*My apologies go out for not sending Christmas cards. It just didn't happen this year. For those who didn't send us a card, no hard feelings because I don't want to be a hypocrite on this one ;-) But for those who did, thank YOU! It was so fun reading what your family has been up to and seeing the pictures too!
2009 was supposed to be an off year for the Jeff & Janae family. As the weather grew chilly the sunny beaches of Mazatlan sounded mighty good. And so once again we packed up and loaded into Jeff's parents motorhome and drove south. If you read last years post it will fill you in on how the tradition of driving (driving!) to Mexico for Christmas began.
Honestly the trip doesn't vary too much year to year. We play on the same beaches. We go to the same churro guy. We see some of the same beach vendors year after year. And I am okay with that. I'm not going to complain that we get a 2 week break from the cold, and it means a lot to have the chance to get create memories with family/friends. Another reason why I like the trip is that it's an opportunity for my children to experience another country. But despite some differences, Mazatlan still has a Home Depot, Sam's Club, Office Depot or McDonald's.
Every day while in Mexico we got a ton of help from family, otherwise this trip wouldn't have been much fun or even possible. Thank you!
I whittled Mazatlan '09 down to 23 photos.
In the motorhome were 6 adults, 3 children, and 2 dogs. Jeff, his dad and brother drove straight through stopping only for fuel, at the border, and tolls. We left at 5:00pm on a Thursday and arrived at the trailer park Saturday 2:00am. Once there Jeff the kids and I moved into a ground floor condo in the trailer park.
This year there were about 123 people in the group. Check out the new monster hotel that was built next door to the trailer park!
This shirt belongs to Jeff's brother, Joe. Joe and his family didn't make it to Mexico this year but he wanted to make sure his official beach shirt came so he sent it with Jeff. I don't know how many times this shirt has made the trip but it is starting wear out. I had to get a picture!
The churro guy told us he usually sells between 300-400 pesos worth of churros a day. During the holidays he might sell up 1,000 pesos worth. That works out to be between $25 to $33 on a normal day and $83 on the holidays. Those numbers make me sad because his churros are a million times better than Disneyland's ripoff $4.00 churros. But we have visited him year after year on the same street corner so it must work for him.
One of the drink stands.
Christmas morning Erik was learning some surfing basics from Brett.
Erik is an expert gecko catcher. Here is a question I want to put out there. Why does my son freak out when I try to put sunscreen on him, but when Erik gets tossed by a wave he will pop up out of the water with a huge grin on his face?
Megan has the cutest little brown legs.
Kayla, Kiera & Claire.
The girls with grandpa.
The girls with grandma.
My parents even flew down and stayed for a few days!
Brian & Erin
Kim, Stuart, Kiera, Sam & Kayla
Me and my favorite 4 people in the world.