Nuevo Vallarta!

Just two days back and we are already missing the warm weather, sandy beaches, sweet baby turtles and nice people of Mexico! We stayed at a fantastic resort called Dreams Villamagna in Nuevo Vallarta. We met some friends (two fams from AK). We pretty much spent every day playing at the beach and swimming in the pool which was just the kind of vacation we needed and was just perfect for our two little beach bums. We knew they were getting spoiled when after a couple days Theo picked up the phone in our room and placed an order for room service, "Hello, I want some two chicken nuggets pease, bye" and Brock was giving knuckles to the concierge and ordered a dirty monkey (virgin of course) from the bar. We got them home just before they became fully spoiled by hotel life :) Here are some pictures of our Vallarta adventures.

The view from our room and the resort from the beach.

We logged many hours at the pool! This pool had a gradual entrance and was great for the kids.

Fun in our room. Lounging in bed, admiring the towel elephant, and swimming in the balcony hot tub...what a life!

The sea turtles were the absolute highlight of the trip! On the second night we were there we were walking along the beach at night. My friend Kathleen and I were in the middle of talking about sea turtles and I told her I didn't think we would see any - two seconds later we spot a HUGE mama sea turtle coming up the beach (shows what I know!). It turns out our beach is a huge nesting area and that night was just the beginning of our sea turtle adventures! Each morning Cory and I would spot babies or freshly hatched eggs on our runs, then one morning we were at the beach with the boys and a baby sea turtle practically walks under our chair - we found the nest and intiated the discovery of 16 babies! They have a large conservation effort for these creatures on this beach and they try to relocate nests and babies to protected areas. So the 'officials' collected our baby turtles out of Brocks bucket (ahhhh, could this get any more exciting) and we met them later that night to release them at dusk (nope, doesn't get any more exciting than that). My pictures weren't great once the sun went down - no flash photo - it confuses the little cuties! The biologist drew a line in the sand and after everyone caked there hands in sand they placed a turtle in everyone's hand - Brock and Theo! Then on the count of three everyone put them down and off they went! SO AWESOME!

We also logged a trillion hours at the beach. The water and waves were perfect for playing and boogie boarding. The surf was full of creatures ...sand crabs, sand dollars, crabs, starfish and little surfing fish. The kids all got along beautifully! Talon, was so sweet with Theo and even carried him around a bit...it was the sweetest! Brock, to my great delight, loved playing volleyball with the big folks. He would run around like he was ready for a big play and was annoyed that he never got the ball. He got hit with the ball pretty good once, but he just shook it off and said, 'good thing I blocked it, huh mom?" Love my little guy!

Brock and I ventured into Puerto Vallarta with our gang of friends.

If the boys had any energy left we would head out on 'the town' (i.e. the lobby or ballroom) for the evening entertainment.

More Halloween

Happy belated Halloween! May the force be with you!

We had a fun filled Halloween weekend. First, we went camping at Cory's race. About 100 campers in the middle of the desert. Everyone brought decorations and a huge trailer of pumkins was delivered! So we pot lucked, carved pumkins, watched fireworks, and trick or treated from camper to camper...and lots of other desert fun!

Then we did trick or treating in our neighborhood - first stop Mama and Pa's (Oh sure sweeties, take as much candy as you want is about how it goes there :)) The boys, Yoda and Bobba Fett, were totally into it. Although Brock was only interested in going to houses that were decorated...the candy was just a bonus. Brock request that I dress up like Princess Leia, and Cory (who was not dressed up) just harrassed princess Leia and threatened to capture her later on - naughty!

And yes, Sonny, came trick or treating with us too!

Potty! Trained!

There is just nothing cuter than a tiny boy in big boy underwear! The potty training story goes like this:
- About three weeks ago we were home on a weekend and Theo was running around the yard naked(this is pretty standard at our house, don't judge me). Theo thought peeing in the yard was pretty fun and then announced he had to poo.
- Brock announces he has to poo too and I told Brock he should go show his Brother how. So off they go to the bathroom and Brock coaches Theo through his first BM. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever and went something like this...
'Theo just push, you're doing good'
'Mom, mom he's doing it!!!!'
'Yeahhhhh, Theo...I'm so proud of you...good job'
- We all made a huge deal out of this success and I praised Brock to no end for teaching him. Brock is Theo's number one cheerleader and I'm sure that is why Theo never went back to diapers!
- So big boy unders full time now for about three weeks - only 1 or 2 accidents the first week!
- Go THEO....thank you for living up to your easy-going reputation yet again! And thank you Brock for potty training Theo!

Apple Hill

We have had the most amazing Fall weather - which means we have been enjoying every bit of pumpkin patching, apple hilling, decorating, candy munching fall fun. We had some special friends,the Cropper's, fly in for a visit and we (the moms and boys, our friend Sarah with boy in the oven and her sister Rachel with brand new baby) headed to Apple Hill. Apple Hill is a network of about 50 beautiful farms with apples, pumpkin patches, ponds, animals, etc. - it is THE place to go for fall festivities. We enjoyed it all!

The hay maze!


One of many pumpkin patches.

All the boys loved the newest little boy - Gabe! We have another boy joining the fun around the New Year.

My sweet boys! Glad I snapped two of this shot - notice the location of Brock's hand...not really Christmas card material there.




Feeding the animals - Brocked loved it, Theo not so sure!



Maybe next year Brock will fit better :)


Here is the super cute house we rented! If you haven't used vrbo.com yet, you are missing out!

Our favorite pumpkin was this cute little grey one - love it!


Downtown Placerville.