Mexico

So after losing my mind the first month husband was gone, we finally got a break.  In Mexico!  That's where my parents www.salishaire.blogspot.com are currently.  Their version of our trip is here. We flew in to Cabo and met husband there.  The kids are pretty easy to travel with now-we are able to keep to two carry on backpacks which oldest son and I carry. We get on the plane, hand out electronics and snack bags and veg out.

The kids got a little restless in the airport as husband's flight was about an hour behind ours, so we changed our pants and shoes.  H did some boat pose to pass the time.

 

Once we made it to the boat, my dad kept the kids on the lookout for wildlife with a scavenger hunt.  V was on the lookout for whales and birds. This was her kind of trip-boat, water, sand.

 

Some people have asked-how do you add 5 people to a boat that already has 2 people and a dog?

 

No worries, there's space for all of us!  Here's husband and my bunk.  We used to have a kid sleep on the bunk above, but now 2 are in the captain's house (there's 2 bunks there) and one sleeps in the main living quarters.

 

 

The adults and V embraced the concept of siesta each afternoon.

 

We traveled from Los Cabos to Friar's Bay where we spent a few days snorkling (we got usnorks for all of us which were pretty comfortable and easier to keep track of than separate mask and mouthpiece) and playing on the beach.  It's a national park so it was pretty and quiet, though a little windy. I was glad I'd brought a light sweatshirt.

 

When we arrived, C, I and V swam to shore while H and husband took the kayak.

 

 

After playing at the beach, grandpa got out the dremel tool to help V turn her shells into jewelry.

I spent my time at the beach building a sandcastle

The rocky beach (far end) was where we went snorkling. We also climbed that hill.  The near side was very soft sand to play in.

 

We found coconuts!

 

 Not to miss out on Christmas traditions, we decorated cookies

 

 

Beautiful sunsets

 

We were lucky enough to catch the local biologist on the beach when dad and I were walking one morning.  She gathers turtle nests and puts them in an enclosure to protect them from predators and every morning would sift through to find hatchlings.  Then at 10am put them in the ocean.

The shells

The biologist estimated that 1 in 1,000 will come back to nest. We watched them for quite awhile as they made their trek to the ocean.

C and H made a different kind of sand castle

 

V collected coconuts

 

We did climb that hill.  Mom and dad had previously made it to the top.  This time Mom, husband, I and H made it.

 

 

Ready for the beach!

 

Mom still gets a little exercise.

 We then took a bus into Cabo so the kids could spend their scavenger hunt reward money. Turns out they all have secret bargaining skills.  C ended up with a wood shark, H and wood turtle and V a small purse.

After such a busy month it was the perfect vacation and getting to see family was a bonus. The feeling of relaxation and letting go has so far stayed with me in to January!

 

 

Fall 2018

Our yearly family photo

 

We kept busy this fall. 
Sundays were spent at the curling club. H is the only child curling this year and that means I'm instructing. But because he's moved up to the 9-12 year old division I have as well for teaching and teach alongside one of my teammates. 

Monday and Wednesday nights were at the pool with V.

 

Tuesday nights I curled and C took a class at the local university regarding computer stuff-video game design, programming, etc.

 

Thursday night was also curling.

 

Friday night H ice skates.

 

We continued encouraging a competitive spirit in the kids by playing board games. 

 

(my mortgaged properties are on the nearside, V counts up my money to pay her as she holds Boardwalk).

 

I love that the kids are at the ages now that we are having really good Pictionary games and the only words we have to skip are "old fashioned" words like nylons, abacus, shag carpet. (Though I had to explain denim and toupee to V). However, I think that the two smallest children are savants in Pictionary and the eldest is not too shabby, either. I am very glad we split them amongst the adults and am terrified at how badly we'd be crushed if we did adults v. kids.

 

My niece earned a spot as Clara in the Nutcracker production that she was in last year.

 

H's favorite time of the year-eggnog season started

 

 

We tried out the skating pad in the town's new arena.  Way better than our old leaky arena and there's a walking/running track which I've been taking advantage of with walking/running partners as the colder weather arrives.

 

 

So far school's going well. 

I Found out C has been helping out at school to be a lunch monitor for a Grade 2 class every day, reading announcements to the school one day every two weeks and student secretary (a students answers the phone and helps people while the secretary eats lunch) one day every two weeks (they are on a 10 day cycle). Also, I had to poke around school and find out these things. Two teachers today stopped me and said he's "such a nice kid"

A friend I scrapbook with and I met up with another mutual scrapbooking friend in Niagara Falls NY and attended her wedding!  She and her now husband had a destination wedding and when we found out how close it would be we asked to crash it and she was happy to have her two witnesses to sign off. I'd never been to the American side of the falls-it's a very different perspective.

 

 

I hosted Canadian Thanksgiving at our house and made some green bean casserole as my American contribution. 


I'm still going to the gym I started going to in July. Still haven't lost any weight but am getting stronger.  I did a pilates/yoga pass in November and December and attended lots of classes to work on my core and back to counteract the walking, running and curling I also do.

V made cranapple crisp at school and shared it with the rest of us.

 

Halloween came!  We all made costumes and trick or treated for lots of candy. C made it up and down our street, the little kids canvased the whole neighborhood then divided the candy up between the simple chocolate (V) the non-chocolate (H) and the fancy chocolate (mom and dad)

 

 

H's shirt was made with one of my new, fun crafting tools, iron on vinyl.

 

the kids continue to amaze me with their creative activities & questionable fashion choices

 

C made this puppet out of modeling clay, some screw rings and string

H got a castle setup for his Stickbots and put it together. He and V got quite in to the building of it and did it all by themselves.

Making pizza at home.

Luckily I caught her before she went off to school with my headband on.

 

H's birthday costume we got him-Steve from Minecraft!

 

 

Heading over to school in our jammies for movie night.

 

 

Husband and the kids have been playing a role-playing book game on many evenings.  I love that they have an activity that they are sharing.

 

C keeps growing. I guess that comes with being 13. He's not quite in adult men's clothes, but he's at the tail end of the teen clothes and I'm having to get a little more inventive with finding places to shop.  He's still not taller than me though.  Yes, he's growing out his mustache and plans to wax it in to a bicycle handle motif.

 

 

 

I tried a very Canadian activity for the first time.  Snowblowing.  My father in law gave his to ours now that he's moving into a community where it's done for residents and my brother in law was kind enough to come over and give me a lesson since his is the same model.  He told me to stay in 1st gear for awhile. Especially after I backed myself into the house...

 

 

Is this on the citizenship exam???

 

We've had snow and cold even though it's not officially winter. Not looking forward to this! Especially since.... drumroll, please....  husband is working on the west coast!  We aren't sure how long or how it will work out but for now he's started in November back at his old company and they are so glad to have him back.  It was a little crazy in November/December because I've been working a merchandising job. Basically I go out to stores and check on products for companies, set up advertising displays, put product on shelves, etc.  It's interesting work that is very flexible and keeps me out and about.  That being said it's also in the retail sector, so Nov/December was crazy busy at work and it was the first month husband was gone. I was also getting ready for our holiday travel (see next post) where we'd get to see him after his first month of work.  That's why I've neglected the blog!

 

 

 

 

2018 reading list

Books I read in 2018:
1) Arthur Pepper's Curious Charms
2) Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
3) Big Brother (Lionel Shriver)
4) 100 Year Old Man Went out the Window
5) Secret Sister
6) Lovely Bones
7) Alligator (would not recommend)
8) The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe
9) The Architect (Keith Ablow)
10) The Carosel (Richard Paul Evans)
11) Lean Mean Thirteen (Evanovich)
12) Before We Were Yours
13) A Wrinkle in Time
14) The Story Keeper
15) Four to Score
16) The Prayer Box
17) Turtles All the Way Down (Green)
18) Hot Six
19) High Five
20) The Nest
21) Then She was Gone (Lisa Jewell-loving her books)
22) Confessions of a Domestic Failure (Bunmi Laditan)
23) The Good Daughter (Karin Slaughter-also loving this author)
24) Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
25) Class Action
26) The Art of Racing in the Rain
27) The Broken Girls (Simone St. James)
28) Whistle in the Dark
29) The Immortalists (Chloe Benjamin)
30) Mr. Flood's Last Resort (Jess Kidd)
31) The Mars Room (Rachel Kushner)
32) Our Kind of Cruelty (Araminta Hall)
33) Tin Man ( Sarah Winmari)
34) Underground Canada
35) Finishing School
36) Among the Mad
37) Saints for All Occasions
38) The Rosie Project
39) The Conscience Parent
40) Eat Move Think
41) Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng)
42) Firefly Lane
43) Educated
44) One Crazy Summer
45) Standard Deviation
46) Nothing Sacred (Lewis Black)
47) Suburgatory
48) Land Mammals & Sea Creatures
49) All the Beautiful Lies (Peter Swanson
50) After Anna (Lisa Scottoline-good author)
51) Girl, Wash Your Face
52) Escape Artist
53) Every Note Played (Scottoline)
54) Second Nature (Alice Hoffman)
55) Rules of Magic (Alice Hoffman)
56) The Rosie Effect
57) I'll Push You
58) Wishtree
59) Faithful (Alice Hoffman)
60) The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
61) Fortunes Daughter (Alice Hoffman)
62) Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman)
63) Hunger Fix
64) 13 Things Mentally Strong People Do