Mexico!

In January Phil's good friend from college, Zach, called and asked if we had any interest in joining them and another family in March in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Why, yes, we would love to, of course! Although not our first trip to Mexico, Phil and I had never been to the Baja Peninsula and it's been on our list of places we'd like to visit for awhile. We had never vacationed with another family before, let alone a family we didn't know prior to the trip, but it all turned out to be really fun. All 6 kids got along remarkably well and were easily entertained by the pool, beach, and each other.

We ate 2 meals, probably some of the best food in my life at Flora's Farm Restaurant. The grounds were huge and the kids loved running around there, looking in the pond with turtles, and petting the resident dogs while we waited for our food.

We went into town several nights for dinner. The evenings actually got a little chilly because the air was so dry. She was thrilled when the waiter offered her a warm blanket at the pizza restaurant.

Jack loved splashing in the shallow part of the beach-entry pool at the house we rented.

The nice thing about having a house was that we could eat a couple casual meals a day at the house, take naps as we pleased, and the adults could stay up playing games, watching T.V, etc in the evenings after the kids were in bed. Each family took one evening to shop and cook a nice meal for everyone and the other nights we went out to San Jose del Cabo, the mellow historic town 5 minutes away.

The hot tub and pool were in use almost non-stop from sunup to sundown. Here I was reading a Magic Treehouse book (some of Sasha's favorites right now) to Sasha, Tessa, and Big Jack (the 5-year-old twins) from the third family we were with.

Sasha discovered water wings on this trip which opened up a new world for her in terms of swimming.

The ocean was a 5 minute walk away. There were so many little beautiful shells to collect even if the water was too rough to get in.

February 2012

Bear with me while I try to get caught up on this blog! This one is a lot of pictures mostly that somewhat document what we were up to in February. It was a pretty low-key month with no travels. Anymore Phil and I remark though how our favorite thing to do is just hang out together as a family at home. I feel like we're getting close to the sweet spot with kids where they basically are a lot of fun and not so much work. Sasha is there, and Jack is getting closer all the time.

Sasha doing one of her many art/craft projects--probably her favorite pastime right now. She loves cutting, gluing, painting, making mosaics, doing color by number, writing letters and words, and taping the finished product on our walls.

We had a family birthday party for Phil's 37th complete with some of his favorite foods: grilled steaks, wedge salad, cheesy potatoes, and dark chocolate cake.

Good old birthday hats still make it a real party.

Phil and Sasha tubing. I can hardly believe that snow/ski season is over already. We feel bad that we only got Sasha up there once this year and Phil only went once himself, but it's just hard with call schedules, Jack's nap schedule and like I said before--we really just want to hang out together as a family on the weekends. In a couple of years we'll all be up on the mountain every Saturday hopefully.

This was after Jack's first real haircut. He sat perfectly still on my lap at Super Cuts while Sasha talked a mile a minute and entertained everyone. I think he looks so much older.

Jack definitely inherited the daredevil gene from Phil just like Sasha. He jumps off anything he can climb up to: the coffeetable, fireplace, couch. Last week he insisted on doing the zip line in our back yard. I of course had my hands there just in case he fell, but he held on by himself the whole way.

Sasha loves to dawdle in the mornings and act silly while she gets her clothes on.

This is what Sasha loves to do in the basement. It's pretty incredible and fun to watch really.

Sasha with her color by number that Dad created for her. We still call her "BEAN" hence the design. Lest I forget (this is my diary as much as it is a blog for others to read) Sasha is really into the Little House on the Prairie books right now. We are almost done with "Little House on the Prairie" and are looking forward to the next one. Just as much as she likes the books she relishes Phil's nightly bedtime stories which recently have been spoofs on the series. One night it was "Little House on the Volcano" where Pa didn't realize that he had built the house on a volcano that was soon to erupt. Little House on Shark Island, Little House on the T. Rex were other favorites.