Punta Mita 2015 - Part 4: Family Pictures!

OK - last post from our great Punta Mita trip from 2015 . . . to close, some great individual and collective family photos from the condo . . . fitting end to the summary of our lovely time.

Brudam Brigade in full joy mode . . . love Ethan covering his face from the giggle . . . 

The four kids, who were thick as thieves throughout the trip . . . 

Danielle with 3 of the 4 kids . . .

Photo of the 4 parents for our adults-only dinner out . . . 

Annual pre-departure pic of all 8 of us . . . Ethan is not here for our photo taking

Punta Mita 2015 - Part 3A: Fine Dining . . . and then this happened!

Ethan has always been the more adventurous eater of two boys, but our family dinner out in Punta Mita took things to a whole new level . . . 

Ethan has started to love fish and made up his mind that he wanted lobster for his dinner . . . after a quick Dad & Pai discussion, we decided, "damn the price, let's let him go for it!."  We expected a polite plating with a single lobster tail with masses of rice and other food to mask the handful of lobster bites . . . but no . . . instead, we received the ridiculous bounty below!  Lobster for days (or weeks!) . . . 

Ethan was so proud of himself and his dinner choice!

Punta Mita 2015 - Part 3: Fine Dining!

Punta Mita has just enough restaurants for us to make it through the week without repeating and there's not much opportunity to expand.  Here are a few highlights from our favorite meals . . . 

 

The standard Ethanoel pose - Ethan leaning in, arm around Noel with Noel grinning.  Love this one.

Gluttony . . . too . . . many . . . chicken . . . nuggets!!

Milam family dinner . . . Daddy and Noelly.

. . . and Ethan and Pai!

Last big night family dinner . . . lovely picture of Danielle

And the whole gang, approaching sunset.

Punta Mita 2015 - Part 2A: Beach . . . err, Pool Time with Grant!!

Came across this pic late in the process and just loved it . . . no idea what they're discussing about, especially given Grant's involvement . . . could be brilliant advice as to how to best swim underwater from one end of the pool to the other, could be a new song with which to annoy Daddy and Pai, could even be how to burp the alphabet using the fewest number of breaths.

 

From the beginning, Grant (and Mia) has taken the time to relate to the boys and include them in all activities - the affection from Ethan and Noel is pure and deep and it's something we hope our boys are able to pay forward in the future . . . 

 

Punta Mita 2015 - Part 2: Beach time!!

Tons and tons of beach time during the early-middle part of our week's stay . . . perfect weather and growing confidence from the boys with the ocean . . . 

Noelly's pure joy splashing around . . . 

7 in the water, 1 enjoying the shade in a lounge chair . . . guess the 1??

Ethan, Noel, Mia and Grant enjoying some calm waters . . . 

Ethan, a bucket, and a big smile!

Master Sandcastle Builder, Pai Milam, and his helpers . . . 

Noelle enjoying some down time with Daddy (who is shockingly in the shade)

Punta Mita 2015 - Part 1: Arrival and First day

Since the boys were a year and a few months, we have made an annual spring break trip to Punta Mita . . . seeing the boys grow and embrace the various activities available have provided for great memories and we love that it's all captured in this blog . . . 

For 2015's trip, we had one of favorite families, the Shroyers, join us . . . Dan and I (Bruce) became great friends working together at HBK and we slowly introduced our respective families . . . lots of laughter and affection across the 8 of us, which made the basis for a fantastic trip . . . here's part I . . . 

Noelly on the plane enjoying his PB&J and a good video.

Incredibly adorable picture of an angelic Ethan . . . 

Noelly enjoying our annual immediate trip to the beach upon initial arrival

And Ethan, sporting his prized straw hat, which will come to see a lot of action over the coming week

Mia and Grant Shroyer, who are sooo incredibly great with and inclusive of the boys, getting in on the beach action.

Giant Sand Ethan!

Annual picture of Ethan and Daddy enjoying some warm towel time in the beach chairs

The Annual Dallas Freeze - 2015 Edition

Right on schedule, the snow and ice hit Dallas.   This almost feels like an exact replica of THIS post from a little over a year ago.  Bruce's departure was delayed two days, we almost didn't get to close on the house and school was shut down for most of the week.

Earlier in the week, we got loads of sleet and while the boys loved running around in it, the sleet was harder and less fun to play on.  And just as things looked like they were thawing out, today, the boys got their wish - fluffy, white, dry snow - great for snowballs, snow angels and some all around wintry fun.

Below are some pics from today's adventure:

Arriving at school he weather was fine

Three hours later, things look very different

Crooked Tree covered in snow

Noel making a Snow Angel

Ethan decided to do the same

Then some free form action - Noel trying a face down Snow Angel

From Snow Angel to Snow Devil - Noel dabbling in some anarchy with a little vandilsm 

Noel said, "I'm like something that cocoons in the ground."  I suggested Empire Strikes Back, he responded dryly with, "No, a Snow Fox".

Let's Go Bananas!

I think we've clearly established that one of the boys has a sweet tooth over the other (I mean, come on, his nickname is Noelly Cannoli - he was doomed from the start).

Well, Noel might have some competition on his hands - this week in Dallas, we were hit pretty hard with frozen temperatures and nothing warms you up on a cold night like ice cream.

We went in to Braum's and Ethan declared his desire for a banana split.  He's never had one, nor did we think he even had an awareness of it, but his desires ran deep and a banana split he would have ("split" with Pai, of course).

Ethan has never been so into sweets as he was in this moment.  Barely gasping for air in between bites, blocking my spoon from getting another bite - it was a truly primal moment as Bruce documented below:

39 Seconds in the Emotional Life of Ethan

Okay, so no, none of you have been blocked from our blog - there was a weird thing going on that wasn't allowing us to post and I just never got around to resolving it.  So, you'll probably start seeing us catch up on posts from last summer pretty soon.

This post is from today's adventures brought to you by Ethan's emotions.  We got home from school and he was a little cranky.  I didn't carry him in and he started crying.  I started taking pictures and told him to smile.  In the middle of his crying, he recommended that I tickle him and that might help and he immediately began laughing.

Behold the beauty of a child in touch with his full range of emotions and can express them all in under 60 seconds:

And scene........