horses in Puerto Vallarta

The horse back riding turned out great, though we were nervous at first. When we got to the restaurant with the crazy diving man all the horses were already out for rides. We decided to eat and then head somewhere else to ride, but Bob our great driver started asking around and found an ex-pat with 8 horses and arranged for us to ride with him so after dinner we followed this guy and his mangy hairless dogs (oh the memories of Taiwan they brought back) up to a little field where 8 horses/burros were waiting for us along with 7 young boys to lead the horses.

Dell got to ride a horse without a leader and he said the horse was the most responsive he'd ever ridden. Guess those horseback riding classes at BYU paid off. Anyway, it was cool to see Dell cowboying around all of us on our more placid ponies.

It was the most intense horseback ride I've been on though. (And I've been on ones with our neightbors up Provo Canyon that were pretty impressive.) We crossed deep rivers, went down steep rocky slopes and just had a fun time walking past houses and beautiful mountains.

Henry cried and cried when he first got on the horse. Big huge tears. Not because he was scared but because he wanted his own horse. "No mommy, only one little boy on a horse, not two people." But by the time we started moving he was fine and chattered the whole way about the horse and what he saw. I love it when Henry is in a talkative mood. He's such a sweetie.



Henry crying on his horse. I'm trying not to laugh. Or maybe throw up. One of the two-- I was pretty nauseous on the cruise.

crossing the river


Headed down the hill. Thanks for taking all the pictures Dell. I had my hands full with trying to stay in the saddle and not squish Henry. You did a great job sweetie.

Puerto Vallarta

By the time we got to Puerto Vallarta we were pretty sunburned and ready for a little time on land. So dear Dell got off the ship early and found a guy with a big van, who spoke great English and was willing to drive us wherever we wanted to go for the next 7 hours. Bine, Mom and Dad, and Sis and Rob decided to come along and so we had 7 adults 6 kids along for the ride. It was so much FUN! I'm glad we had all those wonderful people with us and our driver "Bob" was great. As was the van. A brand new toyota touring van where the driver could hook his mic directly into the sound system to give us all an informative tour of Puerto Vallarta.

We saw some great things.
Beautiful Ocean views.

A crazy guy diving blindfolded from granite rocks into waterfalls. (he clears the middle part to land in the bottom pool.)


Played in the tamer section of the river and had a fun lunch at the restaurant on the shore. Even heard traditional music played while we ate.

And went horseback riding!

Pirate Night

Pirate Night was one of the things I was most looking forward to on the cruise. You know how I've always wanted to be a pirate and all, well anyway, it ended up being the night that there was a huge storm-- there were inches of water on deck and the roof leaked in spots. Wahoo!!! I love a good storm.
Dell and Henry being pirates on one of the lower decks


Henry and his pirate pop gun. Plus there's a nice shmear of desert on his cheek since we'd just left dinner. Nice!

sleeping child

I don't know why, but I love watching Henry sleep. Maybe it's because he's so full of energy during the day that it's fun to watch him holding perfectly still. And then he also tends to sleep in funny positions. I loved this one. The stuffed tiger sitting on his chest ready to protect him. He has different security items every night. Last night he came into my room at 4 am dragging his moon and stars blanket, a book, and his sailor hat. Whatever, we snuggled it all until he fell back asleep. Sweet little boy.

walking in daddy's shoes

one day when Dell came home Henry put on his combat boots and tried walking around in them. It was hard to walk, but he sure looked cute. And look at that smile-- he's so proud of himself for being like daddy. Whenever Dell comes home, Henry runs to him, gives him a big hug and then asks to "walk on the ceiling" and fun trick mom just can't pull off. We've got a great daddy/husband.

pioneer day

The San Antonio North Stake sure knows how to celebrate Pioneer day. (For those of you that don't know what Pioneer Day is, it's a celebration of the day the Mormon pioneers first arrived in the Salt Lake valley-- July 24th.) Well our ward celebrated with
Kettle corn (Oh my it was good!)
Pony Rides

Snow cones and cotton candy (the cotton candy is what is in Henry's other hand). There was also hamburgers, hot dogs, and deserts. Nothing for vegetarians unfortunately, but Henry's hot dog looked really good and tasted great too. I love what being pregnant does to me. (Yep, we're pregnant and due in January. Wahoo!)

Launching water balloons from the biggest slingshot ever. What was best is that kids ran out in the fire zone to be hit with the balloons. It was a hot day so I guess it felt nice. Can you tell how excited Henry was for his turn?

Anyway it was a great time. Henry liked the ponies and that there were so many different games going on (sack races, story telling, penny finding, face painting, and more and more) I liked sitting in the cool building and chatting with all the people that stopped by. So many wonderful people live here. And Dell liked the water balloon launching and just following Henry around exploring. It was a great day.

sanbox and slip and slide

well, we're still working on our backyard, but we have made some progress. Dell made Henry and great sandbox and I bought a slip n slide for our sloped lawn. It's a blast for all of us (though slip n slide says no adults.. bummer) Here's some pics for ya'll.
Wheee




Nice form huh? Henry just instinctively knew how to ride the slip n slide

Our beautiful sandbox!