El Tajin and Costa Esmeralda

what great tourist hats!

The second part of our trip involved a 5 1/2 hour road trip to El Tajin, a pre-columbian archeological site and was the site of one of the largest and most important cities of the classic era of mesoamerica. It took forever because of Tope's (large speed bumps) and just the biggest most abundant potholes I have ever seen! But, it was well worth it. I had never seen anything like it.

Then we drove another long hour to the Costa Esmeralda, where we stayed at a quaint little hotel on the beach.

UNO!

Welcome to Tampico

My mom and dad are serving a mission for the church and we are so proud of them. We were grateful that we were able to go see them as missionaries in Mexico and see the joy they are bringing to the people there. It was also so great to just be with them. I think the best part of the trip was seeing them with the boys and the great bond that they have. It is amazing to me that they only see them a couple times a year, but they are so close.

I have to see we were a bit disapointed by the weather when we first got there. It was in the low 50's and it rained quite a bit. They were having one of the coldest February's on record there. A couple of weeks earlier they had been in the low 40's! I know this was better than NYC, but we were in Mexico!But, we still enjoyed ourselves.

My parent's neighbor have a doug, Toby and Grandpa and boys spent a lot of time with that dog, Toby. Eli loved Toby. He still asks about him.

We spent a lot of time playing games and doing puzzles. Uno was the new game of choice! Grandma and her puzzles were a big hit!

We also went to a Lagoon where you can take a boat ride and see crocodiles. Apparently, they used to have a zoo in that area. It closed, but they decided to leave the two crocodiles there in that lagoon. There are now 30 of them. The best part of the ride was the iguanas! there were tons of them. They were close to 3 feet long. Some were bigger and some were smaller. But, they just hung out in the trees!

We also got to go to dinner that night while the boys stayed with some friends of my parents.

The next day, we went to my parent's institute. We met all the the people they work with. Mom, Boyd and I went to an outdoor market. That night we did a presentation in their English class on "living in New York." I don't know how much they understood. It was so fun to meet my parent's students. They are warm, loving group of people. I can tell my parents are loved and that they love them.
The institute building
I wish we got more pictures of their class, but we were too worried about our presentation!
I have more pics coming!

On our way

On our way to see my parents in Mexico, we had a very long layover in Houston. We decided to meet up with my Cousin Mark and his family at the Houston Zoo. It was a fun way to break up our trip and It was great seeing my cousin and his family. The kids loved the orangutans. They were hillarious. Thanks Mark and Emily! It was fun seeing you and your cute f amily!

Signs of a good snow day

A snowman

A sled

A snow angel

BIG smiles

We didn't plan on playing the snow, but Gavin and Eli pretty much demanded it and I am glad I let them have their way! We had a great day. The one thing missing was Boyd.

Week Long Celebrating

I love it when I can extend my birthday all week! Last Tuesday I woke up to a delightful breakfast of french toast and fresh fruit. My favorite part, was sitting down and seeing my birthday cards from Gavin and Eli.

The best present I received was Boyd taking the day off work. I spent the first part of the day out with friends. I got some free tickets to The View and we saw Ashton Kutcher, a guy from Modern Family, and Melissa Rivers. We had a lot of fun.

I was treated to an amazing lunch at Esca. Later that day Boyd spoiled me even more by making a dinner of Artichokes and King Crab Legs. We topped the day off with a birthday cake and presents with the family. ( I wish I could insert a picture here, but we didn't take any at dinner and the rest of the pictures from that night were not so flattering)

My birthday was extended the whole week by a lunch celebration with friends the next day!

and Boyd took me to see West Side Story later that week. I love birthdays. Thanks for all who made it such a special week.