Isla's Weekend in Bellingham

Since we went to Bellingham for our ski weekend this year (see earlier post) it was a great excuse to bring Isla and have her stay with my parents while Ryan and I were with my girlfriends. Word is that she had a great time with Grandma GiGi and Grandpa. Grandpa got to spoil his granddaughter rotten with doughnuts and ice cream! Here are some pictures of Isla and my parent's condo (which should be completed in mid-March) from the weekend:

Mt. Baker Ski Weekend

For our ski trip this year, my college girlfriends and our significant others met up in Bellingham to ski Mt. Baker. While it was a blast to get together with all my girls, the skiing proved to be sub par. Unfortunately the mountain hadn't seen any new snow in a long time, but it was fun to go back to the mountain I skied on during my childhood.

Since two of the girlfriends are pregnant we decided that one of the days should be a spa day for the girls. We all enjoyed relaxing massages and sitting around talking with each other. Our significant others apparently enjoyed themselves while we were at the spa as we came home to a group of rowdy boys who started drinking at noon! I guess you can't blame them when we leave them for a day at the spa.

I was so happy to be back with my girls since I hadn't seen them since last May (way tooo long!). I'm so excited that we have two baby showers, a bachelorette party, and a wedding as excuses for us to get together in the coming months.

I was a bad picture taker this weekend so I only have two group shots from the weekend - one of the girls and one of the boys:

Vegas Baby!

So my dear friend Marjorie had the great idea to invite a group of girls down to her family place on Lake Las Vegas this past weekend. I have been down to Vegas twice before and both times stayed at hotels on the strip so it was nice to actually stay in a home for a change and be away from all the craziness. The house was absolutely amazing and right down the street from Celine Dion's house. I think someone had the bright idea to go down to her house on Friday night and serenade her. Luckily we kept on drinking and forgot all about it.

Molly in front of Marjorie's family home/estate: Photos of the inside:

Marjorie's good friend Heather would cook us fabulous breakfasts in the mornings:Mimosas in the hot tub on Saturday morning (check out the cool view):

On Saturday afternoon/night we went down to the strip to sight see, people watch, drink, and have some dinner (not necessarily all in that order). Here is the before picture of all us girls:

We went to dinner at Aureole in the Mandalay Bay. The food was very yummy and the conversation even better:

Laura selecting our wines for dinner on their electronic wine list. It is sort of hard to see, but it was more like a Kindle:

After dinner we went to check out the new City Center on the strip. It was quite the spectacle with it's leaning buildings. I was too close to get any real good pictures of it. Here are the girls getting ready to board the tram from the City Center to the Bellagio:

And the dancing photos:

The last picture of the night:
I want to send a HUGE thank you to Marjorie for hosting us. You are the hostess with the mostess! I also want to send a thank you to Molly who was our DD and drove us home at 3 in the morning from the strip - you are a saint!

Fiesta Bowl Champs . . . again

Okay so I'm way behind on my posts. Thank goodness I had a three day weekend so I could catch up! Going way back to the 4th of January - when the Boise State Broncos won the Fiesta Bowl . . . again. Ryan had his good friend, Ben, over for the game and this was how they watched the entire game (keep in mind they both have been BSU fans since they were born):And here is Ryan with his little BSU fan before the game:

Puerto Vallarta

Our Holiday trip to Puerto Vallarta was absolutely fantastic! There are so many things that I want to touch on so I decided a top ten list would be the best and quickest way.

Top 10 Puerto Vallarta events/things:

10. Isla's "Puerto Vallarta face". She had a hard time opening her blue eyes in the sun and was squinting the whole time, so the whole family nicknamed the look Isla's "Puerto Vallarta face". These two pictures capture the face quite nicely:

9. The cousin banana boat ride. Yes, we did it. The ultimate touristy thing to do - go on a banana boat in the ocean. My cousin Krista and I were half laughing/half crying the whole time due to our fear of deep water. We swear that jaws was right beneath us the whole time preparing to attack. It didn't help that we fell off the darn thing about six times. I also got a sore neck from the ride - I'm too old to do stuff like this:

8. Beck's birthday party. Isla's second cousin, Beck, turned 1 while we were in Puerto Vallarta and we celebrated with a "Where the Wild Things Are" themed party complete with party hats. Here is the birthday boy all dressed up for his party:

And the rest of the crazy family dressed up as "Wild Things":

7. Isla's naps. Isla turned out to be a wonderful nap taker while we were in Mexico. She fell asleep by the pool a couple of times and in her stroller when we were out at dinner. She never does this so I was so thankful as it allowed me to spend more time with the family:

6. The view from our room and our roommates, The Mojibi's. Isla had so much fun playing with her second cousins, Emma and Beck:

5. My cousin Drew participating in water aerobics every day at the resort. He even used two beer cans for added weight during the routine:

4. Isla learning to love the water. It took some time, but she finally decided that the pool wasn't so bad:

3. The iguanas. There were a couple of iguanas that lived at the resort and these things were down right huge and scary. They would just lie around the pool and bask in the sun. I steered clear of them as they freaked me out. Whenever I went swimming I was always looking behind my back for fear that they would be right behind me:

2. A visit from Aunt Anna. Anna was in a town 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta with her boyfriend's family and they came down for a day to visit us (well mostly Isla):

1. Spending time with the Detwiler family. We had kids of all ages (from my Grandaddy at age 91 to Beck at age 1) and it was so much fun just being together. I especially enjoyed being with Isla and watching her interact with all of her cousins.

If I could change one thing about the trip, it would be that Ryan was there with us. We missed him very much and were so happy to see him when we got home. Happy New Year to everyone!