We're Here!

Ok so here's a round up of the last two days.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta at 4:58pm yesterday. The flight went a lot better then expected with my very hyper toddler. Although i would have prefered going into security a little smoother. Maya decided to go back into security after we had just gonne through it, stopping to drop her baby doll and say hi to the officer. Luckily martin was able to coax her, meaning swoopinng her up as fast as he could, im just glad security was helpful of my runaway baby. Arriving was amazing! We sailed right past everything, security and customs was easy, and we got the green light to go through so we didnt lose any more money for our baggage.
We were greeted by Martin's parents, and drove to their home in el pitillal. Which is a downtown Vallarta suburb. We then proceeded to to have a carne asada dinner with family. At first Maya wasnt sure what to think, and by the end of the night she was asking "bye-bye" windering when we were going to leave. But this morning, to my surprise, she's totally fine! Martin's little brother has taken her as though she were his own sister, and she is loving doing almost whatever she wants with her uncle and cousins. I even swore i heard her say "gato".
Today we went to an aunt's house, it was a lot of fun! More people, and more food! They even had a cake, it was a turtle's birthday! Gotta love Mexico! They celebrate for birthdays, holidays, and everything inbetween! And now we're relaxing at home, so i decided to take some pics!

This is our washing machine! lol We have an actual one, but we use this for dishes and certain clothes. You use the left side to clean, and you use the right to rise of the item. The right is filled with clean water as you need it. (Nothing dirty goes in this side!)

This is a picture of the backyard! It is positioned between the two parts of the house.



Well there you have it! So far so good. But don't worry there will be more to come. With more pictures, and more stories of our everyday life in My Little Puerto Vallarta!



Two Shakes and a Wiggle and We're in PV!

Ok people, we're almost there! 2 and a half more days and we will be flying into Mexico! We've gone through our suitcases several times, once more and I'm sure we'll be set. We left our little apartment in Lake Tahoe exactly a week ago and headed down to my dad's until our flight. So this past week we have been chilling with family and doing any last minute rounding of things we may need. Oh and we also sold our car! That cleared a lot of last minute worries, I was getting scared that we weren't going to sell it by the end of the week.

Our little Maya has kept us on our toes all week! She's growing up so fast, and she has sooo much energy that I really wish she would share! I'm hoping she handles the move well. I have been trying ever since the decision to move, to tell her what was going on. This was especially hard when she saw our little apartment slowly empty. Towards the end we were only occupying the livingroom, besides the uses of the kitchen and bathroom of course. But I'm wondering if all the change is slowly getting to her, she had a nightmare last night were she was kicking and screaming but she was asleep! Eyes closed and everything... But I could be wrong, I could of sworn she was screaming, "is mine bread!". (???). Though I'm sure that she will feel better as soon as we finally arrive and she goes back to her normal schedule.

On another note, as soon as we arrive and I unpack the camera, I will be posting photos and videos of life in Puerto Vallarta. So 'My Little Puerto Vallarta' will get a little more interesting.

Out of the Job, On to the Big Move

I'm a stay at home mom again! I just had my last day of work yesterday. I was a phlebotomist at a local hospital for only a short 8 months. Though i feel i learned so much in such little time working with everyone. So i have to say: Goodbye Barton! You were good to me! I will miss my dysfunctional lab family and everyone else, but am grateful for everything that everyone taught me!


Now on with the packing! We have 6 weeks left, but for the next 5 weeks i will be gathering the items we will be taking with us, and getting rid of everything else. As Ive stated before we are going to Mexico by plane, we will be taking as much as we can carry between 5 suitcases, and for the most part be starting over in Mexico!  

Still Counting

I am still counting down the days until our big move. As of today there are 66 days left. The more I say it in my head, the more i don't believe it. It seems surreal to me to think that in just 66 days I will be starting my life; in a different country non the less. And still so much to do... My last day of work is July 22nd, from then till roughly August 28th  I will be selling and getting rid of most of our belongings! and we will then head down to Visalia California to my dad's until our flight on the 3rd of September... 
... All I can say is: Bring It On! haha



On another note, I had my vacation time in June, in which i was able to enjoy a wonderful two week extravaganza! Spending a couple days in Vancouver Canada, B-E-A-utiful!, and then spend a week on the Disney Cruise Alaska! It was a very memorable experience, Thanks Dad!

Tickets

So M and I sat down last night and started browsing our ticket/airline options. He was reluctant to spend our money on them, because it had to come out of our savings. I told him not to worry our savings are there for the big move, and eventually we needed to purchase the tickets before prices go up. So after much site surfing we decided to go with Alaska Airlines, we didn't have too many options but Alaska definitely looked like a decent airline. I know 'looks can be decieving' and 'never read a book' by it's cover, but this is one thing that has me REALLY nervous. I have never been on a plane before..And in two weeks i will be taking a trip (riding a total of four planes; two by myself) with my dad, step mom, and three sisters. 
One thing I don't care for with Alaska is that we have to pay for any checked luggage, they offer free first and second luggage if you go to/from Guadalajara or Mexico City but M said that doesn't pertain to the rest of the flights that go everywhere else in Mexico. And since everything we can carry will go into our checked luggage we may have a lot of bags...


On another note i am very cheap..I'm not a strict coupon shopper, but i do plan out the best price i can get, but who doesn't now adays? So i purchased the tickets directly from Alaska's website, looked through the site and found that if we left on a different day that we'd be paying around $150 less per person... I opted for the different date. Which now makes our flight day to September 3rd, instead of the originally planned September 6th. And means i spent only $500, so far, on our flight :)

One step closer

So yesterday I just recieved my new california drivers license, and my apostilled documents! I am incredibly excited about this because it means I finally have all of my documents in order! Passports, Birth/Marrige Certificates, The works!
And the process was unexpectingly fast.

How'd I do it [apostille]? I mailed of my documents, original birth cerificate(s) and marrige license, to the secretary of state with a check of $60 ($20 per Document) and a first-class self addressed envelope for extra speedyness ;p and I got my documents after only 1.5 weeks!

What is an Apostille? An Apostille is a legal document that verifys the authenticity of a document. So basically it verifies the signature(s) to prove its a legal document lol.

And these documents can/will be used to legalize myself and my daughter as dual citizens ^_^


Tosha