JACE AND LINDSEY

It's true.  I like Mexico.  Let's take it one (or two) steps further.  Lindsey and Gavin like Mexico.  We can't deny it.  When the mercury in the thermometer freezes in Utah (it's a Utah thermometer, it's not used to really cold temperatures) there's no place like Mexico to calm the frozen soul.  Luckily for us there was a Mexican vacation planned in January, compliments of Pam, Greg, and well...Mexico.

But enough about us, let's get to the pictures.  Next time you get cold just imagine what it's like to lay on a sun drenched, sandy beach.  When we arrived back in Salt Lake the thermometer said it was -2 degrees, but luckily I had warmed up enough while in Mexico that it didn't actually feel that cold until the heat all escaped over the following day or two.  I suppose it may have been numbness as well, can't rule that out.

First item of business after arrival:  Enjoy a nice meal OUTDOORS, and make faces at Ashley.  (Okay, the first item was actually to pile 9 people plus luggage into a Town and Country to get out of the airport.)
 Second item: Learn how to deadpan for the camera.  Gavin has gotten very good at this.  I think it's because he's angry he doesn't get to take the pictures.
 Yeah, this was the view from our bedroom.  Pool about 10 feet away, with the ocean and spouting whales as the backdrop.  We pretty well lived in the pool and did many things against pool rules, i.e. jumping into the pool, eating in the pool, peeing in the pool (that was Gavin, I promise!)  It was our own pool, who was going to stop us?

 In case you weren't aware, Gavin LOVES sand, and it turns out water as well.  He played in the sand, and then the water, and then the sand, and then the water...you get the idea.  He's our little amphibian.

Random shot, we thought it was funny.  At least their going here and not in the pool.
 What do you get when you have a wood table, glasses, and wind up cars?  I don't really know, but it entertained Brent and Jimmy for quite a while.
 Gavin being unhappy because I made him wait to take a picture before hopping in the pool.
 Our sketchy taco place.  So sketchy and good that we went back, two more times.  Other than some issues with oozing tar (as per Jimmy), we're not aware of any repercussions from the sketchiness.  Nothing like watching your taco meat cook in open air right next to passing cars on the street.
 Why this picture?  Well, because they're cute, that's why.

 Did I mention we all piled in a Town and Country?  It had a really awesome clock by the way.  Oh, and we had to fit a surf board in too.  Also, turns out that a Town and Country doesn't actually do that well in loose sand...

 We switched places halfway through and this was our new view.  Luckily right on the beach, despite concerns to the contrary.  Turns out google maps in Mexico is kind of like taco places in Mexico, sketchy.  Without fail we could wake up every morning, walk out onto the balcony, and watch whales breeching and spouting (I'm not sure if those are real whale-ologist terms, but I don't care because it was cool to watch.)  We were not only treated to hours of whale watching, we also were able to witness a spectacle that surprised us all, flying rays.  They're not really flying, but they jump way out of the water and slap down, and in quick succession.  It was crazy to watch, it took us a few minutes to figure out what was going on.  Even then we weren't sure we believed our eyes, so naturally we had to google it.  Turns out rays will sometimes jump out of the water for a number of reasons, including birthing, sport, and imminent death by predator.  Obviously we had witnessed the maternity ward olympics in danger of being spoiled by a shark.  There's no other explanation.  (By the way, you can youtube flying or jumping rays and there are some awesome videos.)
 More sun and water!


 Pacific, meet Sea of Cortes.  Jimmy, Brent and I body surfed for quite a while under the arch, there were some great waves.  I'm pretty sure it was a stupid thing to do, but luckily the worst that came of it was spending the rest of the day digging sound out of...everywhere.
 Our little sightseeing trip around the point and ultimately to lover's and divorce beaches.
 Gavin was enthralled.
 Good people, good food, what else do you need?
 Well, we had to come home eventually, but fortunately we got to bring this handsome little traveler with us!

Gavin survived his first Halloween.  It's likely because his terribly mean parents only let him have a few pieces of licorice.  He was a pretty dang cute cowboy though, and although he didn't quite get the candy thing at first (he kept putting it back), once he realized he could keep it and just pick up more he was pretty excited!

He's thinking he could get used to this whole thing...


Gavin in full costume, including his faithful old steed...unfortunately the boots got cut out of the picture.

So...we decided a month or so ago that maybe we should just take a trip to Texas.  Maybe it was because we had some friends move there recently, or maybe it was the allure of those Geico commercials, but either way, we decided it was a good idea.  Everyone we talked to responded something like, "Why are you going to Texas? What's there to do in Texas?"  We had no response.  Now we do.  Here's what to do in Texas:

1) Visit the Battleship Texas. An old battleship turned into a museum.  The only thing missing was a bunch of smelly sailors. 
 We made sure to explore ALL of the ship, even the sub sub levels.  This battleship was in service from 1914 to the end of World War 2, what a life!
 The Waddoups and Gardner clans ready for duty... or at least to watch the kids swab the deck.

2) Visit the beach along the Gulf Coast.  I've heard there are some absolutely amazing beaches along the gulf coast.  My definition of an amazing beach is one with water, sand, and above 80 degree temperatures.  Check.

Gavin loves digging in the sand.  Oh yeah, and throwing it all over anyone that my be in close proximity.


3)  Visit a bayou and search for crocodiles

Can you find the crocodile?  We counted 12 crocodiles of various sizes during our short hike, but I'm pretty sure there were probably hundreds within viewing distance.

4) NASA - Johnson Space Center

This is the Saturn V rocket, intended for use during later Apollo missions before they were cancelled.
 Gavin isn't terribly interested in being an astronaut, apparently the gear isn't that comfortable.

5)  They have museums there.  Pretty good ones too.

Museum of Natural Science.  Lots of crazy prehistoric animals running around here.  Security was keeping a very close eye on us since Gavin felt the need to try and crawl under every rope around the exhibits.  There was also a large exhibit on oil production that was quite interesting.

Health Museum.  He couldn't quite reach the pedals from the seat, but that wasn't about to stop him from trying the machine.
 The scream room.  It wasn't as sound proof as they led you to believe.  Curiously I won the screaming competition, it must not take the shrill piercing into account.

See, look at all of the things you can do in Texas.  I'm sure there are even more, maybe even 2 or 3 more things.  Really we didn't need anything to entertain us though, we had a great time hanging out with friends, sleeping in, and learning about fire ants.

Brent took some great photos of the tree so I'm posting them here.
 

Yeah, it was pretty shocking...pun intended.

As is tradition, we decided to go camping over labor day.  As is tradition, the weather did something a little crazy.  Last year it got quite a bit colder than usual and frosted everything.  Mother nature knew she had to keep the streak going but decided to really go all out this time.  Luckily for the bulk of the family that decided to come they stayed in a different campground Friday night that Chad (my brother) had reserved.

I don't know exactly when the storm really got going, but in the wee hours of the morning (I'm guessing around 2:00) the lightning and thunder really took off in a frenzy and so did the rain.  Luckily we stayed pretty dry in our tent, but we would occasionally wake up to the loudest booms of thunder before drifting off again.  Well, at about 5:30 we woke up to a feeling of being jolted off the ground, the tent completely illuminated, crackling, the feeling of singed limbs, and the smell of burning.  Yep, imagine all of those sights, smells, and feelings in about a half a second. Immediately after instinctively trying to karate chop whatever force had done this to me, I realized that we had been struck by lightning and my powers were useless against it.  All of the trees within about 30 feet of us were burned (didn't go up in flames or anything but had a lot of burned spots) and several of them were split open.  The direct strike was obviously one of those trees or maybe all of them at once. We also found after the sun came up that there were shards of wood scattered all over our campsite, a few of them fairly sizable.  Dirt and rock were also blown out from around some of their roots and sprayed our fireplace and canopy.  The lightning also didn't seem to like that our axe and hatchet were buried in a stump at the bottom of one of the trees and blew them a foot or two away.  Luckily I don't think Gavin was shocked since he was in a plastic pack and play that shielded him a little more from the ground.  I know, I know, you have just one question you are dying to know, but so far our new super powers haven't manifested themselves, so we don't know what they are.

We unfortunately aren't currently starring in any reality TV shows so no cameras were running, but I'm pretty sure this is what it looked like at that very second.



The forest service came by to check out what happened and decided they had to cut down at least one of the trees before it just fell over, you can see the burn right down the center of the tree.  They were going to come back after we left to cut down more of them.  We saved part of the one that was cut down in remembrance of the event.

 Remember, when this truck would run?  Oh yeah, the kids were much happier about it then...  but on a happier note:  Go Aggies!!!