Our not-so-perfect family trip to Mexico

The family has been back in the states for a couple weeks now from our Cozumel, Mexico vacation.  We all had a good time, and are thankful that we were able to get away to a beautiful place; however the trip wasn’t picture perfect like I’d hoped.

Our flight to Mexico was super early, which actually turned out to be a decent time to travel.  The airport was not crowded at all.  We quickly made it through security and had plenty of time to prepare for the flight.  Anderson was comfy in her jammies and enjoyed a quick breakfast before our flight.  

Headin' to Cozumel, Mexico!  We HAD to bring Minnie Mouse too.

Flying was what I was most apprehensive about when thinking about the trip.  To our surprise, the flight to Mexico was excellent.  It really could not have gone any better.  Miss A didn’t cry once.  She was fascinated with looking at the planes out of the window, and eventually fell asleep during both flights.  Once we arrived in Mexico we both commented on how perfect the flight down went.  Call me a pessimist, but things in life don’t usually go that perfectly without other things going wrong.

And we were definitely right with thinking that.  At the resort there was a long, and really slow moving line to check in to the hotel.  Thankfully I had packed lots of snack, which occupied our busy, curious toddler for a little while.  Then she started running through the lines of people, laughing and enjoying the freedom she now had after a long morning of traveling. 

Later that afternoon, when we finally got into our room, there was no crib, which we had requested, and two full size beds.  The first night was a very cramped, somewhat restless night.  A 25 pound toddler takes up way more space in a bed than what you would think.

Since we don’t eat out at restaurants very often due to JC’s evening work schedule Miss A was not used to sitting in new or different high chairs.  This meant many of our meals were eaten in shifts, or with a toddler on our lap.  But don’t worry, none of us went hungry.

Since Mexico doesn’t have the advanced water filtration systems like we do in the U.S., we had to wash all of Anderson’s sippy cups with bottled water.  This was something we knew we would have to deal with in Mexico.  It was a little inconvenient, but we survived. 

Ready to go home!  

By far, the worst part of the trip was the flight home.  There were storms hitting many parts of the Midwest region which impacted our schedule.  A two and a half hour flight turned into a five hour flight, a very quick run through customs, security and bag pick up and re-checking, then another flight and two hour drive home.  On top of that add a toddler with an upset tummy, which eventually worked itself out onto her shorts, T-shirt and Dad’s shorts too.  JC ended up finishing part of his trip home wearing swim trunks.

Traveling with a toddler came with some struggles and challenges.  There’s no doubt about that.  Despite the problems, we had such a great time experiencing a new place with our toddler who was captivated by the flamingos, fish swimming off the pier, the “baby” pool, sand and all of the new people she met in Cozumel.  Quality time together is sometimes hard to come by, so six days, without phones, television or any other distractions was great.  We were able to focus on each other and take in the surroundings of a truly beautiful island.