Hola Familia!
It's been a while since we've done a family update and quite a lot has happened. I'm not even going to try to keep this short, but will try my best to stay on topic!
Shane took another trip to Amsterdam at the end of January into the beginning of February, but hasn't needed to travel for business since then. He has a new boss at Bynder now, and his role has changed a little bit, which means less travel and a more manageable meeting schedule. The kids and I are so used to Shane coming home late that now when he comes home at an earlier time it throws us off!
I held down the fort while Shane was away, then left for a photography retreat in Huntington Beach the day after he came home! It was fun to see my photography friends from all over the country and we had a fun time.
Adria's basketball team went to the finals, but lost to their arch-rival Cunha Middle School from Half Moon Bay. It was an exciting game with a nail biter ending. We're so proud of her for trying something new and improving as the season progressed. Adria will begin playing as a practice team player for the local club soccer team in a couple weeks, which she's feeling pretty excited about.
Rella and her friends performed a cute version of "Don't Worry Be Happy" for the Stake Youth Variety show last night. She and her friend Emi played ukulele and sang while the other girls did a little skit/dance that went along with the song. They did a great job.
Calder is still busy...we've decided to take a break from swimming lessons. He's asking to try gymnastics or tumbling instead, so we are looking into that. He's also hoping to learn to play the drums, but we're not so sure about that. He's been spending some time with the school psychologist and special education specialist at school taking assessments. He's made so much progress socially since his school-based ASD diagnosis, they wanted to check out if the ASD label is still something they should be using for his IEP. It won't change any of his services either way...the psychologist is just being mindful of the weight that labels can carry.
The kids had school off for the week of Presidents Day, so we decided that it was high time our family went somewhere for "Ski Week". We decided to go somewhere that had nothing to do with skiing and booked a trip to a resort near Playa del Carmen in Mexico. We flew out on Monday, February 18 and arrived at our resort around 8 pm local time. We got all checked in and stashed our stuff in our rooms (two connecting rooms) before going to the buffet for a late dinner. After dinner we went down to the beach so the kids could feel the difference between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean (spoiler alert...the Atlantic Ocean is significantly warmer!)
Tuesday morning we slept in and accidentally missed the breakfast buffet! Good thing we'd eaten a good amount for dinner! We explored the resort, admiring the animals on the grounds. There were peacocks, flamingos, monkeys, coatis, agoutis, swans, parrots, turtles, koi...lots of animals to look for! We made it to lunch on time, then spent the afternoon at the beach and the pool. At one point there was a giant bubble dance party in the pool, which Calder really enjoyed. We had dinner at the Japanese restaurant (Teppanyaki style restaurant), then Shane and Calder hung out in the room while the girls and I went and checked out the magic show at the resort theater. We had an early morning planned the next day, so we didn't stay out too late.
Wednesday morning we got up before sunrise so we could go to the continental breakfast before our tour guide arrived. We met our tour guide and driver from Alma's LDS Tours in the hotel lobby at 7:20 am and headed out for a tour of Coba, some Mayan ruins about an hour and half away from our resort. Shane and I had been there when we went to Mexico about 5 years ago and Adria was especially excited to go see the ruins and learn about the Mayan people who lived there. We rode bikes to the temple ruins (Calder and I shared a bike taxi since he wasn't so sure about using hand brakes on a bike) and climbed up to the top. We also saw a ball court and other buildings and learned a lot about the Mayan people. It was really interesting, even though Shane and I had been on that tour before! After our tour of Coba, we drove a little ways to a cenote (an underground lake) to swim for an hour before lunch. Calder and Rella wore life jackets, Shane and Adria jumped off the lower diving platform, and I just put my legs in the water. It took Rella a while to gather up the courage to get in the water, but Calder jumped right in and started paddling around. Our tour guide swam, too. He had also brought his 10 year old nephew . We almost had the whole place to ourselves...there were just a few other tourists, but there were a bunch of people arriving as we were leaving. We went back to Coba and had lunch at a restaurant there (included in the tour). It was traditional food and very delicious. We got back to the resort at around 3:30, so we still had time to go to the beach or the pool before dinner. We also decided to book a trip to an adventure park called Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell-Ha) for Friday, so we did that through our travel reps at the resort. We had dinner at the buffet (Calder's favorite) and then watched Shrek 2 back in our room before going to bed.
Thursday was another resort day. We found chairs at the pool and then migrated to the beach after a while to play in the waves. We really enjoyed the warm sun after all the rain we've been having in the Bay Area. We watched monkeys climb onto the roof from our balcony and just relaxed all day. It was so great! We tried the Tex-Mex restaurant. After dinner we picked up a few things from one of the shops, then watched "The Parent Trap" (the newer version). At the end, Calder was most interested in what happened to the dog that belonged to the twin who lived in California...he was worried that the dog was left out of the big reunion scene. Exact quote: "But what about the dog???"
Friday was another early day. We met our transportation to Xel-Ha in the hotel lobby. There were a lot of people going from several resorts, so they picked everyone up in a big tour bus. Xel-Ha was about 45 minutes away from our hotel. When we got there we decided to pay extra for some additional activities. We scheduled a time for Calder and Shane to do the Zip Bike course and for the girls to swim with dolphins. I just wanted the photo package. They have cameras set up all over the park for "selfies"...you scan your wristband and pose for the camera and it takes your photo! Then you download your photos once you get home. There was a children's playground, a river to float down in tubes, zip lining, snorkeling, obstacle courses, hiking trails...all kinds of stuff to do. The zip bikes are bike frames suspended on zip line equipment. The rider pedals through a course of caves, ravines, and other cool sites. Shane and Calder really enjoyed it. We floated down the river on tubes as a family, then the kids and Shane all zip lined into the water a couple of times. Calder and Rella tried the obstacle course. The girls loved swimming with the dolphins. We could tell they were just enjoying every second of it! We finished off the day with Shane and the girls going snorkeling while I took Calder to the children's playground. There were a few things we didn't get around to trying, but all in all it was a very fun day. We caught our bus back to the resort at 6 and got there around 7 or so. After dinner the girls watched "Pride and Prejudice" with me and Shane. Calder was all tuckered out and had already gone to bed.
Saturday was our travel day...we got all packed up and checked out of our room after breakfast. Rella mentioned she wasn't feeling great, but we just figured it was because of pre-flight nervousness. We boarded our transport bus and they had just shut the door when Rella threw up all over me and herself! Yuck! We ran into the restroom in the lobby and got somewhat cleaned up while the driver cleaned up the van. Then we got a plastic garbage bag from the cleaning staff and settled back into our seats. Rella was sick once more on the way to the airport, but then felt a lot better. She tends to get sick when she hasn't been sleeping or eating in a normal way, so we think that was the trouble. The other passengers in the van were very understanding. The couple in front of me and Rella checked on her a couple times during the ride and gave her a mint and some crackers for when she was feeling up to it. We made it to the airport in plenty of time and got everything settled, but needed to rearrange our seats for the flight (we had to do that on every flight...I think because we booked through a travel site and they couldn't guarantee the seat assignments we chose. It was such a pain for us and the gate agents to have to rearrange all the seats so we could have the kids sit with a parent instead of scattered all through the airplane!) The rest of the travel day was uneventful. We had a layover in Houston, so we went through customs there. We arrived back at the San Francisco Airport at about 7:15 pm and made it home by 8:30.
It was really a delightful trip, and just what we needed! Most of us would have liked to spend one more day at the resort, but Calder was ready to come home! He was a great traveler overall, though, and says he wouldn't mind going to Mexico again. We've had a few people ask us if we ever felt unsafe in Mexico...we really didn't, probably because we stayed at a resort in a gated community and had all of our transportation arranged ahead of time through our travel reps. We didn't go off exploring on our own or anything...I think that's where some people get into trouble.
Now we are back and settled into our usual routine again...and starting to schedule and talk about our summer trips. It's going to be a busy one! Just to give a heads up, we are planning on coming to Utah for our summer trip during the last part of June...probably arriving June 20th and heading back to the Bay on June 29th or July 1st...the girls will be headed off to girls camp on July 2nd, so we need to be back for that. It seems very early to be planning our summer schedule, but between EFY, girls camp, Ballet Intensive, and the church history tour, we have to really think ahead.
We love you all! Have a good week!
Love, Shane, Alicia, Adria, Rella, and Calder
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