Sunday, February 28, 2010

Mexico flowers put me in the mood for SPRING!


I have been gone from my blog for so long!  I took an eight day trip to Mexico at the end of January/beginning of February.  Since I've been home, I have been freezing!  And I have been "lost" in a way.  I can't seem to get my act together and get going.  I have project after project all around me, projects piling up everywhere.  My project cabinet is FULL!  Help me!!

Actually, I have been sorting, organizing and purging.  At least I am being productive in some area of my life right now!  This week, I will begin the undaunting task of hitting all four bedrooms to purge, organize and clean.  Whew!  It wears me out just to think about the work ahead of me.

This is not how I want to spend my days!  I'm gonna whine a little here now.  I want to craft!  I want to paint!  I want to stitch!  But seeing as how my craft area is in complete disarray right now (because it needs sorted, organized and purged too!), that will have to wait a little while longer.  =[

So, I thought I would post some vacation pictures to get my mind off the upcoming weeks.  The beauty, the perfect weather, the warmth of the sun... it all was so wonderful!

My parents live in a village called Rincon de Guayabitios during the winter months.  It is located about 40 miles north of Puerto Vallarta on the coast.  It is paradise!  Even though they are experiencing winter just like us, I was thrilled to see so much green and so much color!  Even the mountains were pretty green.



Ah, the beach!  My favorite part of the trip!



Beauty was all around!  Gorgeous flowers, colorful buildings, magnificent mountains.









So beautiful, isn't it?  I wish we had color like this in our winter!!


Closer look...

I love how these next few photos are of intertwined colors of flowers.  It was incredible to see!













I think I'll end this post and return later with more trip pictures.  I took 562 pictures so I have a lot to go through!!

Seeing all the green grass, green trees, gorgeous flowers put me in the mood for spring.  I'm ready to see some pretty colors around my home!  I know you are too, especially you Northern girls that have had a tremendous amount of snow.  Well... it will be here soon... it's just so hard to be patient.  =]

Friday, February 26, 2010

The beach and a few pelicans





The sun streaming down on your face, the sand squishing between your toes, the waves crashing on the shore, the palm trees swaying in the slight breeze... as close to paradise as I have ever been.

I love this picture of my sister Jodi and Dad.  I thought they were discussing something serious.  When I came upon them, they were just chit chatting about the beautiful beach.
 

My brother Daryl was the only one of us to swim in the ocean.  I had my swim suit on, but I didn't go swimming.  I really enjoyed wading and letting the waves crash up against me.  That was good enough for me.

The buildings were so colorful, so bright.

I just love how the beach is set inside the mountain. It's a perfect little cove.

There is a restaurant on the right side of this island.  We never made it out there.  My mom is not a fan of water or boats.  We thought it would be so cool to go exploring the island, but definitely not at night!  It is eerie dark at night, you can't even see the island from the shore.

He he!  I love the expression on this pelican.  It's almost like it has a sly grin.

Oh man, I was so engrossed in the pelicans!  They were so much fun to watch.  I so wish my kids could have been there.  The pelicans let you get within a couple of feet from them, then they start walking away as they keep an eye on ya.  There were seafood vendors on the beach.  You pick out your shrimp or fish, they load up kabobs and stick em on the grill while you wait!  The "excess" gets thrown to the pelicans.  You always knew where the seafood vendors were... look for the hoard of pelicans.  In this picture they are grabbling for a bite.

This one looks like he's coming right for me!  They will knick you with their wings when they fly in.  We got hit a few times and boy does it sting!

Okay, the feeding frenzy is over... time to go back to the ocean.

This lucky pelican was able to grab some seafood!  Look at that other one just standing there patiently watching and waiting for a chance to grab a bite.  Yeah, I know it's gross.  Jodi already told me that.  But I thought it was cool how their neck swelled up when they got a bite.  That's why I needed my kids.  I know they would have thought it was cool too.

A perfect landing and even a beak full...

Fish for lunch... check out that tail sticking out of that beak.

Don't they just make the cutest little tracks...

Up close and personal

I love the cross on this mountain.  Can you see it in the picture?  It's right smack dab in the middle.  Almost every single village you come across will have a memorial like this.  This one was actually closed for remodeling so we didn't get to walk up to it.  But as you travel the mountain up to the cross, you will come across the 13 stations of the Catholic faith.  How neat to be on the beach-- as you glance over toward the mountain and see the cross.  What a sweet reminder of God loving us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us.  Not only was I surrounded in God's beauty, but I had a neat reminder any time I looked up the hill.

For a perfect ending to our afternoon on the beach, we had a little fresh fruit.  Now when I say fresh fruit, I mean FRESH!  I have never tasted any fruit so tender, so sweet as the fruit we had in Mexico.  My, I miss it sooooo much already!  The vendor carved out the inside of the pineapple.  Crushed it with some ice and put it back in.  Then he added whatever fruit we wanted.  Jodi chose coconut.  I chose watermelon and oranges.  Two straws, two spoons  and we were set!  Delicious!

"Farmer Man" enjoying a pineapple chunk that was carved out of the middle of our drink.  Dad wore that John Deere hat (that Rich gave him) everywhere we went.  The Mexicans, Americans and Canadians alike were calling him the farmer man.  "Hey farmer man, how you doing?"  Dad would just wave and smile.  I think he rather liked all the attention he received.  Don't you just love this picture?

We ended this day with a trip to the pizzeria.  Unless you've been there, you have no idea how nice it is to sit in an open restaurant on a beautiful moon lit night.  I was trying to steal a picture of that sweet fire-brick oven that was cooking our pizza.  They saw what I was doing and had me come up by them.  He said "Your pizza, your pizza."  They posed with our pizza.  Too funny!  Yum, it was so good!

I'm grateful for the reminder lesson that I learned on this day.  Even in the vastness of the creation, God chose me.  He created me and loves me even though I am so undeserving of His love.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Now back to Mexico



I would so love to see this in winter, wouldn't you?  Do the people that live there and look at this every day even realize the beauty that they behold?

Even the simplest wall of flowers was beautiful to me.

I love how these houses are surrounded by God's creation.  On one side of their house is the ocean; on the other side of their house are mountains.  So whatever mood you are in would depict which window you looked out?

I enjoyed looking at all the interesting and beautiful homes along the way.













We learned that their gate is a very important element.  It represents "status".  As if the humongous homes didn't already state that?!





But the most intriguing thing to me was the simple entrances to such massive homes.  This was my favorite.  I really, really wanted to ring the doorbell to this house, sit out in the courtyard with a glass of strawberry lemonade and fresh pineapple chunks and chat with the owner.  It was so cozy, so welcoming...





Bananas!  How cool is that?!  We wanted to pick them, but they were in someone's yard so we decided not too... plus they were still a little green.

Even in their winter ugliness, the palm trees were still beautiful to me.

Here we are nearing the end of our walk.  I just wanted to throw in this picture of Dad.  He was such a good sport for allowing us to tag along and slow him way down to take so many pictures.

I'll end this post with a few of the things that I really enjoyed seeing on this morning's walk.  Palm trees...

Mountains...

And of course, my favorite... flowers!







I am so grateful that God has placed beauty all around us so that no matter where we are, we can be reminded of His great love for us!