The Rosas-Standring Family

Okay, this has been a little while but here is my "hell yeah- Happy anniversary to me" post.

This was very exciting for me because- y'all I live here- and as cheap as the hotel rooms are here- we still do not make that sort of living- so seeing the hotels is not something that gets to happen as much.  We stayed 2 days at Azulik- a beautiful adults only hotel that sits right up on the cliff. 

**JUST A REMINDER*** If you are here- well- anywhere for that matter NEVER touch the reef or the coral.  It is a living breathing creature that is rapidly being damaged by people who do not know or do not care.  The reef is not a souvenir.  Having said that... there are many pieces along the beach that naturally break off and come to the beach.  Feel free to take those- I do not know anything about on the plane or whatnot- but please- please - please--- do not touch or break the living coral that makes this area so amazing. ****

The next day we got a real treat.  Ruben had set up for us to go on what is called a fun trip.  This is where tour companies will take you on a rapid version of their tour so that you can sell it at your location. We did 2 tours in 1 day so it was pretty fast.  It was great.

On Tuesday Ruben had his day off and I was so ready for some time with him. Having only 1 day off a week is really hard sometimes. but oh well. It was my plan to head down to a cenote for a good morning of swimming and then head home for our friends 5th birthday party. As soon as we found out that party was on the beach we changed up our plans.


We headed down to the part of the beach in Tulum that is my absolute favorite. It is south on the beach road towards the bio reserve of Sian Ka'an. The beaches here are just amazing. Akilean had the great idea that Ruben should get him a coco. That is not always that hardest thing in the world but sometimes, especially without shoes it can be very hard.

Ruben gave it his best shot but was not able to come down with any coconuts. We had a really nice relaxing few hours. Lena went straight in the water and did not come out for a few hours. She absolutely LOVES the water. She always has but now that we are in front of a large mass of water that is calm, warm and full of cool fish she has pretty much not stopped wanting to be in the water.


Akilean for whatever reason did not want to wear his suit so he is sporting the naked look. This is just fine for us because he really needs to work on butt tan. Ever since we cut his hair he looks SOOOOOO American. It is crazy how different he looks with his hair.

The party was wonderful. It was right on the beach and was the perfect place for a party. We brought some tuna salad and chips and watermelon and there was also some pasta and salad. It was great.

Carlos gave Yaomi a little bow and arrow. It was beautifully made had the most beautifully carved tips. Kennedy and Akilean got their first lesson.

The pinata was the BEST part. It is always the best part but this one was full of peanuts and sweet oranges and some sweet bars that are made of nuts and honey. It was great.

All the kids had a great time. They were climbing and running and having a great time. There was a large net that they climbed up on a played and us adults all watched the most spectacular moon rise over the sea. It was breath taking.


I also got to meet some very wonderful people which was perfect. Ruben and I are working on building our friends up again and starting from scratch. We have met some amazing people who think like we do, have the same passion about Mexico in them as Ruben (and I have to say is growing inside of me) they are wonderful and I am so excited to be getting to be such good friends with them.

We had a great little surprise this past weekend. Our very good family friend Jordan came into town with her littlest of babies, Avner. She lives in Oxkutzcab about 1 hour outside of Merida. We have been friends for a very long time first in SF, CA and now here. She needed a little break from an ALL Mayan lifestyle and ALL of her husbands family that lives on the block! hehehe. I love it because we are each others sanity escape.


Plus she loves to come visit or have me visit because we can bring each other all of the things that we cannot get in each others towns. She always needs natural vanilla and we have fresh ginger here!


Anyway. She came in on Friday afternoon and we just came home and made dinner and hung out. We made a really good fish recipe it was called pina colada grouper and it was a great name for the recipie. I will be putting it on my cooking blog. The next day I had been invited out to my friends place on the beach with the kids. It was perfect because the friend that had invited me is that great woman that we met recently, Georgia. I knew instantly that her and Jordan were going to get along really well. Their personalities, interests and very specific beliefs are so similar and I knew they would really like each other.


It was even better then I had hoped. We packed up our watermelon, guacamole and water and headed off to the beach. It was great because my friends had access to this great cabana right on the beach. The baby was able to sleep in the hammock and all the kids (4 girls and Akilean!!!) They were climbing trees, running all over the beach and playing in the water. It was a really great day. Georgia had put together this whole treasure hunt for the kids and it was really cute to watch them run all over the place with the little puppy, Cherry, chasing them all over the beach.

The little casita was so nice too. It was a large open space on the first floor that had a small table, a little place to put cloths, a little chair and a bed. Under the bed was a sand floor but there was a hardwood walkway along the edge of the room. The stairs to the 2nd floor showed an open platform with a bed and a great little window that looked directly out- unobstructed view of the ocean. I could only imagine how great it would be wake up to that. The place is for rent too so if you are interested, please let me know.

We have gotten to know more people here that we really like. There are also a lot of people here in my neighborhood and that is really nice. We all got to hang out and chat while the kids just went nuts. It was a really fun day. I think it is the first time that we have ever been to the beach when Ruben did not build a massive sand castle. It was a great day.

I think that Ruben and Juan's favorite part was all the ladies took the kids on the treasure hunt and they got to sit and relax in the hammocks.

Well, first I must say that I thought that it was sort of funny that Mexican Mother's Day and Mother's Day in the USA fell on the same day. In Mexico it is always on the 10th of May and in the USA it is the 2nd Sunday in May. It was sort of strange that they landed on the same day. I mean not really because it is bound to happen but still.

Yesterday the day had gone like so many others. We woke up, had breakfast, cleaned the house, walked to town with Ruben and the kids, kissed Ruben goodbye, went to the park, went to the fruteria for a bunch of mangos and then sat at what we call "the office" to sit and talk with some friends. So far... a totally normal day. While I was sitting at that table watching my friends play poker, I heard Ruben's voice behind me. This was a total surprise because I thought that he was at work. I guess that he had been asking to get Sunday off but they were not able to give it to him. When he got to work yesterday they had 1 extra person and said that he could take the night off. It was a really nice surprise.

We headed to the house to get all cute. I wore a little black dress that I actually have not worn since my 24th or 25th birthday- when I was very pregnant. I do not remember if it was with Kennedy or Akilean but I was very pregnant. It looked pretty good still. And I really love the fact that I bought in the first place for a crazy good price (under $10) Man I just love Ross. The kids helped me pick out which dress I was going to wear on my date.

Anyway. Ruben's friend agreed to watch the kids and so they got to go to our friends drumming preformace in centro and dance and have a fun time, while we headed down to the beach. We were going to try to eat at Playa Azul but it was closed. We headed over to the next restaurant and found that it was open and totally empty. I love when restaurants are empty. It feels like a private dinner just for you.

The name of the cabanas and restaurant is Puerto de Cielo It was beautiful. We sat just outside of the bar area and had an amazing view of the ocean and a full moon. It was stunning. The moon was so bright and reflected so much on the water. The water was very near the hotel. We walked down and put our feet in the water a few times while we sipped our 2x1 margaritas. We split an appetizer and 1 meal and just hung out and talked and laughed and had such a fun time. There is more information on the restaurant on my Tulum Living Blog.

While on one of our little trips down to the water Ruben surprised me with a very beautiful necklace. This came totally out of the blue and was a total surprise. We have been very tight on money and he has been setting a little aside in order to buy me this. I thought that was so sweet. What was even cuter was that he said, "I know that it is a little different then a lot of the other stuff I give you but I know you didn't have anything like this and I know you like quirkier things." The fact that he even thought about it like that was very sweet to me. We talked and laughed and he gave this whole speech about how he feels I have it all and that he could not thank me enough for being a great mom to his kids and that he knew the moment he saw me that he only wanted me for the rest of his life. It was so romatic and amazing. We kissed all night and told stories and laughed.

After we ate, we took our margaritas down and sat on the beach chairs down by the water. We then took a walk on the beach and the water was just so amazingly warm we had to go for a swim. It was so much fun. It was well lit by the moon and warm and deserted. there was 1 or 2 groups of people that walked by the whole time. It was great. We laid in the surf and... well, stuff ...it was seriously amazing and romantic. Ruben commented this morning during on of the many times we talked about how much fun we had last night that it felt straight out of a movie. The whole evening was totally magical.

Then this morning Akilean woke us up bright and early and we sat and drank coffee in bed and watched the West Wing on dvd. Ruben woke up and made me my favorite breakfast- or well, the closest version that you can with the stuff we have around. My favorite in eggs Benedict. He made a great version with toast and thick sliced ham. But he makes the BEST hollandaise sauce from scratch (with all of its like 5 ingredients but still- he makes it so well and he knows exactly how to poach my eggs. It was wonderful.

Sadly he is at work now and it is just the kids and I. But we have a bunch of mangos to keep us happy. It is sort of crazy the amount of mangos and bananas we eat. And we are doing one of my favorite things to make for dinner... breakfast. The kids really want pancakes so I thought- hey banana and mango whole wheat pancakes... yeah- that sounds perfect for dinner. :) It is going to be a nice quiet evening in with the kids!

My friends came into town from the USA as we all prepare to head to my good friend Jordan's wedding in Oxzutcab. The first part of this very adventurous week started with stay at Cabanas Copal.


We got some great pictures of Cabanas Copal. I have heard about this place and it is one of the places that seems to be better known and very well advertised. I know that they have a range of cabanas, some with more amenities then others. I have not seen these rooms but I am sure that they are nice.


My friends room was so beautiful. Very simple and fresh. There was a fitted mosquito net (more needed sometimes of the year then pretty) and white sheets. There is no way that you are going to be able to keep sand out of your bed with a sand floor but who cares.

The view of the beach was awesome. They had a slight block in the view from the message cabana but that was fine. The Beach in front of the hotel is beautiful. It is very clean and soft. There are some areas of the beach that are more rocky and not as cleared but this spot was perfect. There were little palapas with lounge chars set around the jungle walk to their restroom was also stunning.
I think that there are rooms that have their own bathroom but this was the least expenive room and it was perfect. There was a very cute little pool area and everyone was very nice.


To one side the beach becomes more rock and hill so that is not the best "walk on the beach" direction. It also gets dark at night so you need to be careful and I would bring a flash light. But the whole area around the hotel was magical.

This reminds me... please do not come to Tulum, stay in an eco chic resort and throw trash and ciggerets on the beach. I saw some people do this and it pissed me off. Even my 4 year old ran after them saying to, "you forgot your garbage." He sould not for a minute


My friends also ate at the restaurant one night and said it was good. They would have walked a little more that night but it was pretty dark.

My friend Alex went camera happy. He was snapping pictures of everything. Perfect by me though. It is good to have them for the blog. Plus I forget a little sometimes just how breathtaking it is here.

Yesterday was a great day. In the beginning of the day the kids curled up in a fort they made and watched cartoons and Ruben and I laid in bed, drank coffee and watched The West Wing dvds. This is one of my all time favorite shows. I love Washington DC and I love politics so this show was always fun for me.

I especially love watching it and other Washington DC set movies due to the latest trip that I had there with Ruben. It was so amazing. There were a lot of amazing memories but the best was was renting bikes and riding all over the mall late at night and seeing all of the monuments lit up. We had some pretty amazing experiences. Here is the whole story... http://rosas-standring.blogspot.com/2008/06/washington-dc-trip.html


This is a few of my favorite pics from the trip.

But anyway... so Ruben and I watched The West Wing, episode after episode after episode. It was great. I cannot wait to see season 5 and 6 again. These are the ones that I have not seen in forever!

We then packed up a some chicken salad, some chips and our massive bottle of water and headed off to the beach. We got lucky that Ruben did not have to work today. When the hotel is not at 100% then they will close 1 of the restaurants and everyone in that restaurant gets the days off. Nice when you have a flat fee pay. :)

The beach was very populated. Sunday's are the day most families spend together. There were lots of kids running around and lots of fruit being sold. We pack our own, but there is nothing like fresh cut fruit on a hot day at the beach.

We built another great sandcastle. The sand here is a lot softer then we are used to so we are learning how to build really good castles here. Ruben kept getting asked where our permit was to build on the beach. :) I thought that this was a really good castle.

The kids ran around chasing a kite. It was really cute. I think that we will have to buy a kite the next time we are in the USA. There is certainly a lot of wind here.
After a while we headed home and finished off our chicken soup we made the other day and watched the movie Casino which I had never seen. It was a great movie.

Jessica arrived in Playa del Carmen after a bit of drama with the flights. We spent a really nice afternoon in Playa and ate some of my favorite tortilla soup. As you can see Akilean LOVES this soup. And it was the perfect warm up after our late afternoon dip in the ocean.
Once we got the kids back to the house it did not take us long to pass out. We were all really tired from a long day in the sun.



The past 36 hours have been absolutely AMAZING! Yesterday was Ruben and my 7 year anniversary. Now, for those of you who were at our wedding, you are probably confused. Since it was only 3 years ago and in October that we got married. But 7 years ago Ruben and I knew we had to be together. Our wedding came so much later and involved our whole family, so we consider that more of our family anniversary. When you consider that the only people in our wedding were our parents and our kids. :) But March 5th is when we consider our relationship to have kicked off. We knew that this was not some little thing!

So yesterday was the best day. My friend Jessica flew into to town and came to visit. I have not seen her since my wedding day over 3 years ago. It has been so great. And much to my surprise Ruben got the day off work. First things first, we got some tacos from one of our favorite taco stands, (you know the one Mom and Neal) grabbed some beers and headed to the beach.

We went to the beach at El Pariso. There are a few more people down this way and more palm trees on the beach for shade. It was absolutely wonderful. There were a few scary moments when we thought that the clouds were going to take over but nope!!!

Ruben and the kids built a great sand castle and Akilean had a great time playing in it. Ruben thinks that it is his best one to date.


Kennedy and Ruben played soccer on the beach, we got a tan and every one swam in the ocean. It was perfect day. Not to mention that we got a very early start so that is always nice.

After a while we headed home and everyone spent the next while trying to get sand out of their hair. Jessica and I headed into town to look around the shops while the kids played with some friends and Ruben took a little nap. He does not like getting dragged around to all the stores and just browse at all the fun stuff.

Once we collected Ruben, we took the kids to my friends house who was kind enough to watch them for us and we went out to dinner and it was one of my favorites and it was Ruben's best meal yet. We ate at Nero di Sole. This is a wonderful Italian place right in the middle of town and it has such a great atmosphere. The dinner was amazing. They also have a little hotel but I have not seen it or know anyone who stayed there. We have eaten at this spot a few times but we usually get a little pizza to share. This was wonderful.

Our dinner was amazing. We split some marinated shrimp with what was supposed to be feta cheese but it was not. It was probably some mozzerella shreds. Oh well. We also had a caprese salad. For dinner Jessica's red snapper was perfect, fresh and flavorful. Ruben had wonderful steak medalions in a green peppercorn sauce and that was great. and I got shrimp in a garlic sauce. All were served with roasted potatoes and a little veg that was more of a garnish. At the end, even though we were not hungry but Ruben knows that tiramisu is my favorite and it is our anniversary after all.

After our killer dinner we went and had a drink at a few spots in the area. There are so many cute bars that are all closed during the day so I have never seen them. It was really fun. We went to one spot that was going to have a flamenco show but we headed out before that.

We headed home, grabbed the kids and all hung out at the house for a while. It was a wonderful anniversary! Jessica is leaving today to Ozkutcab to see Jordan but I will see them all soon for the wedding.