Instalife---May

Wow, I have neglected the ol' blog for a while. Ever so slowly I'm creeping toward blogging present-day events...just not there yet! Here are some snapshots of the fun we had in May.

This sweet girl turned 2!!!

We arrived to paradise!

Gina and I both went shopping separately for vacation clothes, only to arrive thousands of miles from home practically twins!!

Even cloudy skies are beautiful here.

Us <3 br="">

Ainsley had a blast licking the frosting pan before her birthday party. Its like paint you can eat!

Vacation is great, but coming home to these sweet faces is even better!

Mother's Day brought me breakfast in bed...and a little one to help me eat it =)

Daddy has waited 2 long years for this little pigtails.

Our friend Brandon may have hit borderline genius status here....Put the sprinkler on the top of the trampoline instead of underneath! Our fun meter increased drastically =)

We brought the girls a hammock home from Mexico. And while I was hanging it in the tree, Ella made herself a tree fort out of the limbs I had cut off the other tree.

Sleeping baby as we made a whirl-wind trip to Riddle.

Only the best view in town for you Poppa. We sprinkled Poppa's ashes at the top of the ranch overlooking Riddle.

Ainsley and Kolby running carefree in the field.

The Children's Museum added an outdoor exhibit where you can made a lean-to and climb in a giant tree. Of course you can't leave without painting your face!

Throughout the year Ella and I have struggled with making sure she was making the best decisions for Ella regardless of what the kids around her were doing/saying. At the last assembly of the year she was recognized in front of the entire school for her character and initiative. We are so proud of the girl you are Ella!

Its Rugged Maniac time!! Neal, me, Rob, Gina, Cindy, Jessica, Allie and Ryan all completed a 3.1 mile, 31 obstacle course!

I fell completely in the mud on obstacle 5 or so! It took 4 washes to get rid of that matted dirt in my hair. If only the picture showed how dirty I really was...

The fun never stops around here!!!

Friends, fun and lots of sun......Cozumel

La Lobsteria. Perfect first meal in Cozumel. We were the only people in the restaurant aside from the owner/server and the cook.

Cheers to finally arriving to vacation! Dead car battery, cancelled flight, rushed check-in to make an extra flight, delayed flight, sleeping in the airport, long wait for the ferry, extra rough sea....but despite it all, we have ARRIVED! If we only would have saw the "cash only" sign before we started ordering all these drinks and lobster!! These are the moments memories are made of......

Beach club with happy hour from 1-3PM, yes please! And the view was wonderful too =)

We spent one evening at the Festival of el Cedral. It is a local festival in this abandoned town of el Cedral; locals live here only a week a year during the festival. This is a festival that celebrates the Mayans returning to the island of Cozumel after the Spanish brought small pox to the island forcing the Mayans inland where they lived for 500 years. Its a Mayan street fair with rusty (EEK!) carnival rides, delicious local food, a steer taunt? (We never figured out exactly what we were watching in the top picture. We were only part of a handful of white people at the festival and the language barrier made communication mostly about pointing! We were told this event would start at 5. Men dressed in costumes that changed to drag that changed back to costumes ran around and taunted these steers. Eventually they would return the steer to the shoot and bring another one out. More and more locals kept filling the stadium so we thought, maybe this is the build-up to the MAIN event. An hour and a half later of watching this taunting, everyone went back into the shoot, the locals got up and everyone left. That was it?!?!? ) In our wanderings we also came upon a cock fight. Despite feelings of right or wrong for the practice, it was amazing to be witness to this local pastime. I will say that the owners of the roosters were so friendly with each other, it was all jesting in fun and they tried their best to help us understand what was going on even though we only understood maybe 2 words they said!!

We missed getting to celebrate the 2nd birthday of this sweet girl while we were gone. Good thing we now she received lots of loving on her special day <3 br="">

On our Polaris tour we visited the natural wetland area on the south end of the island where the crocodiles roam free! This guy was swimming right under the dock we were standing on. We also snorkeled but didn't see as much colorful wildlife as we hopes. Our tour took us to the San Gervasio ruins. These ancient ruins are actually in the center of the island. The cobble road lead from either coastline to the center of the town. In the above arch, you can see a low flat table. This was the place the people deemed unworthy of entering the city had to leave their offerings and then return down the same path back to the beach. From the ruins we headed for some tequila tasting. Before you shiver at the thought of tequila, let me tell you personally that true Mexican tequila is delicious!!

Our Polaris =) The lighthouse at Punta Sur- very picturesque. Neal and I enjoyed lounging/swinging in the shade at the lighthouse. Tourist picture at the top of the lighthouse to round out our lighthouse pictures.

Nachi Cocom all-inclusive beach club. White sand, drinks for days, great company. Gina and I decided to go for a little swim out to the "shallow" area of the swim area. It didn't seem far but once we got there, it wasn't shallow at all! At this point we decided to swim for the rope sectioning off the swim area so we could at least rest while we decided what to do. Our sweet husbands then convinced us that it wasn't THAT FAR to swim out to the red buoy on the far side of the swim area. Let me tell you, after a few drinks and not being a strong swimmer....the buoy is A LONG WAY AWAY! We made it though, and even were still smiling =)

By 1PM, we were the ONLY ones in the entire beach club plus 1 other couple. We quickly became friends with Dave and Sue; Dave happens to love taking photos as a hobby. Thanks to him we ended up with some great photos of our time at Nachi Cocom.

 

Sue, Gina, Melissa, Rob, Neal and Dave. Yes I am leaning in a little close to Rob....Whoops, I thought it was Neal until after we took the picture and Rob said "Hello Melissa!" Minor confusion =0

Swim up bar where there was more waitstaff than us!!

Fun nights!! And those margaritas were HUGE! Wet Wendy's was the margarita bar in the middle of town with huge margaritas with tables you could leave your mark on.

We had overcast evenings most nights, but finally we had enough of a cloud break for a BEAUTIFUL Caribbean sunset.

Our deep sea fishing trip had us up and on the water early enough to see the sunrise. I nearly caught a barracuda (darn!) and Neal caught a couple of trigger type fish.

Even cloudy days are a thing of beauty in Cozumel.

Swimming with our dolphin Marina!

Goodbye Cozumel!

This vacation was full of memories and lessons in flexibility. We spent many nights before we left planning our adventures and days only to have practically ALL of them cancelled or revised. In the end we had a blast!

Ainsley is 2!

Happy 2nd birthday Ainsley Rae!!

She was so excited that everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She didn't need any coaching for blowing the candles or diving in.

Yum!!

Ainsley you are a HUGE personality in this tiny little person. You are such a lover, a sissy little miss and love to help out. I cannot list out the words you say at 2, you speak in paragraphs!! Your sisters can't get away with anything because you will tell them exactly what your opinion is! One of my favorite things is how you will ask yourself a question then answer it as though it was a great question. This one is your favorite:
"Do you want a pancake?"
"Oh, SURE!"
If things are too quiet or we cannot find you, the freezer is usually a safe bet. You have an obsession with eating frozen pancakes out of the freezer. Definitely a girl after mommy's own heart....carb junkie!!

We had a checkup with our new pediatrician and he recommended we branch out into the world of dairy and see how things go. I must admit I'm more than a little nervous to test the waters, but he had sound reasoning and it will make life for her a lot easier. This however, has been a transition for her too. Forever we have been telling her that she cannot have this or that because it has dairy in it and she has to have "Ainsley's special____". The first day we gave her cheese, she asked if it was her cheese. I told her no, Dr. Weill said you can have this. "Oh," she says. And now if there is anything we say she can't do, she tells us "We have to ask Dr. Weill if I can____."

Just for fun I asked Ainsley the same birthday questions I asked Ella and Aubrey. She does surprisingly well answers questions appropriately for a 2 year old!!!

Favorite animal: Sleeping Beauty is an animal
Favorite food to eat: cupcakes
Things I don't like to eat: dairy cupcakes
Favorite thing to do: go to toys
Favorite show/movie: Frozen
What are you really good at? playing
Favorite book: Frozen
What do you want to be when you grow up? a baby

Happy happy birthday Ainsley Peanut! We love you so so much.

Ainsley random bits and pieces

These days Ella and Aubrey are so busy and constantly moving I'm finding that I have fewer pictures of them in daily "stuff". I guess that is probably a normal transition but now I feel like I really need to make a conscious effort to snap those random pictures of them. Alas, I have a few random photos of Ainsley to share.

1st time painting. Aubrey and I were making her star board and Ainsley definitely wasn't going to miss out on the painting. She had so much fun. Now mom just needs to get over the mental block of how much work is it to clean up after painting and pull the paints out more often!

Oh Ainsley! This picture describes so much about you. Happy happy smiley girl, trying to be so independent (taking pants off prior to putting on jammie bottoms is completely optional!) and very "artistic" (as evidenced by the tiger striped marker lines!).

Sweet baby face

Funny story behind this picture. Ainsley had made a HUGE mess on her clothes during lunch. She wanted to play outside for a few minutes before nap, and since it was warm I figured 'what the heck, no clothes are needed for the backyard for 10 minutes.' She gets outside and instantly is so mad....she cannot be outside without her new flip flops on! She never once asked for clothes but by golly you better not send her outside without shoes!!

Oh Ainsley! You definitely a little peanut with HUGE personality.

Easter 2014

Egg dying fun! We had the entire family over to dye eggs. It was lots of fun and surprisingly enough we didn't end up with dye on anything but the eggs =)

Easter morning egg hunt.

Not only did Grandma Marian make their Easter dresses with matching shrugs, she also curled their hair!

Beautiful sisters. Cannot express how happy each of these smiles make us.

Grandma Marian and the girls

Family picture 2014

Cousins ready to hunt more eggs in the back yard.

Pictures pretty much are all that is required for this post =)