The Gravitational Pull of the Moon.

Note that this is the first day and we are WHITE. We get consistently tanner as the pictures go on.

This is Sergio, Timmy's new best friend. They talked for at least an hour after dinner while I sat there wishing I new Spanish so I would know why they were laughing. The waiters made fresh guacamole at your table and we had some every. single. day. because it was deeeeeelicious. I watched it so many times I could do it with my eyes shut now. We made some when we got back to we could teach the kids but its just not the same here- the avocados aren't as good. Here's the ingredients:

Mexican Guacamole

4 avocados

1 tomatoe

little bit of garlic

fresh lime juice

fresh oregano

serrano chilies (spice)

1/2 a small onion

Meet the chocolate man.

Timmy fell for the classic "I didn't know he was real" joke. It was so funny.

Just wanted to note how nice it is to go out for dinner without kids. Its a whole new experience :0)

I should also note that we had tasty ice cream every evening after dinner.

I thought this was a beautiful scene so I took a picture of this random lady on the beach selling her wrappy scarf things.

Sandy toes.

We got these treasures for the kids. I'm thinking about using the conch to call the kids inside for dinner when they are down by the creek near our house.

How I love a good market. Tim was making all the Spanish guys laugh.

I was loving Tim's scruffyness while we were on vacation. He's always clean cut and that's nice too but I like the scruff best.

The kids always tease me about having donuts when they are with Gramma so I got this picture for 

them.

I'm trying to keep all my Mexico posts G rated but its hard since we were in our suits like 80% of the time. I turned 30 while we were there so it was a fun birthday. We went to this RADICAL Italian restaurant. So this may be my last picture without wrinkles, saggyness, gray hair and all the rest of oldness. As if turning 30 wasn't bad enough, to make things worse this older lady came to my house to deliver me a Birthday card while I was gone and she slipped and fell and broke her leg! It is the most tragical story ever.

In the tank at the restaurant.

This is just sick and wrong.

We took this picture in the dark, while we were sitting on the beach talking about life.

Love Birds.

More market stuff.

Lots of shopping time.

The last day. We were so sad it was over. I was so used to being with Tim every second that it was hard to leave his 5 inch radius when we got home. We may have to move there with the kids for just a year or something...

                                                            The eyeball moved around.

We had a crazy long 8 hour layover in Arizona. So we walked around and took the train downtown. Afterwards, Rachael (one of Timmy's best friends from BYU) met us at the airport for dinner. She hauled her three kids all the way to the airport just to see us for an hour but we were SO HAPPY she came. It really was the highlight of our trip and it made us want to try harder to see old friends because its always so worth the effort. She has darling babies and it was such a treat to see them.  Our kids are the same ages so it was painful to think of how much fun we'd have together if we lived closer.

We love this little family!!

Sometimes you get lucky

I've started a collection of these vintage 2-tier serving dishes. I don't know why, but I think they are so cool. I found this one at the Bargain Barn. Oh how I love the Bargain Barn.

Speaking of the Bargain Barn, Timmy found these cool tea light things there. I was so proud of him :0)

Lastly, we found this microscope there for one dollar! Jane has been inspecting all kinds of things ever since.

Bargain Barn FOREVER...

Birdies

There is this cool website where you can hear any bird call you want. Whenever we learn about a new bird, like this one, we like to hear what it sounds like. This is a Bohemian Waxwing. We just found out that they like to visit our apple tree.

LLLGGC

A few of us moms started a class for our daughters to learn more about notable women like Mother Theresa, Esther, and Jane Austen etc. We take turns teaching once a month. This month was my turn and I taught about Mary. It was so darling to have them come and do the little activities I planned. I turned the logo above into little pins for them to wear to class so they feel official and they also bring their folders to collect their work in.

                                                          Could not be any cuter!!

The sand is like flour. 

Fresh Guacamole Everyday For the Rest of My Life!!

Just the view from our third floor balcony. We can hear the waves all night.

 No big deal.

These are for our 4 biscuits we are missing

We call it "Cloudy with Meatballs", They call it "Raining Hamburgers."

Tim says I subconsciously close my eyes for every picture because its cute. That can't be true because its so NOT cute and I do not understand how I defy the statistical laws of blinking for a picture...

This was taken after church on Sunday. We took the 40 min bus ride to church and it was so good to attend with all the Mexican members. They couldn't believe that I didn't speak spanish and Tim does.

A sailboat like Uncle Eli's.

This one, and the next couple are for Charlie. He loves lizards.

Quotey Lotey

Tim can be way deep sometimes:

"There's nothing worse than a teeny towel."

Mexican Minimalism

One really shouldn't read Thoreau while in Mexico- it leads to far too many thoughts of abandoning ship and leading a slower, simpler and thorough way of living.

"For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor of my hands, and I found that, by working abut six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my winters, as well as most of my summers, I had free and clear for study."

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms..."

Balderdash

This is what happens when you play Balderdash with Uncle Jared...

Oubit:

A German monkey cork ball who does dishes in the dark while listening to Miles Davis.

Macropodine:

A Jewish tribe of obese turtle doves who can levitate in space.

Keedug:

Intergalactic underwear made out of licorice hand crafted in uranus by Dutch alligators.

Carotelle:

A nipple used to extract urine out of a donkey butt in Belarus.

It was extra fun playing this with Mariah. It was her first time and afterwards Tim and I both noted how well she played. I thought she was so cute about when Mark would pick her answer. She didn't tease him for it, she just loved him. Love birds!

cotton candy overdose

 Robyn, in case you were wondering if Jacob liked your gift... he's having the time of his life in every picture. I don't know what got into him- must have been the 3 pounds of sugar...

 This small cotton candy machine works like a dream! It fascinating to see the candy form like a spider web. Thank you Robyn!!!

 I will be posting from Cancun soon...because Canadians need sunshine too.

Quotes and Boats

"I like to live buried in my own thoughts like a tree stump in the earth."

-Murasaki Shikibu

 Japanese writer

Berfdays

On friday we went swimming and then stopped at the only Mexican restaurant around here for miles. One giant plate of Nachos. So good. You have to know that these guys have only eaten out a handful of times in their whole lives so this is unusually exciting for us.

 

Timmy and I stayed up until 3 am putting this baby together so that Jacob would find it when he woke up on his fourth birthday morning. He was so excited in the morning :0) Yes, the deer head is wearing Charlie's hat from cousin Shane. Yes, the deer head is now out of our house- but only after Timmy hid it in our teeny master bathroom with its head by the toilet. Upon discovering it in there, I of course squealed and woke the baby doing it.

 Uncle Jared got this blanky for Jacob's birthday and the cool thing is, Jacob is named after Jared and they both like to wrap themselves up like burritos with their blankies.

 Jacob also woke up to a big bowl of his favorite... RED PEPPERS. He ate one for breakfast and another throughout the day and few more the next...

Now little miss Jane turned 7 recently too. Jane loves to tell every single person she meets about it and she starts a good week or two before :0)

 I made her this healthy Raw chocolate cheesecake. Its mostly made out of ground nuts. Its heavenly. Thank you Amber for sharing your top secret recipe with me.

 Another birthday suit from Uncle J-dog.

 Mariah will appreciate my organic wrapping here. I got Jane a book about butterflies and a tea ball because she is constantly making tea. Rose petals, lemon, lavender, mint... She loves tea cups and pots and tea parties. She almost loves being sick so she can feel better with tea.