Spring Has Sprung

Just in the last few days we've seen the aspens leafing out and the trees around our apartment have burst forth in bloom.  It makes me smile every time I look out my windows or step outside and smell the blossoms.  Spring, spring, spring!

El Sobrio en México

So, I (Gregg) got to go on a little trip for work last week. I say "little" to reflect my expectations though the end result was anything but. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was the destination and five days was the duration of a half work/half pleasure trip with my coworkers.

I knew our home away from home was going to be legit but I didn't realize just how legit it would be. At Kim's urging, here are a few tales from the trip.

MEALS
Each morning started with fresh pineapple, papaya, and cantaloupe served as the first course of a breakfast that was followed by juevos rancheros, fresh toast, or chilaquiles and scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Lunch was usually steak quesadillas, burritos, and all the fresh guac and pico de gallo we could handle.

Dinners ranged from bbq shrimp and sea bass to chicken mole and enchiladas, prepared by a staff of two cooks and served by the head housekeeper, Roger, and his assistant, Jorge. Every meal came with a stack of hot flour tortillas from the kitchen.

In between meals were nachos, more fresh guac and pico de gallo, and an endless supply of beer (except for the first night when they ran out at 9pm which led to two hours of dancing and pull-up contests at a beachside bar and me thereafter being known as "the sober guy" - or "el sobrio" from our attempted translation - by the bartenders we saw a few more times that week around town).

VIEWS
The temperature stayed right around 75 degrees both day and night. And if that's not enough, a few meals were interrupted when we spotted humpback whales breaching just a few hundred yards off shore.

The house was perched directly over the shoreline about 50 feet up which provided a great view of the whales, other sea life (like rays, schools of bright blue and yellow fish, and puffer fish), but also the ridiculous sunsets and sunrises. These two photos were taken with my phone but, thanks to a well placed infinity pool, still turned out pretty amazing.

What I may miss most, however, are the mornings. Sleeping with the window open as the waves crashed on the rocks below the house and waking up to views like this kept a massive grin on my face all week. I took the first pic from the couch in the main living room as I worked one morning.

Who else likes views of this kind? Turns out Mel Gibson, Felipe Calderon, and Vin Diesel have also stayed in this house.

THE BOAT
Finally, on Thursday, we took a 50+ foot catamaran south along the coastline and stopped at 4-5 beaches where we swam to shore, snorkeled, or just explored on the sea kayaks. This isn't a picture of us, but it is of the boat we were on.

Dolphins swam along side us as we started and the whole day was entirely amazing.  And who likes boats of this kind? Turns out Ronaldinho chartered this same cat during a trip of his to Mexico.

All in all, it was an incredible week. Honestly, as I thought back to vacations as a child with the fam or more recently with Kim, it was a strange sensation to be on the boats I had gawked at and staying in one of the houses that seemed so far away from my sphere of reality.

It was an amazing trip and, if the rumors are true that we're going back next year, I think I'd probably find a way to clear my schedule and go along.

I Had Myself a Quiltin' Bee

One of the "rewards" I planned for myself upon finishing my thesis was to work on a little quilting project.  I started this quilt about a year ago - just because I had some scraps of flannel and denim and felt like doing something with them.  When I found out months later that Toasty was on the way, I knew I'd finish it for him/her . . . but not until the thesis was done!

Well, fast forward to the weeks following my defense and combine that with five full days of solitary confinement (Gregg was partying it up in Mexico) and you get this, the finished product:

The top - the pinwheels were made from the same flannel I made my
big raggy flannel blanket that sits on the couch
and some old jeans (my usual choice in quilting fabric).

The back - I tried something new with this quilt with the stripe
of  pieced flannel strips on the back instead of a solid backing of one color.

I'm quite pleased with the results, though it definitely is not without flaws.  (The perfectionist inside of me can show you exactly where there the rows don't line up and the edges aren't square and my first-attempt at machine quilting caused some bunches.)  But I keep telling myself Toasty won't care.  And really, while the finished product is nice, it was actually the sewing of it (and a lot of seam-ripping, too, I'll be honest) that was fun for me.

Blanchard Family Staycation

We spent a few days (March 6th-9th) in Salt Lake with the Blanchard fam, enjoying some down-time and soaking up as much niece and nephew time as we could get.  We had a marvelous time visiting with the adults and playing with the kids and eating the delicious food (oh my!).  Outings with the kiddos included:

The Living Planet Aquarium:

The penguins were by far my favorite.

Story time with Uncle Gregg:

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum:

And Hogle Zoo:

The new exhibit for the seals and sea lions and bears was fantastic!

Thesis Defense - Check!

On Tuesday, March 5th 2013, I (Kim) successfully defended my Masters Thesis titled "Analysis of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Panels for Bovine DNA Identification".  (Yeah, that's a mouthful.)  I had an awesome support group present at the public presentation portion: Mom and Dad, Kim and Paul, Grandma and Grandpa Elwood, Grandpa and Grandma Thornley, Heather, Kylie, Steffi, and of course, my dishy Gregg.  It was so nice to look out at see so many faces of people who had encouraged me and let me vent and gave me hugs when I really thought I'd never finish during these last 5 1/2 years.  It's been a journey for sure.  But the worst is over (I still have a few revisions to make and all the lovely paperwork to fill out) and I made it!  Hallelujah!

Thanks to Kim for these photos that I stole off her blog:

Awesome cheering section.

Paul and Kim drove up from Salt Lake early for the event.

Text from Gregg to his mom sharing the verdict.  (I feel the same way!)

Baby Instructions

I stumbled across this on pinterest last night and I figured it was important enough to share with all of our faithful blog readers.  It sure was eye-opening and invaluable information to Gregg and me, especially since we've got Toasty on the way.  Anyone who has a baby of their own or will be interacting with a baby at any point in the future should take special note.  ;)

This is Our December {Part Two}

For a few days in a row in December, while I was walking along the snowy bike path to get a newspaper each day I saw a big ol' bald eagle perched up high in a big ol' dead tree across the river.  One day I decided to try to get a shot of it with my camera, but of course the day I had my camera with me is the day the eagle didn't show up.  (In fact, I haven't seen him since.  Hmmm.)  But I still managed to get a few fun pics of our snowy winter wonderland.

I thought this one looked a lot like a puzzle or a postcard.

Icy river.

Really icy.

No eagle, but I did spot a few photogenic
magpies.  (I'm not a huge fan of magpies,
but they did make a nice photo.)

Christmas morning was wonderful and relaxing.  We woke up (not too early) and opened presents and stockings and ate some yummy cinnamon rolls.  We skyped with the Elwood gang and opened more presents.  And then we lounged about a little bit more.

Stockings from Mom and Dad Elwood - even Toasty got one!

All the loot after it was unwrapped and semi-organized.  (It still
looks like this on New Year's Eve by the way.)

Toasty may have only been the size of an avocado on Christmas
morning, but he/she got a good stash of fun things anyway.

In the afternoon on Christmas, we decided to trek out into the beautiful sunshine and enjoy a peaceful hike through the snow on Squaw Creek Trail in Cordillera (same place we snowshoed last December).  There was no one else around and the air was so still and quiet.  It was simply gorgeous.

Always gotta push over a dead tree on our snowshoe adventures!

Our Vail-style hiking snack. ;)

Yum!

Happy hikers.

Gregg took a shortcut on the way
down the trail.