We Should Be in Europe But........

We for got our passports.... Nope, I'm not kidding. A real life nightmare! They were sitting in our car in AZ. I cried and still continue to. As we were getting ready to leave my parents house in TX this afternoon I asked Justin if he had our passports. We both knew the answer right away and knew that they were sitting on our console in our car back in Mesa. I immediately started crying thinking all chances of us going to Europe were ruined. Justin (the more rational thinking one) calmly called British Air to see if we could possible do anything to get on the flight without our passports. Of course the answer was no and the guy kindly re-scheduled our flight for tomorrow afternoon and didnt charge us the $300 plus dollars to do so. Thank you kind British man! So Justin's mom luckily had the keys to our car, pulled out the passports and has over-nighted them to us here in TX in hopes that we will get them before noon tomorrow. So while we were suppose to be basking in the beauty of London & Paris today and tomorrow, we will unfortunately miss out on seeing those countries and fly straight to Vienna Austria to make our next flight to Antalya, Turkey for Justin to be able to make it to an agricultural conference the next day.

We are devastated and threw ourselves a pity party today by going out shopping, but I think we were too bummed though to really buy anything! My mom kindly tried to comfort me by saying, "Well, you know Ash, everything happens for a reason." But I wasn't in the mood to believe it at the time :) So with the time that I now bitterly have I have decided to get caught up with some pictures from the two weeks we spent in Mexico this last month and also some pictures from our wonderful stay that we have had here in TX. My sweet husband is letting me borrow his computer while we are still trying to decided what to do with my broken one- nice of him eh?

On a more positive note, this is one less day that I am spending away from my little boy and we have had fun playing around the house. I really don't know what I am going to do not being around Ethan for 2 weeks...it's like I'm leaving part of me behind! He will be so happy here with my parents though eating all the treats and drinking as much juice as he wants- everything his mommy doesnt like to give him :) That's just the way it works with grandparents, right?!

So we stayed 2 full weeks in Mexico this last month and had fun playing and talking with old friends. On our way down, we stopped in Los Mochis at our favorite ice cream place, Tio Sam's. Ethan got his very own cup and devoured it! Check out this huge mouth!

One happy little boy!

One of the weekends we went down to Mazatlan and while Justin and Eduardo worked, Gladyss (Eduardo's wife) and I played with Ethan and Anette. Even though Anette is like 6 years older than Ethan and speaks a completely different language than him, they still have so much fun playing together...

We went to a mall there in Mazatlan and they had to coolest children's play area ever! Sure it cost money but it was so much fun for them! Here is Ethan loading up his grocery cart with lots of carbs.. unfortunately I think he got his mommy's appetite!

Playing in the tunnels....

and sandbox

And riding the choo choo train! He of course loved this part!

He also had fun riding the little ferris wheel there as well.

We then played on the beach for a few hours and enjoyed jumping the waves in the perfectly warm ocean. Seriously, the water was SO warm!
On our way back home to Culiacan, Ethan and I were able to accompany Justin to see some chilis and potatoes that they are treating. Ethan had so much fun running around through the rows of chilis.

This picture is of Ethan on our way back to AZ chowing down on a 6 in. Subway sandwich. We first realized Ethan can eat a whole 6 in. (by himself!) while we were in D.C. and he has yet to not finish a whole one. Amazing really. We just wonder where all the food he eats goes!

TEXAS

We flew out to TX the day before Thanksgiving and arrived at my house to see an early Christmas present to Ethan awaiting him.....

How cool is this?! My parents were trying to think of how in the world they are to keep a 2 year old busy for two full weeks and they figured this baby would do the trick! Ethan LOVES it and calls it his motorcycle. He actually does really well driving this thing all over the yard! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Ethan is in little boy heaven down here with not only the 4-wheeler but with choo choo trains...


plenty of cats to chase around and torture... this goes for chickens to...

and LOTS of tractors and trucks to play in the dirt with!

We helped my parents put up Christmas lights as well.

On Sunday, my good friend from high school, Jamie, and her mom came over for some cake and ice cream to celebrate my 24th birthday. It was so good to chit chat with them again! Thanks for coming!

We also got to visit with my sweet Grandma & Grandpa Sims and enjoyed visiting with them as much as we could. They love to see their little great-grandson and spoiled him with a brand new dump-truck!

Ethan loved playing catch with Grandpa Sims. Turns out, we still have some coordination issues to work out :)


We had so much fun hanging out with my parents and watching Ethan spend time with his grandparents who he doesn't get to see all that often. We slept in, ate WAY too much Thanksgiving food, and I also ate more sweets, cookies and Blue Bell ice cream than I should have. After a week of feasting here in TX and 2 more weeks of yummy eating ahead of us in Europe, let's just say I will be pretty nervous to step on that doctor's scale in a few weeks.. Oh do I ever need to learn more self control! Oh well.

Well hopefully we will have no trouble getting our passports and getting on our flight tomorrow! Wish us luck and hopefully I will have lots of beautiful pictures of Europe to post in a few weeks. Although I will forever be sad that we missed out on London and Paris, I look forward to all the other wonderful countries that we will have the opportunity to see!