This year we headed south to Mexico for our annual Johnston/Sladden family vacation. We rented a house in Akumal (between Playa del Carmen and Tulum). We opted for a Memorial Day vacation instead of the usual Labor day retreat because of the upcoming arrival of baby Sladden (7 weeks away)!

The house backs to the beach and the waves are perfect for 3 years olds so we have been spending much of our day running from the beach to the pool and back again (a perfect energy burn for toddlers!)

Backyard

The dads took the kids out in the Kayak … the kids acted as the boat coxswain (faster, faster, over there) – Scott was a great listener!

first kayak

elsie decked out in her swim cap (to hold her hair),  her goggles and her swim bubble (a great invention for self sufficient toddlers in the water) …

Helper

If we aren’t swimming in the ocean, we are swimming in the splash pool.

floater

And favorite past time is jumping in …

Jump Jumpers swimmer

More beach

beach

Time to collect Shark teeth …

Shells

shells running around

The yard is covered with fabulous shady palm trees which drop coconuts, scott spent an hour opening the treasure, we spent a few minutes gnawing on it, and then Scott and Mark whipped it into yummy coconut rice.

Coconut

Elsie and Nicholas are perfect sidekicks – they spend most of the time swimming and then relaxing

hammock hammock

They have managed to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at least 10 times …

relaxing

View from our rooftop where yesterday we had fabulous massages

rooftop view

Finally the superheros! We put the costumes on and the kids set out to save a baby turtle on the beach!

superheros superheros

Today we are finally headed out of the house to do some exploring in the local town …  more to come