Mexico: Lounging Around

That's what a big part of this trip to Mexico was for Frank and I, taking time to relax while the kids played or playing right along with them in the pool or at the beach.

Enjoying the breeze in the trees, and the sun on our skin. Few things relax me the way a day in the sunshine can!

Traveling with kids can be tricky if you want to relax, we've found that out the hard way when we get frustrated that they need our attention when we want to sit and read. So, on this trip we chose to stay at a resort (our first resort experience) that had a kid's club and lots of activities for kids...it seemed like that would strike a good balance for us and we wanted to try it out. Usually when we travel we like to be independent, usually renting a small apartment through VRBO, but we especially enjoyed that at the resort all of the meals were taken care of and all we had to do was show up when we were hungry!

What we found was that even though there we organized activities for the kids they were happiest just playing in the water.

Jasper tried snorkeling for the first time and loved it, so he spent hours perfecting swimming with his mask on,

While he spent hours searching for things in the water we relaxed on chairs nearby, I even got to read a whole book (Stephanie Meyer's The Host, totally recommend it as a beach read).

Another reason that I chose the place where we stayed was because it was in the jungle, with natural pools (called Cenotes) through out the property, lots of jungle trails and even Mayan ruins right on the hotel grounds.

In the evenings animals would come out in the jungle and it was fun to look around for them, we saw turtles, Spider Monkeys, Coati Mundis, Iguanas and Macaws. 

Mexico: Mayan Riviera

We just returned from an amazing week long trip here,

  here,

 and here...

enjoying the beautiful Mayan Riviera near Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

One of the big ironies of being unexpectedly expecting our third baby is that we had lots of big travel plans for the future. Really big plans, we even had a family schedule for the next 5 to 10 years all mapped out of where we wanted to go, places like Bali, Thailand, India and Central America. I love traveling and my kids definitely have the travel bug too, we drag "homebody" Frank along on our adventures, but I think he really likes it. All of our big travel plans will obviously be put on hold for a few years now, while we have number three this summer and probably until he is a few years old.

So, we wanted to take one last big trip just the 4 of us before I get too big and uncomfortably pregnant. I didn't want to travel too far, but we still wanted some place exotic enough that it felt like an adventure. Plus, I speak Spanish after spending part of my childhood in Argentina, so I love being able to use it!

Mexico seemed to have just the right balance of all of these things and we had a great time, I can't wait to share about our trip here this week!

Still Summer

Happy October! I know that it is officially autumn here but really it still feels a whole lot like summer. I've noticed a few changes in the vegetation with the change of season so far, especially in all of the beach grasses that grow everywhere, they are all growing these huge fluffy tops now. We like to play with them on our way to the beach.

There are lots of them growing outside of my favorite beach house, this turquoise one. All summer long there were groups of renters in it, but now it sits empty along with all of the other summer beach rental houses that we pass on our way to the beach. I think that I like this one the best as it reminds me of beach houses in Hawaii, wooden and up on stilts. I'm sure the view out to the ocean from that deck is pretty fabulous!

Our walk to the beach goes right past the house, on a little sand path,

That turns into a board walk,

These bracelets have taken me through all summer, the knotted friendship bracelet is about to fall off and I'll be sad when it finally wears out, I just love the crystal sown onto it. I'm thinking of making more with this same idea. I got this one back in June from one of my favorite Etsy shops ever. Her style is so spot on to me (and very beachy).

So, we continue to savor our beach days, the sun is still strong and the water still warm. Since this is our first autumn here I don't know when the season will become too cold for us to swim, but I see us continuing our beach visits into the coming season and beyond, perhaps only with a bit more clothing on.

Sunset on the bay

A couple of months ago a professional photographer snapped this picture of Frank watching the sunset on the Pitt Street bridge near our home. They had exchanged cards and the photographer emailed Frank the photo recently. This spot has become one of Frank's favorite places to go this summer, he likes to bike over there alone in the evenings and fish or watch the sunset. Every time he does he comes home with his spirit refreshed...fun to have that captured in a picture that will always remind me of this summer.
You can check out more work by the photographer here.

Hello September, I've loved the August break, but I am looking forward to getting back into the schedule that the autumn brings!

August Break: another day in paradise

...I still can't believe we live here.

Oh hello there August, wow, you snuck up on me. I've been too busy, in between having adventures with the kids, laying on the beach and sweating, to start my August break posts until today....a real August break I guess. I've got some long over due updates on our garden renovation project to share with you, and then next week we are off for our annual week at my family's farm. Can't wait to share all of the beauty in our world.

This is Home

Six weeks in and its starting to feel a whole lot more like it anyway. We are starting to get into a weekly rhythm, going to the farmers' market every Tuesday evening for dinner, heading to the beach when the days are so hot and finishing the day at our favorite fish taco joint. The days feel long with often just our family of 4 for company, and Brooklyn often feels like a world away...like something from a dream. How can it be that we lived there for 15 years, and now we are here?

Every Sense: my first vlog

Quiet beach, evening light, come out into the water with me. Welcome to one of my new favorite places...and my first vlog.

Shem Creek

Just a two minute drive, or a short bike drive, away from our new house is an inlet from the sea called Shem Creek. It is where all of the fishing boats dock after a day of hard work. You can go there to watch the boats, buy fish right off of the boat or to eat dinner at one of the many restaurants on the piers.

The other evening we went there at sunset, and we were treated to watching dolphins frolick in the warm waters, both Jasper and Carys were thrilled.

Then we ate a yummy dinner of fish tacos, at a table right next to the water. Where our waitress told us that the dolphins come every evening, and the manatees are also a common sighting!

Now the kids have been asking to go back every night for dinner, and the natural "animal show".

At our local beach on Saturday we had another surprising encounter, we swam with dolphins just 10 feet away from us in a shallow inlet, more on that later!

A walk after dinner

We are here, I know I've been so quiet here as I try to digest it all, and there is so much to share with you!
The words are slowly coming to me as each day I feel more myself again. The move was so much more like a birthing process than I expected, and I have felt totally out of my skin this past week.

Each day we are doing things to ground us in our new environment and for me the most healing thing yet was our walk after dinner last night. A five minute drive from our house there is an old fort on the tip of an island, where we explored,

and then followed the short trail down to the water,

I have always loved how the beach stimulates each sense, there is so much to find and to feel, it bring me right into my body, into the moment. For the first time in days I was not thinking about everything to unpack and organize at our house,

My parents have been here with us, they have been such a help in helping the kids search out adventure in the experience and to explore Charleston while Frank and I have been unpacking,

I've felt blurry around the edges this week, trying to take too much in at once and to function on all cylinders while exhausted. Even though we had time to anticipate this move, to think about it in each aspect, nothing prepared me for the absolute fact that we left our whole life in Brooklyn when we drove away. What we took with us were our belongings and ourselves.

Now I am relearning who I am in this new place, with no friends, plans and distractions to steal my focus. But there is also a deep hole where those things used to be.

There is a duality in this discomfort, that it is such a gift of clarity for the moment, allowing me to see each part of my self within the whole, to see what remains. To see everything around me with fresh eyes.

And the beach, oh the lovely beach, right here, so close by, with distant views and open skies,

We could get used to this!