Friday, March 27, 2009

Puerto Vallarta

Well, we have been in Puerto Vallarta now for 5 days. To be honest we were a little leery about coming, but Mom and Dad Doyle wanted to come to check on their condo and we thought it would be a good idea to come along. We have been pleasantly surprised about how much we have enjoyed our time here. I don't think I have seen Norm relax so quickly on a vacation! We have enjoyed the beauty, people and slower pace. Our trip to help out Norm's parents has turned into a nice little vacation for us.

We are staying across the hall from their condo in one of their neighbor's condo who graciously offered his place to stay for free - how could we refuse? It is in the historic downtown area with cobblestone streets, lots of restaurants and shops, and the beach only a few blocks away.

Here are few pictures of our condo and the area immediately surrounding us.

Our "outdoor" living room. See the washing machine at the back left?
The dryer is some clotheslines up on the roof


Bedroom


Tiny Bathroom - notice our own little water heater to the right!


View out our living room window towards the beach


Sidewalk by the condo


Found these great stairs behind the condo
while we were out for our morning walk one day


Sand sculptures that we pass on our morning walks


We went on a drive and ended up at these waterfalls where we had lunch and watched the cliff divers. You can see one of them in middle of this picture. He was pretty good!


Us having fun at lunch at the waterfalls.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN! - (BETTER LATE THAN NEVER)




Lauren turned 20 on March 16th. Julie was nice enough to cook the birthday dinner and make a cake as we were traveling home from the Utah Horse Expo in South Jordan, UT. Thank-you Julie!!!



Ty was excited to help blow out the birthday candles



Ryan and Anna joined us for the festivities.


Of course Julie and Jaab were there to join in the fun!
(Someone needed to cook the dinner)


And Maddie is always the center of attention :)
Don't you love the hair?

Kristin and her family were not able to come up - maybe another time!

Happy Birthday Lauren! We love you!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

New at Home Adventure

We are home from traveling for a bit and are enjoying our new adventure of having Julie, Jaab, Ty and Maddie as our new roommates! Julie and her family joined ours a week ago as Jaab obtained work here in Logan and they will be rooming with us until they are able to sell their home in Saratoga Springs.

We REALLY enjoy having them here. You have probably heard me complain that I have a hard time keeping up with everything around here - so it is nice to have two extra set of adult hands to help and two extra sets of kiddie hands to love and play with.

It has been so nice to see everyone working together on this new living arrangement. We come home from work and Julie usually has something cooking for dinner! We are able to help watch the kids so Julie and Jaab can get away a little bit. Lauren is sharing cleaning chores and she is the favorite Auntie around here. The kids always want her around and she can get more smiles out of Maddie than anyone. Julie and Lauren share clothes and shoes. And even Tillis (the dog) enjoys having some little ones down at his level.

Here are some pictures of us getting acquainted the first few days

Ty frosting (and tasting) his own cake!

Maddie and Tillis having a little visit

Ty and Maddie getting to know Tillis (He is loving this!)