Here's one that most of you won't believe. Yes, those are my kids and they are petting a dog. CRAZY I know. Grandpa and Eva have a really old dog named Penny and the kids actually got used to being around a dog. Who knew that this day would ever come? 
Here's one of our visit to the cemetery to see where Grandma is buried. 
Erin was fearless on the rides. David took a little while to warm up to his surroundings. The Taxi Jam roller coaster was the first official coaster that Erin and David went on. I look forward to the day when they can ride the big coasters with Mom. 
We got to see Scooby Doo but the kids didn't want to get too close or take pics with him. Erin did however want to drive the Mystery Machine bus. We also saw Dora and Boots but the kids were not thrilled about getting too close to them either. They were taller than Mommy and kind of intimidating for little kids. (Paramount is a Viacom company and so anything from Nickolodeon or Hanna Barbara falls under the Viacom umbrella.)--can you tell how many years I worked at the park? 
David was still hesitant to ride things but agreed to go on the helicopter ride. 
Then we headed down to the water park area of the park and David's attitude changed completely. He was on board from then on out. 
I loved the expression on his face when he would come down the water slide. 
Erin and David coming out of one of the wave pools. 
We went on the new ferris wheel and could see the whole park from up top. We had a great view of the Eiffle tower too. (not the on in France obviously--this one is just 333 1/3 feet tall exactly 1/3 the height of the real one)--again useless info that park employees have to know. 
Erin cracks me up in this photo because I kept telling her to put the cotton candy down so I could see her face and some random lady told her that she should listen to her Mom and then Erin gave the lady this look. 
At the end of the day I put the kids back in the car hoping that Kings Dominion had worn them out enough to get a good nights sleep. They were both out by the time we had made it 10 miles down the road. Victory!!!
...wishing Miguel could have been here with us.
David is always taking care of his baby sister. What a nice brother!
We had the best beach vacation! The kids had so much fun at the beach. And what a difference a year makes! This time they actually wanted to go in the ocean. Last year they were still terrified of the waves. But this time they had a blast. They jumped over the little waves on the shore, played in the sand, and ran around crazy in the kids pools at the hotel. 
Anya was just chillin' in one of the heated indoor pools. 
This is the water slide that Erin went down. She didn't even think twice. Just sat down and went for it. She is getting so big. 
Maybe we went a little overboard on the floaties. Erin has two inner tubes. 
That famous froggie slide. What a great idea for the little kids. All of the kids pools were just 1 ft. to 1.5 ft. deep. 
Growing up my family always took us on summer vacations to Virginia Beach, the Outer Banks, and Myrtle Beach. I feel so blessed to be able to take my kids to those same places so they can have fun memories of the beach too. 
So, most of you know how much I love a great deal right? I just have to spill about how happy I am that I got all of my dental work done in Mexico. (for those of you who have already read my post on facebook, ignore this) The Dentists/Endodontists in Salt Lake wanted to charge me $2,200 for my dental work. But I got it all done in Mexico for the equivalent of $320 U.S. dollars. That is about 1/7 the price! And the Endodontist and Dentist in Mexico did a great job and were much nicer to deal with. I would recommend this only if you have friends or family that live in Mexico that can personally recommend a specific doctor. I don't have much experience with those medical tourism websites. But this worked out great for us. I was able to get it done in the short time that we were there visiting Miguel's family. Gotta love a great deal! 
And David finally met his match in little Felipe (another second cousin). Felipe is 4 but they are the same size and have the same interests and similar personalities. Poor David is surrounded by sisters and really enjoys the few chances he has to play with other boys his age. He was definitely happy to meet this little boy. 
And here's some of the other family members that joined us for dinner. 
She took us for a ride in the official CEO golf cart to give us a tour of the facilities. The property is like this huge compound where all of her workers live with their families. She built apartments where they can live for free. She also built convenience stores, schools, churches, and a free medical clinic for her employees. They earn a salary in addition to their benefits. Talk about creating employee loyalty! Here we are at the convenience store picking out whatever we wanted. Some of the smaller apartments are located on the second floor. 
She also took us to see her son's house inside the compound. He changes the decor every year and this year's theme is African safari. 
Then we got a tour of the actual waste operations. This is how the garbage from Mexico city arrives from the trash trucks. 
Then, the line workers sort everything by material and color. Here is the mountain of clear and white plastics... 
and some others pretty colors too.
And then everything gets bundled into cubes just like in the movie Wall-E. It was really surprising how clean the compound is for being a dump. There is only trash in its designated place. Ironically though, when we were in the business offices, I couldn't find the trash can to throw away Anya's tissue. 
