Mexico 2014

     Here is how I found out we were going to Mexico........I got a text on my phone that said we were going to Mexico from BJ about 2 or 3 weeks before we had to leave. I knew Kristi and BJ had been talking about it, but had no idea that it was a serious option for us. I quickly realized that I had to be away from work for 6 days and hoped that the school division would be ok with giving me the time off. I emailed the Superintendent to ask for the time off and hoped for the best. I mean hoped for the best because we had already paid for the trip and then I was asking for the time off. Basically doing everything backwards. Well, I was approved for the time off and did not have to resort to the back-up plan that we did not have.




   We were excited to go back to Mexico with Ryan and BJ because we had so much fun the last time that we went. This trip we were trying a different resort (The Grand Bahi) but still had the all-inclusive package. This meant that all our food and drinks were covered. The buffets that we had to choose from were amazing and we ate so much food. There were all different kinds of food to choose from in the buffets. Our favorites were the Chiros and the ice cream. When the buffets were closed there was a 24hr snack bar that we could order food from. So every night before bed we would hit the 24hr snack bar and pig out right before bed. The 24hr snack bar was invaded by Raccoons at night begging for food. Most of the guests didn't seem to have the same type of attitude towards them as we did. The guests would feed them and take pictures, and we would hit them with our umbrellas.

 
















   

      Many of our days were spent at the beach laying out and snorkeling in the morning and then hanging out by the pool in the late afternoon. The Snorkeling was one of the best parts of the trip and we were able to see so many different fish in the ocean. We all got some pretty good sunburns which left us with some pretty good tan lines. As of right now, I am pretty sure my whole body is peeling all its skin off.

 

















      One of the days we decided to rent a car and go out on our own into Mexico. We first went to Talum, which is one of the ancient port cities of Mexico. Talum has many ancient buildings that are still standing for people to see. We walked around Talum and learned about the ancient civilization that lived there. It was great for a History Nerd like myself.

     

     Tulum is the site of a Pre-Columbian Maya walled city serving as a major port for Cobá. (We went to the Coba ruins last time that we were in Mexico). The ruins are situated on 12-meter (39 ft) tall cliffs, along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Seain the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was one of the last cities inhabited and built by the Mayas; it was at its height between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the cause of its demise. 

   

 
  After Talum we went to a nearby Cenote (A natural pit or sink hole) to snorkel and look for different types of fish. The water was so clear and there was a strong current that we had to swim against when we were swimming to the one side of the Cenote. As we swam back we were able to ride the current back and it was much easier. The Cenote looked like it was just a pool of water in the middle of the jungle.

    After the Cenote we went to Akumal beach and snorkeled some more. But this time our snorkel trip was guided. We paid to have a guide take us way out in the ocean on a snorkel trip. We were able to see giant turtles, squid, sting rays and many other different ocean creatures. It is tough to put into words how great this snorkel trip was.

 








 

 Our trip ended with a drive to 7-11 to get some Chips and Pop. We also bought some Mexican candy for the boys that ended up tasting like garbage. I did buy some "Hot Dog" flavored chips that tasted only like mustard. They were gross.

 









 



      It rained a little while we were there, and by little I mean time and not amount. When it rains in Mexico, it RAINS in Mexico. It would rain so hard that the roofs (Which were made out of some kind of plants) would leak all over the resort. Its hard to explain, but it seemed like it was a monsoon coming through the resort. We would have to wait in certain parts of the resort for the rain to stop because it was raining to hard to go outside. Umbrellas would be no help.

     It was great time and we knew that we would have to leave and come home to a soon to be winter and that was crappy. We love it there and hope to start a tradition of going every couple of years together.

Halloween 2014

     We got home from Mexico and had 3 days to get the kids ready for halloween. Of course I waited till the last minute before I got my costume. I asked Kim to use her contacts at the Hutterite Colony and score me some clothes. The Hutterites wondered why I was dressing like them cause they were not scary haha. So Kristi and I dressed up as Hutterites and took Tyson out Trick or Treating. Tyson had his costume a long time ago and he was the Incredible Hulk. Haydn dressed up and a Nerd (I told him that he didn't even need to dress up) and Brody was some kind of Zombie with a knife in his head.


     Lennon Lou had her very first Halloween and she was a Strawberry!! The cutest little strawberry you will ever see!!

     This Halloween was the nicest Halloween we have had ever. Warm and No wind. The kids stayed out forever and came home with piles of candy for me to eat. We all went over to Justin and Jo's for pizza after the kids were finished. This has become the Halloween tradition with the Wynders.

Victoria Trip

     Scott Quinton and I decided to take our chances and try to go to another teachers conference together in Victoria BC. Our last trip ended with us staying in a Calgary hotel for 2 nights waiting for a flight to Dallas Texas. All the flight were cancelled because Dallas was going through the worst ice storm they have had in like 150 years.


     We were flying out sunday night and it started to snow heavy on saturday and I started to thing our luck was going to be the same. Luckily the snow let off and we were able to fly out of Calgary on time. Our luck was changing......or was it.

     The flight was only just over an hour to Victoria and the Pilot had said over the intercom that we were prepping for landing. I heard the landing gear come down and I could tell that we were approaching the runway for the landing. All of a sudden we feel the plane blast the engines and we start climbing back into the air with some great force. We knew that something was not right and we were a little nervous haha. The pilot came on the intercom and said that the fog was lower than expected and they missed the runway, so they were going to circle around and try again. Then a few minutes later the pilot came back on and said they were low on fuel and we were going to land in Vancouver instead. So everything a passenger wants to hear 1. we missed the landing and 2. we are low on fuel.

     We landed safely in Vancouver and the crew had to refuel and some other things to get ready for another take off. We were there for about 40 minutes, but then made a safe 16 minute flight to Victoria.

     The conference was great and Scott and I had a great time walking/driving around and seeing the sites of Victoria.

Volleyball

     Well volleyball season has come and gone, and my grade 8 boys did great!! We had a great team that loved to play and compete. We won all our divisional tourneys, and the Gilbert Patterson tourney in lethbridge. We played zones (for the banner) in coaldale. The boys made it to the final, which was against Wilson middle school (the only team to really beat us during the season).

   












     We lost the first set by just a few points, but then battled back and won the 2nd set. We had them on the ropes in the 3rd set, but something happened and we lost our momentum and ended up loosing the set by 3 points. The boys were upset and really showed that they cared about winning the banner for the school.

     Overall it was a great season and we played well. It will be tough not coaching these boys next season (cause I will be coaching Haydn in grade 7 volleyball).








   














Extra Pics

     Brody started Martial Arts and he has been doing great. He just earned his yellow belt and is working towards his orange belt. He has a wooden sword that they practice with and we put a "Crush Sox" bat grip on it for him and he jacked about that. haha

     Brody also had to get glasses as well. So he is a new man lately. The glasses are taking some time to get used to and he doesn't always remember to wear them.

     I rode a Mechanical Bull and played a guitar that has been made form different pieces of Canadian history.

The guitar is made from 64 pieces of bone, metal, wood, stone and fabric, representing every province and territory. The guitar's neck has wood from the deck of the Bluenose II, a bagel shibba from Montreal, and oak from a ceiling joist from the St. Boniface Museum in Winnipeg, a former convent of the Grey Nuns and the building where Louis Riel attended school. The wood used from the ceiling joist was estimated to be 400 to 500 years old when it was procured for the construction of the St. Boniface Museum the 1840s.

The pick guard is in the form of a Maple Leaf, stained with red ochre from Newfoundland, and contains parts of the homes of basketball inventor John Naismith and of black cowboy John Ware. The leaf stem is made from pieces of Paul Henderson's hockey stick, Wayne Gretzky’s Titan hockey stick and a seat from the Montreal Forum.

On the inside there is wood from Canada’s first Chinatown, Fan Tan Alley in Victoria, Nancy Greene’s childhood skis, and a piece of Pierre Trudeau’s canoe paddle.

Additional pieces include material from Don Cherry’s Pants; gold from one of Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s Stanley Cup rings; a piece of the oldest rock in the world, Acasta Gneiss, from North West Territories; walrus tusk from Rankin Inlet; mastodon ivory from the Yukon; a piece of an oak door frame from Centre Block on Parliament Hill; wood from a lighthouse in Cape Race in Newfoundland; and wood from a sideboard that belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald.

Most of the front of the guitar is made from wood from a 300-year-old golden spruce from Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia.^[5]The golden spruce - also called Kiidk’yaas' - had a rare genetic mutation that caused its needles to appear golden in colour. Sacred to the Haida First Nation, the tree was cut down in 1997 by an unemployed forest engineer named Grant Hadwin as a protest against the logging industry. The piece of the golden spruce took Taylor two years of negotiation to procure and it is the only wood harvested from the tree.