Eight Days in Mulege

 After two flights and an hour 1/2 in the car we finally got to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Mulege, Mexico. Izzi found this little Christmas hat waiting for her on the bed, and so went straight to twirling in her new attire. You can tell from the pic below that she was very happy to be there.

 Our first morning there Grandpa helped us pick grapefruit and oranges from the tree. They were amazingly delicious, and oh so juicy.

 There must have been 10 to 15 "hum birds" at the feeder the whole time we were there. Unfortunately, we never took a photo from the other angle where you could see their brilliant colors.

 This is the little playhouse that Mike and Roz got for Izzi. She set up camp and it quickly became home to her animals and shells.

 This was the first day of many on the beach. She is quite the beach comber....while she found the dried up trigger fish below, she wasn't really that fond of it. She found the teeth to be rather scary.

 Nothing like making sand angels on the beach. I think she likes it moreso than snow angels in Sequim, although they did make for one very dirty toddler. I'm amazed how much sand in her hair and eyes she tolerated throughout the week.

 Dried shark head. Oddly enough, the "shark piece" didn't scare her like the trigger fish.

 This "moto" was one of Ashton's favorite things about Mexico. She loved riding on her "couch" while Poppie drove us from beach to beach day and night.

 Here we are enjoying the bouglinvillia flowers in grandma and grandpa's backyard after an afternoon of exploring (notice Izzi's wind-blown bob?).

For Christmas Eve dinner we went to a pig roast at the local watering hole. Izzi was wide eyed the whole time. Bart, the owner, came up and welcomed Ashton and I. I'm not sure if Izzi was staring at his dark skin or his white teeth, but she was stone faced either way. Then Mike came up behind us and introduced us to his friend "Bart" again. Bart immediately ran around the table and said, "You're Mike's kids? Wow. Well, in that case...." followed by a smooch on both cheeks and a big hug (to Izzi first and then me). Izzi went with it much to my surprise. 

 I tried to do a timer pic, and was amazed how the lights on Jake's hat turned into a perfect beard, and our wee tot on the way is rather see-through because of a prolonged apature and my sprinting back and forth. I'm all head and toes, with the middle yet to be defined.

 On Christmas Eve Ashton was surprized by a ho-ho-ho-ing in the yard. Her jaw was agape at Father Christmas flitting through the palm trees.  I explained the whole Santa gig to Izzi and she gave me the nod and bob about it. She didn't make much of the sighting until the next morning when the first thing she said when she woke up was, "I saw Santa last night. I've been a really good girl!" We went inside and found some presents under the tree, much to her delight.  

Mike took us out on an adventure across the river mid-Christmas morning and we ran into another Santa who handed a little stuffed tiger to Ashton and ho-ho-ho-ed Merry Christmas. All day she talked about how Santa gave her a tiger. 

I guess I kinda forgot about the magic of Father Christmas. I've dismissed him as Mr. Commercialism, and have kept him from my daughter for a couple years, but being down here where Santa really does bring miracles to children is different. It's hard not to get swept away in the spirit. 

 (And appropriately, here is Ashton getting swept away....or is she sweeping? Hehee)

We had one minor "accident" while we were in Mulege. Ashton was pretty comfortable letting herself in and out of the house until she slammed her fingers in the door. She was on the inside while we were all chatting outside. He cry was very delayed, and when I finally heard it I thought for sure I would be picking up my daughter minus a digit or two. My mind kept racing to Mike's story about a new hospital in town, where they ran out of money and have a beautiful building with nothing...I mean nothing in it. I didn't know how we'd sew her finger tips back on. Luckily, my imagination was much worse than reality. After an hour of resting and icing it was only bruised, not broken. Izzi preferred the front door the rest of the trip. In fact, when I first took her outside after a bit of cuddling she pointed to the moto and said, "I do like that. Let's just do that. Okay?"

 Here she is putting a magic spell on Grandpa, and Grandpa demanding a kiss as the price.

 This second Santa encounter when we were out cruising on the motos really made Izzi appreciate Christmas. She carried her new tiger around proudly announcing that Santa had given it to her for the next several days. (Notice that this is a very Mexico Santa....SHE has a knit beard!)

When we were out exploring on Christmas day Mike took us to this great cliff side, and as we looked down we found a manta-ray graveyard. I'm not sure how they all came to be couched there in the rocks, but it was rather odd and amazing to look at and wonder.

 Here's the cove where they found their final resting place.

 ...and the cliff where we snapped a few group photos.

On our way home Mike noticed that Maria, the German artist that they frequently visit, was just arriving home after her daily swim in the salt water. She welcomed us in to her house to enjoy her art. While you would never know it just looking at the photo below, the tree with several birds on it is made entirely of cut glass. When you get up close to the cement wall you can see how fine-detailed her art really is. We wandered around in awe. As it was high noon, it was really difficult to capture anything really well on camera, but her talent is etched in my mind. 

 I loved this orange tree with old palm fronds on it's floor.

 Izzi loved the shell wall (which Maria hopes to sell for six thousand dollars).

 Below you'll see the same detail in her bathroom. I want to scoop it up and take it home, but alas, that is just not possible.

 Maria wrapped her favorite orange tree in scraps of cloth to prevent the birds from getting to the sweet nectar before she could. Rather clever, no?

 Jake liked the glass walkway...maybe it was just the Sauza bottle that lured him in!

 She had an amazing cactus garden, framed by a unique shell collection--some painted and some just flaunting their natural color.  I liked how she placed spent oranges around the cacti to encourage the bees to visit and pollinate. The butterflies liked it too.

 Below we are back on the moto on our way home with growling stomachs. Luckily Grandma Roz was busy making a traditional Christmas dinner for us all to enjoy.

 The next day we took the boat out to catch some fish.

 Morning sunrise at our face and tiger tucked at Izzi's neck.

 The first fish--a small one, but a good one. Mike and Jake ate the yellowtail sashimi style.

 Grandma and Izzi "guarding" the fish.

 This red tail hawk was drying its feathers when we returned home from a slow day on the water.....

 .....and this manta found itself stuck in shallow water. I guess it missed the tide chart.

 Here we are back at home with Ashton's "prize" fish.

 Later that day we took out the moto to watch the pelican's dive for their dinner. I suppose this one is here as the first preggo pick. My ultrasound keeps changing, so I'm either 20 or 21 weeks here....half way there!

 Izzi just wanted to roll around in the sand some more.

 Poppie found and was eternally fascinated by this unidentifiable (oddly enough for him) jellyfish-ish sea creature that squirted purple dye at him every time he poked it with a cactus skeleton. As you can see, he eventually lured Izzi in, who previously was hiking down the beach with me, holding my hand saying, "Okay, I'll be the mama and you be the sister. Okay?"

 As I spent much of the trip on the back of the moto "couch" with Izzi, this became the typical Mexico shot in my mind.

 We knew it was time to move along when Izzi climbed up on the moto and took it for a pretend spin. When she climbed on the back she exclaimed indignantly, "Hey, who put all this sand on my couch?!" Gee darling, I'm sure it was a sand angel!

 We made Poppie climb aboard to see what the back would be like. It didn't last long for him, although he rocked it like it was the best ride ever, which really tickled Ashton.

 You know you're in Mexico when you see palm trees silohetted in the sunset.

 More  activity at La Playa Santa Inez. I don't know how Jake managed to catch this quick crab scuttling on the beach, but he did, and Izzi had the pleasure of holding it for a moment before it dove back into it's hole.

 It was a bit brisk when we first arrived, but quickly warmed up after the clouds parted. Until then, Ashton ran from me and Poppie who were beach combing in one direction, to Mike reading in the middle, and Grandma Roz collecting shells in the other direction. She reminded me of Gordy running up and down the beach. Needless to say, she had no problem taking a nap that afternoon.

 When she finally settled down in one spot, she used all her collected shells to decorate her sand-castle mounds.

 Here she is showing off her fine assortment of beach collectables to Roz, and Roz revealing the tiniest of shells to Izzi.

 And the jacket comes off....only after she decided to go swimming in her pants and dress.

 Okay, my dear...go ahead and swim....but it's not warm enough for me to join you.

 The fun didn't last long, as Izzi likes to be warm like me. After 15 mins she was complaining about being too cold, so Poppie burritoed her up in a nice Mexican blanket.

Back on the moto with the animals she found in grandma & grandpa's closet--left overs from the Santa and Elf gig.

 Scottie's quickly became one of her favorite resturants, as he had a nice aviary with parrots, parakeets and love birds.

 On our way home Grandpa took us to see "the racoon" that lives in an old aviary a few houses down. The cats came out for the party.

 Here's the Christmas racoon!

 At home Izzi is a big "helper" in the kitchen. She insists on assisting everything I do. It took some getting-used-to for Roz, but nonetheless, she brought out the step ladder to accomodate Izzi's never ending request to help in the kitchen.

 Mike and Roz are growing these little peppers outside the guest house (above).

Ashton has always had a thing for putting her finger in my belly button. Now, as it gets closer and closer to disappearing everyday, I feel like the ritual is increasing. She loves to put her hand up my shirt and say, "Can I see baby sister now?" This morning as I was getting dressed she ran over to my naked belly and asked if she could kiss baby sister. Something tells me she is going to like being an older sister.

 This is a quick pic from our trip to the grocery store. When I told Izzi she could have some ice cream she got all giddy.

 And here she is enjoying the sugary treat on the back of the moto.

 More beach time, at the lighthouse shore. Jake helped Izzi find this black star fish. It was all wonderful until she accidently pulled off one of it's legs. That's when we started collecting shells and rocks instead.

 This was the biggest Pacifico I have ever seen, so I had to take a photo. Izzi found the Coke bottle on the beach...it had been there for some time so I let her use it to collect her beach treasures in and then "accidently" left it behind.

 More beach formations.

 Every time we drove by the mess that the hurricane left Ashton would say, "Hey, who pushed down these trees?" Every time, it made me laugh.

 This lot gave me the biggest belly laugh. After three hurricanes the owners finally gave up and want someone else to build on the worst spot in town.

 We loved Mike's lure collection.

 And Rosalind's string of dried oranges.

 Jake caught us doing some morning yoga. Izzi is getting rather good.

 The bananas never riped while we were there, but they will most certainly be perfect later on.

 While Poppie got a massage Izzi spent her time trying to catch a bird in the yard.

 "Mama, I'm going on a bird hunt!" She obviously was really inspired by Scottie's aviary.

 On our last full day Mike and Roz took us up to the dunes. Ashton loved running and rolling in the endless sand.

 We had to stop on the beach on the way home....of course.

 That night we went to THE BEST resturant around. Jake and I shared steak fajita's layered with this amazing chilli paste, fresh avocado and two kinds of cheese. Mike shared some of the best lobster I've ever had. Usually it is too rubbery for my liking, but this was so fresh it just melted in your mouth. Rosalinda shared some tequillia shrimp, that had brined much too long for my pregnant taste buds, but under different circumstances would have been amazing. Izzi slept through the whole dinner. Luckily Roz went on a hunt for mac-n-cheese earlier that day....Ashton's only request all week. I was amazed she found it.

 Our last night there Izzi slept very soundly while Mike and Jake enjoyed their time together.

 It was hard saying good-bye, but I know Izzi had a good time and will always remember her first Christmas in Mexico with Grandma and Grandpa Reichner.

 We had breakfast at this little resturant down the road before leaving. Ashton quickly found the biggest Barbie house I had ever seen.

 I loved this painting on the side of the wall, and the food presentation when the meal finally came an hour later.

  Ashton had so much fun over break. Here she found a "boing" bouncing log that we returned to several days in a row just so she could get her jumping energy out. It cracked Grandpa up.

 We can't thank Mike and Roz enough for bringing us down to celebrate the holidays.