Gymbucks!! WAHOO

Gymbucks redemtion period is really exciting at our house. Eli gets a box to play with...

Dora gets bags to scatter and trash to wave around.

And of course, mom makes out best of all. BABY CLOTHES ARE SO CUTE!

Puerto Rico Part Two

Although it rained for about three days while we were there, we still had a great time. Unfortunately, they cancelled our trip to the caves and our snorkeling trip. We did reschedule the snorkeling but sadly we both forgot to take photos. We went out on a catamaran and snorkeled at a private island and also at a reef in the middle of the ocean. It rained a bit on the trip, but we still had a great time. We had such a great time that by the end, these HUGE fish (like 1/3 my size) were circling us in the water (we had bread to give them!). We had been mobbed by schools of little fish (black and yellow and white ones and electric blue ones) but these enormous pink and blue ones were too big for me to feel comfortable!

Anyhow, one of the saving graces of trip (offsetting the rain) was that we were upgraded to a Suite. This meant we had two balconies that were covered. So, on the rainy days, it was still frequently sunny. I would sit in the sun under the balcony, so spared from the rain. That was pretty nice. I think I read about 5 or 6 books during the trip on my Kindle, which still works in PR, FYI. So, that was a HUGE success for me! I love the Kindle!

Here's Whit in our room sporting his Inca Cola shirt from Peru.

One of the rainy days we went to Old San Juan for some shopping. We found this intersection that made me think of Linsey. She loves bright colors, so I thought she'd like the coordination.

Wow was it windy! The wind turned my umbrella inside out a few times. That sort of made me mad, but otherwise it was fun!

Here's one of the castles. It was also used as a fort by various different forces over time.

I thought this was funny... see Whit pointing to this sign?

It's about Henry Whitney, an american spy. We just liked it because it's "Whitney" an american spy. Meh.

Whit loved this room--there's a series of tunnels under the fort. This one was the dungeon. With the flash it looks pretty nice down there, but lemme tell you, with just that slit for light, it was pretty depressing. And impressive!

Woohoo-Puerto Rico, we miss you already!

Puerto Rico Part One

We try to do one vacation a year without kiddos. The tradition began when Eli was 10 months old and we went to Peru to see Machu Piccu. It was awesome. The next year, we went to Paris. Last week (Monday to glorious Monday) we did our third--to Puerto Rico. It was really fun!

On Tuesday we went to El Yunque, the rainforest, where there are also several waterfalls. Here's the visitor's center. It was also beautiful!

Here we are on the trail. We snapped a few shots, but since we kept the camera in our pockets, the settings kept getting spun around and we never remembered to check before snapping the photos. SO, pardon the pretty shoddy quality of the photos!

Also, you might notice my hair looks horrible. It's REALLY humid there. I seriously did my hair for the first few days, but it always looked terrible again after a few hours. So, I gave up! Oh well! A frizzy head in Puerto Rico was a small price to pay...

Most of the hike to the big waterfall was by a little stream. It was really pretty.

Here's the biggest waterfall. We were the first ones there.

Whit was also the first one into the COLD water with sharp, slippery rocks. I'll admit it--I didn't get in! (I was chicken).

We found a tiny waterfall on our way out.

Whit being funny.

OKay this photo did not come out nearly as cool as this really was. There was this looped vine hanging on the side of the mountain. You can't tell, but I am a few feet off the ground AND on the side of the mountain. I guess it's just how the photo looks when taken down on the subject or something. (Linsey, help me out here!) Anyhow, it was neat to "swing" on a real vine!

I always badger Whit into doing this on a pole or something. Apparently a moss covered tree is WAY harder and less comfortable than a pole. He got a welt on his arm! Poor strong, strapping hubby! (I made it up to him though!)

I loved this tree. It was so pretty!

The mountain almost fell down. Good thing Whit was there to hold it up. Just call him Atlas.

This was at the exit. They brought a lot of things into El Yunque over the years (like the mongoose to fix the rat problem, but the mongoose is diurnal and the rat is nocturnal, so that bombed) and various other things, but the bamboo idea actually worked. This strain of bamboo grows 8 inches a day! They plant it around the streets to keep them from land-sliding. They are pretty though, too.

On our way home, we stopped at a Fort Tower in the rainforest. It was neat to see the views from it.

It was tall, but nothing compared to the Eiffel Tower, so we were fine!

Whit got these-They came out pretty nice!

Here's a cool caterpillar we found.

Oh and one last shot of the beach. We stayed at the Intercontinental and we loved it! The hotel was SO nice! The beach was RIGHT downstairs and they had a nice pool complex and towels and chairs all over for us. They even swept the beach of all the icky debris so we didn't step on anything! woohoo. I mostly read on the beach, but Whit loves to swim in the ocean.

Gingerbread January

Whitney and I got back from Puerto Rico last night. We only took our small "travelling camera", but we got some cute photos. I will put some of that up tonight or tomorrow, but let's face it. If you read this blog, you don't care much about us. You want photos of the kids. My mom did a PHENOMENAL job watching them. When we got back, our house was clean (no dirty clothes or dishes, clean bathrooms, new sheets and the whole thing was vacuumed and picked up!) Plus both kids were asleep. (Well, it was 10 pm...) The kids were also well and happy, except that Eli was pretty sad when Lerdleluh left today. Like inconsolable for 20 or 30 minutes. Which brings me to my next point... Stories/photos about the kids...

Some people (like my sister in law Ang) are really sticklers on keeping Christmas stuff at Christmas. Her kids don't wear Christmas related clothing at all after the holidays. I am like that with some things (like all Christmas the decorations--I had them ALL down and put away by December 26 in the early afternoon.) BUT my mom just bought me lots of Gymboree's gingerbread line for Dora. I was delighted! I think it's really cute!

Well, backtracking again, before Christmas I wanted to get a Gingerbread house kit. They were like $30 and I was too cheap. Well, a week later I saw them on clearance for $4!! So I got one. I found the perfect time to use it. To console a desperately sad little boy who kept crying for Lerdleluh. What better way to cheer him up than to make (and eat) a house of candy and icing!? Haha, a little late, but hey, the point of the rambling above is that apparently January is gingerbread month at the Baker house.

Here is the photo of what the house was SUPPOSED to look like:



I think that when you have a 2 year old architect and general contractor, you're destined to lose something in translation. Thus, our house really looked very little like it was supposed to look. BUT, Eli did almost the whole thing himself.

Here it is before it suffered from some serious architectural issues (As Eli picked at it, one side of the roof started to slide off and the peppermint wheels slid down into the house. Whoops. Also, he realized the snowman, gingerbread man and tree were made of "cookie" and decided to start eating them. Oh well!) This is one sad looking, haphazard house, but it sure was fun!

And just so the little bean gets her moment in the sun (and you can all see she's okay too), here's a shot of her in some of her gingerbread clothes. She has a matching sweater with fur trim! SO CUTE!

Also, I don't think I included this before, but she got Tooth number 7 right before we left and number 8 is ALMOST in. Chomp! Her new favorite food is Nilla wafers. Now that dad's home again she's been following him around like a little shadow--it's really cute.

Also, she stands and will take a single step periodically. The standing is Constant, though. I swear she will be walking soon, but not yet. Here she is standing and taking a single step. Look mom, no hands!

Bioluminescent Bay!

So this isn't my photo--but it's really hard to get photos of the bioluminescence, and this was a good one.

Wow, we are loving Puerto Rico! I was going to post some of our trip photos but the wi fi here is REALLY slow (unless you pay $21 a day!) So, I am just doing this tiny post to say WOOHOO we are having fun. We went today to the Bioluminescent Bay (through a mangrove channel into the lagoon area). I thought it would be lots of little fish and weeds that were glowing. I was totally wrong. If you saw the lagoon from above, you would not see a thing--just dark water. It's only when something touches the water (or moves in it) that it lights up. So, we kayaked in (THANK you Body Pump for my strong shoulders. I wouldn't have made it without the good workout). Anyhow, it was pretty scary to go in with it being TOTALLY Dark, but it was REALLY neat once we got there. You could splash your hands and feet in the water and everything lit up. You could shake the water around and it would sparkle! Totally worth it...

-Bridget

Eli's Best Day Ever

We leave for Puerto Rico tomorrow morning--so Lerdleluh came out to watch the kids. Of COURSE that resulted in Eli's best day ever. He even asked me if Santa came. I said, "No, just Lerdleluh". He said, "Lerdleluh like Santa". Yes, Lerdleluh IS like Santa (although in this case, Whit helped out a bit.) We wanted Eli to have some things to keep him busy while my mom was watching him, so Eli got a Slide and a Train Table full of fun toys!

Also, as if that wasn't enough--Kate came with Bug the Pug! We were so happy to see Kate again!

Eli loves Kate!

And if you know Whitney, you know he doesn't like dogs much. So, it was amazing he likes Bug! I think he's wanting us to get a pug now when we do eventually get a dog. Bug loved him too--and even kept laying down over by him!

Here's Eli's AMAZING train table. It came with everything in this photo--except the two cups. Those are Eli's... I love when Toys R Us puts things on clearance! This is the best buy I've ever seen there. Eli couldn't be pried away from it.

Here he is beaming.

Here he is with his HUGE slide! He kept running back and forth between them.

And here is Eli and Bug the pug!

Kate's Visit

My friend Kate from law school came out to visit over New Years and the weekend. Of course we didn't think to take photos until she was walking out the door! Whoops. We had a great time. She played with the kids (ELI LOVES HER) and we went to body pump and we celebrated the new year by eating lots of good stuff. It was great to have her here (especially since Whit was working a lot) and we wish she could have stayed longer.