Mexico ~ Las Caletas Beach Hideaway

On Monday of our vacation week we went on an all-family excursion day to the Las Caletas Beach Hideaway! It was a day that I had been looking forward to for months and in the end was my favorite day of the whole trip. I loved the family times we spent, including the boat ride there and back, the Kids Adventure Park, playing at the Activities Beach, awesome buffet lunch and my favorite part...the Animal Encounter!

I would recommend this excursion to anyone that is going to the Puerto Vallarta area of Mexico. We had seen our friends pictures from 2 years ago and I thought it would be fun, but had no idea just how much fun it would be!

Memories that will last a lifetime!

At the continental breakfast before we got on the boat

Looking at the sea lions in their tiny little enclosure :(

It's onto the boat and off we go on a 1.5 hour cruise to the hideaway

Love this picture so much!

When we got to these islands they invited people up to the front of the boat to take pictures...it was beautiful but very windy and I kept envisioning a child falling over the edge!

Pictures don't do it justice to the beauty of this place!

A quick stop for a taco buffet by the water's edge

Then we're off to the part I was most excited about...the Kids Adventure Park! It included holding monkeys, riding donkeys, zip-lining, rope bridge, and a cargo net climb! All 4 of the kids had a great time and I was really glad that James got to experience these things on our trip.

Getting harnessed up!

This is the FIRST time he has ever allowed anyone to put face paint on him! I was so proud of him.

The guides were laughing about how he just talked non-stop through this whole gear set up process

YUCK...a huge furry tarantula!

And they are off to the monkeys!

Poor James was first and was not sure at all what to think of it. He did much better in the afternoon when he got to hold them again at the Animal Encounter!

Now the donkey ride up the hill...Chris, Jim, Darian and Uncle Garry all agreed to be the leaders....I just went along and took photos.

At this point the kids were separated from the parents and we walked down the hill to watch them do the rest of the park. I think that's a great thing so kids are kind of forced out of their comfort zones of the parents and are encouraged by the other kids and the leaders. All 4 of them did awesome on all of the rest of the park!

The first of 2 zip lines that the kids did. Some clearly liked it more than the others did!

I was so proud of Livie as I knew she was probably the most scared of doing the zip lines but she rocked it!

I wasn't sure if he really liked it until I saw this picture yesterday while looking through them. I would say he definitely did!

Awesome!

My beautiful Cassidy with her smile on the cargo net

Now to zip back to the parents. We were standing right in front of this zip line and it was awesome to see how much fun they were having!

Running to tell Daddy all about it!

Cool photo that I captured!

When they are done it's part of the fun to stick your name tag anywhere in the group area you want to.

Next up we changed into swim suits and headed to the Activity Beach for a few hours of awesome family times. Thank you so much to Quinton for taking photos on the beach for me and to the Vallarta Adventures staff for loving our family and taking tons of photos of us on the beach too! The photos are a bit scrambled and many are taken with my waterproof camera so are kind of blurry but overall I just love these photos of this fun time.

We started off with a bunch of us kayaking and paddleboarding

Great shot, James was too small to be able to be seen very well though!

Of course many water fights happened with all of us out there together!

Favorite photo for sure

Uncle Garry got in on the water fight fun too!

Now onto the beach for some bird holding and swimming

Thanks Q!

Having so much fun...and playing very hard!

This women was just hanging out doing handstands on her paddleboard

And this was Ben's face while watching her do it!

Cute cousins

A rare great photo of Grandpa Wayne in the water. I really like this photo!

Now Q is in the water and we made our way out to the dock in the middle of the bay...with both James and Cassidy with us too!

hahahaha...it's the bum shot seen all around the beach that day. We were on the dock and all of a sudden Ben says "I'm gonna moon the beach" and then before we can tell him no he yells out loud to everyone "HOLA" and then just goes for it. Of course because the Vallarta Adventures photographers were loving our family you know they of course paid attention to his bellow and took the next 3 photos. And then when he stood up all you could see was the photographer laughing on the beach with her hand in the air in victory because she clearly got the photos!

I was in the water and wanted to get a jumping shot of all of them and I'm happy to see they also got these photos from the beach!

My photo

Then we headed to the rolling log thinking it was for some log rolling competitions....but ended up being almost impossible to get up on...for everyone!

It turns out that it's meant to be used in shallow water and for just one person to attempt to get on and stay standing up. Apparently it really wasn't very easy but Ben, Jim and Cassidy all took their turns giving it a shot!

A beautiful little part of the beach just to the right of where we were hanging out

Hungry little man found a muffin

Great photos of James with Darian and Quinton (who were both incredible with him for the whole week!)

Auntie Carol and Uncle Garry enjoying some margaritas on the beach

Was too busy enjoying the beach to really enjoy the hammocks too much but I do love this photo of James and me!

And of me and Livie too!

These two ladies are responsible for Ben ditching us for lunch and the animal encounter...and for also contributing to his massive hangover the next day!! 

No pictures taken at lunch because I was just in a hurry to wolf down my food so we had enough time to walk through the animal encounter, which was my favorite part of the whole day. I LOVED holding the animals and having our photos taken doing it was awesome too. So for once I could enjoy participating without worrying about having photos of everyone holding each animal. I loved the photos we bought from the company and feel that the price we paid was more than worth the amount of photos we got!

First up was a hawk

I was so proud of James that he just jumped into holding every single animal that he was offered. I thought he would be afraid but he absolutely wasn't.

Then we moved onto my favorite animals of all...the mama and baby monkey. The baby was only 6 weeks old!

I'd say he liked these monkeys much better than the first ones he held!

This experience was so awesome, and clearly I was having a good time.

Definitely another favorite photo from the trip!

I don't think there is a better picture in this whole post, how awesome is this moment captured?!

Close up of baby

Then we moved onto the macaws where you can hold them and have them kiss you

Then finally it was the baddest one of them all...a 5 foot phython! Jacob jumped at the chance to hold it and I was more than a little surprised as I wasn't sure who in our family would actually do it.

Chris also did it after seeing Jacob hold it

This moment surprised me more than any other of the whole day. Jim is terrified of snakes and him and James were in the bathroom but I decided to face my fear and hold it too. Knowing it may be the only time in my life I had the chance to do it I decided to go for it...and I can admit that I was pretty terrified. Jim walked back from the bathroom to see me in this position and I wonder if his heart stopped just a little bit. 

Next up was James's turn. I was proud of James (and of Jim for standing by watching this moment). I was scared because he was a pretty heavy snake and because James had a hard time holding him up I could see him starting to coil up around his neck. Thankfully as soon as the trainer noticed it they quickly came and took it back off of him.

This was another great moment captured. Livie wanted nothing to do with holding the snake alone but when offered to do it with the boys she jumped at the chance...and ended up 

absolutely LOVING it! 

A fantastic day spent at a beautiful place

hahahaha...when looking at these photos days later Ben said he was sad to not have taken a photo with the boys here...I told him he obviously was so dunk that he didn't remember the photo being taken. 

Dad in front of the catamaran

Now on the boat on the way back. This is one of the only times I actually saw the boys having any kind of drinks at all!

James got to drive the boat!

Him and the captain

GREAT picture of Jim and Dad

Awesome wind swept photo of Teresa and Livie

Uncle Jim and Livie having a little heart to heart at the side of the boat

Jacob loving his drinks on the front part of the boat with some other kids

The staff entertaining everyone

A dad/daughter selfie taken while watching the show

Remember how I said he played hard? He really did! He was so tired that he actually fell asleep in Auntie Carol's arms. This was a rare moment because this kid almost never falls asleep anywhere except in a bed. He was so tired and fought it hard but just couldn't stay awake. He slept like this for probably 45 minutes!

She definitely didn't mind the snuggles!

Cuddled right up tight

He woke up when we hit the dock and found this kitty to pet

In the bus taxi on the way back to the resort

Me, the always present photographer, doing what I love best!

I know this post was super long and if you made it all the way through to the end then you got to see truly one of the best days of my whole life. I loved spending the time with my family and getting to experience things we had never done before. If you ever have a chance to do this excursion, I say go for it, you won't be disappointed! I would go back again so I could explore the rest of the places that we didn't get to see!