tulum.

post by casey.

theo announced to the whole waiting room, at my most recent baby appointment:

"MOM. I want a wiener for my birthday!". 

My face: .......um......

that and the fact that this vacation happened onlyyyyyy 3 months ago - HOW is that possible because a LIFETIME of shit has happened since!!! Add in this pregnancy and my body already evolving since these photos were taken - 4th baby is saying "Heyyyy" much sooner than all the rest;)....

i'm gonna have to dig deep to find all those blissful vacation memories because life is all about my daughter wanting a wiener and teething toddlers and sassy soon-to-be 5YR olds and pregnancy hormones!;)

where you check-in when you arrive:) - this is where I cried for the 1st of 1 MILLION times while we were here:) Where I begged Jacob to quit his job and move our family to the beach:)

okay...nah. I remember it like it was yesterday! It was a dream...it felt like a dream. It was downright dreammmmyyyyyy!!!! 

Minus the fact that we went while we were just pregnant andddddd ZIKA IS A THING! Omg. We are the dumbest. More on that in my next pregnancy post.

we flew into Cancun on a Sunday afternoon and flew out on a Wednesday afternoon. After landing Sunday, we took a 1-1/2hr transport - Sun Transfers - to our boutique hotel in Tulum, Mexico. We stayed at NEST Tulum for 3, magical nights:) We chose Tower Two and it was just so so perfect - 2 balconies and an ocean view! All the employees there claimed it was their favorite room (sureeeeee;) but after seeing it for ourselves...we believe them:)

NEST Tulum is eco-friendly. So depending on how you like to travel...this may be perfect for you or sound like a complete nightmare;)! The power went out just a few times but for just a minute and later at night (this wasn't a negative thing to us). There was no air conditioning. No TV. All of which, was amazing for us. We were looking to just spend the time together...resting, relaxing and so those amenities just weren't a priority to us! 

The weather was perfect and so we kept our doors open all night. The breeze from the ocean was perfect and I think I should have recorded the sound of the ocean from our room in order to lull me to sleep and to drown out any babies that won't go to sleep in this house;)

The property is quite small. Small and beautiful:) I think there are only 8 rooms and so there weren't a lot of people there, which was so nice. It felt incredibly quiet and secluded:)

they serve you a complimentary welcome drink, when you arrive! During Happy Hour, all drinks are free (5-6PM, I believe). The food was so so good. We just laid on the beach, read, took short swims and then came back up to our bed on the beach and ate tacos all afternoon! The complimentary breakfast was incredible and there was SO much! After day1, we realized that we'd only need to order for 1:)

we were only there 2 full days and 2 half days but we felt like we had just enough time to enjoy the area a bit and still have plenty of time to stay put at the hotel. On the 2 half days (when we arrived on Sunday and when we left on Wednesday) we stayed at the hotel and wandered the beach and just relaxed:) On the 2 full days (Monday and Tuesday) we chose to do some sight-seeing. One day we rode bike down Beach Road - right outside of our hotel - for hours! We did a little shopping and thankfully the bikes were free with our stay because I blew our budget on a pillow case, perfume and a necklace;). The next day we took a short cab ride (20MIN) to swim in the Cenotes - Grand Cenote. 

dinner on our last night, at La Zebra Tulum. It was so yummy.

view of our hotel from the ocean

"will you come travel with me? shall we stick by each other as long as we live?" 

- Walt Whitman

i don't know that there's much more in this life that I love more than traveling...besides the obvious, Jacob and family and our babies and pregnancy and...that's actually it:) I'm so fortunate that Jacob feels the same and wants to make it a priority for, not only us as a couple, but for the kids too:) 

i know it can seem impossible to do. Especially, if you, like us...don't have the means, financially, to make these types of things happen often...or ever. But honestly, it IS doable! Once I set my mind to it...I saved. And I saveddddd. And I sold things. And I purged and I turned in change and collected cans. I kid you not. If you want it enough...you WILL find a way! 
We decided to stay for only 3 nights so that we could splurge on our hotel ($340 per night) and I waited and waited and stalked flight prices until I was able to get them pretty cheap ($270 per person). For us...it was so so great and worth every penny! Of course we couldn't have done it without the help of my mom and my sister, Pigg, for keeping the babies safe and sound while we were gone!! THANK YOU!!!!:)


find what you love, what you're passionate about - whether or not that's traveling - and make it happen!:):)

"if you ever find yourself empty from something you cannot know or name, find a stretch of ocean, a field, or mountainside, or even clouds, or trees. Because there are 1,000 simple ways to fill your tired soul so you can remember how to be, how to see, and most importantly, how to breath." 

- Victoria Erickson

i hope you're planning something wonderful at this very moment!!!


and now that dang video!! It's 8MIN long - eeeeekkkkkk, sorry!!! - and somewhat dizzy-ing at times...sorry! Me + a bike + a video camera...so so unsafe;). Enjoy!