Just me and the Neilson boys: Mexico!

I have not put anything on here in forever but I need to just start where I am and maybe someday I can go back and fill in the blanks.

We went to Mexico for Easter!!! It was so much fun. We went down with my friends from Classic (Lisa, Patrick and Devitt, Mary Beth, and Jason and Jaime) to Puerto Penasco and had an amazing time! We rented a house on the beach for insanely cheap. Town I guess was more crazy than normal (we don't know any different) because it was Mexican spring break, good Friday and all that stuff but it was so great.

We drove down to Ajo Arizona on Wednesday and stayed the night at this little motel. It had a great swimming pool and the kids had a blast swimming. The drive down was about 8 hours and we played musical cars on the way down to keep the kids entertained. We had dinner at a little restaurant, swam some more and went to bed.

Thursday morning we got up and crossed the border. We met Jason and Jamie in Ajo before heading out. We got stopped in the random check point. They had us roll down our windows, they asked Josh if he spoke Spanish and he said yes. Then they had us pop the hood and all get out of the truck. They were on the other side looking through our truck and chatting it up with Josh when they asked him what he did for work. When he told him he was a cop the dude smiled a little smile and pretty soon we were back in our truck and on our way. Funny, though, we had three big totes in the back of the truck with our towels and beach toys and food and random stuff and they didn't even open those....oh well!

As soon as we crossed the border Josh was loving Mexico (I think it reminded him of Chile) and the boys were a little slack jawed. One thing I was hoping to get out of this trip was for the boys to realize what an amazing life they have....I think it might have worked. It is truly a different world. There were cars that drove around with big speakers on the roof blasting music and who knows what that they found hilarious. Josh was telling the boys that these buildings were what the people lived in and they just were amazed.

We drove a little over an hour to Puerto Penasco where our first stop was at the grocery store. That was a trip, trying to convert pounds to kilos (it's a good thing we're a bunch of nurses--we had that one down) and find what we were looking for. Everything was so cheap! I left with a cart full of food and stuff for $53 (it looks worse in pesos $795). After that exciting adventure we stopped and got some yummy chicken for lunch and headed out to our house. Josh ordered for us though and he tried to order dog instead of chicken. Then he got himself straightened out and we got chicken.

Our HOUSE!!! was amazing. It's seriously on the beach....open the back door and there is the ocean. I can sit on the porch and watch the kiddos play. It has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Since we're the geniouses that had 4 kids (just kidding boys I love you) we got the room with 4 twin size bunk beds and we had an air mattress. $100 a night per family for this amazing house....not too shabby. We settled in and played in the sand and the water. The tide goes way out in the evening and it was so much fun to explore the little tide pools. There are a billion crabs. Lincoln found a little bit bigger crab that we caught for a minute. When we let him go he hurried and buried himself in the sand. Tracen spotted a bigger crab and everyone (mostly the boys) spent a lot of time trying to catch him, but no luck. We played out in the low tide until dark! Then Jason and Jaime made some super yummy shrimp tacos and chicken that were to die for!

Trying to catch a crab

Lots of crabs

The view of our house from the ocean

Link and Devitt on the beach

Locals walk up and down the beach all day selling stuff. We bought blankets, a basket and a few things. But the one thing we did was keep the mango man in business. Everyday we bought at least 6 mangoes. Tyler, Tracen and Devitt especially liked them. You could get them with lime on them or with lime and chili powder and he cut them into a flower. Seriously this is how much we loved the mangoes...

The other thing we paid for on the beach was getting some hair braided. Lisa told Ty she would pay to get his hair braided if he'd agree to leave it in. He agreed and she gladly handed over $10 and said do whatever $10 will buy. She said it was worth every penny. By the time it was over I decided that it was a great idea and got mine done too.

Josh spent the entire time talking away in Spanish to this woman and her husband who was selling hats. Lisa and Mary Beth were surprised at how much Josh would talk when he was speaking Spanish and asked if they should be offended ;). This woman works 6 or 7 days a week all the time doing this. She has a baby at home.

The Easter Bunny comes early to Mexico (this is fun little fact you probably weren't aware of). It's true. He's not nearly as magical as Santa and can't get all over the world in one night so he starts a few days early in Mexico. While we were out on the beach checking out the low tide, he showed up without anyone knowing about it. He left Easter baskets full of sand toys, bubbles, beach towels and new summer outfits. I was getting my hair braided so there is only one picture of the event. But I have some of the aftermath.

We had a little birthday party for Jason and Patrick

Day 2! Friday!

Today we played on the beach....weird huh....So in the morning it is low tide again. We ended up out on the beach playing and having a good time when some kayakers came by and there were dolphins swimming with them!! We were all so excited to see some dolphins! There were at least 5 or 6 and they jumped out of the water and followed the kayaks as they went down the shore. So amazing! Here is a picture overload of Friday morning.

After we did a little time on the beach we decided to go to the fish market and see what that was all about. It was pretty dang busy. Apparently Good Friday is a big deal. Good thing we had a couple of old Catholic school girls to keep us informed about these things (Lisa and Mary Beth :) ) as well as thing like Lent etc. Very educational trip all around. We let the boys buy some souvenirs and explored for awhile. I also apparently took only one picture of this...but it's my favorite anyway. Tracen drinking out of a pineapple.

Day 3! Saturday!

Today we hung out at the house, went on a long hike and found 2 geocaches. We were looking for 3 but never found the third one. We walked a lot further than we though and so it took a long time to get back! We left a travel bug in one of the geocaches. Jason and Jaime left this morning for home. Mary Beth, Lisa and I ventured into town and found a pharmacy where you can buy just about anything. I got two z-packs, retin-A, cipro, & toradol.

We had an Easter Egg hunt Saturday after our long hike!

Sunday Morning we loaded up and drove the ENTIRE WAY HOME. I DROVE THE ENTIRE WAY HOME! Josh got sick the last night/morning and he just wanted to go home so that's what we did....all 13 hours of it. It was long and painful! But it was a great trip and we're super glad we went.
On the way home: