I am so far behind on documenting our life it's not even funny. Without further ado I'll just jump right in. Campbell is absolutely loving first grade. It's so crazy to see the progress she has made from kindergarten to now. We finally received the results from her standardized testing done in the Spring. She excelled on all of her standardized testing in kindergarten but I was especially proud of her bible assessment. I love that she gets to go to school each day and learn about our Creator.
She is excelling at her reading and her love for math continues to grow. She earned all A's on her first report card, not too shabby for a girl played two fall sports. Campbell adores soccer, she likes softball okay but I think it was a little too boring for her. Soccer definitely fuels her aggressive nature and her love for running. Unfortunately for softball she was at the beach when they did evaluations so she was put on a team based on her age and not her skill level. If we give it another try we will make sure that we are available for evaluations so that she can be placed accordingly.
We had an early morning flight out of Columbia (7:00)
with a layover in Atlanta. We arrived in Puerto Vallarta 1:30 local time. We
took a hotel shuttle onto our resort. Next time we will just grab a taxi on our
own. We stayed at the Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta. While my parents worked on
getting us checked in we grabbed a quick lunch at Blue Fish. My parents got us
upgraded to Grand Luxxe Tower 2 which was amazing. I cannot say enough nice
things about the resort. We had our own little pool on our balcony which was
perfect for Campbell. Mama and I took a trip to Walmart. You haven’t lived
until you’ve been to a Mexican Walmart ha. It was about a 15 minutes cab ride
and totally worth it. We ordered room service and called it a night as we had a
long travel day.
Sunday
We woke up and made breakfast for Austin and let him
sleep in a little considering it was father’s day. We encouraged him to golf but
he wanted to spend the day with us. We found ourselves a pool (there was 27 to
choose from!) and relaxed for most of the day. We had dinner at Costa Arena and
it was fabulous.
Monday
Campbell’s thing that she was most excited about for this
trip was zip lining. After a little pool time We taxed over to meet our travel
guides to head to Cabo Corrientes. It was about an hour and a half car ride. We
had a wonderful time. There were several lines that Campbell was able to do by
herself and she was super pumped about that. The other lines she was able to go
with our guide. She is fearless and rocked zip lining. She hung upside down
several times which you couldn’t convince me to do. After zip lining we had a
tequila tasting which was okay if tequila is your thing and Austin insisted on
bringing three bottles home with us. We grabbed a late lunch/early dinner and
make the ride back to Jalisco.
Tuesday
We had more pool time and just overall relaxation. We
decided at this point it the trip it would be helpful if Campbell would take a
nap so we could enjoy the nighttime activities. We grabbed some tacos at Taco
Break and headed over to Sanctuario for the night time show. We had also heard
that there was a nightly laser show so we headed over to La Cantina to enjoy
that.
Wednesday
Austin was able to golf at one of the courses on site and
had an early morning tee time. There was a Jack Nicklaus course as well as the
Jack Nicklaus golf academy. From what I understand Austin had a wonderful time
and really enjoyed his lesson at the golf academy. While Austin played Campbell
and I did a little playing on our own. We ordered room service for breakfast and
then had a little pool time. We ventured out to swim with the dolphins. We had
to taxi there and back on our own. I wasn’t quite sure why Campbell wanted to
do this again as we had previously done this in the Bahamas at Atlantis. We had
a great time. We had dinner at Gong which is a hibachi restaurant. We then met
up with my parents to enjoy the nightly show at Santuario.
Thursday
Mama and I enjoyed a trip to the spa. We were both super
happy with our treatments. Austin, Campbell and Daddy had planned to go ride
ATVs however that didn’t pan out. There seemed to be a bit of a price
difference based on who you talked to and Austin wasn’t going to play that
game. This wasn’t an issue with the hotel but the travel company that was
located inside the hotel to book services. Austin and Campbell did ride jet
skis and from what I understand they had a blast. I had decided earlier in the
week that I wanted to do something special for Mama and we agreed on getting
family pictures done. Y’all! This was the best decision I made. The
photographer made it super fun for the entire family and we couldn’t be more
pleased with how the pictures turned out. Mama & Daddy kept Campbell for us
and we snuck off for a little date night. We had dinner it Azur and it was
wonderful. This may actually have been my favorite meal.
Friday
Austin was able to sneak off to golf again. Campbell had waited
so patiently to parasail as it was too windy on Thursday for her to go solo or
even for me to go with her. She was able
to go by herself. Y’all this child is fearless. She was all smiles the entire
time and this is without a doubt her favorite part of the trip. We spent the
rest of the day relaxing and enjoying our last full day in paradise. We grabbed
a late dinner at Tramonto after doing a little shopping. This place was a
little fancy for kids but I was beginning to get hangry. Luckily we were able
to grab a table outside. Campbell’s favorite part of dinner was dessert per
usual.
Saturday
The day I had dreaded all week. We were up and packing as
we had a 1:30 flight back home. We took a taxi to the airport and it was a
breeze this go round.The flight home
was an absolute disaster. They had an ill passenger on the plane which led to
an early landing in Mobile. We ended up sitting on the tarmacfor 2 ½ hours. Campbell was very patient but
I was totally over it. We of course missed our connection. Our flight was
rebooked and we missed that flight was well. Customs in Atlanta is a joke. It’s
crazy how hard it is to get back into your own country. We agreed next time we
fly out of the country we will pay the extra $100 each for the expedited
service. Fortunately for us the last flight out of Atlanta was delayed. We were
supposed to be home at 9:00pm and we got home 1:00am. We were exhausted. The
icing on the cake was that our bags didn’t make it home.
Honestly I was not that excited about Puerto Vallarta but
it was much different than I expected. Here’s a little more information about
the resort. Nestled between the
Pacific Ocean and the Sierra Madre Mountains, Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta is a
tropical beach paradise. Miles of wooden pathways connect five resort hotels to
an endless array of amenities: a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course; luxury
spas, salons, and fitness centers; high-end boutique shopping; nightly
entertainment; over 20 world-class restaurants; stunning pools; an Aqua Park
with a Lazy River, and activities for the whole family. It’s over 2500 acres so
it is massive but there are golf carts to take you desire. The service was top
notch. I found the prices to be comparable to what we would pay in Columbia,
maybe a little less. Every day was happy hour from 10:00 – 3:00, who doesn’t
like a good BOGO. Until next time Mexico!!!!!Also this is where Carly and Evan from Bachelor in Paradise had their
wedding rand where a lot of dates from Bachelor in Paradise happened. How crazy
that we were there the same time as the wedding but totally missed it!
