More stories from Puerta Vallarta

Kiley was very pleased with the views from the room and was excited about getting down to the pools. Most days we were there we had breakfast out on the patio.



The kids were enjoying the room slightly while we figured out dinner plans. This is Kiley and Sydney on the bed. Kiley was hilarious. She wouldn't set foot outside (or inside most of the time) without her anteojos del sol.

Kiley and sister relaxing before dinner

As I mentioned before, we had an incredibly nice room, or should I say apartment, because it really was a lot of space but was perfect for us all. Kiley had a large master bedroom which she enjoyed sharing with her parents. But especially liked the tub that had a set of wooden and glass sliding doors that opened into the bedroom. She often said, "window, window" when getting out of the tub indicating that she wanted to go out through those doors instead of the more conventional way.

The kiddos had their own beds in a separate room they shared. Sydney had a place to play with her miniature dolls and Jake had space to help build a fort. He used master fort builder, Courtney Ortiz, for the design. It was perfect for watching a quick movie while settling in for the night.

As nice as the room was and the amenities we were really there for fun in the sun. We made it down to the pools everyday and some nights because that's what Sydney really likes. Although I'm not totally convinced that it isn't a ploy to stay up extra late. The pools had a shallow ledge that allowed space for our littlest angel to play and swim without always having floaties on her arms or around her waist. They also had a kid pool, fountains you could run around in and a hot-tub that Sydney and Jake love. I think it makes them feel like theyre all grown up.

Kiley and papa in the kiddie pool with Kiley's new dress

She's such a big girl

Excursions
Courtney was able to find a great package from Amex Travel that included some excursions. We took advantage of two of the four available to us. One allowed us in the water with dolphins and the other was a canopy tour on ziplines. Both were extremely enjoyable. The dolphins were in a tank similar to what you would see at sea world without the glass walls. We were in the water on a platform with another family and got to touch the dolphin which is exciting in itself. They are such amazing animals and I considered it a huge privilege to be in the water with one. We all got our chance to give them commands and have them kiss us on the cheek. More like push our face away with it's snout. I thought it would have been gentler but it's a very strong animal and it was lifting it's weight out of the water to do that. They are so graceful it's easy to forget those two minor details.

The Zipline experience was pretty incredible. Courtney stayed back with Kiley to give me an opportunity to have the experience with the kids. She said that she has many more with them and this would be a good one for us all. I thought that was very sweet and considerate. Especially since I know that she really wanted to go. It was definitely best that Kiley stayed back because there was a lot of downtime that she would not have been happy with and it would have been difficult to keep her entertained while three of us were zipping through the trees.

Sydney getting suited up

Jake with Captain Jack Sparrow

We had a lot of fun. There were 13 runs of varying lengths with the longest being around 2500 ft. that ran down just above the river. Here are a few more shots....

Jake resting up for the next leap

Sydney after one of the more scenic "zips"