Going to Mexico

A few months ago, Newel and I were talking about the lack of desire for our kids to speak Spanish.  I'm embarrased that they don't speak Spanish, yet they have a mother and a father who speak it.  I told Newel how much I'd like for them to live in a Spanish country for a summer.  Now that they are older they could truly be immersed in the language.  To make the long story short, we booked plane tickets to go live in Cuernavaca, Mexico for seven weeks.

Before we left, we had a few sleepovers with the cousins and on the Monday before we left for Mexico, we had a small FHE at a water playground.  It was our last hurrah before heading out. The water was a bit chilly, but it didn't stop the kids from getting wet.  They got soaked and were satisfied to spend that time with their primas.
The following afternoon, we headed over to Kristen's house for more play time.

Then, on Wednesday morning, we got up super early, like 4:30AM and headed over to the airport to catch our flight.  Our fligths were uneventful, which is good for us.  Once we arrived to Mexico City, we took a bus to Cuernavaca.  I was in such a rush to catch the bus, I didn't get any dinner for us, so on the bus we were a bit hungry.  Luckily, on the bus, they serve you a beverage and a small snack.
Once we arrive to Cuernavaca, I was supposed to call Chinito, our friend, who was Newel's missionary companion.  However, the phones at the bus station were not working right and they stole my money...and eventually I ran out of pesos.  Eventually, I bought a calling card for public phones and called his cell...I still didn't have any luck, until I asked the girl who worked at the snack bar about the number I was dialing. It turns out when you call from out of town, you have to dial a different code, and in town, another code, even though it´s a cell phone. Funny huh. Chinito picked us up and we headed over to his house.  He was surprised at how light we packed for a two month trip. We only packed our carry-on bags and 3 small bags. Not bad.

We were so glad to finally make it there after a long day of traveling. Also, after being in Cuernavaca for a couple of days, I realized the traffic was too hectic for me to drive in. Also, I noticed without Google Maps, I'm terrible with directions or finding my way.  I realized I really needed the Ocampo's help and they are so wonderful and good, they said we could stay with them as long as we wanted.  So, it appears we'll be living with them for a time or for the 2 months we're in Cuernavaca.
I've already noticed how beneficial it has been for the kids...they are already speaking more Spanish.
I'm so grateful for the Ocampo Family!

Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day Weekend, the Alsop family from our church invited us to go with them to Moab and go jeeping.  This was a new experience for our family.  In summary, I found it to be exciting, exhilirating, and terrifying, all at the same time.  We drove with them on Thursday night, so we could be ready the following morning to go out on our adventure.

Getting ready to descend

Maya and Arden loved riding on the jeeps.  At one point, Arden rode on one of the jeeps that was the most daredevil of our caravan and loved it.  Besides the Alsops, they invited the Morgan family from our church and they also went with another jeeping family, the Christiansens.
On the first day we went  on a couple of trails that I found them to be terrifying.  At that point I wanted to go home because it was so scary for me.  As we were on the trail, we would stop and let the kids get out and run around.

Holding on for her life

Playing with Easton at one of the rest stops

Maya really liked climbing on top of the jeep.  She cracked me up because she would also hold tightly as we climbed the different structures and were sideways.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't to great that weekend. It was very windy and there was sand everywhere.

Playing in a crevace

I thought Newel was a very good driver and was very careful.  Even with his careful driving, I was scared of flipping over.  As we were on the trail, heading back, there was a structure that looked rather difficult. So Newel let Bryan and Kevin figure out how to drive the jeep Newel wasdriving up the structure.  Bryan was sure he could do it and ended up breaking the axil.  It took over an hour to move the jeep from the structure to a flat surface where to park the jeep.

Our dirty kids having a bast

That night, the guys had a mini bro out.  They got the new axil and around 11PM, they headed over to the trail to fix the jeep.  The guys didn't get home until 4AM. The following day they were tired, but they had a fun night.

On Saturday, the weather was worse.  It was more windy and it was so dusty.  We mostly stayed inside the condos.  We also went to Arches and checked out a couple of arches...but it was so windy, we didn't stay for too long.
The Morgans had to leave early and unfortunately they didn't get to try out jeeping.  In the late afternoon, the fierce wind, finally diminished and Kevin and Bryan took us on the Lion's Back and part of Hell's Revenge.  It was a bit terrifying, but it was also so COOL! It was so much fun!  I absolutely loved the trail and I can't wait until we get another chance to go jeeping. I would love to go on the rest of the trail.

At Arches

After dinner at a pizza joint, we had to leave that night since we needed to be at church on Sunday.  On our way home, Newel and I were commenting what a neat experience we had.

Even though the plans didn't turn out too well, like crappy weather, we had a lot of fun hanging out with the Alsop family and friends.

Lots of climbing

The Kids from the trip...Maya refused to pose

Mount Timpanogos Cave

Arden's new thing is to eat a gigantic hamburger with bacon. He can actually eat the entire burger!  I guess he's hitting a growth spurt.




A couple of days after Arden got out of school, we invited Phoebe and Peter over for a sleepover.  Before we left for Mexico, the kids wanted to have a couple of sleepovers with their cousins...so we tried to fit in as many sleepovers as we could.  We had a fun night and on the following morning...we went on our traditional donut run and then got ready to go to Mount Timpanogos Cave.






These guys were such great hikers up to the cave.




And we had a great time on the tour.



We learned a lot about cave life.




After our tour, we rushed home to our pool for a swim.




We had such a fun time with them.







That night Newel took me out on a date with some of his co-workers...It´was a great start to our summer vacation.

Preschool

I loved teaching preschool with the home preschool kids.  They were so fun and cute. The week after Memorial Day was my final turn to teach.  On the first day of my preschool turn, I took them to Wheeler Farm.  We had such a blast and we didn't even get to check out all of the animals.



They petted some cute farm animals.


And rode on the tractor.

They also fed the geese and ducks...most of the kids got a little scared of the birds since they were so noisy and to the kids they looked a bit scary.


On our final day, we went swimming at the pool of our apartment complex.  It was so much fun and no one drowned.  I loved it and was sad they won't be playing anymore...Next year, they'll be going to Kindergarten, except for Maya...how sad.

Sleepover

On Memorial Day Sunday, Helen and Casey brought their kids over for a sleepover while they went on a mega hike the following day.  We owed them from the time they watched our kids while we were in Hawaii.
We had so much fun with the cousins. That morning we took them out for donuts and sugary cereal. Donuts are such a treat for all of us.Then, we played in the backyard and at the playground.  That afternoon we went over to the primas house for the grand opening of the glass room.  It was such a fun day.  Those cousins were so good and so much fun...we can't wait to have another sleepover.

Mother Goose

Arden was a chorist at his class's play they had for the parents. It was some type of Mother Goose play.  He looked utterly bored at the performance, but did well enough.

 Also, did you notice his new glasses? He got glasses the week he went in for his ADD checkup.  He looks so cute.  He even picked them out all by himself.  

May Events

In May, Arden's school had a Jog-a-Thon fundraiser.  I had fun running with him. We kept saying we were antelopes and could outrun the cheetahs.  It was funny to us.  We kept running at our pace and would see the kids who were sprinting, slow down to catch their breath.  Arden was a great antelope.

In May, the family supported Ruth-E on he Girls' Camp Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser.  We were babysitting the Batty kids, so we brought them with us and had a blast bidding on pies and treats.

We went crazy bidding for pies. We outbid everyone for the pies this lady makes at Kristen's ward.

The following day we went to an International Food and Craft event in downtown SLC.  We watched all kinds of rug making from different parts of the world and we also saw all kind of international dances and music performances.

We of course mainly went to enjoy lots of ethnic foods.  After our outing, we dropped the kids off at the Batty's house while we went to the temple.

A.D.D.

After Arden returned to school from spring break (the week Michaelle was visiting), he had a hard time readjusting back to the school routine.  He has struggled with focusing at school and some out of normal class behavior.  At one point he was getting about 1 Thinking Time at school a day.  Newel and I have been working with him at home and at school.  I've been asked by several people if he's been tested for ADD/ADHD.  We didn't test him because we were 99% sure he has ADD and some Aspberger symptoms as well.  Also, I didn't want him to be medicated since, sometimes the medication dulls the children and I didn't want Arden to stop being himself...I just wanted him to be able to focus better.  I didn't want to be a mother who took the easy way out, but I was getting worried because this lack of focusing was affecting his self-esteem.

A friend, Danielle, finally explained it to me in a way that it made sense...not as a way out for me, but to help Arden.  She said, "If he had diabetes and was eating the right things and exercising, and still needed insulin, wouldn't you give it to him?" That finally made sense to me. Of course, if he had diabetes and we were doing all we could to help him stay healthy and he still needed insulin, I would totally give it to him.  We have been doing all that we can to help him focus, yet he still struggles...why not give him the medicine.

I finally set up an appointment with his pediatrician in May and yes he has ADD...no surprise there and is one point away from ADHD...and has some autism tendencies.  She suggested for Arden to see a psychiatrist specialized in children and autism...I think we'll wait for a while before we set up that appointment. I'm postponing it not because I don't want to want to face reality...I'm postponing it because when children have ADD, they are so distracted, they don't learn simple social skills. So I figured, we'll work on the ADD for a while and worry about the autism later.  I know when we explain behavior or other things in a way that makes sense to him, he reacts better and can change his behavior. Just from the beginning of this school year, we have been able to see significant improvement.

Arden is on the lowest dose possible for his age and weight.  On the first day I gave him his medicine, I cut the pill in half and only gave him half of the pill...to see if he just needed a quick start.  Not even three hours later he called me from school and said, "Mommy, tomorrow you have to give me the whole thing because this isn't working."  I laughed and told him I would give him the full dose next time. So the following day, I gave him the entire pill and he came home with no work from school. He was able to play instead of doing school work.  When Newel and I asked him how did it go with the medicine, he said, " I got my work done and I didn't even need the pill."

The dose is just enough that it hasn't affected his appetite nor his sleep. He can get his work done at school, but can be himself at school and home.  By the time he gets home from school the medication has worn off, but that's fine because he has completed his work at school.

On Saturdays, Arden usually writes an essay for us to help him improve his handwriting and his writing skills, since he has fallen behind in those skills.  One Saturday, we had him write his essay with no help from the medicine...It was a long morning and his essay was all over the place...It was like pulling teeth. But we were not convinced if the medicine would really help him...it was the end of the school year and it had been several weeks of fun and crazy activities at school...so we were not sure if the medication was working.

The following Saturday we gave him a pill and was able to follow the outline of his essay we had worked on Friday and he even wrote extra sentences, not just the minimum. We could clearly notice the difference.
ADD is at its peak when children are around age 7...which explains a lot about this year.  As time goes by, he might not even need the medication...For now we only give it to him when he needs to do something that will require concentration...like writing essays.  I'm glad he has that little extra help and he's feeling better about himself.

Michaelle's Visit

During Conference Weekend, my brother Michaelle, came to Utah for a visit.  He didn't come for the conference...He came for a Magic Tournament.  That's the only reason he came to Utah to visit. However, it was a lot of fun to have him over.  He arrived on Friday early afternoon.  We drove to  the airport to pick him up and then took him to the Pie Pizzeria to experience some of the best pizza around.  He thoroughly enjoyed that meal.  After our lunch, we dropped him off at the Convention Center for some nerding up. Later, we picked him up and took him over to Don Rafa's taco stand...he was loving it.  Newel had a missionary reunion at Don Rafa's and we hung out for a little while.  Then, we headed home.

The following morning Michaelle headed back to the Convention Center for more tournament fun.  We stayed home most of the day and watched conference. Conference was great.  Later, Newel wanted to attend the Priesthood session at the Conference Center.  While he was at conference, the kids and I hung out at the City Creek Center.  It was really neat.  We liked the main fountain and it's music show.  The kids also liked the fishes in the man made creek.  The place was packed with people checking out the stores.  We actually lined up to go inside the Disney Store.  I can't believe I lined up to go inside a store, but the kids really wanted to go inside.
Once Newel was done with conference, he met us at the mall and headed to the Food Court, where we enjoyed some Red Iguana and the kids played. Michaelle met up with us later.  He didn't make it to the next day of the main tournament, but was still planning on attending the rest of the conference for other tournaments.  So on Sunday morning, I drove him to the Utrax station and sent him on his way.  Miraculously, he didn't get lost.  Michaelle and I are a lot alike in that aspect...we don't have a sense of direction.  After the morning session, we headed over to Kristen's house and hung out with the primas and watched the afternoon session of conference.  Then, picked Michaelle up and got ready for our next morning's sweet hit...Zions National Park.

Enjoying a snack at the river walk

As I was running around Monday morning, filling up the car with gas and dropping books off at the library, I got the inspiration to call Grandma and see if she'd like to go to Zions with us even though it was last minute.  She did!  I was so glad I called her because she's so fun to go on trips with and since Newel wasn't going with us, we had extra space in our hotel room.  It was a lot of fun driving in the car with her and chatting.

Their favorite activity...climbing rocks

We were so excited to be at Zions, we made it there in no time and headed over to the Emerald Pools that weren't too emerald at this time of the year.  We were on a hunt for tadpoles, bu it was too early in the year to find such fine creatures in the pools.  We also headed over to the Visitor Center where we ran into our friends, the Bullocks.  It was so nice to see them again.  We finally headed out of the park and to a restaurant in Springdale where the service was super slow and the food mediocre.  I can't remember the name of the place, but I sure remember where it's located. We decided the next night's dinner was going to be Little Ceasar's pizza...it was next door to the hotel.  It was cheap and fast.  We finally arrived to our hotel, where I had some complications getting our hotel room...due to some mistranslated conversations and counting extra people who weren't even with us. I told the registrar we had 6 people instead of 5 and they charged me extra (I kept thinking Newel was with us), but eventually we straightened everything and we got into our rooms.

The following morning we got up early, had our continental breakfast, packed our lunches and snacks and headed back to the park.  We got on the shuttle bus and headed over to the river walk. The morning was chilly but gorgeous.
After the river walk and lunch, we started our hike to Angel's Landing.  However, it was getting hot so Grandma passed on the hike and Arden wanted to keep her company.  I let Arden go with Grandma and hoped he wouldn't drive her nuts.  I had Maya with me on the stroller and it was taking us a while to go up the steep narrow and sometimes hard to maneuver trail, so I told Michaelle to go ahead.  He was nice enough to wait for me after a while...or perhaps he was getting tired as well, and I decided to ditch the stroller and carry Maya part of the way.  I was glad I had been working out, otherwise I don't think I could have made it. I don't recommend taking a stroller on that trail...it's too much work.  When I got too tired, I had Maya do some hiking.  She was one of the youngest walking kids on the trail.  It was so cute to see her try harder as people kept complementing her about how well she hiked.

Such a ham posing on the trail

I had a blast hiking with Michaelle and chatting with him.  We were also enjoying the scenery.  We made it to the Scout Overlook and I told Michaelle to continue his hike to the Angel's Landing, while Maya and I waited for him at the Overlook.  Maya was loving it there because she had lots of sand to play with.  She took off her shoes and started digging.  After a while, I was surprised to see Michaelle back.  He decided hanging onto a metal chain for his dear life was not relaxing nor his type of fun. Instead, we headed over on the opposite direction to the West Rim Trail and checked out the overlook from there.  We didn't have to hold on to for our lives and there were barely any people on the trail. The view was still pretty impressive.

West Rim Trail...impressive view.

Can you spot the paper airplane?

As we were on the Overlook, there was a group of teenagers who were flying paper airplanes and one of the planes got caught in the wind currents and it was so cool to see it flying away...if you see in the photo of Maya sitting on West Rim Trail...you can see one of the planes flying around...

After our hike, we met up with Grandma and Arden and I was glad they had a great time learning about lyches as they hung out on a giant boulder.  Arden and Maya were working on their Junior Ranger badges and Arden got more of his stuff marked off while we were on our hike.
Later, we headed back to the visitor center and Grandma and I accompanied the kids on bike and scooter ride down the Pua'u river trail.  Michaelle relaxed by the cool of the river and read a book.  Later, the kids, Grandma and I joined Michaelle and we also relaxed for a bit by the tranquil river.  I laid by the river, the kids played in the water, threw rocks, played in the sand, and looked for insects.  The day was gorgeous and it was just perfect.  We were all having such a wonderful time.

Climbing the slick rock.

Although we had done so much exploring, the day was not over yet.  We got in the car and drove Michalle and Grandma through the tunnel.  That is such a cool drive. There were hardly any drivers in the tunnel, so we were able to slow down and take a good view of the scenery through the tunnel's windows.  Since we didn't really have an agenda, after we crossed the tunnel we just kept driving.  It was so fun. We decided to stop at the Checkerboard Mesa, but before we got there, there was a spot some people had stopped and were climbing the slick rock.  That looked like fun, so we also stopped and started climbing as well.  The sun was setting and the colors on the rocks were changing, everything looked so beautiful. We arrived to Checkerboard Mesa and headed back to the hotel.  We arrived to the hotel early enough we could eat dinner and relax in the hot tub.

Hiking the Timber Creek Overlook

Timber Creek Overlook

Fossil shells

On the Taylor Creek Trail

The following morning we headed over to the other Kolob entrance of Zions.  After a quick lesson from a ranger on rock layers, Maya and Arden became Junior Rangers (this was Arden's second time). We hiked on the Timber Creek Overlook Trail and enjoyed a spectacular view.  Then, I told them about the Taylor Creek and off we went.  We almost made it to the end of the hike, but we were getting tired and it was getting late, so we only hiked to the second cabin.  I still can't get over how people used to live there.  It's so isolated.  The hike was gorgeous.  I love seeing how the canyon gets more narrow and it always amazes me how water can be so destructive.  The trail switches back and forth on the Taylor Creek.  At that time of the year and in the summer, the creek is not very impressive, but there is a lot of evidence of other times of the year when the water runs more ferocious and the destruction it makes on its path.  There were torn trees, small land slides, and recent boulders out of place.  It's so impressive.  As we were on our way back from the second cabin,  we discovered that some of the rocks had impressions of shells...yes, from the sea that used to be here millions of years ago. Arden discovered the shells. Amazing to think we were walking on fossils and we didn't even know it!

The following day, we hung out at home for a while and then Michaelle ventured to take Arden and Maya to Target to go toy shopping while I was at a doctor's appointment.  Arden and Maya scored new toys. They were loving it! I can't remember what we did on Friday during the day...I know we went to Savers to buy skii gloves and that night Michaelle went to a local Magic Tournament.  On Saturday, we headed over to Park City and took Michaelle skiing.  For being his first time he did great...lucky guy! He was born way more coordinated than me.  I chose to not go skiing and hung out with Maya while she played in the snow and also sipped hot chocolate and went on a walk.  It was such a nice day.  The following morning, I took Michaelle to the airport.  I was sad to see him go. I had so much fun with my brother...I'm hoping there will be another big international Magic tournament very soon, so he can come visit us again.  The kids loved having his Tio around.