Some Lessons from my Dad, for Father's Day

So, it being Father's Day I have decided to share a few of the important lessons that I learned growing up as his daughter.  The most important at this point being,(seeing as that the day is half way over), "Better late, than never".  My dad had a very active career in the Coast Guard, and as such, wasn't always there for what we deemed "important things" when we often thought he should be. But in the end, when he would finally get there, we immediately forgot about the tardiness of his arrival and revelled in the fact that he was actually there!! Finally! Christmases were sometimes late or at other times early, birthday's weren't always celebrated on THE day of birth, and sometimes, he just couldn't make it, no matter what.  But we always knew that he was there in spirit and if he could have moved Heaven and Earth, he would have done so to be there in body as well.

Lesson #2:   Do a good job the first time and you won't have to wash the car six times in a row and waste your entire Saturday in the driveway.  This is a lesson I am now heartily trying to bestow upon my own children.  I need help.

Lesson #3:   Breaking big, impossible-looking things down into smaller more manageable chunks makes everything from Algebra problems to school payments seem less impossible and more doable. 

Lesson #4:   NEVER present the whole candy bar when offering a "bite".  Unfortunately, my kids have already learned this one and I never even got the chance to teach it!!!

Lesson #5:  Being absent during the catastrophic events (broken bones, stitches, boyfriend breakups, deaths and funerals) does NOT mean that you don't share in every ounce of the pain.  Thank you, Daddy, for sharing these with me.

Lesson #6:  Being Daddy's Little Girl doesn't mean you get the car, the Letterman's jacket, the class ring etc. But it does mean that you will have the best of everything you need and all of the love that his heart can provide, even if sometimes it seems like more than you can handle.  My dad has made me cry more often than any one person I know, more often than not by simply loving me rather than punishing me.  I knew I deserved the punishments, they just made me mad. But the support that he gave me in difficult and unsuspecting times were what brought me to tears. Why? Because I didn't always think I deserved them and a few times I wondered if I would be able to match them or live up to them.

I love my dad, and if I could right now, I would give him the biggest hug...and then cry all over him.

I love you, Dad!

Last Installment of Mexico

These are just the random pictures....basically just us playing with the autofunction of the camera. But first of all I would like to point out something interesting....These first two pics are from our first few hours in Mexico.

Yup, thrilled to have survived the trip.

Can you say "tired"?

 And these are from our last night in Mexico.

 

Some more sunset photos.

These are some that we took on our way to dinner one night. Yes, it was about 7 p.m. and we were about to break a sweat just sitting there. But doesn't it look gorgeous?

Secon- to-last night, tasting rums and settling on Pina Coladas.

We were truly blessed with this vacation. Once again, I can never thank those that helped us get there enough. This was a vacation we will always remember and against which all future vacations will be measured.

God Bless!

Mexico (part tres)

These will just be pictures (and comments). I swear.

Yes, I did actually watch them polish these. They were by the entryway though, so I cut them some slack (and then promptly came home and polished mine....)



I think it looks like it was painted this way. The greens were absolutely beautiful. And SOMETHING around there smelled like freshly cut jalapeno. I am sure they thought we were crazy smelling everything trying to find it.  Never did.




This may have been jasmine but almost looked like an orchid of some sort.



YAY!! My favorite, Plumeria!



Okay, I know they sell these here and I think I remember killing quite a few of them as house plants....They were HUGE down there. This is literally the size of a giant hydrangea blossom.

Jasmine.



Plumeria. If they hadn't been so few and far between I would have picked them all!




I think it is a Bird of Paradise.



Okay, so much for the Flora. Now onto the Fauna...







This is a turtle trail up to it's nest.  We would see these every morning on the beach. Sometimes they would leave two nests, one as a decoy? I need to do some research on this.  Supposedly they had crews that would scour the beaches every morning and relocate the eggs in a safe place.  I never saw that happen but wasn't about to go digging to double check.



Reason Number One why I limited myself to short amounts of time in the surf. He was a good 10-12 inches from tip to - uh, tentacle?

This basically said that due to the presence of lakes and ponds on the property, that there was a chance you would see a crocodile and you shouldn't feed or "disturb" them. We never saw one but not because we weren't looking!



Caught this guy sunning himself, he was one of many we saw just kinda hanging out.





See the duck in the tree? Yes.  A duck.





Reason Number Two why I limited my time in the surf....keep in mind a good portion of him is in the sand going after his dinner.**shiver***


And back to flora....

Sure beats the pine needles we get in our pools around here....

Forgot this one in the Fauna section. Another Iguana, he raced out of the green bush at the bottom of the tree, thus his bright hue.

There were a bunch of hidden little grottoes like this off the beaten path. Kind of weird, because you literally had to climb through the bushes to get to them, but they were obviously groomed and mowed and such. They were super pretty, if not a bit too humid for my taste. Several had high rocks that the plants literally cascaded down. Idyllic site for a small wedding party or something.

Mexico (part dos)

So basically I am just going to post picture with blurbs. Honestly, we didn't do anything to really talk about other than lay around the pool, read, nap and drink all day. The second day we discovered a pool that was much less populated. We determined that this being the slow time of year, it is also the time when Mexican families take advantage of the lower rates, so the pools around our building that had all the kid friendly options like wave pool, lazy river and shallow areas were PACKED. We quickly decided it was well worth the hike to go to one of the outlying pools, plus it was right on the beach and the breezes were blocked by all the trees and bathrooms....We weren't the only smart ones, it was basically the same 10 people every day, just shifting around trying out different locations around the pool every day.

Shopping, resort-style.  For the record, he got us to come over by announcing he had all sorts of "cheap junk". Sorry, I think the cheapest thing in there was a $40 (american dollars) charm....oh well.

Jeff did a lot of "knitting", which was the only thing our bartender could think of to call it....

Yup, life was rough.

We did leave the pool occassionally, to go to the beach.  We learned quickly that you WEAR YOUR SHOES up until you are ready to step in the water.  We developed some near-blisters one day trying to run across the sand to where we had left them. Couldn't believe that sand could GET that hot!!

The ocean water was warmer than the pool water. And had a few more obstructions in it as well as you will see in later pictures....

Yup, guess who got a sunburn the second day?

This pool rocked. My hair hated it and it was a little hard on the elbows when you were trying to read in it (or drink) but for the most part, it was heaven!

View of the beach....from the pool.

Superman!



My elbows were seriously unhappy with all of the work I made them do, propping me up so I could read and tan my backside at the same time. I don't know what I was thinking....




OMAR!!! The man of the Happy Hour and almost every other hour as well. Yes, they would literally bring you a bucket o'beer. Or a margarita (or three).



Detoxing.

I can't tell if this is morning hair or after pool hair.  The coffee cup doesn't help as it pretty much lived out there the entire week.



The sunsets were gorgeous EVERY SINGLE night,

The camera really doesn't do it justice.



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