Cabo - Hyatt Ziva

3:45 am. alarm rang out, and we climbed out of bed, loaded the 3 kids, and our 9 bags of luggage. As we drove to the airport, the moon light shined our way. I explained to the kids that this is one of the best parts because the adventure begins! The ride home isn’t nearly as fun.
We loaded the shuttle bus up, and the 3 kids sat together. They were all loaded with excitement on their faces. Especially Ethan, where he didn’t have to have a car seat. His face was glued forward, watching the bus go. Airport security was easy for the kids and me, where they were able to go through the TSA precheck with me. It took Sarah over an hour to go through. Luckily, we were early. After a short wait, we were one of the first ones to load all out luggage. We taxied put, which took forever, and the kids began to be impatient. Ethan wanted it to go faster! Sarah asked him if his rabbit stuffy Toby was excited. He looked at him and saw his face was the same and responded, nope! The kids all enjoyed takeoff and were pretty good. Ethan began to be crazy and a bit loud, and then, within seconds, he passed out until we landed.
We went through customs and got on our Hunter Douglas shuttle to the Hyatt Ziva in Cabo. As we were walking outside, you would have thought I had a spotlight on Ethan. He was furious at the sun and heat diving for shade anywhere he could and rubbing his face. We got to the shuttle where the luggage went, and the space below was shady and empty. Ethan dove in to take cover and was happy to ride there. The local driver was laughing. Lucy was not thrilled with the heat either. It was warm, but it really wasn’t bad. About 80, but for those kids used to rainy Seattle weather, it was a lot.
On the ride to our resort, it was really dry and dusty and a desert. Ethan said lots of tumble weeds. Lucy asked, “Do people really live here? Does it ever rain?”
The resort looked amazing! We checked in and went to the buffet. Ethan just wanted to go swim, and Lucy wanted a potty. The buffet food was really quite tasty. Our rooms were ready, and the kids were pumped they had their own room. We changed and made our way to the kids’ slides. They loved it. Ethan was running around jumping and ended up pounding the bottom of the slide with his head. When he jumped. It looked horrible, and he could have split his head open the first 5 min of playing. I wondered and found a tasty mango with chili pepper rim margarita. The kids wanted to see the pools, so we made our way to the swim up bar pool. After playing in the pool for a couple of hours and getting a few frozen daqaries, the kids hit the hot tub looking over the beach. A worker came by and gave Ethan and Lucy a sword balloon. After about 30 minutes of sword fighting g in the water Ethan’s popped and that did him in, devastation! Sarah decided to take him back to the room where he was so tired. The girls stayed in the pool and had about 4 ftozen daqaries; Miami Vice, Strawberry, and Pina colada. They wanted to see the beach so we walked down… with drinks, of course. The rip tide current is so strong along Cabo that we were unable to swim there at our hotel. But they played on the shore as the waves crashed in up to their knees and pulled them in the sand. They absolutely loved it. Ethan and Sarah made their way to us and played for a bit.
On our way back to the room, Ethan had about 1/5 of his beverage and fell on the stairs spilling it. He didn’t care about his scuffed arms. He just was made his beverage was gone. He is not used to an unlimited supply. He was still so tired, so I put him in the shower and said, “Stay in as long as you want.” 30 minutes later, we pulled him out to get ready for dinner.
The sunset was beautiful. The professional photographer took a ton of fun and goof pictures by the water. The kids all loved it. We had dinner at an open Italian restaurant looking over the beach. It was awesome. We had calmei, NY steak, seabass, lemon risotto, tasty pizza, and of course… beverages. Ethan did great most of the dinner. We had to put on Netflix for him, and toward the end, he spilled his beverage… twice. He was fearful he was going to get a beat down after the second time spilling, so he just melted into tears. Once we left, it was dark, and the pools were lit up. Ethan took off running, tripped over his feet, and super maned into the cement. Knees and elbows were beat up.
For the evening show we went to the theater to watch the dancing around the world. Nobody was there except like 4 other people because we were early. The kids danced in front of the stage, then made their to the stage as the music played. A loud recording came over the speaker in Spanish and English. “Parents, please watch your kids. The stage is off limits.” It was pretty funny, but we got them off. They danced off the stage, and they cranked up the music. More people arrived, and we played name the movie the song was in. We nailed a few and had fun. The kids were glued to the dancing, and about 20 min in Ethan passed out in my arms, and then Lucy got tired, so we went back to our room. It was a big action pack day! Ethan was knocking on the door at 7, ready to go again… lol
Day 2
Today was the “lets all (except mom) get fried day.” Mom worked a bit and stayed covered a lot of the day. We started off with the breakfast buffet. The omelet was tasty. Then we got I’m our swim suits and hit the pools. The kids went on the waterside and quickly wanted the hot tub. They really love the hot tub. Then we went to the beach and played in the sand. I flew my drone around for a bit. I hauled a bucket and sand toys from home cause the kids wanted to build a sand castle. It was just me building it. Ethan was whining because the salt water and sand made his scuffed elbow and knees hurt from all his Superman adventures yesterday. We swam most of the day. Sarah took the kids to grab some burgers around 11, and I went and figured out a snorkeling adventure that would work for little kids.
Kids pounded the frozen daiquiris all day. We hit up the lunch buffet in the afternoon. Everyone’s cheeks were looking bright red. Lucy was whining and saying it burned, so we went back to the room. She changed and passed out on the bed until dinner. For dinner, we went to a Japanese hibachi where we sat around with a group of 12, and they cooked it right there for us. It was entertaining. Dad missed the broccoli toss, and Chrissy caught it. Desert was fried. I’ve cream. Little Lucy wanted to go back to the room, so I hung out with Ethan. About 30 minutes later, they found us. They were showered, and Lucy was hungry, so… we hit up the dinner buffet. After that the kids were tired so we all went to bed.
Day 3
Chill day by the pool. I took the kids to breakfast and let mom sleep in. Then we got in our swimsuits and hit the pool. Ethan was 100 mph all morning, twirling and jumping in water. He stepped in sand, so I made him shower it off by the beach, and he had a meltdown. Chrossy rode the ocean waves in and was hammered by a wave eating sand. That made her mad. We grabbed burgers and made the kids take a nap today. After nap we hit the pool up again. I had shrp tacos from the truck… amazing, but stay away from the hot sauce. Erhan woke up with Sarah and Lucy and he wanted his dad. I took him and Chrissy to the beach. We played for hours along the beach, in the waves, building sand castles, taking cool pictures, and flying the drone at sunset. Then Ethan looked at me and said I’m all done. He turned around and started walking to the pool and his mom. I had chrissy go with him while I flew the drone more and picked up his sand castle toys.
We showered and went to the Cortez Mexican restaurant. We had a seafood soup, shrimp, braised ribs, fries, and, of course, the bread and chips. We all got the guava mocktail. The girls had strawberries and cream, and we had brownies for desert. Ethan wanted ice cream, so we finished and then went to the buffet for ice cream. The ending show was a love themed dancing. The kids were glued to it, and it was awesome. About halfway through, Lucy said this is lame and wanted to go to bed. It was 9:30, so we took them to bed. Lucy had an absolute meltdown with everyone. She was yelling, screaming, being defiant, and a total pain. She can be so frustrating and ruin an excellent day for everyone else. I’m not sure what to do to help that kid, but I think she may have some bi-polar issues. She can be so sweet and fun, then demons take over.
Day 4
Lucy came in and snuggled with us
Ethan stayed asleep, so I stayed back while everyone went to start breakfast. We went to the Cortez restaurant on the beach. I woke Ethan up, and we caught up with them. It was tasty. I had eggs benedict and a Denver omelet. Everyone else had pancakes and French toast. We went back to the room and to the snorkeling tour. It was a bit of a ride to pick everyone else up. Ethan liked going fast. We stopped at a place to buy things… basic hats were $20. It was a touristy area. Then we made it to the dock. We loaded up and saw all the cool places; rock formations, seals, pelicans, sea of Cortez, Pacific Ocean, and the arch. Then we got our gear on. Mom was first, then the girls, I let Ethan in, and then I jumped in. The water was cold. Ethan was life jacketed up. The girls were on a big life saver donut. They were freaking out about not being able to breathe and struggled snorkeling. Ethan was crying with Sarah and wanted out. The girls started screaming that the fish were biting them. I got made and told him to get it together. There are no biting fish. I helped them make their way to the beach and then took Chrissy out to try harder. J switcher her snorkels because hers was letting water in. She did ok and was able to see the fish. I took her back to the beach.part of our group was stung by jellyfish, and we realized it was jellyfish stinging them. I felt bad. Sarah and I went back out for a minute. Then it was waiting for our driver in the heat. Ethan had to pee, and they wanted $.50 to use the potty. So Sarah took him to a field, and he peed. We waited a bit and then went to tequila tasting. We watched for a bit and went shopping around. Kids were getting really tired. We found the girls a silver ring they liked. Then we went to another tourist trap for shopping. It was chaos there. Some crazy guy handed Lucy a balloon and then wanted money. He wouldn’t take the Ballon back, so Sarah sat it down. He had a fit, and I think it made the kids nervous. It was a bit of a different experience for them. We finally loaded up for the hotel. Ethan slept on my lap. When we got back to the room, I laid him down to sleep, but he popped up, ready to go swimming. The kids had a riot at the pool that night jumping in from the hot tub. A group from Minnesota got in scoring and cheering them. They joined in, showing them jump moves. We played for hours. One girl did a flip in the water. The next thing I knew, Lucy was doing flips in the water. I went and got Sarah, and we all went and played at the beach at sunset. We saw some whales breaching and flapping from the beach. The hotel rang a bell for everyone to know. It was cool to see. Chrissy and I rode a fee waves, and then we went back and showered off. Kids wanted to swim in the pool at night, so we did for a while. It was a really fun night. On our way back to shower, Ethan loves pushing the buttons in the elevator. He was ahead with Chrissy, and she didn’t stop him. He got in and rode the elevator to the 5th floor by himself. We could hear him screaming all the way up and luckily back down to us. It was pretty funny. For dinner, we hit up Molina, a Mexican restaurant. I ordered a steak. The kids, especially Ethan, ended up eating 75% of my steak, and I ordered another one. Toward the end, Ethan was funny, and I noticed a puddle next to me on the floor. I asked him if he peed his pants, and he said no. So I checked, and he did. He said I told you no cause you would get mad. I’m not sure why he didn’t ask to go potty. Sarah, Lucy, and Ethan went back to sleep, and Chrissy and I went to the dancing show. We hit up donuts after then went to bed. It was a long night with Lucy visiting cause of nightmares and Ethan twice for some reason.
Day 5
I woke up and went to the Hunter Douglas meeting from 9 to 10:30. The kids were still asleep when I left. I came back, and Ethan was still asleep. The rough night and all this playing tired him out. We went to the buffet and grabbed some good, and then we played by the pool all day. Ethan and Lucy had several hot dogs and fries. I had some tasty shrimp nachos. It was a fun day by the pool. I found a Mexican hat down by the beach and purchased it from Antonio. He tried to sell me some cocaine as well. Hunter Douglas had their evening party. We took the kids, but the food was more for adults, so we took them to the buffet. After they ate we took them to kids camp so we could go to the adult only French restaurant. The French onion soup was amazing. We also had shrimp, steak, and salmon. For desert Crème Brule and a cool desert show where he lit the alcohol on fire and did a waterfall back and forth. The kids were happy at kids camp. We made our way to the Circus show, which the kids really liked. It was a fun day.
Day 6
Our last full day, we hit it hard with tons of beverages by the pool. It was St. Patrick’s day, and they put on a big parade, dressed up, setup a stage on the beach with a live band. We ate lots of food, swam hard, and went to dinner at the Italian restaurant. It was a fun day.
Departure day
All three kids were passed out, and I woke them up at 8 to go get some swimming in. I put sunscreen on them and told them I would be out once I got everything packed up. They showed up an hour later, hungry, so we hit up the buffet. Ethan wanted me to swim with him, so I got my suit on and swam for about 90 minutes with them. We went down to the beach one last time, then swam again until it was time to shower. After we showered, we got some hot dogs and fries. The big bus took us to the airport. Ethan loved riding on it. The airport was smooth, and we had about a 2 hour wait before boarding. I had to buy a $10 bottle of Fiji water for the kids. The empty bottle got turned into a guitar, and he rocked out for about 30 minutes. We boarded the plane, and I told Ethan to say Hasta Luego to Mexico. He said I don’t want to go, I want to stay and eat hot dogs and swim. Overall, it was a great trip! We land about 9:30 and should be home by 11. Never a dull moment with the kids. Sarah took Ethan to the potty on the plane. Neither had Sox on. She didn’t know he was too short to pee in the toilet, so he peed all over the floor, and on both their socks. We got off the plane, and Lucy overdosed on sugar. She said I feel sick and proceeded to barf all across the airport hallway, trying to get to the garbage on the other side. Once she made it, she then barfed down the garbage. Ethan was a jabberbox the entire way home.