We've Arrived

So, for those of you that follow Ryder's blog, I'm taking over temporarily to catch-up on what Ryder and his family have been up to - I'm his Mom.

We left Portland, Oregon on Monday, January 12th at around 6:00 a.m. The kids ate in the car wearing their PJ's and had a great day traveling. Our new car configuration with the baby between the big boys worked out perfectly. Casey was happy that he could see all of us and they could help him eat, drink and play. It was great. We arrived that night at my Mom's house in Sacramento and spent a few great days playing and biking with her bike club. Both Steve and I got some nice rides in and the kids got to ride in the golf cart and Grandpa's old truck as well as hit golf balls and they also saw some wild turkeys and river otters. It was quite fun. It took two more days to get down here to San Felipe, Mexico but boy, have we arrived. It's gorgeous here - 78 degrees today. I left the man boys building a sandcastle and walked to town (about 1 mile on the beach).
We found a great little market yesterday and stocked up on all the necessities such as limes, salsa makings, avocados, homemade tortillas, black beans, spices and carne asada. The food is really cheap here and our new friend "Dunie" told us on Sundays the groceries are 20% off. I have no idea why though. We went out to eat last night at a taco stand and had dinner with drinks that came to $8.00. We'll take some photos soon of all these places for ya. the kids thought it was so much fun when we took giant water containers to a place that fills them with fresh drinkable water for $1/five gallons.
San Felipe is a very sleepy town this time of year. When we came two years ago, it was exactly the same. You can tell in summer this place is packed with people and hotter than heck. I'm glad to be here in the winter. Last night at around 8:00 we had chips and guacamole on the deck overlooking the water with candles and drinks. Steve and I were showing Orion to the kids in the sky and listening to some pelicans squaking on a nearby shrimp boat. I just kept thinking how epic this was going to be for the boys.
This afternoon "George" comes by with the shrimp boat to our campo. He sells fresh caught giant shrimp for about $6/lb. Our campo is a group of houses that have kind of an association. There is a manager of the houses that takes care of garbage/gas/ broken stuff, etc. She also watches out for the safety of the houses. There are 45 houses in our campo and only 12 are on the water - they're called first row. Our new friend Terry told us we were lucky to be first rowers. He's lived here 22 years after retiring in the states. Ryder likes him because Terry has 4-5 dunebuggies in front of his house. Ryder thinks he'll let us borrow one. Hmmmm, I keep saying.
The boys are definately getting different takes on things because of their separate interests. Ryder keeps talking about renting dunebuggies, ATV's and bicycles for the beach. He wonders how the shrimp boats actually catch the shrimp and he was obsessed with going through our garage looking for beach toys as well as setting up all the chairs and umbrellas for the decks. Phelan loves the birds. He watched them this morning through the binoculars and collected seashells. He's talked about how much he wants to see a rattlesnake and a scorpion when we're in Mexico. When he saw his first giant cactus he yelled so loud it made Casey cry. Then there is Casey. He's obsessed with taking his hat off and climbing to tallest chairs he can find. He's kind of scared of the camp dogs including the one that apparently comes with our house "Osa" - a very sweet black dog that puts his head on your lap when you sit in a chair. So far, they are all very sweet dogs.
OK, I apologize for the length but we are also using this as a way to communicate with family, etc. We wanted all of you to know that we are fine and happy and healthy. Epic adventures ahead!