Mexican get-away

    
Now that we have been home for about 3 weeks, I am finally getting around to posting about our Mexican vacation. It has been years since Aaron and I took a vacation without the kids, so we decided it was time. Our good friends, the Hansens, were able to go with us and we had a blast. These pics are hard for me to download and narrate around them, so instead of chronological order, you get a disjointed view of our trip. Oh well. 

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on a Sunday morning, and we were pooped after traveling all night. But after seeing our amazing condo and feeling the glorious 80 degree weather, we were ready to go. One of our methods of travel other than taxis, was the fine public transportation system. Talk about culture shock!! I think I did pretty well for a girl who gets car sick when I bend down to get something from the floor in the car. With no AC, incredibly crowded conditions, and bus drivers who lit up cigarettes whenever they felt like it, I was ready to admit that I was a spoiled American and go back to taxis. Here I am on the way to the big city. This was after about half of the bus had been unloaded. At one point, there were people literally hanging out the door. I was glad to get off that bus!

These are some pics of us at the flea market in Puerto Vallarta. I never did get the hang of haggling with the vendors. I know, I am a sucker. But after seeing that all the vendors had the same "hand crafted" crap, it became a little easier to walk away.

    

The sunset on the boardwalk was gorgeous. We were able to get some great pics. Don't you love our cool hats we just had to have. I think Becky got them down to around ten bucks each.

  
 

The boys decided to show their monkey skills when we came across this amazing tree in the middle of the market. 
 

 

Here we are enjoying yet more virgin drinks at a favorite locals place we heard about called "Pipi's". There slogan was "don't drink the water, drink the margaritas." They were so good!
 

Here is Aaron showing off his surfing skills at a great beach we went to. Instead of surfing, I worked on my suntan and watched Aaron, Becky, and Miles get their fair share of water up the nose.

  

Aaron took a few surfing breaks long enough to relax on the beach with me.

    

We decided to take a day and go on an hour long boat ride across the bay to a small seaside village called Gullapa. The bumpy boat ride was worth it, and actually very similar to riding the waves in Seward in our boat, except for the 80 degree difference, the tropical warm water, and the fact that I was wearing a swimsuit instead of a weatherproof parka. We enjoyed some snorkeling, a hike to a beautiful waterfall, and Aaron even got a little fishing in. He managed to catch a bait fish called a Chora. We were all entertained as he hauled that whopper in.

  

Here we are at the top of the waterfall. Of course no Mexican adventure would be complete without haggling with vendors. Even in this remote village, we had plenty of options to spend our pesos on. One vendor that was actually really amazing was a hilarious guy that made beautiful rosewood, hand carved necklaces. Not only were they gorgeous, he offered a shot of tequila with every purchase! Here I am holding a "Mexican mirror" up for Becky to check out her new purchase. I was glad I didn't cut myself on it.

 

 

We spent Saturday in a town named Salulitas. It was a very cute and artsy town with a beautiful beach. There was also a secluded little flower garden that I enjoyed walking through. We ate lunch at a highly recommended place called "Chilly Willies". It was literally a tarp covered hole in the wall, but Willie's wife was the cook and we were happy to support a local family business. We ate lunch with the roosters as they pecked up our scraps. After some beach combing, we ate dinner at a nice restaurant were we ordered 4 drinks, 4 appetizers, 4 entrees, and one dessert. That was pretty much par for the course on our trip, but hey, that's what vacations are for.

 

In Mexico, instead of having Hostess snacks, they have the "Bimbo" snacks. Of course, Bimbo in Mexico does not mean the same thing as it does in the USA, but Becky and I wanted to get our bimbo shots alongside one of the trucks. Aren't we sexy??

Here we are with a kind of creepy, but very talented street performer in Puerto Vallarta. He would come alive when you put money in his jar. We think he was covered in mud, but we are not sure. He was great.
  
  
  
These are some scenic views of our trip. We woke up to a group of pelicans every morning, just hanging out on the rocks outside our condo. The night pics were taken from our condo balcony, we had an amazing view. I hope you made it through this incredibly long post, but it was hard to squeeze a week's worth of adventure into one post.  Thanks to Grandmas and Grandpas for holding down the fort while we enjoyed much needed time away! I just want to know when the next trip is?? (It's like 5 degrees out right now).

Baby Kennedy's blessing day

 
 

 
 

 
 
Here are some pics from Kennedy's blessing day. After we got back to Bobbi's, Aaron and I did an impromptu photo shoot with little time and backgrounds, but it was fun. So excited to have another kid in the mix! 

Christmas Program

  
 
 

Last week was our kids' school Christmas program. I usually lend my choreography skills to Brady's class and a do a routine for them. This year, I did one for the junior high group as well. Brady's 5th grade class did a country swing routine to Dwight Yokam's version of "Run Run Rudolf". They learned the dance in two weeks and did just awesome. My Brady can really shake a leg. Haylee's group preformed an African piece that was quite difficult to choreograph. All in all, they did really well and had a lot of fun in the process. It was an exhausting 2 weeks, but well worth it when the entire auditorium lit up with applause and cheers for these great kids.

Tis the season for Christmas stress! May we all slow down long enough to remember the reason for the season.

We have a roof and windows!!.

We have hit a huge milestone on the house project. It can no longer snow inside the house! Hooray! While we still don't have shingles on, the sheeting is attached and our skylight views through the rafters are no more. It has been nice to see the roof lines of the house finally take shape. What looks like a huge mess of pickup sticks are our trusses. The sheeting material you see above those trusses is what is now keeping the weather out. I should have gotten a shot of the snow that still needs shoveled out of the house!

   

What an exciting day this was. My beautiful front door arrived, and yes, it looked like it did in the brochure! It is always so hard to bite the bullet and place a very expensive order for something based on a tiny picture on a brochure or web site. I absolutely love the front door, and can't wait to be able to put it where it belongs. The next 2 pics are of our windows being installed. They are not all in, but a good portion of them are done and I LOVE them. Again, they were a special order (I was very happy with) and they are a double prairie style etching. That's a fancy way of saying I can't take them back!! Notice the furry members of the work crew. 

  

The crew is taking a few week break for Thanksgiving, but hopefully we will be done with the "ruff-in" of the house before Christmas!! Speaking of Thanksgiving, Aaron and I are off to Mexico without the kids for a week. We leave late Saturday night, and get home the following Monday morning. We are so excited to go get warm and relax on a beach together! Thanks to Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Ron for holding down the fort while we are gone. We hope to get some pics posted from the beach! Happy Turkey day to all!

Who's that girl?!

  
Normally I am opposed to nudity, but everyone knows there is nothing cuter than a naked, chubby baby. The other day, Haylee came to get us and said, "You gotta come look at this." We walked into our family room to find Jolee reclined in her Mickey Mouse chair watching cartoons while buck naked. I don't remember taking her diaper off, but I am sure I did at some point. Luckily, we didn't find any "puddles" around.  Most of you don't know, but Jolee has been attending physical therapy 2 days a week for about 5 months now. She wasn't walking or crawling at 12 months, so we had her evaluated and enrolled for PT. Nothing was or is wrong with her, she just didn't have much motivation to move around. Anyway, she officially graduated yesterday and is now up to speed on everything she should be. She loves climbing stairs, doing puzzles, and walking/running everywhere she can. She tests highest at her fine motor skills; maybe she will be a great pianist some day. 

 

We have also officially started reading the Book of Mormon as a family....again. We have a deal going with the kids that if we finish the book by Spring Break, we will go on a family vacation. Jaron told his class today that "we are going to Maui when we finish reading the scriptures." We shall see.

Welcome baby cousin!

We had some exciting news in our family when we welcomed our new baby cousin, Kennedy Autumn Mason on Haylee's 14th birthday, October 30th.  She is such a pretty baby, with lots of dark hair like her cousin, Jolee. We were able to go to Anchorage on Saturday, after all the Halloween activities to visit with the family for a few days. As soon as we saw Kennedy, we all fell head over heels for her and there was lots of waiting in line for every one's chance to hold her. We stayed with Abby on Saturday night, which actually went really well considering she had been without her parents for three days. The following pictures are of Abbi and Jolee having a rough moment, them making up, and playing blocks very nicely with each other. 
   

Chloee just loved holding baby Kennedy. She was happy to tell everyone that her cousin's name was "Kennedy Autumn". She was a great big helper entertaining and distracting Abbi. Jaron and Brady loved spending time with Uncle Rizz, playing a Nintendo DS. 
  
  

The surprise of the trip was how much Jolee just loved and latched on to the new baby. Every time I tried to hold Kennedy, Jolee would come to me with her little hands outstretched, not out of jealousy, but wanting to hold the baby by herself. Bobbi was such a good sport, letting Jolee hold the baby A LOT! She would just sit in my lap, for close to 30 minutes holding the baby with a tight grip on her blankets. She was usually pretty soft with Kennedy, touching her nose, hair, and cheeks. The cutest was when Kennedy would make a little noise or squeak and Jolee would say "Oh, oh!!" and just laugh. Do you think she is ready to be a big sister??
  

Happy Halloween!!

 
 

Yes, the time is here once again for dressing up like idiots, eating candy until you're sick, and freezing your you know what off. We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat night, a relatively quick and painless way for the kids to get their night's haul. It's always fun to see what everyone comes dressed as. One guy was a fisherman from TLC's show "The Deadliest Catch", only he was dead. He was dressed in full, ghastly array with orange rain gear, bunny boots, and a corpse-painted face. Kind of morbid if you ask me.

My kids went as a mouse, a cute witch, a pirate, Harry Potter, and a celebrity look-alike wannabe. Good times had by all.