D's Adventures: I have officially reached the 5th floor……..

Yes it is official…. I am 50!

I wasn’t quite sure how it would affect me. The year I turned 30 it was bad. I felt so OLD. Thirty really hit me hard. Then soon came 40 and it barely seemed like anything. Just another birthday. I guess when you are real young you look forward and 30 seems so old, but after being 30 for a while, 40 is just another number. :<>)

I’ve had so many comments lately… like….

1. Congratulations and commiserations on your big birthday. The good news is, you made it to 50. The bad news is, it’s all downhill from here.

2 2. Welcome to the 5^th floor… it’s the best!

3 3. 50 and FABULOUS

4 4. Where has the time gone? Seems like yesterday you were just a youngen.

I could go on and on but I’ll save ya. :<>)

Every year my two kids and I (well they are really grown adults) take a week at the beach. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. Last year as we were sitting around baking in the sun we discussed doing something a little different for 2016 when I would be turning 50. We decided we all wanted to fly to an all-inclusive resort for a week. So as soon as we got back home from Destin last summer, I started planning. We had our trip booked by January. I was beyond thrilled and couldn’t wait to get off where I would not have to cook or wash clothes! When we rent a condo in Destin, FL for a week, I end up cooking and washing many clothes. So to say I was looking forward to that part of an all-inclusive is an understatement! I’ll try to keep this post short, but I can’t promise. We had such a fabulous time!

First let me say that no trip is ever a memorable trip unless something happens. You got to have a story to tell!@ The night before we were to leave I was trying to check us in online for our flight and realized that Brett’s passport did not have his middle name and his flight ticket did so the computer would not let me check him in online. So I went to bed with a real bad feeling. People kept telling me it would probably be ok, but I was still worried. We were to leave the house around 4am heading to the airport the next day and guess what? I overslept!!! I NEVER do that. However, I had taken an Advil PM since I was so keyed up about Brett’s passport that I did. I woke up at 3:57am. Let’s just say I freaked when I saw the clock! I jumped up and quickly put on my clothes. No makeup and no brushing hair. I ran to Erin’s room to find her sitting on her bed dressed and waiting (amazing..she’s always been my late child). Then I ran to Brett’s room to find him also ASLEEP (usually my on time child)! I shock him and told him to get up that we were late. He decides to take a shower! I was furious. Erin and I sat in the car waiting on him. By now we were 20 minutes late leaving! All I could thinking about was that dang name on the passport. I knew we needed to get the airport early to try to get him checked in. Soon we were on our way. We meet our traveling friends in Moselle and off we were to New Orleans. Well, you’ll never guess what happened next! We missed the exit to the airport!!! I have went to that airport a million times and somehow missed the turn. Talk about preoccupied brain on passport situation! If you’ve ever been that way, you know that if you miss the exit … well you are basically stuck for miles on a bridge surrounded by water heading to Baton Rouge. No exits!! Yes, I was about to cry. We finally got turned around and made it to the counter 57 minutes before our plane was to leave. You may think that’s plenty of time. Well, it’s not. The guy looked at me and said.. “mam, we stop check in one hour before flight time and you’ve missed it”. Now the real tears started filling my eyes. I started telling him how all of us were check in online except my son, who was not able to over the computer. He FINALLY decided to look at Brett’s passport and ID. He asked if we were all family and then checked him in manually. His passport would not scan due to the name problem. He fixed it in the computer and said we shouldn’t have any more problems. Whew, I was so glad! Then we had to literally run to the gate because they were boarding the plane. So much for getting there early, having breakfast and being relaxed for my trip!@@

The flight was quick and uneventful thank goodness! Except…. All 4 of them were in 1^st class and I was in coach! How the heck! I’m the one turning 50! That wasn’t even the seats that I saw when I checked us in. Somehow that must have got changed that morning, but I made a mental note to ask my travel agent about it. We arrived in Mexico at 10:20am. I had thought we would be to our resort by 11 or 11:30 since it was only supposed to be like 20 minutes from the airport. I did not expect almost an hour to get through customs!! It was CRAZY. So packed and HOT. Here’s a picture of us about to go crazy. :<>)

Once we were finally through customs we walked out where tons of taxi cars, vans, etc. were located. The only problem …. everyone was speaking Spanish! Finally a woman who I’m sure noticed the look on my face walked up and asked if she could help me in ENGLISH. She was very nice and directed us to our transportation. I had prepaid for a private transfer to and from airport so I wouldn’t have to worry with trying to figure out how to get a taxi once we were there. I’m so glad I did!

Our resort:

This is what you see when you walk into the lobby. It's the main pool in the center of the resort.

I’ll try to be brief on the resort. :<>) It was FABULOUS!!! Our room was perfect! We had a swim out room which was so nice and I had upgraded so we had a personal butler. That woman was amazing! All we had to do was send her a text and she delivered whatever we needed to our room, made our dinner reservations and DECORATE my room one night while we were at dinner for my birthday! It was AMAZING! I felt so pampered. :<>)

My note in the tub ... they ran me a big bubble bath!

They can't spell... but it was so nice!

There was one restaurant that had a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You could go there any time. The nicer restaurants you basically needed a reservation because the resort was 88% full. I was glad our butler took care of that so we didn’t have to wait any where we went to eat. I would not say the food was fabulous. It was good, but different. The resort had like 11 pools and many, many bars. They even did a 4^th of July celebration on the beach and played the US National Anthem! I was so surprised. Here’s a shot of us on 4^th July. Wearing our Red, White and Blue of course!

I was about to attempt the board again!

It's not as easy as it looks!!! Plus we tried it when the red flag was up at beach... CRAZY!

During the 4^th of July celebration they started calling for everyone to line up to play games. Well, you know I was immediately in line. My daughter and friend quickly got out of line and decided to film me. My daughter did the filming. I kind of wish she had gotten closer to get a better view, but she wasn’t sure what all we were going to be told to do. So here’s you a laugh at this 50 year old playing on the beach.. hee hee Just click the link...

Beach Fun - Mexico!

Since I did no running, biking or real swimming while on vacation I was glad to get in this little bitty obstacle course. :<>)

My daughter and I went to swim with the dolphins one day. I tried to talk Brett into going, but I guess he thought it was going to be too sissy. It was AMAZING. Not only did we swim with them, we got to be in the water for a full hour with them. They are some amazing creatures. I’m so glad I shared this with my daughter! I’ve officially kissed a dolphin now! They are strong and can swim really fast! Here are a few snap shot from our adventure.

This was so COOL! Their noses were under my feet pushing me up! AMAZING.

Our whole group went to XPLOR park to zip line, swim in caves, and explore. The longest zip line was 2.4 miles! You didn’t do it all at once. You would climb a tower and zip like ¼ mile or 1/3 mile to the next tower with each tower getting taller meaning you were higher each time you started. It was awesome!! I really did get a workout that day! I wish I had worn my watch to count my steps. We climbed many, many stairs in each tower. Erin and I were the only ones to make it the complete route. The others stopped after 3 towers (boys went back with Big Tam) and waited for us at the end. Tammy wasn’t real fond of heights or zip lining. :<>) The caves had really cold water which felt great to me because it was as hot in Mexico as it was back in Mississippi! Erin and I ended our zip line adventure in water. That was pretty cool. Here is a shot of me about to finish in the water. So cool!

A little jeep riding in the water across bridges and in caves!

My babies doing it together on one loop.. Brett & Erin :<>)

Me and Erin.. we doubled a couple of times. That was so much fun! We laughed and laughed.

Ah... the finish... downhill into the water! Whew it felt great!

The day before we left we booked a massage on the beach. I wasn’t sure how that was going to go because it was sooooooo HOT. I had debated on booking it inside, but Erin and I both wanted to have one on the beach. They had a nice tent set up that was off to the side where it was kind of private. We booked for 5pm per the recommendations from the guy at the spa. He said it would be perfect time for on the beach. He told us to come one hour before to the spa for an hour pre-massage. I had no idea what this meant. We showed up right before 4pm and were taken back to a dressing room where we were given a locker and a robe.

Tammy & Erin waiting to go back for massage

The lady directed us to the steam room where we stayed 5 minutes, then the sauna for 5 minutes (boy it was HOT in there! I didn’t think I was going to make the full 5 minutes…Tammy didn’t..), then she took us to a bunch of different pools. She told us the first one was going to be really, really cold and we just needed to walk through and come out. Oh it felt wonderful. Like an ice bath. :<>) Erin and Tammy really didn’t like the cold as much as me. Ha Next we went to a pool that had a chair shaped like a lounge chair you’d see around a pool except this one was in the water. You laid down on it and it had millions of holes where these jets came on and it was the most wonderful all over water massage EVER! We stayed there several minutes and then we went to other massagers kind of like the chair. One for lower back, one for shoulders, one for lower legs, one for upper legs, etc. When we were done it was around 4:55 and she told us it was now time to walk to the beach. At this point I was already relaxed. Ha When we arrived at the tent at the beach it was set up for us 3 only. The guy introduced himself and said they were the dream team. Let me just say right now that he was the dream team! I lucked up and got him. I actually went to sleep on the table! The wind was blowing in from the beach and it felt AMAZING! My daughter said it was the BEST MASSAGE she’s ever gotten and I agree with her. It was a very special treat! I’d like to have another one right now. Here’s a shot of my man. :<>)

After we were done... my dream man... what an incredible massage!

The Massage Tent on the BEACH

Our trip was amazing. I had taken 2 books to read like I do when in Destin, but there was so much going on at the resort and when we went on our excursions that I never really sat still long. LOL I’m sorry this is so late in posting. I looked up and it's almost the end of July! I kept starting it, but could never finish it. I had so much work to catch up on at work and my run team just hosted our annual 5K/10K race so I’ve been very busy since returning from my trip. I don’t feel any older. Maybe the 5^th floor will be the best yet as some say. I feel that each day is a blessing. I’m very thankful for all God has allowed me to do over the years. There’s a saying that too often we are so preoccupied with the destination we forget the journey. I don’t want to forget the journey. I’ve had a crazy ride to get to 50. There has been many, many road bumps. I’ve had sad times as well as happy times. There are many things I’d love to do over and many things I wish I had never done. But there are two things I will never regret… their names are ERIN and BRETT! My children mean the world to me and I’m so very glad they spent my 50^th birthday with me in Mexico. MUAH! I could post a million pictures of the beautiful place but since I've already blown up FB, I won't. But here are some of my FAVS.