Playa del Carmen

Yes, it was difficult, but we managed to have a good time in Playa del Carmen. Chris, Romina, John, Ruth, Joy, Ron, Race, and I spent a few days in a resort south of Cancun, near where we got married. The weather was perfect; hot and sunny (mostly), the water was warm, and the company great. Race loved the pool, he has no fear. Which, of course, adds to our fear. But all was well. It was a well deserved break.


Here is the view down the beach in front of our resort, gorgeous!

We spent quite a bit of time eating and drinking at the pool bar. What a surprise!! Geez, it's a tough life.

Ready...

Set...

Still set...

Go!!

Yea!

Daddy and Race in the pool in the evening.

Race loved this hammack on our patio in front of our room. We were almost right on the beach, you could see the ocean out the side window.

Race watching Daddy, Chris and Romina playing volleball.

Race loved the sand and the waves. Evidently, he is more accustomed to them now since our trip to Acapulco.

Life is good!
Juice is good!

And the hammack is still good!


Thanks everyone for visiting our site, see you soon!

¿Que Pasa Amigos?

Hola from south of the border. Just a few more photos to throw out there. Race learns and does more and more every day. He knows more Spanish than English now. If asked ¿Como le perro? (what does a dog say) The response is woooof woooof! We have also begun the "no" stage,¿quieres comida?(do you want to eat),NO! ¿Quieres leche?(do you want milk), NO! ¿Quieres jugo?(do you want juice), NO! However.....¿quieres Coca? (do you want pop)MAS!! Oh, and now I am Papi (pronouced Poppy) most of the time, and Da some of the time. So, here we go. First up, contrary to popular belief they actually DO have tractors here...See!!


However, this is still the preferred method of farming/transportation.



Madre y Padre are doing their best to get Race comfortable with the water. It took several attempts to keep the mask on for more than 4.3 seconds. But, he actually will try to put it on himself now.


Nobody has told Race that you are supposed to have water in the pool. So for now this is just as much fun.


And just because you don't have water to swim in, you can still get worn out.


Here is Race and Ma having a good time at "Casa Ocho" para cumpleaños de John. House #8 for John´s birthday.


Ok, hasta luego for now. We are going to Cancun this weekend so I imagine that will be the next post. ADIOS MUCHACHOS!!!

Wow, is that snow???

Basically, all winter here it was sunny and 70. Now, generally it is sunny and at least 80 everyday as well, except every afternoon it storms for an hour or two or three. And in the last month it has hailed at least 6 or 7 times during the afternoon storms. Probably due to the altitude here, the hail doesn't have time to melt. It makes quite a racket at work an at home, beating on those tiles. The kids are fascinated!



Hey! Race and his cool shades. Or dad's cool shades, rather. Let's go for a ride, beep beep!!

Our little munchkin, getting ready for bed. He doesn't appear very sleepy, hmmm...

Race Updates

So, in lieu of our lake, we bought an inflatable pool for the kids. And they love it!! They can’t stay away from it. Clothed or unclothed, they are always soaking wet.




Well, Race has learned how to successfully climb out of his crib. The first time caused quite a bump on his head. We thought he was able to accomplish this because he could reach the bed next to his crib, so we moved the bed, but no. He is able to swing his leg up over the side and it only took one painful fall for him to figure out he can’t let go until he is hanging down as far as possible before he lets go. Smartie! He climbs everything, and has no fear!! And here is on a trampoline. Mom was a little nervous about that!


Race is speaking more Spanish than English, and it is so cute!! Of course, sometimes it is a mix or he responds in English to your Spanish question. He usually can repeat the last word you just said. Or he’ll just shake his head yes or no in response (no more often than yes.)
¿Quieres comer? (do you want to eat?) Response: ¿Comer? ¿Quieres jugo? (do you want juice?) Response: ¿Jugo? Quieres banarte? (do you want a bath?) Response: ¿Bath? He still says car and dog and mom and dad, and he has begun to say “gracias” and “de nada” if you prompt him. It sounds more like “gacias”, we love it! He also can say peez (please) when prompted. "Peez" is much easier than "por favor"!

Mmmmmmm, breakfast burrito...

Hacienda Mariposas

This is a continuation of our trip to Santa Clara del Cobre (see the prior post). This is just pics of where we stayed, Hacienda Mariposas (Butterfly Estate). This place was beautiful! There are about 12 cabins (not rustic at all!!) on the grounds of 20 acres. They also have a small farm and greenhouse, and stables for their horses. One restaurant with a bar, and an area with comfy leather couches in front of the fire where we took our margaritas each night while Race played and ran around. The best margaritas I have ever had, by the way! And I don't drink tequila. I think it was the fresh squeezed lime.

There were only a few families there which made it nice and private and tranquil. I highly recommend this place!

Trip to Santa Clara del Cobre

It was a long weekend for us here due to celebration of Cinco de Mayo, so we drove over to a small copper town called Santa Clara del Cobre (Saint Clara of Copper). It is a 4 hour drive from home through the mountains. Wow! You should see all the copper items they make, and relatively cheap, too! We had a great time!

Race is into climbing now, anything that he can scale, or thinks he can scale, he's on it!! With a bit of help from Dad, he climbed up the side of this Gazebo in the middle of Santa Clara square (zocalo). Man, you gotta keep an eye on him!

Here is a photo of the church in the background, with a man taking a siesta in the shade of some azaleas.

Shot of the streets of Santa Clara and their copper wares.

Race in a HUGE copper batch tub. You can't really tell by the photo, but all three of us could fit in this thing! The cost, $12,000 pesos (a little less than $1200 USD). Very cheap!!! We priced then on the web between $5000 -$10,000 USD. Now the trick is getting it home!

Race playing in a large copper cauldron, also about $12,000 pesos. And they really use them to cook! In the background is a place where they do demonstrations of the hammering and molding the copper. There were 6 guys around a piece of metal, all with large hammers, taking turns consecutively hammering the copper. Perfectly orchestrated. Wow, they have done that a few times!

More huge solid copper pots. These are amazing! Some are bigger and taller than us!

Everything is made of copper here, including doors. Very neat!

One of the copper pots we all could fit in!

Here is a view of the town square (zocalo) lined with beautiful purple flowered trees (I have yet to discover what they are). The zocalo is surrounded on all sides by stores and restaurants. And each day was sunny and gorgeous! We really enjoyed ourselves. Disfrutabamos mucho!