A Little Off the Top

You may have noticed that Parker's hair has been getting rather long lately...and blonde, and luxurious, and so blowing-in-the-breeze. So, it seemed like it was time to take him for a little trim. I tried out a new kids' barbershop near our house, and while the barber was very friendly, and Parker tried his best to be a brave little soldier, I realized that I really missed his locks once they were gone! But, the new 'do makes him look so grown-up and like such a brainy brunette. He's ready for picture day at school! I'm sure the honey-dipped highlights will be back in no time--this is a sunshine kind of kid. Now, say "cheese"!

Catalina Movie

A Trip to the Aquarium

We had a fun, sunny afternoon a couple weekends ago with Grammy and Grandpa at the Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla! We got there just in time to catch the shark feeding, and saw so many cool and crazy looking fish. Parker wasn't exactly thrilled with being thrown into a giant shark's jaws for a photo-op at first, but we got him to smile in there the second time around...and no, that lobster isn't real! After we had our fill of fish we headed up to the Torrey Pines Gliderport for a yummy lunch and beautiful view of the ocean; the wind wasn't right for gliding that day, so we didn't get to amuse ourselves by watching any insane people throw themselves off of a cliff. Hopefully next time.

Catalina Island

We've been having amazingly warm weather the last few weeks, so Jared kept a close eye on the forecasts and decided Friday evening that Saturday would be a perfect day to head over to Catalina! So Parker and I took the Catalina Express boat over from Long Beach, and Jared took his boat over. We had the most perfect weather you could hope for in the winter, and Two Harbors, where we stayed, was peaceful and not busy at all. We spent Saturday afternoon tooling around in Jared's boat, and spent the night in a "rustic" cabin on the island. Parker and Jared both got to "fish" a little bit, while Mommy couldn't resist laying down on the deck and watching the world float by beneath the clear water. We played with a big pod of dolphins for a little while, so excited to get a truly up-close and personal view of them. The next day, we walked across the narrow isthmus of the island and checked out the harbor on the other side--we also saw some tiny sand crabs and big bison on our walk! So many fun things to do on Catalina--it's a wonderful place to be.

More Catalina Adventures

We had such a great trip! We're definitely planning on making Catalina trips a very regular occurrence in the future!

Fishing Buddies

Parker got to use his fishing pole a lot in Catalina! He's pretty attached to it now, and likes to take it with him everywhere he goes (even to Grammy and Grandpa's house!). He has learned to release and reel it in all by himself. He was so excited every time Jared reeled in one of his lures that he would shout "Daddy caught a fish!" When we corrected him, and told him it was just a lure, he would shout, "Daddy caught a lure!" We'll probably take Parker to a lake to go fishing soon, and actually put some bait on his hook so that he just might catch something!

Mexico: Boca de Tomatlan 1

We spent two weeks this Christmas on a Mexican road trip, going from coast to country to city to mountains and back to the coast again. Our first stop was the coast: after arriving at the airport in Puerto Vallarta, we rented a car and drove about 45 minutes south along the coast to a small fishing village called Boca de Tomatlan. We awoke the next morning to a pretty view in front of our room of fishing boats anchored along the river that opened to the ocean nearby, and a jungly hillside covered in trees and dotted with a few colorful houses. We enjoyed walking along the river, and found a great restaurant just over a footbridge on the other side where I had the first margarita I've really enjoyed on our first night. One of the few drawbacks to this place was all of the roosters that ran around the streets right under our window--apparently, roosters do NOT just crow at the break of dawn, but at all hours of the night--and quite loudly at that, too! I guess even small fishing villages aren't exactly quiet at night...If you look closely at the fourth picture down, you can see the place where we stayed--it's the two-story orange building on the other side of the river.

Mexico: Boca de Tomatlan 2

Here are some photos of daily life around the coast south of Puerto Vallarta and our studio rental in Boca. The studio had a great balcony with a view of the river and fishing boats, and we ate breakfast outside every morning watching the world go by. Just about couldn't have been a nicer way to wake up.

Mexico: Boca de Tomatlan 3

Ah, how things change when you travel with kids! We actually visited two zoos on this trip--this one, south of Puerto Vallarta, and the Guadalajara Zoo. The P.V. zoo was actually a crazy, fun, strange experience (although, I guess, what else would you expect?!)--where else can a 2 year old child hand feed a black bear, giraffe, camel, zebra, and monkeys like some kind crazed of petting zoo??? When we arrived, we were the only car in the parking lot--but then it turned out to not be as disturbing and/or depressing as I feared. Parker had so much fun feeding all of the animals--we certainly got to see everything up close! I really think this experience made an impression on him!

Mexico: Boca de Tomatlan 4

We spent nearly all of one of our days in Boca hanging out at a beach called Las Animas--you can only get there by water taxi! (Oh, and the taxi drops you off there at 10am and doesn't come back until 4pm...better get yourself relaxed cause you ain't goin' nowhere!) We planted ourselves on some beach chairs in front of one of the restaurants along the sand, befriended a nice waiter, and ate both breakfast and lunch in the same spot! It was pretty funny to stay there for so long, because we got to watch all of the different party boats unload passengers who descended upon the beach, ate and drank, parasailed, jetskied, swam, and then loaded back onto the boats and drove away. Parker was in heaven, though, as Jared built him a lovely pool in the sand and he spent hours and hours jumping into the water and splashing around. Paradise! On the way back, we snapped a photo of Parker and Jared in front of the donkey that an old man tied up on the beach in front of our room every day...each morning, Parker would wake up, wander out to the balcony, and shout, "I see a donkey!" What could be more fun?

Mexico: Barra de Navidad

After leaving Boca de Tomatlan, we drove about three hours south to rest our heads for the night in another coastal town, Barra de Navidad. Before we got to Barra, we stopped at this beach to stretch our legs and eat some sandwiches (and recover after reaching a $40 "agreement" with the Mexican police at a very corrupt "speed-trap"). Parker immediately stripped down and ran around looking like a castaway on a tropical island. Fun! The last photo is the view from our hotel room the next morning.

Mexico: Comala

After leaving the coast and heading inland, we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Comala, a small town near the city of Colima, for four nights. We chose this town because it was about halfway between the coast and Guadalajara, not because it is much of a tourist town! However, the area is definitely making an effort to draw more tourists, while at the same time it was interesting to hang out in a more typically "Mexican" town for a little while. There are also two volcanoes near Comala, one of which is still active and erupts every few years (although this is apparently not a catastrophic event!). You can't get very close to the actual volcanoes (well, you can actually hike close to the higher, inactive one), so we drove around the surrounding countryside, which was very, very pretty, for some good views from the car. We also spent a couple of hours having a picnic lunch and paddling a boat around a small lake, and in the late afternoons we would sit in the town's main plaza, eating appetizers, drinking beers and ponche (a local alcoholic drink that was sold everywhere), and listening to mariachi bands. Which was pretty cool.