The Grand Canyon

Well if Sedona was the spiritual awakening, the Grand Canyon is heaven. It is just amazing. I, personally had been here before when i was a little girl. It was when my mom and step dad took my brother and i on a road trip and one of the stops was the grand canyon. I was eight on that trip and the place had an impact on me than and stayed with me my entire life. Being here at 37 was just as moving. Being able to be here with my family was precious. We settled on a campsite about a 15-20 minutes outside the Grand Canyon, and this truely was camping as us B.Cers knew. It was chilly and campfires were something you had to work for. Rryla and Mark set out to find wood for the fire as the rest of us settled in. We set to finding the perfect hot dog stick and than to widdle it away to a point. We gathered our chairs around the flame that would become the means to our dinner and the means to our warmth for the evening. We discussed our day, relaxed and watched the stars tell their story in the night sky. We planned for the following day and watched the embers of the fire lull into the darkness of the night. We calapsed heavily apon feathered pillows to dream far into the night. Apon waking, we set out to discover the secrets of the vast Grand Canyon. The trails were abundant. We walked to several view sights, took photos, imprinted images on our souls and continued. It was inspiring, it was captivating and down right unbelievable. To stare out at this montrous crevass, that was miles deep, miles long and that held stories and fates of many travellers was not only a privallege, but an honour. Would my children remember its folds and its layers as i had as a child?. I wondered at i stared at its history.
We found a guide and learned of a program that the kids could do to earn a badge and a crest. We needed to hike a trail into the belly of the canyon and attend a seminar. We chose a trail and a seminar. The Trail was a switchback that meandered down until it reached a river. We did not go all the way down, however the distance that we covered was enough to appreciate the offerings that this canyon had. It was enough to make one feel small and vulnerable. Our children did an amazing job navigating the trail and enjoying the natural beauty that they were lucky enough to be apart of. After our hike we attended a seminar on the California Condor. We learned of it's threat of extinction, of it's importance and of the efforts to regain it's numbers. Our children learned alot that day, so did we. They got their badges and their crests, we got tattoos on our souls of this miraculous place. Will our children grow up to take their children on such a journey? We hope so.
The moon is magic and history repeats itself . We aim to teach and be taught. Lifes journey is a discovery of amazing things.
Another day unfolds
And we sleep.
xoUs

The Road Home is a Long and Winding Road

On our way to Sedona AZ we ran into a road block, or a windstorm, to be more correct. It wasn't like the windstorms we're used to in Squamish, more like the tornado type that perhaps they are used to in dessert areas in the U.S. So their we were, barreling down the highway and being tossed around like a paper bag caught in the wind. Personally, i felt in danger, which didn't normally register, at first, to others in my family because im known to be hyper sensitive to pretty much everything, but i had abit of help from the powers that-be in the form of a sign high up over head that read " highway closed 50miles ahead due to extreme wind storm." I had to breathe a sigh of relief because in my mind i believed that this would mean surely we would stop and wait it out....It didn't! I was able, however to get Mark to stop at a visitors centre to ask about the degree of the storm and the estimated time of interference the storm would cause. The gentlemen at the front desk was very helpful, and definatley on my side in terms of not continuing our journey down the highway. He let us know that these "windstorms" can turn into 100mile high "dirt devils", which really is a down play on a tornado as far as i could tell. He said that high profile vehicles like our motorhome were known to "tumble" in storms such as this and that winds were up to 60miles an hour which was the worst yet out of the previous days. Apparently the winds had even blew out some windows in the building that he occupied the previous day ! As much anxiety as i was feeling at the time, i felt reassured that after all this information we were staying put until things calmed down outside with the winds. We walked out, and as we were getting tossled around by the wind on the way to the motorhome, i had a smile on my face and was just about to breathe a little easier when Mark piped up and said "I think we can make it the next 50miles til where the road closes.'' My heart rate instantly spiked, "come on Mark, are you serious?" I said, "Ya, it will be fine Bran, you'll see, it's only 50miles away, it's still early in the day, we'll be fine". So off we went, reluctantly on my behalf, down the windy road. We did make it. we went until we couldn't make it any more, and their we were with about 150 other big rigs waiting until the storm passed and we could push on to our destination....Sedona. We walked Keesha, talked to some rig drivers that added little comfort to us, informing us that, they too, felt very vulnerable on the road in times like this. We had some lunch and decided on our options. At this point the highway was not scheduled to open until later on that night, or possibly early the next morning. Their was an alternate route that would ad about 2 hours on our trip, or we could wait to hit the highway with the other 150 other big rigs to fight out the battle to Sedona, without any headlights on our motorhome, we decided to take the alternate route. Originally this was not a great option only because nobody else was taking it and we were wondering why? Was their something about this route that we didn't know about? In our typical adventurous Willmot fashion, we decided to take the alternate route. Things were abit better considering the first hour of our journey we were in a head wind, which didn't make us feel like we were inside a washing machine. This was good. We eventually wound our way into a mountain and began to descend off the high dessert plateau. We didn't encounter any precarious roadblocks on our way, we saw a coyote and some deer and that was about it. We entered Sedona in the evening before the night fell, it was a sureal event. If you have never been to Sedona i encourage you to go. It is hard to describe, only because the beauty of it captivates you, stuns you almost, but does not let you take it with you. The color of the rock is like a sunset in Mexico, or of a bleeding heart that never heals, it stays with you, envelopes your soul, captivates your spirit. I know now why they call this place "spiritual". We took many pictures that evening as the sun cast it's glow on the rock just before it went to sleep. I think we all felt a little closer to god in those final moments of the day. As night was falling we knew we had to find a place to park for the night. It was a race against the moments before the moon lit the sky because our headlights were pretty close to nil. We settled on a parking lot next to a dairy queen. This proved to be a gem spot. Not only did we get wifi, but we also got cable and i was able to catch the season finale of Greys Anatomy.
The next day we set out to find a good hiking trail. We wanted to envelope ourselves in the crevases of the rock that surrounded this natural wonder of a community. First we grabbed a coffee and hit the whole foods store for lunch supplies. In whole foods we met an amazing women that awackened me, that made me ache for my girlfriends and want to ad her to my facebook list just the same. She told us of a favorite hicking spot and that is the one we chose. We packed some snacks and headed out. Keesha was in her glory, and so were we. The hike started out with us having to hop scotch across river beds and streams until we came to a path that wound through lush woods and rock faces. It was beautiful, the air was fresh and the path was alive with beauty and other hikers. The land whispered its past to us as we meandered along in awe. We hiked for about an hour and a half in and than turned around to head back, feeling the hunger in our bellies for lunch. We ate, and than wondered what the evening had in store for us. We had previously booked a camp site out of town. A place to park really. At a cost of 20$ we had a nice place to park for the night without hookup or any other amentety, but it was a sure thing for the night. We decided to check out a few other things in town for the tourist mind. One was an amazing museum, full of creativity and divine passion of a collection of artists. It made one think outside the box and wish that we possesed the amount of talent that was captivated in that one space. It filled your mind with ideas and of creation, i was so blessed to of just walked through that moment in time. The other site we felt we needed to experience in this spiritual land was a church that was perched high on a hill with the layers of red rock as a back drop. We parked at the bottom of a winding road that led to the entrance of the church. We walked the distance enjoying the surroundings. We saw lush flowers and cactus, we saw carvings in the rock and felt the power of the spirit all around us. Apon entering the little church their were many people around. Some lighting candles, others sitting in the pews thinking of lost loved ones and taking in the serenity of the views that were cast in front of them. Others shopped downstairs in the giftshop, still others took pictures trying to captivate the feelings that this place instilled in your soul. We walked foreward as a whole, Teaghen, Rryla, Brooklyn and Myself, to light some candles for the ones that left footsteps on our souls, namely Lindsay, K'yoosh, Angela, Sadie and Chris. We knew in our hearts that this place, with its beauty and its spirituality would be that much closer to god. A place that we knew those loved ones would love to stare out the window and feel free. With some tears being shed, we left our mark and headed to the comfort of our home on wheels. It was getting close to nightfall so we decided to head to the parking lot of Dairy Queen, check our emails and head to our campsite for the night. Apon arriving at the parking lot Mark was confronted by a man who talked him into spending the night in luxery, the catch was that it was an intorduction to a timeshare so we'd have to endure a 90 minute speel by a rep to encourage us to buy a timeshare. Their was, however, no obligation to buy, also their was free laundry an exercise room, pool, hot tub, adult whirlpool, free wifi, 2 nights comped and a 75$ diesel coupon for fuel. Personally, this was a no brainer! We had nothing to lose, other than a 20$ spot in a campsite out of town. We headed for luxery and thats what we got. We spent the night in style, first tackling all our laundry, which by the way was alot!!, having an adult hottub and watching tv. In the morning we headed for our 90minute speel. With our lines of exited wife/ reasonable husband, freshly rehersed we were ready to tackle the most money hungery rep they could throw at us. She was lovely, and experienced. Our rep had us wrapped around her finger, we wanted to instantly be her friend, get her address, her email and keep in touch. We were being led along on a money train that we were intended to give up at the end. However we hit a snag, we started spilling the beans, we forgot our lines and told of our incredible journey, our desires to re-invent ourselves, our quest to find our true purpose, to be a close family unit and to reconnect. This proved to be our demise, for we were kicked out of the time share world, apparently you need to be currently employed and to be making at least 40grand per year, we failed to mention that our jobs were waiting for us apon our return, but our quest was real. It was like a deck of cards that fell all around us, we had to do the walk of shame to leave and not collect our gas money, the second night would not be comped. So we did our last 2 loads of free laundry, the kids had their last swim in the pool, we exercised in the weight room and hit the road. Next destination........The Grand Canyon!!!!!!!

Barbara and Scotts house was great. It is right in the downtown core of Austin so it's central to everything. It is a 2 bedroom apartment on the 7th floor. The building they live in is great because it's built up around a courtyard, in the middle is this great swimming pool. Their is also bbq's set up around the courtyard, so it's a great place to meet people. We had a great time with them. We parked the rv in a parking lot across the street and took full advantage of the space in the apartment, which to us, felt like a mansion. Im not sure Barbara and Scott thought that we would actually stay in their home with them the whole time, but we proved them wrong.!!! I mean, they had laundry and a bedroom with a very comfortable bed, even if we had to share it with the two youngest kids. They had internet and cable, water that you could drink right out of the tap, a bathtub/shower with hot water and great pressure, we felt like we had won the lottery. Barbara proved to be a fabulous cook, im sure we all gained 2lbs in just one week. They were both such wonderful hosts we didn't want to leave. We saw many sights while we were there. We checked out the parliament buildings, Barton Springs, and this great river that was teared like Aqua Azul. We did some shopping for Vegas, and had a couple nights out on the town where we were lucky enough to catch some of Austins local talent. .We also tried to get Teaghens nose peirced. (an early birthday present) but that voyage was unsuccessful because you cannot pierce a child under the age of 16.( I cannot say i was that disapointed about it) The city itself was beautiful. We are so greatful for Barbara's and Scott's gracious hopitality and their patience. It was a great thing that both of them are so wonderful with kids!! Thanks again you guys.
After Austin we headed to Carlsbad New Mexico. We drove straight through and stayed the night at a Walmart. The next day we checked out Carlsbad Caverns. WOW, this place is crazy. You need to google it because i just can't do it justice. The decent into the caverns is 750 feet. There are 2 ways of getting in, you can walk down a switchback paved path all the way down, or you can take an elevator. We decided to split up, Mark and the older girls went down the switchback path and than came up the elevator, me and the little ones and we headed back down the elevator. Now, those of you who know me are probably wondering if i freaked right out, well let me tell you, i was freaking out inside, especially when that elevator door opened. I had to take a moment and decide whether i could really do it.....but i did. It was unbelievable down in the caves, there were stalagtites, and stalagmites everywhere. It was all limestone and it was awe inspiring. I had to part ways with everyone when we came to the shortcut back though, i mean i couldn't escape that voice in my head that kept telling me we were 750ft below the earths surface.!! After the caverns we went to the living forest. This is like a zoo, but all the animals are outside in a natural environment. We headed out on a mile loop to look at all the animals. We saw cougars, elk, prairie dogs and snakes. We saw links and porccupines, badgers and hawks. Lots of different animals, it was great. The day was a hot one so we headed to Bentley Lake(?). It was a state park just back from a lake, we took a swim and had a bite to eat. There were rabbits everywhere, it was pretty cool. In the morning Mark and i went for a 6km run in the desert while Rryla and Teaghen put together a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans and toast, thanks girls!! We then took a high summit road that reached heights of 9000ft, on our way to White Sands. What a spectacular sight this was. It was white sand dunes. Amazing, we hiked around abit and took some fabulous pictures. From there we went to camp at Three Rivers, we wanted to investigate the petroglyphs. They were very interesting, unfortunately we lost our pictures from this site. After camping in Three Rivers and listening to the coyotes howl as we fell asleep under a sliver of a moon, we drove to Santa Fe. What a beautiful artsy city it is. Everywhere you look you see art, from the downtown architecture to the many shops we browsed through. We also had a great dinner out at this rooftop pizza place, so nice to not have to cook! Tomorrow we head to Sedona AZ and than onto the Grand Canyon. I am personally counting down the days until i see my girlfriends in Vegas on the 28th, the only one i'll be missing is shortcake.!
This trip has been full of good times, it has been full of adversary too. We have learned alot from the places and the people we have met as well as each other. We have discovered that life has some unforseen things that happen, that you cannot control or predict. In saying that i would like to share with you that our beloved dog K'yoosh died recently. He suddenly got sick and after taking him to a vet he was unable to recover. We have had him cremated and Barbara will bring him home to us in July. We were heartbroken and shocked. We all look at things alittle differently now. It's funny how a situation like that changes you inside forever. Its like the lenses that you've stared at the world through have been tinted ever so slightly. Time will heal us all i know, but i miss that dog, we all do.
I am sending you all K'yoosh kisses on the wind tonight. He loved to give kisses. May you sleep soundly under the clear sky, may the moon shine brightly apon you all.
With love always.
US

Hi everyone, lets play catchup shall we......ok,so after we left Pilanque we headed for the Emerald Coast where the beaches have black sand. We picked an rv site from our book and hooked up. It had a pool and water slides for the kids. It was right on the beach, a great location. It was not near as nice as the yucatan though, and we were once again wishing we would of stayed longer in Paa muul. It being what it was though we enjoyed ourselves. Unfortuntately we didnt have internet service there. The weather was hot, and the pool was warm and it was very buisy because it was cinco demaio (sp) (the fifth of may). We had several young boys lingering around our rv lurking after our older girls, it was a little concerning.!! They kept asking to borrow our soccer ball and showing off for our girls. Mark and i rode our bikes into town a few times to grab a coffee and check things out but for the most part the little town we were staying 4 miles out of was very small and quite uneventful. We stayed here for 3 days and carried onto Cuidad Victoria. This was a bussling city, just about 3 hours from the border. We stayed 2 nights here and did some shopping and a shit load of walking, holly cow. Again walking anywhere with our older girls was a challenge. Mexican boys and men, don't have any dignity, they just stare and gauk and shout, its disturbing and crazy all at the same time~!~ Mark enjoyed half a day shopping out with us than he graciously took the little ones off my hands so the older girls and i could finish the day off. While we were gone he McGivored up a sprinkler for the little ones out of a two ltr pop bottle. It was ingenious!! We all had a little run through it when we got home. We left bright and early the next day, at around 6am and headed for the border. We crossed at Pharr on the US side. It was a breeze coming through the border actually which was a relief, we had to get out of the motorhome while it got searched but it was only for about 10 minutes. (We could of smuggled that little kitten in after all!!) The first thing we noticed after crossing was a sting operation going down at a motel, after that we saw another one going down at a gas station. WOW, scary!! The next thing we noticed as we stopped for "Peter Piper Pizza" was how heavy people were, which made me feel a whole lot better because when you are sitting in an rv travelling around from place to place like we are you don't get a whole lot of exercise and i am sure that if i havn't gained weight, my mussels have disapeared at the very least. Anyways we got our pizza and headed towards Austin, to where we could hang out and relax with our good friends I think a little out of place is an understatement, but oh well. There was a grad photo session going on while we were soaking in the hot tub. We took turns picking our favorite gowns, it was great, it was like we had front row seats at a fashion show.
After we rehydrated in the pool and hot tub we went back to the rv and fed our kids. We than had them hang out in the hotel, which they were so happy to do. To have the space to lounge and have a shower and watch tv. Us adults went out for dinner to the restaurant, which was Scotts treat. It was great. Not only to visit and get some adult time in, but to eat a meal that was cooked by someone else! Thank you so much Scott, it was so greatly appreciated. We slept in the parking lot that night and than hooked up the next morning with Scott and Barbara to go out onto a Pontoon boat which they had rented. It was so cool. We had a blast, even the dogs enjoyed it.! Scott brought out the fishing rods and had the little ones fishing with him. They caught so many fish which they released, even the big girls caught some. We saw pretty much the whole lake, it was beautiful.....again thank you so much Barbara and Scott, it was a mothers day that will stay with me, thanks. After parking the boat we headed up towards the motorhome. i was carrying Aidan and he pointed out this huge creepy crawly, it turned out to be a giant centipede! It was about 7 inches long and it was black, yellow and red. We discovered that it was a giant desert centipede. It has sharp, poisonous claws and venomous fangs, it is scary fast too. It can reach speeds up to two feet per seconds!! Yikes! Im so glad that when it hid in the rocks it didn't come back out when we tried to poke it with a stick!
We were now on our way to Barbara and Scotts.

Forgotten post

1. OMG i forgot chicken pizza......i mean Chichen-itza! We actually went there after Cancun. See what happens when you get behind, you forget. I can't believe i forgot this actually because this part of the trip was pretty beautiful. We headed first to check out a cenote. Holly cow, it was amazing. It's hard to describe it actually. When we first arrived we payed a small fee than walked about 100meters to where some stairs went down down down into the earth. Finally you came to an opening and it was a massive open round cave, with stallagtites and stallagmites everywhere. Their was an opening in the roof no bigger than a well and the sunlight streamed in to where the water was. It was at least as big as a bball court in there. Mark and Rryla went for a swim, while the rest of us just waided in. The water was cold and murkey. Birds flew all around the ceiling and you could hear them calling to each other as it echoed about the cavern. After seeing that cenote, we looked at another one, that was a bit smaller and had a much wider opening and not much water, but still spectacular. From their we continued on to Chicken-itza. We parked at a motel that housed a hundred cats. It had a pretty good pool and again seemed abandoned, which was fine with us. It was close enought to the ruins that we could bike there. We had heard of a light show that was going on at the ruins in the nighttime. We thought we'd check it out. It turned out to be very boring, especially for the little ones, Aidan actually fell asleep, and im sure it gave Brooklyn nightmares. They really shouldn't even call it a light show because it was more of an information night and they shawn different colored lights on a pyramid while they talked (in spanish) . We did have head phones that converted it to english, but still it wasn't very great. The next day Mark and i went the the ruins together and left the kids to play in the pool. They were pretty good, although you couln't climb up any pyramids which was too bad.
2. It was after this that we made our way to Campeche.
3. Love to you all.

Campeche and Pilanque

We arrived in Campeche and stayed in a dynamite rv site. It was right on the ocean and it had a huge pool. It was called the Nautico club, and it was practically deserted! We took full advantage of the emeneties such as the pool, the washrooms, showers and sauna. Their was a tv room and a games room, an outdoor soccer space, which Rry and Mark used to kick some balls around. Their was a great playground area for the little ones as well. It was great. We decided right away that we would stay 2 nights. The second day Mark, myself and the little ones went to go check out the town. Rryla and Teaghen opted to stay and play. The town was really interesting. It was an old colonial style town with a spanish flare. Four Hundred years ago their was a stone wall buit up around the city to protect it from Pirates that kept attacking it and raping and pillaging.We checked out a museum as well as a couple of amazing churches. The town square was lovely. We did abit of a walk around, hung out on the seawall and took some pictures. We than hit a super market, got caught in a rainstorm and went home to the girls. Apon our arrival we learned of a young cat and her kitten that had hidden themselves in a rock crevase close by our motorhome. We went and had a peak at them, but the momma cat was growley. We left her and went back to the motorhome as a big storm was coming in. The lightening and thunder was unreal. By far the most amazing lightening and the loundest thunder i had ever seen and heard. The dogs were freaken out, especially Keesha. Teaghen and Rryla ran out to check on the cat and her baby. They discovered that the baby was left by itself and ran back to tell us. We had decided that the mother would come back for her baby and that we shouldn' t take it. (I know you are breathing a sigh of relief right now Marie!). The next morning Teag and i went to check and both were gone. We later found out that the momma cat actually had 3 kittens, it sounds like she may of scattered them around the place. We searched and searched for her and the little ones but to no avail. I kept telling myself that it was for the best, but i don't think Teaghen or myself thought of anything else for the better part of that day on our drive to Pilanque. I only hope that the baby wasn't taken by a predator that night of the storm. I will say a little prayer for it tonight for it saddens me greatly to think of the homeless animals in this country. Their are so many homeless dogs and cats everywhere you look, it's hard to bare. I read a great little blerb in this pamphlet in Isla Mujaries about this couple who went on a trip to Isla Mujaries and wound up staying and rescueing all the homeless and injured dogs on that island. What a great story.
So i have finally caught us up here. We are now in Pilanque, this is our second night here. We spent the day driving to Aqua Azul. I had origianally opted to stay. You know to chill by the pool with the little ones, get some time away, but Mark was insistant that we all go. Really, i was imagining being stressed out on the narrow, winding road, stressed about the little ones in the water etc... etc..., but i gave in and went. Now im not sure why i don't have a six pack yet because my stomach muscles pretty much stay tensed the whole way on drives like today, and believe me we have had no shortage of them here on our trip. We first went to a 100ft waterfall, which was pretty spectacular, than drove up the road another 40km to Aqua Azul. It was beautiful, thank god, because this is the whole reason we came to Pilanque. We forewent the ruins because Mark and i have seen them and our kids are "ruined" out. Anyways the pools of water are a light blue color and they flow over these lava type formations all the way down the side of a mountain. It's so pretty. A very popular place as well. It was packed.
Tomorrow we are heading for ? Destination unknown. We will look at the map and figure it out. I just hope the roads are better than they were today.
Sorry about the lack of blogging lately folks, it's been buisy. Oh i forgot to mention that the rv site we are staying at has its own resident howler monkey. It's a male and its alone which we learned that when that happens its because the male has gotten too old and was kicked out of its family and therefore spends the rest of its days alone. Anyways he is loud, very loud, i don't think he likes the dogs very much . We had a massive cockroche in here last night, but Mark got him out. We now have a son who is totally addicted to gameboy, and it is so hot that we are all melting. Today it was about 42 degrees. OUCH! Our older girls look too old and more beautiful than when we left and our little ones are swimming and diving into pools. We are so lucky and so blessed for this family, for this experience and for this life.
Sleep well friends and family, for we love and miss you all.
xoxo
US>

Back in Mexico

The border crossing was a sinch, well except for the fact that they made Mark, the kids, and the dogs get out of the rv and walk across. I had to drive the rv through by myself because it is in my name. I had some difficulty with the red light green light thing, but i won't get into it right now.....it's kind of embarassing. So we were off to Paa Mul and wow, it was beautiful. We also ran into our European travellers there. They were leaving the next day though so it was a quick hi and bye, they were heading for the interior of Mexico. The kids loved the pool. We even got in on some volleyball games that were being played by some of the lifers and some of the staff. The beach was great and we found some more amazing shells. We stayed for 4 nights, but in retrospect we should of stayed longer because it was a truley beautiful place. We toured Tulum one day and got in some more ruins to add to our list. The beach there was to die for, it was pretty packed though and the waves were quite strong. We enjoyed a kareoki night at Paa Mul, we didn;t actually sing anything but it was entertaining!! We danced and had a great time. Teaghen and Rryla met some of the locals and really enjoyed themselves. We did some bike riding up the coast and got attacked by gigantic mosquitoes. I even got a run in, it was so nice. The water in this area is so amazing the sand is white and the water is just crystal blue. It was brilliant, we really miss it.!
After reluctantly saying goodbye to Paa Mul we made our way to Cancun. The rv site we had picked out for this area was just on the outskirts, we didn't have many choices actually. Our goal was not to check out the massive city of Cancun anyways, but to take a ferry across to Isla Mujaries. We checked into our site, than tucked in for the night so we could get up for a big day. The ferry ride across was abit rocky. It took about half an hour to get across. Our ferry was not the nice looking one that they showed in the brochure, but we made it safe and sound at any rate. Once there we rented a golf cart to check out the island in. So imagine this......there was a small bench seat in the front and one that faced out the back. We had myself (driving), Aidan and Mark in the front and Teag, Rry and Brooklyn in the back, oh and the 2 dogs up front with us. We must of looked like a sight because everyone was staring at us!!! We also took this opportunity to teach Rry and Teag how to drive, they loved it and did really well actually. Teaghen was abit of a lead footer though, and about as graceful at the wheel as she is on land. Rryla was much more cautious and we all felt much safer with her at the wheel. Anyways we checked out some sights and than hit the beautiful white sandy beaches of the island. Mark even got some snorkeling in and, of course, we found some more seashells!! The day was great, we headed back towards dinner time, but this time we took the big ol car ferry back. It was cheaper and closer to our rv site. We had planned to walk the distance. Mark had been assuring us that it wasn't far......well let me just say that it was HELL! it ended up being about 5 km and we started getting eaten alive by mosquitos.! I should of realized that something was up when Mark insisted on taking Aidan from me. I think he started realizing alot sooner than the rest of us that it was going to be a bit of a slog. Oh well, honestly since we were sitting in a golf cart for most of the day, we all needed abit of excercise. Perhaps it might help us sleep through the heat as well!

Belize

Ok, so lets talk about Belize. Now, i think this country is great if your visiting the Que's, but not that wonderful if your just traveling around, of course thats just the opionion of me and the older girls. We decided that it wasn't that interesting overall, but it was great that they spoke english!! We arrived in the evening, after going through a nice relaxed border crossing and stayed at an rv park in San Ignacio. It was just outside of town. We biked in one day and spent sometime at the river. The older girls and Mark jumped off the suspension bridge while i took pictures. At first we were hanging out on the river bank across from all the locals because of all the boys oggling our older girls, it was crazy! However, we did have to move to the locals side eventually because we were informed by an 8 year old boy that we were hanging out where the pigs hang out. And sure enough right after he told us this a gigantic pink pig came strolling down to the river bank. We quickly left. I spent some time talking to the locals and taking pictures of the kids. I was than asked by a group of young men if they could get a picture taken with our girls, i agreed, as long as we were all in it. Im sure you'll see it posted on the blog, Mark took the picture. We than rode into town and had a great lunch, and than rode home again. It was a big day of riding because it was pretty hilly. The next day we headed for an rv park just outside of Belize city, but first we stopped to check out a howler monkey sanctuary. It was called a baboon sanctuary, but it was howler monkeys. The owner and operator was very knowledgeable, and extremely passionate about the monkeys and thier habitat. He was very friendly and happy to tour us around. We enjoyed the sanctuary and would recommend it to anybody traveling in Belize. We got to hand feed a baby howler monkey, and yes we have great pic's of that as well. After the tour we headed for the marina. It was great to have the breeze off the ocean for we were all very hot. The reason we chose this particular rv destination was because they had laundry facilities, which we were in great need of. The facilities included one washer and one dryer, we bought some tokens for a high price and realized that some of the tokens given to us were actually 2 peso coins from mexico, well lucky us!!! We just happened to have a few of those hanging around the motorhome and it a good thing too because we had lots of laundry to do, we finished sometime around midnight.! The next day we headed for the border, we were all excited to be getting back into Mexico. We were headed to an rv park called Paa Mul. It promised to have a beautiful beach and swimming pool! YES.....it had been awhile since we had been on a beach and on the ocean for that matter.

Belize

The road to Tikal

So after we said goodbye to Manfred and thanked him graciously for his hospitality we were off to meet up with Mark and Leisel. They were a couple that Mark and the girls met while visiting a hotsprings waterfall in Rio Dulce. They were waiting for us when we got off the boat from the Finca. They introduced themselves to me and the little ones and it was a go. Off we went, we were on our way to Tikal. Along the way we heard all about Mark and Leisels travels, they were on a sailing expedition, they had been all through Central America and it sounded like a great trip. Our estimated time frame was approximately 5 hours to get to Tikal. It was great to have the added company of this new couple. Mark quickly talked us into getting chickens for our back yard, while Leisel endured a 101 questions by Brooklyn. I was so thankful that she was so great with the kids, she had the patience of a god. The road to Tikal was pretty good, not to bumpy and fairly flat. We stopped to fill up on fuel at a Texaco and quickly resumed speed on the road to Tikal. After about 50km we stalled out, Mark restarted and continued, but only to stall out once more! What now?....Thankfully we were just coming into a little town, we limped the motorhome to a gas station, thinking that we need to change the fuel filter. Well in guatamaula when you buy a fuel filter the guy installs it for you same as an oil change, you buy the oil and th efilter the guy does the oil change free of charge, crazy. Anyways the attendant drops the old fuel filter and smells his hand. I think to myself this guy must be good if he can 'smell the problem' turns out anybody could because the filter was full of gasoline not diesel. Turns out that the attendant at the Texaco filled us with gasoline!! Can you believe it. Our smooth running day just took a turn. Mark took off to find a Taller Mechanico and I went to phone my brother for mechanical advice. No luck with the phone call Mark soon returned with a Mechanic. This guy was awsome, hooked up a bypass so we could limp the motorhome to his shop. Then he and the 2 Marks drained 50 gallons of diesel and Gas from the tank using a 2 gallon bucket (no kidding). The kids, Leisel and I walked down the street to check out some animals. When the local kids saw us they all came out of their houses, in no time at all our older girls were playing a game with all the local little kids. It was great! Leisel got lots of amazing pictures of this. It started getting dark so we made our way back up to our motorhome to check on the progress. It turns out the owner of the Texaco, where the unfortunate incident occured, was also there. He had heard of the problem and came with a drum full of diesel for us. Things were starting to get better. Although i felt so bad for Mark and Leisel, that their trip to Tikal got abruptly interupted, i was so thankful they were with us because Mark was so helpful and knew more spanish than all of us combined and Leisel was calm and great with the kids! Once we were all fixed up the owner of the Texaco invited us to stay at his place so we accepted his offer since it was quite late. He slept through a driving rain storm and woke up to the humid heat of Guatamala and hit the road once a gain.
Half way to Tikal we stopped off for a swim to cool down and let the dogs run around. Mark had talked us into smuggling the dogs into Tikal. This had been an issue since no dogs were allowed in the park. So we did..........We parked in abit of shade, and all went to check out the ruins. They were amazing. We got some great pictures. The sun was starting to set so we went to climb a pyramid to watch the day come to a close, when a Tikal Park Ranger stopped us to ask us if we had a big motorhome with dogs in it!! OMG! we played completely dumb saying "no espanyo" when Mark came to our rescue and had a big conversation with this guy. Turns out he said we had one small dog, was that ok, we were going to keep it in the motorhome only. We stayed the night in Tikal. Mark and the older girls got up early the next morning to go with Mark and Leisel once again on a guided tour this time through the ruins. I stayed with the little kids and cleaned up the place. We left Mark and Leisel in Tikal and headed towards Belize. Another country behind us and a new one to discover.

The Finca

We woke up and met Manfred on the dock. We were headed for the Finca. We were all so excited. The day held so many promises and we didn't want to miss a beat. We headed up a river, the smells and raw nature that surrounded us was intoxicating. Manfred gave us a brief hstory of what we were seeing. The mountains were home to jaguars, and if one was lucky, it was possible to see a manitee in the waters. Crockodiles called some of the shore home, while birds dived into the surrounding water for their morning breakfast. We waved to fellow boaters as they past and inhaled the beauty that enveloped us as we headed upstream. It took all of 40 minutes to reach the Finca. Andrea and the kids were waiting. There was horses, cows and sheep, a dog and a cat. It was perfect.! It felt like we were the only inhabitants on earth. The finca was so remote. The house, with it's thatched roof and outdoor living space was amazing, like something out of swiss family robinson. Manfred gave us a rundown of how things worked and where things were. We put our belongings away and settled in, relishing in our great fortune of not only meeting Anrea and Manfred and the children, but being invited to their place as their guests. To live in the majestic beauty of their world for just a day. What an experience for us all. The girls quickly got aquainted with the horses and took to riding them around the enormous property. Mark, myslef and the little ones got versed on the different fruit trees that they grew, the fish pond, and the ways of their remote life. They had two toilets, one inside, as well as a composting toilet outside. Andrea did all her washing in the river, and made all her own bread, and cheese. Not only was she beautiful inside and out, but i was taken by the way that she excepted this way of life and did it with such grace. We talked about having children in a remote place, and the different hardships one endures living off the land with few amenities close by. I felt blessed to know her in those two days. Mark and Manfred were like old friends, chopping down trees in the mangroves whilst getting biten by ants. Fishing in the pond, drinking beer, we were enjoying every moment of our time. Andrea made an amazing pasta sauce and we ate spagetti and homemade bread. The children had fun in the dirt pounding nails and sailing to distant places in the boat. We cooled off in the river and talked until late into the night. Manfred and Andrea gave us their loft bedroom while they took to sleeping in the guest quarters. The rain pounded on the roof of our home on the Finca, but we slept soundly in our beds dreaming of the day we had together with our new friends. The next morning Andrea made us a wonderful breakfast, we hugged her and waved goodbye to the children. I stood one last time on the hill staring at the Finca, at Andrea and the kids, at the horses,cows, the sheep and the dog trying to take a mental picture of this perfect place we hade the privaledge of coming to. I wanted to burn it into the depths of my mind, a place that i could come to on days when i felt overwhelmed. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in that moment i didn't think a picture could possible capture what i was seeing, what i was smelling and how it all made me feel. We got in the boat with Manfred, i closed my eyes and just inhaled, i could feel the breeze blow through me as we headed up river towards our home on wheels. I could smell the Guatamalan nature that was all around me. I wanted to hold onto the minutes that fell by me, to remember this experience forever. The effect that it had on us all that day was a highlight in our lives. Thank you so much Manfred and Andrea, for your kindness, your hospitality, your friendship. We will hold onto our time with you close to our hearts, we will see you again one day.
All our love,
Us

Manzanilla beach

Brandy enjoying a huge beer at the beach concert.

Las Brisas Hotel in Escondido

Aidan hanging with the locals at La Punta.

Aidan Shows off his Tan. Sunset at Zihuat

PaPa Stu Catches a 20 lb Tuna for lunch

Enjoying the catch

Mexico and Guatamala

Wow, do we have some updating for you.! Ok so lets backtrack here abit, we were on our way across Mexico, at least that was the plan when i last blogged. But traveling is funny that way, just when you think you have a plan, you meet someone, and it changes. In our situation that is what happened. We were at Jaultuco and we met this young couple traveling north back towards Quebec, they were going home the same way we had come. They had been all the way to Panama so we exchanged infor and travel stories. We said goodbye in the morning and came to a fork in the road. We had to make a decision, continue on our plan to cross over, or to head for Guatamala. We all agreed,... Guatamala it was.! We headed to the border town and stayed in a hotel parking lot. It was a super fancy hotel called the Loma Real. We were not allowed to use the pool or playground unfortunately, i think they took one look at our crew and decided they didn't want their "overpaying" guests to see what they had allowed in!! No big D, we had some dinner and went to bed. In the morning we headed the 20 minutes it took to reach the border at Talisman. Now i've crossed borders before, and so had Mark but nothing could of prepared us for the crossing at Talisman. Before we actually got their we were accosted by several men (and boys really) trying to get us to pay them to help us have a smoother crossing. We, very politely were trying to tell them "no thank you", however, they were not taking no for an answer, they were hanging off our mohome, literally and being very agressive, we finally shook them and thought we had rid ourselves of them. We went into stamp our passports out of Mexico. We had read in our book about crossing the border and remembered that it said we did not need to give up our tourist cards, which was great because we did not want to have to pay for 6 more when we came back to Mexico. This became an issue because the guy we were dealing with took them and would not give them back. We ended up conversing with these 3 men behind us that offered to help in the translation regarding our book and such. Finally we were able to keep our cards. We thanked the 3 men and in exchange one of them gave Mark a "Guyo" hat and told us it was great Guatamalan beer. He said "enjoy the country" WoW, maybe things were about to change for the better. We came out and were again accosted by other men trying to get us to change our money with them, they had set themselves up right in front of the mohome. We finally exchanged some money and headed up the road 100m more to go through the border, we were stopped again by the same guys that had originally jumped on our bus. They told us we had to park in this big lot and they would take us where we needed to go to get through the border. By this time we were feeling a little nervous. I stayed with the kids in the lot and Mark went with the men. While he was gone other guys were coming to the motorhome trying to wash it for money, wanting to buy a bike off the back, wanting to know if we had any shoes to shine, it was a zoo. We kept the doors locked and waited. Mark came back about an hour and a half later. He still hadn't gotten us through. The guys that he had originally left with gave up on him after he repeatedly told them he had no money to pay them. So he was on his own. Finally after about 3 hours in total we got our tires sprayed (they had to fumigate them before we crossed) and we were on our way. Both Mark and i with pits in our stomachs wondering if we had made the right decision to come into this country. Our goal at that point was to get as far away from the border as was possible. We checked the map and decided to head to Quezaltenango for the night. Unfortunately as we were heading out of Ayutla, which was one of the first little towns we entered we passed a fork in the road. We took the upper road, which was the wrong road, which we realized much later. It took us up to the highlands of Guatamala. The roads became very steep, narrow and winding. We went through little villages that were beautiful, rugged and primitive. The children and women dressed in traditional Mayan dress, and shyed away from us as we passed through. The kept going up, the motorhome started to get hot and the break lights came on. We were worried. It started raining, and getting very cold the further we went up. Finally we pulled off the road when we felt we could not push the motorhome any longer. Mark and i got out trepedatiously, with nerves knotted up in our bellies, the kids, oblivious to what was going on grabbed a soccer ball and played together. Children up on the hill, peered at us from behind trees. We waited......Half hour later we once again set out. When we finally felt like we had reached the sky the road started down...down....down. The rain stopped, but the mohome once again started to heat up, the brake light once again came on. We headed into a town called San Marcos, and the brakes stopped completely. We pulled to the side of the road. Mark ran back and up the road looking for a mechanic. He appeared a few minutes later with a guy. Together they went over the brakes, bled the breaks, topped up the break fluid and we waited. Dusk was apon us and we were getting worried about making it to our destination. We headed through the town of San Marcos, it was crazy.! The streets were narrow and we had to turn on a 90 degree radias more than once, it was an amazing accomplishment for Mark. He did so great. We hadn't one centemeter left to spare in those turns as we were right up to buildings. We made it out of San Marcos and headed towards Quezaltenango. Our next mission was to find a spot for the night. Our books do not have alot of info on this part of the world when it comes to rv spots so this was a challenge. We had all eyes out looking for a suitable spot, finally we went to a gas station to ask the locals in our broken spanish. While dialoging with a gas jockey and getting nowhere, i heard a man speak in english from out of the night. "Follow me" he said, "I maybe have a place for you ya". We trusted his words and in moments were in a big truck yard that was fully fenced. He talked to the tendant at the front gate and they allowed us to park for the night. Turns out he was a beer rep, a beer rep for Guyo beer! WoW, the universe works in peculiar ways, someone is watching out for us up thier! So thier we were, locked into a truck yard, farrow dogs barking in the distance, We ate and went to bed. Rry and i stayed up talking well into this night, for i had insomnia from nerves, and she was so excited about the adventure. ahhh to be young. Next morning we were optimistic, we pulled the blinds and saw the world alive around us. The truck yard was packed with people getting ready with their goods for market. It was bussiling!! Mark had gone off to get some supplies from the "taller mechanic" and came back with some as well as the "taller mechanic". They went over the motorhome together, topping up this and tightening that. When all seemed a go, we set out. We were now on our way to Lago de Atitlan. Which in english just means lake Atitlan. It was promised to be beautiful, an we needed to rest for a couple of days. The roads looked better, still abit steep, but not as narrow. We had read in our book that their were 2 routes into Lake Atitlan, one was through a little village called Salola with narrow streets and a steep decsent, especially in the last 6km. The book emphasised that if your breaks weren't trust worthy to use the later route, which was longer, but safer, we opted for that route. Just before our turn off we stopped at a look out point, and started chatting to some folks that had rolled up and immediately started speaking to me in english. We had some travellers talk, discussed where we were heading and where we had been. When we mentioned we were taking the 2nd route down to the lake the one guy said "well let me just check with someone and make sure it is safe for you". The gentleman that he spoke to said "no, es mui pelligrosso" which means, Dangerous! OMG, now we were back to square one. Luckily for us their were police officers close by that got in on the conversation and agreed to escort us to the lake. THank GOD! As we descended, our brake lights once again came on, no problem, the police found us a "taller mechanic" and he looked at them, said they were too hot that we should pull over and rest them for half an hour before continueing the descent. Great, the police found us a great look out spot and we waited, them beside us with their guns, the little kids collecting bottle caps, Teaghen feeding random stray dogs, and poor Rryla in the mohom with cramps.! Just than the cops got a call and had to go, we waited out the remainder time and continued down to the promised beauty and tranquility of Lago de Atitlan. When we were just about to the bottome we came across this bridge, now i can't exactly explain it to you because words cannot do this thing justice. We had a bus in front of us, loaded to over maximum, they let out half the people to walk across it and than, they themselves crossed over. We, being wider, and perhaps a little longer, had a crazy time getting over this thing. Could we just get their!!!! I was starting to frey at every last seam. Finally, our destination was at hand. And honestly it was gorgeous. It was everything the book said it would be and more. And to improve things, there were about 16 other motorhomes thier as well. It was a caravan tour. It was called the "Panamerica tour" The people were from Europe, mostly Germany and Switzerland". I was so happy to talk to them, the guides were lovely people and made us, well mainly me, at ease about the rest of our journey. In my defense, i was on day 3 of very little sleep, so things seemed abit desperate for me at times. The kids were having a great time, swimming in the lake, jumping off abandoned boats into the water. We loved the little village, with all the merchandise. At night fireflies danced around under a starfilled sky. The little ones rode thier bikes and continued collecting bottle caps, The Gallo caps were becoming Aidans favorites, because he was finding so many of them, probably had something to do with his dad and his choice of beverage?! The European travellers were heading the same way as us, so that was very comforting as well. We made it through Guatamala city without too many wrong turns, which was a blessing. It is a massive city, sectioned off by zones, good zones to be in, and bad ones, luckily we managed to stay within the good boundaries.
We are now in Rio Dulce, at a beautiful rv park. Right on a lake. Thier is an amazing pool for the kids and even a playground (that we can use) Thier is a resident goat, that the dogs have already chased, and some fascinating people that we have had the pleasure of sharing a drink with. In fact we have been invited to their farm. It is via boat access only, they have cows, horses, chickens oh, and 2 kids as well. They are originally from Austria, but sailed here 7 years ago and bought some property. The older girls are excited about going horse back riding, the little ones excited about playing on a farm with Noah, thier 3 year old, the dogs are excited about chasing the animals, and Mark and i are just happy to of met someone our age and converse in english with them.
Our journey has been full of surprises, some good, others not so good. I believe we are all learning about conquering our fears together, and that no matter what we are in this together. You really realize that you are only as strong as the weakest person, so it is important to make sure everyone is happy and healthy. We are a team, "Team Willmot/Healey/McIntosh" and we are living a dream.
The day, yet overcast, is warm, and unfolding in front of us, as it should.

All our love to you all. Thank you for your supportive words, and your continued love.

xoxoxoxUs

Hello everyone, we are still in Puerto Escondido, enjoying the week of "Semina Santa". It's a big week long celebration for Easter. I think every Mexican family in all of Oaxaca is on the beaches in P.E., it's so great to see them all enjoying their holiday and each other. Their are parties going on in the streets and on the beach at all hours of the night and day. Anyways a couple of things to report. First off we have had our first official injury and trip to the hospital, it was Mark. He was out surfing at "la Pointe" and hit a wave on his way out to catch one and had the surf board fly up in the air and come down fin first on his head. So he quickly feels his head, realizes he's bleeding, goes and checks in with the lifeguard; who ushers him to the waiting ambulance. They stop by mohome on route to the hospital to inform the fam, how nice. The kids and i were catches some rays out at the pool, you know maxin and relaxin. I get this tap on my shoulder, look up to see Mark with his skull wrapped up like an injured soldier from M*A*S*H, "i've been in an accident", he says, "OMG!" I say, staring at the dried blood on his face. "it's ok im alright, i just wanted you to know, im on my way to the hospital" I was in shock, i watched him get in the ambulance and drive away. Two seconds later, i realized i should of gone with him, i run out to the road, grab a cab and head for the hospital. Im greeted by a manly looking short woman wielding a baton, who informs me, in spanish of course, that i cannot go see Mark. So i wait in the waiting room, all the while trying to kill the flies. Finally im able to go see Mark, the doc stitched him up pretty good, we pay, than head home to show the kids.We have been to a few different beaches here in Puerto Escondido, they are all pretty packed right now because of the holiday. They are all very beautiful, but some have enormous waves and are not suitable to swim in. We have spent alot of time swimming at the swimming pool here at the rv park, it's big and refreshing. The heat is constant and sometimes makes one feel clausterphobic, or maybe thats just me. At any rate we have our airconditioner on to relieve us as well. Brooklyn is on antibiotics, she had a chest infection, but she is on the mend. The girls are enjoying the stores, as am i, we are trying to keep things in check though because we still have a couple of months left. It looks like they have almost gotten all the friends on thier list something special, so thoughtful.Last night Mark and i checked out the live music down on the beach for an hour, it's only a block away from where we are staying, we needed the sanity break. It was great to see hundreds of Mexican families out and on the beach listening to the bands. When we first arrived an announcer was welcoming everyone from around the different areas of Mexico, than he saw us and asked where we were from "Canada" we yelled, and then he yelled "ariva Canada" and the crowd followed, it was pretty cool.Unfortunately this morning we woke up to discover that in the night someone stole one of the surf boards. We felt pretty bummed out because not only does one feel violated when that happens, but also the 2 surfboards we have with us have been loaned to us. At present Mark is asking around town, trying to replace the board. After doing some further research and going through our lonely planet book we have decided to traverse across Mexico to the Yukatan side. We will go and check out Pelanke, which is a Mayan ruin, Mark and i have been thier before, but really wanted our girls to see it. Also the waters are much calmer on that side, and are great for snorkeling. We had wanted to go as far as Costa Rica, but feel that it is just too risky, the roads are not great, and we've heard conflicting things with the border of Guatemala, it was a hard decision to make. When we do cross the border into the States it will be at Brownsville. We will than head to Austin Texas to see my girlfriend Barbara and her husband Scott. We plan to also see the Grande Canyon and go to Las Vegas for Kerri's stagette. In Las Vegas Mark plans to take the kids climbing at Red Rocks, while i hang out with the girls for a couple of days. From thier we will head for home. Well thats about it for now, tonight we are all going down to the beach to see the bands. Easter is fast approaching and the kids are conserned that the bunny will not find us here, and if he does will the eggs be melted?!To be continued........All our l ove

P.S.
Happy Easter Love all of us!! =]

Ants and peeling skin, both are brought on with the help of the sun, and both are affecting our lives! But lets not dwell on that, where did we last leave off, oh yes....Miss Rry's bday. Now that was a day that will go down in the history. It had it's high points, as well as some very scary ones. The day started off with a visit from Marie and Stuart, they were heading in to town and would be back for the lift off, Rryla's ascent from the beach that is. Mark started the day off right with a french toast breakfast for us all, than we threw our bathing suits on and headed for the beach. Now i must add this in, because quite frankly it has been ageing me far faster than i ever wanted, but you know when you are thirty something and your slipping into your bikini, looking at yourself in the mirror and noticing the flaws, but feeling not so bad about the overall pkg considering your pregnancy's and all. You walk down to the beach with your kids feeling pretty good, than you notice those looks, you know from the gentlemen, and than it's like you got slapped in the face, or kicked by a donkey, and you realized those boys aren't looking at you, they are looking at your teenaged daughters!!!! Agast!. firstly, im not ready for them to stop looking in my direction, and more importantly, absolutely i am not ready for them to be looking at my girls!, oh, but enough about me and my almost mid life crisis, lets get back to Rryla's birthday. We set ourselves up on the beach and played in the waves for awhile. They were noticeably larger than the day before, too big really for the little ones. Marie and Stu showed up from their trip to town, it was show time. Rry was ready. We headed over to the parasailing crew, camera, and video camera in hand, along with a belly full of nerves, (mine of course). I switched on the video camera and tried to stay calm as i interviewed Rrylas emotions before take off. She was excited, yet calm....inside i was scared. I watched as they gave her the instructions, than,,,,,,,,zooom, she was off, i wasn't ready, but again, it wasn't about me. She was soaring in the air so high, so fast, they had said they'd give her an extra long ride since it was her birthday, was that really necessary?!! It seemed like an eternity before she came down. My heart was in my throat the whole time. She came down gentley, like a kiss on the wind, smiling all the while.....ahhhh i breathed a sigh of relief, thought it was all over really, until Teaghen piped up and said, "i want to try it too", honestly!! Why must they do that.! and if you think it was easier with her up high obove the ocean floating miles above, well your wrong, it was just as hard. Man, this whole mother thing, i just don't know if im cracked up for the nerve of it all. She loved it as well, and floated down to earth like a dream. So their they were too giggling school girls laughing about it all, while i pulled myself together, just in the midst to realize that one of my children was missing.....Aidan, where was he???? frantically we ran around looking and calling for him. I remembered him telling me he had to pee just before Teag hit the ground. "one minute" i replied as i videotaped her descent. Staring out to sea and feeling a sick pit in my throat......i called his name. Marie took off towards the El Manglar (the rv park in which we were staying) with Teag in tow, within seconds Teaghen came back across the aligator bridge to announce that they had found him peeing in the bathroom of the El Manglar. I ran to him, shaking and desperate,.... "don't ever do that again" i said as he sat their on the toilet. " im sorry mommy, i won't ". I glanced at Marie and said something like "im not cut out for this" and as quickly as it started it was over. My ner ves calmed and my heart beat went back to normal. We joined everybody back on the beach and continued the day. The girls were out in the waves enjoying themselves, i was on shore watching as the sea became angrier and angrier with each wave. One big one came and hit Rryla pretty hard, she started to come in, just then another came, one that outdid the last it was about 10 ft high, Rry was almost ashore, but Teag was right below it, she dived under it, the best thing she could of done, but the ferocity of it rocked her and shook her world. At least 4 or 5 men from the shore ran in to help her out, Rryla right there to help her sister as well. She was pale and shacken, and so was i, ENOUGH!! are you kidding me, they call this a vacation!!! We all huddled and relived the moment, than decided to head home. Regroup, and regain strength for the rest of the day. We showered, and got all the sand from places we had no idea that sand could go, and got ready for dinner. We went to the El Manglar for dinner, we had heard the dinner was fabulous, and it was. We ate, we danced, and we sang happy birthday, we ate cake and kissed the day goodbye, and that ended the 15th birthday of my oldest child....... I can only hope the next one isn't as eventful!!
The next day was a tearful and sad goodbye as we hugged and kissed our mamo and papa. What a great time we had with them. Memories made to last a lifetime. We are greatful for the time we spent with them, and for all they did for us, and with us. It certainly makes us all appreciate family, and the importants of it.
We fired up the diesel pusher and headed for Puerto Escondido, our next destination spot. The first night was spent in Alcopolco, the outskirts really. We stayed at a french speaking rv park, which quite frankly was our least favorite spot so far. We did have a refreshing swim in the pool however before retireing for the night. We got off quite early the next morning, around 7 am i think destined to arrive in Puerto Escondido at a reasonable hour. It took us another 8 hours to reach the city, hot and tired we found our rv park and settled in. What a gem of a place this is. WOW, it's perfect. The shopping, the people, the town, the ocean is a bit rough, but i think im a bit tainted now. We have been to 3 different beaches, the girls and i have done some shopping and Mark has put in some hours surfing. We have access to a swimming pool at our rv site, which is a blessing because the heat is unbelieveable. You are drenched within 20 minutes of waking. We have had a lovely dinner out and have enjoyed checking out the town via colectivo's (these are small trucks with bench seats in the back that drive up and down the hwy picking up passengers and taking them to their destinations) the funniest thing about this country is you constantly see signs saying "buckle up" but ever mode of transportation is maxed out with people, no seatbelts to be found. For example if you see a moped going by it's with one adult driving and at least 2 other children holding on for dear life. We've just embraced this, we now fit all 6 of us and our 2 dogs in one taxi and nobody bats an eye, this could be an issue if we carry this on into Canada.
Well thats about it. Easter is fast approaching and everybody in this country is getting ready to celebrate, us along with them. We will stay here for a bit and than carry on south. We have uped our sun screen and gotten some raid so hopefully things are looking up.
Showering has been abit of a concern here though because the facilities are way less than desireable, but hey, we have the pool.
This trip is making us stronger, and more tolerable with ourselves and with each other, at least i like to think so. We do of course realize that their are peices of us that have been left behind and that are missed so extremely. This of course will make us appreciate them so much more when we return. I have learned that one person cannot make up the whole of your being. It is a multitude of special people that make up the depths of one's soul. I feel so blessed to know the people in my life and i thank them for filling up the tiny spaces in my being that make me a whole ptoson. I hope my children will learn as much as i have through our journey together, this one, and others in our lives.
Sleep well all you special people. We love you all, and will close our eyes together under this yellow moon.
All our love.
Mark, Brandy, Rryla, Teaghen, Brooklyn and Aidan.

Good morning to you all on another beautiful day here in Zihaut! Lets fill you in on our week. First off, we hooked up with the relatives from the Yukon on thursday. They were just in town for a few hours from their cruise ship. It was great to see them all. Even great grandma Vera made it from Atlin, as well as Grandma Healey,Auntie Liz, Uncle Ron and Conrad from Whitehorse. You can tell they were used to the cold climate of the Yukon, when asked to dress appropriately for the weather they threw on short sleeve shirts with their pants. Actually, i think Aunite Liz wore her shorts. We were very proud of our grandma Healey thou gh because she had conquered many fears to get here, including flying to San Diego to get on the cruise ship, and getting into a small commuter boat when the ship arrived in port. Mark and the older girls took Conrad snorkeling. I believe Mark even had the spear gun out in hopes of impressing everyone with his fish catching skills (well he hasn't actually caught anything yet, but we would of all been impressed if he did!) We had a lovely time catching up, eating tacos and wading in the ocean. It was so great to see everyone.
Next we headed out on a fishing expedition, Stuart and Marie's treat, on friday. Moses, our fishing guide picked us up around 10am in his (very small) fishing boat. Their was the 6 of us, our 2 dogs, Stuart and Marie, and Moses and his son. We threw the rods in the ocean and set out at a trolling pace. After about 45 minutes we hooked one and Papa Stuart reeled it in. It was huge!! A yellow fin tuna, weighing in at around 18lbs., well done papa.! We headed further up the coast to an island called Ixtapa island where they cooked up our fish for us for lunch. We did some snorkeling their as well. It was beautiful! The water was crystal blue and the fish were swimming right up to the shore. On our departure from the island the sea grew very rough, we were in swells around 12ft high, Moses made a quick phone call to our beach and had to reroute us because the conditions were too dangerous. He took us to another drop off spot. I don't remember much of the boat ride home, mostly because i kept my eyes shut and i was praying!!!! Man, im sure i was still shaking when my feet finally touched solid ground. I felt suck gratitude for Moses at that moment for keeping my family safe. We took a taxi to our beach and found out that their had been an earthquake. It was 4.8 on the ricter scale. The epicentre was just east of us in Gueraro......CRAZY
The next day we stayed close to home and did some snorkeling about. Poor Rryla got stung by a jellyfish not once, but twice.! She stayed out of the water after that. Apparantly because the waves have been so high it brings in the jellyfish.
On Saturday it was Marks and my 6th year anniversary. We had a lovely dinner down the beach at a beautiful restaurant. It was perfect.
We picked up some boogeyboards in town the other day and have had great fun in the ocean with them. We have met some lovely people, alot of people from Canada. It has been great to stay put for longer than a couple of days. It has been especially great hanging out with Marks parents. They have made this leg of our journey very memorable. The kids will miss them greatly when we carry on tomorrow. We are headed for Puerto Escondido. It will take 2 days to get their.
Today is a very excited day for us, it is our oldest daughters birthday HAPPY BIRTHDAY RRYLA!! We are sending her up in the sky today, attached to a parachute. I believe its called parasailing. For some reason she thinks this will be much fun. We will get it on video for you all to see. We are going to have dinner out at the restaurant tonight, it should be a great day. We will take some pictures and post them as well.
Love to all of you.
PS
Sunshine really does make you happy!!

A few Pics

Boat ride to Los GAtos for some Snorkling

Aidan sizing up the set at Nexpa

Flower girls, oops and boy.

Buenos Dias mi amigos,! We are now in Zhewat, and of course its beautiful and sunny. So lets fill you in on the adventure to get here from Sayulita. Well, i went into a depression for about 2 days after leaving Sayulita, it was paradise, i think Rryla did as well. It took 3 days to get here. We stopped at a Walmart in Puerta Vallarta to stock up and than took a route around the city to get onto the freeway. It took us through the old part of P.V> and, WOW, how beautiful it is. It really felt like we were in the heart of Mexico, not all the touristy places. We went up and down windy roads high above the town and the ocean. The road actually continued to be very windy and hilly all the way to Zhewat, it was very tense in some places because there was the white line on the left hand side and than the steep cliff, absolutely no shoulder to rely on. My mother would of been just in a state if she were there! We could only average about 30mph because of the road but the v iews were spectacular.! Our first night was in Malachie (sp) the rv park we stayed in took us right through town.. The town looked like a bussiling little village, the older girls were excited to check it out. We parked right on the beach and set up for the evening, Teaghen and Rryla hoped on their bikes and headed into town. Mark took the little ones for a swim in the pool, i took some much needed alone time and finished reading my book, "Shantaram" what a great read.! We woke up bright and early and got back on the roller coaster of a hwy. Day 2 brought us to a place called Rio Nexpa. It was really neat to go their because Mark, Kiwi and John went on a road trip about 12 yrs ago and spent 3 weeks their, so for Mark, to be back their was pretty cool. The waves were rippin. You wouldn't find this little spot on a map, well it wasn't on our map anyways, but if your into surfing you got to make it here some day (Aaron, im speaking of you). The people were very friendly, it was a very quiet place, we dry camped here for the night. The next day we set out once more to finally reach Zhewat.
The great thing about being here is that Marks parents, Marie and Stuart are here until the end of this month, and also we are hooking up with some other relatives, Uncle Ron, Auntie Liz, Conrad and Grandma Healey for a day when they come into town from their cruise ship, that is on the 18th. So far we have had a great couple of days here. We have been to two different beaches, one was los Ghetos, we took a boat to it. The water was a crystal blue color and we all did some snorkeling. Brooklyn proved to be a natural for her first time out.! The Rv site we are staying at is just a gravel parking lot really, with hook ups. Their really arent too many sites to choose from here, and they are all the same. The town itself is quite large, bigger than Squamsih, and it's real touristy. Marie and Stuart took us all out for dinner one night. We had a great dinner right on the beach and than went to the town square where we watched a bball game and some fire spinners entertaining. It was fabulous. Thats one of the wonderful things about Mexico, each town has a town square where everyone gets together and mingles. Thier is usually some form of entertainment going on, and everyone is happy. After saying goodnight to the folks we headed home to our parking lot and tried to sleep through the heat of the night. Yesterday is when we were at los Ghatos, Marie and Stuart came as well and treated us to lunch, Thanks so much you guys, Stuart even graciously bought me a 12$ pineapple drink, it was the most amazing drink i'd ever had it was the whole pineapple!! hollowed out with a virgin pina colada in it. It had great big flowers coming out of it and everything. I shared it with the kids and everything, they thought it was great. It feels so wonderful to be taking care of so well!!!
Anyways who knows what the day has in store for us today, i do need to find a laundry mat!!
We hope this sunshine reaches all of you, if not in the sky, at least in your hearts.
Love to you all
PS.
A happy birthday to the beloved Lindsay McIntosh, we will light a candle for her tonight.
for she is with us on our journey
Peace.

Los Glorias, Mazatlan, and Sayulita

Hola!! hope this reaches everybody in great happiness. We are now in Paradise! Sayulita to be exact. We were here 4 years ago, it has changed alot since than. It is a beautiful magical place im so glad we came. We were going to stay in P.V. but Rryla and Teaghen really wanted to come back here so we did, besides Mark and i just weren't keen on being in the big city. Their are a couple of RV parks in P.V. but one is out of the way, and the other one is away from the beach and not entirely in walking distance. We are at an amazing RV site right on the water here. We can walk to everything with ease and everyone is super friendly. Mark has been surfing quite abit, but the ocean here is a little too dangerous for the girls, they have been out playing in the waves, but we havn't wanted them to go out far. There are strong undertows here and rip tides so they can't go out much past their waste, which is fine because they still get pummelled by the waves at that depth. They look like they are in a washing machine when their out their, it's crazy!!
Before Sayulita we were in Mazatlan, or as Aidan was calling it "Magicland", we stayed at an RV park close to the beach and right by the main strip. We were only their for the night so we took full advantag of it. We checked out the stores and had a nice dinner downtown. We caught up on some showers back at the RV site and had a good sleep to prepare for the long drive to Sayulita. Before Mazatlan we were in Los Glorias, where we hooked up with Lana, Tom and Nathan. It was so great to see them, and Aidan and Nathan got along just like best friends. The RV site was right on the beach and it was a beautiful beach, nice sand, it went on forever. Tom and Mark went and bought some jumbo prawns from the small fishing village for dinner, they were fresh and delicious, we ate them under a palapa right on the beach with candles all around, it was lovely. Than we took the kids and some flashlights and went out onto the beach where we looked for crabs running along the sand to the ocean. It was great, we screamed and ran around chasing all the crabs. Lana got a video of it, all you hear is us screaming and laughing though.
After saying goodbye to Lana, Tom and Nathan, we headed out onto the highway and said hello to a FLAT TIRE>! What a drag, we eventually limped our mohome to a tire place that had a big enough rench to take our tire off, and put our spare on. They fixed our old one by lighting it on fire, don't ask!
We did take the free road from Mazatlan to Sayulita, it was beautiful, nice way to see the small villages and the countryside. The roads have been abit narrow for my likeing, but all in all it's been pretty good.
Mark has just gotton the trots, hopefully he is the only one!!
I will try and get somemore pics today and we'll post them after, i don't want to miss anymore of this glorious sunshine.
Love to you all.
US xoxox

Having fun in the sun, Carefree, AZ

Wrapping up a day of climbing in J Tree

Good times in Apple Valley

Fun at the San Diego Zoooooo

Enjoying a well deserved foot massage

Brooklyn and Aidan enjoying some ice-cream on the back of Dana's truck