We have a teenager!

Savannah turned 13 on the day we left for Mexico. I can't believe how time has flown. We had her wear a crown that said "Birthday Princess" on the airplane. We didn't get settled into the house until late that night, and couldn't find any matches for a candle- so Brad improvised with a flashlight =)


To give her kind of a "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" experience (she watched that movie a couple of times while we were there) we had a mariachi band sing to her at a restaurant we ate at later in the week- no pictures because she got stung by a wasp right as they began to sing and I was trying to get ice to stop the swelling and got distracted! We ended the week with a giant pinata filled with Mexican candy.


You'd have to ask her, but I think she felt pretty good about the birthday week. She was able to celebrate here in Salt Lake earlier this month with a few friends by going to see the new Harry Potter movie when it came out.
As I've said before, Savannah is such a great kid. Even with all the hormones and changes of life that happen at this age, she's pretty easy to get along with (the tears are just a little closer to the surface these days). I can't think of a better little person to teach me how to be a mother. Her patience with us through the years is amazing. Although she's pretty grown up now, she won't go to bed without a goodnight hug and kiss- even if she's been upset with us only moments before. She truly knows how to focus on the good things and have a positive attitude. We love you, Savannah.

La Paz, Mexico

I actually don't even know where to begin to describe this trip. That may be because I have been so bad about updating the blog lately... but we had a wonderful vacation. I think it was all the better because I dreaded it so much. My life has felt crazy for the last few months, and up until the Sunday before we left, I just couldn't get around to getting anything ready to go. That meant I had to stay up all night before we left trying to pack at the last minute. By 4:15, I was literally just throwing things in the suitcase, hoping I wouldn't forget anything, but knowing that if I did- there are plenty of Wal-Mart stores in Mexico.

The last time we went to Mexico was 2003. We've wanted to go back ever since. It's only in Mexico that you can experience signs like this:


We went with Tyler's uncle Brad, Kendal and their daughter Isabel and rented a house right on the beach.

Most of the days were spent searching out other beaches in the area.

The water was amazing and many of the areas were virtually deserted.

We managed to get the cars stuck in the sand twice. After the first time, Brad suggested we treat the trip like a white-water rafting trip. Someone always needed to look ahead to make sure we didn't go over a waterfall.
After the second time getting it stuck, we were a little more serious about that! We had a blast catching puffer fish, crabs, eel, and sea urchins (or "urgents" as Emmaline's prefers to call them).


The wind was just right for flying kites.


On the last day, we all went to an island that a group of sea lions use as home.

It was amazing to be so close up to them.

On the boat ride back, a group of dolphins surrounded our boat... jumping, and circling us for quite a while.

It was a magical way to end a great vacation.

We didn't get mauled by drug dealers and we didn't get the swine flu...

but I've got emails to answer, blogs to comment on, and work to catch up with. Our trip to Mexico was amazing and hopefully I'll begin getting the pictures downloaded today. Just to get you excited to read about our little adventure, here are a few quotes from the trip.

Oliver: (after learning to manually open the window on our cheap rental car) "We should get a car with one of these wheeling systems 'cuz they work really great."

Emmaline: (upon seeing a can of "mole" in the grocery store) "How sad that they eat moles here!"

There are some things that just can't be experienced anywhere but Mexico =)

He's a big boy now!

To celebrate the fact that today marks 16 months that he has been on this earth, Tucker began walking today. We'll miss the monkey crawl, but hopefully he'll be able to keep himself entertained a little better now. Every time he does it, he falls down after about 15 steps- he is laughing so hard. It's pretty obvious to us that he has known how to do it for a while. He just chose not to (who wouldn't love to amble around like a gorilla?). In fact, it seems like now he is laughing AT us. Like he has been playing a big joke and just let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Typical 4th child, huh? Always the clown!