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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“I Want To Go Swimming” (Day 3)

Our morning started out late.  We were suppose to meet up with the timeshare lady this morning at 10:30am.  Yvonne was up late doing her paper.  And I was up late writing and posting pictures.  We decided to sleep in and skip out on the wonderful timeshare talk.  Oh darn.

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These birds are loud.

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We decided to tackle the 3 story playground today.

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I barely meet the height requirement.

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Caris throwing a temper tantrum walking home.

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Playing with Chloe!

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“I want to go swimming.”

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Why does Caris have no clothes on?

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Because they’re eating a snack.

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And we don’t want her peeing on the ground or in her swim diaper while eating.

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So they’re watching Babe and eating snacks.

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Before she puts on her swimsuit.

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Of course we got all dressed up for nothing.  The towel station was closed, so we didn’t have any towels.  No swimming today.  Maybe tomorrow.

“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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Happy 3 months, Chloe

Chloe’s 3 months old today!  This mommy is so busy right now, but we have a bunch of pics on Chris’ camera that he got for his birthday.  Will try to download them in this next week?  Anyways, Chloe is a cutie.  She’s starting to sleep a little better.  She’s had a whopping 2 colds already – one which she has currently.  She loves checking out her hands and grabbing/pulling at toys.  And she has followed in the pattern of her siblings with massive drooling. And.. Chloe still has hair – a first for the Wong children.

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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So true…

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God, You have some type of sense of humor giving us moms only 2 hands.

What do you do when 100% of your household is crying?  Just like crisis triage…  Figure out who can even be helped and who’s most in need of help.  If they’re just walking wounded, move them to the safe yellow mat and run, mommy, run. 

OK, maybe not the last part.  Praise God He reminds us how we are so not self-sufficient.  May I learn to rely on God for everything, especially for the wisdom I need to raise my beautiful children.  May I laugh and enjoy this season of life a whole lot.

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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Baby Chloe’s First Meal Out

We took my mom to Old Spaghetti Factory last night to celebrate Grandparent’s Day. 

Chloe enjoyed her first dining out experience by sleeping in her car seat… the whole time!  I think we may finally have a car seat baby.  Is this what babies do if they like the car seat?  Hope it stays this way.  It makes it so much easier to travel in the car when our baby is happy in the car seat.

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