The day finally arrived and we were off to the airport to pick up Vanessa and Benny!! Yeah! We got to the airport early and waited for their arrival discussing how it wasn't very nice that it was raining on the day they got here. But they tell us it is the rainy season. The big difference between here and the Pacific Northwet (yes I know I forgot the s) is that even though you might be caought in the rain it's still very very warm. They finally arrived and off we went to sit and have lunch down on the beach so Ness could rela a bit before pur drive back to Huatulco. Grandpa took Benny down to the water's edge and he wasn't too thrilled about the water or the sand. Uh oh we thought and decided to wait for more introductions to ocean and sand after a good night sleep since they had been traveling since 1am. Needless to say Benny was out for the count once we got back into the car and took off. It's been 8 months since we have seen them so we all had lots to talk about on our ride the next 2 hours. Dave and I decided that we would get a hotel room the first couple days that they were here so they could acclimate. There is definitely a difference so we wanted to make it a gradual climatizing. We also rented a car with air conditioning. We had a pool and we all decided to take advantage once we checked in. Dave went to the casa to get the stroller,baby bed, and spiderman floaty for Benny.Nessa was going to take a nap but changed her mind once Benny and I were ready for his first visit to the pool. Mama just didn't want to miss out! This was the start of Vanessa and Benny getting on the retirement schedule. Since we had a late lunch we had a late dinner and we introduced Ness to Tacos Al Pastor. We found out Benny likes 'em too. The third day of their visit we moved back to the casa and decided to go hang at our Beach Club pool. Benny got the works that day....pool and the ocean and loving every minute of it. We ate at our favorite neighborhood taqueira that night and the owner invited Benny to her niece Nadia's 4th birthday party on Tuesday. Then a liitle girl eating dinner with her family came over and took Benny to their table where he entertained them all. He is quite the social butterfly. Monday we spent the day trying to fax a form to the bank at home since someone had been able to access our account from Mexico City and withdraw as much money as was allowed. The night before at 2am Dave and I were at the bank to withtdraw what was left before they tried again. (2 hr time difference from home). Good news is we will get the money back, bad news is my card was cancelled and Dave's is at home waiting to be sent to us. Thankfully we have another bank sitting on the sidelines and our friend Jane came through as the hero in our crisis! Tuesday we went to Entegra so that Dave and Ness could go snorkeling. Benny and I played a bit in the water then hung out in one of the local palapas while they played with the fish. This is the same place Dave and I had gone when I used the board with the window so I could "snorkel" too. Dave and Ness came back in for awhile and then took Benny out for more water time and he got his first taste of salt water, handled it like a trooper too. He is now officially a water baby. Dave and Ness went back out to snorkel some more and none of us thought to put sunscreen back on our little white girl.....yes she got burned, poor thing. We then raced home, changed our clothes and took off for the birthday bash. We actually were the first to arrive and we were late. Soon the place was filling up and the festivities began. The kids had three pinatas filled with candy and they even asked Benny to try, he's still a bit little so he just watched on the sidelines. While the kids were batting away at the pinatas the grown up family memebers passed out plates eith a sandwich and their version of a corn dog. They had already passed put jamica to drink. (a water made with flowers) Then they started passing out more plates and these had a chicken salad with tostada shells. And if that wasn't enough the cake soon came after that and Dave and I aren't big cake eaters but this was without a doubt one of the best cakes we have ever had. Just when we thought it was winding doen they brough out a huge boxlike cration filled with balloons. The sides were made of cellephane and the kids hit at it just like a pinata. Inside were colored balloons but the trick was to get one of the black balloons which there were only a couple. Insideof these black balloons was an extra treat for whoever was the lucky one to reach it first. But wait after that is all over the kids line up in separate lines for boy and girls and Nadia's mom passes out bags with more treats. She then walked pver to Benny and handed him his own bag. What a wonderful experience we had being included with this family! We of course ate all our food but we noticed that most families wrapped theirs up to take home. Nadia received lots of presents but the one thing that didn't happen was opening them at the party. I think this is a very respectful. This way the kids that can't afford extravagant gifts like some don't have to be embarassed by their gift being not quite as good as others. Wednesday we went to Copalita where they have a archaelogical ruins and a museum. When we got there a guy ws asking to be our tour guide and it was a bit more than we wanted to pay so Dave did the negotiating and we had our own private tour. Cornelia, our guide, proved to be well worth the money. He had a telescope and if we hadn't had him we would have missed out on seeing the pygmy owls, the toucan looking herons, the pink flamingo like birds and various other creatures. He was very thorough on his knowledge of the ruins and took very good care of us, even pushing Benny in his stroller once or twice. We were told by some other people that this place was just a bunch of rocks but we found it to be just the opposite. Of course if you aren't interested in history then it is just a pile of rocks. We went to the top of the cliff and had an incredible view of the Copaita river dumpng into the ocean and the surf pounding against the shore. Of course there was a storm brewing out there so the surf was more impressive than usual. Dave was keeping an eye on the weather as it was possible this storm could turn into a hurricane. June is rainy season in Hutaulco so it isn't unusual to have rain daily and we decided to continue our outings despite the rain. We were lucky during this outing that we had none. We left Copalita and decided to go to the Italian Coffee Company for a snack and one of their very close to Starbuck's frappucinos. In fact if you did a taste test you probably coudn't tell the difference. Stay tuned for part two or the rest of the story.