Fri/Sat in Mexico

So to finish Friday night.....Brian took me back to the RV around 10:15pm thinking that, by his last text, Doug would get there a little after 11pm. Jason and Katie decided to stay and sleep with the others. I wait and wait. I'm getting a little scared by myself. We have this sheet that we hang down between the front cab of the RV and the back part so we feel that we have some privacy and all I'm doing is peeking out this small peep-hole that I had made. I'm also watching 'The Terminal' and by the time that is over, I know Doug is super late. I tried to call his phone and it went directly to his answer machine. Now, Gayle and Ed Whetten (Doug's sister and bro-in-law, who live down in the colonies in Mexico), have told us that it is perfectly safe if you follow certain rules: Don't be out alone & Don't be out after dark & Don't go where you don't belong. Oops, he's alone and in the dark. So I'm getting slightly worried that after Doug had crossed the border someone had seen him alone in a nice truck and decided that they wanted that truck and everything inside of it. I try to call Brian to see if he'd heard from Dad and his too went to his auto answer. (The service down there is unreliable). I start another show, a comedy this time, to try and ease my un-ease, but I really was getting nervous. Finally around 12:20 I see his truck pull. The story goes: He gets all the way into Rocky Point okay, but can't find the right road to turn down and ends up downtown on these sandy roads. People out and about walking in the streets, drinking, dancing, singing, etc., and as he is in this line of cars he tries to go around them and he gets stuck in the sand. He tries and tries to get out, but each time he feels he can almost do it, someone is in front of his truck and so he can't 'gun' it to get out. I guy comes to help him and gets the people to stop going in front of his truck and he finally gets out. I'm glad he's here.

I tell him about the propane and all he does is push the button Katie had asked about and ta-da there is gas. I'm a bit leary of our neighbor now.

We drive over to the condo early in the morning and Luke is the only one up but he can't open the door for us, so he has to find someone to wake and I think it was Jason that was closest to the door. Sorry Jas. All day we just play on the beach and in the ocean. Oh, this year there were several jelly fish that were washed up and so Brian taught Lukas that if he saw one he had to draw a big circle around it and stay way far away. It was the 'Man-of-War' ones that are really bad.

Hey Jonathan and Jill, I'm reminded of surfing right now.

We set off fireworks later that night right in front of the RV park on the beach. Totally legal there. The little kids, by little I mean: Brian, Jason, Allan, Katie, Shannon and Doug, all loved them. Lukas, Brook and I could have done without. I don't know where Celynda fits in on them. I think she is a fence-sitter. Here are more phone pictures for you all.

Brook singing 'Bumble Bee' song.

Friday July 9th

Aahhh....to hear the ocean waves all night is great! I could get used to this for sure. Katie, Jason and I slept in the RV last night. There was probably plenty of room for us at the condo, but I actually like the bed in the RV. (Carolyn and Jeff....maybe you can attest to it's comfort). We had set up the awning (we, being Jason and Katie mostly) I was more of the voice of warning....don't stand on the ladder like that, go backwards more, lift the leg thingy up higher, etc. Remember, by default (de fall, if you wish), I was the pro on setting up the awning. So, I get up first and decide to fix some hashbrowns and eggs. I grated the potatoes and tried to start the stove. I knew that the gas line was probably 'airy' so I tried several times. Jason got out of bed to help me start it, no luck for him either. Katie is now up. Jas and I go out and check the level of propane and it seems to be full. We check back behind the oven area to see if we can figure anything out and we can find nothing wrong. Our 'neighbor' Mike sees us out of his window and comes over to check on us, telling us that we look 'lost'. We explain this is the first time we are out here without Doug and that we weren't quite sure what we needed to do to turn on the propane. Mike looks around, tells Jason to hit the valve with something - a stick is what we found - just in case it's stuck, again no luck. Katie had pointed out this little button near the door but when she pushed it it started beeping and I said to turn it off and Mike told us that it was just the gas detection alert. Hmmm. So, we skip breakfast. Eventually Brian comes to pick us up and we go to the condo all day. A few pictures:

Before braids During

After: And I know all of you out there are saying right now.....

she is the cutest grandbaby with braided hair. She only fussed a

few times as Maria was doing her hair. Then her mommy got

her hair done too. I skipped the beach hairdo this year.

Fun on the beach.

And in the ocean. Katie & Shannon in the floating chair.
Jason, Brian and Lukas just waiting around.

Brian, Jason and Allan throwing things at the girls.

Ho, hum. They weren't fazed at all.

Brookie gets a turn in the chair now that her hair is done.

She loved her hairdo. I could be on vacation any day with these cute kids!!

More coming tomorrow! Adios mi amigos y familia.

Thursday July 8th

If you'll remember from my old blogs, I was in terrible 'soreness' for several days after returning from Hawaii. I was nearly healed. I could walk up and down our stairs without sitting on my bottom and sliding down, or taking one step at a time, or just forgetting about going downstairs altogether. Well, today was the day we were leaving for Rocky Point. We knew once we parked the RV we were going to want to have our awning out, but we had never put it out before and because Doug wasn't going to be there, I wanted him to go over the procedure with me. We struggled and struggled. While standing on a stool to pull this stuck awning out, I tipped over and my foot and ankle got caught in the stool handle and well, I'll let the photo's speak for themselves:

Bruise on the calf area from the handle on the other side of the stool.

I don't normally cry. As a matter of fact, I think I have cried more for happy moments than for any pain or sadness, but this was a killer. Luckily, only Doug was home to see me cry like a baby. Embarrassing, to say the least. I got the big goose-egg about 30 minutes later, but I had to get to Wal-Mart to finish buying groceries. I rode the cart more than pushed it. And after Wal-Mart I had decided to go to a thrift store and look for a bar-b-que grill. I didn't find one. A waste of energy for my aching ankle.

The drive to Mexico was 4 hours long and we got there about 4:30. Walked the beach hoping to find Celynda and Brians condo - took nealy 3 hours. Ankle now throbbing. Um....maybe I'll have Brian (doctor to be) take a look at it. He found a $2 ankle bandage that I wore most of the time down there. Thanks Brian. It helped about $2 worth!! just kidding

Here is the culprit: A stool that has been in the family a long time. A well loved and well used stool and I thought a pretty sturdy stool.

Two of those thoughts have been removed from that list.

The victim holding little Brook. Sitting of course. The only picture of me in Mexico. First day of vacation. Off.

Sorry to have been gone so long. It will be no surprise to you all that I will now have to catch up on all that we have done since coming home from Hawaii. We made it home on the 2nd of July and after a few loads of laundry, a small cleaning of the house (remember Shannon and Allan were gone to Nevada, but the Gardners stayed here because their a/c went out), and some long 'catch-up-on-sleep' naps, it was time for Katie, Jason and myself to head down to Rocky Point. (Doug was going to join us on Friday night). I have heard that many of you are too scared to travel there, but not us! Nope, we love it AND if there is ever anyone who wants to go, but is a novice, I will gladly sacrifice some of my days to helping you be on one of our favorite beaches. All you have to do after you set up your shade awning is know how to look asleep when the vendors come by, or say 'no, not today', 'no thanks' or a shake of the head works too. The water is ALWAYS warm. And I mean ALWAYS. They have this cute little RV park there that takes tents, RV's, popups, whatever and for an oceanside space it is only $27 a night! http://www.playabonitaresort.com/index_pbrv.html Here is their webpage. Look through the gallery. Number 5 is exactly what it looks like everyday. Sadly, or maybe happily, it was almost empty this year. Maybe 10-15 lots were taken. I say sadly because I'm worried that their space will be bought up by some condo company and then we won't have a great place to park our RV. (sad face). More on Mexico in my next blog. Adios.

Cliff Jumping...Waimea

I'm sorry - I can't figure out how to turn these videos the right way. So, tip your head to the left and enjoy.

Jason and Jill jumping.

I have one of Doug jumping off of the high cliff, but it isn't downloading. I'm afraid it is too long. Sorry Doug.

Becky jumping.

Some corrections.....

I admit to writing these blogs without going through my editor-in-chief/reviewer/clarifier/copy reader/sob sister (noun: a journalist who specializes in sentimental stories) Jonathan. I felt like I was doing well on my own, but now realize that I should go through him before submitting my blogs to make sure there are no 'differences' in our views of our stories. There are a few corrections I need to amend in my past blogs. Corrections:
Sunday June 27th blog: Sacred Falls hike. Correction #1: Church went until 3pm, so our hike could not have started until 4:30 or so meaning that our hike was not as long as previously mentioned. Correction #2: Jeff was actually the 2nd brave soul to enter the water. (I must have been so out of my mind with hysterics that I couldn't remember that as I wrote it).

Now Tuesday - July 29 corrections: Golfing. I accused my opponents of hitting more than one tee-ball. This is true, but........well, I'll let Jonathan's remark speak for itself: quote" There was only one hole where I hit two tee shots and that was on a hole that I hit my ball out of bounds and I recorded the necessary penalty. Therefore, I did NOT cheat and expect a retraction". I apologize to you Jonathan, Jeff and Jason. I was not in charge of the score card and did not keep track of your strokes because I was hitting my ball several, several times to catch up with you all. My sincerest apology.

Thursday, July 1st - last vacation day

I am sore. We only had two things planned for today: kayak surfing and jumping off of the cliffs at Waimea.

When Jill came over this morning, she said Jonathan was going to stay and work because he didn't get it done the night before (because we had kept them too late) and for us to go ahead and go do something without him. Um, no. So we went to the unit he was tiling and we helped with a few tiles and then he got to a spot that he couldn't go any further without taking off a bathroom door. I'm wondering if that really was the case or that he thought we were doing a bad job tiling? Hm....I didn't think about that before. Did I say I was sore? Going up and down stairs here at the apartment place is killing me. We headed out to a spot called Goat's Island. (This is NOT a picture of any of us, but the only one I could find on the internet). To get to this spot you must literally walk with what ever you want to have with you, but you have to have it on your head because wading there was something of a challenge. While mostly at your waist, the water sometimes crashes into each other (both sides coming around the island) and it peaks about head-high. And walking on coraly, rocky, sandy, etc., ground was also mixed into the challenge. Luckily I made it with only a few scary slips. I had my ipod, phone, nintendo ds, and camera to worry about along with a towel, 2 magazines and a book. Oh, and of course some suntan lotion. Doug had brought his snorkling stuff and found a several starfish: Jill came was dropped off by Jonathan and Jason before the boys headed out to 'surf' in the kayak. The waves and the wind were pretty bad today and lets just say that a mom and wife were a little worried,

but bless the waterbottle. Long story, we'll just leave it at that. Right boys?....

Here Jill found something fun to bury:

After that fun experience we headed to the West/North shore area where we bought yummy sandwiches from a shop called Storts. It's near the famous Motsumoto Shaved Ice Place, where 2 1/2 years ago we went and I was not all that impressed by it: Long line, expensively priced ice, etc. BUT across the street from Motsumoto is another shaved ice place, I think it was called Aoki's, and yes, it didn't have all the variety of flavors of Motsumoto, but it was way less expensive and they put yummy ice cream down underneath your ice AND add condensed milk on top for a cream flavoring. I didn't get the ice cream nor topping and had the small size which was just the right size and it was only $1. Good buy. I can't remember if I wrote it yet, but I am so sore. We had left Doug snorkling at Sharks Cove again while we drove to get the sandwiches and when we got back poor Jonathan had the challange of trying to get Dougs attention so he could come join us to eat. It was at least a 15 minute activity for Jonathan to get noticed by Doug. Jonathan said he was about to jump in the water and swim to him. After that we ended up at the cliff jumping site. I swore with all my being that I was going to do it, but I chickened out. At least at the highest part and ended up jumping about 10 feet high. It took forever. I was slightly embarrassed about it. I'd like to blame it on my soreness, did I tell you I was sore yet? I cannot remember being this sore for a long, long time. I feel like I'm wearing braces or something on my legs. I can not bend my foot up without pain or point my toes with out pain. Essentially, a movement of any kind leaves me near tears.

Going up and down any stairs is a killer. (I have a picture of Allan in real pain, but I can't find it, so I resorted once again to a google image). This is how I felt with every movement of my legs. Back to the apartment for pazooki's and we are ready for bed at 9pm. Our flight leaves at 6:30 am, but starts boading about 6 - so that means check-in close to 5 - 5:15 - and that means leaving Jill's place by 4:15 - no later than 4:30! AAhhhhh! We have a 3 hour layover in Los Angeles and then we'll be home! I'm ready for it. Okay, did I say yet how sore I am? The Stairway to Heaven needs an elevator, or tram, or trolley, or ski lift thing-a-ma-giggy for those of us who would prefer to not be sore the next two days. Or it might end up being 3-4 days, who knows? I hope my body gets up in the morning. I would be willing to pay money to see the sights up from that mountain top.

3 things I learned that I don't need to bring on a Hawaiian vacation - perfume, jewelry and a curling iron. Just thought I'd let you know.

I'm going to add video to another post.