2012 was a wonderful year.
I had so many wonderful moments. Of course just like any normal human there was stress and lots of business as a working mom of two. But that's not why I quit blogging. I quit when google wouldn't let me add any more pictures. I reached my max for free data space. Since then I've discovered Picasa and can make collages. So hopefully I'll go back and add the best memories of the past few months I've missed.
We rang in the new year with a small party at home.
And my annual 2012 Jimenez Family Photo Album is coming soon.
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a workshop at the Tijuana Estuary. Since I began teaching environmental science I wanted to visit the estuary. Even though I grew up just a 15 minute drive away, I had never been. So I jumped on this opportunity and hopefully in the future I will be able to take a group of interested students to tour it as well.
Here I am at what I believe is called spooner's mesa. It was a horribly bumpy ride that only state parks and border patrol vehicles are allowed to drive. But it is open to the public by foot and bike. This is the Tijuana river valley north of the border.
Because Tijuana is not properly and completely plumbed when it rains there is lots of erosion and here is one of the sedimentation basins and piles of sediment.
This was my first time ever on the beach south of the river mouth. It's only accessible part of the year.
Sunday we went to the beach. It was a great day, very nice and warm. Of course the water was still a bit cold. Jorgito didn't want to get wet but he spent 5 hours playing in the sand.
Two weekends ago we went to Corvette Diner. I have very fond memories of going there in my teens. They moved a couple years ago and I've been wanting to go since then. So finally we went.
This was Joaquin's first time in a restaurant high chair. It wasn't long before he started sucking on the table and we had to take him out.
Jorgito requested an airplane on a hat balloon and was super excited watching it be made.
He loved playing with his special balloon, eating his macaroni and cheese and drinking his shake.
We got nectarines, pluots, tomatoes, a summer squash, one zucchini, bell peppers, lettuce, basil, cantaloupe, radishes, green beans, corn and I added on chives. These were just like the ones that I bought at trader joes and didn't like. Not the same type as my very first box which I liked much better. I've come to the conclusion that what I liked were garlic chives not regular chives. So I'll have to add them on for next week.
I had leftover corn from my previous large box so I made corn risotto and sauteed beets served with baked wild salmon.
I had peppers left over from the previous box so I added them with this weeks to serve turkey stuffed peppers also using corn and tomato from the box served over lettuce. It was a bit dry since I used fresh tomatoes instead of sauce.
Then bacon and chicken wrapped green beans and roasted potatoes. I seriously loved this meal.
When we came back from vacation I used the squash in risotto again since it was so delicious the last week and grilled the mahi mahi that Jorge caught in Cabo. It was supposed to be served with tomato and basil but my basil had gone bad in the fridge while we were away.
Our big vacation this year was to Cabo San Lucas. We stayed in the same resort as last time Sirena del Mar. It was a fabulous vacation despite a few setbacks.
Saturday we drove down to Otay to have lunch. While in the restaurant my sister-in-laws car was broken into and a backpack with my dad's ipad, binoculars and camera were stolen. It took a while to calm down after all of our blood was boiling from that experience.
We made it to the airport at the exact cut off time for checking baggage!
The flight going over was fine but we didn't arrive to the room until around 9pm. Shortly after that Jorgito tripped on the corner of a rug that was lifting and knocked his front 4 teeth back. He calmed down quickly with arnica but at 2am woke up with clotting blood everywhere. He started throwing it up because his stomach wouldn't tolerate any more blood. Jorge and I looked at each other with a screaming toddler in Mexico debating whether or not to take him to a hospital. Fortunately he calmed down with advil. When he woke up at 7am we discovered that his teeth had indeed moved. He suffered from a fever for two days then got better and we were all able to enjoy the rest of the vacation.
Sunday we drove to LaPaz to visit my mom's cousin. Nobody bothered to get a map so we ended up taking the long 2.5 hour windy road and I couldn't stop looking at my baby's deformed face. So I got pretty car sick from being turned around and beating myself up over Jorgito's accident. The swelling did eventually go down and I've grown used to his new smile.
I LOVE this picture of Joaquin and his Nino.
Monday we hung out at the beach.
My sister-in-law taught me about a new drink, the "bloody shark" which is tequila, clamato and beer. We enjoyed a couple on the trip.
Here you can see how bad Tre's teeth were.
Playing around Jorge speared a fish but according to Nick it was a rat fish and it got thrown back in the water.
When we came home for the evening we found this surprise from the resort. Jorgito enjoyed learning how to find matches the rest of the trip.
Luz and I experimented with making watermelon margaritas.
Tuesday the men went fishing while we hung out at the resort.
The first edible fish Jorge caught in his life was this red snapper.
I LOVE this picture of my dad. It reminds me of summer in the 1990s.
This was Jorge's second and final fish of the trip, a mahi mahi or dorado as they're called down south.
His first time swimming in the ocean far from shore.
Wednesday we went to the marina. It was SO hot that Jorgito poured his water on himself.
He played with his new little Mexican animals for about an hour and they were both broken by the time we landed back home.
We shared a shot of rattlesnake tequila.
I spent a lot of the week in the hammock even enjoying a nap with Joaquin.
Thursday we went to the beach again.
Friday we kayaked to Lover's Beach.
My mom stayed in the room with the boys to give us an hour of adventure.
It was our first time kayaking so I insisted on double. I'm pretty sure I would not have made it alone!
We are looking forward to kayaking around LaJolla sometime in the future.
When we returned from kayaking we took the resorts bartending course at the pool bar.
It started off with a margarita - mine are much better.
Followed by some green colored shot. And then another 2 drinks and 3 shots.
Nina helped give me a break from Joaquin in the pool. He even fell asleep on her.
And it wiped Tre out too. I still can't believe he fell asleep in the pool with his bulky floaty on.
Saturday we checked out and went to Todos Santos before our evening flight home.
We visited what we though was my great-great-grandmother's grave site from a photo my mom took there in 1967 but it has somebody elses name on it. The mystery remains unsolved.
Then Jorge enjoyed his first ever fast food item (not including in & out) - a chemical laden burger king "shake" while waiting for our flight home. I hope this doesn't happen again anytime soon.
