Casa de Sirena in Puerto Penasco

The view of the ocean from our back porch

For Gracie's 7th birthday this past year, and to celebrate that Ryan paid off his dental school student loan!!!!!!, we rented a house on the beach in Rocky Pointe, Mexico for a week.  

We were secluded from the commotion of the city of Puerto Penasco, and had our own little beach oasis.

Early each morning I put on a jacket and took my bag and walked the shore finding beautiful shells.

This is one of the first shells Kjerst found, so it was a big deal!

The ocean was far to cold for me to venture in, but it didn't keep these brave souls from getting fully submersed.

They had so much fun!!  Next time I am bringing a wetsuit.  I think that will keep me warm!

Look at grammy taking a wave like a pro!  She grew up on the beach in CA!

Here "My Little One"  is frozen but thrilled with the Ocean.

Ryan and Gracie

The boys!

Jace didn't love the freezing ocean, but still he got in a few times!!

I got wet up to my ankles!!

I can't believe she is 7!!

Here's my birthday girl!!!  We bought this cake in town at Walmart.  It was not very good.  The food in Mexico is a lot different from the states.

Here's what a typical morning looked like.  Hugs and pancakes--great way to start anyday!

Lots of hugs!

Birthday cake for breakfast?!!

Kjersti is a little Momma.  She brought her Bitty Baby to love and tend on this trip.

Ryan brought board games to play in the evenings.

Gracie--taking her turn at Suspend

The sand was warm and cozy!!! So why not have your sisters bury you completely?!  Of course their timing was not great, it was moments before we were supposed to go into town for dinner!  So we had to wait for Christopher Robin to take a shower to get all that sticky, itchy, stuff off!

My favorite trio!!

A little nap in the sun!  Kjersti is a Mommas girl!  My other two have been Daddy's kids.

Beautiful ocean and darling kids.  Jace is in his famous squat.

He can sit like this for hours.  

He loved making dams for the waves to break.

He was mesmerized by the rhythm of the water. 

We found so many gorgeous shells

and a dead sea turtle!

My precious "Little One"

Grammy and Gracie were ocean buddies!

Morning group photo

My two Jills!!

                             I think they are crazy about each other!!!!

While we were there is wasn't uncommon for local residents to come and offer us goods for sale.  This nice woman and her husband offered corn braids and fresh fruit.  How could anyone resist that!!

Gracie was sooo excited to get her hair braided--but halfway through, I thought she would call it quits.  She said it was very painful.

She toughed it out and was thrilled with how it turned out!!

After watching Gracie suffer through, I was surprised that Kersti went through with it.

Half way through, I could tell she was miserable, but as they say, no pain no gain.

Pretty, darn, cute!! 

The fruit that Ernesto fed us while the girls were getting beauty torture by his wife was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS.  I am not kidding.  I thought fruit was only that good when you got to heaven. The mangos were to die for!!!--if they are in heaven that is.

I couldn't talk Christopher Robin into getting his hair braided, but he sure was happy to inhale a bunch of fruit!

At the front of the home we rented was this lovely courtyard.  This is where all the hair braiding took place.

                    On the roof was this beautiful viewing area.

Here we are all packed up, reluctantly taking our last look at the beautiful Sea of Cortez before heading back to the "land that I love. "

When we hit Phoenix, we stopped at Build a Bear for my Gracie Girl!  Thats what she had wanted for her bday present from us.

Jace decided to get a new pet too.

She is not excited at all!

It was a T-rex - bought with his hard earned chore money.  

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  I have to say, we were so thrilled to cross the border back into the USA!!!   It is a beloved country.   Going to Mexico was a good experience for my children, to see how other people live.  Ryan and I were a bit nervous the whole time we were there.  We had no cell phone coverage once we crossed the border, no road side assist, if we had car trouble, and I'm not sure how I would feel taking my kids to the hospital there if they got hurt on the beach. I made Ryan pack a very sophisticated first aid kit--and told him he had to keep us all alive until we crossed back into the USA! and he DID!!

A Birthday Surprise

At 1:00 PM on my birthday the Dr walked in my kitchen with a dozen beautiful pink roses in his arms and his signature smile on his face.  I thought he was just home for lunch, but oh no, he was home for the day!

He whisked me away on a surprise adventure.  As we drove across the desert towards Vegas,  I thought maybe he had gotten tickets to one of the shows.

But when we pulled up to the Boulder City, NV airport, I knew we weren't going to a show.   I saw a lot of vans advertising sky diving in the parking lot.  I told the Dr I was NOT skydiving!

Turns out he had booked a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon.  I thought for sure I wouldn't live to turn a year older.  Turns out, I made it out alive, and the ride was beautiful from the air.

I have flown over the Grand Canyon several times.  When the Dr was my handsome finance, some 15 years ago,  I would watch the morning sun come up over the canyon about every two weeks, on an early morning SWA flight.  We were engaged for 6 months and living in different cities.  I commuted to Phoenix to see him as often as I could.

Being so low in a helicopter was a totally different experience. 

Here is the Pat Tillman memorial bypass bridge by the Hoover dam.   The Pilot talked a lot about how Lake Mead is 150 feet low!

This is where the Colorado River empties into Lake Mead. 

That is very worrisome to me.  A large portion of the lake is dried up.  It's as low as when they first started filling it in the 1930's.  (via the Pilot)

 The Grand Canyon was as majestic as ever.  Riding in our helicopter  with us was a dad and his teenage daughter. They had come all the way from Iceland to see the Canyon.  They were sweltering in the desert heat, but loved the canyon.  Made me think about how fortunate I am to love so close.  

We flew down in the Canyon for a little bit.  Where the Canyon is owned by the Havasupai Native American Tribe, Choppers are allowed to enter.  The rest is federally regulated and not allowed.

My hope and wish was to get this beautiful Lion fountain delivered to my front porch from Lomelli"s Yard and Garden Statue shop located on the famous Route 66. 

And sure enough, it showed up!!!

It was a happy, fun day.  I love the Dr more each year, and my kids just add to my delight and joy.  Here's to another year in sunny AZ!

Just a Random Post

Thumper

This is a post I started about 3 weeks ago and never finished.  So now I will finish it.   

When I was young, around Gracie's age, I had the most delightful Easter.  My Mother became a Grandmother 3 months after I was born, so I was raised with my Mom always being "Grammy."  (And my Dad being, "Grampy.") Because of this, the holidays were larger then life.  They were beautifully decorated and planned for.  The house would be full of fun and bustle, as my sisters and their families participated in all the festivities with us. Easter on this particular year, was a large egg hunt inside and outside.  We lived on an isolated 7 acre plot of land in Santa Clara, Utah.  This plot of land was a dream land.  It was on the edge of a hill that overlooked the Santa Clara valley and the gorgeous red mountains of now Tuachann were our backdrop.  It was picturesque and perfect in many ways. 

Long story short,  on this particular Easter, my Mom came and found us (3 girls still living at home), and acting surprised,  wanted to show us what the easter bunny had left us in a box outside by our garage. We went with her, and to our joy, there were 3 baby bunnies in that box!!!  Well, I have been wanting to recreate that Easter for my girls.  But I have one huge dilemma.  The Dr, and my girls are very allergic to rabbits!!! And of course Gracie is in love with rabbits and wants baby  mini loped eared rabbit as much as I do.  

Well, on a Wednesday night, 3 weeks ago, I was driving home from the church with Jace, as I am now his Webelos Den leader and we had just finished an activity, and I saw this tiny rabbit hopping in the ditch on the side of the road, I immediately stopped the car and got out.  I didn't think it would let me touch it, but it did!  It was not scared of me.  I took it home for my Gracie and Kersti to hold and love.   I immediately began researching how to raise a wild cottontail.  But the information I found was not too promising.  The baby had a full belly and seemed very happy and healthy. It would not eat while we had it.  We tried everything.  I even tried to give it a bottle with kitten milk.  So we kept it until the following evening and put it back in the bushes by the ditch we found it in.  Hopefully it is living a happy and healthy life as a wild desert cottontail. 

Can you find Meanie in this picture?  Hint-- Jace

This is a picture of my kiddos getting ready for summer at Belair---our desert oasis!  I love it here!  This is all the patio furniture that needed to be sprayed off and dusted.  I think they had a very fun time  doing their "chores"!

These pics are self explanatory.  Even though we spent $413,000 on Ryan's education, we still have to take our kids to the dentist!!!  But luckily it is trade work, and no cost to us!!

So they get spoiled at Cerbat Dental, and we love Brandy--the hygienist!

The kids all had perfect teeth.  That's thanks to the Dr.  He is always getting in there and checking teeth and brushing techniques etc.  I am so uninvolved. When he goes out of town he has to remind me --to remind them-- to brush their teeth!  There may have been a few times in the past where he was gone for a few days on a business trip and we may--or may not --have remembered to brush even once!!

She doesn't get nervous to clean Ryan's teeth. Ryan is so king and easy going,  I would be surprised if he made anyone nervous!!

And this is the end of a random post!!  But we just got home last night from a celebration trip to Mexico.   So I will work on that post and hopefully get it up soon.