Mexico :)

[Lindsey]

I don't have time to write much, but I just wanted to check in and say I had a great vacation, but I'm so glad to be home! We had fantastic weather with the sun shining every day. I spent half of my first day in the ocean and ended up paying dearly with a horrible sunburn. I rarely burn due to my olive complexion, and last time I went to Mexico I didn't even get a tan with NO sunscreen! This time I wore 30 SPF but it washed off in the water and I was definitely hurting. I have peeled about 3 times already and my skin is still scaly and ready to peel again :( The second day I was so stuffed up I couldn't breathe. I thought maybe it was from getting so much salt water and sand in my sinuses, but I still haven't completely shaken it so I guess it's a cold. Now it's mostly in my chest with a cough as well.
I missed Layla like crazy and was so worried when my aunt said she hadn't been eating. They met us at the airport on Thursday night and brought Layla with them. As soon as I picked her up, her claws were digging into my shoulders like she never wanted to let go! It turns out she didn't eat for FIVE DAYS! :eek: Well, except for people food that was dropped on the floor. But, she survived!
There's more stuff I would love to tell you all about but for now I think I need to head to bed. My parents have decided to stay in town for the weekend and we just finished playing cards until midnight and we're going for breakfast in the morning at 8 :eek: I'll write more later :) Good night!

[judy]

Welcome home Linds!

Sorry to hear about the sunburn and the cold! It sounds like you had a great vacation though. Spending the day in the ocean and sun sounds so wonderful!

Poor little Layla! I bet she has been clinging close to you since you are back. It's time to spoil her!

Looking forward to pix.

[paula1961]

Hey Lindsey!! Glad you're back! Sorry about your cold and sunburn!! But I'm sure glad you had great weather and enjoyed yourself:)

Give Layla lots of treats!:D

[Janet]

Lindsey...you always need to reapply the sunscreen silly girl!!! I'm glad you had a great time, but sorry you ended up catching a cold. We've all had it here...sinuses and cough. Hope you get over it soon.

Poor Layla...she missed her Mommy. I think if I go anywhere for very long, I'd have to take Joey with me. Just staying over night at Mom's he'll sink his nails into me too. Just give her some extra lov'n.

Glad you're home safe and sound and looking forward to pictures.

[Blueyes]

YAY!! The world traveler returns home:D I'm glad you got a break from the cold. I'm sorry that you're sick AND got such a bad sunburn. Did your skin blister?

[Lindsey]

My skin didn't blister, but it peeled a few times over. And it was so painful!!!

Anyways, I'm at work still waiting to find out what went on during my week off, so I have some time to tell stories :)

The night we got there, we went out to eat our first meal of delicious Mexican food, and then everyone decided to go to a nightclub. Well, everyone but my grandma and great-aunt lol. My brother and his friend heard of this great club and we had to go there blah blah blah, so we went and it was $20 to even get in :eek: But free drinks all night. We got in and it was EMPTY. It was such a cool bar with huge bed-like sitting areas right along the beach and even a pool! But completely empty. And no matter what we told them to make for a drink, every drink was exactly the same. It was such a waste of money... I left after two drinks because I had only slept a few hours the night before and I was pretty tired and unimpressed!

The first full day there, like I said, Scott and I spent most of the day playing in the waves. We took a short break for lunch with everyone at the bar on the beach, and then went back out. By that night, I was SO exhausted. Everyone went out again, but I just stayed at the hotel.

When I woke up in the morning, I was so stuffed up I couldn't even breathe, and I had a nice red body with defined white bikini lines! Scott was tired from being out all night. We didn't even get up for breakfast. By mid-day we went out to the beach where my brother and his girlfriend and friend had been all morning. It was rough to sit in the sun with my burn, and all I really wanted to do was sleep. That night, I went to bed by 8:00. All I could think of was how my vacation was being ruined!

Over the next few days I spent more time with the "grown-ups" :rolleyes: my parents, uncle, grandma, and aunt. My brother and his little group didn't spend much time with us and just did their own thing... went out all night, slept half the day, and didn't really hang out with the family much. When they were around, they made fun of Scott a lot, and it kind of annoyed me but Scott just laughed along with them because he's a good guy and he can laugh at himself.

We went on a cruise to Stone Island, where we could do some activities. Scott and I went horseback riding, and didn't do much else. While everyone else was gone doing activities, and my grandma and aunt were reading at our table, we went for a walk along the beach and laid in the sand where we weren't bothered by anyone. It was my favorite part of the whole trip. It was a little windy that day, but hot, and the sand was making cool little ripple designs :) Scott went out in the water to find shells and I was walking along the shore by myself, and a police truck driving down the beach with at least 4 or 5 police in it honked at me! :o

That night, my brother had been teasing me so badly about never coming out with them and my parents out-partying me etc, I decided to go to the foam party with him, his girlfriend, and his friend. We got there, and it was another $20 to get in. I was so tired, I didn't feel like drinking at all. I had a couple of drinks and then went on the dance floor with everyone. The dance floor was filled with foam! It ran out of a big speaker overhead and would fill up to about head-height. It was actually really cool! It was like a giant bubble bath without the water lol. There were a few more people there, but it emptied out pretty quickly too, and we all left around midnight.

They wanted to stop at McDonald's on our way home, so we went there. Everyone had been making fun of my brother's friend in his quest to find a girl on the whole trip, and he took it so lightly that even my grandma was making comments! He would laugh along. Anyways, this night Scott made one little comment (nothing near what they had been saying to Scott all week) and he WENT OFF on him :mad: He said he couldn't stand to be around Scott, and couldn't even look at him. He said "Somebody get this guy out of here, I can't stand him anymore" and I told Scott let's go, but he didn't want to. My brother and his girlfriend were just laughing and not saying anything in Scott's defense. I got so angry I got up and left, and cried on the way home. We avoided them for the rest of the trip, and nobody apologized at all. On our way to the airport I told my brother I think somebody needs to say something to Scott and he said "Why? I didn't say anything" But that's the point... sometimes saying nothing in defense is just as bad as saying something to him. Anyways, that kind of soured the last couple of days. The three of them had their own little fun, and we stayed out of it. None of them have said a word to Scott even since we've been back :(

By the end of the week, none of us could stomach the food anymore. I was having tummy troubles, and so were my parents. The smell of food down the streets would turn my stomach. We decided that the next time we go down, we'll rent a condo with our own kitchen to make our own food. My grandma has been sick all weekend since we've been home, and my mom and I were both feeling nauseous again yesterday. My brother's girlfriend was sick on Saturday too. And this morning, Scott wasn't feeling well before he went to work. Maybe we got a bug and passed it around, or maybe it's just being back to normal food and atmosphere.

[gja1000]

Hmmmm.... your brother's friend doesn't sound like he is very nice. I'm reaching here, but I wonder if he has a crush on you and that is why he got so mad at Scott??? Probably not, just a thought.

I'm sorry the end of the vacation didn't turn out so well. It is the pits to come home sick too. I would imagine the food had something to do with it. Gary got sick on our Caribbean cruise and has stomach problems and diarrhea for a couple of weeks, YUK! We really don't like Mexico/Caribbean so we vowed never to go back. You do have to be careful with the food/water down there.

I'm glad you and Scott had a good time together!

[DianaB]

It sounds like you and Scott had a good time......unfortunately some people are not very mature......but don't let it ruin your vacation.

The foam thing sounded like fun.....not the drinking part but just the foam!! I could go for that......oh, and playing in the waves!!

Sorry about the sunburn......that's no fun. My Mom burns easily and when she knows that she's going to be in the sun she goes to a tanning spa. It really helps her. The peeling is NOT fun!!!

Mexico is infamous for causing "tummy troubles"!! Hope everyone is better soon!!

[judy]

I didn't know this was a family trip. How nice that you got to go down with them.
Your brother's friend needs to be told off! (At least, that's what I would do, and I would not let my brother off the hook too easily either for not defending Scott).

Sorry! I guess I'm being an instigator..It sounds like you and Scott got some quiet time alone, which is always nice!

I hope the tummy rumbles go away for all of you soon!

[Lindsey]

My tummy rumbles are gone :)

I was ready to say something but I didn't want to cause an even bigger fight. I was more upset than Scott was, he told me that he's used to it because that's how he's been treated his whole life. My heart broke for him because nobody should feel they deserve to be treated that way! We are all adults, I think it's time some people start acting like it. It really didn't matter to us if we were invited into their exclusive little clique or not. We had more fun (and less expensive fun) with everyone else anyway :)

My dad loves to travel but my mom hasn't done much traveling so I'm glad she went on that trip! She just got her passport in December especially for Mexico. She's already talking about her next trip down there and other places she'd like to go. Her income tax return this year is getting put away for next winter's trip :D It's good for her and my dad both to get out of their regular lives for awhile I think so I'm really happy we convinced them to go this year!

For myself, it was my last trip for awhile. Hopefully by fall of 2011 Scott and I will have enough holiday time and money saved to go to Europe for 3 weeks (it's our next big plan!) but on the other hand we have found our absolute dream house and are on the fence on whether to keep that in mind or leave it for a few years... plus the cost of a wedding these days is pretty big :rolleyes: :D We're talking seriously about wedding plans (location, guests, etc), but he's slow on the proposal lol :D

[DianaB]

I would love to travel and I'm hoping that now with the last of our kids to move out soon that, maybe, we will. Glen bought a new pickup the other day and a fifth wheel hitch will fit in it and we have some info on a fifth wheel camper that maybe we can get a good deal on. Hopefully we'll be doing some checking on it soon. I'm excited!! We have a popup but it's really on it's last leg and I've been talking about getting something different.

I know that we probably won't be traveling like you do, Lindsey, but even just a little bit around our area will be fun. I would love to see Europe!!!

[gja1000]

I would love to travel and I'm hoping that now with the last of our kids to move out soon that, maybe, we will. Glen bought a new pickup the other day and a fifth wheel hitch will fit in it and we have some info on a fifth wheel camper that maybe we can get a good deal on. Hopefully we'll be doing some checking on it soon. I'm excited!! We have a popup but it's really on it's last leg and I've been talking about getting something different.

I know that we probably won't be traveling like you do, Lindsey, but even just a little bit around our area will be fun. I would love to see Europe!!!

Sorry Lindsay to grab your thread to reply to Diana......... but..........Diana! I hope you do buy the 5th wheel and start traveling. I'm so glad that we bought our early ~13 years ago. If we had waited, Gary would have gotten heart trouble, and we probably never would have been brave enough to do it after that. Getting it early, before we retired, we were able to travel some and get used to it so that after he got sick, we knew we could still travel (although we downsized) and do just fine.

It is so much fun to just jump in the pickup, hook up the trailer and go somewhere for the weekend or week.

DO IT! :p

[judy]

This is great news Lindsey...a house, a wedding, 3 weeks in Europe with Scott!

WOW!!!

[Lindsey]

This is great news Lindsey...a house, a wedding, 3 weeks in Europe with Scott!

WOW!!!

Lol that's my plan anyway! We'll see what actually happens, or how long it all takes lol!

We're going for a showing at the house tomorrow after work, but we had a big discussion about it last night and unless we absolutely love it and can't live without it, we're going to pass it up for now. It's 20 minutes out of the city which would be great to live in a small town, but might be an annoying drive every day (plus extra cost for gas), and we'd be giving up things we love to do like traveling... not just for ourselves but also to visit friends and family. And we would each be paying at least double what we're paying now for our mortgage. I wish we would have found the house 3 or 4 years down the road!

[judy]

You will find the perfect house when the time is right Linds!

By the way, have you posted pix of Mexico yet? On FB maybe? I love your pix.

[Lindsey]

Lol not yet! Actually while we were down there, Scott's camera stopped working (and still won't work!) so we used my grandma's camera for awhile. We don't have many pictures, but we've been trying to compile everyone's pictures to put on a disc for each person. We're still waiting on one SD card though!

By the way, that house was AMAZING. It's an old character home from 1916, a historic Eaton's catalogue home. Back then, you could order your house from Eaton's (huge department store back in the day) through their catalogue and the whole thing would be shipped to you by train and you would just put it together on your farm site! So that's pretty neat!

Anyways, there is a photo album left with the house showing the people who bought it in 1997. It was an old looking building that was completely weathered and grey! The pictures go on to show them stripping it to the studs, and moving it to town onto a new full height basement, and adding an addition to the back. The electrical and plumbing is all new, it has TWO furnaces (both with air conditioning) so you can control temperatures on different floors. They also added a large two-car garage.

The main floor has a gigantic kitchen with an island with cooktop, built-in oven, lots of newer cabinets, THREE sinks under the kitchen window, and another small sink on a bar area on the other side! There's also a little eating nook, formal dining room, living room with gorgeous pillars, and the addition has a laundry room just off the garage entrance, and a HOT TUB ROOM :D Oh and a bathroom.

The second level has three bedrooms and a gorgeous bathroom with a corner jet tub and a separate shower. There is also a second floor balcony on the front of the house.

The third level is a large 18x18 open room with three dormer windows.

Oh yeah, and the basement is unfinished, but already has walls constructed and drywalled for another bedroom, and a bathroom is roughed in.

I don't know if we can pass it up... it would be the perfect home for raising a family, in a small town and just a block from the school. We'd never run out of room! And it's double the size of something we could get for the same price in the city.

[paula1961]

Lynsey, that house sounds absolutely beautiful! Can't wait to see pics of it.:)

[Lindsey]

I can't wait to see if the bank says we could actually afford it! Lol

Here's a couple of the outside pictures from the online listing

[paula1961]

It is beautiful!! I hope the bank says you can afford it too if that's what you want Lynsey. It is a very lovely home. I see that there is a nice back yard too for Layla.
Now I can't wait to see inside pics:)

[Janet]

Your trip sounds amazing Lindsey!!! I would love to travel and I'm very glad you're able to start doing it while you're young. I'm not even sure what to respond to...lol. The trip....the house is beautiful Lindsey...it really is nice! I am just thrilled for you girl. Now you know you're going to have to hurry grandma with the pics right? I'm going to have to do my traveling through you right now!