Mexico Part 1

What an AMAZING vacation we had! I know it is a month later, but I feel as though it was yesterday. This winter has been SOOO long, this trip was exactly what we needed!

After we got my whole passport situation worked out, we finally arrived in Cancun! I instantly felt better walking off the plane and into the warm climate! Denny and Kathy met us at the airport, and I still laugh at the silly jumping waving action Kathy was doing as we got off the plane!!

We exchanged money for some pesos, changed into flip flops and started south for Mahahaul. We made a pitstop for a very cool "stump" table at a local Mexican merchant. He had neat baskets and furniture made from reeds and bamboo, felt very Mexican. Then we stopped to buy our lizard. Kathy and Denny have a tradition of adding a lizard for every visitor that comes. We got a cute one :)

The journey down was fairly uneventful. I could not BELIEVE how dense the foliage was! No way you could ever navigate through! Lots of cute mexican towns along the way with ladies and kids selling pineapple and oranges!

We arrived in Mahahaul and got the tour of the casita. They purchased it as a small concrete shack built out of cinderblocks. With a lot of creativity it they added a floor, living room and beautiful garden! Very much enjoyed coconut water and relaxing listening to the birds. Mahahual is a quiet little port town. When there is no cruise ship it is so quaint and calm....very relaxing, can see why Kathy loves it there!

The next day we headed to the beachfront property about 10 miles away. Kathy had purchased this tree and it had definitely grown! I had to sort of straddle it on the way to the beach to get it in the car! No one even looked twice as we drove with this tree in the car...quite funny :)

The beach house was just AMAZING! Both Kathy and Denny have designed it from the ground up. Completely runs off the grid with a cistern, solar power and back up generator! Words cannot describe how lovely it was :) Their view is absolutely amazing, and really felt quite isolated. We enjoyed working, cleaning up the neverending rubble that ends up on the beach, raking and getting rid of some of the "burnt mangrove" evidence, and watching the workers and their acrobatics!

The workers had burnt more than the allowed amount of the protected mangroves. Kathy and Denny were working through that...but it was truly scary to watch them work. All working in flip flops, some balancing on ladders tied together with rope! Balancing cinder blocks on their heads as they walked up the makeshift ladders...I'm amazed no one got really hurt! The workers just live onsite until the work is done, it really is quite different than here!

Further down the beach you can see what virgin beach looks like....every plastic possible container from the last 30 years there. Also looked for lucky sea beans from Africa!

As Josh and I were exploring the beach we came upon this awesome piece of driftwood...it smelled like a decaying animal and weighed hundreds of pounds but Denny and Josh floated it in the water to get it to their beach.

It was sort of overcast and cold, so I avoided the water that day. We went into town for dinner and they have the cutest boardwalk and little shops/restaurants...I just loved it.

 I had such great food the whole trip, every kind of taco imaginable, shrimp, fish, it was divine!
 

New Year's Eve

 This year we actually had a grown up, not in bed by 10pm New Year's Eve. Tara and Chad hosted a theme party murder mystery. A few weeks prior to the event we got a package in the mail that specified our characters and what we would wear/how we would act, etc. That night we got money and another note with things we knew and what we had to find out.

After the murder we got another note that gave us more information. It was terribly fun! Josh was the sheriff and he won for best costume! He actually had a human hair mustache (ew!) and did a great job of acting the whole night. I giggled everytime I saw him tip his hat and say "ma'am." I was some floozy who worked at the "bar" and I was one of three that actually solved the mystery!

We had such a good time, was fun to just be silly. The kiddos had a fun night at Gona and Bacas

Is this not the sweetest little note ever?

LOOK who is potty trained!

I could not be more proud of this little monkey! In the span of two weeks he went from a baby who could care less about pooping in his diaper, to a fully potty trained little superstar! He tells us when he has to go, climbs up, takes care of things, flushes and washes his hands....without even needing us! It is so liberating!!!

Still wearing pull ups at night...but man...what an amazing feeling! We tossed the diaper changing pad, diaper pail and training potty and had an almost office space moment of euphoria. While I am sad to see my babies grow up - couldn't be happier about this milestone being behind us!!!

Crocker Fun Night

As per tradition we attended Crocker Fun Night. Plenty of silly games and junk food! We got there early which was great to get to the bouncy houses first! Then we played a few games and quickly realized that the most coveted prize were these ridiculously loud horns. Kenna's primary mission at that point was to get her hands on a horn. So she kept asking kids that had horns where they won them. We found the games and played them. Of course, Zachey won one right away...Kenna tried multiple times and didn't - were all games of chance....

She became more and more anxious and actually uttered the words "If I don't get a horn, I will never be happy again." OMG. We need a life lesson here. We had pizza and the quest continued. At the end of the night Kenna left hornless....they ran out with about an hour left. I think it was good for her not to get it, to see that it was silly, and to show her that her brother was a good sharer. Zachey was more interested in the ridiculous lips and suckers!

Valentines

 Oh boy, did we have fun making valentines this weekend! I love to pin fun things on pinterest. I saw the good minion and thought it would be fun for a valentines box. So, Kenna and I got out some construction paper and went to town. She was way too hard on herself, but it ended up really cute!!

Zachey got bored halfway through, so we skipped the legs ;)

She thought it would be funny to replace her picture with that of the minion :)

Here are the valentines we are making this year for Kenna's class. Below are the ones we made for Zachey's :) What fun!

Just havin a little dance party

Zachey is often in his little world, playing an imaginary game, or acting out some movie he saw in real life. I caught him here having a little private dance party....pretty fun :) SUch a handsome boy!

McKenna got BRACES!

 McKenna has been going through the "getting ready for braces" process for a few months. She has had to get her eye teeth all pulled (4 of them!) had spacers put in, and finally on Friday she got braces! She has 4 brackets on the front, and two in the back on the top and bottom. Should help straighten her teeth and get them lined up for a potential round 2 when she is older!

She handled it like a champ! So brave for someone who is only 7!!!