We Finally Made It To Mexico!

Can you believe it? A year and a half later and a new passport is what it took! We had an amazing time and there is lots to tell but I will keep it short.

Here is the pool that we lounged on most of the time - right smack in the middle of the pool. You never got hot because you were laying on the water - it was great!



There was lots to do. We swam, laid out, played Bingo, played shuffleboard and golf (I actually beat Darren once at each game), went on long walks through the jungle filled with wild animals (tried it at night - was the single most scariest experience of both of our lives), took cover from tropical storms, held a spider monkey, saw dolphins, sharks and a manatee, swam through an underground river made by the Mayan's, took tons of pictures of the Ruins, ate way too much food, saw lots of nightly shows and had the BEST time being with my BEST friend.

We stayed at a resort built around a Mayan village so everywhere you walked you would see these Mayan temples, alters, caves, homes, statues, everything... it was so cool. It even had an original stadium with pillars and everything where the Mayans would play fireball and some other game. We went to a "game" and watched the natives play in the stadium which was awesome. Basically they just built bleachers around it so that they could fit more spectators but it was all still in tact. Here are some of the photos we took of the Ruins near our resort and a few of the natives doing their traditional dances, chants and games.



After the picture above was taken - I went inside to take a look, only after waiting for a gigantic iguana to move out of my way, to be chased out of there by a massive bird. We both ran for our lives, and no - Darren didn't stop to save me.












Trying his best at modeling... not quite the photo shoot he probably imagined.




Part of the show... I feel bad because I don't have pictures of the heritage dances and such where they danced and sang, like the Mariachi band. I video clipped it all instead. There were about 12 different dances, all in different costumes, dancing to Mexican songs NONE of which we could understand but very beautiful.




What it looks like walking around the resort...








The golf course, well, sort of. It was more like miniature golf without all the lights, decor, traps, etc. A lot of betting happened on this green. Darren underestimated the putter in me!



Our beach front property...




The underground river. This is where we swam from the river down to the ocean in a underground cave they built to travel from the ocean to their village. It was very tight, sometimes extremely dark... only a few places opened up and you could see above - the trees and sunlight. It took 40 minutes to swim it and you could not imagine the hard work and years it must have taken. You couldn't escape because the walls of the openings where extremely tall. It was a little scary at times but very beautiful. In some openings they had alters were they gathered rain water and you could see how they tried to transport things. Too cool!






The largest greenhouse of rare and exotic flowers. This place was beautiful. I could have taken pictures of all of them but here are my favorites.







These are pictures of the wild animals I mentioned. They were free to roam around and half the time scared the crap out of us. They would just scurry across our path or fly near our heads or make interesting freaky noises. The iguanas were about the biggest things I had ever seen. They were everywhere and were huge. One time we took a narrow path to get back to our room and walked right into a tree with an iguana grasping onto it - right at eye level. So so scary - we both screamed and ran for our lives. The crab was so massive - we were just floating in the pool when Darren noticed the crab walking towards us. He got right in the pool within arms length from me. So scary again but cool to see one so big and up close. The macaws were everywhere too - mostly picking at each other but there were perches everywhere throughout the resort so you couldn't miss them. There were others animals too but more were too quick to take pictures of.














Funniest moment on the trip. The workers used these bikes that were used in the movie Nacho Libre - well Darren wanted to ride one so bad so he asked a couple of Mexicans if he could take it for a spin. I videotaped him coming around the corner yelling "NACHO" just like in the movie - it was so funny and everyone around was laughing but the best part was when the concierge caught him and came after him. Check out the video.





If you couldn't tell - we had the best time. Very relaxing, very beautiful, very humid - had never experienced that before.

Me and my best friend! Can't wait for the next trip!

My Bald Boys!

I fear we have a family trend... all my boys have shaved their heads. Yep - even Blaze. The mullet is officially gone. They had to do it without me around because I couldn't bear losing it. I think they are still so cute. Notice Canon's lump in the middle of his forehead? Smacked it on a bar on a sandrail while at the cabin. Just took a couple of pics of my boys on the paddle boat.

Captain Pierson!

Just wanted to share a few adorable pictures of Pierson "thinking" he was steering the boat on the lake in Arizona this past week. He is such a joy and such a cutie!

He isn't talking in English yet but he has his own language that I just love! He is close to running now - mostly away from me. He knows the word "NO" but refuses to listen to it. His latest thing is to pull you around the house by your finger NEVER letting go and pointing to things he wants. He eats pretty good but it is hard for me not to feed him junk since that is the only thing that comes in small chewable bites. He loves to be outside and will cry at the door like a dog to be let out. He knows the function of a remote and points it at the TV constantly.

He still takes 2 hour naps, just not when I need him or want him to. He is not too sure about swimming yet but loves the bath tub. He loves to read books and will tell me the story rather than listen to one. I think his absolutely most favorite thing to do is play with my cell phone. We are on cell phone number 3 right now. I have given him the ones he has broken but somehow he knows that it doesn't really work. He loves his brothers and loves to hear their voices. He chose his Dad over me when we returned from Mexico and I am not sure how to take that.

I just love love love him to death!

Just Checkin'

I was just checking to see if I could finally upload pictures and I CAN!!!

Not much going on - Blaze graduated from preschool which was fun. He didn't sing the songs too much but he did a good job lip syncin'. He was pretty excited about the book his teacher put together about the work he had done throughout the year. He had the best teacher ever - her ideas were awesome and he wanted to go to school everyday. Too bad I can't say the same for Canon. Canon is out of school now and is so glad but will miss his friends. He starts a new school next year so hopefully he will make great new friends!

Pierson is just getting into everything as usual. He thinks he can drag me around by the finger and he's right. He is just too cute! I can't wait for my CA family to see him!

That's all I got right now! I need to start taking more pictures huh?

Memorial Day!

Due to lots of things going and a baby being sick - we stayed home and enjoyed the sunshine. Darren cleaned out the garage, I planted flowers and the boys played on the slip-n-slide and on the bike ramp. I love spending a day getting things done but we were a little sad to not be spending it with family.

Here are a couple photos from our day. The flowers that I planted will eventually be so huge and cover the entire area - I will post a "after" picture in about a month. The pictures of the yard are just to show how great our trees a blooming and growing this year. Everything is bigger and better than before! I just love walking down our front path.

Hope you all had a great day!


OKAY - I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO UPLOAD PICTURES BUT I KEEP GETTING AN ERROR! I WILL KEEP TRYING AND TRYING AND TRYING!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Well - this post is going to be a bragging post. But I have to say that I had a wonderful birthday and I have an amazing husband. It goes like this...

My birthday was on Wednesday and it was going to be a full day. I had taken the day off to volunteer at Blaze's school, take Pierson to the doctor, swim lessons for the boys and then Scouts. Not too exciting huh? Well - Monday night Darren drops a bomb. He has arranged for me to have Tuesday off as well - he arranged to have the boys taken care of for the day, the night AND the next day. My best friend took them Tuesday, Ranie took them Tuesday night and Wednesday. He arranged for me to get out of teaching preschool and scouts the next day. He told me we were shopping on Tuesday then heading to Wendover to eat at my favorite restaurant, staying the night then coming back and having the evening to spend with the boys.

Well get this - at first I said NO WAY. I cried for an hour claiming I just couldn't do it, couldn't leave the boys, couldn't leave my responsibilities, had to do laundry, I was coming up with every excuse. I finally realized all the trouble he had gone through to make this happen - I agreed. I have obviously lost my sense of spontaneity. My schedule being all messed up didn't sit well.

I had a great time though - our friends Kim and Kurt went with us and they made it so much more fun. When I told the boys the next morning - they wished me well and could have cared less that I was leaving them. Ouch!

Ranie and Colin helped them make Birthday cards for me and they turned out so cute. I can't take them down.

I had a great birthday - thanks to everyone who helped get me out of town! It was worth it!

Science Fair!

Canon recently had a project due for the science fair - he was to create and design a miniature golf hole. He thought of it all by himself. It had a Madagascar theme so it was decorated with the Madagascar characters and a tree, a watering hole, etc. Darren and Canon constructed it and it took two whole night. They painted carpet, glued PVC pipe, spray painted boxes, etc. We are so proud of him and his creativity. We took his project in to the school Friday morning and then by the afternoon - parents were allowed to come see all of the kids entries. Let me just say that Canon had by far the largest hole There were a couple that were better than his but that won't happen next year - just ask Darren.

Here are a couple of pictures of the project. You had to hit the ball up the ramp trying to make into the hole on the box. If you made it - it would slide down a pipe in to a "hole in one". If you missed, the ball would go down the ramp and you would have to putt it into the hole from there.

He was excited for all the kids to see what he had made and his project was pretty popular! Too bad I won't let him keep it!

Random Pictures!

Just thought I would post a couple cute pictures of my boys!

Not A Good Idea!

So I realized a little too late that when you are waiting around for family to show up - it's not a good idea to pitch wiffle balls to your husband. It only took two pitches before I was struck right in the eye with a wiffle ball! He was aiming for the fences but my face got in the way. I immediately fell to the ground, lying on the driveway while Darren and the kids came running.It didn't take long to swell up but thank goodness it wasn't a real baseball. Each day my eye got a little darker, a little redder. Looked like I put on a little too much makeup on one eye.

Anyway - Darren was so proud of smackin me in the eye - he wanted it documented - here is the proof!

My Baseball Stud!

Blaze has been deemed the best kid on the team and we are so proud. This boy is truly amazing when it comes to sports. He is such a natural that he doesn't even have to try to be good... he just is. Everyone is telling us how great he is at batting, throwing, running, etc. It feels so good to hear such great things from other parents when their kid is out there too. He is always placed at first base since he is the only one that can catch with his mitt, throw to the pitcher or catcher and touch the base when he is supposed to. He loves to play and makes us so proud to watch him succeed. I often wonder if we may have a professional athlete in our midst.

Pierson Lawrence Don DeGracie!

Pierson has turned one! Today was his birthday and we had such a great day celebrating it! Last night he generously woke us up at 4:30 in the morning and we started talking about where we were at 4:30 in the morning a year ago. Pierson decided to come a month early and I went into labor in the middle of the night on May 16th. I was in denial of course, as I was with the other two boys when they came early. Once it started to hurt REAL bad I demanded to be taken to the hospital...hee!hee! At about 9:50 in the morning Pierson was born a perfectly healthy little boy!

So much has happened in just a year. It is so amazing all that a baby accomplishes in just one year. He gained a ton of weight, grew 6 teeth, feeds himself, throws a ball across the room, kicks any ball like a soccer ball, sits up, crawls, WALKS, can pick things up while walking without falling, can get up from the ground and start walking without the use of furniture, can say a few words, recognizes a ton of words and family members, torments the dog, sleeps through the night, well 6-7 hours anyway, and rules the house. We would do anything for this little boy. He can pour the dogs food and water out, empty the cabinets, pull everything out of the pantry, unravel the entire roll of toilet paper in each bathroom and empty the contents of the garbage cans and we still love him to death! He is such a cutie and we are so excited that he is ours! I am just so sad how fast it went.

For his birthday we had my family over for a barbeque. We had lots of food and a HUGE chocolate cake! He opened more presents than the days he has been alive and had cake in every crevasse. I think he did it on purpose because he LOVES to take a bath! He received lots of toys, the cutest clothes and some great books. Thanks so much for the gifts everyone....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIERSON! You are so loved!