Reindeer!

On Tuesday Abe's school took a little trip to see the reindeer at Swanson's nursery. Having lived in a town where reindeer are penned as pets in people's yards, it actually exceeded my expectations. Abe was most impressed by the donkey and camel. There were also 2 reindeer. We saw them sleeping, and for some reason Abe asked if they'd brushed their teeth. I told him that I didn't think they had, but it was okay, because they didn't eat any sugar. Well, that really made an impression on him. Now when he tells people about the reindeer and how they don't brush their teeth.

Curly and Moe were the names of the camel and donkey.
We had circle time in the hay next to this little sleigh they had set up.

There was a pretty cool model train set up that all the kids enjoyed watching.

"Shhhhtays in Mexicoooooooo!"

If you get the song reference in the title, way to go.

Here are a few more pictures of our trip in Mexico. One thing I will miss down there is how warm it was. It was HOT!!!! Even if you were relatively cool in town, by the time you hiked up back the hill to our house, you would be soaking wet and on fire. Good thing the pool was there to cool down every time.

Hannah found some hikes we could do around town, so one day the kids (i.e. everyone minus the grandparents and Abe) tried one. It was just a hike on the same hill that we were staying on. And by 'hike', we just walked up a really steep road. But the view was pretty nice, which was similar to the one from our house.
Grandpa Clave brought his iPad with him, which meant lots of Angry Birds and some can game.
At la playa de muerto we helped Abe make a sand castle. I think we had more fun than he did.
Ole!!! Abe and Emily sporting some local flair poolside. Abe sure looked good in his sombrero (and 100 SPF flame suit).
This is the scorpion spider Calvin was writing about. After playing games one night Jacob and Jenilyn went down to their room, and a few minutes later they were back up with us. Jacob said he saw the biggest spider of his life, with really long legs and huge body. Then everyone decided to go try and kill the sucker, but I missed all of the fun because I was getting Abe back to bed. But I could hear Hannah scream a few times all the way from downstairs.
Abe and Jenilyn at the main beach of Sayulita.
Abe and Emily holding hands.
We had an umbrella at the house that we could use to give us shade. Here Abe is with his new friend Nick, helping him burry the umbrella so it won't fall over.
Here we are at La Playa de Muerto. I think it's called that because we walked through a graveyard to get to the beach. We set up in the shade so we could cool off after playing in the ocean.
Abe getting down an dirty in the sand.

We'll post some more pictures when we get around to it.

Casa del Cielo (House of the Sky)

Adios. This was taken by our driver to the Airport. He knocks on the door and says its time to go. We said we didn't expect him for another hour. It turns out that our time was off by an hour the entire week.

Marrietta Island, an uninhabited national park.

Humpback Whale

We stayed at this place about 25 years ago.

What a life, eat, play and sleep.

Abe's new amigo.

Beach Bum.

Boogie Boarding

Our Daily Churro's that only cost a few pesos

We liked to eat loco

Play del Los Muretas, a small beach used mainly by Mexicans

Snapper at Captain Cooks.

Salud

Jacob & Jennilyn's night to cook. I was banned from the grill.

Chicken Mole, Chile Relleno, Cammarones (shrimp), rice, beans & flan prepared by our housekeepers, Alma & her daughter in law Sonia.

Abe's new outfit.

Hey look, there's a Baby Ruth in the pool.

Our house was at the top of the hill, although it was only a short walk into town & to the beach. There was a big open living space with a nice kitchen. There was no exterior wall, only the open arches. It never gets cold there. Abe really liked skinny dipping in the pool making blueberry soup. Although he did have a couple of "accidents" in the pool (hopefully the people who are staying after us do not follow this blog). We had another bit of excitement one night. Jacob found a huge spider in his room. We think it was a scorpion. Emily can post a picture of it. Most of our time was spent going to the beach, eating and napping. One day we took a bus into Puerto Vallarta. Another day the kids took a snorkeling trip where they say humpback whales & dolphins. We booked the trip from a guy on the beach at a fraction of the cost of one of the organized tours. Everyone had a good time, despite the little mishap with the grill.

The Mexican Burning Man

We're having a great time on our trip so far. The casa de cielo where we're staying is a short walk to town. This morning we hung out at the beach. The water is nice and warm, and Abe loved playing in the sand. Tonight for dinner we were going to have BBQ chicken...

Clave was getting the grill ready outside when we all heard Hannah scream bloody murder. Then we heard a loud splash. We all came running to find a fire on the ground and Clave running around in the pool. Clave 's face and chest caught on fire. I had to pour water over the fire on the ground, it spread into the inside of the house because the lighter fluid spilled. And jenilyn used her nursing skills to treat poor Clave. He has a few black spots on his face and is missing his eyebrows and eye lashes. And he is all swollen. Hopefully the rest of our trip will be less exciting.

UPDATE:

I went to Harborview today, which has the top burn unit around. They said it is healing nicely. The scarring is hard to predict, but they thought my face should be as pretty as it was.

All Hallow's Eve

On Saturday Abe went to his pre-schools Halloween party. There was lots of tasty food and good costumes. For group activities everyone did the Hokey Pokey. Then each class had a dance-off. After that, they had had a costume parade outside around the grass. Abe saw a few of his fellow Tots-classmates as well as other kids.

Alex as Wonderwoman and Lucy as a Lady bug - both in Abe's Tot's Class.
Caleb the Astronaut enjoying some festive snacks.
Abe, Lucy, Hana and Caleb semi-posing for a picture on a pew. This is about the best you can do when they're this age.
Abe really liked to dance to the music in the corner of the room. Here he is getting down with Dad.

On Halloween Abe dressed up like Joshua Giraffe (you know, like the Raffi song), Emily dressed up as a spider (thanks to Kaite) and Banjo as his classic Banjo-latern. We hit up just a few houses after dinner. Abe was real excited to go trick or treating and have people "put cand in bu-ket".

Everyone posing before we head for our Trick or Treating fun!

Abe getting some candy from our neighbors across the street.

Dad had to have some candy for the boy when he got home.

Abe checking out his loot. He got one piece of candy before bed. And he was nice enough that he wanted Mom and Dad to each have a piece as well. Abe chose a Twix for his piece, gave Dad a 100 Grand, and Mom ad KitKat.

Dirty mouth = satisfied boy

Pumpkin Patch--first attempt

A few weekends ago Neil went to Las Vegas with his brother, so Abe and I had a nice 3-day weekend to the two of us. On Saturday we went out to Woodinville with Sarah, Katie, and Frannie to the Hana Andersen outlet, and then to a pumpkin patch.

The weather was great! And the bees were out. We were there for about 5 minutes, when I turned to see Abe swatting a bee from his face. It ended up stinging him right below the eye, and that ended our pumpkin patch fun. He had a few hives on his body, so the consulting nurse consulted us to go to the ER. So off we went.

The little guy looked quite pathetic, and now has a fear of pumpkin patches. When we went last week it was raining so I lead him to believe that bees don't like the rain, so he would be safe. Also, he now associates bee stings with popcicles. He got two out of the experience. And, now I have a bottle of benadril on hand.