We left on Monday June 21 to drive to Mexico. Daniel had to stay home to deal with the HVAC stuff in our new home we were purchasing (we were closing a couple days after we got home, so this had to be taken care of). The kids and I caravan-ed down, with Daniel's Parents (Mark and Anne Marie) and siblings (Michelle, Amy and Stuart). The plan was to drive to Phoenix Monday, stay at the Arizona Grand Resort and play at their water park all day Tuesday, then drive to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico on Wednesday. The drive to Phoenix was going great. We were about 30 minutes outside of Flagstaff, Daniel had just purchased his flight and would arrive about one hour after we did. We got back on the road, and suddenly highway 89 was closed due to forest fires in Flagstaff. After driving 23 miles, we were detoured back those 23 miles, and sent around the south rim of The Grand Canyon. It turned out to be about a 5 hour detour. All in all the 10 hour drive to Phoenix ended up being a 16 hour drive...and Daniel's flight got in and he checked into the hotel about an hour before we got there. The kids really did great, until the last hour and a half into Phoenix...Nora Jane had it...and just screamed. We won't disclose how fast I went, but I didn't bother following Mark anymore, with Anne Marie's permission we just took off and got to the hotel as fast as possible.
Here's Nora Jane and Grandma at the Grand Arizona Resort Waterpark.
Tucker posing with the frog at the rainforest cafe at Arizona Mills.
Tucker took this picture of us at a Pace favorite: Tia Rosa's Restaurant.
Nora Jane posing.
Tucker posing.
DRIVE TO MEXICO:
Now we begin the drive to mexico. I think it was just about a 6-8 hour drive. First using my iPad, I was able to locate a Dunkin Donuts on our way out of Phoenix. UHMM! We've passed the border, and have probably been driving for 4 hours, when we hit some dead animal parts on the road. We brushed it off as roadkill...until it kept happening for about the next 30 miles. It was smelly animal intestines and stuff, and first we would watch Mark hit them, and then we would. It was unreal the amount of dead animal insides all over the road. And the smell!!!! Finally we approached this truck:
Every time it changed lanes, or hit a bump...more guts fell out!!!
ARRIVING IN SAN CARLOS!!
Here are our condos. (this is actually taken from our condo, at the condo across the courtyard.) There's the beach...yeah, that close!!! Softest sand...warmest water...it was amazing.
And here's the pool! On the other side of that cabana is the kiddie pool section, which was really shallow and divided by just a wall to the regular pool part. The kids could both touch and just played all day in that pool!!
Here was injury #1 (and since I don't have pictures of the rest, I'll just list them all here) It was our first full day in Mexico, Thursday. Tucker was running through the cabana, to follow us all back to the condo. You can't see it in the picture, but they had a set a stairs just off the side of the cabana, that go down underneath it, and they place metal grates over the top to keep you from falling in the hole that are the stairs. They were doing construction, building a new curb around this hole, with cement and wires and such. Well Tucker narrowly missed falling in the hole, and sliced his foot open on the wire. We took him into the Clinica in San Carlos, where we were happy to meat a Mexican Doctor, who went to medical school in the US, married an American (who was his nurse and front desk receptionist) and had a second American Doctor working with him. It was all very nice and clean. We totally lucked out..it was just a surface cut, no stitches (or shots) necessary!!! Tucker was able to run and play, and was excited when the doctor said the ocean water would actually help it heal.
Injury #2 Tucker was walking with his dad on the cement wall, separating the beach from the grass, and fell off, and scraped up his thigh and back.
Injury #3 The last night we were there, Tucker cut his heal open on a piece of glass in the kiddie pool. Two weeks later, the piece of glass eventually made it to the surface of his skin, and we had to take him to the pediatrician to get it removed. We still have it taped to a tongue depressor.
Hanging at the Beach.
From the balcony of our condo, all ready for church.
Daniel's Family: Michelle, Amy, Anne Marie, Mark, Stuart
Nora Jane running around in her cute Mexican beach dress.
Nora Jane playing with Daniel's cousins (that are hers and Tucker's age), Abby and Chloe. (Mark's family has gone here since he was a kid, so we were there with his parents and 5 of his siblings and most of their families.)
San Carlos was the cutest little fishing village. Daniel took lots of pictures in the marina...these are just a few.
One day, driving into Guaymas (a bigger city about 10 minutes Southeast of San Carlos, that now has a Sam's Club and Walmart!) we saw this and dubs it the mexican horse trailer. Its just a flat bed, with fence panels set up on it.
If only this had been the whole drive home....Nora Jane had to have her outfit changed 4 times on the drive home. One of which was for throwing up 30 minutes outside of Flagstaff, where we stayed the night and drove the rest of the way home on Saturday. We've now learned that she gets carsick.
All in all it was a wonderful trip. We had such a nice relaxing time while we were there. Daniel got to do two days of deep sea fishing which he's always wanted to do. I've heard his family talk about their Mexico trips so much...and it was fun to experience it for myself. I hope to do it again someday!!
So, after taking a season off, Tucker decided he'd like to play soccer again, so we signed him up. On the day of his first game, we went to the soccer store to buy him cleats. While at the store, Nora Jane found everything pink. Then Tucker said he needed to call Dad's friend (Dan) Schovaers and tell him about his game that night. He had remembered from a year and a half before, that Schovaers game to his game. Although we don't see much of him anymore, I let Tucker call him, just to see if he'd come. Schovaers did show up and Tucker was thrilled. The game started and Tucker was on fire...complete opposite of our last experience with him and soccer. He stole the ball and dribbled it all the way to the other end of the field for a goal not once...but twice! We were so proud of our little man! But I think even better than the goals was the celebration dances he did out on the field after scoring the goals. He had all the parents on both sides of the field just rolling. The second picture is his "Kick Buttowski" pose, which he also did after scoring a goal.
