Ode to Bella.

Earlier this week, our sweet bunny passed away. Bella was much loved and it was a hard day when he died. The kids and I cried a lot. They wrote letters to Bella and buried them with him in our garden. Processing grief is hard, especially seeing it through the eyes of your own kids. Writing has always been helpful when I'm processing any emotion so here are my random thoughts about the sweetest bunny I've ever known.

 The best $10 we ever spent. We were hesitant pet owners, after going through several fish and a hamster, we weren't sure if we were ready for real commitment but the kids really wanted some fluffy to love. The previous owner didn't want the commitment anymore and I saw the post on Craigslist for this adorable lop eared bunny and although I was suspicious of why it was so cheap, I couldn't resist that fluffy face, the kids were squealing with excitement and holding onto the pet carrier on the drive. And that was the best $10 we ever spent.

 Boy or Girl? When we got the bunny, the owner said he wasn't sure of the gender and they had been calling it Thumper. Nallie was 6 years old at the time and completely obsessed with the Rainbow Fairly Magic book series. She insisted that the bunny needed to be named Bella after the book "Bella the Bunny Fairy." It was over a year and a half later when Bella got sick that we brought Bella to the vet and they told us that Bella was a boy. It was too hard to change the name at that point so Bella became Bella-Boy and then just Bells. 

 Bella inspired creativity like Nallie's poster project in Grade 2 and the song she wrote for piano class called "Ode to Bella". Bella kept me and the kids from going stir crazy during the covid lockdowns. Nallie spent days teaching him to do tricks and shared videos with her class. 

Bunny dress up. Bella was such a good sport with being dressed up in various costumes. Bella had a costume at Halloween and was outside with us for the easter egg hunt. We even took the bunny out for walks to the park on a leash but I quickly learned that bunnies are prey animals and detest wide open spaces and will run at top speed into the nearest bush dragging the holder of the leash into the prickly bushes. After that, we didn’t take the bunny out to the park anymore. 

Binkys. Zoomies. Bunny loaf. Bunny puddle. These are all words I know now. We know a lot more about bunny behaviour and bunny lingo that we did 7 years ago. We became experts at knowing when this bunny was excited, happy, mad and relaxed.

Lost and Found. Bella went missing during a rain storm in 2021. There were lots of tears that night thinking of all the dangers for a bunny. The next morning, I walked for hours around the neighbourhood looking under every car, bush and tree. I printed "Missing Bunny" signs and plastered them all around. The best phone call I ever received was from a lady who lived a couple blocks up and said she had found him. We ran up the street and rejoiced seeing our sweet Bells again. What a miracle.

Miracle bunny. Rabbits have delicate stomachs and one of the most common things that kills  a bunny is GI (gastrointestinal) stasis. It is when there is gas trapped in the stomach and can kill a bunny in a matter of hours if untreated. The first time it happened, we were just about the go on a backpacking trip to Garabaldi, I brought Bella to the vet and was out of cell phone range for the next few days. My mom (PoPo) was the hero that brought Bella back from the vet and helped get the medicine to get him back to his hoppy self. The second time it happened was a few years later and the vet couldn't take him in and we had to google how to massage Bella's stomach to get the gas bubble out, administer medicine and Critical Care with a syringe. Thank goodness you can learn basically anything on YouTube. Bella defied the odds and after a week, he was back to his hoppy self. There were also so many times that Bella would dash out the front door to nibble on the strawberry leaves in our garden. Sometimes, Bella would run all the way up the front steps and hide underneath our vehicles and we had to lie down on the ground with hockey sticks trying to nudge Bella out from under the car so we could pick him up and plop him in the bunny bed in and carry him back inside. We called that the bunny burrito. 

Free roam means family. Once we learned that bunnies can be litter trained, Bella was no longer in a cage but roamed around the house and followed us everywhere. Bella was more like a dog than a bunny. He happy to see us when we came home, had a spot on the couch when we watched movies, had sleepovers with the kids in the living room, had 'cake' on his birthday and had his own stocking at Christmas. Bella would be sad and put her paws up on the door if we tried to keep her out of the kitchen. Bella did life with us and brought us so much joy.

Bella grew up and so did the kids. The kids were 4 and 6 years old when we first brought the bunny home and now they are 10 and 12. It’s quite a jolt processing how quickly time has passed. Nallie wore Paw Patrol pyjamas and had chubby cheeks when we first got Bella and now she's a few months from being a teenager. Noah was a preschooler with a bowl-cut and now he’s so grown up. 

 I’m not sure if and when we will get another bunny. Bella was definitely the best $10 we ever spent and I don’t know if we’ll ever find another one with such a sweet disposition. Thank you Bella for bringing our family so much joy. When the south slope sun shines down on our carpet, we will remember that was always Bellas’s favourite spot and think warm fuzzy thoughts of the sweet bunny that hopped into our hearts ❤️ 

Cancun Redeemed: 6 must-do's in 6 days

Last time we were in Cancun with the kids they were 18 months and 3.5 years old. We all got food poisoning and were all throwing up at different points throughout the trip. The flight was awful - I was 'that mom' with 'that baby'. Yes, that baby that projectile vomited on me and several rows of passengers. After that trip, we never mentioned Cancun or flying again. But that was a long time ago and it was time to face my fears and redeem Cancun. It took a bit of convincing to get Simon on board to attempt Cancun again but I am so relieved and delighted that we have redeemed Cancun! This trip was everything we wanted to experience as a family. And no got food poisoning! The kids were awesome, it is so different travelling with a 10 and 12 year old versus a toddler and a preschooler. It was so amazing to have a win!

 So here are the 6 must-do's if you have 6 days (or more) in Cancun.

6. Mega resort for the win. So this might not be everyone's thing but maybe bigger is better? We stayed at Moon Palace Sunrise for the first time.

 This resort is massive, like 123 acres and can have close to 10,000 guests at a time. There's actually 3 hotels within Moon Palace, there's Moon Palace Sunrise, Moon Palace Nizuc and Moon Palace The Grand. You can go between Sunrise and Nizuc but not the Grand (unless you are staying at the Grand, then you can go between all 3 hotels). The place is so big there's an intricate golf cart system to shuttle people around the resort if you don't want to walk. When we first arrived, we were greeted with flowers and a ride on the golf cart to our room.

You can literally swim in a different pool every day. Everything is on an app, the activities for the day, the restaurants, and room service. You can just put in a room service order on your phone for anything you want! However, there are thousands of other people staying at the hotel too so you might not get the thing that you requested quickly. I tried asking for bottled water and extra towels on the app and we got the water in about half an hour but the extra towels never came.

There’s a cafe that I think is open 24 hours where you can get crepes, sandwiches, coffee, ice cream, cake, chocolate and macarons. Since macarons are $1.50 to $3.00 each depending on which bakery you go to, my kids took all the liberties and ate half their body weight in macarons. 

Without leaving the resort, we played a few rounds of mini golf, rented bikes, tried out the simulation surfing (Flowrider), played in the arcade and watched some really fun shows in the evening.

5.Eat your heart out. There are 19 restaurants in the hotel, the main buffet has decent food (any meal I don't have to cook is amazing) but the best dinners we had were at Momo Teppanyaki and Mayan Riveria. You have to book those ones, I learned quickly that the reservations are released at midnight and book up instantly. With my experience from trying to book campsites and getting kids into swim lessons, I was so ready to press that 'book table' button at 12:00 midnight, it took several more minutes of pressing refresh but I able to book the restaurants we wanted to get into. Teppanyaki night was so fun, we watched our chef juggle knifes, light an onion tower on fire and make cooking dinner a stunning show. 

The restaurant Mayan Riveria was Mexican food fusion with fine dining. We watched a lady make authentic tortillas and we ate them hot off the stove after.

The restaurant Gondola was also in an impressive space with vaulted stain glass ceilings and delicious French entrées. We tried our best to pretend we were super posh and drank our teacups with our pinky’s up.

Oh and there is the steakhouse - Palapa Asadero - they don't take reservations, you just have to wait patiently (like 45 minutes patiently) but the food was so good. And it's all inclusive so you can order anything (everything) on the menu. Simon accidently ordered two entrees which he succeeded in eating (along with the appetizer, salad and dessert).

If you don't want to dress up slightly, you can go to the buffet restaurant in your bathing suit and crocs. The food is decent there too, just look at the desserts at the buffet, they are exquisite!

We also had so much fun trying all the cocktails and mocktails. We don’t drink much so we didn’t even know the names of most drinks so we’d eavesdrop on other people ordering drinks or ask the bartenders to just make us anything. My kids got really good at ordering strawberry daiquiris, Pink Panthers, mojitos, & Mango Tangos, of course all without alcohol. There was a bar within walking distance of every pool and restaurant. There were several swim up bars and a bar built with swings around the countertops. 

4. Look out for wildlife. Without leaving the resort, we spotted iguanas, pelicans, deer, Central American agouti, all sorts of colorful birds but our favourite was the coati. They look like a cross between a raccoon and a lemur. We saw them a few times roaming the resort but on our bike ride around the golf course, there was a huge pack of them. We got really close up to them! 

There are many tours that offer dolphin encounters or turtle encounters and I would have loved to do one of those tours but a couple years ago, I watched a documentary on exploitation of dolphins for the tourism industry and it really stuck with me. I didn't have time to research which tour groups used sustainable practices so we didn't do any of them. I just stalked the iguanas that were hanging out at the resort 

3. Wake up for the sunrise. One of the best things about staying at a huge resort is that I could go for a run every morning along the beach without leaving the resort. Just running from one side of the resort to the other, I was able to get in a 5-7 km run. I know waking up early is probably not on everyone's priority list on vacation but for me, I loved it. It was so great to get in a run with gorgeous views before the family woke up. 

Plus, running in the morning helped ease the guilt of doing nothing the rest of the day other than ordering strawberry daiquiris and mojitos. One morning, I convinced Simon to wake up early and come with me and it was so special to run beachside as the sun was rising. I don't think he felt quite filled with overwhelming joy waking up at 7:00 am but he was a really great sport about it and we got some great sunrise pictures.

2. Zip line through the Mexican jungle. I truly enjoyed reading poolside and relaxing but everyone who knows me knows that I can't sit still for very long and it wouldn't be a Neufeld vacation without some adrenaline-filled fun. For that, we booked Xplor - an adventure park in the Mexican jungle. Simon and I went here back in 2010 before we had kids and it was thrilling to go back here with them. The park has expanded since we were here last time. Even with me making the family sprint from one attraction to the other, we weren't able to get to do everything in one day. We did do the zip lines three times though which was the best part. Noah said he was a bit nervous but after he found out he could zip with one of us, he had no hesitation jumping off the platform with his sister for the first one and from there, they were both stoked and we spent most of the day zip-lining in the jungle. Some of the zip-lines had water landings which was so thrilling. 

Don't bother trying to take your phone to take pictures, there's cameras set up all over the park and it automatically takes pictures of you going on the zip line. There's also other places around the park where you can scan you bracelet for it to trigger the camera to take pictures. It's ridiculously expensive but it's a pretty incredible experience and allows you to be present in the moment and not worry about capturing the shot. I mean how can you take pictures of yourself when you're on the zip line or driving an ATV in a cave anyways? So friends, prepare your hearts, you'll probably be getting one of these family pictures in next year's Christmas card.

1. Rappel and swim in centote. The second excursion was also an adrenaline-filled day. We booked the Rio Secretro Plus tour and it checked off all the boxes for what this family is all about: hiking, biking and adventure. Our guide took us first on a hiking path through the dry caves through these stunning cenotes with stalagmite and stalactites. 

Then we switched to bikes, - prepare your heart, the bikes are pretty crappy, they are one speed bikes with the brake on the left handle bar which is a bit tricky to get used to but they are functional. We biked on the sketchy bikes and followed our tour guide on a path through the jungle. 

We biked to the entrance of a huge pit where we got harnessed up and one by one rappelled into the depths of the caves. That was the best part, I couldn't believe that neither kid was scared to do this. One by one, they were just like 'hasta la vista baby' and jumped off the platform. Inside the cave, the guide pointed out the fruit bats. I am so glad that bats are nocturnal because if they were flying around when I was rappelling down, I think I would have lost it and ran all the way back to the tour bus.

After you get into the cave, you follow the guide and trek through knee deep water and you can see catfish swimming around! The guide tells us that its really important not to touch the stalactites because the oils from our skin inhibits their growth for years so we were advised to hold onto out lifejackets and not reach out and touch the walls of the cave to steady ourselves. The ground is really uneven though so it was not easy.

The last part was swimming through the cave. It was a crazy (slightly terrifying thought) that we were 70 feet below ground in this complex maze of a cave. The guide asked us to turn off our headlamps for a few minutes just for us to experience real, true darkness. The whole tour was just an incredible unreal experience. And again don't bother bringing your camera, it's not allowed. Just spend your kid's college fund and buy the photo package. 

Oh and this is not an official must-do but we happened to be at Moon Palace on New Year’s Eve and we experienced the most extraordinary and extravagant New Year’s Party we have ever been to. The music, the decorations, free glow in the dark face painting, the performers, the dancers, the band, the displays - everything was next level WOW. The other bonus was that Cancun is 3 hours ahead so we were able to stay up till midnight and watch all the glittering confetti fall from the ceiling and it was only 9:00 pm Vancouver time. We did have to wake up at 4:00 am to catch that flight that morning so we were more than ready to go to bed shortly after the new year countdown.

So that’s it - Cancun is officially redeemed - this trip was astoundingly better than last time we were here and I am hopeful that the memories we made will last longer than my sunburn…