Jack!!!

Jack's 5!!  Say what?!!  He looks like he's 6 or 7 and wears the same size shoe as his 8 year old sister, so I guess turning 5 was bound to happen soon enough.  It still doesn't make it easy when I look at pictures like the one below. Why do little things have to get bigger?  I would totally get a puppy or a kitten if they would promise to stay small.  This boy absolutely won my heart when he was born and continues to steal a piece of it every day.  

This little nugget is the light of my life!  He makes me laugh every day just by the funny little things that come out of his mouth.  And to top it all off, he's developed a tiny little Texas drawl which makes me soooo happy!!  I am a sucker for accents!!  Lately I've been asking him if I can count his freckles.  I love doing this because for a short few moments, he will stand completely still and let me stare at his face while he stares back at mine.  I pretend to count all his "hundreds of freckles" while I actually just stare at his adorable little face.  I could stare at that face all blasted day.  I LOVE IT!!  

This year Jack started sports.  We were feeling like he needed some extracurriculars since we were always practicing the piano with Sadie and going to her concerts.  It was Jack's turn to shine.  He started with flag football with his buddy Preston.  They were much better at looking cute on the field than actually playing the game.  There were times that an opponent would run by with the ball and the two boys would just stand there and watch him make a touchdown.  Jack thought it was pretty fun to just get on the field and RUN!  It was his first experience with the game and we got a pretty big kick out of watching the other parents scream at their kids.  This IS Texas and football is everything to these people.  We were just happy Jack was having fun!

He was mostly excited about his trophy.  Isn't that the only reason we participate in anything?  So we can get a trophy?  That's what I thought when I ran my first (and only) triathlon and was sorely disappointed when they handed me a key chain at the finish line.  Jack's outcome was far greater.  

Jack loves everything about sports and will ONLY wear "basketball" shorts, unless they're in the washer in which case he will resort to a pair of khakis, very begrudgingly I might add.  He and George still love "shooting hoops" into our little Fisher Price basketball hoop we keep in the living room.  The other day I was complimenting Jack on his excellent basketball skills:

M:  Good job Jack!

J:  I know.  I'm an awesome basketball player.  You know what this sign is on the ball (white Nike sign).  That means it's the BEST BALL EVER!!!

Can't say he's not confident.  The other day he said "I'm really good at tennis, but my dad just has to teach me."  

He's even confident about sports he's never played!

The whole family was pretty excited about Jack's first trophy!!

Next sport to try out was soccer.  We put him on a team with his buddies Preston and Desmond.  He did a pretty good job looking handsome on that field.  He didn't really know what to do when a ball came near him but he sure had fun!!

We had fun watching them play too.  I love this picture of the spectating dad's with pudgy little George looking ridiculously chubby and adorable.  Go horns!!

By the end of the season , he was getting pretty good at kicking the ball and figuring out the game.  The best part was, he LOVED it.  He's wasn't the kind of kid who got devastated if they lost the game or if he never made his own goal.  He just loved getting out there and playing the game.  

.....and, he got another trophy!!!  Wahoo!!  

Here he is with his team (above) and his buddy Desmond (below), 

These two have become fast and forever friends as well.  George absolutely adores Jack and will copy everything he does.  Jack is so sweet with George too and will often give up a toy that G wants just to make peace.  One day I overheard him talking to George while they were walking along somewhere.  "George, lets go find Daddy.  C'mon George.  I'll walk slow for you." 

 Often times we'll hop on the scooter and drive over to the construction sight up the street where they are building a new road and some new homes too.  These boys will stare in a trance at the excavators, bulldozers and front loaders,  They know ALL the truck's names and could stand there all day watching them work.  Sometimes we'll even go on rainy days.  Jack once said "I wish Jesus was here, so he could stop the rain."  Me too buddy, except I'm usually wishing he'd bless us with more rain.    

His most exciting triumph was learning to ride Sadie's bike.  When we bought her  bike, we purposefully bought a gender neutral color so Jack could ride it too.  Sadie was more than happy to share since we told he she would be getting a new bike for her birthday.  We never even put the training wheels on.  I had him practice on little Chase's scoot bike first so he could get the balancing act down, then it was to the bike!!  He is our "cautious" child.  It usually takes him a bit to warm up to something (which is probably why it took me a year to potty train him).  He was very good at balancing and pedaling but would absolutely FREAK OUT if there was even the slightest downward slope.  It took him a while to figure out how to break going down hill and would only ride on level streets or in the cul-de-sac.   It took months just to get him to go down our rather steep driveway but once he finally figured out the brakes, he took off!!  He's totally a daredevil on that bike now and makes me VERY nervous when he zooms down our street!  

One day while we were riding bikes in the church parking lot after story time, I had to ask him to be a little more careful. In this instance, he was riding his scooter, which is another vehicle he's pretty darn good at.  Grandpa was floored when he rode that scooter all the way to the circle c park and back which is about 4 miles and totally kept up with us on our bikes.  This one day in the parking lot I told him he needed to stop for cars when they entered (which wasn't very often, but made us mommies very nervous nonetheless).  He replied:

J:  I don't want to stop for cars on my scooter in the parking lot.

M:  If you see cars, you need to stop so you don't get hit.

J:  No, I can just limbo under the cars.

M.  limbo under the cars?

J:  Ya, like a secret agent.  Like secret agent Pablo. (Backyardigans).  

Glad we have a fine grasp on the realistic view of things around here.    

Jack is a smart little cookie too.  I love seeing the things that he builds with his train tracks and blocks.  One day another mother at preschool sent me a picture of  a roller coaster he built out of blocks.  She was so blown away at his skills, she felt I needed to see it too.  It was a pretty impressive roller coaster. Sometimes he'll build train tracks at home weaving the tracks around the banister.  If a train were ever to derail it would go plummeting to the first floor below.  I love his innovative thoughts and way of executing such amazing towers.  I should seriously take pictures of everything he builds because they're all mini masterpieces.  

We like to build forts on the weekends and tell stories inside before the kids go to sleep in their sleeping bags.  One night Jack was telling Chase a very elaborate story about a pink monster.  Chase said he had never heard of a pink monster before and Jack said "that's because it's fiction."  We didn't know he knew what "fiction" even meant!

When Sadie was heading to the museum for a field trip, Jack asked if she were going to see real dinosaurs!  I told him she was only going to see dinosaur bones and he responded "that's because dinosaurs are dead, they're stinked (extincted) Mom."

He has also started LOVING the game Monopoly which thankfully Sadie will play with him.  That's one game I have NEVER liked.  One time while playing Chase when we first got married, I was getting richer and richer while Chase was selling properties and pretty much penniless.  It just about broke my heart, even though I knew it was just a game.  I never played the game since.  It makes me too sad when I win and too mad when I lose.  I overheard Jack and Sadie playing the other day and had to chuckle when I heard Jack  say "I need more properties!!"  When do you ever hear a 4 year old state that he needs more "properties" of all things.  

He's super guapo but very modest at the same time.  I told him he didn't need to wear a swim shirt to the pool one night because it wasn't too sunny.  He looked very concerned and said "I don't want to take my shirt off!  I don't want anyone to see my belly button."  Way to stick up for your standards Jack!!  

Chase was teaching the 11 year old scouts for a while and would bring Jack along with him to their activities.  The scouts LOVED Jack and he loved them.  One day he asked me "Mom, when am I going to be bigger?  Like the scouts?" 

He's still a slightly "undiagnosed" narcolept. He can fall asleep just about anywhere and does, quite frequently.  The other day I took him on a scooter ride while George was taking a nap.  I guess he was tired or I rode around FAR too long because all of a sudden I noticed his big helmet start to sway.  Then he started moving the steering wheel, even after I told him not to.  It didn't take long before his helmeted head finally crashed down on top of the speedometer where he immediately started snoozing.....standing up....while riding on a motorized vehicle!!!!  It was H-I-Larious!! 

He's also the one kid in our family that always seems to catch "the bug" when it skips by everyone else.  He's always had a sensitive stomach and gets fevers way more often than the other chiddlers.  

One day he had a pretty nasty couch so I asked him if he needed any cough syrup to which he responded, "No, I just have a little "bless you" mixed up with my cough.  The "bless you" makes the cough even stronger!"

And like his sister Sadie, the seasonal allergies have taken their toll on him as well.  He too wakes up with puffy, itchy eyes in the spring.  It doesn't get this happy guy down though!

We've been trying for years to keep "potty language" out of our house.  Jack thinks it's just too funny though. The other day he had this conversation with Chase:

J:  Dad, I just tooted.

D:  Ya, I know.  I heard it.

J:  You should give me a treat because I didn't say "fart."  

Little weasel. 

 Jack is my little super hero.  Whenever I find a "monster" (cockroach) in our house (dead or alive), I'll have Jack take a heavy bowl over to the disgusting creature and cover it up until Daddy comes home to kill it.   I won't go near the things, but Jack is totally brave enough to trap one.  One day, I found a dead one in my closet and said "Jack, guess what I found in my closet?" 

J:  What is it?  (probably hoping for something exciting)

M:  A cockroach!!!

J:  Why aren't you screaming then?

M:  (Chuckles)

J:  I have some big shoes on (my shoes) to stomp it out.  

I will always remember him walking into my closet wearing my over sized running shoes.  What a guy!!

Here he is at the Salt Lick, totally zonked out before dinner even arrived.  I guess he played too hard that day with Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Chad.  I love seeing him snuggled up to Chase.  He loves his dad and apparently Dad loves him too.  One day Jack proclaimed that "Daddy put chocolate bunnies AND cookies in my lunch because he wubs me."  It's true Jack.  Dad gives you double desserts because he wubs you berry much!  

When we were practicing writing his letters, I told Jack to write a "mommy D" (uppercase D) and then a "baby d" would be the lowercase D.  Jack told me he was going to call his uppercase D's, "daddy D's" instead because he "loves his daddy so much."  

He's such a sweet little kid.  We were making a birthday card for his teacher.  He decided to put it on red paper and put pink, purple and red heart stickers all over it because he "loves his teacher."  It looked a lot more like a valentine than a birthday card when it was done, but you should have seen the pride on that kid's face.  His teacher was going to love it! 

I camped out all morning to get Jack a spot at this amazing preschool this year.  I absolutely loved his school and he did too.  He also had a lot of friends in his class too so he never had any issues going in and making himself comfortable.  Here we are at the Mother's Day tea where I was presented with a beautiful hat and gifts that Jack  made me.  

I always asked him when he got home from preschool what he did and who he played with.  Sometimes he'll come home and say "Did you notice that Miss Jennifer let us eat our snacks outside today?"  Or he'll say "Did you notice that Henry pushed Chase on the playground today?"  I don't think he has figured out that "did you notice" can only work in a sentence if the person was actually there to "notice" the event.  He says "did you notice" all the time and I LOVE IT!!  

I once asked him if he played on the playground to which he replied ,"Yes!" I then asked him what he did on the playground and he said "I just played with Chase because I wub him."  He and his buddy Chase will forever be the dynamic duo.  They are besties for sure and had a great year at West Oak Woods together.  Here they are below riding their bikes.  Something they both learned to do this year!

When Chase and I got home from Mexico (another blog post of it's own) Jack told me that I smelled like "Idaho."  Pops and CC must have told him we were in Mexico and it sounded a lot like Idaho to him.  We brought back this mask for him and it would be a HUGE understatement to say he LOVED it!!  He told everyone he met that his parents brought him this mask from "Idaho" too.  The other night we thought it would be fun to show the kids Nacho Libre with Jack Black.  Jack was so overcome by the film, he ran upstairs and put his mask on while running around the room doing his best "wrestling" moves.  

He loved the mask so much, he even wore it out and about and to storytime.  The other day Chase asked him how anyone would recognize him if he were wearing his mask to which Jack responded "Of course everyone will recognize me.  I'm batman!" (Can you spot him among the crowd?) 

I felt a little bad for Jack on his birthday because it fell on a Saturday and we had a TON going on that day.  We did our best to make him feel special and even had time to make his favorite breakfast, German pancakes, before we ran out the door to Sadie's piano recital.

Ryan Gee knew it was Jack's birthday, so before the recital even started, he had Jack come up in front of the audience so we could sing happy birthday to him.  Of course Jack was a little embarrassed and the rest of us were astounded at his cuteness, and also, Ryan's incredible rendition of the song. Did we pick a great piano teacher or what?!!

Our next event was ward temple day.  I felt bad again for dragging Jack on a long car ride to San Antonio on his birthday, so we stopped at Chick Fil-A on the way there which made him VERY happy.  I was told that the youth and leaders watching the kids in the gym while we went to the temple also singled Jack out and sang Happy Birthday to him.  Of course the best part of the day was driving back to the temple after we picked the kids up to see the beautiful grounds and play in the fountains, of course.  

We celebrated with cake and presents the next day after church.  Way better than trying to squeeze it into that crazy Saturday!  Look at these three!!  What did I do to deserve such amazing little blessings for children?!

Oh my goodness.  That face!!

He got some legos and other toys but he was most excited about his new basketball shorts!!  It's always good to add another pair to the wardrobe so he's not wearing the same ones for five days in a row.  

Jack, words will never be good enough to express my love for you.  You are a gift from heaven.  A delightful, squishable, lovable, handsome little dude.  Thank you so much for all you bring to our family.  We all love you soooooooooooooooo much!!!

Mehhhico

Chase and I decided we had earned the right to take a vacation after never leaving our children for more than two days in over 8 blasted years.  If you think about it, we got married and had about five peaceful months of bliss before I got pregnant and turned into a nauseated crazy lady, then law school, then baby and then LIFE!!  After our honey moon nearly 10 years ago, we pretty much stayed put.  The only time I remember leaving the kids was when we came to Austin to find a house and that was NOT a vacation.  It was 106 degrees, we worked all day with a realtor, and every night pretty much ended with me in tears because I was so exhausted!  

So when some of our friends invited us to go to Mexico with them, we at first declined because we've just never done anything so "reckless" before.  Who leaves their children for a whole week to a destination full of fun, relaxation and bliss?  Not us!!  I'm so glad our friends were persistent because the more they pushed, the more we realized that the stars were actually aligning in our favor, which happens rarely for us Cannons.  Sadie was getting baptized the 17th and our friends were leaving the 18th.  We actually had child care because we would have two sets of grandparents and Uncle Curtis to choose from to watch our chiddlers if we decided to go.  My parents already had a trip planned to England but Pops and CC mulled it over and finally agreed to stay an extra week.  They were kind enough to put off piano lessons and other obligations back in Utah to spend some quality time with our little nuggets.  Uncle Curtis offered to watch them too.  Not only would the kids be in great hands if we went, but they'd actually be in far better hands with one adult per child as opposed to Chase and I who are always outnumbered.  So we called the travel agency and put our reservation on hold.  Just in case we wanted to go.  A trip like this has always seemed so out of reach for us, for many reasons but mainly because we've never had childcare.  After a few days of going over how perfectly this situation was working out for us, we finally just called the travel agent and booked the trip!!  Wahoo!!  Peace out kids!!

Sadie got baptized, we celebrated her amazing decision, kissed them all goodbye and hopped on a plane to Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  Even the small event of being on a plane without children made us giddy.  It was like we were college sweethearts again!

Our hotel was amazing, the grounds were incredible, but the rooms were disgusting.   My Spanish came in handy as I was able to complain about our accommodations after reading that the hotel was supposedly "5 star." After three room changes, we were finally in a comfortable spot, but it took a little work on our part.  Our first room had a cockroach in it and was right next to a pool where a man was on a microphone screaming some sort of gibberish. Our second room not only had dirty sheets (I always turn down the bed to look for bugs after traveling in South America), there was also rust dripping down our shower curtain and more rust all over the shower, sink and toilet.  It was disgusting.  I don't think I would have made such a stink if the hotel didn't claim to be 5 star.  This was making a Motel 8 look glamorous! Finally after taking pictures of our room and speaking to the manager of the hotel, we were set up in a very nice room farther down the path from the main hotel (and our friends) but still, WAY more comfortable and accommodating.  So after four hours, we were finally checked in and ready to party!!

We finally met up with our friends on the beach and then headed to dinner.  The trip was all inclusive, including food and drinks.  So whenever we felt like eating, we just went to the buffet or restaurant and ate.  Chase couldn't believe he could have as many "virgin" pina coladas as his heart desired.  It made the trip totally worth it for him. Our first night after dinner, we went to a "family friendly" (or so we thought) show in the main lobby that looked semi-entertaining.  The host asked for volunteers and still feeling giddy that we were traveling without children, I volunteered Chase and me and then some of our friends followed.  There were four of us couples on stage and we were pretty excited!  Then the guy tells us we are going to have a "battle of the sexes" between the couples.  How bad could it be right?  First he brings out some beers and explained the game where we would have to guzzle our drinks faster than our opponents.  Ya, that wasn't going to fly.  The show ended up being REALLY boring for the guy and all the spectators because after presenting every event, we had to tweak it a bit because of our Mormon beliefs.  I felt bad for the guy and wishing I had never volunteered but it was a good memory to say the least!

Chase and I were a bit hesitant to go on this trip with 5 other couples mainly because we were worried that we wouldn't get get to see each other enough, especially if all the guys wanted to do something and the girls wanted to do something else.  We decided before we went that we were going to stick together and just chill.  We didn't want an agenda and really wanted to spend the week just relaxing and doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.  If the others wanted to go somewhere and see some sights, we'd go if we wanted to.  One such sight was going to see the ancients Tulum Ruins that were once occupied by the Mayan people.  Our friends wanted to do a tour with a Mormon dude who could tell them all the awesome facts relating to the Lamanite people. Chase and I have never really been into tours, so we just did our own thing.  That's what Wikipedia is for!

The ruins were right by the sea and port of Coba.  What an amazing place for these Mayan people to set up camp.  We loved seeing all the buildings and the wild life around.  While climbing up some rocks, we ran into a very large iguana that wouldn't move out of the way until we were about a step  from jumping over him.  We also loved the Coatimundis.  They reminded me of little monkey/racoons and had the sweetest faces.  They would hold up their little hands and take food from us.  I wanted to take one home with me by the end of the trip.  

We explored for a while until a massive and torrential rain storm came our way.  It was crazy!!  We ran under some palm trees for cover but were still getting drenched.  After a while I started to worry about our cameras and iPhones getting wet.  The rain had completely soaked us through. It was warm rain, but very wet rain nonetheless.  Most of the other tourists retreated somewhere and pretty much disappeared.  Chase and I became desperate and decided to step over the restricted, roped in area, and sat under a very small tunnel like square in the middle of a field.  We sat there for about 20 minutes, feeling very jolly about our decision and quite proud of how clever we were to find such a place of refuge.  The rain finally subsided for a few minutes and we were able to go outside again.  However, a police man spotted us before we were able to go anywhere.   

It was REALLY helpful knowing Spanish this time around because I got Chase and me out of quite a pickle. We actually almost got arrested for hiding under that 4x4 square tunnel!  Apparently, your not supposed to even touch the ruins, let alone hide inside them. I tried explaining to the mini Mexican with the walkie talkie that we meant no harm as he escorted us off the property and to the police headquarters. After several minutes of walking and following orders, I was finally able to convince him that we didn't know that we were committing such a grave offense and that we were just trying to protect our iPhones and other devices from the rain.  The man looked torn because I think he knew we were good people (I told him we were:-) but we had broken their little "don't touch the ruins" law.  Finally, he asked me where we were from.  I said "Tejas" and just like that, he let us go. A little milagro.  I was beginning to get worried and so was Chase.  He really just followed us around around while I attempted to free us in Spanish.  He just followed us like a lost puppy, not having a clue what was going on. He knew we were in trouble, but didn't have the faintest idea what we were saying.  

It started raining again when we found our friends.  We decided it was time to go, so we ran about a mile in the warm, heavy rain getting completely drenched again but feeling absolutely liberated at the same time.  It was so fun!! We then jumped into two separate taxis and went to Akumal Beach to snorkel and swim with some turtles.  We thought the iguanas were huge until we swam near the even larger turtles. Snorkeling was awesome until a massive turtle did a massive poop right as I was swimming behind him. It was hilarious watching Tiffany immediately start swimming the other way.  

Chase and I looked so attractive in scuba masks that we had to take some pictures to document our attractiveness.  

The next day we woke up at 11 and were thrilled about the idea of sitting in a hammock all day after our crazy day of ruins, rain and police men.  Just as I sat down and started relaxing, we got a call from our friends telling us they just scored a MAJOR deal that we couldn't pass up.  We needed to go down to the lobby immediately and sign up for a "switch of hotels" in exchange for free tickets to Xcaret (an amusement parks that many tourists got excited about) and a free ferry to their sister hotel on the island of Cozumel.  I was excited about one park called Xplor because it included zip lining and cave canoeing.  The other park sounded boring with Mayan dancing shows and stuff like that.  No thanks.  If they had offered me a ticket to Xplor, that would have enticed me.  We also felt that we worked so hard getting into the room we finally got, that switching to a different (under-booked) hotel just sounded like a headache.  We declined and our friends all went to Xcaret that day (the boring one), while Chase and I returned to our hammocks. 

We had a splendid day swimming, lounging in cabanas, playing tennis and drinking pina coladas, of course.  

It was exactly what we needed to unwind.  

When our friends returned, we all went to dinner and the girls went dancing while the boys played poker.  Most nights we seriously danced on our hotel’s dance floor until 1 a.m. It was so fun not having to worry about waking up to feed kids or get them off to school. We just partied all night and slept in. It was like we were dating again. One night as we were dancing all crazy (like Mormons do), this lady asked Melanie what we were drinking.  She couldn't believe none of us weren't drunk. We were having so much fun!! If only people knew how awesome the Word of Wisdom is. They too could be on a natural high all the time. 

The next day, some of the peeps wanted to go zip lining.  This ended up being my favorite adventure!  Xplor had 2.5 miles of zip lines.  It was awesome!! They also had these mini jeeps we could drive all over the place in the jungle where we saw a crocodile and a jaguar. We also swam through underwater caves and it was truly amazing. I can’t get over how relaxed Mexico is about safety. There’s no way we could do all that fun stuff in the United States. Uninhibited fun!!! Chase was practically zip lining upside down. It was hilarious!! We paid for the picture package that allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted that would be downloaded onto a zip drive fro us to take home.  You better believe we got our money's worth.  We took the most ridiculous pictures. 

Zip lining was SOOOOO fun!!  I loved it when we had to pair up because Chase would do his silly laugh the entire way.  

Can you tell yet we were a little picture happy?

The highlight of the trip was discovering that my friend Melanie can sing fake opera like me. We were in those caves on a raft and she just started belting out all these hilarious tunes with her opera voice. I almost died laughing, but instead joined her…naturally. Another highlight was when we were walking back from the beach to our hotel rooms and a wild hog jumped out of the bushes at me. Yikes!! Oh Mexico.  You're hilarious.  From your rusted shower curtains all the way down to your wild hogs.  

I still can't believe how cool these caves were and that we were allowed to go inside them on rafts for pete's sake.  There's no way they'd let you do this in the states.  

The next day all our friends were moving to the sister hotel on the island of Cozumel.  Chase and I decided it would be fun to see another part of Mexico so we turned in our room key and took the two free tickets to Xcaret with hopes that we would be able to sell them before the ferry left.  Here's another time my Spanish came in handy.  While I was getting the tickets at the front desk, a travel agent came up next to me to talk to the clerk.  A lightbulb went off.  This guy sold the same tickets we were getting for free to people at the hotel.  Why don't I sell him ours for less and we'd both make a profit; him selling them for more and us getting money for free tickets.  I sold them for $70 each (they were worth $90) and we were $100 richer!!  Wahoo!!  Now we felt like we were getting a pretty good deal moving hotels because we got to go to the "fun park" for free and didn't have to watch those boring Mayan dancers all day.    

The 30 minute ferry sounded really fun, until it started moving.  Holy moly!!  I got soooo sea sick and so did a lot of our friends.  This sweet woman handed me a lime and told me to sniff it.  It actually helped.  Who knew?  Another distraction I was grateful for was a sweet family from Valparaiso, Chile that I was able to talk to.  It was fun reminiscing with them about my travels there when I was working on my Spanish minor back in 2004.  

Once off the ferry, we got our rooms and hit the beach!!  We didn't have as much time to finagle our way into getting a nicer room, because our trip to Cozumel would be a short, two day trip before we had to go back to Texas.  Surprisingly, our room was pretty nice (I was worried, especially after our first two rooms back at the main hotel).  

The beach was dreamy!!  We just snorkeled, drank pina coladas, and read our books all day!!

We had very talented cabana boys too:-)

That evening we walked down the beach and hit a tiki bar selling fish tacos.  They were delicious!

I was skeptical at first when my friends decided to move to a different hotel, but was grateful they did because it was so beautiful and felt like a real, authentic Mexican experience.  I loved the buildings we stayed in.  The Spanish tiled stairs and all the mini frogs jumping all over the place just made me happy.  

We stayed at the beach as long as possible knowing it was our last day of relaxation before we had to travel back home.  

After we got all the sand cleaned off, we went to dinner and then partied until 1 a.m. dancing at the discotheque.  Then we went searching for frogs.  They were soooo loud.  It was amazing.  Our hotel was literally surrounded by jungle.  This was when the wild hog jumped out of the bushes.  So many funny animals and critters.  Melanie was deathly afraid we were going to run into some snakes.  

The un-highlight of the trip was when I got followed by a creepy guy from the discotheque to the hotel lobby.  All our friends were in the bar for dancing but the music hadn’t turned on yet. I asked the bar tender when they would turn it on and he told me to go talk to the front desk. I should have told Chase I was leaving, but the front desk was so close, I didn’t worry about it. As I was walking from the bar, this creepy guy dressed in black with blond hair brushed by me going the opposite direction and gave me the look of death. Piercing eyes I tell ya!! I thought “that’s weird” but ignored him and walked in to talk to the front desk. When I turned around to go back, I walked outside to go through the beautiful jungle grounds back to the bar. He was walking back towards me from the bar. Something told me to turn around so I did and pretended like I had something else to say to the front desk. When I turned around, he was still there, kind of waiting for me, but he was outside lurking in the dark tunnel of trees. I finally decided I couldn't go back to the bar unless someone was with me. Clearly this guy was either crazy or drunk and was most certainly following me. I approached a couple and asked them to walk me to the bar and told them why. They were super nice and walked me there. I immediately went up to Chase and told him what happened and he said “tell me what he looks like and we’ll go find him.” There was no need. The creep walked in right as we were talking about him. He followed me, even with my escorts!! Chase put his arm around me and held me close. I begged him not to say anything because I didn't want confrontation. The guy walked in and stayed for literally 2 seconds and then left. Geez louise. It was scary!! 

Wild hogs and wild men. What a party!

I had to endure one more ferry ride back to Playa Del Carmen and then we shopped around for the kids.  We found an awesome hammock seat for George, a spider man mask for Jack, and a lava lava for Sadie. Back at the hotel we lounged around until our shuttle left to take us to the airport.   

Chase wasn't at all impressed with the Red Skin cheerleaders who happened to show up that day to shoot their annual bikini calendar for all the pornos out there.  Good boy.  

More lizards and coatimundis to obverse and gawk over.  

At this point in the trip, almost everyone was having bowel issues but we all were gratfeul for a really fun trip with some of the best people I know.  We couldn't have picked better traveling companions.  The fact that they would dance with Chase and me until the wee hours of the morning was enough to make me want to do this annually!  What a great week of non stop adventure, fun, relaxation and laughter.  So glad we decided to be "reckless" and go.  

 When we got home our kids all came to the front door with their little faces in the glass window. I was just bursting with love for them. I didn't really miss them all that much because we were having such a great time but I was so happy to see those precious little faces.  George wouldn’t let me out of his sight for a few days but is pretty much back to normal now. Sadie told me she liked practicing with CC on the piano WAY more than she liked practicing with me, and Jack ran all over the house with that silly mask on for days and actually weeks.  We haggled our way into some fun gifts for those kids.  I'd say my Spanish came in quite handy there too.