Puerta Vallarta

What a wonderful time here in PV!! Sitting on the beach, under a hut, sipping a strawberry banana smoothie on the beach of PV has been wonderful. We've filled our days with many activities. Rhythms of the night on an island (where we had a downpour!!). Excellent show and the rain, thunder and lightening just seem to fit in. After the show we had an all you can eat buffet which was excellent! It's been interesting seeing all the different culture. Yesterday we went into Bucherist and went shopping. Not just any shopping. Authentic Mexican shopping!! It saddened me when we got out of the taxi and these little children running around with just diapers and their parents selling items on the street. Just opened my eyes to how good we have it back in our little worlds. As we walked along the alley the people pretty much come in droves to sell you anything. I stick by Kevin a lot. Something about the American blonde girl walking down the street! She looks like a sucker that will buy anything!! Anyway, Kevin does good in getting deals. Tomorrow we will go snorkeling and on a boat tour then out for dinner for Mike, Shawn and Kevin. It is Father's Day you know! We've put a lot into the week but it's been amazing. I've tried to stay out of the sun since I'm so fair skinned and my freckles want to come out and play! If you have Facebook I have some pictures on there. The rest I'll have to put on when I get back to the States. We are blessed to have such wonderful parents to bring us here. It's just what we needed!

Belly Button Song

My friend Angela posted this on her facebook page. I thought it was so cute I had to share! Enjoy!

Here we Go!

Just two short days and we'll be flying through the air on our way to Oregon. Well, the boys and I anyway. I have suitcases packed, passport in hand, backpacks packed for the boys on the plane and PLENTY of snacks for Zayvn!! We will arrive in Portland Saturday night. I will spend a few days with family and then Tuesday morning leave for Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. Kevin will leave from here and meet me in Mexico. We are so looking forward to having some time away. The boys will be entertained by my niece Elizabeth in OR while we are in Mexico. We will then fly back to Portland where we will attend the wedding of our nephew David. It's going to be a very busy vacation but a great one. I'm not sure how much posting I will do here on our blog but I will defintely get pictures posted on facebook. Live without facebook? I don't think so!! I'll have to snag someone's laptop just so I can see what's going on with all my friends and give updates on us!

Dam to Dam/Farmers Market

Waiting for Kev and Ryan

Kev after the race

Kevin too tired to tie shoe so had Zayvn do it

Kev and Ryan after the race

It's completed. Kevin ran Dam to Dam http://www.damtodam.com/. It was pouring down rain all morning until just before we got ready to leave. Joni, her kids, Zayvn and I were just crazy! We went down to Farmers Market. Of course, not a lot of people were there. Wonder why that is?? Anyway, we found a little booth with cinnamon rolls and ate under a parking garage. After eating we headed over back to the finish line to wait for the guys to come in. No sense in walking the farmers market when we were all soaking wet. The kids were pretty good about waiting for Ryan and Kevin to come through. Zayvn even got some high fives from the runners! Kev did great considering he was in El Salvador for a week and then prior to that he had that stress fracture. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Kev running. Luckily Joni did so that will come later.

Kindergarten Graduation

Doing a little presentation in class

Mr. Mohning congratulating Zayvn

Zayvn singing in the choir

Zayvn and Mrs. Crady

Mom, Zayvn and Dad with the graduate




Zayvn and his mohawk

Today was graduation day for Zayvn. At long last he is done with Kindergarten and moving on to Frist Grade!! He had a short little performance in his classroom and then we moved into the gym for graduation. All those little kindergarteners were so cute!! They've grown so much in the last year. After receiving certificates from Mr. Mohning, school principal, they had a concert where they sung their hearts out. We headed back to the class, gathered all Zayvn's stuff and as promised, we took him out to lunch, at McDonald's. Imagine seeing some of his classmates!! I think we weren't the only one with that idea. As tradition Zayvn always gets his hair cut for the summer so Kevin took him over to get his haircut. Kevin wanted him to have a mohawk but I wasn't hip to that idea (attitude would have been written all over that!). So, as a compromise, Zayvn got his head shaved in a mohawk and Kev was able to take pictures. Then, zip! Right off it came.

On a side note, Renn's last day as a 4th grader was today. My mind can't get use to having a 5th grader. Time absolutely just flys by. I picked Renn up from school early as the boys from church are going on a Pow Wow. He was very excited, yet nervous as Kevin was not going. Renn's not to hip on thunderstorms and lightening and it was to do some of that tonight. This last week we've had an abundance of them and when they go we find Renn in our room because he's scared. I said a prayer over him asking the Lord to just help him not be afraid. He will return on Sunday and I imagine, although he packed clothes, he will return in the same clothes he wore there. Kevin says "Ah, mom, their boys." I'll make sure there's plenty of hot water on Sunday when he returns!!

Kev will run the Dam to Dam tomorrow morning with Ryan, a friend from church. Ryan's wife Joni will pick Zayvn and I up in the morning and we will head to Farmers Market and then meet up with the two of them when they come across the finish line. Kev's pretty pumped about it. It's been just over a year since his last race so he said he's ready. I'm excited to go down and browse the Farmer's Market and smell the wonderful food they have down there.

Enjoy the pics from today!! My baby is growing up!!

Chow Time

Is Drinking Shower Water Bad?
By Roxanne Webber

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink

It turns out that mothers the world over are right: Don’t drink the shower water. Lynn Kirby, a water quality engineer for Seattle Public Utilities, recommends “not using hot water for drinking or cooking” for two primary reasons: the potential for bacterial growth in the hot water heater tank, and because “hot water tends to corrode pipes more quickly than cold water, so you may get more dissolved metals from the hot water tap compared to the cold.”
The biggest concern is lead. Although lead solder was banned in the United States in 1987, there are still millions of lead-soldered copper pipes that haven’t been replaced. Hot water running through these pipes can cause the lead to leach out. The Environmental Protection Agency calls lead solder “the major cause of lead contamination of household water in U.S. homes today.” The only way to know if your water contains lead is to have it tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lay out how to determine what steps to take, and the National Safety Council recommends buying a commercial lead test or consulting the nonprofit corporation Clean Water Lead Testing Inc. for a mail-order lead test.

Heat from the hot water tank will also tend to dissipate the residual chlorine in the water, says Kirby, which “could result in the growth of bacteria in the hot water tank.” But, like the potential for lead exposure, there’s no way of determining if the bacteria are actually harmful (or exist) unless you test the water. So slake your thirst outside the shower.