Ramsey's Fun with Nana & Bumpa

While we were in Cabo, of course Connor stayed with his Mom, Bridger, and Kevin.   Little Ramsey and Riggs spent the ten days with Nana and Bumpa!

Ramsey hadn't ever been without either Eric or me for more than a few days.  And, he had never been without both of us at the same time (for more than a couple of hours)... ever!  Nana and Bumpa had lots of fun things planned, so we knew they'd have a marvelous time.

We left on Saturday, the day before Easter.  Nana and Bumpa put together a wonderful Easter egg hunt for Ramsey.   He found dozens of eggs with candy and cheese puff balls stuffed inside.  He got extra Reese's chocolate peanut butter bunnies from Uncle Cory too.  Yum!

In addition to running around outside for hours (when the weather was nice), a popular place during the stay was on Bumpa's lap, watching shows and playing games.

Another popular place, as Nana and Bumpa found out, was Burger King.  Apparently the kid loves it!  I'm sure their giant kids' play yard didn't hurt either.  :-)   I was told they visited BK multiple times!

After Uncle Troy, Auntie Sarah, Sadie, and Isaac returned from their trip to Montana, Ramsey visited them quite a lot too.   One day, Uncle Troy took everyone to the fire station.  Ramsey... loves... fire trucks.  He had a great time climbing around, jumping, and steering the fire truck.  He thinks it's pretty special that "Uncle Froy" is a volunteer fire fighter!

 Nana spoiled him daily with special ice cream cones (among other delectable culinary goodies - oh, and lots of hugs and kisses too).

 Every day, we would have video calls with Nana, Bumpa, and Ramsey to see how everyone was doing and get the latest goings-on.

We arrived back to Nana and Bumpa's on Monday morning, around 1:00 AM.  Ramsey did wake up after we'd been there for a little while and Daddy wanted to give him the special treats we'd bought for him.  He was a little "out of it", so we resumed in the morning.

One of the gifts that Eric bought Ramsey was a fancy blue velvet sombrero!  Ole!

Thank you to Nana, Bumpa, Maggie, and Max for taking care of our two littlest.   They loved their time with you!

Bucket List: Swimming with the Dolphins

Early in the week on our trip to Cabo, while I was getting ready for the day, Eric went to take a walk.   When he returned, he smiled and said that he had a special surprise for me; we were going to swim with the dolphins!  (He had sneaked off to book the trip.)  I was absolutely elated and couldn't wait to go!  The more I thought about it, the more excited I became!

Friday was our trip to Dolphin Discovery in San Jose del Cabo to feed, swim with, pet, and ride on the dolphins.

In a small group of about a dozen people, Eric and I got into the water to play with the dolphins.
The dolphins are held in an inlet off the Sea of Cortez.   There were about four large holding pools where visitors could "discover" these lovely creatures.

The two dolphins that we were with that day were Poseidon and Cleopatra.  Poseidon is a 22-year-old male and Cleopatra is a 10-year-old female.

We started off by watching the dolphins swim around and feeling them swim across our hands.

We became acclimated to Poseidon and Cleopatra for a few minutes.  Then, we spent the rest of the time getting dolphin kisses...

Dancing with the wonderful creatures....

   Petting them...

Getting rides on their bellies by holding onto their fins...

And going for a ride on a wakeboard.  The dolphins pushed our feet and took us for a VERY FAST ride!

After our one-on-one encounters, Poseidon and Cleopatra put on a wonderful show for us, jumping through the air and speeding through the water.

The swim lasted for an hour with the dolphins.  What an amazing experience!

Bucket List Item: Parasailing

One of MY bucket list items: Parasailing.  I love thrill rides and anything that gets the ol' adrenaline going.    Eric doesn't like heights.   It's easy to deduce that he loves me an awful lot to have agreed to go parasailing!  :-) ha

From the time we saw the ocean from our hotel room, we saw air traffic, in the form of parasailing.  I had booked a couple's adventure on the high seas on Thursday of our trip to strap up to a parachute and let the wind take us.

We took a cab to the marina and hopped on the water taxi, which escorted us to the boat we'd board to parasail.  Crossing from the water taxi (aka dingy boat with a shade cover) to our boat proved to be quite interesting (um... "shaky").  

To make the trip more efficient, Happy Flights Cabo sent us with a few other couples who had booked.  The other couples were quite fun and we enjoyed some good laughs along the way.

But... I want to give a shout-out to the bearded dude that totally blocked Eric and I from this picture.  Thanks, man.  Really.  

Pedro, our first mate, had all kinds of tricks up his sleeve.  The first couple who went up together were up in the air for a few minutes when Pedro pulled out a huge pirate knife.  He asked, "How much if I cut the cables!?!"

There were a few of the guys (won't mention any names) who were a bit leery of the height and process in general.  Pedro pulled out his "secret weapon," liquid courage (in true Mexican form, it was Jose Cuervo)!

Eric took a shot before we went up (and we both had one later in the trip).  One of the guys who was apprehensive took three shots!

Here's the crew rigging up the 800'+ tow ropes before we took off:

We got strapped in our harnesses and sat on the bed of the boat. 

The take off was gentle and easy!

We were in the air for about 15 minutes.  It was so quiet and peaceful!  The view was phenomenal!  We were in the air at about 600'.

 At one point, another boat crossed our path very close while we were getting reigned back into the boat.  Our feet probably came within 10' of the boat below as they crossed directly underneath us!

Before we landed, the captain gave us a "touch and go", where he put on the brakes.  We dipped down to the water and "walked on water" for a few seconds.  When we came back up, the stomach rush was unbelievable!

It was an exhilarating experience!  Even Eric said that he would definitely do it again!

Bucket List: Marlin Fishing in Cabo

Eric's had a big item on his bucket list for a very long time: fishing for Marlin in the Pacific Ocean.

The fishing trip was our first officially scheduled event and it was on Tuesday.  We arrived at the Cabo marina on Tuesday morning at 6:15.

We met up with our crew from Pisces Fishing Co; Captain Orlando and First Mate Sylvester, on the 28' boat named Andrea.

Excitedly, we climbed in and slowly took off, out of the marina.  We passed many beautiful yachts and ships on our way out.

 Eric had chartered the private boat for the two of us for the entire day.  We had the option to stay close in the Sea of Cortez and fish for mahi mahi, grouper, sea bass, snapper, and blow fish... OR, to go out deep into the Pacific and fish for bill fish, like blue marlin, striped marlin, and sailfish.  We chose the latter, of course.

 The boat ride to the beginning of our trolling spot was an hour and a half.  When we arrived, First Mate Sylvester started prepping the poles, adding large jigs that resembled squid.

At 8:15 AM, less than 5 minutes after we arrived to our starting spot, our story hits a peak.

Admittedly, I didn't have my camera on me (it was still in our bag) and I was taking in the beauties of the big open waters around me.  Eric was entranced also, viewing the sea and eagerly anticipating the day.

Sylvester was busy tying a jig onto the second of four poles that we'd be using that day.

Just then, Eric pointed to something in the water.  When I looked, there was a very large sailed fin sticking out of the water, chasing our boat, hooked onto the very first jig that had been tied!  

Completely stunned and paralyzed, I gawked while Eric yelled to Sylvester that we had a fish on.  Eric leaped up and Sylvester started to shout to the captain, very loudly - in Spanish.  It was unexpected chaos and excitement!  Sylvester grabbed the line, set the hook, and gave the rod to Eric.

As Eric was looking down at the reel for a brief moment, I saw the marlin leap out of the water, just like you see on TV.  It was incredible!

Eric was beyond excited; his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and he said his heart was pounding out of his chest!

But then, like a snap of my fingers, that was it.  

Eric continued to reel just in case, but told me the fish was off.  He had missed even seeing the fish leap!   What a moment... elation turned into a sickness in our stomachs. 

Note: The fish above was not "our fish" - Dumb me, I had been so awestruck by my surroundings.  And, who would have thought we would have had a fish on, not five minutes into our start?!?!?!

Eric, heart still racing, sat back in the chair.  He asked Sylvester about the fish.  Sylvester said, "It was big!".  Eric asked him how big.. and if it was maybe 150-200 lbs.  Sylvester said, "No, it was BIG!".  I guess we don't know what means really and never will.  I saw it.  It was big.  And it was beautiful and majestic.  Sylvester said, "We'll get you another one!"

We trolled at approximately 7 nautical miles per hour the entire day.   Each hour that passed, we wondered about if we'd see another bill fish.  

But, in the meantime, we saw a lot of very cool wildlife in the water.  At least one pod of dolphins were swimming back and forth around our traveling vessel.  Eric and I were frightened that they would get caught up in our fishing lines or try to take the bait.  Thankfully, they did not!  

I didn't get any great pictures of them jumping, unfortunately.  They were quicker than I was!

We saw stingray that came out of the water too.  I never knew that stingray came to the surface!

Later, the captain yelled to us to look to the side of the boat; there were whales!  Amazing!

Not knowing which type of whale this was, Eric did some checking online and found that the species is a Fin (or Finback) Whale.

Mid-day, we saw a large group of bait fish, swarming around the top of the water.

Thinking perhaps this would attract bill fish, the captain circled this area for a while.  Alas, no bites.

At about 2:30, the first mate announced that it was time to head back to shore.  Hearts...sunk... the fishing was over and the day had climaxed much too early.   Bittersweet, it was.

The ride back to the marina was what I called a rodeo; the captain was speeding at what felt like 90 miles an hour, crashing through the waves, while we bounced up and down.  Eric and I were hanging on for dear lives.  I knew we'd have sore neck and arm muscles from trying to hold ourselves!

Another hour and a half or so later, we arrived back into the marina.

As we were coming in, we enjoyed some beautiful and interesting boats and scenery.

 We had a friendly pelican who had hopped onto our boat as we headed in.  He stayed there for quite some time!   A happy sea lion had also managed to plop himself up onto the back of our boat too, but I missed getting a picture.

When we arrived to the dock, another friendly sea lion was hanging out, swimming back and forth.

 He came up to the dock and the crew tried to give him what was left of our live bait fish.  Apparently, he'd has his fill, as he wouldn't take it.  He just wanted to hang out.

When we docked, the first mate told us that when the other boats called in to report their days, only one of the boats had caught a marlin that day.  I guess it was a tough day for everyone.

Eric is planning his next trip to marlin fish.  This time, he'll book two to three days, just in case.  :-)