Rocky Point- now with a snorkel!

One trip to Rocky Point this year was inadequate, so we made a return trip! This time we went with the Knells, Allsops, and Wiscombs. Nikkole, Alexandra, and I are all pregnant, and Alyssa is nursing a baby who doesn't sleep through the night yet, so we were pretty much the ultimate party crew! I love so much that we have friends that are up for adventures even when life circumstances aren't perfectly ideal. 

We found a sweet 4 bedroom house through Airbnb that was on the second row from the beach in Las Conchas. We could see the ocean out the window and had excellent views from the roof (which my kids were terrifyingly obsessed with- the spiral staircase to the roof had gaps in it that were more than big enough for Annie to fall through. We had to barricade the door so that she wouldn't run out and constantly climb it)

These pictures don't do the awesome brick dome ceiling justice

Eating lunch, probably with some ice cream from our very well stocked freezer

One of Annie's favorite parts of the trip was the non-stop access to baby Riley

I spy a little cutie in the courtyard

Roof pics with the buster bubbs

Oh how I love those sweet cheeks

All 8 kids in age order! Please appreciate the shadows of the adults trying to get everyone to look at the camera

We dug a hole and buried Elliot's legs in it

This kid loves the sand and spent most of his beach time trying to convince me that I wanted to build ANOTHER sandcastle

When Annie wasn't busy commenting on every little thing Baby Riley was doing, she enjoyed getting wet and playing with the sand toys

Theodore and Annie being the cute little kids that they are

A nice scrabble arrangement of our four last names interwoven in sand and FRIENDSHIP

My favorite part of the trip was snorkeling. I bought a snorkel set after our last trip to Rocky Point and was so excited to try it out, and it exceeded my expectations! At low tide there is a huge area where I could swim around and be just about an arms reach from the rocky ground. It was great for looking for shells, q5rvgand it was shallow enough that I didn't feel like there could be a shark sneaking up on me. There wasn't really coral, but there were tons of bright yellow fish hiding in little nooks in the rocks and conch shells and hermit crabs aplenty. I even swam over a spotted sting ray! I was pretty jealous of Nikkole who saw an octopus. That is my goal to find next time!

At one point I was in the sand with the kids. Alyssa was out with Riley in the water when she yelped and ran for shore. She had looked behind her and seen a huge black shape moving towards her in the waist deep water. The guys investigated and a little while later it came back. It turned out to be a huge school of tiny silver fish! I grabbed the snorkel and swam into the middle of it. It was a completely surreal experience. The fish parted for me, and none of them touched me. I was completely surrounded by a wall of fish every way I turned. I swam out to deeper water, and we could see all sorts of seabirds including pelicans diving into the water to get their fill.

No pictures of me with a snorkel were taken, so here is Alyssa after I talked her into borrowing mine

The menfolk could frequently be spotted talking by the waters edge and making animated hand gestures

 We made a return trip to el Barrelito for dinner, and I had this great conversation with them:

Me: Hey, are you guys closed already?

Guy in the barrel truck: Yep.

Me: What time do you close?

Guy in the barrel truck: 6:00. 

Me: Well it is 5:30 right now...

Guy in the barrel truck: Well, we ran out of tacos, but I guess we have some ceviche left if you want that?

Restaurant dining in Mexico is so different than it is in the US! But the benefit of this was that we found another great place to eat nearby. It was called Tacos Brissa, and they combined delicious tacos with an enclosed room to eat in so our kids couldn't escape! That was a huge advantage over the food truck. 

Goofballs