A Few Recent Pics

Palmer and I shortly after the AU vs West Virginia game started. AU was already losing 14-0 at this point so I was having to try hard to smile for the camera. Luckily, AU won the game 41-30.

Bailey playing in her tunnel. She and Mel wore Bama shirts yesterday while Palmer and I wore Auburn shirts. Next week, we'll switch...at least the kids will switch.

Palmer "playing" in the tunnel.

Palmer hanging out in the jumper seat.

Palmer Laughing

Here is some video footage of Palmer laughing at his Mommy yesterday. Maybe he was laughing at the silly Alabama shirt she was wearing. :) Sorry the footage isn't the greatest, but I had to shoot it in the lowest-quality mode in order for it to upload. We don't have the greatest internet signal here at the house.

Cancun Trip

Despite the ongoing Mexican drug wars and the fact that Mexico has been a hotbed for the H1N1 "swine" flu, Mel and I, along with her brother (Kenneth) and his wife (Meg) took a chance and spent Labor Day weekend in Cancun, Mexico...without children!!! It seems a bit counter-intuitive that we would plan a Mexican vacation during these tough economic times, especially considering the fact that we now have four (well, six if you count the dogs) mouths to feed, but this coming November marks our 5th wedding anniversary and we got a really, really good deal at the Westin Cancun Resort & Spa due to the fact that Mel works for a Westin property. So, we decided it was well worth a small chunk of change...and we were right. We had a really good time, save for one incident with a certain front desk manager of the hotel upon checkout that I won't go further into, but we're definitely happy to be back with Bailey and Palmer. Below are a few pics from our trip. I included some of the resort first and some of us at the end.

This was the main swimming pool that overlooked the Caribbean Sea and, yes, it had a swim-up bar and, yes, the bartender knew our room numbers by heart by the second day. Notice that there are not many people in this shot. Luckily for us, this was pretty much how it was the entire weekend...no crowds!!! We visited Cancun during the start of the hurricane season so tourist travel was fairly low. We didn't have to wake up early to reserve pool chairs or make reservations at restaurants, etc. It was great!!!

This is one of a series of four small, triangular pools with the Sea & Stones restaurant (under the grass hut) in the background. The four of us spent one entire afternoon in one of these small pools just relaxing and making fun of the Mexican girl in the thong bikini who was using the timer on her camera to take pics of herself posing in different locations on the beach. We didn't eat at the Sea and Stones restaurant b/c 1) it wasn't open every night and 2) we didn't get our 50% food discount at this restaurant. The description of the restaurant indicates that guests get to cook their food on hot stones and we noticed that at least part of the kitchen was located in a hut built directly into the sand on the beach. Pretty cool, I thought.

This is and the next pic provide a view of the other set of swimming pools from our 6th floor balcony. These pools were on the non-beach side of the hotel and received the afternoon sun.

As you can see, the two pools are offset a bit. The larger pool actually had a waterfall that emptied into the smaller pool a few feet below. Kenneth and I enjoyed going over the edge and then climbing back up into the larger pool a time or two. Then we decided that was enough physical activity for one day and proceeded to have another margarita in preparation for dinner and the Alabama / Virginia Tech game.

We caught a public bus from the front of the hotel to a club where we thought we would be able to catch the game. It turns out they only carry the NFL network so we decided to walk the strip to another sports bar our concierge had told us about. After all, the waitress at the first club said it was only a 10 minute walk. At least, 25 minutes later we arrived at Champions Sports Bar in the Marriott hotel. What we experienced next may have unknowingly changed our lives forever. Yes, we watched the Bama game but the highlight of the night was the fact that we also got to watch the Mexican national soccer team defeat Costa Rica in a Mexican sports bar packed to the brim with crazy Mexican soccer fans. Everytime Mexico scored, the bar, filled with only a couple hundred people, made enough noise to rival Bryant-Denny or Jordan-Hare stadiums on a Fall Saturday afternoon. By the second goal we too we screaming and cheering much to the delight of one old Mexican dude who thought we were pretty funny. Oh yeah, did I mention the disco ball and lights and the Mexican guy on the microphone who yelled "GOOOOOAAAALLLL" everytime Mexico scored? It was awesome and is a worthy addition to anyone's bucket list (i.e. list of things to do before you die).

Iguanas were all over the place. Mel and I came upon this one eating some kind of fruit out by the laguna.

Here we are on a morning walk after a very large breakfast. How 'bout I've got pretty good skills at self portraits and I don't even have a digital camera screen that flips around to the front.

Swimming in the turquoise blue waters of the Mexican Caribbean Sea. We also got to do some pretty decent snorkeling only about a quarter-mile walk down the beach from the hotel. How's that for convenience!

Mel and I swimming again with our hotel in the background.

Here are all four of us after eating at an authentic Mexican restaurant Kenneth and Meg discovered after talking with the concierge. If we look happy its probably b/c of the fact that the waiter brought us margaritas big enough to swim in!!! Luckily, we also had PLENTY of food to offset all that tequila.

Finally, here we all are after dinner on our first night in Mexico. We ate outside at one of the hotel's restaurants. As I mentioned, the crowds were sparse so there were literally only about three other tables of people besides us. We really enjoyed the fact that we had the property nearly to ourselves.

Palmer's First Smiles

Palmer has been smiling and laughing consistently in response to our interactions with him for about a week now, but I have failed to catch it on camera until tonight. Here are a couple pics of Palmer smiling during his bath tonight. We've noticed that, like his sister, he too has dimples; just not as pronounced as Bailey's.

Dinner with the Williams

I finally got around to looking for a grilling recipe online for Mahi Mahi filets today and, well, one thing led to another and this is what we ended up with. It's not often that we BOTH pitch in for dinner (usually one is cooking while the other is kid-wrangling); but tonight was an exception, so I thought I'd share.

I grilled the Mahi Mahi and vegetables (both brushed in a special sauce I found online) on the charcoal grill while Mel fried some okra and prepared some special cilantro-lime rice. The idea for cilantro-lime rice came to us while eating lunch at Chipotle, a new Mexican restaurant here in Greenville. That's what they use in their dishes and we figured it couldn't be too hard. Everything turned out really well and we both agreed these recipes were keepers.

Of course...

...the only problem with a big, awesome dinner is the big, not-awesome cleanup afterwards. Oh well, it was well worth it.

Toddler 1 Fieldtrip to Jump Zone

A few weeks ago, Bailey's Toddler 1 class at daycare took a fieldtrip to Jump Zone for one last hoorah before moving up to the next class. Jump Zone is a warehouse that holds a few large inflatable slides and moonwalks as well as some playsets (which you can purchase for the low low price of $3,200). It took Bailey a little while to get warmed up to the place; in part, because of a 20ft tall Batman staring down at her from the front of one of the inflatables. Once she got going, though, she had a good time.

Here, Bailey is posing in front of all the different things to play on at Jump Zone. As you can see, the place is packed pretty tight. Luckily, no one else was there besides Bailey's class so they had the run of the place.

Bailey showing some skills by climbing the ladder by herself while smiling for the camera. She's a natural.

Ms. Cindy (one of Bailey's teachers) helping her out of the moonwalk.

Bailey diving headfirst into the Snow White inflatable. This one was pretty cool for the little-uns b/c it had a small jumping area inside as well as a short ladder up to a slide.

Bailey careening head-first down the aforementioned slide. Maybe we can find her a Cracker Jacks tatoo that reads, "Ain't skeered"!

Feeding the Ducks

This past weekend I realized we had some old frozen hamburger buns in the freezer that we weren't going to eat so I decided to take Bailey over to the lake to feed the ducks. We've never tried feeding the ducks before so I was interested to see whether she would feed them herself or simply watch me do it. We started off with me holding Bailey and letting her throw food to them from the safety of my arms. Surprisingly, when I asked her after only a few minutes if she wanted down she said yes! We made it through with no incidents or newly embedded fears of quacking animals so I the trip was definitely a success!

Here come the ducks! You'll notice that this white duck (we'll call him Bob) seems to be in almost every picture. That's because he had no qualms about letting us know he was hungry and wanted food.

Here, Bob was employing his strategy of getting as close to Bailey and the food as he possibly could to try and take the food out of her hands. He also tried a few sneak attacks from behind. Luckily, I'm smarter and quicker than Bob so I was able to prevent him from nipping her hand.

Bailey smiling for the camera with, guess who...good ol' Bob not far behind.

Bailey and Bob just hangin out. Bailey was out of bread at this point, but Bob stuck close by just in case.

Bailey waving bye to all the ducks once they finally gave up on the possibility of more bread.

Here are some baby ducklings that we tried to feed. We decided it would be in their best interests to stop b/c they got trampled by all the other bigger ducks every time a piece of bread landed near them. And, yes, that's Bob in the background.