Oh, oh, Mexico!
Everett earned 3rd place running the 200 yard race for his track meet at school. He was very excited to run the 800 race, right off the cusp another boy tripped Everett, he made it over the finish line last. That was a hard blow to his ego since he last had the best time out of all the 5th grade. He also got a prize for long-jump! I helped monitor the standing jump station for the 4th grade girls. I took him out of school early for some Mom-and-Everett time. He was "thrilled" at the prospect of going to walmart. Everett now wants to try running cross-country next school year. We slammed down some pasta salad for dinner before racing out of the house for East Valley's Open House. Everett was very excited to try out a trombone and trumpet! One of the 8th graders told Everett he had a good sound and tone once he figured out how to make a proper noise. Everett was also very interested in the robotics club and wanted to visit the classroom promoting a new class option "How to make money and keep it!" It will be nice to have both boys at East Valley for a couple of years. Amelia caught a ride to choir with Tessa. We arrived a bit early to find good seats for her concert. The songs were very cute and different this semester. Amelia's choir sang a fun "Pitch Perfect" ensemble of songs. I also thought the Encanto arrangement was very fun. Amelia made it into Chamber Choir next year, she is very excited about that.
Wednesday found me at the dentist for a long 3 hour procedure to fix my back molar...again. The new dentist has a machine in house that cuts a new crown in just a few minutes. My mouth is still very sensitive and sore.
Josie had her very first field trip to the Boise Zoo with the Kindergarten grade. Parking was a beast! The zoo is downtown next to the greenbelt, parking was extremely limited. I was a bit late just finding a spot to park. Josie was relieved I finally got there before we all went inside. I was in charge of Josie and Cora for the zoo day. We first saw a pair of really cute red Pandas, Josie was in heaven! Cora loved the penguins. Both girls played quite a bit inside the Prairie Dog exhibit and on the giraffe slide. Josie was upset the zoo did not have koalas or elephants. She had to settle on her 3rd favorite animal, the giraffes. I had a pocket full of tic tacs to keep the girls amused and going for the long morning adventure. I needed to stop at Kohls on my way home. Justin was able to meet Josie for lunch at the park in Nampa. Yay! Justin needed shorts and we "needed" Disney shirts for our trip. Amelia and I went to the DMV after school to get her learner's permit started. She will have driving school in August! Phew! Another long day! I did not get back home until 5 pm. My little seed starts needed planting before they completely grew out of their pots. Justin was flummoxed over my decision to play in the dirt instead of packing. Amelia helped make dinner while I rushed getting plants into the ground. I finally got some things packed before bedtime. It was a late night finishing plans for Darrell and Fawn, writing notes for the kids, and making sure things would run smoothly while I was gone.
Mexico:
We left for the airport around 6 am, most of Justin's team was already there...an hour early! The wait was not so bad, just chit chat way too early in the morning. I discovered a tiny duck from Amelia's slime tucked in a pocket of her backpack she lent me. The duck was much cuter than Justin and I so Mr Quacker's adventure was born. The kids seemed to enjoy updates of Mr Quackers enjoying Mexico. We first flew to LAX then connected to a flight down to Puerto Vallarta. Immigration and Customs was a breeze, once you waited in line for a long while. We ignored all the persons vying for your money in the way of services like taxis, tours, hotels, etc. Thankfully, there was a van waiting for us all. Our hotel was Riu Jalisco. The hotel was decorated in neon flags for a disco night. Mexico feels so different from America! One minute in Mexico is about 10 of our minutes, meaning life is slower. Justin immediately turned up the air conditioner as the humidity was heavy. We couldn't wait to get out and explore the hotel and surroundings. Our balcony looked out over the main fountain and all the way to the beach. All food and beverages are provided by the hotel. We grabbed samples of all the non-alcoholic drinks at the pool bar, most were full of coconut flavor, to find our favorite. Drinks/smoothies in hand we grabbed some beach chairs, kicked off our footwear, and sighed in satisfaction. Mature palms provided amazing shade for a good portion of the beach. Mr Quackers enjoyed his beverage, Banana Mama was his favorite. Justin chose the steakhouse option for dinner. I was so exhausted we went up to our room for the night. I slept through the loud and colorful disco party that lasted well after midnight. I wonder if Justin went down to party without me?
Saturday we slept in a bit, met with a guy who arranged a couple excursions for us, ate breakfast, and got ready for an adventure. We caught a taxi to Bucerias, a close town with shopping and an open market. Justin raced through the market, it was overwhelming with all the vendor vying for your attention. I did find a cute sunhat and a darling long-sleeved bathing suit for Mia. We sat on the beach for a good while watching the locals play in the water. A seafood joint was just behind us enticing our bellies with seriously delicious smells. We tried a couple local dishes, honestly, the chips and salsa were enough to bring tears to my eyes...heat? or deliciousness? Instead of catching a taxi back we walked the beach line a good 2.5 miles back to our hotel. I missed a strip of skin when I slathered sunscreen on my arms, ouch, earned a lovely farmers burn on both arms. Lots of fun shells littered the beach, we even found a shell shaped like Wilson (from Outcast) and a teacup. We swam in the ocean for a bit with our snorkels and masks, visibility was horrid so that was not very amusing. I was grossed out by all the dead puffer fish, eels, and horse droppings in the water. Some poor lady stepped right on a dead puffer, those spikes are brutal. There was a raging drunk party in the adult pool. Justin and I watched all the crazy people playing bingo, volleyball, and slurping down voluminous amounts of frosted alcoholic drinks. We joined in with our cups of Pepsi lite to wash off the ocean funk in exchange with the pool funk. My hair was a dreadful mess of kinks and salt. Justin's team met for dinner at the Steakhouse around 7 pm. It was lovely to meet everyone in person and get to know them better. Sunset on the beach while eating dinner is magical. We headed to our room right after dinner because our scuba adventure required us to be up at 6:15 am.
Sunday started. bright and early at Vallarta adventures, Mr. Quackers was ready to roll. We met our dive instructor and another couple we were diving with from England. We boarded a good-sized catamaran then headed to Puerto Vallarta to pick up the rest of the folks heading out to Las Marietas to snorkel. The bar is open from sun up to sun down and all through the night! Folks started the day with drinks and thumping music. The boat traveled about 20 miles off-coast to the marine preserve. We loaded into a smaller boat with a second instructor and 4 other divers to a better scuba spot. I got to jump in the water first! Yay! Our first dive we went down about 20 feet for 40 minutes. Justin had a hard time with buoyancy, especially because the scuba guide strapped a weight to one side of his tank to help him descend. We spotted a couple manta rays, eagle rays, puffer fish, a 4 ft long moray eel, sole fish, and lots of reef fish. We boarded the little boat again to scope out a new, deeper location. The second dive was about 42 minutes at 50-60 feet deep. This time we saw an octopus and fantastic coral reefs. I am very sad the blue-footed booby bird was not hanging out on the cliffs above where we went diving. Justin enjoyed his second dive much better, having evenly distributed weight helped. The party boat left us to catch up while it headed to another beach only accessible by boat. We loved riding in the speedboat back to the party boat for the 10-15 miles. A lunch of sandwiches, tuna salad, and fruit was ready on the big boat for all the divers. I’m glad we skipped breakfast before diving, food was divine! We swam to shore for a while watching folks riding the banana boats and a huge pirate ship docked in the cove. A lovely assortment of cabana seating and shade made lounging in paradise quite comfy. Several people celebrated birthdays with tequila shots and dancing during the ride back to Puerto Vallarta. The boat was pretty much ours the last 30 minutes as we headed to Nuevo Vallarta. One of the other divers was ironically from Boise, ID! Showering off the salt and sun felt amazing. We enjoyed catching up with the kids each night on Duo. Everett sent me a hilarious email to let me know Aunt Fawn looked really tired, that she was not used to watching kids like I was. Everytime I called the boys were playing a card game with Darrell, I could hear Everett refereeing the rules. Fawn said she went to bed with Everett's voice explaining the rules and playing everyone's hand of cards! Yep! That's our Everett.
There was another dance party on Sunday, not the Neon party from before but a party of epic proportions. My hair was sticking straight out after two dives, ocean swimming, speed boat dried, and humidity improved. I lost two pounds of salt during my shower! Showers after dirty activities is sooooo fulfilling. We tried the early dinner at the Mexican restaurant. Justin loves the chilaquiles, chips baked in sauce and topped with cheese and meat.
Monday morning we got to swim with the Mexican cliche: dolphins. We joked about swimming with the dolphins before booking our activities. The company we used had a book two get a dolphin swim for “free.” Our dolphin was named Dali and was a teenager, albeit a chill teen. The trainer had Dali give us kisses, a ride around the pool, tricks, noises, and even a family photo. We were offered a complete photo album for $300 for 10-12 photos with Dali. Tempting. Dali was very smooth and leathery to pet. Dolphins are amazing creatures! The rest of our afternoon was spent napping on the beach, eating lunch, and enjoying air conditioning. Toward evening we met up with two other couples (Jenna and Rachel) from Justin’s work for a sunset cruise to “Rhythms of the Night.” Justin and I were two of only a handful of folks with the white wristbands, aka no open bar. A party of UK tourists kept us all amused, those folks were not inhibited in the slightest. I was torn between dancing like a fool or watching the chaos. Watching won. The boat motored to a section of the bay only accessible by boat called Las Caletas. It was a magical stretch of beach kissed by thick jungles. After 20 years Rhythms of the Night grew from a play performed before a couple tourists sitting on beach chairs to a Cirque de Soleil level performance. We were met with tiki torches bordering a jungle path and cleverly disguised actors in animal costumes. A fun island band played steel drums and glass bottles filled with varying levels of water. We were lead to restaurants for dinner overlooking the bay. The restaurants were quite rustic, delightful. Mr Quackers enjoyed the dessert for once. Finding the restroom was thrilling! It felt like an adventure through the jungle. We joined our friends for the show. A shaman character made fun of folks in the audience while we waited. He was picking on a bald guy: smarter than most, sexy, good head for later enjoyment, etc. The guy even got a head shine. The show was written and directed by Gilles Set-Croix (co-creator of Cirque de Soleil). The performance is inspired by an Aztec creation legend complete with acrobatics, legendary costumes, fire, colored lights, interpretive music and etc. The boat crew performed a chintzy parody, I must admit the one guy with the patterned light sticks was fun. I actually looked up performing light sticks on Amazon! We shared a taxi with the UK bunch. Our driver got mixed up and delivered us to the wrong hotel. The British lady was crudely cussing her opinions. We about died when she said how American she was by “curling up on the couch with a bag of Cheetos and CNN!”
I was crabby in the morning. We ate breakfast then packed up. Justin wanted to enjoy the air conditioning so paid $20 for an extra hour after checkout. I enjoyed free air conditioning at the beach with one last frosty drink. We found a stuffed koala and hippo for the little girls at the airport. I was excited to finish watching the last 20 minutes of Dune that I watched on the flight out. Fawn and Amelia were awake when we arrived home around 11 am. Evelyn came creeping down the stairs not long after! She was thrilled with her hippo, thrilled to sleep on our floor! HOME! It was lovely to back. We melted into wonderful child hugs! The kids decorated our bedroom door with hearts and sweet messages. Phillip even had a pop-up card that made us all laugh. The next morning I enjoyed hearing all about the kids adventures during our trip. The boys loved their shark tooth necklaces and knotted bracelets. Amelia loved her pretty starfish necklace. The little girls got a large bag of seashells, the teacup shell was a hit! Mr Quackers decided to stay in Mexico…until I found him hiding the shell bag! Phew! He made it back home.
The next day I stopped by the Baerwaldt’s 5th wheel to return her hat and other items. Fawn was indeed tired! She said the kids were amazing and well-behaved. She is so impressed with Amelia. Our open door custom was a bit disconcerting, having kids running here and there from everywhere. Some neighbors took advantage of the pantry and computers! I went grocery shopping before the kids got home from school. My stress levels were sky-high with 800+ dance photos to edit and about 20 end-of-school activities scheduled, all in a week’s span.
The Second Graders went to Lake Lowell Ranger Station for their field trip on Thursday the 19th. As fate would arrange, it was 60 degrees cold, windy, and a bit rainy. We were slated to stay outside for 5 hours…brrrr. The parents helped wrangle 3-4 kids each, make sure the kids stayed nearby and participated. Our Ranger guided us through some fun games of “sharks and minnows” lake version: trout and bugs. Each kid had flag football belts different colors for dragonflies, leeches, damselfly, and frogs. The next station the kids learned about acidic and pH levels in water. We really enjoyed examining lake water under a magnifying glass. The kids saw larvae, tiny leeches, and even frog eggs. Lunch was very exciting because Evelyn sat with me in the truck to get warm. After lunch the kids got to try shooting bows and arrows. The Ranger skipped the last station for us because the wind kept tipping over the targets. We convinced her to let us try because the other two groups were still at their stations for 20 more minutes. Yay! We all got to throw atalotals! My first time trying out that weapon. The teachers decided to head back an hour early because the weather was so bad. That worked for me because Evelyn had a Dr appointment to assess if the Zoloft she is taking is helping. We decided to up the dose from 5 mg to 8 mg, in a liquid form. I had an hour to edit photos before Phillip had to be at school for his drumline performance and Amelia was singing for a Seminary graduation. We ate a rushed dinner of pasta salad before we left for those. Amelia got dropped off at the wrong location, so we were almost late for Phillip’s performance. Justin met us at the Middle School. The band and drumline were amazing! I am always amazed over how quickly kids learn to play their instruments. Phillip played snare, xylophone, cymbals, and kettle drum.
Amelia had a station at the 9th grade expo about the Magic of Learning. I really wanted to attend but her presentation was at the same time as Everett’s 5th grade graduation. Amelia was awarded the 9th Grade English achievement award. Josie and Evelyn joined us in the gym for the ceremony and a picnic. Everett won the math award for the 5th grade, no big surprise there. He was convinced he should’ve won the science and English awards too! Gotta share the fame! He enjoyed an amazing school year. He worked hard on several detailed reports and papers. He is ready for Middle School! Mrs Douglas is one of those teachers kids remember for their lifetime. She is strict but so fun and really teaches the kids how to love learning. The kids are very excited about all the lunchables I got for end-of-school lunches. Best day ever! Our new Elders came over for dinner, the missionaries in our area each have 3-5 wards each.
Saturday morning Justin and I took the little girls to Costco (thank you Sara) for trip snacks and pizza. I had barely enough time to eek out piano recital programs. Amelia typed up the programs but I did not proofread it thoroughly enough, missed several songs and mistyped a name. Since our last recital 4 new students started for a total of 14 students now! The kids worked really hard practicing this semester. Each week the kids got practice points to earn water balloons and pizza for the post-recital celebration. Everyone performed well, especially since I was gone to Mexico for this week’s lessons. The kids loved lobbing water balloons at me afterwards…we had a full-fledged water fight going on! Justin rushed us out the door for a ward hike to Table Rock. I stuffed leftover pizza and random fridge items into the backpack cooler. The hike was intense, very steep and slippery. We all made it to the summit where we ate dinner while overlooking Boise. The view was breathtaking! Josie hiked next to me, in other words she got mom power helping her up the incline. At one point she saw the towering Cross on the summit. She said, “Mom! Look! It’s the altar of Jesus’ sacrifice! It’s where Jesus will come again.” I asked her who we should sacrifice, me or dad? She looked around and decided the dog Ruby would be the best candidate! She really thought Table Rock was the site where Christ was sacrificed! Our legs were all exhausted by the time we reached the end. Bishop Roundy bought everyone an ice cream cone at Sonic. Brother Leavitt worked on our van all week to replace the spark plugs. One plug had oil in the well indicating a leak and the reason for the error code. The van started right up sounding better than it has in months. I picked up the van before we reached home.
I rushed to church the next morning, almost late for the organ prelude music. I almost forgot it was my turn to play for sister Minor. Primary was crazy because the program went over time and the word props I stayed up until 12:30 am finishing was out of order…face slap! We had one day to work on this month’s song and the Father’s Day song.
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