November 2016 - Cancun trip with the Bonner clan

 We've been working on a family goal of peacemaking because we needed it. I got a few boxes of puff balls from Target, and whenever I caught the kids choosing to be peacemakers instead of fighters, I told them to "pick a puff" and put it in this big vase we had on the table. When the vase was full and the puffs were gone, we would take the kids to Boomers as a reward. It took some hard work and many long weeks, but the behavior turned around and has been much, much better. Hazel made signs and taped them all over the house to remind us of things such as "be nice to Mom and Dad" and "don't be mean people." Anyway, we finished the jar in November and had a fun night out at the arcade.

Jack was reading a book about moths and butterflies and it reminded me of the Monarch preserve in Santa Cruz. We went there once several years ago, but Jack didn't remember it. It just so happens that the best time to go is in November, if you can catch a sunny, warm day, and that upcoming Saturday looked perfect, so we planned a day trip out. We met up with Uncle KB and his girlfriend Hope. We walked the trail and saw thousands of monarch butterflies fluttering all around above our heads. It was rad. Then we went out to lunch and played at the beach before heading home. It was a good day!

We were having a rough afternoon one day and I blew off dinner to make the kids go for a walk with me on the path behind our house that leads to Marshland. They started out grumpy, but it melted away with the exercise and the fresh air. We reached this spot on the edge of the houses before it gets wild, and it was full of tall clover. The kids had a heyday walking through it, wet and up to their knees. They were making clover angels and rolling around and cartwheeling and it was like they were in this zone, you know, where time freezes and they're just feeling complete bliss. It was awesome to see. They stayed and played there till the sun got low in the sky.

Gemma is in this fun stage where she's starting to see the letters from her name in print all over the world, and each time she joyfully gasps, "My letter!" M is her favorite: "up, down, up, down." 

Jack got a new kid in his class, and his favorite thing about her is that her hair goes all the way down to her waist. After her first day at his school, he made her this card (completely independently). "I'm glad to have a new kid in school. I really like how long your hair is too. I admit that I've been staring at it the whole day. I'm so glad you are here." How cute is that? 

Todd's parents had a family reunion in Cancun over Thanksgiving break. Everyone made it there except for KB. We had a fabulous time! We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and played at the pool and the beach a ton. We also rented a 12-passenger van, aka the Party Van, aka The Shag Wagon, and used it to go on day trips with portions of the group most days. It was great.

Todd and I and Missy and Burke went scuba diving twice. Once happened to be on November 19th, mine and Todd's wedding anniversary, so Todd made a plan with me to kiss underwater. That's pretty cool, right?

We saw a nurse shark! Everyone was gathered around, checking it out from a few feet away. And then there's Todd, slowly swimming closer and closer to it, with his hand outstretched. Yep, Todd touched a shark! Just a light moment of contact, and the shark took off and swam down the canyon until it was far away. Not used to being approached, I'd guess.

We went tide pooling and found lots of pretty coral. 

We snorkeled at Akumal Bay and saw sea turtles. It was super cool! I went out with Hazel and Jack and we just toddled around until we'd find one, then float and watch as it ate sea grass and came up to breathe. Some were probably four feet long, pretty big. We saw a mamma with her baby. And we saw a little sting ray out there, too. 

We drove out to some ruins. Hazel loved it! She remembered everything we had learned about Mayan culture from our trip to Cancun in the spring, and asked the tour guide some good questions and was really into it all. Who knew we had a history guru for a kid? 

The neatest part about the ruins was that they were spread out, so they had bikes for rent. Everyone loved cruising around in the middle of the jungle. Gemma was devastated that they didn't have a bike small enough for her, and she and I had to ride on a cart instead. I was pretty bummed to miss out on the bikes, too!

Jack attempted to have pizza for dinner every single day. I didn't really keep track of whether or not he did. It was lovely to not worry about making dinner! The buffets were our friends. Everyone was happy. The ala carte restaurants took too much time and weren't kid friendly, so we only attempted those a couple of times.

There was tons of cousin time. All the kids seemed really happy to be together.

 

Gemma's favorite animal right now is a kodamundi. She apparently loved the cute little things, even though they climbed all over the tables and bit Hazel's finger when she was trying to feed it (yeah, we learned not to offer them food). 

Todd told one of his famous Jeffrey the Goblin stories. My kids beg for those whenever we're in the car or sitting around at the table with time to kill.

Hazel still made time to read. She even lent her cousin one of her books to read when she had finished it. So cute and mature.

The beach was awesome. The water was warm and the sand was soft. Jack loved body surfing. Gemma loved jumping over the waves and playing in the sand.  There were not enough shells for Hazel; she usually spends a lot of time collecting shells when we're at the beach. That really only happened on our tide pool day. But she was plenty happy, don't you worry.

We went to this beautiful cenote called the Garden of Eden. The water was clear, we were surrounded by trees and rocks, it was super beautiful and peaceful. We snorkeled a little, swam a bit, and just enjoyed being there.

 We flew home on Thanksgiving Day, took the next day to recoup from it all, and took the simple route by hunting for our tree at Home Depot this year. While the search was understated, the tree has been a good one. It's as tall as can fit, and lovely and green and full and smells great and makes me happy. I love a good Christmas tree.

Oh, and Santa was randomly there, so we popped over to say hi to the fellow.

The next week was pretty fun and busy, but that's in December, so I'll keep you in suspense for a few weeks more before I tell all about that.