Mazatlan...a great place to kick back

Mazatlan has been a favorite place for our family to vacation. We love the ocean and boogie boarding, Blake loves speaking the language, we love the weather, and of course we love it when our spring break overlaps with our Colorado cousins! This year we were able to spend 4 days with just our family, and then a week with cousins. It was so much fun. We loved trying to grocery shop at Mega, making tons of guacamole and salsa. Corrine and I chopped endless amounts of avocados and tomatoes. Blake was a great chef for the whole week. Some of his specialities included: carnee asada, marlin tacos....104lb marlin caught by Blake and Devo, scrambled eggs with this great sausage, tacos, and then cutting all the peppers for the salsa.

Melissa and Brooke have learned Spanish at school, so they were great at trying to speak it. They had a lot of fun trying to take to their new friend FRANSISCO. He came with his family to watch Justin get baptized in the ocean.

Here are a few highlights of our trip.

Riding in the peso bus is always fun, this own was totally blinged out with spinners on the wheels. Our favorite thing to ride is the pulmonea, kind of a blinged out golf cart. The girls loved singing to the 70's music that always seemed to be playing.
Pueblo Bonita was a great restaurant for the whole family. We gave the kids a budget and they were so good, we were able to do dessert. Melissa, Corrine and Danielle were brave and tried the squid

A trip to the marcado is always fun but a bit smelly. Some of the fine meats included whole pig and cow heads. There was even a half side of beef on the butchers table, just skinned......yummo

These girls just loved posing. They were the best of friends and just loved being together. It was so funny, 5 girls in one room having to share one mirror.

The pool was a bit on the green side at first, but with the addition of about 30 chlorine pucks it cleared up. With such warm weather, the pool was quite pleasant to swim in.

We spent a day going to deer island. We took this trimaran, kind of a huge sailboat, out to the island. Then we snorkeled, used kayaks, and went on a banana boat ride. I was kind of bummed because the water was a bit murky so it was hard to see. I had everyone bring their snorkel gear to Mexico, and we only used it this one time!

So many iguanas. The kids tried to get close, but were thankfully cautious. I guess they don't have teeth but can grab onto hands if threatened.

Yummo, anyone for OCTOPUS

Spy poses were big this trip.

Devon and I made a dolphin, sea horse, and a cute crocodile in the sand

Its HALLOWEEN! No just $18 worth of Mexican candy from Justin's 8th birthday pinata. We just tried to avoid the chili coated candies that surprised us the last time.

Melissa demonstrated a yoga move to her dad. We loved going for early morning walks on the beach. That's my kind of exercising. I never felt like I was in danger as so many visitors did their morning walks out on the beach.

The kids all wanted to do horseback riding this year. Danielle and Brooke had great horses. Blake and Devon's horse bucked them off, no one was injured thankful, but a guide had to hold the reigns after that. Mike, Corrine, Melissa and I opted not to go. Melissa and I decided that we would rather spend our money on Jewelery.

Cute braids, kept their hair our of their eyes the whole time....thanks Orturo, he was a speed braider and very good.

I loved walking with Blake, boogie boarding and just chatting while we watched the kids play in the water. It was so nice not having work or any distractions. What a great 12 days!!!!

Mazatlan sunset

chef Blake was so helpful. Makes me sad that he is too busy to help cook at home.....he is so good at it!

The waves were so fun to ride. We just had to be careful not to get pulled beyond the furthest waves coming in.

The kids spent hours boogie boarding every day, then would rest on the sand and build creatures or do SUDOKU.

C