Friends in Akumal

I got invited to go to my friends beach house in Mexico.  What a beautiful destination, I was super lucky to get to go.  Me and a couple of other friends who were also invited landed in Mexico and our funny driver stopped right away to get us a beer to toast our getaway.  When we arrived at our house, the accommodations were incredible.  Maybe 20 feet from sand?  The sand was soft as butter.  Seriously.  It was awesome, you could walk in and out of the house and go to the beach and back to the house.  It was so comfortable and accommodating.  Stan and the kids would have loved it.  Here is my cute towel swan. :)

 To start the first day off right my friend got me a coconut out of the tree so I could drink fresh coconut milk.  YUM YUM YUM!!!

 
We snorkeled straight away!  What an incredible sight.  Right from her beach location, we threw on the gear and walked into crystal clear water.  I saw a sting ray, turtles, moray eel, barracuda, sea urchins, all the fish in the sea and 3 old pirate cannons!  It was incredible.   Later in the week we went to this amazing lagoon where we so saw many interesting fish it was like we were in an aquarium.  It was surreal.   We also walked and jogged everyday.  We went on hikes around the area and found this gorgeous rocky portion of the beach.  It was really cool, I loved the brain coral!!

The food, which I was very nervous about before going, was INCREDIBLE.  Everything was so fresh and delicious.  Fresh ceviche, guacamole, yummy tortillas.  This is what we ate the entire time!  Just native food, prepared incredibly by my friend, we picked and picked and were never hungry.  Nothing too formal, just casual and so yummy. 

My sweet friend's fabulous mother who owns the houses we stayed in.  She has been traveling to Akumal since the 70's.

One day we walked around the city with our party friends (also family friends) and literally ate lunch for 4 hours.  We walked and stopped at one place, had beers and an appetizer... Then walked further, sat at under a tent and ate Lion Fish and I had ginger margaritas.  Soooooo FRESH and seriously fun.

Yummy pinacoladas on the beach. 

 Here we were on our last day.  The weather all 5 days was magnificent!  I mean just incredible that it can be so beautiful just 3 hours flight south of Dallas.  Wow.

Here are our trip bracelets!  So pretty! 

I feel so lucky to know such nice people.  They were sweet moms, who helped me get past all my anxiety about going and leaving the kids.  Of course none of this would have been possible without Stan and his mom watching the kids and basically shoving me out the door to make me go.  Thank God for them and everyone.  It was a trip I will never forget.

KanyeLewis

Looking for used car is a giant pain.  Looking for a car period is, especially if you have no idea what kind car you want.  After I test drove NINE cars, spent 7 months looking and almost buying a couple of times, we FINALLY found the type of car I wanted.  But, then, the next step is to find the right car for the right deal. We thought we finally found the right car, went to the dealer and took it for a test drive.  We loved it!  But after a long obnoxious negotiation period, the dealer would not come down to the price we wanted.  So, we walked out even though it was hard.  Stan said, "don't worry.  I found the same car in another part of town.  I'll go look at that one."  Sure enough, they negotiated and we were going to get an even better deal!  But, it was late at night and the guy said, "just take this car home, we will keep your car for the night.  Show it to your wife and come back in the morning to ink the deal."    It was so fun, Stan called and said he was on his way home with my new car!  I threw my coat on over my jammies and hopped in.  But, this car gave me the creeps!  It had some strange marks and it looked a little used on one part of the interior.  Then, I opened the console and low and behold, the previous owner left his cologne and his sunglasses and a strange piece of folded paper.  Ewwwwww.  And I mean Ew!  I took the cologne out and Stan and I smelled it... It lingered for a very long time.  We laughed about the Guido who previously owned this car.  Nope, this was not my new car.  Stan took it back the next day and got my minivan back.  Then, the other dealership called and said they would meet our price! :)  So, all turned out GREAT!  I had texted my sweet friend when trying to figure out which car I wanted and asked her, "Is an Escalade too flashy for me?"  She said, "NO!  They are great.  Although Kanye drives one."  LOL.  The kids thought this was hilarious and has now named my car, "Kanye."  So, introducing my new ride.  It's nice, we love it!

NYE14

We had a great New Years Eve this year with the kids.  We hosted the first part of our neighborhood crawl.  Everyone came and had their fill of a taco bar, drank, chatted and left. It was kind of nice and quick. Here is Stan with 6 empty wine bottles at 9pm. ;)  The girls invited friends over, so we hung out here, danced, did sparklers.  Then we went to our friends house who was having a party and stayed there a while.  Then back to our house for champagne and sparkling apple cider.  We did the countdown and the kids toasted.  Happy New Year to all!  Here is to healthy and blessed 2015!

Santa is so good

We had a wonderful Christmas season with our silly Elves (Elfonso and Lafawnda).  Anderson is a crack detective hunting these two down.  He gave the elves a little moose this year and they seem to love it.  The kids love to do their Advent Calendar everyday.  And they helped wrap so many presents this year.  We were ready for the big man to come and sure enough, he came! Santa really surprised us this year, he was so fun!  

Here was Alexandra's picture she drew the night before Christmas.

Here are my sleepy babies coming down stairs to see if Santa came or not!

 

Uncle John came and visited us this year, it was awesome to see him! 

Here is grandaddy ready to start Christmas, with his reindeer antlers! ;)  AG got a Garden Gnome, it was so cute.  Whitaker loved his new robe, Alexandra loved her new blue tooth shower speaker and Anderson loooved his flat brimmed hat and Android mini.  Just so much fun for them.

Merry Christmas to all on this day of the Epiphany.  We just took our decorations down today after we celebrated the Epiphany in Mass.  Here is to a wonderful new year.