The Mayan Riviera: Bardsley Style

Spencer and I took our first real vacation together just a few weeks ago. By "real" I mean not our honeymoon (which was to St. George anyway...), and not one that included staying with family or having to adhere to any kind of schedule. :) It was marvelous. I highly recommend it. Thanks to my amazing sister Ellie, brother-in-law Bryan, and the rest of the wonderful Warnick clan, the vacation was also baby free. This worked out wonderfully well as I can't imagine that Grace would have found much joy in snorkeling. Or an airplane ride. Or tropical, blood-thirsty mosquitoes. Again, thank you guys--so much. It was such a blessing to be able to leave her with people that we knew we could trust completely.

We stayed at a resort along the Mayan Riviera just 45 minutes south of Cancun and five minutes north of Playa del Carmen. This was both Spencer's and my first time staying in a resort and it was quite the experience. I would say that staying in a resort on the beach is very like unto going on a cruise, but without the sea sickness. They are definitely both part of the same cultural genre. Free and fattening food were everywhere to be found (as well as all things alcoholic--I can't even count how many times we were offered tequila...) and there was some kind of show every night--generally of questionable content. The one show Spencer and I actually went to was so crude and ridiculous that we walked out after less than ten minutes.

But the food part...was great. :) All the ice cream cones and fresh salsa you can eat. What's not to like about that?

I do think, however, that we won't do the resort thing again. It's very restricting. After a few days, we kind of felt like we were prisoners of the resort. Prisoners in a tropical paradise, but prisoners all the same. We couldn't get out and see "real" Mexico without paying a lot of money. Now doesn't that sound a little bit like bail? :) But I'm glad we did it. And now we know. We like our vacations to be a little more...free, I guess.

But...there were some very wonderful aspects of the resort, besides just the food. They had snorkeling equipment, kayaks, and sailboats that were available for our recreational pleasure. And we definitely used them.

Pictured below are Spencer and our sailboat. We took the sailboat out three times. Thanks to the scouting program, we were able to go out by ourselves. Hooray for random sailing merit badges! Even though Spencer earned his sailing merit badge like ten years ago, he still did an amazing job remembering how to work the thing. But, alas, the second time we went out, the wind died immediately and we had to be rescued by a friendly wave runner. My wind dance, which Spencer openly mocked, was surprisingly unsuccessful. But our disappointment was completely forgotten after we saw a sea turtle on our third sailing excursion. We didn't get to ask him how old he was, but we're pretty sure he was at least 120.

However, I think snorkeling was my favorite activity. And we didn't even go to any fancy snorkeling spot. We just snorkeled along the hotel beaches. It was wonderful. To be able to swim through the water without plugging my nose (which I have to obsessively do...don't judge) or closing my eyes made me feel so free. Like I was flying. I loved it. And we saw an amazing number of fish. They were small for the most part, but pretty. We came across quite a few schools of fish that included hundreds, maybe thousands, of pupils. :) It was quite the sight and quite the experience. Spencer and I were both a little nervous about it at first and had to hold hands while swimming under the water. But that, of course, only added to the appeal. We had a blast pointing out each fish we saw and admired to each other. We did see one big fish that looked very shark-like. As we got closer, it didn't even budge or seem intimidated by us at all. So...we swam away quickly.

We went kayaking twice. Once in separate, single rider kayaks and once together. The first time was fun, but the waves were really big and made both of us seasick. The second time the ocean was much more calm which made things much more enjoyable. I think it's safe to say that if given the chance to kayak again, we'd take it. :)

The resort was covered with these amazingly carved melons. What can I say, I'm a sucker for decorative fruit.

We tried to play chess on this gigantic board twice. The first time, we were intimidated off the board and into our hotel room by a hoard of blood-thirsty Mexican mosquitoes. Spencer says he was about the win in two turns anyway, but...it's always easy to claim imminent victory without proof. :) I, however, did conquer the second time we played.

Spencer participated in a pick-up beach soccer game one afternoon. I politely declined and spent the time lounging on a beach chair instead. Spencer found beach soccer surprisingly frustrating (he kicked a lot of sand...) but fun. :)

Now, tell me, how can one truly say they've been to Mexico without wearing a get-up like this at some point? We wandered into a beach shop one day, and the very attentive owner suggested we take this picture and provided the ensemble. Pretty sure he was just trying to get a sale...it worked. :)

A view of the beach at our resort.

A stormier view. Isn't the Caribbean amazing?

For one of our days there, we decided to rent a car for the day (and got a great price, if you ask me...), and go see as many ruins as we could. I am so glad we did. Refer to the above paragraph discussing "paradise imprisonment." :) And our little car was so cute! I want one.

This picture was taken on a hike to some of the ruins in Coba. Tarzan makes so much more sense now.

The ruins at Coba weren't as well preserved as those at Tulum...we thought. Or maybe they were just older. Sadly, we couldn't afford a tour guide so we just made up stories about what went on there. We really liked the jungle atmosphere, though, and were happy we were able to climb on and explore these ruins more.

More Coba.

Before Coba, we headed to Tulum. Tulum contains the only Mayan ruins (that we know about, I suppose...) that are situated along the ocean. My oh my, was it beautiful there. And HOT. They are also the only ruins to be completely enclosed by a wall. And I'm not making that up. :) I read that in the tour book. But once again, no money for a tour guide. Sad. However, an LDS guide smelled us out and approached us, trying to interest us in a Book of Mormon tour of the ruins. We told him we had practically nothing to offer him, but he wanted to help us anyway. He asked what we had and ended up giving us the two dollar, or 50 peso, version of the tour. So, that was nice.

Spencer, of course, found a cave and needed to explore it. But he had to scare out a plethora of iguanas first. Man, those iguanas are everywhere!

When we first got to Tulum, we took a picture of every iguana that we saw. We stopped that practice quickly. We saw at least 100. Probably more. Iguanas are to the Mayan Riviera as squirrels are to the midwest. EVERYWHERE.

While everyone else was living it up with their tequila, we decided to do a little sand artwork.

Yeah, this is our turtle. A Spencer and Anna creation. We were quite proud of it. We also made a sand castle, but the turtle was definitely our crowning masterpiece. In fact, we're certain that this is why we were able to see the sea turtle while sailing. It had heard of our work and wanted to meet us. :) As we walked away from our turtle after finishing, we saw a couple stop by it and begin to take pictures with it. It cracked us up. And made our heads grow nice and big as far as our sand art skills are concerned. :)

A shot of the inside of the resort.

And...the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. I had no idea that beaches could really look like this. And the water was warm! Actually warm! It was fun to swim in instead of painful! The Caribbean totally changed my schema of oceans and beaches.

Our room. Every night when we got back, there was a cute little towel animal waiting for us. I would've expected no less. :)

Our gigantic tub. It took up most of the room.

Eating at a Chinese restaurant inside the resort. Bad idea. Who goes to Mexico to eat Chinese food anyway? That should have been our first clue.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. There were some bumps along the way, but we're glad we did it. I got to speak lots of Spanish and we were able to make some really wonderful memories together. In the end, we'll always have Mexico. :)

Two things I'm not ready to give up...

At almost fourteen months, Grace (in my eyes...I don't know about the technical definition) is hovering between babyhood and toddlerhood. I am hovering between whole-heartedly allowing her to enter this new stage and clinging to the little cuddly baby I love. She's been walking for a while now and seems to think that other kinds of independence should come along with that. Hmph.

I just don't know.

Firstly, she seems to have decided that one nap a day is plenty. Ha! What a joke! Doesn't she realize just how lucky she is? I'd sing karaoke for two naps a day! :) (saying "I'd kill for two naps a day" seems far too violent, so I decided to come up with something equally terrifying and horrible to me...) And this two nap schedule has been working so well for us. Why mix things up now? I mean, really?

And then there's the issue of the bottle. Okay, this is much more my issue than hers. I know that she should be using a sippy cup or some kind of equivalent these days. I even bought one a few months ago to encourage myself to encourage her. But...it just tends to sit unloved, unnoticed, and unused in the cupboard. I bring it out to let her drink water and the occasional sip of juice every now and again, but that's about it. No milk. No main staple of her liquid diet.

Sigh.

See, I love the bottle. :) She seems okay either way, but I love the bottle. When I stopped nursing her, I missed the closeness so much and worried that it was gone forever. But then I discovered that Grace is perfectly content to sit or lay with me while drinking her milk. It's one of the few times that she is truly cuddly. And I love it! I look forward to that time every day.

It just feels like the sippy cup would steal that away. Every day when I'm getting milk for Grace, I think about how I should let her learn to drink her milk exclusively from a cup. But...I just don't. I find some perfectly logical excuse that makes it quite necessary for me to continue with the bottle. You know, like the weather being a certain way that day that makes it impossible to effectively drink from a sippy cup. Perfectly logical. :)

So my line between babyhood and toddlerhood has been drawn. The line is illustrated with a bottle and a second nap. I wonder what Grace's line would be?

And...just a couple recent pictures.

This is Grace's new favorite reading spot. Our decorative (a euphemism for "fake") fireplace. She sits down in front of it and then scoots right in. It's quite adorable.

Grace has become quite the little traveler.

This picture was taken at the Como Zoo gardens in Minnesota.

A fuller view of Grace and the fireplace.

At the bunny fountains in Ohio with her cousin, Stephen.

A Slightly Unconventional First Birthday

The last day of July, we celebrated Grace's first year of life. Now, since her birth, I had pictured throwing a lovely party for her with adoring family members mesmerized by her every move. But, we live four hours away from the closest family member on Spencer's side and nine hours away from the closest one on my side. So, that just wasn't going to happen. I guess it could have, but it didn't. Instead, the primary attendees of Grace's party were these gentlemen:

The salesman of the Linx Cedar Rapids office.

So, yes, Grace had her first boy/girl party at age one. :)

Honestly, I don't think I could've asked for a more obliging bunch. They really were the next best thing to family, even if I don't even know all their names... They gave me everything I needed in party guests: warm bodies to feel chairs and eat pizza and cake, and a large group to sufficiently "ooh" and "ahh" over Grace. I thought they would start to get bored when she took forever to eat her cake and open her presents, but they didn't! They were all so much more into it than I ever could have hoped! I guess some of this might come from the fact that they're not around babies much... Grace is a cute little novelty. :) At any rate, the party was really fun.

As was the day.

We started the day by going in to get Grace together in the morning when she woke up and singing to her. She didn't get the purpose of the song, of course, but she was happy to see the both of us all the same. :) She spent the next little while eating and playing with the decorative balloons we had strewn about the house.

She really liked the balloons. :)

Then, we let her open one of her gifts which turned out to be

a little birthday dress, courtesy of me.

Next, we took her to the park for some pictures...and some play time, of course. I mean, it was her birthday. I guess it shouldn't be all about mommy and daddy getting the photos and memories that they want. :)

After the park, we came home and she took a nap.

Naps are non-negotiable, even on your birthday.

After naptime, it was party time. Jerrica helped me decorate a couple cakes and Spencer ordered the pizza. As a sidenote, having our Linx friends James and Jerrica at Grace's party was like having family there. Grace LOVES them. They are definitely her surrogate aunt and uncle.

So...pictured below is the cake for everyone. And me with my "I-probably-shouldn't-have-dropped-out-of-that-cake-decorating-class" face.

And this was Grace's own personal pan cake.

The cake unveiling...

And...the beginning of the cake massacre.

At first, she tentatively picked off the little pink balls of frosting and ate them.

Then, she really started to get a hang of what was going on.

And...the final messy product! Grace has a silly habit of playing with her hair while she eats. She habitually twirls her hair while drinking her bottle, but also tends to reach to her head for comfort while eating solids. The cake was no different.

The cake story has kind of a sad ending. The more chocolate that got onto her face, the more it bothered Grace and the more she tried to rub it off. Hence, the ridiculous mess of the picture. However, it started getting into her eyes and up her nose and that's when happy, cake-eating Grace disappeared and angry, crying Grace took her place. She was thrown into the bathtub, sobbing, not too long after this picture was taken. But...in the end, I still think it was worth it. It was pretty hilarious watching her get to this point. :)

And now, onto to the presents! This actually happened before the cake, but it'll take too much effort to switch it all. :)

Below are the presents from Grandma and Grandpa Merkley. Grandma Bardsley also sent some very thoughtful gifts, but we opened them before Grace's birthday, because I am too impatient when it comes to presents. :)

Here's the thoughtful present from Uncle James and Aunt Jerr. :)

And James putting it together.

And the big present from mom and dad...

We were pretty excited about this find!

We didn't even have to steal it from a dentist's office. :)

Grace's first exposure to bubbles.

And, lastly, her new books. Yeah, she was pretty spoiled.

Happy Birthday, baby!

Squirrels

Today, I was frightened into submission by a squirrel. Okay, two squirrels. And they didn't even make a squirrel confederacy and intimidate me with superior numbers (as Grace obviously doesn't count as far as bodily protection goes...). It was two separate squirrels in two completely different ends of a small park. Sigh...

Now, in my own defence, I think one could say that I was just being motherly and protective of my little brood of one. But silently, I know that you're all thinking, "Really, a squirrel? Come on now."

Just let me tell you my part of the story.

Grace and I frequently go on little nature walks. I try to make them highly educational by pointing out various flora and fauna native to the particular area we are currently wandering about. I am frequently known to say such things as, "Wow! Look Gracie, a cute little bunny! Let's go see what he's up to!" or "Oh, a duckie! Grace, can you say duck?" and "Grace, do you see the doggie? Woof, woof! What a cute doggie! Can you wave at him?" Yeah, as you can see, our nature walks are highly sophisticated.

Well, today, we explored a new region of Cedar Rapids. As we approached the little dirt trail designated for serious nature explorers such as ourselves, I saw a squirrel. My small, cute animal radar immediately went up. (it's had a lot of work to do since we moved to the midwest...) Grace and I casually approached the squirrel, waving and greeting it politely all the while. See, we were nice. It, of course, began to run up the nearest tree. We continued to watch its tree climbing progress for a little while since Grace was having such a jolly old time pointing and waving at the retreating fluffy tail.

Once we were ready to move on, I began to hear a weird clicking noise. I didn't think much of it and continued walking. But, it started to get kind of loud. So, we went back. Much to my dismay, the aforementioned squirrel had found a safe spot high up upon the branches of the tree (coward!) and was giving Grace and I a piece of his/her mind. It was looking right at us with a large acorn hanging out of its mouth (how impolite, I mean really), hissing. Really! A hissing squirrel! Well, it wasn't quite a hiss. Maybe more like a hiss-grumble-tooth-chomping sort of noise. Ugh. It was weird.

At any rate, the squirrel was angry. And for what!? What had Grace and I done but try to make friends with it?

The angry noise continued and I started to get nervous. Those of you who have never been stared down by an angry, bit-chomping squirrel may scoff, but I was scared! I mean, think of all the things an angry squirrel could do to you...the list is endless! Jump on your head (which I was especially nervous about because of its superior position), claw your eyes out, pull your hair, scratch your face, stuff its large tail up your nose and in your ear...ah!

So, we left hurriedly.

The squirrel won. Maybe, had I been by myself and without an innocent baby, I would have remained in my spot to try and talk some sense into the impudent rodent. But you know, I just didn't want to put Grace in that kind of danger. I, of course, was fine. She just seemed to be getting a little nervous. We left for her, really. Not for me. Promise! I could never be frightened or intimidated by such a cute, cuddly creature...

Angry Squirrel Sighting #2:

Now, seeing as our nature tour was not quite over, we continued down the path. We walked up to a playground and explored it a little bit. But then, lo and behold, we saw another squirrel! Thinking our previous experience had been an exception, we decided to try and make friends with this little guy, too. (man, some people just never learn their lesson!) Grace began her friendly waving and pointing and I let the squirrel know verbally that we most definitely came in peace.

This squirrel, just like the first one, ran for the nearest tree. (once again, so unwilling to socialize!) But, it seemed a little more interested in us. At first, it just dodged behind the tree. Every couple seconds, it would peer around the tree to see if we were still there. This was cute. However, after a few minutes of this, it climbed up into the tree and found a prime jump-onto-Anna's-head-and-scatch-her-eyes-out position. This was not cute! It sat very ominously in that position--obviously crouching and ready to pounce--for only a few seconds before Grace and I high-tailed it out of there.

Now, really, TWO angry, aggressive squirrels in the same park? What are the odds of that!

What I have learned from this experience:

Stay away from that park! The squirrels in Noelridge Park are always friendly and non-combative. The end.

And now an ode to Noelridge Park. I love Noelridge Park. I could go there every day. Oh wait, I do. Sometimes multiple times. I think our record was three different times in one day. Oh, the exciting life of Anna and Grace Bardsley. Noelridge Park is about two blocks away from our apartment and has everything a park should have: mulitple playgrounds, a duck/goose pond, flower gardens, a water park, a running/walking trail, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and a farmer's market. :) Now really, who couldn't love a park like that?

Noelridge Park, the bright spot in Anna's Cedar Rapids life

Jerrica, Oscar, and Grace on an excursion to the flower gardens

More flower gardens

A friend Grace made at the park. We ran into her two days in a row. What are the odds?

Grace learned how to climb slides here. She loves it.

Sign at Noelridge Park pond: No fishing, wading, seining, or swimming. What the heck is seining? Is it some midwestern hobby I am not aware of? I was so curious about it that I looked it up later that evening. Apparently, "seining" is attempting to catch fish with a net. :) As soon as I found out what it was, I immediately felt like seining. I imagine that's not the reaction the sign was supposed to produce.

Okay, the one down side of Noelridge Park is that the geese are somewhat combative. But, hey, aren't all geese like that? Stupid geese. Okay, maybe combative is not exactly the word I want. Over zealous about getting fed? Maybe. Overwhelming? Yes. Too big to be classified as friendly park birds? Definitely yes. One day, Grace and I went merrily to feed them bread. Apparently, I couldn't get the bread into their greedy mouths fast enough because after just a few minutes, they started to go after Grace's toes. They were successful. Twice. We don't feed the Noelridge Park geese anymore.