To Cabo and Back with no Swine Flu

Well, here I am, back to real life. Obviously we decided to go. It was not an easy decsion, but we weighted all the facts and decided we were going to go for it. Can I just tell you I'm soooooo glad we went. We were VERY diligent about washing our hands and wiped down our airplane seat and our entire condo unit. We could see that MANY others decided to cancel. It was quite slow down there. We didn't mind, we had a great time! I brought masks, gloves, airborne, vitamins, my own hand soap, hand sanitizers and used all but the masks and gloves. A few people wore them on the plane and most of the employees at the Cabo airport wore them but other than that, we didn't see any!

For those of you that facebook and blog, these might be a repeat, but when I'm having a bad day or when the rain comes back, I will go to my happy place and remember what a fun and relaxing trip we had (sigh...........). So there's your warning...I'm posting way more pictures that I should but when you travel with another couple, there are sooo many more photo ops! Speaking of travel partners, thank you Michael and Lisa for being such great travel partners. Laid back, go with the flow, just here to have fun....that's what I like! Also a HUGE shout out to the greatest husband ever. He gave me the BEST gift that week (besides just going, that in an of itself was HUGE), he handled EVERYTHING! All the money, all the paperwork, all the documents and I just got to me an arm decoration for the week, it was heavenly! It was a TRUE vacation from normal life!!

So here we are on our first day in Cabo. We are not at our resort, we are just finishing up with a time share presentation. Yes, we stooped that low for free stuff. I have to say we did not go looking for this. Time share sales are a HUGE business down there and it's very competitive to even get people to the presentations. We stepped off the plane and were bombarded immediately with sales reps. I tried to steer Damon clear of them, but he had free golf on his mind, so he "went to work" so to speak. Don't feel bad for these people, because you see, 8 years ago, we were the "suckers" that bought down there, so ever since then, we have NO problem saying no and since they hounded us in the first place just to attend, we figured, why not?? So that was the airport scene. Then we checked into our resort and were heading out the lobby and Damon wanted to stop to "activate" our free drink ticket. Before I could intercede because I knew it was a ploy to get us to attend their presentation, he was at the desk and the lady was VERY intent on getting us to THEIR presentation, so what do you do? Yep, you go to both and see how much free stuff you can score: Between the two couples we got $400 cash so the guys could go golfing, a dinner cruise for four, a massage, and $400 credit for our resort restaurants (there were four to choose from). I thought that was a pretty good haul for 5 hours of "work" don't you??


Finally done with the presentation....let's get to the sun!!!


Here's a view of the main lobby from our "wait for the shuttle" spot. Lots of pictures taken while we waited. Kind of a down side to that resort. It's built into a hill, so it's quite steep from the bottom to the top. Getting around the resort is easiest by golf cart shuttle, so we waited quite a bit!
Our second night down there we went in search for the bonfire at the sister resort next to ours. Apparently there was NO ONE down there enjoying the bonfire so they turned it off and even after we pleaded and begged they still would not turn it back on! This is the best picture of my spray tan face. I thought I had a great idea of spray tanning before we left so I'd alreadyhave some color on my when it was 90 degrees out and I wanted to wear my sundress or shorts. Well, it was a little darker than I would have liked AND I forgot the whole pool factore and how the chemicals will fade the tan quicker and since it was HOT, we were in the pool a lot, so note to self, better to skip the spray tan next time!

Ahhhhh, relaxation!! Hey honey you look HOT!! He dropped 20 lbs from January to May pretty much just by modifying food choices and portions. Way to go!!!!

Lovin the sky pool. This pool was at the top of the resort, great views! They closed this pool mid week due to low occupancy...sad, we loved having it to ourselves.

Our attempt at the "Oh what a feeling", you remember the old Toyota commercials?? So, this pool also closed mid week...check out all the empty chairs!

More pool pics...you can tell where we spent most of our time!

Making our way back up the hill in the golf cart!!

Out for dinner at Mi Casa....our last mask sighting for the week...we thought it was funny!

We had the place to ourselves basically. The Marachi band played a really good Santana song!

Hello friend....so glad you guys could join us!

The boys at Hemingways. It was a really cool cigar bar. Cubans are big down there and they "needed" one for their golf day!

The wait staff wasn't very busy so we had lots of opportunities for foursome pics!

The infamous "free" golf game

Our sunset dinner cruise. The boat had probably around 40 people on it and my estimate is that it could have held around 150, but again, we made the best of it and enjoyed the lovely sunset and nice people we met! The lady that took this pictures was so funny, I think Michael was making a joke and asked if she could get "our boat" in the picture with us. She took him seriously, so here is a pic of us with our "boat" in the background.

It's an up close pic of "our boat" nice huh?....notice the helipcopter on the back of it???

The much anticipated sunset picture on the sunset cruise!

I've been on enough of these to know better than to wear a poofy dress....guess I forgot again. I ended up tying a knot in the side of the dress to keep me from giving the guests more than they bargained for on the trip!

Down at the beach! We only went in the ocean water once. The waves a had a wicked strong undertow and almost took me out a couple times. I felt much better pool side!

Out to dinner one night...Lisa thought my dress was a nice accent to the wall art!

Stayed in and enjoyed a game of cards!

Enjoying our last evening in Cabo. I think we started planning our next trip over dinner! We decided both couples passed the "test" and we'd go again together!

Last moonlit picture.....

Last group photo as we loaded up with our suitcases to go check out

Last few minutes to soak in sun from the lobby deck

Our view from the lobby deck

Last pic of us in Cabo...thank you sweetie for the best week ever! Happy anniversary!

At the Portland airport...Lisa's family brought her flowers for Mother's day....how sweet!

Speaking of sweet....oh how I missed my sweet girls!!! We were sooo happy to see them!

Grandma helped the girls make welcome home animals out of bath towels and they were waiting on our bed when we came home. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for taking such good care of our most prized possessions!

That's all folks!! If you've lasted this long in this post, bless you! If you haven't, I understand! Great trip and Great to be back home!

A little nervous

This trip to Mexico has been planned for almost a year. The stars basically have to align to be able to do a kidless vacation. My inlaws are arriving today from Chicago to watch the kiddos while we are gone. The winter has been long cold and wet and one of the only things that has gotten me through it is knowing that soon I'll be in the glorious sun and getting quality time with my husband and also get to enjoy some time with great friends.

Swine Flu.............Don't travel to Mexico unless it's completely necessary..........

What are we supposed to do???? Mexico is a big place and Cabo San Lucas is quite a distance from Mexico City where this is originating from. But still, we don't want to minimize the sitution. 99% of me is screaming out "MY TRAVEL TO MEXICO IS EXTREMELY NECESSARY!" But that last 1% feels really nervous about entering "the danger zone" of swine flu.

I guess it's never easy to leave town. The last time we went to Mexico I didn't get my passport until the day before we left. It was delivered Fed Ex and it had me on pins and needles until I had it in my sweaty palm! This time it's a little different, but still has me a little nervous.

We decided last night we will for sure go if there are no cases reported in Cabo, but if there are......I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

10th Anniversary!

10 years wow! What a journey it's been so far and lots more to come. I'm so thankful for my husband! When you get married you think you know your soon to be husband, but you don't really know this person until you live together day in and day out. It's kind of a gamble. Well, I hit the jackpot. I married an amazing man. He's hard working, selfless, laid back, agreeable, helpful, a team player, fun to be around, very loving. I am blessed! Has every day been wedded bliss?....no, but I can honestly say that we've been able to talk through just about any situation and wake up the next morning to a whole new day. I am more in love today than I was back then. God brought my heart to his and we joined together as husband and wife 10 years ago today. I was very thankful then and I am even more thankful today. I'm looking forward to each year God gives us together!

Now for something completely funny....

My girls have been going through my wedding scrapbook lately and they've been quite curious about my wedding dress.

Megan: Wow mommy, that dress is really pretty, do you still have it?

Me: Yes, I still have it.

Megan: Where is it?

Me: It's in my closet

Megan: Can you put it on?

Me: I don't know, I guess I could try and see....

Ta Da....what do you know, 10 years and two kids later, it still fits.....well most of me is the same, just a little "relocated" if ya know what I mean

10 years wiser, 10 years happier, here's to many many many more!

Happy 4th Birthday Katelyn

It's hard to believe my baby girl is four! I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share her "birthday" story! When I was pregnant with Katelyn, I worked PT at Vancouver School District in the HR dept. It was a desk job and somewhat low stress, so I planned to work up to delivery (same as with Megan). It was a Friday, March 11th, I stopped at Albertson's on the way home from work and picked up a few groceries and a movie for our entertainment for the evening (Ladder 49). The young male checker asked me if I had any big plans for the weekend and I said "hopefully have a baby!" His eyes got big and I stepped back to show him my big belly...he kind of looked embarrassed and I thought it was funny!

I went home did dinner, played with Megan, put her to bed and it was around 9:30 and we plopped on the couch to watch our movie. Soon after it started I felt my first contraction. I'd had contraction on and off for a couple weeks,so I didn't make anything of it. But they didn't let up through the whole movie. So, it got over and it was almost midnight and I finally mentioned to Damon that I kept having contractions. He got a piece of paper and a watch and we started tracking them. We were at that moment of what do you think we should do??? We headed upstairs and I laid in bed still tracking them while he started shaving....yes, shaving. I was like, what are you doing? He says, well, if we are going to the hospital, I should probably shave.

I responded, maybe we should think about packing my bag (it was on my list of things to do that weekend), or maybe put the car seat in the car (also on the list). I wasn't due for 10 more days and Megan was only four days early, so I just didn't figure she would come this early.

It was now 1am and I realized my parents were overnight in McMinnville and my sister and her family were in Disneyland and that was ii for in town family...hmmm what to do for the 2 1/2 year old asleep in the room next to us??? The contractions were still coming, so we decided to call my parents in McMinnville. Their cel phones were turned off, so I had to wake up my aunt so she could go wake up my parents...I felt really bad, but what better reason to wake up a sleeping house than for the birth of a baby! This better be for real, I was thinking!

They got to Vancouver around 3am and off we went! The contractions were getting a little uncomfortable now which was good, it meant it was the real deal! Damon was excited to "speed to the hospital" because when else do you get a good excuse like that to speed? He wanted to safely "run" a red light too, but no one was on the streets and we got all greens :) Poor Damon!

We got to the hospital and what do you know...my neighbor the nurse checked us into triage! That was funny! It was great having a friend help us out like that. I was a keeper at 4-5 cm, so we transferred to our room. I sort of wanted to see how long I could go before an epidural, but after an hour or so, I thought bag this, I know I'm getting one, so let's cut to the chase! Let's get those fluids going and ring the anesthesiologist (ok, I just guessed at that spelling and spell check just said it was spelled right, so I'm impressed with myself!). I eventually got the guy with the large needle (around 6:30am) and can I just say, it was NOT the lovely experience that I had for the first child...bad nerve pain and for the first hour of the epidural, my blood pressure dropped and though for sure I was going to hurl, but I did not and I eventually stabilized. Gone was the pain, but also almost gone were the contractions....so here comes pitocin to get things going again. They broke my water and started pitocin when I was still at 6cm at 9:15am. They checked me at 9:50am and I was fully dialated and started to push. After pushing through two sets of contractions, they noticed the baby's heart rate was dropping, so they decided to help her out with a vacuum. On the third push, out she came at 10:03am! I was thrilled to see her so quickly (much better than 2 1/2 hours of pushing with big sister!). I learned a bit later, that her umbilical cord was pretty short, so as she was moving down the birth canal, it was stretching and causing stress to the heart rate, so the vacuum worked great to get her out quickly!

Our first impressions of her was that she was a little peanut and she had big bright eyes. She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs even. We weren't completely set on her name, so we took a look at her and decided she looked like a Katelyn!

I just happened to have Damon take this picture about four hours before labor started March 11 (it was in the 70's that week...far cry from this week!)

This was the next picture on my camera, about 14 hours after the above picture taken...it's actually 3/12/05, not sure why the camera date was wrong

new mom...

family of four!

Big sister

Two months old...by this time, I was being made aware of this little personality, or should I say big personality. She knew what she wanted and what she didn't want and that was that. She did NOT want a bottle, she did NOT want to sleep without screaming for a long time, she DID want to see me at least every three hours all night long...at this point, I think she was sleeping in the swing...whatever worked to get her to sleep. I was being made aware that me sleeping all night would not happen for a LONG time. But isn't she cute???

Megan loved being a big sister...she's been a great one since day one!

Katelyn's first birthday pictures

First birthday party....I made her a ladybug cake and little ladybug cupcakes

2nd birthday! Sleeping all night probably 5 out of 7 nights....whew!

reluctantly she'll smile for the camera!

3rd birthday...yes, finally getting a full head of hair...look at those curls!

cute girl!

My big four year old girl!

My dear Katelyn,
You are smart as a whip with the cutest belly laugh! You keep me on my toes and challenge me to be the best mom I can be! You are persistent and rarely give up when you want something which will serve you well in the future, but it can be hard on a mom! Even when you are in a "mood" I can always pick you up and you just melt in my arms for a sweet sweet hug. I don't mind when you sneak into our bed in the middle of the night to cuddle, these days will soon be gone. I love to watch your little mind at work, always thinking. You love puzzles, games and playing with your big sister. I love being your mom and I'm so thankful God chose you to be my daughter. Even though he's blessed me with the opportunity to raise you, you are God's first and foremost. Happy Birthday sweet daughter, I cherish each moment with you and I love you with all my heart!

Love,
Mom