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!

Grandpa is Coming to Town

Since my Dad won't be able to join us down in Mexico for Christmas he made a special trip out to Boise this weekend to celebrate an early Christmas with us. He didn't end up getting into Boise until Saturday afternoon due to weather and plane issues so we only got a short 24 hours with him. We thought it might take Isla awhile to warm up to her Grandpa since she hasn't seen him in a over a month, but she actually took to him right away (I think the plate of cheese my Dad had may have helped):

Ryan, Isla and Grandpa at dinner:

Isla got to help Grandpa open his Christmas gifts:

Grandpa spoiled Isla and got her a 4-wheeler, which she loves:
I think Isla stole her Grandpa's heart when she called him "Grandpa" for the first time while he was here. Although it was a short visit we all spent some quality time together and we were so happy that he came. We love you Grandpa!

Santa Claus & Holiday Pub Crawl

We had a weekend full of fun Christmas parties for the kids and parents! First, Isla was invited to Meredith & Delaney's gingerbread house party. The kids decorated their houses in all kinds of candy while the snow fell outside. After the decorating we had a very special guest . . . Santa Claus himself. It was a perfect day to get into the spirit of the Holidays.

All the kids sitting patiently on the sofa waiting for Santa:

Isla wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about when Santa came:

She slowly warmed up to him and waited patiently for her turn to sit on his lap:

When it was finally Isla's turn I put her up on Santa's lap expecting her to burst into tears. To my surprise she actually sat on his lap for a good minute before the tears came. I was so proud of my brave little girl!

All the younger kiddos playing with Eli's toy that he got from Santa:

After the kid party on Saturday, Ryan and I got all dressed up for the parent Christmas pub crawl that night. Grandma Connie came down to Boise to stay with Isla so her parents could party it up! And party it up we did.

Ryan and I pre-party:

So the invitation to the Christmas pub crawl said "dress to impress" and the Kearneys and Glavins took that to a whole new level. Their outfits had me laughing all night:

Here is the entire group at the first bar:

Second bar:

Third bar (you will notice that the group shots are starting to go down hill):

The fourth (and final) bar:
The pub crawl was a definite success!

Beans in a Box

In the past couple of weeks our Isla Bean has discovered that it is much more fun to play with her toys in the toy box. She is quite proud of herself when she crawls in:

Turkey Day

For Thanksgiving we headed up to Sun Valley to see Grandma Connie and Papa Randy. We were also lucky to have Ryan’s uncle Johnny join us as well. Isla was so excited to see the boxes of toys that Grandma Connie had for her when we got there:

She had so much fun playing with everyone on Thanksgiving day:

Isla enjoyed rocking in Papa Randy's childhood rocking chair:

On Friday, after a grueling workout with Connie’s trainer, we headed home so Ryan could freeze his booty off at the Boise State Game. The rest of the weekend was filled with the Holiday parade (Isla loved the bag pipers), an Apple Cup party at the Kearney’s (even though the cable company screwed up and didn’t show the game we still had a great time – thanks Kearney’s!), and a little bit of work for me.