Perfecto

Russell and I just got from Playa del Carmen. We stayed at the most amazing resort, rosewoodmayakoba.com. My pictures and description won't do it justice so you'll just have to trust me that it was incredible. I know the staff is paid to be nice to us but they truly seemed to want our stay to be perfecto and it was!

Above is a picture of the "backyard" of our suite, a plunge pool overlooking the lagoon. Below we're enjoying an afternoon cocktail on our rooftop balcony.

Tinplate Trackin

The Austin Tinplate Trackers are a club of model train enthusiasts.  I'm not sure where on the hierarchy they rank...somewhere between people who build ships inside bottles and people who paint civil war figurines under one of those giant magnifying glasses with the light around it.  Regardless of how long they have until they evolve in to the internet age, or kiss a girl...Bryce and I took a trip to their open house to play with their toys.  For the event they rented an open storefront downtown and set up some giant train tracks.  For a few bucks, Bryce got to drive one of them for a few minutes...forward, backward, fast, slow, horn, smoke...the works.  Unfortunately we had to come home to our manually powered trains, but hopefully they're boring enough that one day he'll forget about them and actually take an interest in other things like sports or girls or daylight.

Here is Bryce's train

 Bryce dominating the controls

Checking out some freight cars

Utter amazement!

 

Rainy morning

aturday mornings are normally spent running at the lake and trips to the farmer's market for some fresh goodies (particularly kettle corn for the kids).  Well, it's raining here this morning and we're inside.  One of the best things we get from the market is fresh bread...so instead of going out today...we brought the market inside.  Paige dug out a Barefoot Contessa book and found us a recipe for some honey white bread...yum...so Bryce and I fixed it up.

Bryce hopped up on the counter to supervise with the adding of ingredients

Once we had everything in, it was time to Mix!

One last toss by hand before we let it rise

We'll see...hopefully we did a good job...lunch depends on it!

A Surprise Party?

 Bryce and Ivy got to go to a birthday party for a friend of ours in the neighborhood yesterday.  It was at a jumpy gym...which is a sectioned off warehouse type place with tons of inflatable thingies...not unlike the obnoxious Santas or snow globes people put on their lawns over Christmas...except much larger with a significantly higher chance of injury.  Both our kids hate them...but we're not ones to miss a party.  Luckily, they had lots of other toys and things for the kids to play with while we were there.

The funniest part was that it was a 'surprise' party for the little girl. Not only didn't her parents tell her she was having a party, but when we got there...they didn't tell her she was there for her party.  In fact, not until they brought out the cake with her name on it did they tell her the party was for her.  Either way...kids had fun, I got to test out my new camera, and we ended the night with Mexican food...can't be all bad right?

Just about done...

Enjoying the last quiet time of vacation.  Everyone is napping and I'm wondering when it'll warm up around here (was it that long ago that we had 60 days over 100?)  Been nice being able to spend time with the family and spend more than my fair share of time in pajamas.  Back to work tomorrow...2010...here we come!

Twist and Turn...

(Cell phone cameras were not made to explore your artistic side)

Make it tight! The first Saturday of the month Home Depot does a free kids' project. Today Bryce got to make a calendar. You should have seen him hammering it together. After he completed the project he got a calendar pin to affix to his very own Home Depot apron. This isn't new news to most of the kids there as I think there were some kids more decorated than a high ranking military officer.

While Ivy could have made her own, she decided it would be more helpful to supervise other people's projects since they clearly weren't able to follow the directions without her...nor would they have known where to find the glue or sandpaper.

Can't wait to go back and build again next month.

Happy New Year!

Well Happy New Year from the Texas Newmans...Russell, Paige, Bryce, Ivy, & Josie! This last week we had 2 honorary "Texas Newmans" when Unca Spencer and Aunt Joohwie came to visit. In fact, since they left on Thursday, Ivy has been looking everywhere for Joohwie...Joohwie? Joohwie?!?!?!

Spencer and Julie spent a nearly a week hanging out in the 'balmy' (well, compared to NY anyway) Texas winter. This trip was a mini vacation for them at the Casa de Paige bed and breakfast. Julie got to relax a little while we put Uncle Spencer through the real "what to expect when you're expecting" boot camp. He learned the ins and outs of trains, trucks, baby dolls, piggy backs, and piggy fronts. In fact, he did such a good job we thought about renting him out....look out for the Uncle Spencer doll coming Holidays 2010.
Well...we were so busy having a good time we only took these 2 pictures to chronicle their visit. So, to make up for our lack of photographic enthusiasm, I will pictographically describe their trip using generic pictures from the internet.

We started out by hopping in the And heading to a family party in San Antonio at
After we wore out our guests with family we took them to the Crown Jewel of their trip...a visit to
where we ate Monday, we hopped back in the And went down the road to
In Gruene, we shopped at the General Store and bought some treats. After that we headed to for some more Since the original point of this visit was to spend time with us and Juile's brother, Tuesday would have been the day Spencer and Julie headed to Michael and Amanda's to visit with them and their daughter. However, Michael and Amanda now live back in NY, so with a day to kill they drove to San Antonio to see And spent a romantic evening at the Hyatt Resort

(Resort pictured may not be the Hyatt; People pictured may not be Spencer or Julie; Romantic evening is implied)

After a nearly a week of travel and eating it was time to send them back to NY. It was a great visit and we'll do it again after Bryce and Ivy's little cousin is born.