Spring Break in Mexico

Washington's covid restrictions have really made us eager to visit ANYWHERE that doesn't require masks.  Thanks to Austin and Darcy again (Darcy's dad in particular) we were able to go to Mexico.  He owns a couple of condos in Puerto Penasco.  So we flew to Phoenix, stayed one night, then drove the four hours. The border crossing was easy and the drive was part of a safety corridor.  The condo complex was really nice and had security everywhere.  All around the common areas and even along the beach.  You had to have a resort bracelet to be on the property.  The resort and beach were beautiful.  

We went into the city to eat dinner the first night... Driving in Mexico is terrifying.  The area wasn't bad, it wasn't scary that way.  It was scary because roads aren't marked, stop signs are infrequent and often hard to see and it seems like no rules apply!  

We spent most of our time at the pool and on the beach. It really was beautiful.  Just the warmth and sunshine we needed to give us a break from the dreary grey skies.  

This is a HUGE photo dump... In no particular order.  Good luck!

We tried snorkeling, unfortunately the jet skis and boats all rode right over the top of the reef so it wasn't safe to go out to it.

The infinity pool was a really cool space. It even had a swim up bar where we were able to get soda and virgin daiquiris (kind of like strawberry slushies).

The best sunset of the trip.  The tide went WAY out (400ish yards) so you could see the reef and huge pools would be left on the very flat beach.

Kayda and I had a great time photographing it.  It was stunning.

We were getting Beckett introduced to hermit crabs, they were everywhere.  Kayda, Dillon and Carson had a blast.  They tried really hard to get Beckett to be comfortable with all the critters.

Dad, Austin, Landon and Dillon went golfing two days.

Carson decided to join in on the water aerobics they did during the day.

Austin and Tucker are on the right.  They all went for a ride on the banana boat pulled behind a boat.

We explored the reef tide pools.  It was strange not to see sea anemones and starfish everywhere.  

We heard another family yelling about an octopus so Carson and I hustled over. It was just a baby, Carson wasn't interested in holding it...

Another trip on the banana boat.

The water was gorgeous

We all decided to do the henna tattoos.  They lasted less than a week but the kids had fun. 

One of the many tiny hermit crabs

I guess they were working on a cruise ship doc so they were creating a jetty out of huge pier blocks.  The project fell through but the remnants were a lot of fun to climb on.

Dillon and Landon were entertained by a crab for a while 

Here's the whole crew!  Tucker, Beckett, Darcy, Austin, Landon, and of course us.

We crossed the border coming home at the perfect time.  It took two minutes to get through.  

Easter

 We celebrated Easter a day early in preparation for our Mexico trip.  Everyone got snorkel gear, hopefully we'll be able to use it!  If not... Someday we'll reschedule Hawaii.  

We followed our relatively new tradition and stuffed plastic eggs to hunt.  Each kiddo ended up with about 30 they needed to find.  This year they were tough and it took them much longer to find them all.

Hybrid learning

The kids FINALLY got to go back to school.  Granted it was in a "hybrid" environment and required masks, but at least they got to go.  

I went back into the building at the beginning of February. That was a challenge because my kids had to get themselves into their meets and get all their work done without me supervising.  Carson was the one that struggled the most with that.  There was only so much Kayda and Dillon could do since the meet times often overlapped (in the middle of each other at middle school vs elementary).

Carson went back March 8th.  He goes Monday-Thursday mornings. He really enjoys half days with the smaller class size.

I was able to split Kayda and Dillon so someone would always be home. Kayda went in Monday/Wednesday full day, Dillon was Tuesday/Thursday.  They both had meets online on Fridays.  It was a pretty extreme transition from the online only format but they adapted well.  They were all excited to be back!

On the teacher side, online and hybrid learning are insane and inadequate.  The students didn't learn what they needed to online and then we had them 40% of what they usually have.  The time for helping them disappeared and you HAD to move more quickly than you'd like.  The performance and attitudes of the kids went WAY up once they were back at school though.  The number of students that had new accommodations for debilitating anxiety and depression was staggering.  Watching the students struggle to engage with me and even with their peers was heartbreaking.  The parents were frustrated and I felt completely helpless to do what needed to be done to help.  Any intervention time disappeared with hybrid classes.  Considering I never agreed with masks or shutting down schools it was especially difficult to talk with the parents of struggling students.  Quarantine broke the kids and placed a LOT of strain on families causing issues that hadn't existed before.  I actually spent quite a bit of time almost counseling parents.  As a teacher, we're actually left in the dark with students' situations.  We aren't told which kids are dealing with abusive households, which kids are struggling emotionally and mentally at a scale that doesn't have formal intervention, or have extenuating circumstances that impact their learning.  I am so grateful that we'll be going back full time next year.

February Snow!

We got snow!  We actually got a considerable amount.  It was very convenient to be doing online school because we didn't have to cancel due to transportation issues.  The kids went to their meets and then played.  Since we don't have any hills in walking distance we got creative.  Kayda loved towing her brothers with the quad.  The grass actually didn't get as damaged as I'd anticipated.

We also went over by the school to the small sledding hill with Carter and Ty.  The kids built up a ramp and worked on jumping as high as possible.  They ended up with quite a few entertaining wipe outs.  Kayda learned quickly not to jump when she was on her stomach since you can't absorb the impact it hurts.