Storytime, Goats, and Birthdays

Usually January is a pretty depressing month for me. With the Christmas decorations taken down, and holiday cheer mostly dissipated we are left with dreary, cold weather and nothing to do. However, this January has been wonderful. We had a great snow the first week of the month and then went on a fabulous, sunny vacation to Mexico.  I went on an uplifiting woman's retreat with some inspiring ladies and have enjoyed celebrating birthdays and visiting with friends. The weather continues to be dreary here in Mississippi, but my spirit is light. 

  We go to our local children's book store every Wednesday morning after James' physical therapy for storytime. James loves playing with his "storytime" friends and he really loves, Jill, who reads the kids a story or two and then plays the guitar.  James usually scoots right up to Jill when she starts playing the guitar and bobs his head and claps to the music.  This week James has discovered  a new favorite, the red rocking car.

Lila's school went on a field trip to a livestock show this week. The children got to pet baby goats, pigs and lambs. Lila loved it. The kids were even asked to "show" the baby goats. Lila was so proud of showing her goat to the judges and even more excited about her blue ribbon.

 James loved seeing all of the animals too

We celebrated two birthdays this weekend. My friend Amy's and Lila's classmate, Charlie Mac. I love celebrating birthdays for friends. And I feel very fortunate to have such great friends! For Amy's birthday we went to dinner and Charlie Mac had an out-of-this world party. His parents turned their downstairs into a planetarium, had a moonbounce, and gave astronaut ice cream for the party favors, cool! 

 Girls just wanna have fun!

James and Finn having a serious conversation

 The moonbounce was Lila's favorite place at the party

Hola from Puerto Vallarta

Gracias Mae Mae and Gaddy (Bradley's parents)  for a wonderful, relaxing trip to Puerto Vallarta!  We spent 5 days in beautiful, sunny Mexico (adults only, thank you Lainey, Papa Ike and the Stennetts for keeping our kids!) and here are some of the pictures. 

These are the views from our balcony.  It was very foggy the first morning we arrived but breathtaking nonetheless.

 Chilling in the hot tub on our balcony with Kip and Whitney

A couple of more balcony views at sunset




The first night we ate dinner outside by the pool. It was great food in a fantastic atmosphere!

 The newlyweds (Kip and Whitney) goofing off before dinner

 Robert and Roane obliging for the camera

 Mae Mae and Gaddy enjoying the moment

Deep sea fishing and golf kept us busy, although we did our fair share of lounging at the pool. I think we definitely caught more cervecas on the fishing trip than fish, but it was a lot of fun!

 Whitney reeling in a Mahi Mahi 

 We got a chance to see some humpback whales. This was probably the best part of the fishing trip for me!

We ventured into town for some sightseeing and shopping and ended up getting a cab up the mountain to a restaurant called Carmelitas. It was a beautiful view but our taxi drivers decided not to wait on us so we had a little trouble getting down the mountain....but we made it.

 Santa and reindeer sandsculpture

 I cannot fathom how he gets these rocks to stand like this, amazing!

 View at Carmelitas

We had cats, peacocks, and iguanas roaming around our hotel. Kind of crazy

This is the picture I am going to carry in my mind when I start feeling blue this cold, dreary Mississippi winter. Relaxing poolside... To me it doesn't get much better.