Alaskan Adventures!

I'm doing a couple of posts tonight when I should be doing homework! This is too fun. You can click on "older posts" to amuse yourselves if you'd like. :)
While Mark was playing "Where in the world is...Mark Taylor!?" (a bit from the Today show with Matt Lauer for those of you who were like, "huh?"), the kiddos and I headed to the great outdoors of Alaska! Yes, Mark went to the exotic places of Budapest, Hungary and Thailand (for work, supposedly), but we decided to see a part of the US that we never thought we would see. Well, we mostly went because my bestie from the Berkeley days lives there. Her and I were best of friends and our daughters (our firstborns) were besties as well. We were pregnant with our seconds together and Mark got a job with Crispin in FL and we parted ways. It was so fun to see them again. It's the kind of friendship that picks up right where you left off and time between us didn't matter.
Mindy and David were quite the tour guides...sand dunes, rafting, fishing, zoo, ice skating, glaciers, hiking, and Mindy pulling around on the highway to see moose, beluga whales, etc. We saw a bear on the river and lots of eagles! We tried Salmon for the first time because we are not fishy food people and we loved it! The kids wanted to camp, but due to lots of rain and cold we wimped out. But...we did set up a tent...not in the backyard, but the upper deck of their house. Why there, you ask? Oh, because a bear was sighted next door! A few days after we left a bear invaded their garage. Thanks for waiting till we left Mr. Bear.
It was an amazing time and there are memories that will last a lifetime! Love you Hymas' and Alaska!

Hola Mexico!

Before Mark had to whirl around the world (literally), we decided to do a quick family trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! We went to the forbidden land of drug cartels and kidnappings! That makes us sound sooooo rebellious! It was totally fine. The taxi cab driver reassured me of this as we exchanged a whole, long conversation in Espanol. Wow, I kind of impressed myself that I could still get by on my Spanglish.

I was a bit worried that I or others in mi familia might get parasites and vomito mucho, but all was muy bien. Look...u can learn another language on MY blog. LOL!

Anyhoooo, the highlight for us was the zoo in the jungle. We played with a giraffe and his tongue (see pic below), watched lions mate (twice, they were exhibitionists), played with a jaguar (well, a wired fence was between us) AND held baby lions and tigers. We really wished we could bring one home and domesticate it. Don't worry, we would de-fang and de-claw it so it wouldn't maul our children.

One day we rented a boat with a young adorable local Mexican. He took us to the oldest village in PV, Yelapa. You can only get there by boat! Thanks for that tip, Hymas'! We also snorkeled Los Arcos. The kids adopted the local stray dogs and we told them to enjoy it while it lasted because you won't have it at home. Mean, huh! Maybe one day a "lost dog" will show up at our door and Mark will have no choice in the matter. Just kidding, Babe.

Overall, our stay in Mexico was MUY BIEN and MUY DIVERTIDO (fun, there you go, expand your vocabulary for when you go!)!!!

Taylor Trips

Ok, I know my first post is going to be about the "Traveling Taylors"! Those of you that are my Facebook friends are probably sick of seeing all the photos and status updates. If that's the case then don't look or read! This will be for those who have not yet entered the Facebook world. You know who ya'll are! Here it goes...don't tune out yet!

Mark has been extremely busy on the Microsoft Windows account, but we were determined in June to squeeze a trip in, even if it was just for a week-end. Well, that's just what we did! We drove 6 hours to our historic Mt. Rushmore in good 'ol South Dakota! 

We bought the kids inexpensive digital cameras and well, we have 4 shots of the same things. Alyssa and Austin loved it so much more than I would have thought they would. We also explored some famous old western and motorcycle towns. It was a bit cold and rainy so we found an indoor water park. We stayed in a little rustic cabin with low ceilings. I kept laughing at Mark because he looked like Will Ferrell in ELF. His head almost touched the ceiling. We roasted marshmallows in the wood burning stove and had smores. On the way home we took a different route through a national park and Buffalo were roaming right by our car. I was taking a video and one came towards the car. I slipped a naughty word as Mark peeled out! Hopefully the kids will forget that. They probably won't! It will be one of those stories where they say, "Mom, remember when the buffalo charged the car and you said @#$%&!" Whoops...Taylor times! It was such a fun, memorable week-end.