We have no idea what she was thinking! Elle would introduce herself to locals in the markets, our hotel, and taxi drivers with, "Excuse me. We're from the United States of America, but we're just visiting. We're not going to steal your country!" Fortunately, because of her squeaky kid voice and fast American accent, I don't think most of them heard what she was saying.

We stayed at Club Intrawest on Playa la Ropa and loved every bit of the hotel. Our 2 bedroom suite was huge, including 3 bathrooms, an outdoor shower, dipping pool, deck and kitchen. Kevin (Stacia's boyfriend) got lost trying to find his room twice our first night there, and he's a smart guy.

It was hard to find any peace in the hammock as one of the kids usually made his or her way into it with you!

Elle's favorite activities:

1. Riding in a taxi. We're not sure if she just liked being driven around with mom and dad in the backseat, the fact that there were no car seats or if the crazy driving felt like a wild ride!

2. The pool! We averaged 3+ hours a day in the pool. While Elle loved the safety and freedom of the stairs and kid area under the umbrellas, Tag loved getting dunked and swimming under water

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3. Ice cream. She got two ice creams in one night and hasn't stopped talking about it.

Tag, as usual, climbed everywhere. We've decided he pushes Elle to try new things and reach new heights. While we're used to looking at his face, particularly his forehead to see the latest bump and scratch, it's unusual for Elle to have the most noticable marking -- her black eye (from doing a sumersault off the couch) got worse with each passing day!

Lots of walks on the beach, adventures into town, and our kids wanting to walk around naked (it was hot)! Overall an amazing trip, an abundance of family time and a huge Thank You to Auntie Stacia and Kevin for joining us.

By the end of the trip the kids were exhausted (as evidenced by the clip taken in the airport as we were headed home).

Click here to see other pictures from our trip or here for videos.

By evening, we ventured into town seeking ice cream and dinner, in that order. The ice cream was decent, but we found the worst restaurant in town. In a blink taste test, Ken would never have identified his fish as halibut. Even with eyes open, I'd have a hard time identifying mine as salmon. Fortunately, the baked potato was good. All condiments came in a take-out container with the lids on! Yes, this is a sit down restaurant with table service! Elle's grilled cheese and fries were edible. Tag's mac and cheese was clearly Kraft and his fruit was a Dole fruit cup. There was no attempt to disguise the fruit cup. It was still in the container with the pull-away cover intact. In the end, Tag ate more than any of us, discovering that sour cream and neon pink salmon go well together!

We didn't stay for dessert, even though all the options are nicely displayed in a circular dessert cabinet. Each dessert was carefully covered in plastic with a tall toothpick preventing the saran wrap from mucking up the top.

Yesterday's Interpretive Center was amazing. 100% kid friendly. They were welcome to touch everything from shells, rocks, whale bones and even beaver teeth. Elle learned that Geology is the study of rocks and how to identify beaver teeth marks on wood. Later at the playground, we learned that Tag had no problems crawling up 5 feet of steps and then bravely made his way down the slide without an ounce of hesitation. 

It's 9:45pm and both kids are going strong. Elle is happily involved in another art project with new colored pencils and scissors, talking about the chocolate cake she was promised for breakfast. Tag is busy crawling on the couch or up the chair and onto the table. When he makes it to the top of the table, he bites into a kiwi, minneola or banana. He sometimes listens when we yell "NO" as he attempts to push crayons into the VHS player or stab someone with the fireplace poker. He's persistant, and he wears us out. It's been an incredible weekend, and we need to getaway more often.

Okay, so I've been putting off installing drawer locks.  A few hours later he went down for his nap and here's how things played out when he woke up.

5 mins later Mickelle was throwing away garbage and yelled 'UGGHH I hate these things'.  I love you honey but you have no idea what HATE is (in regards to drawer locks) until you've installed them!

Each person orders a type of batter (buttermilk, whole wheat, buckwheat, etc.), and any fixins (banana, chocolate chips, blueberry, etc.) they want.  They then bring out a squeeze bottle of your batter along with a self serve bowl of your fixins.  AND the coolest part...right in the middle of the table is a hot griddle.  That's right, you cook your own.  Like it a little gooey?  Want extra fruit in the cakes?  No problem chef, everything is cooked to order (by you)!

Just one tip...don't spill milk (or in Mick's case cream) on the griddle.  It foams up then stinks up the surrounding tables.  Not to mention it can ruin the cakes cooking and you have to tip the wait staff extra to clean it up mid meal.

Luckily we made it into the country! Ken was given the all-important task of packing passports and birth certificates. He got our passports. Unfortunately, he also packed some hokey hospital birth announcement/certificates, one of which wasn't even signed by the doctor. The customs agent nicely noted that we had no evidence the children were ours (obvioiusly she didn't study the kids too closely or he would see that Elle is a mini-Ken). Fortunately, Elle answered many questions telling her that she as in the car with her daddy, mommy, little brother and aunt. She also told her where she goes to pre-school and that she likes painting.

Whistler was AWESOME! And it's definite - we'll be a ski family from this point on. Ken likes skiing a lot and, of course, I love it! The snow was great

Ken spent 1 1/2 days with a terrific instructor and can now efficiently snowplow and turn down the mountain. He can also get on and off the chairlift with ease. Stacia and I both have some huge bruises as a result of our time on the mountain. We skiied both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, and took the Peak to Peak Gondola between them (pic below is the view from the Peak to Peak).

We decided to wait until Elle is 5 to enroll her in ski school. Right now she's happy stomping around in the snow.

Our hotel was in Blackcomb Village, a quick 5 minute walk into the Whistler Village. The village is beautiful, and everyone is eagerly anticipating the 2010 Olympics. The ski map shows where many of the Olympic events will take place. 

Elle also loved going swimming every night in the outdoor heated swimming pool. In fact, within 5 minutes of waking up she started asking about the pool.  The kids also liked playing in the Jacuzzi tub - both with and without water.

All around the kids did great.  Thankfully we brought along the jogging stroller (which is made for only one kid but Elle managed to sit on the foot holder and actually fell asleep there once).

Ken took the kids to the public library a couple of times, once for a sing-a-long and rhyme time. He and Elle also enjoyed hot chocolate and cheesecake in the American Express tent in the middle of the village. Ken & Elle also went sledding one day, and she LOVED it!

Right after the above pictures were taken Elle unexpectedly swung the sled around hitting the hand Ken was using to hold the camera which resulted in launching the camera into 2 inches of snow (effectively frying the camera).  For this reason we don't have many pictures from this trip.

Tag is slowly leaving commando crawling (see video):

...and moving into real crawling. The area under the dining room table was like a mini-obstacle course for him. As usual he's motivated by cords and outlets. Luckily, Ken packed outlet covers (which were not required for entry into the country). One day, Elle wanted my attention, but I was busy with Tag. She replied, "Don't we have a cord he can play with?"

Stacia and I took the kids ice skating one day. They let us take Tag's jogging stroller onto the ice. He quickly fell asleep. We strapped some beginner skates onto Elle's shoes. With the use of an ice walker, she had a lot of fun. She could easily move on the ice. Of course falling was fun too.

We had a blast and will definitly be back!

 ...I spent this weekend cleaning it up.  Anyone need firewood?

if you missed this round you'll have to wait for the next release!

All 500 case are now sold.