That being said, today I took care of this 86 years old lady and she made an impact in my life. I’ve taken care of many patients her age and even older (100+ years) but there was something about her that made me feel different. Gracious. Thankful. Blessed. I was honestly having a rough day after my day yesterday and decided that maybe spending a little time talking to my patients today would help distract me a little. And it sure did. She went on and on and on about her life stories and things that she had done and dealt with. Then she said, “I could write a book about my life. Actually, somedays when I sit on the beach (she’s from down south and was in town visiting) I wish I could write about my life so that my grandkids and their grandkids can read my story”. And that’s when it hit me.

That’s why I blog.

Something that started simply as a way to document my wedding journey has turned into this amazing blog where I share a lot about my life as a married women, my husband, marriage, our children, my journey through nursing school, our travels and adventures, my frustrations, and even some personal things. There are days that I don’t blog often, there are days that I wonder if I should continue to write as I feel my content is not that of interest to many. Yet today I was also reminded of the many times I read other bloggers say that when you decide to start a blog to make sure that you stay true to yourself and always always write for you!

I don’t know how long this blog will be up for or or how often I’ll be able to write on it but as long as it’s focus continues to be on stories about my married life, I will do my very best to leave my future grandchildren something they can remember me by. Better yet, something that will allow them to know me. Like really know me and about me and what better way than through my own words :)

Thank you cute little lady for keeping me inspired.

Jamaica 2017

 

Last year was my 30th birthday and again we wanted to do something fun, exciting, and memorable. For hubby's 30th we traveled to Mexico and it was a very busy getaway so for my birthday we decided to travel to Jamaica but keep it more low key with the excursions. Although I feel we ended up with way too many pictures for such a low key getaway ;)

We stayed at the Bahia Principe Resort in Montego Bay for 5 nights and we booked an excursion to the Dunn's River Falls. That was really really fun! Our driver was hilarious and the hike up the river was pretty cool (and a little dangerous if I'd say so myself), nonetheless we did it and we have no regrets. 

The details/breakdown:

The resort grounds was beautiful. We ended upgrading to an ocean view room which was awesome. The pool was pretty big and the beach was separated by sections but available to all resort guests. Every day we picked a different section to hang out in and we would normally start the day by going to the beach after breakfast and ending the day in the pool area. The beach water was so clear and warm, it was definitely the Caribbean :) The entertainment team was not like in previous resorts we've stayed at. I don't remember them doing any day activities, yet again the pool was so big and sort of wrapped around the resort that we were probably in the "quiet side of it". The nightly entertainment was pretty cool. I personally found that some of the male staff were inappropriate. One guy in particular kept us waiting forever for drinks, he took shots himself and had his own drink that he was sipping on while he made other drinks, and he would smack other girls booty (female staff) as they walked by him. My hubby and I just looked at each other, grabbed our drinks and moved to another section. Whoever he thought he was, I found his actions and behavior to be inappropriate. Friendlyness of the staff in Jamaica was definitely not the same as in Mexico. Jamaica reminded me a lot of the Dominican Republic in many ways.

The food was good. Very similar to what we are used to eating but with different spices. I have no complains about the food but also nothing that sticks out as being amazingly good. We did have Jamaican pattys and that was good, at least the one from the resort was. Oh and the curry chicken was pretty good. We ate it almost every day for lunch. The drinks were pretty good too. I'm not a big drinker so I was fine with the first good drink I had. 

On our third day in Jamaica we traveled to Ocho Rios with this hilarious driver to climb up the Dunns River Falls. After arriving to our departure location we got on a boat that took us out to sea to snorkel. What an amazing experience. Now that water was super cold and although I as a little afraid of jumping in I ended up just joining the hubby. I've done snorkeling in Costa Rica which was my first time and a terrifying experience, as well as in DR on our Isla Saona excursion which we stopped in a natural pool to snorkel and the water there was waist deep and super clear. That was awesome.

Anyways, snorkeling in Jamaica was cool and I'm glad I decided to do it. YOLO. We then got back on the boat and ended up at the Falls. Ok, so this water was beyond cold, it was freezing. I don't think I'd make it all the way up by water but eventually my body got used to the water temperature. I loved all the pictures we were able to snap on our way up. On the way down we used the walk way. The stafff here also take pictures of you going up the Fall and try selling you a DVD at the end. We're suckers so we bought it lol.

On or ay back to the resort the boat had a party going on with Jamaican punch and pattys. The music was good. This was when reality hit. At least for me. There were a lot of young people in the boat, young like in their early/mid 20s and they were having the time of heir lives but I just kept on thinking "I can't dance like that, I can't behave like that. I'm a married woman and mother of two. This behavior is inappropriate for a woman my age", or is it? That thought really lingered in my head for quite awhile. Hubby and I did enjoy the boat ride back but in our own way. 

Two more days in the resort before ending this getaway which consisted of more beach, pool, and eating. Every day we ended up sitting next o this other couple from Boston, unintentionally, and on our second to last day there we had lunch with them and hung out on the biggest part of the beach section. They were pretty cool, I wish we would had exchanged info to keep in touch. They were really funny.

At last, Jamaican was quite the experience . I liked it but I didn't love it like I thought I would. Will we ever go back? yea sure, maybe sometime in the future but is not like I'm already planning our next trip there. My favorite part of this trip was spending time with the hubs and making great memories. 

It was a birthday for the record for sure. Just like we planned it :)

Hello 30s.

Mexico 2016: Tulum Excursion

 

 We set up this excursion for our third day there thinking that since we had been having gloomy weather it would give us something to do besides staring at the rain an eating. But to our surprise we woke up to a gorgeous day. We couldn't believe it, although it was a good thing because today's excursion also included swimming.

We got picked up bright and early and we made our way to Tulum. First on the list was a tour of the Tulum Mayan Ruins. Is funny because while in school History was never an interest for me. Although it was indeed interesting, to me it was beyond boring. Now that I'm an adult though I love learning about early civilizations and historical sites so this was pretty neat to experience. At first I didn't care much for checking out the ruins, I was interested in seeing Xichen Itza instead but that was out of the list this time around, however once there things got interesting. Our tour guide was super funny and he explained everything so well. He walked us around and told us about the ruins and then we had an hour to walk around, take pictures, and enjoy the area. I loved that we got there super early so we were part of the early crowd. On our way out that placed was jammed packed. There were so many tourists. Apparently it is the third most visited archeological site in Mexico (I read that in a google search).  It rained a little but the sun was still out so it was somewhat refreshing.

From there we went to the location where we would be rappelling, cave snorkeling, and zip lining. I wish I could remember the name of the place but I honestly can't recall it at all. All I remember is that it was fun! 

We had to leave everything in our bus and just bring walking/water shoes and our bathing suits. They provided everything else from towels, to water, and even the pictures. I was a little annoyed by that but it was honestly a great investment. 

We started rappelling into the cave. Let me just note that I'm the biggest scary cat ever yet somehow I manage to put myself in situations that I would have never even dreamed of. They set you all up with "rappelling gear" and give you a few minutes talk on how it's done and then they ask who wants to go first. I was terrified but you do it in couples so that was nice. You also go at your own speed since you control it with your left hand and then towards the bottom you just let go completely to make a splash into the water and so the picture has a dramatic effect. It was pretty cool. We swam through the  cave till we reached our first zip lining area. I believe there were 5. Or maybe 7. I remember 2 being at the end, after lunch. 

The zip lining was pretty cool too. I had tried zip lining in Costa Rica back in 2010 and somewhere else too but I don't recall where. I was terrified and there's actually a video where you see the tour guide messing with me and just as he lets me go he says "oh wait wait" but I'm already going so my heart drops to my bottom and all I hear is laughter. Not cool, not cool. It was funny to have that on video. 

From there we ended up in a underwater cave where we got snorkeling gears and got to swim through to the other side. That was the coolest experience ever! So I just Google searched  it to see if I find this place and it's actually called Cenote Sac Actun. Guys, I totally recommend you checking out this Cenote if you are ever in Mexico. I can't swim. Well not too good anyways and the whole time I stayed next to the tour guide and my hubby because let me tell you, the view into the water was beyond breathtaking yet at the same time I was pooping myself. Specially when it got dark. I remember at one point I panicked and hubby must have noticed because he got next to me and told me to relax. To stop and take deep breaths. How can I explain this. I honestly don't think I can. This is the longest underwater cave in Mexico, I remember hubby pointing out a sign about it being on National Geographic. They had that sign on site. This experience was just too amazing to ever put into words. Is one of those things were you just have to experience it for yourself. And we didn't even get pictures of that part of the excursion. So it is definitely something that I will forever be thankful to have had experienced. 

More zip lining and then lunch. This food was authentic Mayan food and it was AMAZING! hubby and I repeated servings twice. Oh and the Tamarindo juice, Dios Que Riqueza! It was really good. 

After lunch we had some free time to check out souvenirs on site and the tour guide gave us the option to finish the zip lining or walk it back but of course we all chose to zip line. We then stopped for margaritas and to "shop" for our photos. I have to say that I was impressed with their system. They really persuaded you well for giving in to buying the pictures. Not like you had a choice since you didn't have a camera of your own. Nonetheless it was worth it. 

We made it to back to the resort. Showered, dinner, show, and bed. 

The weather was pretty decent on our last day in the resort. we hung out at the beach after breakfast for a few hours and wondered away from the resort on the beach side to see what else was around  then we came back to the pool area. It was a very low key last day there. We talked bout how much we loved Mexico and we jut knew we would be returning within the year to bring our boys. we missed them so much! But it was a much needed getaway to rekindle our love :)

Mexico 2016: Resort, Xel-Ha, La Quinta Ave

This is the first of several post on our vacation to Mexico back in 2016 and again on 2017. 

On December 2016 we took a 5 days getaway to Mexico to celebrate Hubby's 30th birthday. We wanted to do something memorable and that we enjoyed. We love traveling and it was fitting that we decided on trips instead of big parties for our big transition into the third decade of our lives. We stayed at the beautiful Grand Sunset Princess Resort and although the weather wasn't what we had hoped for we made it work.

We landed in Cancun Airport and we were taken to enterprise were we had reserved a car for the next 5 days. After getting situated there we got in our rental and drove about 40 minutes to the resort. It was a smooth drive. I wasn't sure what to expect and I'm not going to lie I was somewhat scared since we did not know anything about Mexico but hubby's confidence had me a little more at ease. He's a truck driver so he's very good at getting around places plus there's just something about him that makes me feel protected. Could it be his size/appearance? who know. Bottom line, getting around The Riviera Maya was not difficult at all. It also helped that we knew the language but even if we wouldn't have I think it was fairly easy to get around.

The resort was beautiful and pretty big! There were 3 parts to it. At one point we got lost and ended up in the family resort which was also beautiful and looked very kid friendly. The food was amazing at every location and at any time of day but my favorite was the coffee. I don't know what kind of coffee they used but we drank cup after cup after cup. Hubby loved their liquor selection. He kept saying they had top shelf liquor, whatever that means. I like my wine, Corona, and Patron. One thing I did not like was the juices they used to mix drinks. Throughout our entire stay there was not one drink I repeated or enjoyed as much as hubby. I just couldn't get pass the after taste. It wasn't till our last day that I decided to drink wine (I didn't drink any before because wine and sun does not go well with me) but boy was their wine good :) Ooo and their burgers, OMG their burgers. I was hooked! Mexican burgers are way better than American burgers for sure or at least the burgers at this resort were. Night entertainment was really good. They had the best shows and live bands every night. That did not disappoint at all. The pool was good but again, the first couple of days it was hard to enjoy it because the weather was not as good so we did a lot of lounging and relaxing. The beach I did not like much. Very rocky. I only went in once and the next time we walked a couple of miles to the right of the resort and ended up at a beautiful beach which was good for swimming. We would definitely come again to this resort.

The weather on our second day was rainy and gloomy early in the morning so we decided to check out the excursions they had available. Since it was late morning already and the sun was coming out we opted for driving ourselves to Tulum and going to Xel-Ha Park. Actually the guy recommended it more than Xcaret since Xcaret was more kid friendly and it was only us two. We booked another excursion for the following day and drove to Tulum on our own. That drive took about 45-50mins from the resort and again it as a smooth drive. Only one turn and it was to get into the park itself. We loved it there. Everything there was pretty much water activities and food and drinks (even alcoholic beverages) were included in the entrance fee which I found it to be super cheap. We did the jungle trail by bike which led us to the river tour and snorkeling, cliff jump, zip-lining over the water, we checked out the garden, and the manatees cove. There was so much to do but we only had about 5 hours and the sun was beaming. It was the perfect day to be there for sure but our faces were burnt. I wonder if it was because we were on a different location. Again the food here was out of this world. They had lots of restaurants to choose from and we opted for authentic Mexican food. I can't even describe how good the food was. And the drinks... Hay Dios, Delicious! The Best Tamarind Margarita. This was something we agreed to do with the boys one day. They will both love it so much. 

On our way back to the resort we stopped at La Quinta Ave. I had read about it on my search for things to do/places to visit in Playa del Carmen and it was also recommended by the guy who we booked our excursion with. He said that's something we must do and it was about ten minutes from the resort so it was convenient to make a stop on our way back from Tulum and so we did.

So what is La Quinta? You can say is like a boardwalk except that it runs parallel to the shore "Playa Del Carmen" and it has tons of restaurants, shopping stores, hotels, bars, and so on. We ended up buying all of our souvenirs here and a little tip, if you ever go to Mexico is better to buy things using their money. They give you better prices, as we were told by the locals. Something about them not getting good exchange rates when they change dollars to Mexican pesos so they charge more if you pay in dollars to make their profit. Walking around La Quinta was a little intimidating, especially because it was getting darker and later in the evening. There are lots of locals and some people walk right next to you and offer you weed, cigars "massages", etc but they don't disrespect and if you ignore them they leave you alone. Now if you start asking them question expect them to try to hustle you. Unfortunately we didn't get to walk it all. I think I read somewhere that the whole thing is 4 miles long and I think we walked a mile, if that. We were just tired from all the sun and swimming earlier. We had planned to return again and maybe eat lunch or a snack but with 4 full days total there was just no room to fit it in again. I would totally do it again though, I'd like to experience it and go to the actual beach. Maybe even go for a getaway and instead of staying in a resort staying in a hotel along La Quinta Ave. That would be fun!

We headed back to our resort, showered , had dinner and went to enjoy the live band for the night.

These were only two days into our trip and we were loving the culture. Next post will be on our Tulum group excursion and our last day in the resort.