With the kids off for their long break, we decided instead of another Midwest Christmas trip or putting them in camps, we’d travel somewhere. I also hadn’t taken more than three consecutive days off work the entire year to this point, and I needed to cash in on the company’s vacation reimbursement policy! Since 2024 had been a tough year specifically for Lauren—losing her dad (and her dog) in January—she wanted to do a Mexican resort again and stay for a long time and end the year on a high note.

It couldn’t be that simple though, could it?! A week before we left, both John and I suffered injuries that would put a little bit of a damper on the trip. John broke his thumb in a recess game of soccer. Playing goalie, some kid kicked the ball point blank at his left thumb, breaking it clean in half. Days earlier, I had injured my left foot playing racquetball and then aggravated it even worse trying to jog through the injury. I could barely hobble around and was in severe pain. I was going to put off medical care until John’s injury occurred. Since he was going to urgent care, so would I! Turned out I had a broken toe and what is known as turf toe where ligaments around the big toe basically explode outward, making it impossible to even put on a shoe. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I over-iced my injury and then suffered frostbite or ice burn on top of the already delicate tissue. That actually hurt worse than the injury itself! Lauren can attest I was up wailing in pain in the middle of the night. With me in a walking boot and John in a cast, we’d have to do the beach trip in subpar health. John would have to wear a rubber cast sleeve over his arm for the duration of all water-related aspects of the trip, which was basically all of the time.

Looking for kid-friendly Caribbean resorts with kids clubs and swim-up rooms and all the other specifics was proving too difficult and time-consuming, so I enlisted a local travel agent who made it super simple and narrowed it down to two places that had everything we wanted. We picked one—Dreams Puerto Aventuras—and that was that! I imagine this was one of the simpler travel agent assignments—we didn’t ask for complicated daily itineraries or multiple stops or anything, but it still saved us a lot of trouble. We weren’t attached to Mexico by any means, it just worked out that way. The agent booked it through a Southwest Vacations package where airfare and transportation was also included. It made everything as simple as possible and saved me likely 20+ more hours of research beyond the 20 we’d already done. Mind you, this resort was a family-friendly one, so we knew we were not going to see the same types of amenities and services we did in February at the Eldorado Royale in Playa del Carmen. None of the pools were more than 3′ deep. The beach was man-made, a little inlet from the ocean. We knew going in we were going to be sacrificing some of the niceties of an adults-only resort.

Our room was on the first floor and had the swim-up pool. I thought the kids would love it more than they did. I imagined the kids waking up in the morning, opening the door and splashing in the pool until we woke up, but they mostly just complained that it was too shallow. Spoiled! Our room was also super conveniently located right next to the main pool, so we just had to walk out a few feet and could order drinks from the swim-up bar. The kids could have easily done that on their own too, but refused to walk the nine feet to the kid-friendly pool without a grown-up there to entertain them. But they did love getting all the different smoothies, and naturally, of all things, eventually warmed up to walking up to the bar on their own. The staff kept the room clean and the fridge well-stocked. Four cans of Dos Equis were always in the fridge, and more were always available with a call to room service. Our “preferred” status gave us access to a second pool and exclusive restaurant that we frequented a few times, Oceana. One day while sitting at the hot tub in the preferred club, an Israeli vacationer forced his Don Julio 1942 tequila on anyone who sat with him—who was I to say no! Edie made fast friends that same day—not with a child, but with a 65-year-old Ohio grandpa named Brad. Those two played in the pool all afternoon until Edie somehow injured his recently surgically-repaired shoulder! The next day when we saw him he was in a sling!

One downside here is that the ocean was not accessible. The manmade inlet provided a nice, safe experience for kids to splash around, along with a sandy beach. But I wanted to really get out in the waves though! The one time I tried to venture past the rocks and out into the open water I was whistled at and told to return immediately. John and Edie were terrified to go in the 2′ water because John saw a fish in it one day. It was harmless, but it scared the shit out of him.

The dinner restaurants were all very good. Gohan, the Asian restaurant, proved to be a family favorite, and El Patio had amazing chicken mole. We enjoyed a special additional-fee Christmas Eve dinner for the family of four that was really good. The breakfast options were either Oceana, a 7th floor Preferred Club buffet, or the World Cafe. Oceana was always great. The 7th floor access had a small but strong buffet selection—and oddly, someone’s room was literally inside the buffet. They had to go through the buffet line to open their door! Breakfast at World Cafe was one of the only areas that was a little bit of a letdown—they didn’t typically serve bacon or sausage, and the overall food quality otherwise was a little subpar. They had hash brown triangles, but they were so rubbery and tough! There was an omelet bar, but they were cooking them more like frittatas with the ingredients mixed right into the egg. As a breakfast aficionado, I could really help level up their game with a few tips!

Amstar was an on-site service that helped with transportation and excursions. They helped hook us up with fun excursions to Xel-ha waterpark and perhaps the highlight of the trip, a catamaran cruise to a nature preserve beach. Xel-ha was an “ecopark” in Tulum where all of the water attractions are natural, from the lazy river to the snorkeling to the cenotes. Really unique and unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the US! The one exception was a massive waterslide to which John was refused entry due to his cast. He spent the whole day muttering under tears “why, why, WHY?!” and “this is the worst day of my entire life!” I felt bad for the fella, and decided to skip the slide myself and play it safe due to my own injury. Lauren and Edie climbed the 40-meter structure and said it was a blast, though. Another day we even booked a golf cart from the front lobby and buzzed around the gated town of Puerto Aventuras which made for good, cheap fun.

The Explorers’ Club was their version of a kids’ club. We envisioned the kids spending a lot of time here and making friends and wanting to be there all the time. In the end, the kids only went 3 or 4 times for a couple hours when we needed some down time. The kids viewed the club as punishment, but when they finally caved they had an OK time. John was clearly way too old for it, though. But the kids’ movie night on the beach seemed like a crowd-pleaser! There was also an arcade known as the “CoreZone” which we mistook for a gym of some sort. We didn’t discover it til halfway through the trip, but the kids could park it there and play PS5 or Xbox to their hearts’ content.

On the last night of the trip, Lauren and John went out for dinner while I stayed back at the room with a very overtired Edie and ordered room service. I heard a knock on the door and raced to answer, when my feet slid out from under me on a slippery spot and I went flying. I seriously haven’t fallen that hard in many years. Writhing in pain on the ground, a naked Edie came running to my rescue and suffered the same fate, falling on top of me! From the ground, I opened the door and was surprised that it was housekeeping. The woman, having heard the commotion, called for the medics. While a team of medics surrounded me and inspected my injuries. I had actually slid and crashed both feet into the wall, resulting in a lot of painful little cuts and upended toenails. Ouch! John and Edie each slipped and fell an additional five or so times apiece throughout the trip. It was always so slippery everywhere!

I am happy to say though that my previous foot injury healed up about 80% on the trip, and by the fourth or fifth day I was walking without the boot. That in itself was miraculous considering I re-injured that foot on the very first day when I tested out a small on-site waterslide with Edie. I went zipping down pretty fast and careened around a corner, thrashing the injured foot into the side wall. I hobbled out in pain, fearing I’d done significant damage. It was fine.

We returned on Sunday the 29th after 10 days and 9 nights in Mexico. Our return flight to Austin was badly delayed, but we made it. I tend to keep track of these sorts of things, and at least one leg of every round-trip flight of 2024 featured either a delay, cancellation or unplanned landing. It never fails! In some ways, 10 days was too much, but at the same time I think any less would have left us wanting more. If it feels like a relief to get back home, then I guess the vacation was long enough and did its job.