The Henderson Family: Hanke Reunion at Bella Sirena 2013

Last week of June 2013:
Well, it's been several years since we had a Hanke reunion, so we were all excited for this one! We went down to a resort called Bella Sirena in Puerto Penasco, Mexico where Marc and Stephanie Skousen have a condo. It was the world's longest drive (about 20 hrs), but we broke it up into 3 days, so it was manageable.

Bonding with new cousins (they are actually MY cousins, but they are the same ages as my kids, so we just called them cousins). They were camped out in the Skousens' living room the night before we caravaned down across the Mexican border.

We saw this dust devil on the way to Mexico.

Driving across the Mexican border is a little scary. There are so many checkpoints and border patrol stations. I was glad we were all together in a big group.

The whole drive, we are driving through this horrible, miserable desert, and thinking "surely at some point this is going to get pretty, right?" Well, it did get pretty--right when we pulled through the front gates of the resort. Up until that point, it was pure ugliness. But after that point, it was gorgeous!

The kiddie pool

The view from the back porch of the house we stayed in. Yeah, that's the beach right there.

The awesome mosaic-tiled domed ceiling

There was even a little outdoor shower on the porch to get the sand off your feet before you come inside

Unfortunately, my three older girls all got a minor flu bug while we were there, and spent a lot of time doing this:

Poor things!

But in the times when they were feeling good, we still made it a point to take them swimming and let them play at the beach.

During the day, we spent a lot of time swimming

Or at the beach

One day we went to the tide pools, where we caught a couple of crabs and found some huge shells. This beach was really great for shells. It's in the Sea of Cortez, and the shells were plentiful and fantastic. Also the tide rose and fell by a huge margin each day. It was a cool place.

We did a lot of face painting for the kiddos:

Aunt Amy painting Coryn's face, with Leila Skousen in the background

Aunt Heidi painting nails

Me painting Ellie Michelle Perkins' face

Marley Williams

Coryn and Leila

I even instructed Zumba for some of the family on two of the days. That was so fun!! Those pre-teen boys were really good dancers!!

Rob, Mike, John, Marc, Austin, and Mark Hanke went fishing one day:

We had fun shopping from the vendors on the beach. Claire got a little necklace and I tried some mangoes with chili powder on them--I loved them!! So juicy and delicious.

My mom taught us all how to make exfoliating Lemon Scrub--smells and feels great (it also tastes great when you first make it, but it's supposed to be for rubbing on your skin, not for eating ;) )