MEXICO

*Please excuse the excess of pictures in the following post. My intention is to use this blog as my scrapbook for this year. Take a look, however. Since many of the pictures were taken by Larry (thanks, Larry) they are more interesting than mine usually are.

Nana and Papa with the grandkids.

Ensenada...

For our first get-a-way this summer we headed south to Mexico. The little town we stayed in was called Punta Banda and was south of Ensenada and near the famous "Bufadora" or blow hole. The house we rented was on a small peninsula and in a "gated" community, virtually isolated and far away from traffic, crowds, tourists, and yes, the swine flu.

(The funny thing was, after everyone warned us about going to Mexico due to the outbreak of the flu, we came home to find there were supposedly several cases which developed in our neighborhood while we were gone!)

Pictures of the beach. There were some awesome sunsets!

This is just one of the four dolphins that regularly visited us in the mornings and played in the waves nearby while the kids surfed.

Our house (seen in the middle).

View of the beach from inside the family room.

From the patio on the roof, you could look to the front of the house and see the bay or estuary where we took the kids on a nature hike. The city of Ensenada was in the distance. You can even see the huge Mexican flag in the distance.

Sydney has become our little surfer girl. She and Logan wanted to be the first in the water every morning and the last to get out.

The kids loved learning to ride the waves (on their body board). They thought they were pretty cool.

Little sea treasures...

The kids loved catching the crabs, and looking at (an yes, even playing with) the squids and rays that washed ashore. They collected hundreds of seashells and dozens of sand dollars.

Papa and little Creed who was such an easy going little guy the whole trip. He's awesome!

Attack on Papa.

Travelling Troubadors: Sydney and Collin really wanted a guitar to take home as a souvenir. For the last two days they carried the guitars around and played them, especially Sydney. We probably should have explained to them better that the guitars were more for looks and not for playing since the strings didn't hold up well to all the "music" they were playing.

More of the toy souvenirs:

From La Bufadora again...

Catching waves...

Coley Woley...

This is exactly how I remember Mike when he was a kid. Happy to be playing in the mud or sand and always with a big smile on that chubby-cheeked face. What a cutie!

He really takes his fun seriously.

More cousin pics...

Beautiful Savannah is a girl after my own heart. She loved collecting all the little critters she could find on the beach. She made piles and piles of crabs and always noticed if even one was missing. Later, at her house in California, she showed me all the snails and slugs she collected in her backyard.

After a long morning in the ocean with Sydney...

Best buds Collin and Dresden played for hours in the sand hills near the house. They dug and dug and dug in the sand and would literally have sand in the ears, nostrils, everwhere, even after a good long shower. It didn't help that they were slathered in sunblock, either. It made them look like they were rolled in sugar.

Cole and I check out an exceptionally large crab. He mean, too. He kept trying to pinch us.

Jay and I really tried to relax, after all, this is vacation. We spent time in the afternoons reading.

LAS CANADAS

Further south of town there was a camping park called Las Canadas. It was a beautiful canyon area that had a canopy tour, ecological preservation hiking areas and an awesome water park aside from the beautiful and clean camping sites. After seeing it, we were wishing we had more time to stay, camp and explore. Shannon and Larry took the canopy zip-lines and bridges tour and had a great time, too (Unfortunately, no pics of them).

We were only able to get pictures of Logan and Sydney because Dresden and Collin were too cold to get back in the pool.

La Bufadora...

This was probably one of the highlights of the trip for the kids. For some reason, there is nothing more exciting for them than standing on the ledge and wait for the water to rain down on them.

Check out this sequence...

(Thanks again, Larry.)

Completely soaked but happy!

Fun Times!!!