Funky fruits!

We met my brother Nate and his wife Maile last weekend and tried to go out to eat. We found waits of an hour to an hour and a half at the three places we attempted to eat! Nate suggested H- mart in Tigard. Maile had already tried to get us meet her there a few weeks ago but it didn't work out. We had the best time! This is a huge Asian market with so many cool things! We ordered Korean and Thai food from the vendors inside. The food was great and there was no wait! We walked around the grocery store for over an hour and laughed at many of the crazy items they had on their shelves. Dried Flounder hanging on a rope, dried shrimp, twenty different types of anchovies and more! The fruit was so awesome! Our new favorite was the Jack fruit. It has little pods of fruit surrounded by stringing material that is inedible. The yellow pod fruit was fun to eat and our kids loved pulling it apart. Thanks for the great cultural experience Nate and Maile.

Sun Valley, Idaho

Whohooo-our old stompin' grounds.  The executive decision was made by non-other than Dave in order to celebrate his 40th brithday we must go skiing.  Together.  By ourselves.  No kids.  One more time-No kids.  I was easily convinced.  We lived in Hailey almost ten years ago and have only been back once and we were way over due.  A really quick plane flight and only a 15 minute drive to Mt. Baldy!  WOW!  At home we are just getting settled in after 15 minutes for our 2 hour drive to Meadows.  Delightful!  Two great days of skiing. On Friday I would guess to say there were only 300 people skiing.  No lines, no people on runs, no waiting! We even left the resort for lunch and we were back skiing in 30 minutes.  We had great sushi with some old friends Friday night.  Thanks a million to the Browns, Shaws and Cannons for helping us out so we could go without children.  

Imagine-Sunshine in Sun Valley!  

You've got to love the self-portraits on the chair lift and other locations.

A cute little sun right outside of the Sun Valley Lodge.

Well I kind of look like I just woke up.  I loved that all their pavers in their sidewalks are heated.  As a result there was never the slush on their sidewalks.

One of the four lodges at Mt. Baldy.  They are beautiful!

This photo was taken at the Round house.  This is the original lodge that has been there since 1936.  Sun Valley was the first ski hill to get chair lift in the United States in 1936.  This lodge is fine dining and they serve lunch and dinner up there.   We did not eat there.  It is almost circular and has windows almost all around the whole building.  This give a magnificent near 360 degree view of the valley.  

Everything is better with butter!

This video explains it all.  My child LOVES butter!  The actual length is about 30 seconds longer. I finally took the stick away from him. I think he would have eaten more, who knows?  Watch out Paula Deen!

Cute Freudian Slip.

Avery has been dying  to play the game "Authors" with anyone that will play with her.  Dave and Aurora were gone to Bishops chat, Cooper was in bed and it was time.  The game was introduced to us by no other than my amazing mother!  The game plays out much like "Go Fish."  The player tries to match the author with four or his or her books that they have written.  As we were playing tonight Avery was ahead, Myah was right behind her and I was losing big time.  I think I have ADHD when it comes to playing games with kids or this might be common among moms.  Myah was up and asked me if I had, "The Virgins by William Makepeace Thackeray."   Hmmm.... I thought to myself, "I wonder what type of book this would be and it is really too bad there is not another adult here to laugh with me!"  Avery quickly corrected her saying, "You mean the Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray?"  Another great game with my kids!

MEXICO

AHhhh!!  The water was absolutely perfect.  A perfect temperature, depth and great waves for kids.  This was where they lived.  Avery is  turned around looking for the next great wave.  They started looking for the "Big Kahuna."

We brought these inexpensive blow-up inner tubes.  One of the best purchases we could have made.

Ready to play!  The hotel checked out boogie boards to us too.  The ocean very gradually dropped off.  This made it perfect for kids.

Avery probably spent the most time out here.  She made friends with anyone out in the ocean doing the same thing.  They would all wake up first thing in the morning and say, "Can we go swimming?"

I love that feeling of hot sand all over.  I know this is what Cooper was feeling and why he spent so much time rolling around in it!

Avery-with a little exfoliation.  We found some great shells and many kids to play with too.  We were able to just walk down, drop all of our things and keep that area for the day.  We loved the waiters coming by and asking us what we wanted to drink.  

One of the three great pools.  We brought googles and dive balls and when they were not in the ocean, they spent the rest of their time in the pools.

We wore Cooper right out

Smoked salmon appetizer!  Yum.  There were a few different restaurants we could visit.  The ceviche was my absolute favorite here at Oceana.  I could have eaten it breakfast lunch and dinner!

Myah ordered "A Prawn" .  Dave had a great time ripping the head off.  When he finally got down to what you could eat Myah loved it, but she did say, "That is a lot of work for not very much food!"

Early one morning we left our hotel and took a boat to a beach area called "Las Caletas."  This was an amazing day.  The girls snorkeled with Dave for a while.  They were able to see all sorts of amazing fish and lots of jellyfish!  They walked backwards so they wouldn't trip over their fins.  Avery had a few questions about this matter!

This picture with "locals" was taken right when we arrived.  The birds were beautiful.  They flew over to the boat as we were getting off and shelled and ate peanuts more gracefully than any human.  It was a perfect distraction while the captain was docking the boat.

The girls were suited up right after we arrived.  They had an adventure filled time for the next hour.

Aurora feeding some ducks.

They had a cute little safety skit before they were all suited up to go zip lining,  donkey riding and  a ropes coarse.

The little monkeys loved Aurora!  It was so entertaining to watch my kids try and hold still so they would not scare the monkeys!  I loved the challenge.

Myah with her little friend on her arm.

This one needed a little better view!

Avery doing the zip line!  The girl helping them was so charismatic.  She made the experience even more fun.  Although I think they were at their maximum capacity of fun!

Myah enjoying the ride!

I think this was Aurora's third time.  They finally had to cut them off!

The kids all donned war paint after their "kids adventure".  Cooper even got a little.

Cooper getting ready to fill the bucket up for the 20th time.  He loved it!

This was hilarious!  They had a sea lion come up to the shore.  They are the craziest looking creatures, but very well trained.  It was trying to give Cooper a kiss, but, well he was all that into it!

The sea lion attempting to give Cooper a kiss. 

Relax with Dad in the tube?  That might last a minute and then there are other things to be done!

I have never tried paddle boating before.  If you haven't-YOU SHOULD!  It was awesome!  I could see into the water  perfectly.  The fish were great and it was such a fun way to get around in the water.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip!  No words need to explain!

We took a city tour of Puerto Vallarta.  This was the one thing we would not do again.  The driver kept trying to sell real estate the whole time and being in the van with the kids for 8 hours-way TOO long.  They told us it was between 4-5.  It was not!  We did have some amazing views and places to visit though.  This was at the top of some crazy windy road and we could see for a while.  I thought it was ironic that there were "salesmen" right as we got out of the van in an old beautiful neighborhood trying to sell us trinkets?

This was a gorgeous view.  The little boy that was also on the tour was hilarious.  He did not speak a lick of English.  Once he found out we spoke a little Spanish,  he talked to us the whole time.  Myah can understand quite a bit and she eventually couldn't understand, or it took too much effort to try and translate.  He talked and sang and talked some more.  I thought is was even more interesting that his name was Vladimir and he was from Mexico City.

Myah with the background of Los Arcos.   This was a beautiful view on the city tour.

Cooper finally fell asleep in the van.  We ended up landing at this restaurant called "The OK Corral" about 45 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta.  Dave and I could not grasp that there would  be a restaurant in the middle of the jungle and sure enough there was!  They owner was nice enough to make a little bed for Cooper so he would stay sleeping.

As we were waiting for our food, Dave and Myah took a walk and found this really cool plank bridge.  There were houses on the other side with no road access.  That is a long way to haul your groceries!

Aurora ordered a pineapple Daquari and Avery a lemonade.  They were to die for!

This was the meal I ordered for Dave and I.  My brain took a temporary absence from currency exchange.  I did not even look at the price of this meal.  Needless to say it was really expensive, but well, well worth it!  We had amazing Red Snapper  the best I have ever had!  We had lobster, Mahi Mahi and some perfectly cooked enormous shrimp!  This made the long van ride worth it!

Coop and Dave early in the morning.  Did the boy ever adjust to being two hours later? NO!

You can just guess where we found sand on this cute little boy!  He spent most of his tim running from the ocean to the sand and back.

Aurora hanging out at the edge of the "cold" pool.

Cooper and his Dad hanging out by the pool!

A beautiful sunset!  This was the last night we were in Puerto Vallarta!