Trip to Mexico 2007

I want to back up to last October/Nov. when we went to Mexico.
We went this time during the big school anniversary celebration, Halloween, S.'s birthday.

We've now been to Mexico twice as a whole family with the kids. both times we've lived with the same family - Alejandro and Sissi Jimenez . We didn't know them before we had set things up to live in their home, but we now consider their family some of our closest friends.

Their four children are all adults. We went back last fall because the youngest, David, was going on a mission, and was going to be at the house all the time not working or going to school. He' so good with the kids that I knew it would be a special time for them to spend with him.

We also saw a lot of daughter Vianney (husband Arnulfo) because they live close by. The youngest girl Sissita came home on the weekends from school. We'd still like her to come here and live with us and go to school.

The kids went to school every day and really enjoyed it. Of course, C. was very "busy" and his teacher was worried because all he wanted to was draw monster pictures. M. cried every morning, then after I left her she loved it. While the kids were at school, I washed clothes (this process being a little more complicated in Mexico) and took care of S.

Sometimes David drove us into the city to buy groceries. On Tuesdays Alejandro took us to a huge outdoor market to buy anything you could ever imagine selling from the back of your pickup :-)

S. loved to play in the rooster cages behind the house. I really did get used to hearing them squawk every morning--- wait I wouldn't call that morning. It was still night for me. Ha, HA!
Bathing S. was a little more complicated for me. We had a harder time getting lots of hot water so she and M. took lots of cool baths. I bathed one girl in the water, then the other. While in Mexico this time we were able to go the School's anniversary celebration- full of Mariachi bands and tacos.

We also had S.'s birthday there and the kids went trick-or-treating.

The kids made some great friends. C. and his friend Memo played for hours in a large mudhole in the backyard. One evening Memo's family took us out to eat. When C. saw the chicken feet laying out for sale he had to have one. The crazy kid loved it and continued to eat them on other occasions.

On the weekend of "Dia de la Muerte" (Day of the Dead) I took the older kids on a six-hour round trip into Mexico City.

We saw incredible handmade decorations and ate our favorite Mexican corn on the cob.

About an hour and a half south (on a delightful bus ride) lives one of Scot's favorite mission companions. Roberto and Alis Cervantes and kids, Adrian and Aislinn.

We visit with them every time we go to Mexico and also consider them to be close friends. It's strange that these two families live so far away in a different culture with a different language, yet we feel closer to them in some ways than many "friends" we have here. I say that to point out how much we care for them.

The last week, both times we went, we go to Acapulco. We stayed at The Mayan resort. It's gorgeous! The kids love doing activities with the resort. My mom had sent Halloween packages with me before I left. The kids loved their crazy glasses! She was so good about little holiday goodie bags. We're all going to miss receiving those. You can see from some of the pics that C. looks like a little Mexican.

This is picture that really demonstrates Ch.'s move out of childhood. We had ordered different things from the extensive kids menu. Right after we ordered, an angry Ch. got up from the table and left. We couldn't find him anywhere and truly started to panic. Finally, he came back (saying he'd been in the bathroom--we'd been there and yelled). What was all the attitude about? He didn't want anything off the kids' menu. He wanted one of the fancy adult plates. I know, I know. I created the monster. I've groomed him to like "fine dining" :-) Well, not quite, but he's definitely an adventurous eater.