Life

Last Christmas Caleb got a live butterfly garden for a gift.  The idea with this garden is that you request some caterpillars from the company, and they mail them to you.  You watch the little caterpillars grow in size and become butterflies just like the Hungry Caterpillar.  Since Easter is coming soon, Yvonne thought it would be fun to teach the kids about life through the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly.

We didn’t get any pictures of the caterpillars in caterpillar form.  Somehow during the week, we just never took a picture.  But it’s awesome watching them grow from itty bitty caterpillars to big fat caterpillars.  The pictures will have to start at the chrysalis stage.

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Here are the caterpillars starting to come out!

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It’s a Small World After All

We have not been to Disneyland in over two years.  The last time that any of us went to Disneyland was for our anniversary in 2008.  Not much has changed at Disneyland except for the price.  When we first bought our annual passes from Disneyland 7 years ago, it cost $99.  Now it costs $239.  Now I remember why we stopped going to Disneyland.

Well, now we have passes again.  And believe us, we are going to put them to good use, even if it means our kids are messed up from lack of sleep.  Last time we went to Disneyland, Caris wasn’t even born yet.  So it’ll be the first time at Disneyland for both Caris and Chloe.

Chloe’s in an Eeyore outfit.

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Driving down the I-5 to get to Disneyland.  Since there’s no traffic now, we’re not in Orange County.

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Caleb & Caris sitting in a single seat together.

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Tram ride.

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They are looking forward to Disneyland.

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When we were going to Disneyland regularly years ago, Sunday was usually a good day to go.  Not too many people usually, and not many long lines for rides.  But for some reason, on this Sunday, everyone and their mom decided to go to Disneyland.  We first went to Autopia, but the wait for the ride was 55 minutes. What are all these people doing here?  We pick up the fastpass at Autopia for 7:05.

Caris & Chloe’s first ride will have to be It’s a Small World.  The wait is only 30 minutes.  Still too long for our kids, but manageable.

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Here are some ducks just chilling on the grass. They remind me of my cats.

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All Done!

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We decided to let our kids run around in toon town for a bit.

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We were able to eat dinner here and then attempted to go to Autopia once again with our fastpasses in hand before we headed home.  However, we were to be denied.  When we arrived at the entrance of Autopia, they told us they had shut down the ride and it was unknown how long it was going to be shut down.  We had been hyping this up for Caleb the whole time.  Caleb took it well.  I think we were more disappointed than he was.

So we decided to take the train next to Autopia and start to go home.  As we’re waiting at the train station, not more than 10 minutes pass, and Autopia reopens.  We see a flood of people going through the line.  I hate you, Disneyland.

At least we can go back to try to get on Autopia.  Caleb has his own pass too.

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Puke Away

blackberries, strawberries, spaghetti, hot dogs, rice krispies, and mango cake

Some of you may be disgusted by the picture above.  I apologize, but this is the reality that we have been dealing with the past few days.  That picture above was the start of everything.  After showing no signs of being sick that day, Caris decides to upchuck her dinner right after we walk in the door.  She had begun crying at the end of the car ride, so Yvonne was holding her, and I was holding Chloe in front of her. All of the sudden we hear her gag, and then *blurp*.

The sight was not pleasant to say the least.  At least we know why she was crying.  Yvonne bent her over as she started to puke, and put her down on her feet to grab some towels.  A few seconds later, she proceeds to throw up a little more.  I ask Caris if she’s okay, and she says “yeah.”  How do you spell relief?  V-O-M-I-T

Caris got sick Saturday night.  She’s been sick with the stomach flu all Sunday and Monday.

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Yvonne has been careful in order to not transmit the stomach flu to the rest of the family.  We’ve used a good amount of chlorine bleach wipes.  And our hands are raw from washing them hundreds of times the past few days. The rest of the household had showed no signs of picking the stomach bug.  That was until 4am Tuesday night.

Caleb had been waking up a few times during the night complaining about his stomach hurting.  He didn’t have to go poop, so there was nothing I could really do.  After Chloe was fed at 4 in the morning, I went to go help her back to sleep. Caleb woke up screaming at about the same time.  That’s when he decided to puke twice, apparently on my side of the bed.

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Thank God for Yvonne’s motherly instincts and lightning quick reflexes, she was able to catch all that puke in the bucket.  Whereas Daddy says, “I can’t do anything for you, Caleb. Go back to sleep,” Mommy says, “something’s not right.”  Good thing Mommy was there to catch the puke.  I would have been sleeping.

We’re praying Chloe doesn’t get this.  Baby puking and crying is not a fun thing to watch.  Praying that we don’t get it either.  We don’t put toys in our mouth, so that should at least help us.

The Retro-Blog (Day 7)

This post will be 5 days later than the actual day, so hopefully I still have a firm grasp of what happened that day.  This the Day 6 retro-blog.

This was our last full day in Mexico.  We had heard the day before from people on the bus that there was loads of fun things to do at the recreation center.  It’s not free, but from what we here it’s worth it to go.  That’ll be our destination this day.

First we have to wake up in the morning.  Everyday, the Caleb & Caris have been going later and later to bed.  And everyday they wake up later and later.  This is fine by me.  We were keeping the kids on California time, so they even woke up later than usual.  More sleep in the morning = Happy Chris.

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Chloe only has a limited time where she can be by herself when she is awake.  She is normally up an hour and a half to two hours between her naps.  Of those 90-120 minutes she can only be put down about half the time before she starts crying.  This is me putting her down on the chair after playing with Caleb.

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Caleb watching Cars.  Good ol’ G1 being put to good use.

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Caris is finally awake 10:30 local time.

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I think she enjoys the Ergo Baby.  It’s been a while since she’s been in there.

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Good morning, Caris.

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Rec center kids area.

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Caris got stuck up there.  She refused to go down the slide.  And was too scared to climb down the stairs.

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Maybe more age appropriate for Caris.

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Mommy studying away.  The pool is made for small kids.  It was only knee deep for me at the deepest part. And Caleb could walk through almost the whole pool safely.

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We need to get dressed.  Caris, you can take off your own clothes.

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Caleb showing off a little too much.  We’re such mean parents.

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Caris throwing a temper tantrum on the bounce house.

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Five minutes later, she’s trying to climb up.  Caleb tries to help.

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As sure as the sun will rise is almost as certain I am that Caris will pull her pants down.

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And sure enough Caleb will follow her.

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Caleb making himself comfortable with a stranger.

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Our bus Caleb so loved.

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Caris digging her new sunglasses.

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Caleb doesn’t like the sand.  I don’t think he likes to get his feet dirty.  Strange boy.

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Caleb & Caris on the tire swing.

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Eating snacks on the beach.

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What’s that?

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“Pretzel for you, Daddy”

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Playing with sand.

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Just hanging around.

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Spaghetti for dinner.  Yum!

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Our last night here.  We have a bit of packing to do.

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Mommy has a paper to do though.

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Alcohol + White People = Party (Day 5)

Caris started stripping for us early this morning.  As soon as we got out the house.  This stripping theme will be a recurring them today.  Her outfit was conducive to her stripping.

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We had our breakfast buffet today.  It was delicious.  We’ve been eating quite a few buffets since we’ve gotten here.  The price is pretty good for most of them, and we don’t have to pay for the kids.  But the best thing about buffets is that we don’t have to wait for food to feed our children.  For some reason they have lots of ants in their pants.

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We decided to go swimming after breakfast.  Of course a breakfast buffet, we needed a little downtime before we got in the pool.  Time to relax at the beach.  Or at least try with our kids climbing all over us.

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Caris likes to play with the sand.  She was dumping handfuls on us.

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Chloe likes to sleep on mommy or daddy.  This is another recurring theme.  In fact that’s pretty much where she lives most of the day.

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Time for the pool.  Caris needs to get dressed into her swimsuit first…  After she gets undressed first.

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Caleb loves the water.  He’s like a little fish.  I think he spent more time under than above.

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Room service for lunch.

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We found this at during our trip to Walmart last night.

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Caleb & Caris are still on LA time.  They nap until 6pm local time, which means it’s dark after their nap.  The playground is open all day though.  And has lights.  Good enough for me.

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Stripping again.  So easy.  Just so easy.

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I’ve been to quite a few weddings, mostly which are of Chinese people.  A lot of the times there’s a dance floor at the reception, and here’s what I’ve noticed about dancing, at least the weddings I’ve been too.  No one dances.  Not unless you have alcohol and white people.  You can have white people and no alcohol, and there’s no dancing.  You can have alcohol and just Chinese people, and there’s no dancing.  But put the two together, and you have a perfect combination.

Country Western Night at our resort is an all you can eat, all you can drink buffet.  And there’s a dance floor in the middle.  What do you get when you mix white people and alcohol (all you can drink alcohol).  A party.  These are mostly old people here, but they were having a blast line dancing nonetheless.  Having a blast with the beer drinking contest.

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Caleb was completely fascinated with the show.  Caris was focused on her food.

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We missed the bull riding competition.

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Caleb has been scared of balloons ever since they started popping at the Mexican Fiesta night.  Caris just doesn’t care about the sound, and likes balloons.

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Jungle Cruise (Day 4)

Jungle Cruise

I like Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise.  It’s entertaining.  The guide is usually funny.  There is rarely a long line on that ride.  And you get to see a lot of fake animals.

We went on a jungle cruise ourselves this morning.  It was a little different than the Disney version.  However, I enjoyed this one just as much as Disneyland’s version if not more.  It was entertaining.  Our guide wasn’t as funny, but much more informative.  It was a much longer ride.  And we got to see a lot of real animals.

Let’s get this picture post going.  Here’s Chloe getting dressed in the morning.  She’s happy she got sleep.  And food.  And a clean diaper.  And is being played with.  How could life get any better?

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We’re getting breakfast ready in the morning.  Notice the clock?  It’s 10:44am.  Still on California time.

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Now we’re walking to the entrance of the resort.  Our departure time is 11:30am, but we showed up late.  The boat is getting ready now for a 12:30pm departure.

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We found some bananas hanging off a tree next to our building.  Caris loves saying banana.  It’s her her favorite words.  Now if we could find that apple tree.

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Caris checking out the view from our balcony.  It’s been 4 days, and it’s the first time we’ve been out on it.  And knowing us, probably our last.

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Our upgraded car rental.

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After that little delay, we’re on the boat!  We were promised crocodile sightings on this trip.  Don’t let us down!

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Not only does Caris like taking off her clothes, she doesn’t like her shoes on either.

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Carlos Santana’s house.  Not that I really care.  Our guide only mentioned it, so I figure I’d put it here.

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“Crane!”  Caleb only likes this because it’s a crane.  The story is that rich people were trying to develop homes here, and they destroyed a lot of the vegetation in the area.  The government stopped them and ordered them to replace the vegetation in order to continue to develop the land.  The deemed it wasn’t worthwhile to build it any more left behind this crane as well.

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Some type of bird.

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Another bird.

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An iguana.

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An iguana walking.

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Another bird.  This bird is special.  It’s the only one crocodiles don’t eat.  This bird cleans the crocodiles teeth.  You find this bird, you probably find a croc near by.

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A local with his pet tiger.  This is Mexico. 

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Our first crocodile sighting.

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Caris is getting bored on this trip, as expected.  Only bottled water and mommy and daddy can entertain her at this point.  And we’re only 15 minutes into an 90 minute ride.

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Another bird.

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Another crocodile.

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And another.

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Let’s just say there were lots of crocodiles.

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Here’s a dock to someone’s house that was broken by a crocodile.  In the last census, there were 5 male and 2 female crocodiles in these waters that were between 26 and 31 feet long, all which would be bigger than our boat and weighing over a ton.  The owner of this dock/house found the 31 foot crocodile sunbathing on top of the dock one day as he was trying to dock his boat.  He called his workers in the house to try to scare it away.  It only made the crocodile angry, and he started thrashing away, knocking out the legs of the dock.  The owner has since had trouble finding people to repair it.  My question was brave/stupid enough to build it in the first place.

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Chloe’s nap time

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How many crocs can we see today?  At least they’re getting bigger as the ride goes on.

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We ran into the branches a few times trying to get close looks on the crocs and other things.  The branches and leaves and stuff fell into the boat.  Caris entertained herself playing with these things.

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Bigger croc

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I’m awake, Mommy.

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But not for long.

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We needed to make a trip to Walmart to buy some things.  I volunteered to take all the kids so Yvonne could study/sleep while I was gone.

Driving in Mexico is not so easy when you’ve never done so before.  There were talks about a Walmart being close by, but I could not find it on the internet or on any local maps.  Only talk.  There was stuff on the internet about The Mega, which is a superstore just like Super Walmart.  It’s only 15 minutes away, and I know the directions.  I’ll take the kids.  It shouldn’t be a problem.

For those of you who don’t know, the car isn’t always the greatest place for our kids.  Caleb likes the car. Caris can tolerate it.  Chloe absolutely, without a doubt, hates the car seat.  As soon as she goes in the seat, she starts crying her head off.  The crying alone will stress anyone out.  But now I’m driving in a new car, in Mexico, in the dark.  So many things can easily make this simple drive to the Mega into a difficult one.

So as I’m driving on the main highway, almost immediately as I get on it, I see the Walmart that everyone is talking about.  That is much closer than the Mega.  We’re almost there, Chloe.  No need to cry.  However, I miss the off-ramp to Walmart.  I’ll just make a simple u-turn and we’ll be there shortly.

Did you know that here in Mexico (at least in Puerto Vallarta) they don’t have left turn lanes on the highway even though they have stop lights? Well, I shouldn’t say that they don’t left turn lanes.  They do, but the left turn lanes are on the right side of the street.  I did not know this.  What really through me off is that when I passed Walmart, I notice the left turn lane was on the left on the opposite side.  The rest of the left turn lanes on this highway was on the right.  It took me a couple miles and 10/15 more minutes of stressful crying from Chloe before I could find a place to make an actual legal u-turn.

By that point of turning around, I had passed not only Walmart, but also the Mega.  I decided to go to Walmart anyways.  Here it is.

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“Yawn” Day 2

What am I doing up at 4am again?

Caris turning on the TV in the morning.

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All 3 children are in this picture.

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There he is

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Church service at the resort.  I (Chris) am the 4th youngest person in that room, only beaten by Caleb, Caris and Chloe.

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Playground

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Lunch

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The GIANT playground

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“I want to go on that!”

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Walking around

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Why don’t our children smile in pictures?

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And why don’t they look at the camera?

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They love water

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They love throwing stuff in the water.

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Remember how I said Caris likes to take off her clothes?

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And putting stickers on their head?  Oh wait, I didn’t say that.

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Let’s practice both out in public!

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Me too, Daddy!

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Walking!

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And more walking!

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Caris: What’s that? 
Daddy:  That’s the man who doesn’t exist.  You will never get anything from him.

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Chloe playing with her toy.

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Caleb & Caris want in on this sweet toy action.

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I got boogers.

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I got boogers in the other nose too.

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BBQ Night

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Midnight room service.

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Nuevo Vallarta/Puerto Vallarta “No Groping for You!” (Day 1)

We have arrived safely in Mexico.  Traveling with three kids 3 and under is not the easiest thing.   But thank God there was an open seat so I didn’t have to have Caris in my lap for the whole three hour plane ride.

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But before I go further on, let’s describe the preparation before we got on the plane.  I (Chris) was up until 4 in the morning packing bags.  Not only did I have to pack the bags, I had to set up the security camera (I’m watching you, burglars!), and turn off the water, and clean the kitty litter, and throw out the trash, and feed the cats, and feed the fish, and pack some more bags.  We packed heavy.  Yvonne and I joke that if it was just us, it would take only an hour to pack and we’d have only one bag. 

With 3 kids, 2 of which still need diapers, the packing list just grew by a order of 5.  We checked-in 3 suitcases, a checked car seat, had 4 carry-on backpacks (2 toddler size), 2 more car seats for the airplane, a double stroller, and a bag of food.  Every time we fly, I HATE the security checkpoints.  Not only do we have an enormous number of things to carry through the checkpoint, the TSA security doesn’t even work!  All they do is yell at us and stress us out.  We carry a big container of soy milk for Caleb for his allergies.  Now you’d figure the TSA would like to check a 2 quart container of soy milk every time, but that’s really checked thoroughly 50% of the time.  Security theater.  I hate it.  And now they want to look at me naked or feel me up.

Luckily for us, the Delta terminal did not have the full body scanners installed.  I didn’t have an opportunity to get felt up.  I’m actually kind of disappointed.  That is one less thing for me to complain about.  No groping for you, TSA!

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Everyone in our family is sick.  We all got nasty colds.  Everyone is coughing up loogies and blowing out yellow snot.  And now we’re getting on the plane to hurt our ears cause we can equalize our ears.  At least I couldn’t.  But the plane ride was much better than expected.  For one we had an extra seat for Caris.  And Chloe slept much of time.

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When we landed, it was complete chaos.  We’re tired from not sleeping the night before.  We have 2 toddlers who have been cooped up in a plane for 3 hours, one of which decided he didn’t want to nap.  We too much luggage for a single car.  And then all these people are bombarding us with “help.”  Not even 30 minutes on the ground, we already signed up to have a timeshare talk.  Not only did we sign up, we actually paid someone $10 US for the privilege of someone to waste our time.  We are such idiots.

We rented a car from EZ Car Rental.  I chose them because they had the cheapest rates.  Let’s just say EZ wasn’t so easy.  First off, the EZ Car Rental office is located off the airport, which is fine since a lot of car rental places aren’t actually at the airport.  They needed not one, but 2 cars to fit all of us to shuttle to their office.  And that’s with Caleb and Caris sitting in my lab and Chloe in Yvonne’s.  We get to the office which is located at a gas station.  Yes, a fuel reloading location.  I knew coming here I was going to decline the insurance, since AMEX will cover all our insurance needs.  But the salesman says the insurance is mandatory.  I question this “mandatory” business, but he says he will not let me get a car without buying the insurance.  We’re stuck at a gas station with no where else to go.  Not many options for us.

We reserved a mid-size car.  However mid-size car in Mexico is not quite the mid-size car you expect in the states.  This mid-size car only looks slightly larger than a Jetta.  Now you remember how much luggage we were carrying?  And how it took 2 cars to pack it up?  I had my doubts all of it would fit in a Nissan Tiida, as did the salesman.  Of course for a $20 “tip” I could upgrade to a Jeep SUV.  In the span of 10 minutes, I felt I got swindled and a deal by the same person.  And even with the Jeep, everything barely fit.  Caris unfortunately had 0 leg space.  When I say 0 leg space, I don’t mean it figuratively.  She literally had 0 leg space with the stroller in the back seat.  I will have to take a picture on the way back to there.

Chaos doesn’t stop at the resort.  Poop is everywhere.  Chloe is on anti-biotics, so she is pooping liquids.  Caleb has loose stool all the time anyways.  And Caris decides she needs to go too.

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Most of you will notice Chloe getting changed.  However, look at the ground.  That’s Caris’ poop.  For the past week, she’s been practicing taking off her clothes everywhere.  And she often says, “poo-poo” after she poops.  Of course she’s saying it now.  And now knows how to take off her clothes and diaper.  That’s what she left us.

The rest of the night wasn’t so bad.  We ate at the buffet.  Took baths and went to sleep.  Pictures (which is what most of you want anyways) should suffice.

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Chloe at 2 months

I feel like these 2 months have gone by so fast!  Each kid seems to be growing up faster.  Obviously, that’s not true.  I just have less time to take it all in compared to when I only had Caleb.

Chloe got her shots yesterday.  Ouchie!  She cried the whole way to the doctor’s office and the whole way back.  We thought we had a car seat baby when she was younger, but she has proven that the car seat is not her friend.  *sigh*

Weight = 12# 5oz

Height =  22.5”

 

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Chloe’s Already 1-Month Old

1 Month has gone by already!  Chloe’s now 10lb, 5.5oz and 21.5 inches long. 

Breastfeeding is going well.

Unfortunately, she’s not the sleeper Chris & I wish for, but at least she likes the Ergo baby carrier.

She has an adorable smile, and loves to look around at everything.

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Here’s a picture of me with Uncle Eric.  He’s funny.  I like him.

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Here’s a picture of me with my friend Paige at church.  She’s a cutie too.

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Auntie Laisa helping my exhausted mommy out.  Caris still gets too close to me.

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Here I am chilling in mommy’s arms.

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