Happy New Year!
We were back in Iowa for Christmas, New Years, and Adam's 30th Birthday! We had a great time with both of our families, especially the kiddos! We spent some time outside even though it was pretty chilly and windy, played cards/games, smoked deer sausage and salmon, went bowling for New Years with both families, shot some handguns, and had some intense games of hide and seek! For pictures of the kiddos- checkout my facebook page or email me.
Kevin got a new 4wheeler for Christmas for the Table Rock cabin. Adam and I picked it up from our friend/cousin's house in Traer and took it to him for a surprise-- but we rode it first, just to make sure it would be a good fit for him ;). We rode to the creek at my brother's house with all the kiddos on two wheelers (and a dog!)
Beaver Dam!
Annual creek walk at mom and dad's house
My brother/niece's new puppy. She didn't like being bundled up in a towel, so she ran most of the time on the creek walk.
Face-off with the cat!
Spent 1 1/2 days preparing and smoking deer sausage and salmon with daddio! YUUUMMMMM!
Bowling at Bass Pro on New Year's Eve with the Harris' and Kuceras
Playing some games!
Adam and his mama on his birthday! He turned 30! We had a special meal and hung out, playing games at the house. One of Adam's highschool/college basketball buddies stopped by with his wife and daughter for a nice visit!
Our fur-nieces! Jessi and Grant bought a house this fall and have worked their booties off fixing it up along with Kevin and Jeanette. They have a very nice home right off the bike trail and river. Perfect!
Father and son shooting 9mm. Kevin got a new one and was trying it out.
Mother and son taking some shots
My parents went to Des Moines to see us off before our flight out.
We had a grrrrrrrrrrrreat time in Iowa seeing our family and friends! As always- we ate WAY to much delicious food. It was fun to see our friend's babies/kids in person, they grow up so fast!
For Adam's birthday, we rented a cabin in Girdwood, Alaska near Alyeska ski resort. We had 8 friends and 2 other dogs join us for the weekend. Unfortunately- the snow in Alaska has been a record low this year and there were temps in the 40s that week so the snowboarding was ridiculously pathetic, but we still had fun. We ate great food, enjoyed some games, sat in the hot tub, and went to a bar for drinks and a band.
Tundra making himself at home on our friend's laps.
Game time!
Saw these big ol boys on our way to the mountain Saturday morning.
Nice racks!...... poor picture!
The scene at the base of the mountain-----our jaws dropped. We had to stay at the top and on the man-made/groomed runs all day.
The photo spot-- my favorite view!
The dogs had fun! We made the best of the snow situation and had snowball fights all the way down the runs.
The ceiling at the Sitzmark in Girdwood.
Next up---our trip to Manzanillo, Mexicooooooooooooooooooooo
Let me start out with apologies--- the photos got all jumbled and mixed up when uploading, but I have been working on this/facebook for so long that I am not going to take the time to fix it right now.
Pepper fields on the way to the resort from the airport
Our gigantic bathroom-- the biggest we will probably ever have!
Our lovely little patio- which we never used because it was so freakin hot!
Iguanas getting some sun on the rocks! They were not colorful like the iguanas in Puerto Vallarta.
Our view from our patio
A yummy fruit stand along the road
Urchin and crabs!
We saw a lot of local divers, they were diving for octopus, oysters, and lobsters. The lobster divers went out at night and used flashlights under the water.
There were several pools on the resort. One had a window to the next pool/cave area. Adam was putting on a show!
There were three restaurants that you had to make reservations for. Japanese, Italian, Mexican. There was also a buffet you could eat all three meals at, a restaurant you could sit down and order breakfast/lunch at, and a snack bar on the beach. We were never hungry! So-- the rules for the Japanese restaurant were men had to wear closed toe shoes and pants...... they made Adam wear a kimono!
The boat we took out with 4 friends also from our resort for some sail fishing.
We left the dock at 7am!
Watching for whales!
Sunrise!
dolphins
WHALE!
Adam's dorado- AKA mahi mahi, AKA dolphin fish. There is a better picture further down when it still has its color. They are beautiful but loose their color when they die.
My turn! They are top feeders and put on quite the show with jumping. A lot easier than halibut to reel in.
We caught 6 mahi mahi and 0 sail fish. We had a blast and brought some meat home. Check out that fillet! Delicous!
Our packaging station in our room!
The little creek we had to cross to get from our resort to the local beach
The local fishermen were catching these furel. In English, they are Jack. There is a video at the bottom. There would be about 7 fishermen on the shore, looking out in the water. Then they would see something and take off running. One had an actual pole and the rest had a spool of line that they would fling out into the waves. Then a huge mass of minnows would slam the beach from a wave with the larger jack in the ball as well. We could have watched for a whole day. We got the hang of seeing the bait ball and knowing when it would hit the beach. The birds were very well fed, picking up the minnows off the sand.
The Mexican restaurant/disco on our resort as seen from the local beach
Hard to see but there are minnows hitting the sand and that splash is a jack.
They had shows each night with different themes. A lot of dancing, singing, and a marachi band!
A mahi mahi jumping when it got caught
This snake was up three stairs and headed towards the door of the Mexican restaurant!
A "do it yourself" tequila shot bar
We played volleyball for at least 2 hours each day. On the last night we played from 4:00-7:30 when it got so dark we couldn't see the ball. We had some great games and met some fun people!
Live music at the Mexican restaurant!
Houses on the hills in Manzanillo- taken from our boat
gaffing the dorado/mahi mahi
headed out on the boat- 7 am was dark, but beautiful1
rebels on the kiddy slide-- age limit was 15. Adults wanna have fun tooooo!
Nice fish!
Our room
We had a FABULOUS time in Mexico. Delicious food and drinks, volleyball, relaxing, fishing, SUN, and snorkeling. The resort beach was in a cove so it was super calm and great for snorkeling. There were lots of beautiful fish right on our beach. We took our underwater camera but of course it broke on the first day. We may have gotten some pictures- if so , I will upload them next time. We were told there was a sea turtle that would visit each morning and the first person out to snorkel would always see it. We were out there several mornings and never saw it :(. Still on my bucket list!
We came back to Alaska for negative temperatures and a difficult week at work for both of us, so I had a bubble bath with wine. We are puppy-sitting for our friends...............
Can't a girl take a relaxing bubble bath?!?! Haha- thought I was going to have a dog in the tub with me! But then there is Tundy--- who wouldn't even come close to me cuz he thought I would pull him in too! :)
this video shows the bait ball right at the beginning. Look for the minnows up on the sand and the bigger fish trying to swim back out to deeper water--- it's fast.
The second video wouldn't work :(
Again- Happy New Year! Here comes February already!
