CCAANNCCUUNNN!!!!

How do Californians survive the bleak winter in Munich? Our answer: Mexico!
After two weeks in Boulder, we headed south for our last week of vacation with the Zabels and our extended family, the Zecksers. The 16 of us occupied three ground floor units with pool side patios and quick access to the beach. Did I marry into the right family or what? These people know how to vacation!


Hola senoritas!
Emily (Pete's girlfriend and William's BFF), Mary, and me at the welcome party.

Stroll by our patio at 7:00 a.m. and this is what you'd see. Two handsome Zabel boys making big plans for the day.
Crazy Uncle Pete: "So Will, what's it gonna be today? Building sand castles? Splashing in the baby pool? Playing soccer on the lawn?"
William: "Da" (Loosely translated: Whatever YOU are doing Uncle Pete! I want to be with you! I'll go wherever you go. I'll laugh at everything you do. You are the coolest!)

William and I enjoying some quality time at the beach. William is pointing at Uncle Pete reminding me that I have been usurped as his favorite person on the planet.

Like father, like son.
For luau night we decided to give Will and hairstyle to match his pimpin' Hawaiian shirt. Surprisingly William's attitude shifted to live up to his mohawked, toddler look. WOW. Don't be surprised if you see him with a buzz cut in future blog postings and the rest of his life!

Fun at the beach with Nana Bubbles and Grandpa!

William loved playing with trucks in the sand and "helping" to build sand castles.

Well, if Uncle Pete's doing it, I'll do it!

We're a little behind in brainwashing William to be a beach bum, but it looks like we're catching up!

Aside from the beach, William rocked the baby pool. Every afternoon he and his entourage arrived to do laps. At 2', the water level was the perfect height for William to walk by himself and gain confidence in any future attempts at finding his land legs. By the end of the week, he wasn't even using floaties. We'd just stand him in the pool and off he'd go!

He was so proud of himself, Mr. SuperWalker. Once he turned blue with uncontrollable shivers, we'd intervene and pull him out to much protest. He loves the water!

Thanks to some super loving babysitters, we even got a kid-free night out.

Here's Emily totally digging Pete's latest addition. While the girls went to a spa afternoon, the boys got tattoos. Well, I'm sure you have surmised . . . temporary tattoos. So funny!

Family pic

The Zabel Family

The Cancun Crew
Zabel and Zeckser Clans
(We missed you, Tim!)

Going into the vacation we had so much fun dreaming of the memories we'd make watching the kids play together on the beach and in the pool. However, with 4 kiddos on 4 different nap schedules, not forgetting feeding times, we were lucky if our kids overlapped playtime at all during the day! What time we did get to spend together, we loved!