Ixtapa

This top picture is one that my Dad took. This was such a fun place to go to!

This is the next beach down. It was beautiful and I think I liked it better than the one we stayed at. It reminded me a little bit more of a Nicaraguan beach.

Here is Ryan and I and our friend Gustavo!

Oreo anyone?

This is Ixtapa, a beach about five hours from where we live. We went for a few days a week ago. Ryan had a bunch of meetings so it was pretty quiet for me, but I read quite a bit by the pool sipping on all you can drink Pina Coladas, a personal favorite!
We were there for Ryan's birthday and I tried to make it fun and special, but Ryan had meetings most of the day. Of course I don't think he was complaining though because it was all you can eat buffets and they played volleyball only the day before, some of Ryan's most favorite things.
Over all it was a great trip and I hope we can make it back soon!

Puppiness

So this first one looks sweet (despite the fact that everytime I teach her "down" she thinks it means "continue to jump up while Hannah pushes me down, what a fun game!")....

Then there is the chewing! My arms are a battlefield!

...and the constant paw prints from our shower. Violet thinks the shower is a
walk-in water dish!

And heaven forbid it rain! An outdoor animal sounds really good sometimes! Still waiting for her to get a little bigger though...

Oh my goodness, she is a lot of work sometimes!! Especially cause she still wakes up religiously at 2 and 5 am for her potty-break/eating-bugs-break outside! We are going to the beach tomorrow and her vet is kind enough to watch her while we are gone (what a great setup huh?). Everytime I think about getting to sleep a straight night through I start giggling like, like, well do you know that incessant giggling you might have if (well also if you are a girl) stay up really late with a sister or girlfriend and you get so sleep deprived and gitty that all you can do is laugh ridiculously?... that's the kind!

I can't wait!

She really does melt my heart, especially when she lays right next to you and rests her head on your legs as she falls asleep. Those are the great moments. She is also very smart and learned how to sit in about five minutes. She comes when I call her name, usually, and she is also learning the command "lay down".

Just thought I would share some of the OTHER puppiness moments too. You know, give a full picture. She really has made a nice dent in our lives though. Ryan just loves having her and really tries to take as good a care of her as he can. I really love that about him!

She really has brought some good laughs to the house too. Like the other day we bought her some doggy treats in the shape of bacon. Ryan just kept repeating how unreal the treats resembled real bacon. (If anybody knows Ryan's obsession with bacon you might know where this is going...) Well, a day or two later Ryan confessed to me that he had been tempted by the faux bacon and decided to try some of it. I CANNOT believe how far Ryan's bacon obsession gos! Hahhaha, I was so incredulous that I just kept staring at him... what the!!?

Ps, he said it wasn't that bad.

Is this normal?

Should I even be sharing this over my blog? At least Ryan isn't too shy about these moments so I don't think that he will mind.

Ha!

Park with Violet

So, this week and last week is Semana Santa here in Mexico. Normally, Ryan doesn't take off work for Mexican holidays, but last week Ryan decided to take one. He hasn't taken many days off since he started, so he decided to take one and just enjoy the day. We were going to go to some thermal springs, but with the new puppy we decided not to leave her home all day alone. So we ended up going to the park with our friend Kevin and his dog, Morita. It was hilarious, Violet (which is the name we decided on for our puppy) kept thinking that Morita (a female mid sized mix) was her mother. She kept crawling under Morita's legs sniffing for milk! Hahaha, it was so funny! and a little sad that she looked so deprived.
We had a great day though. We packed a picnic, took walks and took a short ride in a canoe. It was so nice just to relax.
We also loved conference weekend and an Easter dinner with some friends. Unfortunately, Ryan left Monday, early, for a work conference in LA. I am happy to have Violet for company! This week has been pretty laid back.

Puppy pics

She can sleep anywhere! and in the most awkward looking positions~ So, no she is not just looking at the floor

Tada! We got her and I don't think she is leaving us any time soon. What was I thinking having her for a night as a trial run. How can you not fall in love with a puppy? We were mostly doing a trial run because she acted a little lethargic when we saw her last. Well, she has livened up quite a bit! She still sleeps a lot, but now when she is up she just wants to play. She is still quite young, 6 weeks and I think she thinks I am her new Mom and Ryan her Dad. She follows Ryan and I everywhere and sleeps at my feet wherever I might be. She really acts so much like a baby. She kept us up all night last night with her crying. Ryan was afraid to upset the neighbors so he kept getting up to coax her back to sleep. Ryan is done with work and napping now!:) I am really impressed by his nurturing skills, he wasn't upset or too bothered by her crying last night, which I think is quite impressive. So here are the pics, eat em up!

Im back!

Hello again.
I am going to try to fill in some of the gap from the past four or so weeks!
So, Ryan and I have had one busy month. We have been very involved in our ward out here. We are currently working with the youth and loving it! The teenagers in our ward are awesome! So smiley and always up for a chat. I really am so impressed and wonder if I was this good when I was their age. I don't remember being so level with my hormones.
For the past several weeks Ryan and I have been working on the weekends with the youth. We also have several nights at the church throughout the week. In fact we weren't planning to have a weekend to ourselves for about a month and a half or maybe two. So last weekend was a blessing in disguise. We set our alarm for 130 am again so that we could make the ward temple trip. Well, somehow the alarm wasn't set correctly and we woke up at 245. Ops! Well, of course we missed that one. We ended up sleeping in, cleaning our very dirty house, running errands and just getting our lives on target! What a great day!
Next week Ryan will be on a work trip in L.A. and I will be by myself. So, I invited all 12 of my YW over for a sleepover one night. Is that crazy? I think it should be fun and the YW pres. will be with me too, so that will help. I am excited. I don't think that I have had a girl's night in a year! prob longer.
Also, we have felt like making an addition to the family! Not a baby yet, though we have spent quite some time considering the idea and who knows! Ha! So, anyways, we decided to get a dog! (Mom I still want my cat, so don't worry, Ryan hasn't won the war yet;(he doesn't really care for cats)) I am soo excited to get her right now... okay, so let me back up. We first went to a bunch of dog shelters to try and find a dog. I prefer to save a dogs life then just get a puppy. We fell in love with a sweet medium sized female. She was extremely affectionate and instantly clinged to us. We went home to think it over, then went back the next day to try some dog tests on her. She didn't mind being manipulated but Ryan tried to show her how to sit and she froze. She wouldn't move and she looked bit put out. We really wanted her and were planning to take her home that day, but we both started feeling nervous around her, something I don't want to have to worry about while Ryan is out of town. So we decided to keep looking. Ryan really wants a German Shepherd and after looking at several different shelters decided that there weren't any. So, we decided to go to the classifieds and there we found German Shepherd puppies. We went to see them a cpl days ago and Ryan fell in love with one of the girls. I had wanted to get an older dog to bypass the puppy stages, call me crazy, but Ryan is just so darn excited about her. So we talked with the owner and he is going to let us take her for a night to see how she fares with us. So, we are going to get her in an hour! I spent the afternoon googling German Shepherds and whatnot and of course am now so excited to get her. I also stopped at a pet store and of course I wanted to buy a collar on the spot. So needless to say, I am happy to have a puppy now. Plus, Ryan is a kid in a candy shop with this dog, which is pretty incredible if you are familiar with Ryan's feelings about getting a dog. And of course, we will make her an outdoor dog, upon Ryan's persistent request... but I am still going to house train her just in case;)
So if we end up keeping her I will post pics, if not, let the hunt continue!

So, after a long Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of unpacking Ryan and I decided to go on the ward temple trip.
Last time we went, we left at five am, waited 8 hours at the temple and returned at 9 pm without having even gone into the temple. The line to get into the temple was so packed with people that it took many hours to get through. Only two of prob 35 of our ward members made it in that day.
SO... they changed the temple trip to 2 am! Ha! Can't believe we got up at 1am, after a three hour nap, and got ourselves on the bus, but we did it! We got into the 6 am session and ended up doing work until about eleven. That's the longest for me so far. It was a very nice day and I think Ryan and I were blessed with added energy, because I hardly slept on the bus (Can't stand my bad sleeping habits. My body is programmed to sleep from 10pm- 7am in my own bed with very little variation). I really love to go to the temple and am so happy that our ward takes frequent trips to Mexico City for the temple. It is very dangerous to drive in Mexico City and I can bet that Ryan and I will never drive to the temple alone.
Anyways, here are a couple of pics of Ryan and I in front of the temple!

Bananas Foster Crepes

Here is the Banana Foster Crepe Recipe:

For Crepes:
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 c whole milk
3 large eggs
5 Tb unsalted butter, plus more for skillet

Mix flour and salt. Whisk together milk and eggs in another bowl. Combine both mixtures. Whisk in butter. Strain mixture. Refrigerate 2 hrs or up to one day. Batter should be consistency of heavy cream.
Heat skillet first on med to med-high. Add some butter to skillet and melt. Pour 1/3 cup of mixture and move pan around in circular motion so that mixture creates a filled-in circle. Cook till light brown on heated side, then flip for another 30-60 secs. Repeat

For Banana part...

3 Tb unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark br sugar
2 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1/8 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c rum
crepes
1/2 cup creme fraiche (I just used whipping cream. Ryan says creme fraiche is different. Make sure your cream is fresh; it makes a world of difference)

1. Warm butter and sugar in pan. Add bananas, cinn., salt, nutmeg and vanilla. Cook 1-2 mins. Remove pan from heat, add rum. Use long match to ignite rum. Cook until flames stop, about 1 min. Fold bananas into crepe, reserve sauce. Drizzle sauce over crepe and add dollop of creme fraiche or ice cream.

Like I said, I didn't have or use rum much. It still came out very yummy. This recipe is very sweet and would be good for dessert. Makes about four banana crepes, but crepe recipe makes about ten very large crepes or about 30 six inch crepes.

So there you have it. I found this recipe out of a Martha Stewart Mag. Sure you can find it at Marthastewart.com too!


ENJOY!