La Feria (FOODIE!)

Here in Mexico, we celebrate Dia de los Reyes (Day of the Kings). It is basically a Mexican Christmas. There is a neighborhood here in town that is named after one of the supposed "kings" (wise men). Each year, this neighborhood puts on a big fair to celebrate the holiday. Abner's taco place happened to be in this neighborhood so he invited Nicole over to sell with him since these days of celebration were to bring in lots of DINERO! 

Abner had his table set up on one side and on the other was Nicole's cupcake table.

Abner was making tacos of all kinds including...

Eyeball tacos

Cow tongue tacos.

Monse came to help Nicole sell - she is a hard worker and did a great job!

Nicole's little customers

El Jefe

There were a bunch of rides set up that I reeeally wanted to ride, but had no one to ride them with!

This is the one I really wanted to go on. It looks so rickety and scary, the adrenaline rush would probably be better than falling off the Grand Canyon.

Swing downnn...

...then upppp and arounddddd!

A rickety little ferris wheel

Abner and his pile of customers

Nicole and I went walking around at one point to find some goodies. We found this lady selling shrimps on a shish kabob. YUM!

Flan, fried bananas, strawberries and creme...

Traditional Mexican bread

I found myself some delicious apple salad...

Nicole with her shwimps and chicharin

We also bought a flan, but it was so good, it was devoured in a split second and there is no picture to tell of its glory.
 

These are chalupas. I highly do not recommend them to visitors. These are the most unhealthy things to exist on the face of this planet, and can also do a number on your digestive system. They are also fried in lard. Sounds disgusting, but...this was actually our second order. HEH HEH. Chalupas are delicious!!!

Making of the chalupas

I'm not a coffee girl, but it was freezing outside and there were no other options.

(Side note: these foods were eaten over the course of two days. We're not complete pigs.)

And...last but not least...COTTON CANDY. I'm actually not too crazy about cotton candy, but they were so big and pretty and poofy!

 

~Bethany~

Ice Skating Field Trip

Over Christmas break we took the boys on a field trip to the ice skating rink. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world and therefore do not have any amazing snapshots of our time there. However, I thought I'd do a post on it anyway for my own memory's sake. 

 

The boys had never been skating before and were excited for this outing. After about an hour of skating, however, they looked completely exhausted and disillusioned.

They said their legs hurt - LOL! I know how it feels! Ice skating isn't fun unless you have a stronger, more balanced person at your side to hold hands with.

After a while, Dad arrived to save the day. He tightened up everyone's skates and made sure they had them on correctly...

Here, he was telling Fabian about something funny that had just happened about five minutes earlier. Dad had just been given his skates. He was walking towards a bench to put them on when a girl tripped and smashed her ice-skate-clad boot right on top of Dad's bare foot. HAHA! Painful for him, but the rest of us got a good laugh out of it.

This is when our almost-a-flop of a field trip started looking up :P

Sitting in the grand stands watching Dad and the boys...

After a while, Nicole got back out there and did a couple rounds...

Needless to say, the boys got home pretty wore out and were all sore the next day. Ice skating is a killer work out! It was a new experience for them, however, so I'm glad we were able to get out do it!

~Bethany~

Los Ahuehuetes Baptisms (Erica and Ricardo)

In December we had a very special church "field trip". My dad's Bible study family wanted to be baptized! Remember Jael? His parents. They didn't want to be baptized just anywhere though. They wanted running water! So we got a bus that would take us out to Los Ahuehuetes and headed out early one Saturday morning.

Things were pretty tight so there were a few kids on laps.

Our chauffeur

Caught in deep thoughts of disaster

Hey, ya big brute! Could you please move to the side of the road?

Thank you very much.

When we arrived at the dirt road leading to Los Ahuehuetes, the bus broke down.
 

At this point we still had about a mile to go. It was getting pretty stuffy in the bus so we grabbed our bags and the food and started walking.

After walking a while on that dry, dusty road, this was a beautiful sight to behold! We were getting pretty hot and sweaty :D


Jumping in a cold oasis was sounding like the most refreshing thing in the world.

When everyone got to the spring and got their things settled, we gathered in a circle to start the baptisms. Dad read a few verses and talked for a little bit.

He then got in the water...a little bit at a time :)
It was a little chilly!

Erica was the first one to be baptized.

I'm so glad that I've been buried in the name of the Lord!

Her husband, Ricardo was next. Pastor showed him how to hold his hands and then they prayed...

Then he was put under...
These pictures show what happened next :)
The rocks on the bottom of the lake were a little slippery - haha! 

They soon found their footing and the baptism got back on track, despite a few giggles from the crowd. 

Family picture afterwards!

Jael has a bit of a chip on his shoulder - he reeeeally wanted to be baptized - aww! The deal is that he has to get the Holy Ghost first though.

After the baptisms, we ate lunch. Everyone brought a little something to share. Sis. Rocio made tamales - yes, those famous tamales. This was my first time to taste hers - after this, I was in love. No other tamale will ever top hers.

 Some days after eating Rocio's delicious baptism tamale, I went over to her house. The subject got brought up and I told her again how yummy they were. She laughed and in a taunting "ha, ha, ha, ha-ha" kind of voice she said, "And I didn't tell you want kind of meat was in them! Ha ha ha hahaha!!!" I froze and...*gulp*..."WHAT WAS IT, ROCIO?!!" *punch, punch in her arm* Of course I am thinking she's about to say it was iguana liver or lamb nostril...or something weird like that. When she replied smugly that it was a duck from her very own yard, I breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, duck qualifies as "civilized food". 

The lyrics to this song are appropriate...."The devil thought he had me, he thought my life was over..." HAHA. 

 Rocio - now and forever to be known as "the tamale queen".

Choyo, Sara, and Rocio

 After lunch, a bunch of the kids jumped in for a refreshing swim in the water.

The baby loved the water!! Look at that grin! 

I got her after she got out of the water and had dry clothes on. She seemed so happy without her diaper on - heh heh. Yeah, I was a little nervous, but if you've ever held a freshly bathed baby with just a thin little sleeper on, you know they are irresistible!! So soft, squishy, and cuddly.

Baby toesies!!!

When it was time to head home, everyone was so tired. We were also very relieved that bus had gotten fixed. Ugh!

The spring we went to is surrounded by fields of corn. By the entrance to the little pueblo where the water is, there are little shacks selling everything corn. Corn bread, corn tamales, elotes, grilled corn on a stick, and drinks. We always make it a point to stop and pick up some "souvenirs" at this place.
This time, we got corn tamales and a sugar cane juice.

Once we got back on the road, everything was good for the first ten minutes or so. Then the engine started to overheat and do...I don't know what...but this was only the beginning of the stop and go trip that lasted about three hours. (It is supposed to only be about an hour and a half drive).

Eventually, we did get home. Looking back, it is just another memory made, but at the moment it was NOT very pleasant at all! I am glad to be home :)
Keep our new family in your prayers - they need the Holy Ghost! They are a sweet, sweet family. I will be back with an update on them soon, hopefully!

~Bethany~