Taekwondo!!

We are at Master Farah's training academy up in Markham, Ontario. He's a Provincial and National champion representing Canada at many world events!

Mexico - Mayan Riviera

So, we went to the Mayan Riviera and stayed at Le Meridian for one week at the end of March. Michael, our godfather and cool uncle, came with us to provide mommy and daddy some much needed relief as manny (aka male + nanny = manny). We had great weather with a couple of days that were a bit humid and spent every minute by the beach, pool and sand.

On the first morning and still pale white. Matthew was unsure of the crashing waves at first...

But warmed up to it once he saw all the other kids jumping in the water!

The boys buried poor Matthew in the sand and he didn't even mind!

Manny with Lauren and Matthew. Mom and Dad with us!

Family photo -- thank goodness for manny!

Don't we look like an ad for Mexico?

Lauren and Matthew taking in the sun, sand and the amazing blue water. Definitely different from subways, skyscrapers and taxis!

On one of the days, we decided to go to the new aquarium at La Isla shopping area. There you can experience feeding sharks and swimming with the dolphins! Mommy got so excited about the dolphins that she haggled with the salesperson to get me in at half price. After a long time of waiting outside in the hot sun, we finally got around to meeting the dolphins.

The skin of a dolphin is so soft and smooth. The dolphins were really smart and could even sing and dance at our command!

They even knew how to splash us! If we had only known it was saltwater and it stung our eyes!! Oh well. It was funny when other people got splashed. Haha.

Meanwhile, Lauren was starting to get hungry. Waiting patiently for mommy and I to finish playing with the dolphins.

Getting really hungry and irritated. Finally, gave up!

After the dolphins, we checked out some sharks, stingrays and turtles. We got to touch them too. Mommy freaked out after touching a stingray which felt like the fake grass people practice golf on. The shark has rough skin and scared Matthew. We were not allowed to touch the turtles unfortunately, but they were very cute.

Lauren hanging out by the poolside, well covered up and not even near the sun. Ooh, I think I found something to eat...oh oh, Daddy's watching!

Getting ready to go swimming for the first time! I'm really excited, can you tell?

Need to make sure I have my hat! Mommy said I did pretty well for my first time in the water. The first time she took me into the cold water since we didn't know that the 3 pools at the hotel had different temperature settings. After that, we figured out the top pool was heated and quickly switched me to that pool.

All in all though, I enjoyed swimming with mommy! Didn't cry and maybe whimpered a little bit when I got a bit tired and hungry.

Get me out of this pool now!!! All that swimming has made me so tired!!!

I, Matthew, on the other hand was a pro at swimming. I jumped off the side of the pool and climbed ladders and jumped towards mommy. I can open my eyes underwater and actually swim to mommy. She was pretty amazed as were other onlookers!!

Hm, these shot glasses are pretty handy. I can catch things in the pool and dump them here.

Oh no, but I can't get it back! Here, fishy fishy...

Lauren, can you hear me? Samchoon did you find my shot glass??

Two essentials for survival: My eebol (blanket) and Elmo (my BFF).

Lauren and I relaxing in the hotel by watching some TV. We held hands through the scary parts. Aw.

Another sunny and gorgeous day in Mexico! I just woke up from a nap and was energized and ready to spend another day in the pool.

Oooh, what's this? Hm, kinda of hard and sharp...

Ouchie! Who put that there? That was not nice!

This was towards our last night in Mexico. Can you tell how much darker we all got? It's proof that we took full advantage of the sun.

I had just woken up from a nap and the waves and wind were a bit much for me. What was really going on on the other side....

Trying to take some family photos.... Daddy's having much more luck..haha

Family photos on timer! We miss our manny!!!

Finally feeling a bit better and enjoying the waves crashing!

Adios Mexico! See you again in June!!