Cruise 2012: Puerta Vallarta

Thursday, May 10th- Puerta Vallarta/Massage Mania

We woke up Thursday morning in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico! We didn't waste time in hurrying off the ship and heading to the beach. Lots of people have asked me why we didn't do any shore excursions on this cruise. We've never really done excursions on any of the cruises we've been on. We love the beach and we don't love spending additional money than that we've already spent for the trip. I've never once been sad we didn't do one. I've just always loved getting to explore the cities and beaches near the ships.

Since this was our 3rd beach day, we wanted to find a beach-side hotel that would let us pay to use their hotel pools and private beach. We've done this before and it's really nice! We walked and walked and finally found a perfect place. My dad paid for a day pass for each of us which is an all-inclusive pass to use the hotel's facilities, pools, and beach. You also get all-you-can eat food and drinks with this package. It was great!

We loved this giant kid's area which was kind of like a mini water-park!

Mom & Drake sort of crashed on the slide. :)

We played at the water-park area for a minute, but then Drake got nervous with all the splashing water and super crazy kids, so we headed over to another pool to swim. I was thankful for Katie & Hannah tagging along with me and Drake. The older peeps just wanted to be boring and lay out on the beach. Kidding family, I wanted to do the same! :)

I rented a basketball for Drake to play with and he was thrilled! At this point of the trip, I think he was starting to miss all of his toys and balls at home. He had a blast with that thing in the pool! (Wish I'd gotten a picture. I'm low in pictures from this day. I was getting a little tired of taking them)

After a good ole' time in the hotel pools, we spent the rest of the day on the beach.

Drake loved, loved, loved the sand- he was so content to sit and play by himself.

We had fun being chased by the waves too!

Are you wondering where the rest of the gang was this whole time?

Check it out!

It was literally MASSAGE MANIA! And it was glorious!

My dad's first priority when he gets to any beach in Mexico is to find someone who can give him a massage. haha. I completely love my dad and admire his generosity.

 In Puerta Vallarta, he paid three sweet ladies to give all of us massages (like 2-5 massages each). I think they were there for about 3 hours! 

(Pictured above from top left, clockwise: Dad's in heaven; Hunter might be zonked out; Staci's best day ever; and Dad telling the ladies to take a break and eat some of our food)

These ladies were wonderful and they gave the most amazing massages! One of the girls was 21 and was pregnant with her 4th child. Her mom was working right there beside her giving us massages. She told us that the beaches there have hardly been busy lately and that she hadn't made any money at all that whole week so they were so thankful for some business. When my dad paid her, she was shocked and so thrilled to have money to take home to her family. It sure made me thankful for my life at home and made us all realize how blessed we are. 

I don't think Rob ever stopped getting a message that whole time. :) And we all laughed at the height difference below-

Here and now, I have to thank my brothers and sisters for all their help with Drake this day. 

They played and played and played with him so that Rob & I could relax.

Ty even got Drake to lay down and rest for a little while.

And I sat in a nearby beach-chair with this view. Between the massages, the constant pina coladas coming my way and the sound of the ocean waves crashing, this was pure heaven. Probably one of the most relaxing days of my life. Sounds corny, but seriously, it was so beautiful.

Thursday night, Dad spoiled us by taking us to the 4-star Steakhouse on the ship to celebrate Hunter's birthday (which was the next day). I still can't believe all that my parents did for us on this trip. This steakhouse had a great atmosphere and the service was incredible. When we were taken to our table, there was a server at every one of our chairs waiting for us. They pulled all of our chairs out at the same time for us to sit down. We felt famous! :)

These pictures are such poor quality. I usually just took pictures on my iPhone at night so I didn't lose my big camera, but I still want to share-

The food was So. Good. Oh, how I miss it!

Rob's dessert was a massive cheesecake which is his very favorite! He was a happy guy!

Somehow, on every trip, I always find a picture on my camera like this one on the right. Thank you Robert. We all love it so much! :)