Safely Home

I know we did a poor job of updating the vacation blog daily, but it was due to a lack of technology, not desire I promise! I will work on movies, and slideshows and more evidence of fun this week. For now you'll have to settle for these gorgeous pictures, of my beautiful babies, having the time of their lives!

The dolphin swim was ridiculously expensive! But through the magic of Time Share we had breakfast and got Delaney in for free. We were told Cameron was too young and would have to wait until he was at least 8 so we promised him a different adventure and he seemed fine with the idea. But the more Delaney talked about how excited she was...the more Cameron thought he might really LIKE to swim with the dophins. Still, we couldn't find a way around the age restriction.

When we arrived at Cabo Dolphins to make Delaney's reservation we were told that Cameron WAS old enough for something called the Dolphin encounter. But they only do that at 3:00 every afternoon. We had to wait 2 days to get him on the list. I made a deal with the time share people again, and got his ticket for $50 (instead of the $165 it would have been)

I thought they would burst waiting the 2 days until they could get in the water. Delaney was up first at 1:30 and Cameron would have his turn at 3:00. (I'm leaving out a big hunk of story here that Chris will want to tell you. Yep...I'm a bonehead!) NOW the Cabo Dolphin people tell us Cameron is NOT old enough and that he has to have a paying adult along with him. I asked how much for the paying adult and a very nive woman behind the counter told me $165!!! Yipes! I must have looked like I was going to throw up because just then a different woman said we could do it for $85. I happily handed her the money and took CHRIS his wetsuit.

That part of the story that I'm leaving out where I'm a bonehead and don't behave very well on vacation...that was enough to get Chris a trip into the dolphin tank to share the joy with his son. It was better that way. I think the 3 of them had the most possible fun and I loved just watching them.

Delaney was out and dry and raving about what a wonderful experience it was. She got to lie on a boogie board and the dolphin pushed her around the ring at top speed. She held up a pole and a dolphin flipped over the top of it. She said it was magic!

In the interim, Cameron has gotten nervous LOL and doesn't think he wants to go. Chris essentially just scooped him up, plopped him in the water and said "here comes the dolphin - better get ready!" As soon as Cameron put his hands on the dolphins back, his face just lit up! He LOVED it! I wasn't sure we would be able to get him OUT of the water.

You can't take any of your own photos - they get you on the pictures, but they are worth it don't you think? I will smile everytime I look at them. Hope you do too.

Peace,

Hola Mi Amigos/Amigas

We went snorkeling today.
It was cold.
It was windy.
Cameron was scared out of his mind.
I got stung by a jellyfish on my (we'll call it upper thigh)
The wind blew some more.
There were only 8 people on the big giant boat we took out to the bay. The same boat they filmed much of Cutthroat Island on. (cool huh?)
We were in the water maybe 20 minutes of a 3 hour tour.
AND WE HAD A FABULOUS TIME!!!

We were sitting on te bow of the boat, with or wet cold, jellyfish stung kids, sipping orange juice and singing Jimmy Buffet songs. It is impossible to not stop and appreciate how good your life is at that moment.

Weather is here ... wish you were beautiful...

Hola!

Two o'clock in the morning here in dark Cabo (yes, the sun sets in paradise), and we're wide awake, mostly because we went to bed at 7, which is mostly because the Pina Colado/Margarita happy hour was from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and we took full advantage of it!

Liza updated you on most of the first full day at the southern tip of Baja, but she left out one important detail... Cameron is afraid of deep water.

We were at the time share tour (just say no, and you'll still get $200 off your rental car!), and the resort sports a rooftop pool, complete with a water slide. Cameron sees the water slide, and says, "Can I go down that?" Heck, we're on vacation... "You bet," I said. "Let me go down to the bottom." I vaguely remember hearing Rosio (Roh-see-oh) ask Liza, "Can he swim?"

For the record, Cameron can "swim," although he looks like one of those special kids in therapy when he does--his hips go all over the place, kind of an underwater Macarena. But, technically, he can swim.

So I'm sauntering down the stairs, and I hear this panicked gasp, and a watery scream, and I start sprinting down the stairs. There, flailing helplessly in the water, is my son. He apparently forgot he could swim.

Two older women were sitting in lounge chairs across the pool, and they were slowly standing up to go rescue The Chief--one was almost vertical in her walker--when I arrived, hopped in (yes, fully clothed) and pulled my son out of harm's way.

That's right... I saved his life. And got my wallet wet.

The rest of the day was just great--we swam until our skin pruned, had lunch (quesadillas in the condo) and, as mentioned above, enjoyed happy hour.

I did get up at the crack of dawn Saturday and walk down to the beach, fly rod in hand. I made few clumsy casts--not a fan of the weighted shooting head, but that's the way it's done down here--and got one hit. I set the hook and lost my entire leader. Not sure how I managed that, but I'm guessing the critter was pretty toothy!

We'll keep trying to post photos, but just getting this far with the blogger has been a challenge. Stay tuned... if you don't hear from us, know we're having a blast. Whale watching today, and then wave runners! More boogie boarding this afternoon... still have sand in my ... uh... ears.

Love to all...

From the lobby

Because of the lack of internet I am writing to you from the hotel lobby. Chris and the babies are upstairs with a new deck of cards and a package of Oreos. We may be on vacation, but we're still Us. We like to be home and ready for bed "relatively" early.

I'm having trouble transfering the pictures because I'm on a public computer. But as soon as I have more time online I'll get you some.

Cameron really wanted to try the horseback riding down the beach so I gave him 200 pesos and sent him in (dimple blazing so to speak!) The guy got one look at that handsome boy and said "I'll take the nina too." So off my babies went on horses down the beach in Mexico at sunset. (sigh) They had a great time and the night is complete.

Delaney and Chris took the boogie board down the beach and they are sunburned and scraped up, but still smiling. Cameron is still reeling from unlimited pool time and the horses. Whales in the morning - and I will do my BEST to get some dang pictures on here.

Uh Oh...I think they are waiting for me to play Go-Fish and share some Oreos.

Love,

Hello My Friends

Oh My Gosh! I'm sorry we haven't updated more quickly. And I can't guarantee you'll hear much from us the rest of the week. We seem to be having a hard time getting a signal out here (isn't that AWESOME?) Being away from "it all" is really more fun that I thought.

I'll try to give you as much information as quickly as possible.

First of all it took us 9 and half hours to make the 3 and half trip to the airport in the BLIZZARD. I hope you guys are hanging in there. I'l be nervous about our drive home, but I'm not going to worry about that until 2:00 Friday when we get on the first plane.

We arrived in Mexico without much further incident. Customs was funny and weird. We were the last people to get on the plane in LA because they had to keep checking and re-checking our passports (???) and then in Mexico Chris almost didn't get in...he was last in line and all the customs computers went down as soon as they got to him. Just his luck! We were there for awhile, but it wasn't too bad. Here's an important international travel tip, you CANNOT video tape your husband and children getting their first stamps in their passports. Apparently that is against the rules. LOL

The resort is beautiful. Our bed is HORRIBLE. It's like sleeping on a slab. But as Lisha said "Who sleeps on vacation?"

When we got to the airport we went to the desk to get our rental car. It's a funny/scary place where people are AGGRESSIVELY trying to get your money. The guy at Thrifty was pissed at Chris because he had already booked with Advantage. This is when we met "Victor." Victor gave us the Hook Up! (don't laugh yet) All we had to do was go to a free breakfast at a new resort down the beach and we would get $200 off our car rental, a Mexican Serape, AND a bottle of Tequila! Off we went this morning ready to say No, No, No and we had a great time. We ate a wonderful breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice and lots of french toast. I think Cameron ate a whole pig - that kid can pack away the bacon. We were also given the option to stay at this beautiful new resort and swim in their 5 pools. Lovely, lovely morning.

AND (Gretchen...you'll love this) I managed to book us another tour of another resort and get us a half day fishing trip for 4 on our own private 23 foot boot AND a canopy zip line tour for Delaney and 1 adult. We are having a GREAT time!

I'm surprised at how much fun I'm having. I got a little weird at the hotel this morning. Should I be on the beach instead of by the pool? How much money had I spent already and was I going to be able to stretch it out for a whole week? Was everyone having enough FUN and what
was the next thing on the agenda? Is a Pina Colada a breakfast food? And then I just stopped, took a deep breath, picked up my murder mystery and stopped stressing. It won't be the last time I have to check myself, but I'm doing pretty well so far.

So, tomorrow morning we head out on the big boat to see the whales. I have NEVER seen a whale before and I couldn't be more excited. I'll let you know what happens when the pirates come on board. The kids are going to FLIP! Then we have a couple hours on the wave runners. That should be big fun too.

There is a big Superbowl party here at the resort. We might come down and check it out or we might be busy having adventures.

Oh, here are some pictures of the kids in ther surf. We can't swim right here on our beach because the undertow is dangerous. It drops off 70 feet immediately. That's what lets the whales come right up next to the shore to say hello. We are about to walk down the beach to a place that is safer. The kids bought a boogie board and are going to go try it out.

I'd like to say I'm missing you...but I'm in my bathing suit, ON THE BEACH, my kids are swimming in the pool, the waves are roaring in, Aaron is bringing us chips and salsa and later I'm going to use my hard core negotiating skills to get Cameron a horse back ride down the beach at sunset for free.

Peace and love,

You need a bigger boat

We talked about the "Vacation" on the air today and a listener sent me this picture. YIKES! And, I Snopesed it...it's true! http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/sharkkayak.asp

We leave for the airport this afternoon!

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!

Chris here ... chiming in!

I know Cabo is not the "far side of the world," but you have to realize this is the first real vacation that's just "us." No in-laws (we love you all!), no mad rush to Grandma's for a long weekend, no schedule ... no plans that don't include sunshine, the sea, sand or an open bar!

I checked--the sun comes up every morning at 6 a.m. (yes, even in Mexico). I'll be on the beach at 5:45 a.m. each day, fly rod in hand, hoping to catch some tropical critter on a home-tied Clouser. The MP3 player is loaded with Buffett, and it'll be good to work out the rust in my fly cast under bright blue Mexican skies. By the time the family is up and and at 'em, I'll be back at the condo and ready for family fun in the pool or at the beach or wherever the day takes us. Lost sleep? That's what the daily siesta is for, right?

We're going to have a great time, from the moment the wheels of the plane leave the ground until touchdown in Boise on Feb. 8.

So, stay tuned to the blog ... We'll update it as often as we can, and we'll squeeze as much fun into it as possible! So... Look out, Mexico... the Gringos are coming!