No Shoes Necessary: I love the beaches of Mexico

Last week my parents, sister, brother, Ryan and I all traveled south to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. A week in paradise! Now, for those of you that don't know, I am a beach person. I absolute love the beach and I would probably try and live on it if I could. So this vacation was perfect! We stayed a Riu resort right off the beach. It was beautiful, as always!

On our first night there we decided to make reservations at their steak house, enjoy a few cocktails and catch the nightly show that the entertainers at the resort put on.

Dessert at dinner.

At the show they asked for all the kids to go up to the stage. Josh and another girl went up and they just humiliated him by making him dance and sing on stage. He was such a trooper.

Being the onry girl that I am I volunteered my husband to participate on stage when they asked for men to volunteer themselves for a game. He went up there and played a game with 3 other guys in which you have to watch the 'leader' and do the opposite. It was the funniest thing ever. Ryan had a sparkle cowboy hat on then off on then off, a straw in and out of his mouth and was sitting down and standing up as quickly as he could recognize what the 'leader' was doing. I took a video of it. At this point in the video 2 men had already been eliminated. This had probably been going on for about 5 minutes and I was absolutely hysterical...I could barely breathe. Enjoy!

(hmnm i cant ge this video to work, i'll keep on working on it)

The first full day we were there it was sunny until about 11 am. The clouds started accumulating over the land and the storms moved in. Before you knew it the sun had disappeared and it was pouring chilly rain drops along with winds that turned the usually peaceful Caribbean as rough as I'd ever seen it. Most of the time when things like this happen on your vacation it's kind of a bummer, however we had a blast. We ran out onto the beach into the pouring rain and decided to play football. We were soaked from head to toe, periodically running into the ocean water which was much warmer than the rain. All of us strutting around in sopping wet clothes with our bathing suits underneath, trying to catch a slippery football and throwing it against the wind, no one else on the beaches for miles. It was quite the sight to see. Of course beer was involved, which stayed nice and dry under the lifeguard stand. I wish I had pictures to show you, but of course it was an unsafe place for the camera to be.

The next day we all got up super early and hopped on a charter bus to Chichen Itza. What we were told would be about a 2.5 hour drive turned into more like a 3.5 hour drive with all the stops we took picking up other tourists. However, the charter bus was the way to go. We had huge seats facing each other, a table in between the seats, and all inclusive snacks and beer. Chichen Itza was very cool and extremely hot! I still wonder why the Mayans chose that location in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula when they could have been much closer to the ocean. Guess I'll never know. Anyways, it was really cool to look at the ruins and try to obtain a slight understanding of how these people lived.

Listening to our tour guide!

This is a huge sink hole we are standing in front of where the Mayans used to practice rituals which included killing. There have been mainly remains of men and children down there. Crazy.

After our 13 hour excursion to Chichen Itza we took naps and got ready to party! We headed across the street to our sister Riu resort to kick off the night. The sports bar was the first place we hit up. We all took a couple of tequila shots, played some pool, unleashed our inhibitions, then headed to the discoteca (dance club). It opened at 11 pm and we were the first ones in... we're so old! haha No one was on the dance floor so with our inhibitions lowered we took over. Everyone started to file in after awhile, but still, no one on the dance floor except for us, jumping around and dancing our butts off. Eventually others got the courage to join in but it sure took awhile. We had a great time, and actually didn't feel bad in the morning at all! ;)

My mom kicked all our butts in pool!

The next few days were filled with laying on the beach, drinking pina coladas, shopping at the local markets, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. There was some kayaking, boogie boarding, volleyball, and other activities included in there somewhere. And of course we watched OU/TX on a tube TV in our room! :)