Puerto Vallarta: Day 1

We woke up early (or the usual time for some of the family) and excitedly threw our bags in the car and made our way to the airport to catch our flight to Mexico. We met up with the McNeil family at our gate. Everything went smoothly through security and our flight was on time-hooray! It was an easy, direct 3-hour flight with a 45 minute taxi to the Barcelo where we would be staying for the week.

We checked in, dropped our bags off in our rooms, threw our swimsuits on and headed down to the pool and beach.

Ahhh, let the relaxation and vacation begin!

Monster Golf and Krispy Kreme

While Bryan was gone hunting, I worked the kids into the ground with an overabundance of Saturday chores (at least in their opinion). After all of the work was completed, we decided to have a break and  have a "family fun night" as Luke termed it. I found a Groupon for Monster miniature golf. It was maybe not exactly what we had in mind, but it was "family fun night" so we adapted and made it work. Our luck changed when we stopped by Krispy Kreme for a treat afterward and they were just about to have fresh donuts ready. The kids loved watching the process and yummy carbs are always my idea of "fun."

Luke was the only one to land a hole in one.

Staged? Maybe partially. :)

He wears his donuts well.

Bryan's Boys' Trip

A.K.A. Hunting Season.

He takes care of me with all of the "essentials" even when he's gone.

Halloween Festivities 2018

We kickstarted the Halloween fun with a trunk-or-treat at Myles' preschool. One of my favorite items that Myles received in his bucket was a packet of Kids Emergen-C taped to a paper cup. Yes. I thought getting a toothbrush from our neighborhood dentist was ridiculous on Halloween, but this person takes the cake. However, given Myles' immune system, it was probably the best thing he received!

For the evening trick-or-treating, we met up with Cramers and Emma's friend, Mila. Luke wanted to stay home and hand out candy. He was not into the spooky (zombie, gory) decorations. We convinced him we would stay away from those houses and to join us for a little while as a family. After about an hour, all of our kids were done. We headed home, warmed up and counted/organized the loot!

Myles on the far right as a fireman. We have definitely got our money's worth out of that costume.

Luke is in the back: masked Army man

Emma: Harley Quinn

Myles: costume change to Buzz Lightyear

Miss Samantha was not feeling the group picture. She still looks absolutely adorable in her Snow White costume.

One of the cute YW stopped by. She's the "Holy Cow"--clever. Her friend is the "Oh Deer."

FHE: Carving Pumpkins

We continued our tradition of carving our pumpkins the Monday night before Halloween. Bryan and I both commented how great the carving went this year. We kept it super simple--that was our key to success. We didn't use any of the paper outlines for elaborate Halloween scenes. We stuck to the basics. Emma and Myles loved creating their "polka dot pumpkins" with Bryan's power drill.