Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to everyone. We hope that you all have a wonderful day.
Wanted to post a few pictures and videos of our day. Jayden was very much into Christmas this year and was very excited that Santa made his way to our house. Hope you enjoy the pics/movies.
In case you have been under a rock the last week, it has been dumping snow up here in the great north west. Over the past week we have gotten over a foot of snow in Everett and 8" in downtown Seattle. For a place with lots of steep hills and annual snow fall is just under 3" that's a heck of a lot!! Of course that means most are not prepared for driving in it and that ends up causing wrecks, delays and all kinds of issues. In fact the last three bus rides I have taken (or tried to take) I have waited a total of 5 hours for the bus!
On the bright side I have "had" to stay home for the better part of a week and we have gotten out and enjoyed the snow as much as we could. Jayden seems to really like the snow and this is the first year he could really get out and play in it. Unfortunately the snow that fell was a real soft powder and not very good for making snow men, but mom did manage to snag the last sled from RiteAid and we had lots of fun with that. Hope you enjoy the pic's.
Sorry for not posting for so long. As you may have heard WaMu got purchased a few weeks back by JPMorgan Chase. Actually they did not get purchased, the FDIC seized WaMu after 19bln dollars in deposits walked out the door in TWO WEEKS and auctioned off our remaining 300bln in assets to the highest bidder, which was JPMorgan Chase with a winning bid of 1.9bln. I'm not an economist but that sounds like a rather sweet deal.
I feel for any of you that had WaMu stock, as I did. It instantly became worthless when this all went down. Technically not completely worthless, I got to sell it for around 9 cents. I think I'll take that money and buy everyone in my office a double cheeseburger from the McDonnell's value menu.
As for my job and what not, that is kind of up in the air. I can't share to many details at this point but I will know by Dec 1st how it will all shake out and of course then you shall know (all 3 of you!). For what it's worth the JPM folks have treated us more than fairly and based on info we have been given no matter what happens in the next few weeks, no one is getting to be treated badly regardless of what happens to a persons specific job.
Thanks to everyone for their support and well wishes the last few weeks. Take care.
* Site Note * - I had been holding off posting anything because A) We have been completely overwhelmed and busy the last 3 weeks, with this job news only one of a dozen things going on and B) I wanted to post something about this before I posted about anything else going on. Look for lots more posts soon! Or one mega one.
Missy and I decided that once we got back from vacation it would be time to switch Jayden from a crib into a 'big boy' bed. He was definitely old enough. He had never tried to climb out of his crib or anything like that so we just have been letting it go.
His current bed converts to a day bed and that is what we decided to go with. We talked about getting him some kind of cool bed but we figured that could wait for another time or occasion. We went and got him some new sheets. He got to pick them out and to no surprise he choose the Thomas ones that we found *He is currently a big fan of the Thomas*.
Overall he is doing just great with the new bed config. He is a little hesitant to get out of the bed when we are not in the room, which I guess is a good thing at this point.
4102 miles, Walmart, Dancing, Dinners, Fireworks, 7 Pools, Swim up bars and a few crazy taxis later we are finally back home. We had a wonderful time in Nuevo/Puerto Vallarta (PV/NV from now on). If you just want to see pictures/video and skip the long read, go here.
We left Portland around 6am on our flight to LAX and from LAX to PV. Overall the flight was very nice. We bought first class tickets on the way down, so that made it much more enjoyable. I don't know why the food in first class seems to taste so much better, but it does. It's nothing special. I guess when you are used to getting a 1oz. bag of pretzels and half a glass of ginger ale during a 3 hour flight and suddenly you get a chicken sandwich and real utensils it just makes it better. Kind of like when you go camping and for some reason a cut up potato, ground beef, onions and carrots thrown into tin foil makes 'the best dinner ever' and then you try it at home and it tastes like prison food.
It was very pretty coming into PV. It was very lush and green with the mountains and jungles all around.
Once we landed and got of the plane we had to go through customs. No big deal, they take your form and stamp your passport. Then you come up to this podium that has a big red button on it. When you press the button one of two panes of glass light up. If it lights up GREEN then you're good to go. If it lights up RED then you're toast and you have to get screened and your bags get picked apart my the Mexican government. Some poor sucker three people ahead of us got the red light so I figured our chances were good. I think Missy pushed the button and a good press it was - GREEN!!
Now that we made it past strip-search roulette it was time to run the gauntlet of time share phsyco's. For anyone who has never been to Mexico, and I'm sure it's like this in many other countries too, time shares are a very big thing. Signing people up to go to time share presentations is a way that a lot of locals make a living. As soon as we passed the security checkpoints there were at least 60-100 people lined up trying to get your attention. They would say anything to get you to make eye contact or get you to stop. Some were just shouting American "sounding" name's like Brad! Mike! Joe! Scott! hoping that they would have someone stop. It's crazy, but when you know what to expect it's rather funny. We made it out unscathed and jumped in a taxi (but the poor suckers who got the RED light were not so lucky). Once we were in the back I saw this note in the little divider thingy and had to snap a pic on my phone:
$20 is good? Really? Lol
Once we arrived at the resort we quickly checked in. We got a very nice room, facing the pool/beach/ocean. It was a one bedroom with a nice bathroom and a big tub in the bedroom. We had a nice balcony off the room with a soaking pool, a little mini pool out on the deck!
Pic of our room and from the balcony
The room also had a cook top stove and dishes so we planned on making at least breakfast and some lunches here every day. So we headed for the local WalMart!! Yup, they had a WalMart and it was not all that different from one in the states. Some of the stuff was a little hard to find, like salt and pepper. When you're staring at a wall of spices and they all have names you do not know, picking out salt and pepper can be pretty hard. I'm still not 100% we got pepper, but I think we did! We got lots of stuff to make breakfast and some lunch stuff. They had just about everything you could think of and I don't think we went back to the room with anything missing off our list. Yeah!
I swear that beer, chips and Fruit Loops were not the only thing on our list
We were so tired by the time we got back from wally world that we decided just to order room service and relax in the balcony pool. It was actually the only time we ever used it.
The next morning we woke up ready to hit the pool and see the resort!! This is the 'rainy' season so it's not very busy. It's typically 85+ degrees and sunny during the day and 80+ degrees and rains during the night. This makes it VERY humid, almost too humid. The good part of that is you have the perfect excuse to stay within 10 feet of the pool at all times!!! Man did they have the pools. There was what I would call the 'main' pool that was 3 pools all connected together. Then there was the 'bar/activity' pool that had the swim up bar and where all the daily activities took place like Tequila volleyball or some other crazy game of the day.
Just some of the pool areas
Then there was also a lazy river that went all around the resort. It ran quick enough to easily pull you along. They had tubes for you to float on if you wished or you could just swim/float along. There were waterfalls, rock walls, bridges and palm trees everywhere. This was pry our favorite thing to do!! We absolutely loved the lazy river!
18 trips around the lazy river were taken
They also had a whole area for kids to play in the water. They basically had a kids jungle gym in the middle of this big shallow pool. On top of that they also had TWO big wave pools that were split by a water slide!! Good times were had at the water slide!! You had to climb up this pyramid waterfall thing to get to the slide then down you go!!
8 trips down the slide were taken
We really did not make it out to the beach except for two times. PV is on the Pacific side and the water is not clear and blue like on the Gulf of Mexico side. It is really warm and the waves were decent but when you have so many swimming options, walking 5 minutes down to the beach to get sandy and what not just does not seem all that exciting. If it was a busy time of the year then I could see seeking some space at the beach but for us on this trip that was not needed.
Few pics from when we did venture down to the beach
The second night we were there we had planned a dinner cruise/tour called Rhythms of the Night. They took you on this big boat and went about an hour or so south of NV to this nice beach/hillside area. The beach was all lit up with torches and they lead you to this theater arena area. There they performed this cool ceremony that had something to do with marriage I think. We did not understand it exactly but it had really cool dancing/acrobatics and fire twirling/dancing. After that they lead you down to the beach area and you have this big buffet of steak, chicken, fish, potatoes, rice, etc. All the food was wonderful. After giving you time to wander about a bit they took us back to NV. On the way back they had to "button up" the boat because it was raining so much but the crew was great in getting everyone to have a good time in spite of the bad weather on the way back. It was a great time and well worth the money. ** Sorry, We did not really get any good pictures because they where not allowed. Mostly due to the fact that they of course wanted to sell you pictures and videos of the show and stuff. **
The next day we planned on going into down town PV. We read about all there is to do with the great food and shopping right along the beach. Around lunch time we took a cab to one of the 'must eat' places in PV - PiPi's! They are famous for the table side guacamole that they make, and for good reason, it was amazing. We also shared the combo fajitas for two that came with shrimp, chicken, steak and with home made tortillas. It was very, very good. Add to that the live mariachi band plus a mega margarita and it was everything people said it was. After lunch we wandered through the cobble stone streets and local shops. It was really nice out and all of it was right off the beach. After buying a few things to take home we jumped back in a taxi and went back to the resort.
Shops and downtown 'Malecon' area
One of the other days we were at the resort we decided to paint some pottery to take back. Not sure why we thought spending 2+ hours painting in 90 degree heat with 90% humidity was a good idea but none the less they did turn out rather well.
We gotz skillz
Overall we had a wonderful time and a great vacation. We missed the little man terribly and were very glad to be home. On the flight back we were able to upgrade to first class *teehee* so that was unexpected but nice. Here are a couple more pics of random fun.
*Some video of the resort will be posted later*
We are back home in Everett after our vacation and time with family. We had a wonderful time and took lots of pics and some video. We are trying to get back into the groove of things around here. I'm working on a post and getting the pics and video organized, but it will take me a few days pry, sorry about that. Check back some time later in the week and should have some stuff together!!
Pool, sweet pool
* that's Away From Keyboard for the old folks ;) *
Missy and I are in Mexico this week enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation!!! I just finished up some long and stressful hours at work and of course Missy has her 24hr a day job of suppa mom so this could not have come at a better time!! Hopefully the weather will be nice. We plan to try and make it outside the resort as much as possible and see some local stuff and not be too lazy :) We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and stuff and I'll blog it up when we get back (and maybe while we are there if they have internet access). Here is where we are staying. It should be so much fun!!
Many thanks to Wayne and Merry for letting us use their time share, we really appreciate it. We probably would not have thought to try and go anywhere without it as an option. Also big thanks again to Wayne and Merry and my parents for taking time off to watch the little man while we are gone. I know you are all excited to spend time with him but it's still a lot to ask that you all take care of him for a week and we really want to thank you for doing so. We will miss him terribly, after say 24-36 hours ;) and I know you will all have a lot of fun with him and he will love spending time with you guys.
We have been so busy the last couple of weeks getting ready for Mexico and we planned on not doing anything for our anniversary yesterday (more on Mexico in a later blog post obviously!!). We had bought some stuff at the store to make a nice dinner at home and were just going to relax.
That morning Missy got a text from a friend and asked if we want to go to the Evergreen State Fair. After talking it over for a few minutes we decided that it would be a lot of fun to take Jayden and let him see all the animals and maybe ride a ride or two. It was supposed to rain that day but it was still warm so we just hoped for the best. A quick stop at the Bartel's drug store to buy the tickets (discounted) and we were off! The fair was about 20min from our house so it did not take to long to get there at all.
The rain held off just long enough and we all had a blast at the fair!! Jayden was super excited when we went and saw the animals. He got to see pigs, goats, cows, sheep, roosters, ducks, turkeys, chickens and even zebras and reindeer!
On my way to work today I saw a bunch of people fencing off a big area of Westlake Center, a mall/shopping area downtown near my office building. They had huge mounds of sand, a few dozen people and a mini bulldozer! They were making these amazing sand sculptures all over the place. Not sure what it was for, other than looking cool and being 'artsy', but they were very cool looking.
They turned this:
Into THIS:
We were blessed with a rare beautiful weekend and decided to hit up one of the local parks for some sun and fun. We headed to Forest Park in southern Everett because Missy said they had water fountains and lots of toys to play on.
Jayden loved the water fountains and toys. He was a little shy at first but he warmed up to it after a few minutes. He just ran around laughing and running around the water.
It was a lot of fun. Hopefully we have a few more nice weekends so we can do it again and maybe BBQ and invite friends. Here are some pics from the day:
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