Christmas in Mexico

I don't know if it is a secret but for more years than I can remember Christmas has not been my favorite time of year.
The rushing around spending money we don't have to buy gifts for people who don't need/want/appreciate them. Then a week off from work and school sitting around in the house with bad weather worsened by the inversion until you finally scream ”Who the crap cares if families are forever, I hate you people.” (I mean, in theory, not practice.)
This year I was dreading it even more because I am missing that special someone who can take the brunt of my misplaced holiday angst and still be willing to be my friend on January 2 when the kids go back to school.
So I decided to go with my most often used coping mechanism, avoidance.
On December 23 at 6 pm I called the kids in and told them we were starting a new tradition of opening a present early.
I made up a certificate that said ”Pack your bags, we leave for Mexico at 7am!”
They were shocked. I totally rocked the surprise thing!
We got to the airport on time and through check in and security with no problems. But then they discovered our scheduled plane had a faulty potty and we would need a new plane. Yay for spending all of Christmas eve morning in the airport!
Four hours later we finally boarded our (direct) flight to Mexico. TV was free until we hit the border, so that was awesome.
Our resort was booked through a vacation brand name, so we had a well organized van system waiting for us. While we were waiting to load in the van, Courtney got her first ever bloody nose. I guess she is a desert girl and her body can't take the humidity.
By evening we had gone to the beach and played in the ocean and promptly decided that none of us really like the sticky icky feeling you get from the ocean. Lucky for us there were four nice pools to choose from.
In our cute little room (that ended up having three singles and a king bed-yay) we read the Christmas story from the scriptures on our smart phones.
Santa found us. He only had room for stockings since we were in a different place on his route, but he wisely brought water toys, floating mats and flip flops.
Being in a tropical location I expected lots of great fruits and such to eat. Not so much. The food at the resort was not exactly fantastic. We pretty much lived on french fries and pasta with alfredo sauce (not that my kids saw anything wrong with that.)
They also grabbed their piña colada and strawberry daiquiris two at a time so they wouldn't have to leave the pool as often.
We decided to venture into the tourist shopping area for a change of scenery. I made sure we all got off the bus at the same time. Then we took off across the street to the flea market. I was across four lanes of traffic before I realized that Gage wasn't with us and I couldn't see him. I left the other three and ran back over. He was still standing by the bus, on the verge of tears. I was pretty freaked. I know about ten words in spanish and none of them are ”my little boy has been kidnapped!”
The girls really wanted to get hair braids so I haggled a good price and left them at one shop to do that while the boys and I wandered around to do their souvenir shopping. After about half an hour I decided to go check on the girls. But I counted my money and I was short. I hadn't set aside enough for the braids, plus I needed bus fare.
While the boys and I had been shopping I meet a vendor who was so excited we were from SLC, Utah because he ”loves the Mormon's.” His wife was Mormon and they had the missionaries over all the time. So I went back to him and asked him where I could find an ATM. He directed me across the street to the actual mall.
I went to where he told me and with great relief swiped my card. Nothing. Again. Nothing. I didn't dare do it a third time, fearing it would deactivate my card. As I wandered around the mall in a state of near panic, Courtney started texting me because they were almost done. I was weighing options like leaving the girls there, taking the boys back to the resort and leaving them. Then bringing money back for the girls. That was probably 40+ minutes round trip and I didn't like that option on either end.
I was seriously about to have a heart attack. Then I saw the (normally) dreaded time share sales booth. I picked a woman, hoping for a little empathy and hoping to not be taken advantage of or robbed, maimed, etc.
She talked to me for almost 20 minutes even though I explained what my (seemingly urgent) problem was, she still needed to try to make the sale. Finally she walked me over to a different ATM and stayed to translate for me. Then she asked me how much I was paying for the braids. She explained that with the denomination of bills I got that the shop would rip me off, so she walked me back to the booth and made change.
She also made me promise to come back and sign up for the presentation after I rescued the girls. I promised. I lied.
(This is turning into a novel. Next time I will blog while I am there so you get it day by day.)
Most of the trip was uneventful. But one day Gage made a friend. They meet at the beach and ran into each other again at the pool. Gage asked me if he could go with this kid to play ds in his hotel room. I said no, but agreed to go to our room and get his ds and meet the kid back at the shaded pool. I left most of my stuff at the party pool where we normally hung out to save my seat. We got his ds and went to the shaded pool. I got him settled at a table and decided to go and get our stuff from the other pool. When I came back, literally five minutes or less later, he was gone. I checked all of the normal places. Then I checked some places we didn't frequent. Then (30 minutes later) I decided to check the room. He wasn't there, but all the other kids were there watching cartoons and eating fries (really, I bring you to Mexico to watch TV?).
I completely lost it then and screamed at them to all go look and meet at the bar in the lobby every five minutes with a report.
After they all left I sat in the room shaking and wondering who the heck takes four little kids to Mexico...alone...without knowing the language...alone...alone. Was I brain damaged? Do I call security? I didn't even know the other boy's name or room number. I didn't know if Gage was with him. Honestly, how stupid was I? Would security do a room by room search of 800 rooms? No one in the history of the planet had ever been as stupid as me at that moment!
Then I decided to pray, then I decided that was stupid and very ”The Friend” (church magazine) of me. Then I decided I didn't care if I was very cliche and primary children-esque I had to find him. So I said a quick prayer and headed down to the lobby bar.
You see, one of the beauties of all inclusive resorts is that the same people are there most of the duration of your trip. One beauty of my kids is they make friends everywhere. So once I sent my kids out to look, they only had to ask a few of their ”friends” and they found Gage in about three minutes in the teen center playing video games!
That kid was so freaking grounded. He never left my sight after that! And there was a prayer of thanks offered. I will never think it is too ”Friend”-ish to pray in the moment again!
Honestly, a few key memorable incidences aside, it was fabulous. Given our unchangeable circumstances, it was the best Christmas I ever could have imagined. I often play in my head what Christmas would have been like had we stayed home (based in fact knowing the weather and options for fun things available to do at home), and I would not have done anything differently. (Except not lose my kid and keep more money in my pocket.)
I would go again every Christmas if I could afford it! (Hint: I am accepting Christmas Trip grants!)
P.S. Do not tell your kids what the ”Don't flush toilet paper sign” is about. For the love...

Christmas with Daddy

I posted this on my Facebook, but I am going to post it here too for anyone who might follow my blog but might not follow the freak show that is my Facebook page.

I got a great idea from a widowed friend to do for Christmas. We took a special little tree up to Jeff and Stephen's grave site. All of us who went wrote our name and the year on an ornament. Then we tied them very tightly to the tree (let's hope they survive the elements!)

If you feel so inclined to visit Jeff this Christmas season, we would love to have you share in our special memories. In the second vase we left behind some bows and some sharpie markers. Please take one and put your name and the year, and if you choose, a message on the ornament and attach it to the tree. (Or feel free to bring an ornament of your choosing with your name and date). Make sure they are attached really well. Then we will go back on New Year's Day to bring the tree home. Next year we will include your memory ornaments on our family tree for Christmas!

Of course, no visit is complete without a balloon release. (Yes I keep a tank on hand!)

And Courtney cleaning the sand from the stone. (Okay, I thought she was kissing it at first too, but she wasn't)

Thanks for all your love and support over the last two years. We wouldn't be as well adjusted as we are without you all (not that that is saying a lot!) ;)

Thanksgiving

So, we have a tradition in our family for Thanksgiving: We only eat tan things, except for the celery with Cheez Whiz. That is all. Our only tradition.
Becca and I had had all of that (being our only) tradition we could stand so we resolved to do active things this Thanksgiving.
This was our year to celebrate the holiday in St. George, which was fortunate, because the weather there is so much more lovely.
After our excessively carby meal we took the kids to hike the red hills of St George.
(the pictures should be here, but they will be at the bottom until I get to a real computer.)
I think it was later that night (good heck, I'm typing this in July, do you really expect me to remember) we went bowling, which was super misguided because pretty much the whole world went bowling.

Halloween

Halloween is technically one of my favorite holidays. The more pagan and worldly the holiday is MEANT to be the more fun I have with it.
You would never know I like Halloween based on my photo albums. My kids have at least two costumes each  year (made out of crap around the house and clearance items from the previous year) but I never get pictures of any of them.
This year, because the boys are in a very academic charter school they did not get to dress up for school (hallelujah).
I always fix chili and bread bowls for dinner so they start off with something healthy, warm, and filling before the candy (and I always eat it alone.)

Lake Powell

We have talked for about a billion years about getting a houseboat on Lake Powell, but we have just never followed through. This year, thanks to my awesome cousin, Adele (yes, THE ADELE!), we were able to actually go! They have a timeshare on a boat and they just happened to have an opening. It was such a great opportunity that I couldn't say no, even though it meant a couple of days missed from school. (I don't know if I made mention of it here, but I enrolled the boys in an amazing charter school, that I love, but they are very serious about what they do and they frown upon missing school for just about any reason. They would have completely hated me during the last school year and probably would have kicked my kids out! ;) ) Anyway, I "climbed aboard" with no hesitation at all! The trip was planned over conference weekend (something which Gage is still bothered by. I am pretty sure I have already posted about how I keep my kids engaged during conference. He wants do do the conference store RIGHT NOW!!)

I haven't been to Lake Powell since I was probably 14. Luckily Adele and Lynn went out of their way to make sure I followed them from Draper and didn't try to have me catch them along the way because apparently the path to Lake Powell is a national secret, guarded from the unclean masses by a lack of road signs and a complete lack of cell signal necessary for communication or GPS.

We arrived at the boat with our necessary supplies, and probably a few unnecessary ones. I tend to overpack. We parked the boat at a little beachy area. The kids couldn't wait to get in the water. I am pretty sure they only got out of the water to eat and to sleep the entire time we were there. The Lamb family, and the other family we were with were so very patient with my kids, who haven't done much in the way of water recreation, but who wanted to try every little thing. So they tried the tubes, the wake boards and even a little skiing.

Adele taught me a cool way to use my sunglasses as a camera filter. Which was extra awesome because I don't even know what camera filter means... We had lots of beach time.

And lots of various boat time.

I was very impressed. The bugs really seemed very unbuggy. The sun was not punishing. The kids all got along really well, even though my kids hadn't really met or spent much time with the other kids. I took lots of time to myself lying on the upper deck just enjoying nature (no, I did not touch that nasty water, I don't even want to think of the things floating in it!) Sleeping under the stars was beautiful. I don't think I have done that since Jeff and I were dating and we had a little camp out in the bed of my pickup truck. On the way home we all stopped at a little burger place. I guess we took too long loading up and leaving, or we didn't drive fast enough, or something. But those directions back home seemed to still be a national secret of unmarked roads. But along our journey back to something that looked familiar, we saw some cool things that we want to go back and explore more. So next summer we will be taking a tour of Utah to see some cool sites.

That Is Just About Enough Camping

We went camping entirely too much this summer. I know that you camping enthusiasts will say that isn't possible, but I assure you, it is. I swear we went every weekend. And I pretty much hated most of it. The list of things I will do for my kids is appalling.

One of the more memorable trips this year was the camp out with my mom's side of the family. And it wasn't necessarily the camping that was memorable, it was the getting there (and to some degree, getting home.)

First off,the truck gets about three miles to the gallon and has about a three gallon tank. I have very specific rules about gas stations when I am pulling the trailer. No backing, and no angles to start. Add to that, the beast takes diesel and you start to see that the options are quite limited.

We were going up Spanish Fork Canyon, and I started with a full tank. By the time I realized that the full tank want going to get me back off the mountain too, I had already passed all the gas stations. I decided to push ahead, get to camp, unhook and go fill up with just the truck. See, I'm a thinker and a planner.

We followed directions, with Kim and Warren following (or leading, I can't remember and it doesn't matter). We get off the paved road and we are cruising along and come upon uncle Rick. He says we are close, just around a couple of curves and a bridge and we are there. So now we are following him. Going a reasonable speed. He goes around a bend. I swing wide, I always do. Them BOOM it is like a bomb goes off. I gun it, nothing. I hadn't even seen a rock or anything. I look behind me and the trailer is practically resting in the truck. I decide to get out and look. (Rick had continued without realizing I was stuck.)

A kindly old gentleman and his wife come up on a 4-wheeler (I swear, there is one in every camp area in Utah!) And then Warren comes up from behind me, I must have been leading. And not too long later Rick comes back to see where we are. It turns out I hadn't swung quite wide enough and the truck cleared a ditch, but the trailer didn't. The ditch was about 5 feet deep - and empty, luckily.

The old man suggests that we put a rope around the trailer and pull the opposite way from the ditch to keep it from tipping further. Bless his heart...

By this time, there is a huge line of cars behind me. It turns out that there was a ward party up in the area we were headed for. Seriously awesome...this is my real life! I walk away like I had nothing to do with this train wreck. The men decide that we should use the jack (I believe they call this kind of jack a handyman jack or a widowmaker jack) and jack up the back of the trailer until the (excessively flat and bent, brand new) tire is level with where the ground should be and then gun it. Sounds fabulous, right.

Shockingly enough, it totally worked, and there is a super cool reminder forever etched in the back door of the trailer when the jack flew after the trailer as it was gunned out of the hole. And no, I didn't not drive it for that part, I made Warren, he is a trooper and I was super done with my ability to "man up"! We got it out of the road so the ward party could pass, then we changed the tire and got to camp.

Whew! Now to unhook and go get gas. No, the dang jacks on the trailer won't work. And before you go blaming me for breaking those in the crash, you should know that at some point, during a previous year camp out, Jeff had duct taped the jack together. So it wasn't me, it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, or it may have been the 10 camp outs we did this summer, but those jacks were not coming down. And I am now running on fumes.

Rick had also had a flat tire on the trip up so he decided to go and get a replacement tire, and at the same time buy a gas can and some fuel for me. I won't bore you with all the details, but he got a flat coming down the canyon and spent about an hour on the side of the road waiting for AAA. Life is an adventure, and I have had my share for a while.

Grandkids Camp

About a year ago we went to a family reunion at Sally's sister's cabin in the Uintahs. Judy told us about a camp they do every other summer for their grand kids over eight. Sally thought it was a great idea (we concurred). As soon as Jeff heard his mom consider it he started pushing for it, and we both pushed for lowering the age to seven. There is a gap between Gage and the next youngest grand kid of three years, so Gage would be the only kid not invited who would know what was going on (and oh, yeah, the only one of my kids left at home.) Persistence, whining and guilt, mixed with massive amounts of love and compassion paid off, and all of my kids got a golden ticket to grand kids camp.

Aunt Tiff went so that Madison could go (no way was that age getting lowered to 2, but if the momma came, the kid could come!) I am glad she did, because I stole all of these pictures from her Facebook!

They spent some wonderful time with their grandparents and cousins. They played hiked splashed in streams, and did some testimony building activities. I think they all had a wonderful time (even grandpa).

Here are the kids enjoying nature. Gage might be enjoying it a little too much!

It will be a sad day for these girls if Grandpa ever decides they are too big to sit on his lap.

Technically, Gage was only six when grandkid camp started, but he was seven when it ended!!

I only hope I have the whining power to make it an annual camp instead of ever other year.

Children are an heritage to the Lord...

Gage's Birthday

Birthday season was filled with lots of indecisiveness and lack of planning on my part (not really different for me, but the fog made it hard to push through.)

The previous year for Gage's birthday we had rented out a neighbor's backyard pool. Those sweet neighbors offered it to us again for his birthday this year. That made it easy. They have BBQ stuff on site, so a quick trip to Costco for some burgers and a few texts to friends and families was all that we needed to do.

This turns in to a bring your whole family party, so I planned for 75ish people. We had right around that number come. Not everyone swims. There is a lot of visiting and catching up among the old people (like me). But the kids have a great time.

They barely pause for eating and they swim until it is so dark we have to turn the dogs loose on them. (Literally, we turn the dogs loose on them. When the last few stragglers won't get out on the pool, we let out the neighbor's labs who love to swim. It scares the crap out of the kids and they are out in seconds.)

Good times!!

Also, we threw in celebrating my nephew, Marcus, at the same time.