First, I must say that typically Mason is an angel at bedtime. There are two steps: reading and rocking. We read a book, rock a bit and then he tells me it's time for his crib.

Tonight just before bedtime he threw a fit over something-or-other. When I tried to put him in time-out he ran from me!! I eventually picked him up, then he tried to hit, pinch, scratch and even bite! He was really screaming and just lost control. He already had his PJs on, so I took him to his crib and told him goodnight, and informed him that he has lost both reading and rocking privileges.

As you might predict, he came out a couple of minutes later, still enraged. I carefully picked him up and set him back down in his crib, wishing him goodnight. After a bit longer he came out with only a slight sob and a different attitude, this time saying, "I'm sssssooooorrrryyy Mommy." I thanked him, hugged him, then took him back to bed.

After even longer, Kenzie came to me showcasing her best diplomacy skills, "Mom, I told Mason that he just needs to tell you he's sorry and he'd like to do that." Again, I allowed him to say he was sorry, hugged him, but this time told him that he needed to put himself to bed. "Why Mommy" he sobbed, in a sad little sorry faltering voice. "Goodnight." I said, and pointed toward his room. Slowly he made his way. Cindy and I looked at each other: "Really?? is he going to do it??" we both questioned. We listened, and then heard the thump of him dropping into his crib! Wow, we thought, that was miraculous.

I went to peek, saw his sobbing little body face down in his crib. After a minute I picked him up, congratulated him on listening well, and told him that because of that I was going to rock him. He was completely limp as we began rocking. His only words reminded me that kids will push your every limit. He said, "Why, Mommy, why no reading?"

Since Kenzie acted up last week in class, Cindy told her that she was going to be "volunteering" in her classroom to learn more about her behavior. Kenzie looked confused, bewildered, and powerless, just what we were hoping for. Further proof that this was a good idea came this afternoon in an email from Miss Janet to Cindy:

Mackenzie said to me with her saddest face “Are you really letting ama come to our class tomorrow?” It was the best!

Janet

Bwahh, haa, haa...

Well, we're home a week now and are settled back into the Seattle weather and routine. The day we got back some areas got snow! Let's just say that the adjustment hasn't been easy for any of us! Kenzie got into trouble a couple of days at school, still hitting other kids. I think it was really rough change of pace for her. As our plane left Los Cabos the crocodile tears started streaming down her face. She was so sad to leave, we all had such a good time. Now we're back...and trying to plan our next get-away!

Yesterday we went to Crystal's baby shower. (Kenzie asked me who was going to pour the water on the baby.) In addition to looking forward to another family addition we had the chance to share vacation pictures. Since our camera went on the blink the last couple of days, I'm happy to be able to document some of our best adventures. Scroll down - I added them below this post.

Aunt Carol took this video on a bump road in Mexico on our way to La Paz.

Kina hand painted this mural onto Kenzie's wall while we were gone. Isn't it great? I reminds her of her swimming with the fish in Mexico, as well as her dear friend Kina

I knew that Mason and Mike were "playing by the fountain." I didn't realize, however, why Mason was soaking wet until I looked at the pictures on the camera.

Our boat then took us to a secluded beach with amazing snorkeling and a little cave to hide in. Kenzie wasn't feeling well at this point, but she was a sport through it all.

Mike, Carol, Grammy and I got up for an early morning hike up to Flattop, a beautiful rock formation overlooking this whole area. When we returned we decided to take the van and go looking for sea lions! We followed the only road that parallels the water to the south, and saw amazing views as the Sea of Cortez went in and out of sight. Mike had decided he'd rather be a passenger this day, so I had the pleasure of driving the 15 passenger van on the washboard Mexican roads...with 8 vocal passengers freely offering advice and concern with each passing kilometer.

We went through La Ribera again, made a quick stop at the tortillarilla and then proceeded to Cabo Pulmo, about an hour away. Eventually, we found Cabo Pulmo, an amazing stretch of beach with a surfer town flare. I went down to the beach and found a guy with a boat. I asked him what he would charge to take us to the sea lions and eventually negotiated a deal that included 9 life jackets and a visit to a secluded beach. He found 2 kid-sized life jackets, but the rest were medium and didn't quite stretch across Grampy's shoulders. We weren't quite sure how the boat was going to get in the water, but followed the instructions of Kiki, our captain. We each climbed aboard the boat as it sat on the shore. Soon we saw this yellow truck appear over the crest of the shore and descend toward us. Curious, we thought. Notice the flat plate on the bumper. Oh, this is the nudge boat - he's going to nudge us into the water. So, he gave us a little force, a little more...the boat wasn't moving and his tires spun in the sand. He tried again, again, but no luck. Then he backed up. Curious. Kiki told us to hold on, which we all did without question. The yellow truck driver gained speed and CRASHED into us! Yes, we moved. So did the fiberglass corner of the boat as it fell toward the sand. We were a little startled, but now in the water.

After a short boat ride we found ourselves beside a large rock filled with barking sea lions. Carol and I jumped in with our snorkeling gear, then I took Kenzie and Mason each for a swim. The sea lions were amazing and undeterred by us turistos swimming in their living room. Kenzie still wasn't feeling well, but let me hold onto her in the water for a while before asking to go back to the boat. Mason, on the other hand, did not want to return. "No back boat, no back boat!!"

We then went to a remote beach with white sand and incredible snorkeling. We saw huge parrot fish, needlenose thingies, starfish, angel fish, and other things we can't quite identify.

Then on the way back we stopped at La Ribera again and drove past a sign that said "Farmacia." Because this was Kenzie's third day with a cough and she seemed to be getting worse we decided to stop. We went inside and had to knock on the house that was connected to find anyone. A woman, presumably the doctor's wife, opened the door and escorted us to the waiting area. I think the doctor had to go change into fresh scrubs (they were neatly pressed). He was the nicest man and was very thorough with Kenzie. She has an infection of some sort in her throat, so he gave her some medicine after spending some time with us. Two prescriptions plus the office visit was $70.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand for the shrimp that Mike's been coveting. We came home just in time for Noe to arrive to cook dinner. I don't think she was too happy with us that we bought our own shrimp because she's been excited all week about tonight's dinner: shrimp soup. She found our little shrimp in the sink and has been asking me all sorts of questions about them, then telling me why they're not as good as the ones she bought. Plus she bought exactly 70 for us, 10 per adult. She was definitely upset, then we gave them to her and all is well.

Today was a very peaceful day. Carol and I went on a very long kayaking adventure where we learned the lesson that too much sun gives you a sunburn. Mike kept trying to convince us to take the kayak to the shrimp boat (shown in the picture in the distance) for fresh shrimp, but Carol thought there might be pirates on it so we just stuck to the sea. Then we saw some whales and she thought they might like little yellow boats so we decided to snorkel close to shore. After a couple of miles we found a beautiful secluded beach with palm trees and a sand bar. The snorkeling is amazing. Cindy took the kids swimming down by the resort at the point where she learned the same sunburn lesson as Carol and I. Luckily the kids had on sunscreen.

We all got into the van in search of fresh tortillas and found a nearby pueblo, La Ribera. However, the tortillarilla closes at noon, so we were a couple of hours too late.

Kenzie began not feeling well yesterday on our trip to La Paz and all day she was definitely feeling less than good. She was mellow, but her cough was picking up. For dinner we decided to try out the food at Rancho Leonero, the resort a few blocks down. This proved to not be a good decision - food was mediocre and for some reason they didn't like Mary, and our service was a bit lacking! We're looking forward to shrimp dinner tomorrow with Noe and Miriam.

We took a 3 hour road trip today to La Paz on some very narrow, curvy roads. Our 15 passenger van was a bit of a challenge to park in the city, but we were happy to be off the road. The gelato was quite refreshing in the high heat. We bought a bunch of stuff that we didn't need in an attempt to spend our pesos. On the way home we stopped by a couple of roadside mercados and bought some more stuff we didn't need from the locals.

The kids played in the sand and water while Mike, Grampy & I went fishing. We waited quite a while for our scheduled captain to arrive to pick us up on the beach. After a full day we saw more whales, box rays, puffers, seals, turtles, but not the sought-after dorado or marlin. So, instead of having fish for dinner we enjoyed carne asada.

Tomorrow: La Paz.

Today was another beautiful day. We all went into Los Barriles, which was another adventure on the backroads with Uncle Mike at the helm. We found wild cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, cats, dogs and donkeys...all on the way to the main road out of town. "Town" is an overstatement. It's more like a widening of the dirt road on the way to the two-lane paved road, surrounded by cows, pigs, sheeps, goats, etc. We bought some fresh tortillas and had lunch at a little taco stand. Nobody speaks English except for us and a few random Americans. We had a great time.

We have hired a cook to fix us dinner. We have all agreed that this is the life. Noe, the cook, brings us whatever we desire. Tonight we had chicken enchiladas and rice with shrimp. Tomorrow we are going fishing and have asked her to come fix our catch. (She's going to bring some dorado "just in case.")

Aunt Carol and I went snorkeling. We found a hundred beautiful tropical fish on our trip to the resort a few lots down the beach. We saw pufferfish, angel fish, parrot fish...then Mike and Mary joined to help us find the margarita fish.

Kenzie spotted whales out in the distance! We didn't know if we should believe her or not, but sure enough, there were several orcas and/or gray whales (much debate has ensued) playing, visible from our porch. She yelled "blow hole!!" Let me reiterate that they were in the distance. I still am not sure how she spotted them, but we got the binoculars out and watched for quite some time. She got to see her whale...but perhaps that's why she didn't want to join us snorkeling today.

Kenzie and Mason are quite the troopers. They are having a blast and have settled in quite naturally to the slower pace of life.

We're having a great time in Baja! Today we hung out at the beach the entire day. Almost all of us went swimming. I went snorkeling with Kenzie on my back, literally. There were lots of great fish right outside our house within 20 feet of the shore. Weather is incredible - 85 to 90, not a cloud in the sky!



Kids are having fun and are doing fabulous.





Can we share what a beautiful view we have??



And there are some great birds too (pelicans shown here).



Getting here was a bit of an adventure. Our plane was 2-1/2 hours delayed. Then we went to Soriana, the local grocery store, and decided to get dinner there as well. All told we were about four hours delayed, and well past daylight. We found ourselves on a very narrow highway out in the middle of nowhere, quite literally, looking for a small sign that was described as "partially covered by a bush." It wasn't as hard to find in the daylight, but at night we were challenged. Imagine trying to find this sign without the benefits of light. Alas, we found it - even though we may have second guessed ourselves more than once.

What a long day we had, just now reaching our final destination. From door to door, it took us about 15 hours. With only a couple of wrong turns and one very long trip to a grocery/supermart, we found our way to a wonderful hideaway on the Sea of Cortez. This place is better than the pictures, and we have yet to see the water. We hear it though, crashing against the beach just outside our window.

It's midnight in Baja. Kenzie is asleep, Mason is a bit restless, but horizontal nevertheless.

Our plane is landing now. We are two long hours late but glad to be seeing cactus and blue water. Kids were great on the plane!

Cindy had an ingenious idea: get the kids rolling backpacks. Not only did they help schlep their own things, we stuffed them full of heavy objects and slowed them down.

They got new goggles today for our trip and had to give them a test drive.

We're getting ready for a trip to Mexico! The sun can't come fast enough and the kids are super excited. Mason keeps saying (with great emphasis), "SPLASH!!" and gesturing with his hand smacking the ground. Kenzie squeals with anticipation, and a bit of dread...she's worried about snorkeling with whales. Although I've explained to her that she'll be completely safe and the whales are far away from where we'll be swimming, she still has concerns.

You can see a bit of concern in this picture that she drew of our upcoming adventure. This is our house in Mexico "with the sandy beach." Notice that we're all in the water, but she is swimming with the mermaids, and Cindy and I are almost on top of the whale.