Okay, so I was withholding a little. You see, I was away on a much needed vacation in Playa del Carmen all of last week! In fact, I departed at 6:30 am on Saturday, June 30th (with drama and tears, but that’s a story for another time) and only made it back at 10:30 pm on Saturday, July 7th (mental note: Never select a flight with a connection when traveling internationally … ever). Last fall, my sisters and I purchased these great deals from Living Social for 7 nights/8 days at the Grand Mayan Riviera for $499 each. My middle sister and I booked our trips for the same week and my sister’s family friends did so as well.
Let the vacation begin!
The digs.
My sis’s family got the master suite with a kitchen and Wei & I were in the adjoining room.
Where we spent most of our vacation;).
FINALLY read 32 Candles by Ernessa Carter! Awesome book!!
Suprema pizza!! This was delish! I was mad when the ants got to my leftovers tray!
Our lunch guest. We must have seen about 20 iguanas on the trip, if not more!
The Good Time Gang minus the mini-gangers;).
He’s a mess ;).
GQ. *lol*
That red one may have thought that my bun was a nest.
On the way to the water park, Xel-Ha.
Anywho, the “radio silence” of Thursday and Friday was because we finally stopped relaxing around the pool and started doing a few things;). Gotta go, but here are lots of pics and I’ll be back with more deets … including vacation hair, of course … throughout the week!
hairscapades 
The photo’s are great! Looks like yall had a good ole time! My family is on a cruise this week(without me)they will be back on saturday. Looking foward in hearing about your trip.
LikeLike
Welcome Back! So happy you were able to get away and just relax!! Can’t wait to hear the deets (=
LikeLike
Welcome back!!! The pics are spectacular!!! Now I am intrigued to read 32 candles!!! (Get back to work) LOL Thanks for sharing looking forward to more details….
LikeLike
Thanks Tiff and Michelle!! Tiff, where’d they go? Really, the captions really covered most of it except the tears part. But, that’ll come some time this week … it’s in draft form, but needs some refining;). And, I’ll see you both on Sunday;).
Norma, it’s so good!! I wished there was more of an epilogue at the end … but I get it! It’s one of those stories that sad, funny, uplifting, validating, etc. Plus, our heroine has some hair tales that put a smile on my face:)!
LikeLike
Awwww I was wondering where you were! Looks very relaxing 🙂 You guys are too cute together. An make sure you do a Vaca hair post before August because I need help for the honeymoon
LikeLike
You know me too well Leah!! I often say I’m going to write a post in the next week and it’s a month or two later, right?!?! LMBO!!! But no, this one will be this week. If I can finish replying to all of these comments in a timely fashion, it’ll be up tomorrow;).
LikeLike
Wow those photos are gorgeous, and the clarity is amazing as well. The background scenes with all of the lush greeness makes me want to jump through the computer and have fun to j/k lol… Also you look really good with you smiling in those photos, you should do it more often because you have really pretty white teeth and it took like 5yrs off of you :). Now I know who you resemble but couldn’t think of it before, celebrity wise “Mary J. Blige” :). Again thanks for sharing those gorgeous photos and glad to hear/see that the whole family had a great time.
LikeLike
LOL @ jumping through the computer. It was beautiful, but I think the camera further saturated the colors;)!! And Zyaran, y’all be making a girl feel old always talking about she looks younger with layers, younger smiling, younger in purple;). Shoot, how old do I look when I’m not doing those things;)?? And, I’ve been working on the self-portrait smile!! Haven’t you seen all of my posts for the last two weeks or so have had pics of me smiling:)?? I’ve had to take 20 to get a decent shot. It’s a lot of work. Oh … and um, NO!! MJB?!?! Are you kidding?!?! I don’t look anything like her!! LOL!!
Thank you for all the kind words though;)!!! LOL!!
LikeLike
Lawd you let that bird sit on your shoulders? LOL I would have been screaming.
OK only me would point out THAT out of all the other pics 🙂
LikeLike
LOL!! yes, only you;)! My niece held the iguana!!! I was fine with the birds … I grew up with chickens! LOL!!
LikeLike
That iguana wouldn’t have gotten within 100 feet of me. I’m such a city girl. I trip out if I see a fly.
LikeLike
OMG i love ur pics. U 2 r so good together! It’s also good to know those Living Social deals are real because some of the prices seem too good to be true=)
LikeLike
Awwww, thanks April:)! And yes, it was the real deal!! We actually originally booked for $399 for the Mayan Palace, but then upgraded to the Grand Mayan for an additional $100 when booking with the resort. And, I didn’t mention it in the post, but we also got a $200 credit for drinks and food … unfortunately, I didn’t realize until I checked out that it was only for food and drinks, because I charged my internet to the room and it wasn’t covered. I also only used a little over half of the credit! But, I gotta say this, everything has to be charged to the room and at the end of the week, I only owed an additional $114 and we had at least one meal at the resort every day and I got water and a snack from the convenience store every day. The prices in the resort for the stuff I got were VERY reasonable. Like, seriously, the food in the one restaurant we ate at most often only ranged between $10-$15 from what we figure. I don’t drink, so I didn’t have the alcohol expenses … but they had 3 happy hours every day, 2 for 1, so some in the group were “gettin’ it in!!” LOL!!
LikeLike
Welcome back! It looks like you guys had a ball! I’m excited to hear about the hair-side of it all. BTW – with the vacation and all – have you had a chance to see Spider-Man?
LikeLike
Thanks Autumn and YUP!!!! Saw it yesterday, the day after we got back. I hit my boy real fast to get his thumbs up or thumbs down … he told me he and his buddy liked it, so Wei and I hit the theatre last night. I thought it was decent. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it. There were some liberties that they took about which I wasn’t too particular … the main one being with the, “With great power comes great responsibility” Spidey raison d’être. I also felt that the Spidey quips fell short in the beginning (he came off more jerky than funny) and then fell off entirely. Did you watch The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series?!?! THEY got it right!!! That Spidey was AWESOME!!! His little smart-aleck comments to the villains were always hilarious … the timing and delivery were perfect. I wish those writers wrote for this movie …. Spidey should have lobbed some great ones at The Lizard. Now for the good, I really like The Lizard as a character, so I was so psyched that he was the villain and I think that they did a really good job with his look, strength and voice. I also didn’t mind too much that J.Jonah wasn’t in this one and that we had a different “naysayer” in Gwen Stacy’s father. I liked Flash … and think that, after that first scene, Peter actually came off as the jerk instead of Flash. Oh, and Spidey was wayyyyyyyyyy too strong …. yeah, I know, 100 times the strength of his body weight … but, he’s not Superman … him breaking everything he touched was over the top for me.
Yeah, doesn’t sound like I thought the movie was decent, does it? I’m such a critic. But, again, I did think it was okay and I’d be willing to see the sequel … unlike Wolverine: Origins!
LikeLike
Aww, so cute! Looked like a lot of fun :-). Welcome Back!
LikeLike
Welcome back from what I’m sure is a MUCH needed break.
Re: international connections, I usually give myself a lengthy lag, anticipating delays. I did that on the way back from Ghana and had a 3 hour tour of Amsterdam, with time to spare.
LikeLike
Thanks M:). Renee, that’s the only way I would do it … BUT … it already took us from 8:30 in the morning to 10:30 at night to finally get home ….. so, a 3 hour layover would have been bad for this trip too:(.
LikeLike
My fav picture is the one of you and Wei on the beach – beautiful. The last photo with the silhouette is great too. Vacay hair is awesome!
LikeLike
Welcome back Shelli! Nice pictures. I 100pct agree with Erica, that pic is amazing, perfect to frame!
LikeLike
Thank you Erica and Jenny!!
LikeLike
Great pics.
LikeLike
YAY! I am so glad you got a chance to get away~ It looks like the digs were luxe and the company was wonderful!! (Iguanas aside!LOL). The pictures capture the trip perfectly.. I see you saw Spiderman… I didn’t particularly love it either…lol
LikeLike
Glad you had an awesome vacation. I’m going to start paying more attention to living social deals, lol.
celebrateyournaturalbeauty.blogspot.com
LikeLike
Great pics! When I saw the first one, my first thought was “They have run off and gotten married”!!! Looks like a great time was had by all. I hope you are back relaxed, refreshed, and renewed!
LikeLike
Sounds like and looks like you guys had a great time! Can’t wait to here more!
LikeLike
Beauuuutiful pics!!! You two look great.
LikeLike
Awwwww, thanks everyone!!
Tracy … you aren’t the only one! LOL!!
LikeLike
Pingback: Vacation Hair: Doing (and Packing) the Least « hairscapades
I love these pictures. I am so glad you, Wei and your sisters went on vacation. You deserve it!!! My favorite is…I can’t say, they are all demonstrative of your love. 🙂 I am so happy for you two!!! And you better not run off and get married!!! lol We want to share in your special moment. 🙂
Blessings and I hope your family is recovering after the storms and power outage.
LikeLike
Awwww, thanks so much Margaret and I’m not making any promises;)!!
LikeLike
Loved all of your photos!!! Looks like you guys had a wonderful time. Your camera is awesome! Please share what kind it is!! Great to have you back!
LikeLike
Awwww, thanks SheaDionne. Now, all of these pictures weren’t taken by my camera. The really, really, really nice ones were taken by a pro at the resort. The others were with the same camera I use for my hair, a Canon PowerShot Elph 300 HS
LikeLike
such a beautiful couple!
LikeLike
Pingback: Everything Happens for a Reason « hairscapades
Pingback: Road Tr « hairscapades
Pingback: Shrinkage & Return of the Pre-Poo Big Bun « hairscapades