The last few days were strange.

There are moments that look small on paper but feel enormous in your chest.This was one of those:

If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be getting a measles booster in a Mexican Costco parking lot, I would have had many follow-up questions.

I experienced my first earthquake while I was awake last week. I've been through plenty of earthquakes but somehow I was always asleep when they happened. So this was my first time actually experiencing it awake. That shit is a lil scary. It was super quick, and small, so I'm grateful for that. Nothing broke, no one was hurt. It was weird being perfectly and completely shaken. Not at all what I expected it would feel like, but also how do you even know what to expect to with something like that? Bolt did great! He was sleeping between me and Bridget and only lifted his head to see what was happening. He didn't get scared at all. Bridget of course has being for SoCal has been through plenty of earthquakes and it was no big deal to her. I don't think earthquakes happen here often, this was our first in a year. But either way me being me I plan to be more prepared for the next, because I know if we had needed to evacuate on this one I would not have been ready, and I'm all about planning and preparedness. - Nolan

One year living in Mexico was definitely not what I was expecting it to be. But at the same time I didn't know what to expect living in a country I've never been to where I don't speak the language. What I've discovered in that year is that there is a something very spiritual here that speaks to me. It goes far beyond the fact that this is the country where my dad was born. This is the land of my ancestors and on some level I feel that within me. I'm in a place that I don't know, but it knows me. It's been a good year over all, but not without its challenges. I cried a few times and wanted to want to go back, but at the same time I know I'm not ready to leave. Learning the culture and traditions has been amazing. I will admit that I hate that the majority of the traditions have been altered by religious colonization. But I love seeing how the traditions bring people together. We've made a few solid friends and I'm super grateful for that. Playa Listo is still finding its wings, but I see the potential and know it can be very successful. 

December 28th, Dia de los Inocentes is an insane thing to become a holiday. No matter how you spin it, it's crazy that they turned this day into a holiday. Like seriously, a day that hundreds of innocent babies were murdered is now seen as a day for practical jokes? What the actual fuck. - Nolan(also I hate using pictures that aren't my own, but I didn't get any pictures of practical jokes or babies being murdered so historical pics off google it is.)Dia de los Inocentes stems from Día de los Santos Inocentes, meaning Holy Innocents’ Day. This Catholic festival, which has been marked in the church’s religious calendar since at least 485 AD, is a commemoration of one of the darkest events recorded in the bible; the murder of innocent children on the orders of King Herod. The book of Matthew tells of Herod’s barbarous command that all babies under the age of two in the Judean town of Bethlehem were put to death. This was prompted by a perceived threat posed to his rule by the prophesied rise of a King of the Jews. Herod had been alerted to the likely presence of this king in Bethlehem by the visits of the three magi to the newborn Jesus.So now the question is how did a day of murdering babies turn into a day for practical jokes? The term inocente can, as with innocence in English, be used to either suggest a state of being spiritually innocent or of naivety. This double meaning results in the link that those who easily fall for the practical jokes and tricks of the day are themselves innocents. And so somehow Día de los Santos Inocentes was begun.