Oct. 22nd- Friday: after kids left for school, I ate with Alice And then went walking with Rachael. Then Alice watched shows and I weeded outside and listen to my book for 2 1/2 hours. The Internet went down so Alice ended up outside with me. After lunch, I showered and Dan and Alice and I headed to McKenna‘s theater class skits performance. Dan mowed the lawn and I worked on the Nelson news and took a rest. Then I got the call that Anna, Bethany, and Ben had not been picked up by carpool so I left to get them. Ben was a little hard to find, but I found him after a bit and he was quite sad. We cried a little together. The kids played outside with Desi and Henry. I weeded some more. The kids had mac and cheese. Dan picked up McKenna from the Hilbig’s. My parents and Mickelle babysat while Dan and I went to see “Dear Evan Hansen.” McKenna went with Korie and Brittana to see the Backstage Company show, then they hung out at Brittana’s.
Oct. 23rd- Saturday: We left the house by 8 to clean the church and had breakfast after that. Dan and Ben left to pick up groceries and run errands. Me and the girls worked on cleaning and laundry and piano practice. The kids played here and there but also helped a lot! After lunch I worked on cleaning the master bathroom shower and Dan gave himself a haircut and we packed a little. I finalized my primary lesson then started making dinner. Dan filled up the van with gas and we got ready for Faye to come over. We had dinner in a pumpkin and showed her around the house again. She left and we did baths and showers and watched Studio C. After kids were in bed I talked with McKenna about ideas for her Halloween costume. Bethany and Alice were up late. I worked on the primary lesson for the Sunday we’d be gone and Dan worked on the kids' routines.
Oct. 24th- Sunday: up at 6:30. Bonnie Cordon (General YW President and family friend) attended our sacrament meeting! Later she attended YW with the girls. In Primary, we focused on "He Sent His Son" in sign language. After lunch, I worked on packing more. I read with girls then napped. I had my family conference call and made dinner. Ben vacuumed the family room. I felt like I had too much to do and Anna had a runny nose, so Dan took the B-team to Dave and Laurie’s for dessert and to pick up some things we needed. I finished cleaning the master bathroom. The girls watched a show. Faye arrived right around bed time. We showed her the bedtime routine. McKenna went to bed early because she was congested too. Dan and Ben played phase 10. I looked over the routine and printed it. After Ben went to bed, we went over the routine with Faye. Dan looked through his mission stuff to try to jog is memory of places we wanted to see. We slept on an air mattress in the piano room while Faye slept in our room. We had high winds that night and that combined with the stress of leaving on our trip, we had a rough sleep!
Oct. 25th- Monday: Dan and I got up at 5am and got dressed. Brynn was so nice to take us to the airport. Our first flight was to LAX. We ate there, then flew to Puerto Vallarta. I slept off and on and watched some of “Cruella.” We landed at 4ish and got a taxi to the hotel. We checked in, explored, then napped, the headed to dinner. There was a nice big rain storm that night while we ate! We used the hot tub in our room. I had a really good sleep that night with Dramamine still in my system. I was quite sleepy.
Oct. 26th- Tuesday: We woke up around 8:45 and went to breakfast and listened to a sale’s presentation till 11:30. We changed and hit the beach. We relaxed, napped, listened to our books and turned down soooo many people selling things on the beach. We had lunch (nachos and hot dog) and lots of smoothies (pina colada, mango margarita with pepper rim). We left at 4 for a massage at 4:30. We went back to room to freshen up for dinner. Afterwards, we went for a walk and got back just as it started to rain again. We hung out in lobby and watched Karaoke. I ended up doing a Dua Lipa song (Levitating)! I didn't sound so good. ;) Back in our room we watched TV and saw pictures of the kids from the Ward Halloween party.
Oct. 27th- Wednesday: We woke up at 8:45. After breakfast we left for the bank, the boardwalk, then the flea market. It was really hot! We saw a pretty church, some street performers and lots of bartering as we shopped. When we got back, we first took a dip in the pool, then had lunch and chilled on the beach from 2-5. I listened to my book a lot. After getting cleaned up, we had dinner at one of the fancier restaurants at the hotel. We even saw a proposal on the beach. We Facetimed the kids. McKenna had her band concert! In the lobby, we watched a couple Michael Jackson songs by a performing group. We watched more TV then went to bed a little earlier.
Oct. 28th- Thursday: We had to get our Covid PCR tests first thing. They did a nose and throat swab. We also has our biking taco tour! Our tour guide's name was Omaro. There was another couple with us from AZ (Casey and Alex), and a guy from Hamburg, Germany (Bernardo). We made 3 stops in the old part of town and passed a beautiful park. We rode down to the boardwalk and made another stop for fish tacos. There is also a beverage stop where most people get beers. I got pineapple juice. The last stop was for ice cream with really unique flavor options like burnt milk, avocado, and corn. I got strawberry kiwi and it was not as great as I had hoped. Afterwards, we went down to the beach from 1-5:30. We also swam in the pool. It was fun to watch a big group of people play beach volleyball. After getting cleaned up, we went to dinner at the indoor fancy restaurant. Their food was really good! They were so nice to offer us a complimentary bottle of champagne that we turned down. We went for another walk and chilled outside some. Then we hung out in the lobby and listened to some lounge singers performers. We Facetimed with kids and watched TV. I was so thankful we didn’t get sick (food poisoning) from the taco tour!
Oct. 29th- Friday: We woke up at 8. (Neither of our stomachs were used to the food.) We chilled on the beach and FaceTimed with McKenna and Alice. We went to the grocery store for candy and deodorant. We packed up and ate lunch at the buffet. We had one last hang out in the lobby before taking a taxi to the airport. Our flight was delayed 30mins. I sat next to a pretty Asian lady and we talked about kids a lot. Dan and I watch “Manifest” and napped. I listened to my book. Dan also got a runny left nostril from the Covid test. After landing in Seattle, we walked across the street to our Hilton hotel. We FaceTimed the kids, ordered pizza, showered, watched TV, and went to bed early.
Oct. 30th- Saturday: We had to wake up at 3:30am to catch the shuttle back to the airport. We flew to Vancouver and had a very quick connection to Winnipeg, Canada! We got a rental car and drove around a bit. We ate lunch at a place called Smitty’s and I had my first Poutine! I loved that most places had a vaccine requirement to dine in! We used restaurant WiFi whenever possible to make plans. We drove by the new Temple, made a stop at Walmart, then went to get another Covid test near the University of Manitoba. Then we drove to the Forks and walked around outside a bit then inside to the shops. We left and drove to Portage and Main (coldest recorded temperature in North America!) and had dinner at Earl’s. It was very slow to get food. It was fun to watch Trick or Treat action on our doorbell camera back home. My parents sent me pictures from home since they carved pumpkins. I also got pictures from Anna and Ben's teachers at school. We checked in at the hotel by the airport (a Courtyard). We FaceTimed with kids. That night, Dan had an upset stomach and kind of felt fevered. :(
Oct. 31st- Sunday: We got up at 6. and left at 7:20 for the Winnipeg Temple Dedication! We sat in an ordinance room and watched a screen of Celestial room. We're thankful the worker let us in even though our names weren't on "the list." Elder Gong came in to say hi to everyone. It was a lovely dedication! We took some pictures outside. It was very cold! We ate at Ben and Florintine’s where I got my oatmeal! Dan was still not feeling great, so we went back to the hotel to nap and pack up. My parents and Mickelle sent pictures of them being on time for church! We left at 12 and drove to a couple chapel’s, the Pack’s old house, the old mission home, and a park, where we saw so many geese! At one of the chapels, we briefly chatted with 2 elders from Calgary. It was fun to hear Dan tell them he served in this mission 20 years ago! We stopped for hot chocolate and donuts at Tim Horton’s. We made another stop at the temple and a quick stop to buy Wunderbars, then headed back to the airport. While we waited for our flight we called to get our negative Covid results! Thankfully, they came just in time! We flew to Calgary and ordered Burger King via DoorDash for dinner. We FaceTimed the kids and went to bed! *It was so wonderful to see an area of Dan's mission that was such an important part of his life!
