Over the Summer...

 Over the summer we spent a good amount of time with our grandparents. They are so sweet to let us come over whenever we want, let us spend the night for days on end, and take us out on their errands and do fun things around town. They are always up for an adventure! 

One of the days we were together, we went to Atlixco. My gramma is an avid gardener - she keeps an adorable little garden at her house and her and my grampa both work in the garden they have at the university. Trips to Atlixco for them are more frequent, but since neither my church nor my house have not one blade of grass on their property...Atlixco is a treat! 

 

 

 

This was back when Nicole and John were dating so Nicole was in the extreme selfie-taking phase. 

I've always thought that was kind of awkward...

Selfies are awkward. 

But hey, they are married now so it must've worked!

Update on this pic: Nicole made me put the smiley over her face because according to her she is doing "the thin lip thing". 

Dinner with Gramma and Grampa

When you want to read the news, but are too tired to hold your phone up

Grampa experiencing a surprise selfie

Gramma and Grampa's church

Of course we had to go to the lake by my grandparent's house. It's a must! 

Me and Gramma rented a paddle boat for an hour. We got our exercise while we chatted about how crazy it was that Nicole was about to get married. 

I think Nicole was in Idaho visiting Johnny at this time.

Gramma is brave - she brought her iPad on the boat - lol!

Feeding the ducks

Grampa shocked Gramma and I one morning when he came downstairs to go to his Bible study. He had a new hair 'do! Gramma insisted that he could not go out of the house like this. He replied, "I'm trying something new. I like it!" He said he was trying to do his like Johnny's. HA.

Someone threw this shoe box in the lawn beside my grandparent's house. When Grampa opened it, there was a tiny dead cat inside.

One day in the car Austin decided he wanted to tie me to the seat by braiding my hair into seat rest. I was like, "hey, that feels great, knock yourself out!"

And, anothhhhhhherrrrr day...with Nicole...we went to the lake again!

And the market!

Starbucks, of course

Family time...

This is when we discovered that app that makes you into an emoji...

Grampa

Nicole - so accurate lol!

Johnny

Me HAHAHAH

Sometime after John's big proposal, I got to thinking about life without Nicole during school. I had a complete breakdown and started crying. I buried my head in Nicole's side to hide my tears from the kids and also to get a big hug. I like it when she walks up to my desk during school and I just grab her around the waist so tight that she can't escape. Its kind of our thing. 

Anyways. 

Remember the selfie phase I referred to previously?

Yeah. She was at it again.

Another hard day thinking about Nicole leaving - 

My hair says it all.

"Don't care."

Nicole had her final goodbye with the Garcia family one day in December...

That was an emotional day.

One day we went grocery shopping and found these scary instant tamales. 

Of course we bought a couple to taste.

Don't know who would buy these when on any corner you can get fresh homemade ones. Ugh!

A sign for a new barber in town. Not exactly the motto I'd go with!

Nicole makes fun of me because whenever we buy a flat of water at Sam's I ask an employee for helping putting it into the cart. For reals, she got sooooo annoyed with me one time for this. I think she asked me if I thought I was an invalid? 

"Yes. Yes I am. Thank you for asking." 

In this case, we'd gone to Sam's with my dad and I asked him to come over and help load them up.

Again, Nicole was doing her whole "WOW. WOW. WOW." thing. And took a picture. 

Anyone else with me? Why put your back out when you can easily get help?
This is a time when Nicole pulls the "we are strong independent women" card on ME. 

Ok. Update on the water situation. Nicole just saw the post and would like to add her two cents:

~Bethany~

Nicole's Bridal Shower

 Before Nicole left for good, we had a lot of fun. I don't like posting out of order or writing about things moooonths after they happened, which is why I am writing this disclaimer. No one probably cares, but it eases my conscience. My tardiness is due to a suppressive bout of un-inspiration over the last half of 2016. HA! I want to get these posts up for my own memory's sake! So even though Nicole is gone, officially, officially, officially...I still have a couple more posts to do that include her. So don't be confused - she's not here in Mexico. She's in Idaho with her husband!

--Now on to the story--

 Before Nicole officially moved to Idaho, the ladies wanted to throw Nicole a "despedida de soltera", which technically means "goodbye to singleness" - in other words a bridal shower and farewell party. The ladies from my church and Elder Wakefield's all convened at my new house. This was back in December and it was chilly outside so I made potato soup and Gramma made tortilla soup. Everyone brought gifts for Nicole. They'd been asking what kinds of gifts they should bring so the one stipulation we put out there was that the gift needed to be small. She wasn't going to be able to bring back any brooms or large tupperware. Everyone got the memo, except for one lady that gave her a crock pot. So to that lady I say "thank you" because I inherited it :) 

We performed a fake ceremony where Carmen acted as her husband...

...when asked if anyone opposed to this marriage, Elvira and Bella stood up and started arguing about their children and family problems. It was all planned ahead of time and rehearsed, but Nicole and most of the ladies had no idea. It was a riot! 

  

We had a bunch of games planned!

Ok, I know this is Nicole's party post, but I just want to say for the record that I have since put up curtains and painted over the scary orange you see. I really need to do an updated house post to redeem myself. LOL. I didn't realize how bad everything looked until just now. I'd only been in the house for a couple months.

Nicole had to draw her dream house, blindfolded. 

When she finished, she took the blindfold off and we all laughed and made fun of her house. :D
Probably like you all are making fun of mine right now HAHAHAHAHAH

For every gift she opened, Nicole had to guess who it was from. If she guessed correctly, she got to draw something on the giver's face. If she got it wrong, the giver got to draw something on Nicole's face. 

To end the night, each lady gave Nicole a piece of advice having to do with marriage and family. Of course we all ended up in tears! 

 

I knew my Tia Hayde would make me cry the worst. I told her when she arrived, "I'll be kicking out the first person that sheds a tear" HAHA.

Our faces at the end of the night -

We had a so much fun - the very best last hoorah! I enjoyed hosting my very first party and having soooo many people in my tiny little house! It was perfect!

~Bethany~