Our Favorite Things about Thanksgiving in Puerto Vallarta
Aaron:
kayaking, surfing and boogie boarding
fresh limes (& Todd's limeade special)
being barefoot all day
catching Enoch jumping into the pool
digging in the sand with the kids
Tiffany:
riding bikes
watching dolphins from the deck
lime-flavored Bonafont water
swimming w/ my kids
low tide
Addie:
swimming w/o a life jacket
jumping waves
taking warm showers
shopping on the Malecon
Kinder Eggs
playing Uno
boogie boarding in the waves
Quinn:
collecting shells
playing with the inflatable crab
taking warm showers
Kinder Eggs
....more shell collecting
Enoch:
the elevator (pushing buttons & jumping while it was going)
gathering coconuts (& throwing them in the pool)
the sand showers
swimming (false sense of confidence)
watching the pelicans skim the waves
Special Edition: Back to the Beach
October Chronicles
We had another year of 31+ days of decked out Halloween at our house. The highlight this year being a battery operated witch that hung outside our front door and cackled at every noise activation. Most kids were scared of it. One attacked it out of fear and broke part of the motion half way through the month. By the end of the month her cackler was breaking down and she settled for a stinted but loud and sharp "Ha!" at every loud noise. This was particularly funny when Aaron was chopping wood and got repeatedly laughed at with each swing.
Half way through the month Dad had a recruiting and interviewing trip to BYU and I put in for a ride up so we could get away for a few days and see family. The girls had fun carving pumpkins with McKay and decorating cookies with grandma, among other fun with family.
Addie was excited to be star of the week at kindergarten. She loves school. They studied the rainforest and she took in an album of pictures that grandma sent from her trip to the Amazon. That was a hit. Then they studied bats and now, dinosaurs! All our friends and family agree her school picture is "so Addie." She especially reveled in a very scary costume this year. She made most of her friends nervous. She has been planning that since last year; and though I am not at liberty to disclose it, she already has a plan for next year. Quinn informed me, "Enoch wants to be a box next year."
Quinn and Enoch both started a Kindermusik class this month. I was hesitant about it, but they absolutely love it. Enoch steals the show with his enthusiasm and cheerfulness; to say nothing of his cheesy grin. In fact, that is kind of the name of his game wherever we go.
If people don't fawn over him at the store he repeatedly calls out, "hi! Hi! HI!" until they acknowledge him. When they do fawn, he gives them an unemotional stare for a few minutes driving them to increase the level of gushing until it is at a truly humiliating level for public display. Then just when he has them where he wants them, he flashes that cheesy grin as if to say, 'jokes on you fool!"
I have to acknowledge that we are making progress with him and shopping though. The girls were always great shoppers and I foolishly thought it was because I was such a great mom! HA! Then along came Enoch.
He obviously couldn't walk the aisles freely: too much independence fostered in the unsupervised 3rd child.
He couldn't ride in the designated child seat because he can houdini out of the straps then dramatically stands up slowly saying, "whoa! whoa! whoa!" louder and louder as he slowly stands up with arms spread wide. It's totally a show and all the passing by shoppers think I am such an irresponsible mom.
The last resort was in the basket. The problem here was threefold:
1. he sat, stamped and squashed everything. Including bouncing on the bag of chips.
2. he opened things I didn't know he could open and proceeded to feast. or
3. He 'unloaded' everything over the sides of the cart faster than I could pick them back up.
His latest shopping skill is a bit more manageable, but is still heading me for disaster: he uses everything in the cart to build the highest possible tower. I'm getting really creative about getting to the store without him.
Aaron's adventure this month was a successful hike from rim to river to rim. Our friends Aaron and Annika Lovell paid us a visit and the boys hiked South Kaibab - Bright Angel on Saturday. Meanwhile the girls had a party the way only girls can. We went especially out of control making flower hair clips. I'm pretty sure Addie had about 30 lined up for us to glue. We cut her off after about 20.
She meticulously does her hair by herself every morning. We were running late the other morning (wait, that is every morning for us), and her dad called her down to breakfast. She said she would be right down after she fixed her hair. When she had used up 13 of the only 15 minutes she had I went up to 'help out' and speed things along. Instead I was told, "stop! mom! everywhere you touch you are messing it up!" I couldn't believe this was my 5 year old and not a 15 year old. So I retreated, concluding it probably wasn't a big deal to be late....again.
Mommy Anecdote: make what you will of my day by this summary of our family's debut at the ward trunk or treat: I don't sign up or bring anything for the dinner, I forgot a can for the food drive, I didn't wear a costume myself, and we parked on the back side of the church and snuck over to the trunk or treat without contributing; then we left early. Life is full of give and take. Maybe next time. (sorry to any ward members who read this and realize how much we took advantage of them!)
September Chronicles
The two most exciting events of the month were a new trampoline in the back yard!
and a visit from Nana and Papa. The kids loved making caramel apples with Nana.
more to come....
August Chronicles
A month of Firsts:
I ran my 1st 5k in... a long time. But, I surprised everyone (my kids, my friends, my husband, myself) by placing (3rd not 1st) in my age division. I'm still in the 19-29yrs. category so I thought I'd barely make it over the finish line compared to all the college kids in town. Aaron pointed out that my 'success' was a result of all the runners in my division running the 10k instead. He asked if I was going to enter that next year. I said, 'no way! The 5K is where the hardware is at!" So to all my high school-turned-mom pals, I'm still "bringin' home the hardware" too, just not as fast as the rest of you. No, I deliberately did not post my time and won't. Dad and the kids did the 1 mile race together while I was running the longer loop. I also did a 7 mile Climb for a Cure Cancer Walk with Angie. Such a fun experience. No medals for that, just a bright blue t-shirt and an Outback Steak House lunch....served at 9am to all finishers...I guess that counts as another first too!
Addie started her first day of kindergarten this month. We did a little 'school shopping' (literally, but that is a longer story than this blog) and she is now a happy member of Mrs. Bryson's kindergarten class at Knoles Elementary. We are NOT the firt ones there every day. School starts at 8:30 every day, and that's when we leave the house to walk all 4 of us up there. Most days we get there before attendance is turned in. Some habits never change, as my mom pointed out.
The girls and I entered the county fair for the first time. Addie and Quinn both got first place blue ribbons for their cookies and watercolor paintings. Aaron hates fairs to the point that he wouldn't even go to show support for his girls. He went canyoneering instead. So we recruited my mom to come down for a visit over labor day and spend a memorable day at the fair with us. The most comical irony of the whole experience was that I recruited friends and their kids to enter with us and every single person who entered because of my influence (a total of 10!) earned a ribbon...except me. And I had 3 entries. One of which was a jar of the jam that Angie and I made together, hers got a blue ribbon. Another was whole wheat bread, and as far as I could tell I was the only entry in that category and I still didn't get a ribbon by default! I consoled myself by remembering that at least my family likes my homemade bread and jam.
