a mexican vacation

Every year since I was about 11 years old, my family has taken an extended weekend and gone camping on the beach in Mexico. A lot of people have made comments like "Oooh Mexico, that's so dangerous!" It's really not. Sure, there are some incredibly dangerous areas, but we're not camping in or even driving through Tijuana. We stay at a sleepy little beach town in Baja about five hours from our house. It's one of my favorite vacations because there's not much to do but read, relax, swim, lay out, nap, eat delicious food, and converse with friends. We make the trip with several other families, in the past there have been as many as 40+ but this year there were 22 of us. I haven't been on the trip since 2007 because of school, work, and then living abroad. This was the year. I knew I wanted to go on this trip. It's one of my favorite vacations because it's so relaxing. I asked my friend Jordan to join me. I knew he'd love it. He lived in Mexico for a couple months this summer and I knew he was itching to get back. My family loves him and he's super great so having him join us was just incredibly natural.  I didn't really take any pictures, other than a couple instagrams, but here are some pictures that my sister Gabby took. 

A big floppy hat is necessary for a beach vacation.
 Luckily my mom is a champ and let me steal hers. Thanks Marmee. 

Jordan got his hair braided. It was the greatest. 

We camped with the cutest kids ever.
Miss waking up to these snuggle bugs!

The tide goes out forever so you wake up to this beautiful picture every morning.
 Not a bad way to greet the day...

So, like I said, the vacation was incredible. Absolutely wonderful. Very needed. A time of rejuvenation, family moments, and many, many laughs. Something happened the last night: two of the people we were camping with got sick. We wondered if it was the food, which was not well received by my father, Aunt Tina, and cousin Vito (yes, that's real) who prepared incredible food for us that weekend. Can I just tell you we had prime rib, lamb, seafood spaghetti, salmon, tri tip, and other insanely delicious meals while we were CAMPING? I guess that's just what happens when you camp with people in the restaurant business. I digress. The sickness. My sister started feeling sick the next afternoon, the afternoon where everyone but my family was packing up to leave. She threw up. Later that afternoon I started to feel sick. That's when it hit. I started to feel like I was going to throw up so I went over to the dumpster and just died, basically. Then Jordan got sick. Then my other two sisters. Then we got word that a bunch of people who we had been camping with that left had gotten sick. You guys, it was like Contagion. We know it wasn't from food but we have a hunch it was something similar to the Norovirus. Let me just tell you that there is nothing worse than heaving your guts out in the sand next to your friend who is also doing the same thing but his is tinted red because of the licorice he ate earlier that day. It was like Bridesmaids. I'm not going to fill you in on all the nasty, gross details because I want you to continue to be my friend, but just trust me. It was horrific yet simultaneously hilarious because of how dramatic it was.  Oh goodness, my family has a way of encountering the wildest things. Better just change our name to the Wildboyz, minus the boyz plus mostly girlz.