Events First Week In Mexico

 Dear Kids, 

We've been in Playa Del Carmen for 5 whole days! Wow it's been a complete whirlwind.

I'll give you the update of the "events", then in another post I'll write about some emotional experiences. 

1. We left Tooele on January 27th to go down to St. George. We got a hotel there so we could have our own space (we have been so ready for our own space!). We had to take some legal documents to our tax guy, work on getting the truck cleaned to give to Merrill to sell, see Mesha and the kids, see Shirlyn and Katie and their kids, and a few other errands that needed to be run. We picked up the van from Ashla Friday night so we could have it for loading our stuff.

2. We left EARLY on Saturday morning January 29th to go to Vegas. Ashla Clay drove us down there, which was great to catch up with her. She was so giving of her time and resources to do that for us. I just love her! Our relationship is really amazing and how we can help each other. We got there in plenty of time and actually there weren't very many people at all so going through security was amazing! So easy. We had like an hour in the airport before our plane took off. 

3. We decided to do the direct flight from Vegas to Cancun on JetBlue. It was a little more expensive, but since it was the kids first time flying, I'm really glad we did it so we didn't have to worry about switching planes or any layovers. The day was long enough with all of that!

4. You all LOVED the plane! It was so great to see your eyes as we took off and as you saw the ground getting smaller below us after take off. Elijah said, "I just don't know if I can keep watching the ground get smaller!!" and he slammed the window covering shut! haha! It was hilarious. Talia's eyes were like Christmas morning seeing everything around her and how the plane worked and flying inside the clouds. She loved it! When we got to Cancun and we were flying over the ocean, that FREAKED Gabe out a bit, but he was excited about the adventure of it. Joshua just played games the whole time. 

5. We got into Cancun at about 6:30pm local time (which is Eastern Standard Time). Pasqual was recommended to us by our airbnb host for transportation, and he was awesome. He worked in the US for a while and spoke great English. He dropped us off at a store to grab some supplies and we got to the airbnb. Everyone was EXHAUSTED. It was a long day of traveling and you guys all did amazing!! 

6. Our cute apartment was pretty easy to wrap our hearts around. It was really great colors and good energy. Brent dedicated the space and we just hung around on Sunday. We went for a walk on Sunday and you all got to see a bit of the neighborhood. It was hard for you guys to see the trash that was thrown around. Talia was really bothered by it especially. She had a different idea in mind of what things would look like and it shook her up a little bit. I told her to remember when I said that it would be dirtier here than in the US. She said, "yes I remember you saying that but I didn't think it would be like THAT." In reality it was hard for everyone to see all the differences. We had a little bit of traveling shock for sure. I had a break down on Sunday night (I'll write about that later).

7. Monday was a brighter day. We were able to start a good school routine first thing. It felt good to get back into the swing of school, we've been off our routine for SEVERAL months because of Mimi's death, then we got sick, then Grandma Kvarfordt passed away, then we started watching the Merrell girls in December, then holidays, then we went to Dani's and at Dani's there was no structure for a few weeks... needless to say we were all ready to get back into a routine together. You all jumped in like no time had passed - I'm so grateful that you have the rhythm muscles and know how to get back into getting your schoolwork done. We've always had a basic routine with reading, math, copywork, scripture reading, family reading. We have always done the basics really well. 

8. We kept at our routine Tuesday - Thursday. Everyone went on lots of walks - you are all going to be having quite a few walking muscles by the time we are finished here! Which is good, we all need it. We took laundry to the laundromat on Thursday (only $7 for the whole week of laundry!), walked to the supermaket a few times, found some new places, figured out how the bus system worked... which that is a whole thing in and of itself. Everywhere we've traveled (we've mainly traveled in Europe) has bus stops and bus schedules. It's not like that here. There are vans that act as buses and they have their main destinations on the front of the windshields. When you want to catch one you just stick your hand out and tell them where to go. We also went swimming for a few days at the pool there are some great trees by the pool and it's super quaint. 

9. Me and Dad went to the downtown area a few times to check it out - took buses to get there. We went to Walmart to get more supplies before we found all the stores we could walk to that were by our house. We checked out where the church was so we had that in our minds for Sunday. 

10. Your dad and I were able to start reviewing the podcast project we are working on while we are here for a couple of days. I was able to get a couple good runs in and yoga sessions by the pool. Your dad was able to start a cleanse he's doing and go for a few exercise sessions as well around the neighborhood. I got the first meditation outlined for the podcasts... it's off to a good start! Little bit at a time. 

Then today is Friday! It's been a good eventful week. We rented a car today to have for the week. Dani and Alan are here for the week so we figured it was a good time to rent a car and use it. It ended up being more expensive than we thought, but we just do our best to get our money's worth out of it! 

You are all getting used to the small apartment space. It does feel GREAT to have a space of our own again without getting into anyone's way. We have to be careful with the energy of you kids because it's an apartment and you have to get out and get your energy out as often as possible!

We are having an adventure! This is definitely filling up my adventure bucket that is for sure.

I love you. I hope you all know that a huge reason why we are doing this is for YOU and your LIFE EXPERIENCE. We want you to experience different cultures and way's of being. It's important, especially for building up of the kingdom of God. 

Your Mom