Friday, March 9, 2012

Cabo

About a week ago Brandon and I got the chance to go to Cabo with my parents, siblings, and their spouses.  It was our first trip without the kids, which was a bit stressful for me, but very fun.
After a few nights we got used to sleeping through the night for a change.  We would sleep in, and then head to the pool.  One morning we did water aerobics with Louis.  He was a highlight of the trip for me (with energy, in da water).  It is much harder than I anticipated, but as a bonus it taught me to count to 16 in spanish.
We lounged around by the pool 5 or 6 hours a day reading books, chatting, and napping.  Everyone had to perk up at 2 every afternoon for Mexican Bingo with Louis (jummy jummy, talky talky, don't be jealous, no bingo jump in da pool, he had so many funny quotes).  We ended up winning 4 times and didn't have to jump in the pool thankfully.
We also played some intense games of water basketball and water volleyball.
Baby Paige was the only kid on the trip and she was a trooper.  So good in fact that grandpa let her hang out in the hot tub on the porch one afternoon.
Brandon and I tried to take pictures of things we thought the kids would like. Various varieties of cactus
 some of the iguanas we saw
and the gunmen guarding our resort.  We had no idea that the week we were there was the G20 Summit.  Go figure it was being held at our resort, with Hilary Clinton, the President of Mexico, and important people from 30 other countries (I spent a lot of time trying to find every country but no luck).
This was a stop by the side or the road near our hotel.  They would pull over random cars (usually natives although my parents were pulled over once) by waving their machine guns at you.  We did see one guy get handcuffed - well roped actually.  As we pulled into the resort we were checked for bombs and asked for our room number and names multiple times, then metal detectors to get to our condo.  Very exciting.
 Brandon and the rest of the guys went fishing one day.  This is one of the yellow tail that he caught.
Then on the way in, Oscar the sea lion decided he needed a snack so they fed him some fish.  He turned his nose up at anything dead but once they fed him some live stuff he went on his way.
We ate some fabulous food, including one night at a restaurant where they cooked the fish the guys caught.  I had fajitas, but I heard the fish was great.
We did a lot of whale watching from the pool.  They came in so close and were putting on quite a show.
Other than that we lounged around and enjoyed ourselves. 
It was so fun to all get to be together.  Thanks for an awesome trip Mom and Dad!


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Toothless

Evan was sitting in the living room tonight and calmly said "I just pulled out my tooth."  Sure enough, he is now missing 4 (maybe 3.5).  Time to start the liquid diet.  There are 2 more loose - we are in trouble.

Other Christmas Pics

 Our attempt to get the kids in their cute church clothes.  Better luck next year.
 Our Christmas tree - it looked better before Grace redecorated it daily for a month, but still good.


 Evan is quickly gaining on Grammie, and he is very excited about it.
 When I was little my siblings and I sang "The Friendly Beasts" every Christmas Eve.  Our kids have now taken over the tradition and did a fine job this year.
 Graham helped out displaying the pictures for them.
 Trying to get the girls after church.  My daughter is always being goofy.
Another attempt to get all 3 girls - this time they all had matching outfits and bows. Go figure Grace had ripped hers out.

 The whole clan!  So fun to spend the week together.
 Grammie and Gramps and all of their great-grandkids
 Our little family.

Christmas Morning

Santa came through with a scooter for Kyle
and a ripstick for Evan.  Now if we could learn to use them.
Grace got this giant dog, which she loves still and says is "so cute."
Nice work this year Santa.
 
  We were with my entire family Christmas morning which was very fun.  Lots of chaos too.
 
 That is Grace's giant Minnie in the background.  She was a bit overwhelmed by it that morning, but since then has watched a few episodes of Mickey Mouse clubhouse sitting on its lap.
Evan had a mostly Diary of A Wimpy Kid themed Christmas with books, the dvd, and a puzzle.
 
 
 Kyle's favorite gift by far - his Angry Birds board game from my parents.  All 3 kids love it!
Kyle is into all things Angry Birds right now, which is funny since we don't own an iphone, ipad, etc.
Grace had a very Minnie themed Christmas.  The giant Minnie, a dog toy Minnie, a singing Minnie, Minnie sticker book, dvd, and Minnie beanie.  The girl loves Minnie, and she was very happy with all her Minnie stuff.
The kids had an awesome Christmas morning, got what they wanted, but not enough to overwhelm them which was great, and they are still playing with it all 3 weeks later which is even better.


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Christmas Eve


 Decorating cookies for Santa.  He is lucky he got any because our decorators were very hungry, and not so hygiene conscious.


After cookies we had our Christmas program.We did the 5 minute dash for costumes, then acted out the nativity.
 The shepherds and our half-undressed sheep.
  
3 wise men


Mary and Joseph
Baby Jesus examining the gold, frankincense, and myrrh ( 3 snickers tins)
The Angel delivering her lines.

 The innkeeper.
Somehow I don't have a picture of my dad as the narrator.


 After the nativity we opened new jammies, read The Night Before Christmas, and headed to bed.  Poor Evan kept looking at the Norad Santa tracker and was panicked he wouldn't be asleep in time for Santa.  He finally fell asleep when Santa was in Vancouver B.C.  Lucky for us, because Norad said we were Santa's next stop. 

December Catch-Up

I am so far behind in blogging...be patient while we attempt to get caught up.
 I found some great deals online so the boys got new sweaters they love.
 Evan lost a few more teeth.  He is currently missing his top two, and one on the bottom.  There are 3 more loose, but it looks like some may grow in before any more fall out.
 They thought they were so cute

I wish we could get more pictures of his regular smile, but this one is pretty funny.