5.27.16 - 5.30.16 Chloe's 5th birthday

We headed back to Indiana to celebrate Chloe's and Jack's birthdays. Chloe turned 5 and Jack turned 10. It was fun to see the family and celebrate. Saturday, we had our family photo shoot and Chloe's party in the afternoon.

Sunday afternoon, Sara, Travis, Glenn, and I headed to Escape Room. We tried the Hoosier Hysteria challenge and did a great job! We worked well as a team and figured the puzzles. It was so fun! After dinner, we went to Weber Grill for dinner. It was a fun night out.

Monday, I played the laziest game of catch with Chloe. I sat in a lawn chair in the driveway and she threw me the ball. It was fun.

5.12.16 - 5.15.16 Grand Palladium Vallarta Resort and Spa

For our 7th anniversary, we headed to Grand Palladium Vallarta just north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  I was so impressed with the Puerto Vallarta airport. We zipped through customs and immigration and were on our way to the resort.

Grand Palladium is a family resort. The staff was SO friendly. We really felt like they would do anything for us. Every staff person we passed said hello. It was a little weird being at the Swim Up Bar and having a kid swim right next to me.

We'd start the day at the buffet. It was amazing!! It had everything you possibly want for breakfast. We loved it! Then, we'd head to adults only infinity pool to watch  the surfers.

We spent the afternoons at the main pool because we really like the activities: trivia, the music, dance lessons, and live music.

We even won trivia!

This was quite a challenge since many of the questions were in Spanish. The demographics at the resort were mostly Mexican citizens, Canadians, and a couple Americans.

In the evenings, we would go to dinner. The restaurants were a la carte. The food was okay. Nothing was terrible, but nothing wowed us. We liked we didn't need reservations. The house wine was drinkable and the service was slow, but friendly. Then we would go to the adults only bar that had the top shelf cocktails before the evening show. The evening show was an A for effort. It was as full hour long production with acrobatics, multiple costume changes, and lots of dancing.  I think because we'd just come from a dance competition, we were a little more critical of the dancing than we would have normally been.

Overall, we really enjoyed the trip.

4.29.16 - 5.2.16 A Disney World Dance Competition

We headed over to Disney World since our friend Beth's daughter was performing in a national dance competition.

Friday night we headed over the Hollywood Studios to grab a ride on Toy Story Mania - I got my best score yet. We had a nice dinner at Brown Derby.

We stayed at Old Key West for the first. The room was nice. The property is really spread out which made it difficult to manage without a car.

Saturday, we spent the first part of the day with the Bells at their resort. Then we headed over to Epcot early to have a late lunch at Garden Grill. We really enjoyed the experience.

Delaney did a great job at the dance competition, but her team didn't advance to the next day. We were so happy we got to see her perform.

Sunday we headed over the Magic Kingdom early. Glenn got to check something off his Disney World Bucket List: Riding the trolley down Main Street. If you get to the Parks before 10 am, they have this old time trollies that give free rides to the Castle.

We tried the new Skipper Canteen. The menu is exotic with Asian and African flavors. We really liked it.

Skipper Canteen

Steak Salad

I forget the name, but this was basically mac and cheese with meat.

The big highlight of the weekend came after lunch when I finally beat Glenn's score on the Buzz Lightyear ride. It was a big moment with an epic photo bomb.

On Wednesday, I got the change to meet the girls in Clearwater. It was pouring rain. The kids swam in the pool while we camped out in the hot tub. The weather cleared in time or sunset.