Tobogganing at the cemetary

Boxing day crabs....

Our contribution to the weekend, besides my now famous ' chai-ger-meisters' ( chai and jaeger for breakfast) was a bunch of crab legs which those who love them devoured. There was no talking during this time, just serious cracking, buttering and slopping back. The house could have caught fire and we would have remained at the table until the bowl was empty.

Getting ready for Christmas

Armed with hot chocolate, beer and Baileys we hit downtown New West to enjoy the Santa Clause parade. I would say that New West-ers seem to lack enthusiasm ( especially for their local polititians) when compared to the Mission parade. If you are a participant in the Mission parade you are practically a celebrity and the cheering makes you fee like one. Maybe because it is a small town and the onlookers know all the participants, or maybe people in Mission just dont get out much but Im thinking that these 'city' people here un NW might just be a tad snobish.
We had a great time all the same, and we whistled and cheered for the dancers and prancers and unicycle chancers.

With some of her friends.

Above : Fi sitting with Clay ( the son of Fred and Michelle) watching cartoons.

Below with her BF Christian. It seems like Fiona is a touchy little girl, everytime she gets near Christian or Zoe she wants to touch them and grab at them. We think it is cute, but maybe their parents think she is being agressive..

Family portrait

Loki is the only one missing from this photo that was clicked out in Mission at Niccol, Graham and Kaydens house. Ross and I stayed the week out with Kayden while Nic and Graham remained in Mexico for their honeymoon. I think we did a fine job, except for getting dog hair everywhere and loosing a set of keys and some forks. The highlight woudl have to be the night that I made homemade deepfried corndogs...and then we decided to batter and deepfry everything in sight...including the halloween candies. Kayden spend 2 days eating healthy food and recovering from this not entirely lucid moment of ours...I blame my old friend and co-troublemaker Ben Henderson for stopping by and encouraging this crazyness.

Off we go to Mexico....

Since she has decided to protest when travelling in her own gorgeous stroller, we had to take this old one that the neighbour gave us. She loves it as she can sit very upright in it and tip flat back when it is time for a nap. It has an air of 'rescued from the dump' kind of look to it but as long as she is happy, I'm happy. So armed with a couple toys, a load of diapers some changes of clothes we boarded our flight.



She was fine on the flights, she spent her time either snacking, snoozing or charming the other passengers. She was a perfect girl....

Our hotel room was totally gorgeous. When I first arrived, I was breathless with the gorgeous view from our garden suite and also saddened that Ross was not here to enjoy the time with us. Months ago we had opted for an upgrade to our suite as we though we would like to have more room to move around with the baby, so my room was deluxe ! I made Fi a makeshift crib between two luxe robes atop the queensized bed..not that she slept much of course but at least when she did in was in the lap of luxury.

We did well with keeping her in she shade, away from bugs and out of the night clubs...well except for that one night, but she mostly slept through the whole thing.

Upon arrival I was concerned that she might have some digestive problems because I had given her some formula on the flight, so I counteracted this possible problem by giving her some prunes which she quite enjoyed and it made for a very cute photo.

Niccol and Graham brought my suitcase to Mexico for me so that Fi and I didnt have to worry about luggin it along. Mostly it was filled with diapers and Fionas clothes. She had about 20 different cute summer outfits. I changed her outfits several time per day..just to keep the paparazzi hot. She had 7 bathing suits. LOL

I love this photo. It was taken at the house in Bucerias. To me this photo exudes a calming serentity that one might experience during a nap in the shade after a long journey in the hot sun. Or the juxtaposition of two opposing states of being...as the rest of us (about 25) are partying with snacks, beer and tequila right beside her.

She loved the ocean

She quite loved the sand and the feeling of the waves on her toes..again she took this very seriously as one should do when enjoying ocean play. She concentrated on her toes and on every grain of sand that came in contact with them.

The photo of Fiona with Niccol and Graham was taken on the patio of my hotel room. We had upgraded to a garden suite thinking that we might like the extra room to be with the baby. The first morning Fiona and I were awake very early so we spend out time outside on the lounge chair watching the sun rise and discovering our fantastic view. Slowly all of our 'crew' woke up and looked out their windows and shouted good morning to us from their balconies above. I motioned for them to come and join us for coffee and so began the morning tradition of everyone gathering in our garden in their jammies for coffee, freshly baked pastries and fresh fruit .