NEW YORK TRIP - SEPT 2015

In September, I was scheduled to fly to New York City to meet Julian for his birthday since he was working out there and the heart failure with my Mom happened 1 day before I was supposed to go, but she gave me her blessing to go since she'd be in good hands in the hospital anyway, so I went.  I felt guilty, but there wasn't much I could do anyway.  Taj so graciously stayed at home with the kids so I could go.






I made it to the airport and Julian picked me up.  I went to a couple of addresses with him and let me just tell you people drive so crazy in NY.  We were primarily in Brooklyn and finally made our way to our first hotel where we spent two nights.


The first night, I thought he and I were just going to go out to dinner, so I was wearing these wedge heels and we took my first subway and ended up walking 30 or so blocks to Time Square!  It was 1:30AM there and there was still so many people out.  We stood in front of where they film Good Morning America and then thankfully took an Uber back to our hotel.





My feel were sooooo cut up from those dang shoes.  I had brought some bandaids with me, but they only lasted me the next day.  That evening we ended up going out to dinner with Julian's friend that he went to highschool in Mt. Vernon with who so happens to live in Brooklyn with his wife and kids.  After we ate and had drinks, they invited us over to their place which was just a couple blocks down the road and had a couple drinks and then went up on their roof where we got to see a beautiful view of the city and the Statue of Liberty, although she was Very far away, but it still counts, because I saw her with my own eyes. :)  We made our way back towards our hotel and stopped by a pizza place and brought pizza back to our hotel room.

The next day we checked out of that hotel and went to our last hotel, checked in and then went on another adventure by taking several subways, which is very confusing by the way.


But before we made it to the Subway's, we had to stop by a crazy little store to buy more bandaids for my torn up feet and we asked the lady where they were and she said behind the counter, so we asked another lady for them and she asked how many we wanted......Julian and I just looked at eachother and said "um 10".  She had a full box of bandaids, but you couldn't buy them like that, you had to buy them individually for $0.25 a peice!  You should have seen my feet, I think I had like 4 bandaids on each foot and as we were walking, if I felt like another place started to rub, I stopped and put another one on!  ha ha!


We made our way back Time Sqaure, which is even busier during the day, but my main goal was to see Central Park.  We walked forever, but I really enjoyed every minute of it.  Finally we're on our way to Central Park and I knew we were getting close because I could see some greenery and some tour guide guy tried to talk us into riding on the back of his bike to show us Central Park, but I just said no to Julian and we kept walking.

Then another guy came up to us, same idea and he was a great salesman and finally Julian implied to me that Central Park was huge and we had been walking all day, so I agreed.  And Thank Goodness we did because our guy was amazing and took us to the coolest part of the park and had all of the history of the park and pointed to the buildings where famous people lived and where movies were made.  Then he would let us off to let us walk down to the pond and this arched area where I guess a ton of people get married.  It was beautiful.  We were walking back up the stairs to meet our guy and there was this little girls sitting on a milk carton wearing a spiderman outfit with a harmonica strap, guitar and was singing all at the same time. People were just sitting on the stairs watching her.  She had to only have been 7 or 8 years old.  She had a box with her CD's for sale in front of her.  We made it back to our guy and he took us to another place, where he took our picture together in front of this pond with the Ghostbusters building in the back and then another picture of this romantic arched bridge.  This particular pond, you could rent gondola's and row boats.  Then he took us to the "Friends" fountain and even made us jump up in the air while he took the picture just like they do on the show Friends.  Great picture of Julian, but I hate it of me!  So it was incredibly worth it to have him take us around on his bike because he took pictures of us, which would have never had happened if it was just the two of us.  Plus the history he gave us was so great.  But if we ever go again, I'd like to spend some time there, sitting on a blanket people watching, because there were break dancers, skateboards, people playing sports, just so many things to watch, so I think that'd be fun to spend an entire day there.

After the bike tour we decided to go and see the 9-11 Memorial and the Freedom Tower.  I cannot tell you how much in awe I am of that building.  Its absolutly breathtaking.  Now everytime I see movies filmed in New York, I always look for it.  Finally we were ready to start making our ways back to the Subway's, but as I was standing there waiting for Julian to find the correct subways on his fancy app, the freedom tower was directly behind him, 

so I sat on the ground and took a picture of him with the entire tower right behind him.

We made it back to Brooklyn, then Williamsburg where Julian and his work team lived in a temporary apartment for two months last summer and he took us to dinner at this place he remembered called the Surf Bar.  You would never know how cool it was from the outside, until you walk in and then entire floor is full of white sand and surfboards everywhere.  We had a delicious dinner and he ordered us both drinks, even though I wasn't going to drink because I was leaving the next day, but we had a drink there, then left there and went to another bar down the street and stayed there for quite a while and had quite a few drinks.  

We  made it back to our hotel and slept in as long as we could before we had to get up and take me to the airport.  It was sad leaving him, because he had to stay back and work some more.  I hope he had a great 41st birthday weekend, because I sure did with him.

If we ever go again, I want to bring the kids and go up into the Freedom Tower, Central Park and then take them to Coney Island.

SUPERBOWL 49 - SEAHAWKS VS. PATRIOTS

Well the Seahawks did it again.  Won the NFC Championship which led them to Super Bowl 49 in Arizona against the New England Patriots.  The City was in an uproar waiting for the upcoming game.  Vendors were selling Seahawks gear on every corner it seemed.  We were planning on going to Katie and Justins for their huge Super Bowl party, but, at the last minute we decided to stay home and watch it as a family.  We got lots of yummy snacks and food to eat, plus icecream treats for later.  Daddy even created a football pool that all of us participated in.  And as a group, we all came up with the prizes.  So finally it was time to watch the game and boy were we on edge the entire time.  Patriots would be up, then we could come back and the score was so close during the entire game.  Then two minutes were left on the clock and the Patriots scored.  We had our work cut out for us.  Amazingly the Seahawks had the ball on our one yard line and we were about to win the game with such a low amount of time left on the game and they hiked the ball, but instead of giving it to Lynch aka Beast Mode, they threw the ball into the end zone and it was intercepted by a rookie of the Patriots.  Game Over.  It was a very tough pill to swallow.  We should have won that game, all day long.  Immediately social media, the news, reports, ect. were all stunned that they decided to throw the ball rather than run it in, when they had so many opportunities to do so.  Coach Carroll and his coaching staff are all getting killed in the media over this bad decision.  A decision that cost us losing the Super Bowl for the second year in a row.  We were all a mess.  Julian immediately tore off his jersey and layed on the floor, along with Celine and Christian.  

I just couldn't get mysef to watch the rest of the Post Game.  On a lighter note, Addy won the first quarter in the pool and the prize was to be able to play with her Ipod, unlimited one day during the week, rather than the usual 30 minutes.  Then Christian one all of the remaining quarters, which means he gets $10, gets to choose the place next time we go out to dinner & hot coco and a doughnut at Top Pot doughnuts.

Its okay.  We still love our SeaHawks and they'll be back next year to win Super Bowl 50!!!

FAMILY TRIP TO RINCON DE GUAYABITOS, MEXICO - NOVEMBER, 2014

November 15-26, 2014

We were finally going to be able to make it Mexico to see Nana and Papa and their new house!  Nana and Papa knew our family was coming, but they didn't know that Carlos and Juan were also coming.  The day before we left, we rented a mini van from the airport, drove it home, packed it and then the morning of, we went to Uncle Carlos' house to pick him up.  We all drove to the airport, dropped off the rental car then went into the airport to wait for Juan.  We were all there and began the check -in process.  This was going to be Christian's very first plane ride.

 Addison had been on a plane before, to Buffalo, but she was young, so she didn't really remember.  We were flying from Seattle to Portland, OR then from Portland to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  The kids did great on the plane ride.  When we arrived in Puerto Vallarta.

Nana and Papa were waiting for us in the airport and were surprised to see Carlos and Juan.  Good thing, they rented a nice passenger van that could accomodate all of us and our luggage.  We made our way to Guayabito's which is about an hour away from the airport.  You have to drive through a very jungly area with very narrow roads.  We finally made it to their house and man the pictures just do not do it justice.  It really is huge and completely amazing.  8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, nice large back yard with a pool, Nana's party room that has a bar, icepit and bbq.  My favorite part of the day is when the sun is setting.  It creates the most beautiful color in the sky.  The best part was going up on their roof to see the sun setting, the water and all of the gorgeous palm trees.

 The next day we decided to pack up and spend all day at the beach.  Its about a 5 minute drive and a 10 minute walk.  We loaded the cars full of chairs, tables, umbrellas, food and alcohol.  Once we found our place, we posted up and had so much fun in the water and spending time with family.  The weather was amazing.

 One of the days we decided to rent a banana boat and it was Me, Julian, Juan, Celine & Carlos.  Then in the boat that was pulling us, was Papa, Christian and Addy.  We toured around the bay for a while and then at the very end, Julian gave the boat driver a thumbs up, which meant for us to get off the banana boat, he was going to whip the boat around which would dump us off!  I came up out of the water and immediately grabbed onto Celine and she kept complaining that I landed on her.  I told her it wasn't my fault!  Then poor Juan who cannot swim (well he really can, but he sykes himself out if he thinks he cannot touch the bottom) thought he was going to drown and Julian was holding onto the back of him while Juan was scrambling and Julian kept trying to tell him "you can touch the ground Juan, you can touch!"  He finally put his legs down and was like "oh".  It was so funny.

You could buy fresh pina coladas for $25 pesos on the beach, then you brought it back to your area and put rum inside of it.  They were delicious.  Celine absolutley loved the water, it was hard keeping her out of there.  We eventually bought her a boogy board, so that kept her even busier.

 Addison was more interested in collecting shells near the water and building sand castles.

 Christian only wanted to go in the water with an adult, which was fine.  He liked jumping the waves.   The girls got their hair braided on the beach early in the vacation, but wanted it to stay in so they could go back to school with it, but the first one was getting a little fuzzy, so we took them back a day before we went home so they had fresh braides in their hair.  The water was incredibly warm, it didn't seem natural.  The days seem to go on forever when you are there.  We would wake up at 6AM, find Nana who was already up and cleaning the floors with diesel and tidying up, getting her famous oatmeal ready for the kids, then we would find her on the front patio drinking her coffee.

 We would all sit out there and talk and then Nana would prepare breakfast for us.  One morning she made banana pancakes, then another time, she made eggs with cactus.  It was actually really good.  We typically ate dinner at the house, but a couple of the nights, we decided to go into town and eat at a few different restaurants.

 We found ourselves going to be at 8PM, because like I said the days seemed so long!  One day we decided to wake up early and go for a walk on the beach while it was still semi-dark out.  It was Me, Juan, Julian, Carlos & Nana.  By time we made it to the beach it was becoming light outside.  Julian even jumped in the ocean!  It was fun to see all the fisherman bringing their boats in with that days fresh catch to sell on the beach.

 Later that day, we decided to go to the swap meat that was in the town of La Panita.  There was also some type of parade going on since it was a holiday, so there were tons of people down there.  We decided to have lunch at a pizza place before going back to Nana's.

 Another day, me and the boys drove to Pueto Vallarta to go to Home Depot, because they were trying to hook up the venting system for Nana's dryer.  Then we went to Walmart down there and they had a huge grocery section.  Its weird to see all of the eggs just sitting out in the open on pallets in the middle of aisles since they do not refrigerate eggs in Mexico.  It was very comforting being at the Parents house because the house was so big and even if they went out to the front of the house, they have 9 foot gates with a large chain that secures the fence so nobody can get in and the kids cannot get out.  Another thing that is so different in Mexico is just seeing all of the dogs running around the place.  None of them really have homes and they don't treat them as pets.  There was this one dog named Vanessa that was the only one we would let our kids touch.  She was a sweetheart.

 But one of the nights, I was kept awake, because all I could hear was dog fighting out front and it was breaking my heart.  We didn't see any Iguanas at Nana and Papa's but we did see little brown geckos all over the place.  For being so little, they make the loudest "kissing" noises.  At one point, there was one in our room and we were about to go to bed and it was freaking Julian out, so he kept throwing his sock at it to make it get out of the room.  We slept upstairs in one room, then the kids all slept in the other room up there.  There were three twin beds all pushed up against eachother.  Plus it was nice because there was a bathroom between both bedrooms.

 At night we spent time out in the back of the house which is what Nana calls her Pavillion (party room).  We would bring drinks and music down and have so much fun.

 One day we decided it would be fun to all drive into Puerto Vallarta and stay in a hotel for the night.  We got three rooms at the Sheraton.  It had the most amazing room with ocean view.

 Plus it had a really cool pool with a swim up bar.  We got there and spent a lot of time at the pool.

 Then in the evening we all went out to dinner at this place called Lyla's.  It was rather fancy.  Then, me and the boys were going to go downtown Puerto Vallarta to hit a tequila store, go to a couple of bars and watch some UFC fights.  Nana and Papa stayed at the hotel with the kids.  We ended up watching the fights, then went to a couple clubs, but didn't stay long.

The next morning we all got up and went to breakfast down at the hotel.  Then we went back to the pool and stayed there for hours.  We finally go to see an Iguana.  It was on an island in the middle of the pool.  Once everyone caught site of it, all the kids were looking to see what it was going to do.  At one point, it actually jumped in the pool and swam crazy fast to the edge, climbed up the side of the pool, then sauntered towards a different edge of the pool.  It was almost as if he was going to to stop and pose for pictures.  Then it hopped in the kiddy pool and onto another island in the middle of the pool.  It was fun to see.

Juan was leaving that day, so he took a taxi to the airport.  We checked out of two of the rooms, but Julian extended our check out to later that day, so we combined everything into our room.  The plan was that Julian, Carlos and I were going to stay in PV to watch the Seahawks game and Nana and Papa were going to drive the kids back home, but my gut feeling was to stay with the kids and have the boys go hang out and watch the game together.  We got back to the house and relaxed while we waited for the boys to get home.  They finally made it home, which made me feel better, because I didn't like the idea of them driving through that jungle in the dark.  The day before Christian's birthday, Nana and I drove into town and ordered his birthday cake which was a Tres Leches cake and it would be delivered to their house the next day.  Papa and Uncle Carlos found a Spiderman Pinata that was about 4 feet tall, so they filled it with candy and they strung it up on the balcony on the back of the house.  Nana had invited her neighbor (the lady that always watches the house when they are out of town) and they came over and celebrated Christian's birthday with us.  All of the kids took turns hitting the gigantic spiderman pinata.  It was very tough, so Julian and to get involved to get the candy out.  After we sang happy birthday, he sat on the floor and opened the few gifts that we brought for him.  How cool to spend your 3 birthday in Mexico!

The next day we went back to the beach for the day and Nana''s best friends brother, Ciro and his wife Lupita joined us at the beach and were going to stay at the house for a couple of days.  Then the next day, it was time for us to start packing.  Before the taxi arrived, we took one last family photo.

We said our tearful goodbyes and were on our way back to the airport.  We flew out of Puerto Vallarta and flew into Portland Oregon.  We made our way through customs and were held back because something on Julian's name was flagged in their system, so me and the kids had to go and sit in a room and wait.  Finally Julian came in and waited with us.  We had to wait for the guy to get the rest of the passengers through, then he came and talked to us.  Apparently it was a mix up for something that had happened in the past, but it was a differently SS#.  So he might have to go through that every time.  We finally made it through and had to find Carlos.  We found him and then we took a shuttle to the hotel we were staying at the night, then had to wake up early to get to the airport to get us home.  We made it to Sea-Tac and one of Julian's friends Russ had just flown out and left his truck in the airport parking lot, so we were able to take his truck home.  We feel so lucky to have been able to go.  Home Sweet Home.