Vacation

I'd post a picture of our family enjoying vacation together--but I don't have one. I do have pictures. I have pictures with everyone in our family--except J. He won't tell you why, if you asked. He was standing right there. He was asked to join the group. He was told he was part of this family--but he dodged it.

He dodged a lot on this vacation. I don't think he's even aware it happened. Whenever we brought it up he looked at us like we were crazy. Truth is we spent five days at a beach house and I never ate a meal next to him. We swam together two, maybe three times but after the first day these swim sessions never lasted longer than a half hour.

To be fair, he got badly sun burnt on day one and I don't blame him for wanting to spend most of the remaining time indoors--but then he also went to the pool instead of spending time with family or would leave the beach as soon as we arrived to spend the rest of the day sleeping.

I don't think he did anything on this trip to purposefully anger or disappoint us. I don't think he realized how offended we were at how little time he ended up spending with us or how quickly he became upset any time we talked to him. He just did his own thing, like he always has, like he's use to doing. He protected himself like he always has.

After day one I decided I couldn't get offended by J's protecting himself. I honestly don't know if he enjoyed any bit of the trip we went on but we kept inviting him to join us and even when he didn't, we had fun.

We stayed within walking distance of the beach in Rocky Point, at Costa Diamonte. In the mornings during low tide we could see lots of crabs walking on the sand and hermit crabs clinging to the rocks. You could find sand dollars hidden in the shallow water if you dug a little bit. There were also things I'm pretty sure were sea cucumbers. And the shells! Oi for shells lovers this beach was a dream come true! We spent tons of time piling buckets with the best shells we found. It was hard to stop looking and even harder to narrow down our selection once we had them. We've got a whole bucket full sitting in our back yard waiting for me to think of some great craft to do with them.

Eisley and Kaybree were the only ones to get away with no sunburn. That's because you weren't a huge fan of the beach. Maybe for an hour or so, but it got boring real quick. You'd come out and search for shells but once we all ran into the water, you were not interested. Too scary. We did eventually convince both of you the water was fun and you did have fun for a little bit--but then the whole family piled onto a banana boat for a ride and after that you were tired and ready to go back to the house.

Kaybree, you were so brave on this trip! You went swimming a couple times and even rode the banana boat with us! (Eisley thought she might enjoy it but I was selfish and said you're not big enough. Maybe next year!) Can't wait till next year when you are even braver!

All Eisley wanted to do in the sand was get buried. I'd bury you, you'd get out, rinse off and want to be buried all over again! Funny girl!

Next time we are reserving all cash for pina coladas and chile-lime mangos. Maybe a beef tamale.

Literally the only photo of us as a family. In the car on our way home.

This house had three levels. This is a view of Eisley from the balcony.

I had a great time in Mexico and I can't wait to go back but I hope years from now our trips will be different. I hope we can feel comfortable together. I hope we can take pictures and preserve memories without the pressure of the chance that some day they might turn sour. I hope we'll have many more memory-making occasions to come!