Thanksgiving +

Apparently last week's blog never got published and was sitting as a draft so I guess today is a two blog post kind of day.  It seems par for the course for life right now.  I feel like I am kind of getting steamrolled by everything, but I am running as fast as possible and there are brief moments where I actually feel ahead.  More on that in a second.

This week was Thanksgiving and we truly have a lot to be thankful for. Things are good for both Jeremy and I at work and all the kids are thriving in school.  If it wasn't for Merrick's pesky heart condition, things would be really great right now.  I so appreciate this time of year to come together with family and count my blessings.  This year, we celebrated the day at my sister, Emily's, house with her kids, my parents and my nephew and his girlfriend. We had delicious food and Carrigan even helped by making the baked beans this year.

Post Thanksgiving, we finally made the girls' Christmas decorating dreams come true.  All of our neighbors have had their lights up since Nov 1st and it has been making the girls crazy that I wouldn't let them decorate until after Thanksgiving.  Friday morning, however we were all in.

We started by getting all the Thanksgiving decor put away and then got all the indoor and outdoor decorations put up.  The girls were super excited because Auntie stopped by with a new blowup for us to put up in the yard.  Well actually she brought three, but since we have zero exterior outlets and we are trying not to overload the outlet in the garage and burn the house down, we settled on just one big one.  The girls also enjoyed creating a "tree theme" on one buffet, with all of our tree themed decorations.  They were tremendously helpful in getting the decorations up.

Saturday, the holiday theme continued with an outing to get the star of the show, the Christmas tree.  The farm we went to was a bit of a drive, but worth it with hot chocolate, cider, and ornament making.  Jeremy kept vetoing trees for being too short, so we hiked all around the farm and ended up with a nine foot beauty.  We waisted no time in getting it home, getting lights on it and getting it decorated.  Again, the girls were super helpful.  There is no way I could have gotten it all done without them.  I guess it's time I scale back my ODC and hand the reigns off on more things.

We ended the night on Saturday with a trip to see the big guy himself, Santa.  My big guy, Merrick, was not sure he wanted to go and refused to get dressed up, but was a good sport and participated none the less.

It's just under a month until Christmas and I actually feel ahead of the game in checking off the Christmas "must dos".  That was by design though because I feel like we will lose some time around Merrick's surgery.  We have just under two weeks until that and we are all looking forward to getting it in the rearview mirror.

Back on Track

 Apparently I forgot to blog last week.  Not sure how one just randomly forgets something that they have done for the last 12 years, but here we are none the less. Perhaps it is because Merrick started back at basketball and we were off at a tournament for a good chunk of the day.  This year Merrick is on the select A team.  It's going to be a big commitment, with tournaments in Washington, Phoenix, and LA.  His first tournament went well with big wins in both games.  Merrick held his own with the A team but did have an incident in the first game (and one at practice this week too).  We are very anxious for Dec. 8th to come.

Since it has been a solid two weeks, this may be a little random as I try to recap the highlights. Maybe lets start with the sleeping highlights.  The girls have been mixing things up on the sleeping front, sleeping on the trundle bed and making forts after they have supposedly gone to bed.  My most favorite though was a sweet surprise I got when I went to check on them one night.

The biggest highlight of the last two weeks was Jeremy's birthday.  We celebrated with a special dinner and dessert and of course presents.  The big gift this year was a heated jackets for all the upcoming freezing baseball games.  CC was really excited to give her gift, she entered for a chance to win a family trip to Disneyworld.  Despite my best effort, I can't convince her that she isn't likely to win.  She also made this classic drawing of him for his special day.

Other highlights include Millie snuggles, finally getting soccer pictures, a church activity making pillowcases and an epic birthday party.

And with that, I think we are back on track, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2023

 This week was Halloween, but the Halloween festivities started the week before with the Monster Mash at the girls' school.  This was to be Carrigan's last Monster Mash, but she decided that she was already too cool for school and elected to stay home.  Since it was also game 1 of the World Series (that the Diamondbacks would go on to lose in 5 games), Elsie and I were on our own for the night.

While Carrigan didn't think it sounded like fun, Elsie, on the other hand, had a blast!  She liked visiting the different booths and playing games for candy, but what she really loved was seeing and hanging out with all her friends from school.  She is already looking forward to next year.

On Tuesday, we celebrated the big day with mild, dry weather, perfect for trick-or-treating.  After some spooky mummy dogs for dinner, Merrick, having decided that he is too old for trick-or-treating, went out for a night on the town with his cousin, Colvin.  They did trick-or-teat to a few select family and friends and then tooled around at Home Depot, measuring themselves and "rating faucets".

I took the girls out with a couple of Carrigan's friends on Halloween.  This year Carrigan was a vampire and Elsie decided to ditch her planned hula girl costume in favor of the Jasmine costume from the closet. Like I said, the weather was great and the girls made out like bandits in a short amount of time.

Viva La Mexico

Last week I didn't get a chance to update the blog.  Instead, Jeremy and I were sitting on an airplane returning home after what can only be described as a dreamy vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  We left last Tuesday and spent 6 blissful days on our own in a tropical paradise.

I am going to fail to do justice to everything we did but will at least try and hit the highlights.  My first favorite came on Thursday.  We signed up for couple's massages at the resort spa.  As if that wasn't amazing enough, we got to go to the spa an hour early for hydrotherapy.  It was an awesome series of hot tub, rain showers, sauna, steam room, and it was all capped off with an ice dip at the end.  It was completely invigorating.  After the hydrotherapy, we got to relax in our robes with heat wraps and cucumber slices on our eyes before our massages started.  It was a true spa day experience.

That night, Jeremy talked to our personal butler about a good spot to get true tacos al pastor so we left the resort and headed away from the white washed resort and into true Mexico.  It was a bit of a scary experience for me because our driver dropped us off at the restaurant and we had no maps, no working cell phones, and no internet to assist us in getting home.  We just had our driver's number and he told us to ask the restaurant to use their phone when we were done and he would come back and get us.  I tried my best to put that out of my mind and focus on the moment AND the food, which was completely incredible.  For what was approximately $18 USD we had a feast of tacos and gringas (similar to a quesadilla) al pastor with pineapple.  It was some of the best food I have every had.  In the end, we made it back without incident and I wished we had made it there sooner.

The next day, we spent the entire day on a city and tequila tour.  You might think that is an interesting choice for two people who don't drink, but really it was just a small part of a spectacular day.  The day started with a tour of downtown Puerto Vallarta.  We saw the port, town square, shops, and an old Catholic church.  We then made it to the Bay of Banderas.

After our tour of the city, we headed into the jungle of the mountains.  Once we made it up, we stopped at the tequila distillery.  While we didn't participate in the tasting, it was interesting to hear how they make the tequila the old fashioned way with pure agave and old world techniques.

Following the tour, we walked down a small hill towards the river and to a restaurant carved out of the side of the mountain.  They sell amazing food, the majority of which was caught that morning, that they grill fresh after ordering.  We also ordered some fun drinks, the Pina Surprise and Coco Loco.  While the food was cooking, we explored the property.  They do zip line tours so they have several suspension bridges to cross the river.  They also had a river swing and throne.  It was warm, bordering on hot, outside and the water felt amazing.  I found myself wishing I had my swim suit and I would have never left.

Saturday was my 40th birthday and we celebrated with a night that will not soon be forgotten.  We took an evening cruise out to a remote island and watched an incredible show called Alma, by the same people who do Cirque Du Soleil.  It was truly unforgettable.  After the show, we had a nice dinner on the island before taking the cruise home.  The only not so great part about it was that a hurricane had hit Cabo early that day and, while it didn't really effect us, it made the water extremely choppy.  We both struggled with motion sickness during the trip and actually for days afterwards.

As if all that wasn't enough, there were countless hours spent by the pool, walks on the beach, more virgin pina coladas and mango smoothies that I can count and SO MUCH good food.  We found treasures on the beach and saws iguanas and a tejon (Mexica racoon). It was all so perfect, it feels a bit like a dream. Given that that was only our third kid-free trip since Merrick was born, I might have to savor those memories for a long time.  That's ok, they were good enough to last.