James' first food

Today James tried his first food. I didn't think he would do to well, and I was actually secretly hoping he wouldn't because of the crazy upcoming holiday, but he loved it! He even made some smacking sounds to tell how good it was!

Monster hunting

Spencer's new favorite pass-time is monster hunting. He (and Devon) will go around the house looking for monsters. When they see one they run back to the couch and hide under the blankets. Then they do it again about a thousand times. Daddy is his favorite partner in crime.

So this is what you need for a good monster hunt. You need a hunting hat, and a weapon- apparently a plastic spade works exceptionally well.

James is a Junior Monster Hunter right now, he has to wait until he can walk to go on the serious hunts.

Our Trip

We left on Saturday November 14th for my grandpa's funeral. We were glad we left early, because when we hit the Spanish Fork Canyon the snow was horrible. There were semi's pulled over on the road and sort of to the side of the road to put on their snow chains. It was crazy! Devon is a great driver, and we made it through without a scratch.



The funeral was very nice, it was good to remember what a great man my grandpa is.
Devon left after the funeral, but I stayed and then went to Idaho with my mom. We came back and met Devon in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving. It was fun to spend time with family, but Devon and I decided we were apart for too long, and James decided he was away from his own bed for too long. We had a great time, but it's good to be home. Here are some pictures of the boys having fun with cousins and grandma and grandpa!

My Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away this morning. I will miss him so much. I think that I am the most sad that my kids won't grow up knowing him. I guess it's my job to be a little more like him so they can learn the great things he taught me. He always made people feel welcome and important. He really did remember everyone's name. He always smiled and told silly jokes. I remember him telling stories to us and playing the guitar and singing songs when we were kids. In elementary school he came up to Idaho every year to play for our school classes, and when I started teaching he played for each of my classes at least once. He always made my classes laugh. I know he is in a better place with people that he hasn't seen for a long time. I'm sure they are glad to have him, but we will surely miss him. I am so grateful to have the gospel at this time, it will be wonderful to see him again some day.

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween here. Spencer (and Devon and I) were cowboys, James was a cow. On the 30th there was an activity at the Family Center with crafts, games and food, and then there was a carnival at the school. The carnival was at the gym, which Spencer calls the "ball game." He just ran around and danced to the live band. He thought it was great. There was a guy there with a pretty scary mask, so every time Spencer saw him he would stop dancing and go hide by Daddy until he felt safe, then he would dance again. On Halloween Spencer woke up from his nap and said "I'm ready to go Trick or Treating!" We had to wait a few hours, but Spencer had a great time when we went. There were too many masked people out that night though, Spencer woke up with nightmares all night long! At least it made the transition from daylight savings a little easier- only one really bad night, and then he was ready to sleep!

October snowstorm

Well, I was a little worried that Spencer would not be able to play in the snow too much this year because we are going south for Christmas, but I didn't need to worry. We got about 4 inches of snow a few days before Halloween. It's all melted now, but it was fun while it lasted!

The End

On the last day we planned again to go to the eco-park, but Devon woke up feeling pretty crummy. We were already worried about spending all of that money, especially when Devon couldn't enjoy it, so we decided not to go. We gave Devon a few more hours to sleep and then headed for Puerto Moreles. This is where our book said to find the best snorkeling. We arrived about 10:30. They had these boats you could hire out. We went on a 2 hour tour where we stopped at 2 places along the coral reef. It was really neat. There were tons of fish, just like you see on the movies! We even saw a huge school of fish swim by. There were stripped ones, bright blue ones- just so many I can't even remember. The corral was really pretty too. Like most days that we were there it was pretty windy, so it was hard to swim in the ocean with all of the waves. At the end of each section Devon was defiantly ready to get out of the choppy water which made him feel more sick. It was really neat though- and we were glad we went.
We didn't take any pictures while we were on the boat, but here is the boat we went on.

All along the dock there were people fishing. They would just throw in their nets and pull up some fish, it was pretty cool!


After we were done we asked the guy who set up our tour, Paco, if there were any good restaurants around. He took us to the fish place, La Pepita, because then he would get a free beer. It was actually really good seafood. I still like our first seafood experience the best, but all of it was better than you ever get in the US.



Next we went to the interactive zoo, Crococun Zoo. I was very skeptical about going to this zoo, but it was so much fun. The whole time I kept thinking "Spencer would absolutely love this!" This was a great place for pictures. I really am only posting a fraction of what Devon took- but there are still quite a few!
First stop- parrots- Macaws I guess. We each got a kiss from the blue one (I don't remember it's name.



Next we went to the baby crocodiles. We held these. The guide said, "If it squirms remember you are stronger. I will help you, just don't drop it!" It was neat to see all of the features of a crocodile close up.



There were wild Spider Monkeys that live in the jungle there. The followed us around the whole time because they knew that we had food (we had fruit bags to fee the animals). They were so cute, and so human-like- or at least kid like. We fed them peanuts.



We saw some iguanas.


This is a big lizard, I don't remember what it was called. It felt like a basketball.




There were tons of snakes. They had rattlesnakes so poisonous that if you got bit on the leg you had one hour to live (if you didn't get the antidote). We didn't hold the rattle snake, but we did hold the baby boa. It was pretty cool, but a little un-nerving when it turned toward you and stuck out it's tongue.





I guess an exotic pet in Mexico is a hairless dog. It really flet like an old-person's skin. I'm not really into dogs, but touching this one gave me the hebe-gebes!


We went in this enclosure with about 40 full--grown crocodiles. Devon is pretty sure they were sedated, but the guide said crocodiles are not as violent as alligators. Whatever the case, we didn't get attacked.
Our guide found a tooth for Devon, I guess they get knocked out when they fight.





After the crocodile enclosure the deer enclosure was not scary at all! We fed the deer leaves from branches, and then we fed them stuff that they like more, like carrots and sunflower seed from outside the gate; I guess they get a little more crazy about that stuff.





There was a bunch of box turtles. We fed them grapes. It was cute to see them try to carry them around.



The wild spider-monkeys followed us around the whole time. They were pretty funny. We also saw these monkeys that were tied to trees. They had kind of a loop so they could go up and down the tree, but they had to stay with that tree. They were captive because they had been kidnapped when they were young to be pets, and so they did not know how to survive in the jungle. We fed all of the monkeys bananas. One of the captive ones could catch them. They were so funny. They really did swing through the trees just like in the movies, it was so neat to see it in real life.






The ocean was amazing. Devon says it's not really the ocean, it's the Gulf of Mexico, but whatever the case it was beautiful. I wish we could have spent more time on the beach, but as I said, it was not ideal beach weather. One night Devon and I went down. It was dark, but you could still see the waves and it was so relaxing. Then it started raining, and we decided that it wasn't so relaxing with the rain. We decided to go inside when suddenly the clouds opened up and poured! We might as well have jumped in the ocean for how wet we got on our run back inside. It was a fun adventure though. Here are some pictures of the beautiful beach.






We had a wonderful trip. I do love going to Mexico!