What May has brought us....

...still busy :).  Yes our life has kind of been crazy but we have survived it.  Even though I want my kids to be able to participate in activities, I will really be doing some thinking about how many activities they are involved in...so my own sanity.  I am grateful for my mom and David who were able to fill in for me when I couldn't be in two places at once.  Baseball season is officially over and we can kind of go back to normal...except for school gets out this week...so the new normal.

Aspen had her final soccer games 2 weeks ago, and because of the rain, she had a double header back to back.  So the girls all got lots of playing time.  Aspen started out as goalie and moved between defender and forward.  The big accomplishment was between both games all of the girls on Aspen's team scored a goal, including Aspen.  And of course, I was filming for awhile and stopped it when the ball went out of bounds.  And when it was thrown in, that is when Aspen scored her goal.  So no, I didn't get it on video :'(.  But in the second game, once all the girls had a goal, the coach decided to pull some girls the last 10 minutes so the other team could score.  The score was 8-0, us.  So the coach wanted to give the other team a chance to score some goals.  And right before the coach decided to do that, Aspen had volunteered to go be goalie.  So the other girls were confused when the coach wasn't putting replacements in but understood when the coach explained it on the sidelines.  Aspen made some great saves and saw more shots on goal then she had ever seen, they were playing 5 on 3 after all.  But the other team managed to score about 4 scores (I can't really remember) on her.  But she played tough and loved all the action.

Colten had won a laser mania pass from the kite festival and asked me every day when we could go.  So finally after school, I took the kids over for a quick game of laser tag.  It was only Colten and Aspen in the game.  I was allowed to stand inside the door and watch them play.  They had fun, I think.  I would help each of them find each other since it was a big arena.  Colten won though, which he was super excited about.

Aspen's class performed a play for the parents this past week.  She has been talking about it for about a month.  She needed to make sure she had her costume ready and that I was on time.  The class did a great job.  And she looked so cute as a cat and ant.

Last Saturday, we thought we would get out on the boat but our battery was dead.  Plus Colten had 2 birthday parties (involving water activities) so we were plenty busy.  But we did get it out last night.  It was way windy and the water was cold so we didn't get in.  Just rode around the lake.  We also had spent the day cleaning the house (since we hadn't done that for a long while) so it was nice to get out.

TaMerra takes a real vacation

It was about time I went on a real vacation....I mean I hadn't been on one since September...haha  But no, this vacation was much needed.  Darcee won another Diamond Club trip with her work and since she did the double Diamond her company would pay to fly me as well.  Jay couldn't get a passport so Darcee chose me to go.  We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  We left early Thursday morning, and by early I mean early....3:30am.  We headed down to Vegas in a van...not equipped with enough seats due to miscommunication.  But we finally were off heading to Phoenix and then to Puerto Vallarta.  Not too much fun going through customs.  Darcee was one of the lucky ones who got her bags looked through.  PV was very humid.  Loved that my skin never felt dry but I felt hot the whole time.  All of our meals were provided for us.  Most of them were pretty good...I could do without the sea food buffet but there was at least bread and potatoes.  Darcee introduced me to strawberry daiquiri's (virgin of course).  Whenever the company was buying, I was having one of those.

Thursday after we got in to the hotel (which was amazing).  We just kind of hung around the hotel due to the banquet that night.  We strolled around the hotel looking at the pools and strolled down to the beach where Darcee bought some earrings on Mexican credit, you take now pay later.  Does that logic seem messed up to anyone else?  We attended the banquet (double diamond) that night where lots of nice things were said about everyone in the room.  We went down to the bar later that night to have some daiquiri's and then headed back up to the room.

Bright green spot near the bushes is an iguana.

Friday brought on a new adventure.  Darcee's bartering at work to get a zip line deal.  We went across the way to find a little shop where you get adventures.  We were interested in the big zip line deal but by the time we got down there there was not enough time, it was a 7-8 hour tour and we had to be back for another banquet.  But we did get to the the longest zip line in PV, 1/2 mile long.  The lady that set us up, Trinny, actually drove us to the spot where the "bus" would pick us up to take us up to the zip line place.  It would be Darcee and me and then there were 4 other girls riding up with us.  We told them that we had to be back at our hotel by 5:30pm so they didn't wait for the other group to get back from ATVing.  So the 6 of us headed up.  Zip lining was amazing.  Took me about 2-3 zip lines to really get used to it (and the stopping).  Darcee found out about zip line 4 or 5 that one of the girls was a professional UFC fighter, Jessica Eye.  Darcee could have talked to her for days.  She was very humble and didn't flaunt her successes.  All the girls had done a girls trip before Jessica had to start training for her next fight in Vegas.  The tour guide that spoke English also showed us a tree that the sap can make bubble gum.  I didn't get it into my mouth and ended up with sticky lips but I still got the idea.  The whole trip was a huge success and I would definitely do it again.

The banquet Friday night was loooong.  All of the employees who got Diamond Club were presented with their awards.  So it was a huge relief when it was over.  I would sit through it again if it meant another free trip :)

Saturday we were planning on going to the swap market to do some shopping but the taxi driver took us to the boardwalk instead.  And the other girls that we were with were more interested in getting liquor than getting to the place where you could actually barter so we didn't make it to the market.  But we did get souvenirs...just not what the ones I had planned on.

 Beads all done by hand...it is crazy.

After shopping we spent a little time at the pool.  Darcee's friend Miranda order nachos from the wet bar.  So it was weird eating food and being in the pool at the same time.

Favorite drink of the trip...tried to get as many as I could :)

Sunday was my birthday.  It was also check out day.  We went down to the beach for a little bit.  Saw crabs crawling across the rocks.  Then we went and took pictures all around the hotel.  Then it was finally time to head to the airport, which was a disaster.  We had trouble getting money to pay for the bag we needed to check.  I am pretty certain that Darcee exchanged $20 and got screwed.  I already had 200 pesos and when she came back, we still didn't have enough for the $25 check bag fee.  Traveling in a Mexican airport is not my idea of fun that is for sure.  Needless to say, I was glad when we got back to Phoenix and in the USA.  It was a great trip and a great way to celebrate my birthday.