Ohhhhh, Mexico!

Mark and I spent four wonderful days in Cancun in April. It couldn't have come at a better time.  Mark has been working verrrry looooong hours at work and really needed a break.  Which means I was working verrrry looooong hours at home and I really needed a break.  My mother sacrificed her spring vacation to come stay with the boys and re-live the life of a soccer/piano/scout/homework mom. THANKS MOM!

It's always nice to leave behind most responsibilities and spend time with the person I decided to spend the rest of my life with nearly 14 years ago. We put away the roles of being parents, organizers, counselor, attorney and business partners at home, and were able to enjoy one another as best friends. Sigh. It was awesome.  Mark scheduled a couples massage right after we arrived.  This will be our tradition for any other vacation we take together, because it set the tone for a very relaxing vacation.  I nearly cried tears of gratitude when I said good-bye to the masseuse. We didn't have anything scheduled except flights and a hotel.  We were three hours behind any schedule we would have followed at home.

The view that greeted us from our room = automatic relaxation.

We took many walks along the beach after eating extremely delicious non-Mexican food. One night the moon looked red and fuzzy over the ocean, though you can't tell here. 

We signed up to take a jungle cruise (through ocean tree type things) in small speed boats for two, out to a buoy in the ocean where we snorkeled.  Snorkeling is probably one of the most relaxing activities in the world.  The sound of the water outside and under are so soothing and you just feel like you are in a different world, feeling lucky to be able to intrude upon fish who calmly swim from one rock to another.  Sigh.

We went to Chichen Itza - Mayan ruins, which were awesome!  It is amazing what people so long ago could build without power tools!  It was interesting to learn about their culture and what they worshipped and why. Before arriving at Chichen Itza, we stopped at a cenote - a sinkhole.  Some of our tour group swam in the sinkhole, others (us) took pictures and ate the only Mexican food we would eat during the whole trip! One lady asked me if I had a good lunch and how many tortillas I ate.  I purposely did not count, because I ate too many!! They were soooo good!

The sinkhole was cold, but very beautiful!

How happy and relaxed do we look?  Loved it!

After a long, hot tour.  Head for the ice cream stand.

The iguana is not for sale.  Though I'm sure if we asked one of the many, many vendors, they would have taken money for it.

Those rippling muscles can hold up a pyramid -with one hand and he's still smiling!

Our last full day in Cancun was one of our favorites as we literally swam with dolphins!  They kissed us, danced with us, sang to us, jumped over us, swam around us, and let us touch them over and over again.  It. Was. Awesome. Really, we were in awe.  How amazing it is to be around creatures which are so smart and so different and so friendly!

 We knew the dolphins were going to jump over us, but when it happens you are surprised and amazed!

Mark is being pushed by two dolphins, one on each foot. He got so far out of the water that it looked like he was water skiing! 

 Mark was a little jealous.

We spent a good amount of time just touching the dolphin as he swam around our group of four.  The trainer told us that they loved to be touched. 

I never was a very good dancer, and my facial expression shows that.  I was a nerd dancer, complete with "Rock Lobster" down on the floor. Obviously I don't care what other people think about it though, because I had fun anyway! 

We also went to the Cancun flea market, which gave me a lot of practice in saying, "No, gracias" though I had a lot of practice in Chichen Itza as well.  Our favorite line was, "Sir, come buy cigars from my store!" Mark: "I don't smoke." Salesperson, "You can always start!"  We bought some trinkets for the kids (what we called Mexican beyblade - though they were just wooden tops), a cool, wood inlaid Mayan calendar and a bow and some arrows for the boys, which brought great disappointment to Spencer since they are supposed to be used for decoration only. When we got off the bus, a man led us to the market and talked with us on the way.  I was surprised at how much Spanish I remembered from three years in high school (long, long ago), which was enough to learn about his family and talk about mine and a few other things.  He led us to his shop which was full of jewelry that I felt obligated to buy since he had been our guide to the market.  But Mark helped me get over my feelings of obligation and buy from other vendors who berated us for saying "we'll be back later." Pushy, pushy!

Our spoils of the flea market.  And the obsidian knife (which really does cut, good thing we have band aids) Mark purchased at Chichen Itza, represents power, which is now on display in his office.  Beware, clients!

What a great relaxing trip.  We would do it all again, though we were a little uncomfortable not knowing enough Spanish and making currency conversions.  Still, a great and adventurous trip!

Monster Concert

Spencer and D.J. were given the opportunity to participate in a Monster Concert, where there are multiple players playing the same song.  The theme for the concert was Disney songs and they even got to dress up!  They played Cruella DeVil from 101 Dalmatians.  Spencer played the Primo part (top hand) and D.J. played the Secondo part (bottom hand), though they played on different pianos (which was a wise move by the piano teachers).  This was an awesome concert!

 Heather Smith (piano teacher), and the dawgs: D.J. and Spencer

Granna traveled all the way from Sugar House to see and enjoy the concert!

Desperation Breeds Inspiration

One morning while eating my breakfast Spencer came up to me and proceeded to beg me for an itouch. Why in the world would he ask me for an itouch?  To play video games of course.  We already own a wii, which is why I've also refused to buy a Nintendo DS for them.  The iphone, cell phone and ipod they've asked for is also out of the question for safety reasons and also so I don't feel like I've wasted money on something that will be lost in two weeks or less just like a dumb happy meal toy.

Now I have another reason not to buy them these electronic gadgets.  The boys make them! They were so desperate to have their own gadgets that they decided to make their own. . . and they are actually satisfied with that!  Well, for now anyway.  So, here are the projects of last Sunday:

The item that James is giving bunny ears to is the docking/charging stations for the two ipod (the ones with the round pieces at the bottom) as well as the cell phone the reads "extreme ice rally".  The one with the hinge is a Gameboy and the one with the colored dots is a Nintendo DSI.  D.J. made one that was an opening cell phone that turned into a DSi.

So the next time they ask me for something, I will just tell them to go make it! Nice!

Having Thumb Fun!

Every day is April Fool's day at our house.  Spencer received some magic tricks in Christmas of 2009. One of the tricks is a plastic thumb that you stuff a handkerchief in, then put the thumb on your own hand and to your audience you magically pull a handkerchief out of your hand.  The thumb is disproportionate to a 10 year old, but if he does it fast it works OK.  Well, as most Christmas presents come and fade, so did the magic tricks.  But they crop up in other places, where least expected:

We also have a purple snake (I should never have told the boys that I'm scared of snakes) that appears in my bed when I turn down the covers.  Then it appears in D.J.'s underwear drawer. Then it appears in Spencer's pillowcase.  Then back to my bed. Then in the shower.

This is not an uncommon thing in the Wheeler family.  There are baby dolls, coats, flamingoes and other odd items secretly passed from one family to the next.  It is our weird way of saying I love you? I'm clever enough to play a joke, but not to hurt you? I'm a nerd?  I think we just like the anticipation of putting smiles on faces.  I'm sure that's it.

Double Derby

The year has come. Two cub scouts. Two shirts.  Two books. TWO PINEWOOD DERBY CARS! Actually we had three cars since there was a race for parents and siblings after the real race.  Mark likes the pinewood derby.  He and the boys are in the garage often during pinewood derby season.  I like that they all get father son time so I stay out of the garage for that reason and also because I don't want to be held accountable for knowledge about just how much Dad does to the car and how much the boys do to the car.  Ignorance is bliss.

This year, Mark discovered colored wheels at the scout shop. Awesome! Each boy designed what they wanted their car to look like and Mark did his best to make their dreams come true.

 The beginning of the race holds high hopes for all.

 There are only seven scouts in our troop so the races went rather quickly before we had a winner. 

 It came down to two cars: D.J.'s and Spencer's cars battle to win!

 D.J.'s car is the fastest in 2011!

 With Spencer in second place!

Mark took the overall round where ANY car could race.  He used his car from last year - a legal 5 ounces! He is the BEST OF THE BEST!

A BIG CHANGE at the Astling Home

I have never taken the boys to a hair cutting establishment. I have always been a penny-pincher that way and overly optimistic of my abilities.  So, I cut their hair, for better or worse.  All three boys have had a "bowl cut" type hair cut in their younger years and eventually they move to shorter hair cuts.  D.J. wanted his hair shaved like Dad's when he was in kindergarten.  I don't remember why the bowl cut ended with Spencer, I don't think his lasted long because he couldn't hold still long enough.  James has had his bowl cut the longest, partially because he doesn't care about hair and partially because we feel it is irresistibly cute.  His reason for wanting to rid himself of the bowl cut: he wants to look like Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes).  So here are before and after pictures:

James' look for the last four years (a little more shaggy than usual):

The short cut (he was upset it didn't look just like Calvin's yet, which is true because he looks exactly like D.J. in this picture):

The Calvin cut:

Snowshoeing!

I have always wanted to try snowshoeing, so when Spencer's class wanted parent volunteers for such a trip, I signed up immediately!  I wasn't the only excited parent because there were 20 other snowshoe-starved parents along too!  It was mostly a nature tour, with not much hiking, but it was still really fun and it was so great to be outside! We traveled to Little Cottonwood Canyon, where a college student majoring in outdoor kind of stuff informed us of things like watershed, habits of winter animals and trees.

 Much of the time listening to the nature guide was spent while making mini snow caves. It's a good thing 4th graders can multi-task at some things.

 We made snowballs and threw them into the river. They did not melt, but floated in the water! Brrrrr!

 The class was asked to choose to be one of the animals we talked about and have a race with their snow shoes on. I'm not sure what Spencer chose but it was a good activity to do right before boarding the bus home!