We are a funny breed of people. Tourists. With our camera on our necks and our ball caps of our home teams. Our maps in hand guiding our every step to see as many things as we can and walk where millions of people before us have walked. And I mean millions. In Rome, more specifically the Vatican city, there is an average of 3 million people per day that come to visit. That's a lot of tourists. We have been surrounded by Asian tour groups, European and families from Iowa.The vendors are from Bangladesh, India and Africa. There is a rainbow of culture here. But a lot of racism too, I'll write about that in a later post.
The second day in Rome after sleeping a mere 3 hours before the breakfast buffet we had tickets for the hop on hop off tour bus. Thanks to living social discounted trips!!
DISCLAIMER: Aside from what you may believe about Doug and I taking this trip to Italy. WE ARE POOR! We don't want to appear rich or loose with our money. We are taking this trip purely because we are celebrating 10 years of an amazing and difficult and rewarding marriage. We are spending time with each other that we haven't had in years and we are going to enjoy every minute of it. If it means spending $8 on a stupid picture at the Trevi fountain so be it. We deserve it and you do too. Debt is hard, but it shouldn't keep you from living and experiencing AMAZING things.
Okay, back to the double decker, red party tour bus. Just kidding. It wasn't a party bus, but the side of it did look like a party with it's squiggly yellow lettering and the bright red headphones they handed us to listen to the tour of the city made. They made me feel all bright and sunny. Although one of the Asian tours had neon green earphones, that would have made me equally happy. :) Man, I am having a rough time getting to the point today.
The bus drove us through ancient Rome revisiting the sights that we had photographed the night before in the dark. We drove past "The wedding cake" which is a huge museum all white WHITE marble that is atop a hill looking down the crooked street to the coliseum. This building and the 2 behind it were designed by Michealangelo and are stunning. We passed the coliseum and numerous round-a-bouts where the center was a fountain. The churches are old and beautiful. One looking as if it could topple. The first stop we got off at was a church, couldn't tell you the name though. Haha, I'm terrible. We went in and at the entrance there was a security guard that made me put on a paper shawl to cover my shoulders. It was again a hot day so I had on a tank top and I had to be covered. Some girls had to wear one on their waist to cover their legs. Out of respect for the church and for God we had to be covered or possibly be refused entry. At this church over 1,000 years ago it is said that there was a miracle and snow fell from the sky on August 5th. So we are just shy of 3 days away from this holiday that that celebrate by dropping millions of white flower pedals from the sky. Bummer. After walking through the church we made our way back on the bus and took it to the coliseum stop. It still looked as amazing as in the night however now was full of people. People everywhere! I'm happy I got pictures in the night when it was a ghost town. We walked through the ruins of what used to be the rich part of Rome and was now just ruins with some amazing churches that still stood the test of time. The houses and other small structures were now just blue prints of red brick in the ground. You can't help but wonder what it looked like in the day. Small brick houses covered in white concrete and as you'd come out of your front door in the morning you see the coliseum and tall pillared buildings all white and grand with size. Amazing. We didn't go through the coliseum, but we only had 2 days to sight-see and we didn't want to spend it in line. We hopped back on the bus and took the tour through the Vatican and then back around to "The Wedding Cake" and climbed the steps from the courtyard up to the roof of the building. We looked down and there was Rome. The ruins, the coliseum, the churches, Vatican hill. You could see the mountains dark and out of focus in the far distance and in the shade of the white marble we cooled down and just took in the city. The tour bus took us back through the city passed the chariot track where Ben Hir was filmed. A long oval track that is set alongside a hill in a ditch. There used to be stands surrounding it that held 4 x as many people as the coliseum. Tall trees line the park, their lower branches trimmed so there is just a tuft of branches with green at the top. They remind me of African safari trees only tall and skinny and they are all over the city.
We ended our tour with Gelato after getting off the bus at the station. As we sat at this outdoor mobile Gelato shop I couldn't help but wonder if the owners are secretly mafia... you have to worry about these things in Italy you know.
Friday, August 2, 2013
When in Rome
ROME.
We arrived to Rome soaring out over bluish green waters off the west coast of Italy. The sea sparkled along the bronze sandy shore. To the right we angled back towards shore and to the runway just barely inland, Rome staring at us just to our right and the water now to our left. It was 12pm for Italy but for MN still only 5am. Our bodies were stiff and tired. We wanted to sleep during the flight but the sights of the Swiss Alps towering so close out of my airplane window through the clouds below all snowy and jagged kept my eyes fixed in awe. I think I did drift off for 5 minutes or so towards the end of the two hour flight from Amsterdam. We landed at Leodardo Da Vinci airport and took our one carry on suitcase (insert proud pat on my back for packing so light between the two of us in one bag!) down the moving walkways to a train platform that would take us into the city for €8 per person ($12 US dollars). The blue and white train was short with only 2 or three cars. You could move between them with the push of a button on the wall through a sliding door. The door in our cabin wasn't functioning so the people just pulled it open. I don't know If it was the broken door, the head rest of Doug's seat falling out on him as he sat or the scratched graffiti in my window but something tells me this wasn't the newest train in Italy. It was a smooth 20 minute ride into the center of Rome from the airport, crossing through open fields of tall dry grass bowing in the breeze. The train rocked my heavy head right to sleep just 2 minutes before we got to our station for the hotel. Doug awoke me and I was so disoriented! I mustered up enough energy to drag myself off of the train and then buy tickets for us to ride the public transportation. We stood in the HOT sun awaiting our bus. It was so strong. The bus took us to our street where our hotel was. doug had said "I think the first hotel we are staying at is a little sketchy" but he was way off. It was a new hotel with beautiful rooms, a restaurant, a pool and a few adorable bars and lounges. We checked into our room by 3:00 pm and we were just going to take a 'little' nap (after being awake for 36 hrs). As soon as our heads hit the pillows we were out! We woke up almost five ours later OOPS! In the words of Doug, when got to Rome we only had three days so we were going to "push through the tired" and stay awake once we got there and see as much as we could that first day! Haha. So much for that.
We did however wake up refreshed and by 9pm we were ready to go. We found a river walk with markets and restaurants adorned with couches and candle light. With the Tiber river raging on the other side of the white picket fence we sat down to our first taste of Italian food. There was music playing blending with the chatter of the people walking the river walk. We had penne pasta and brick oven thin crust pizza with no cheese. It was delicious! We made our way up the gray stone steps after dinner out of the river walk and to the stone purple lit walking bridge above. It was night and looking down back to the market we just walked through you could see the white lights lining the white tents of vendors and restaurants along the river. The streets were small square cobble stones much like Coyoacán.
We followed our map holding it up like typical tourist as we walked through dim lit cobblestone narrow Alleyways. We passed groups of hipsters and small cafés. Waited to cross streets as mini cars and motor bikes passed. It was quiet and relaxing. So quiet actually. I remember saying to Doug, "For such a large city it is so quiet and you can still see the stars." Our cobblestone path lead us to the pantheon a large round tundra type building, once a church covered in white stone with pillars and white adornments ow showed its red brick skeleton. We rounded to the front where a column of white marble pillars stood facing a plaza with a fountain at the center and restaurants and candle lit tables lined the other four sides of the square. It was here that I felt like I was finally in Rome.
Our late evening stroll continued down the back alleys of the Pantheon and to the fountain Di Trevi. This place was full of people, even at 11 at night. We were quickly approached by a young man from Bangladesh who was eager to help take a picture of us in front of the fountain with my camera. I politely declined but he finally convinced me to give it to him and he ran away with... just kidding. He didn't run. But he did scam me into having him take our picture with his Polaroid and $8 US dollars later he ran away before the picture developed... I wish I had just stolen his camera and ran. Crappy lit dark picture. Oh well, live and let learn right? The fountain was built as a facade to a building, the architect thought he'd make it something large and memorable. So to the arch with a merman statue he added fountains and more fountains. And it is memorable! For centuries people have thrown pennies into the blue pool for luck of a safe return back to the fountain someday. We however looked at our bank account, the fact that we are currently homeless and without work and a Bangladesh man just took $8 from us for a picture, realized we should keep our penny. Lol.
We took another journey from the fountain to the coliseum. We turned a corner and woop there it is! So big! The tallest structure in Ancient Rome, so beautiful at night, the yellow lights adding contrast through the arches against the black night sky. We sat on a stone wall bahind a giant tree and talked as a few people passed, it was really quiet by this time. It was a half passed midnight when we decide we'd better head back to the bus station, only to find out that the bus line back to our hotel closed at midnight. Ruh ruh! But thanks to our 5 hour nap we had all the energy in the world. So at 1 am we made our way back to our hotel. 2 miles and 1 and a half hours later we got back to our hotel.
I watched the sun come up over the city at 5:45 and We finally got to sleep by 6am and got to the breakfast buffet before it closed. I'd say it was a successful day. After all the day in MN was just ending as we get another sunny day in Rome.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
End of the Beginning
Can you believe that our time is already up in Mexico City? WOW! I haven't blogged since Sally's birthday party (I must have been tired after that party!) That is sad. I know. Especially for those of you who follow our adventures around the world and live and breathe for my blog! Well, that may be a stretch. haha. Well I do miss writing and would beg that you please accept my apology and
Orientation August 2012 we arrived to hear rules and security precautions to living in the city and how to travel. Stay on main roads, don't travel at night, be careful about using your debit card in a cash machine that is hard to get your card in and out of (as someone may have rigged it to take your withdrawl) and all sorts of other warnings. So my preconceived notions were that we were going to be foreigners living in a hostile and dangerous land. Before we actually found a house and school I worried that something bad would happen to us. However, I knew that we were meant to go there and that we would be protected. This was going to be an exciting new adventure and we were excited about what this historical city had in store for us; Doug as a human rights researcher, for me as a nurse and mother and for our family as a whole. We quickly found out first and foremost that God had gone before us to pave the way for blessings ie: housing, friends, school, church and markets and of course a near by wal-mart. We knew that God had his hand in every part of our new Mexican life within the first 2 weeks. Our apartment was found the first day, perfect for us. The school... 2 blocks away from the apartment. The parents in the school became treasured friends very quickly. Everything just fell into place. After 2 months there we had tried 3 different churches, 2 Baptist churches and 1 mega 'non denominational' church. I found friends through a women's group at the English speaking Baptist church and really felt like I was in my childhood church in some ways even though I didn't grow up Baptist. I am grateful for the friendships that I have made in Whitney, Rachel and Christine. The Thursday morning women's bible study from our church allowed me to fellowship with women on a deeper level and gave me the opportunity to use some of my worship experience to lead the women in song for a couple of the sessions.
Some of my favorite memories that are written on my heart forever are the memories I made with my class of girls at the Casa Hogar. They have such a big piece of my heart. I will miss the laugh of Lupita, her naughty ways always making me fall deeper in love with her everyday. She had her cuddly days and distant, crabby days. He mother never came to visit and this made her have more cuddly days with me. I wanted to adopt her the more the nuns shared with me about her home life. But Doug reminded me often that she HAS a mother. Even if that mother couldn't support her or see her, she was still her mother. Then at one of my last visits at the hogar I walked through the huge peach colored door and walked into the courtyard and saw my Lupita, laughing and smiling as if not a care in the world. Hugging her tightly to her chest on a tattered old couch by the office was her grandmother. The same face as Lupita just a lot older. Such a special bond between them. It was like she had hope, had love and didn't need me. I don't know how often this grandmother showed up, but I hope that it's more often now that I've seen how much she connects with her.
I will miss the silly antics of my sweet Fernanda. Silky black hair cut into a bob, eyes black and bashful. This girl can make me laugh! She loved to cuddle and is VERY independent. Her art projects were always the last to be finished and she loved to say 'one, two, three!" The numerous hours I pushed her on the swings beat out the others as it was her favorite thing to do even though she had to wait until after snack and lesson. Her favorite thing though even more than the swings was to wash her hands. This girl was always first to the sink and had to do the soap by herself.
I will miss the goofiness of Natalia her also independent attitude was a tough one at times but I could get her to laugh so hard! She loves when I dance and also when I give her horsey rides on my back. Lucky for me (insert sarcasm) they ALL love getting piggy back rides (with horse sounds running through the courtyard as the other girls chase us). So once the line had been gone through twice I would be DEAD tired! I would close my eyes and say I needed to rest and they would all collectively scream and scare me awake. This was one of their favorite things.
Along with the three girls above I had over the course of my 9 months at the hogar, 14 students. All but my main 5 little ones regularly attended preschool during the days but quite often they were very sick with cold, coughs and chicken pox. So those days I had all of them and it was a mad house. I ran out of cookies and milk a lot faster, I gave out way more hugs and loves, the crayons disappeared faster, the glitter was spilled and I went home with a hoarse voice and a head ache but it was all worth it.
One of my last days there I had a conversation with a 12 year old girl who felt comfortable enough after all of our time together there to tell me that she was starting her first period. The conversation ranged from her discomfort in her tummy to how she is now a woman. It was a proud moment for me knowing that I got through that talk with a girl who isn't even my daughter but that she felt comfortable enough to share it with me. I'm not entirely sure if it was appropriate or not (Doug says 'no') but the conversation transitioned into how now that she is a woman she needs to honor her body and treat her body as a holy temple and that she needs to save herself for the husband God is perfecting for her. She was so receptive and precious. Maybe it just freaked Doug out because it was weird for him, but for us it was such a moment! I pray that God will use that conversation for good and that Favie will know that she is perfect and beautiful and that her body is the temple of the holy spirit and I hope that she will be one less pregnant teen in Mexico city knowing that. I know that's not a conversation the nuns would be having with her!
We took some memorable trips since the last time I blogged to. All of the cautions that they gave us on that first day of orientation made us more careful but we never had any issues while traveling the country. We felt safe all of the time traveling or walking home from the store at night. We spent Thanksgiving eating fajitas on a booze cruise in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California (west coast) with my in-laws taking pictures of the sunset through the arch at the end of the peninsula. We spent Christmas with my parents in Puebla (to the East) exploring the Largest base pyramid in the world. We traveled via an Executive coach bus to Michoacán (to the West) for New Years. One of my favorite things was our trip to the Avacado Groves such a peaceful experience.
In May right before we packed up our house we took a trip to the southern shores of Oaxaca to Xipolite. A small town, quiet street with restaurants that spilled out into the street. It was a slow moving hippie town. We flew to the closest airport and took a taxi to the town. Such a contrast from our busy city. Our hotel was an open air old wood shack with 30 some rooms right on the ocean. I mean right on the ocean. It was so loud the first night at high tide I thought we would get splashed and was dreaming that the waves were coming in our balcony door. There was a fitted sheet and a top sheet. No comforter as it was such a warm damp climate. No air conditioning, just a ceiling fan. And it was bring your own towels and soap. $30/night! :) It was perfect. We lived in our suits and bare feet for 4 days. The weather was perfect, we arrived as a hurricane was leaving! Everyday was better than the one before. It made it really hard to leave. We took a minivan up through the twisty roads of the mountains to the city of Oaxaca. It was really curvy and scary at times when there wasn't a guard rail and you're looking down and you're above the clouds. It's not a great feeling. But it was absolutely beautiful. The higher altitude we drove the cooler and cleaner the air was. We stopped for a stretch break (during the 6 hour drive) in a small mountain town. People were wearing winter scarves and long sleeves. It seemed as if they stared at the strange looking white people in our shorts and t-shirts as we crossed the street to buy some hot cocoa! Me and Sally were so excited to have hot cocoa in the summer. We descended to a valley where the city was. It was a lot like Puebla only every street going our for blocks and blocks was nice, no trash, no crappy houses just historic buildings made into apartments or some kind of retail place or coffee shop. The main cathedral in the center of town was modest and the tall dark wooden doors and their all white etched glass windows with pictures angels were welcoming. Unlike the markets in D.F. here in Oaxaca the markets were
just filled with embroidered clothing. We all got something to wear and maybe just maybe we'll all wear it at the same time for a photo and I can post it. We had good food and a nice relaxing time for just a day and then got on another bus to take us 5 hours to Mexico City to our home. It was a great way to end our time in Mexico...
But see.. that's the thing... it's not really the end. We want to stay in this beautiful country. Doug is done with his juvenile research but would like to continue the research a lot deeper. His interest for this country and it's laws is just getting bigger and he wants to make a difference. That will mean more time! Sally's school is also something that we cherish there and believe that it is the best for our daughter to do another year in the school perfecting her adorable Spanish. :) So we will hopefully be returning in the Fall for another year of adventure.
PRAYERS:
*That Doug will find a sponsor or Foundation that will sponsor his research and support him
financially as a researcher
*I can quickly get my business up and running as a photographer in Mexico City.
*Language studies for me. I will continue teaching a photography course at a Christian Arts school
which is helping a ton for my Spanish practice but I need to get better!
hold on for one last ride.
Orientation August 2012 we arrived to hear rules and security precautions to living in the city and how to travel. Stay on main roads, don't travel at night, be careful about using your debit card in a cash machine that is hard to get your card in and out of (as someone may have rigged it to take your withdrawl) and all sorts of other warnings. So my preconceived notions were that we were going to be foreigners living in a hostile and dangerous land. Before we actually found a house and school I worried that something bad would happen to us. However, I knew that we were meant to go there and that we would be protected. This was going to be an exciting new adventure and we were excited about what this historical city had in store for us; Doug as a human rights researcher, for me as a nurse and mother and for our family as a whole. We quickly found out first and foremost that God had gone before us to pave the way for blessings ie: housing, friends, school, church and markets and of course a near by wal-mart. We knew that God had his hand in every part of our new Mexican life within the first 2 weeks. Our apartment was found the first day, perfect for us. The school... 2 blocks away from the apartment. The parents in the school became treasured friends very quickly. Everything just fell into place. After 2 months there we had tried 3 different churches, 2 Baptist churches and 1 mega 'non denominational' church. I found friends through a women's group at the English speaking Baptist church and really felt like I was in my childhood church in some ways even though I didn't grow up Baptist. I am grateful for the friendships that I have made in Whitney, Rachel and Christine. The Thursday morning women's bible study from our church allowed me to fellowship with women on a deeper level and gave me the opportunity to use some of my worship experience to lead the women in song for a couple of the sessions.
Some of my favorite memories that are written on my heart forever are the memories I made with my class of girls at the Casa Hogar. They have such a big piece of my heart. I will miss the laugh of Lupita, her naughty ways always making me fall deeper in love with her everyday. She had her cuddly days and distant, crabby days. He mother never came to visit and this made her have more cuddly days with me. I wanted to adopt her the more the nuns shared with me about her home life. But Doug reminded me often that she HAS a mother. Even if that mother couldn't support her or see her, she was still her mother. Then at one of my last visits at the hogar I walked through the huge peach colored door and walked into the courtyard and saw my Lupita, laughing and smiling as if not a care in the world. Hugging her tightly to her chest on a tattered old couch by the office was her grandmother. The same face as Lupita just a lot older. Such a special bond between them. It was like she had hope, had love and didn't need me. I don't know how often this grandmother showed up, but I hope that it's more often now that I've seen how much she connects with her.
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| Lupita, Fernanda, Natalia |
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| Girls waiting in line for bread in my little makeshift classroom |
I will miss the goofiness of Natalia her also independent attitude was a tough one at times but I could get her to laugh so hard! She loves when I dance and also when I give her horsey rides on my back. Lucky for me (insert sarcasm) they ALL love getting piggy back rides (with horse sounds running through the courtyard as the other girls chase us). So once the line had been gone through twice I would be DEAD tired! I would close my eyes and say I needed to rest and they would all collectively scream and scare me awake. This was one of their favorite things.
Along with the three girls above I had over the course of my 9 months at the hogar, 14 students. All but my main 5 little ones regularly attended preschool during the days but quite often they were very sick with cold, coughs and chicken pox. So those days I had all of them and it was a mad house. I ran out of cookies and milk a lot faster, I gave out way more hugs and loves, the crayons disappeared faster, the glitter was spilled and I went home with a hoarse voice and a head ache but it was all worth it.
One of my last days there I had a conversation with a 12 year old girl who felt comfortable enough after all of our time together there to tell me that she was starting her first period. The conversation ranged from her discomfort in her tummy to how she is now a woman. It was a proud moment for me knowing that I got through that talk with a girl who isn't even my daughter but that she felt comfortable enough to share it with me. I'm not entirely sure if it was appropriate or not (Doug says 'no') but the conversation transitioned into how now that she is a woman she needs to honor her body and treat her body as a holy temple and that she needs to save herself for the husband God is perfecting for her. She was so receptive and precious. Maybe it just freaked Doug out because it was weird for him, but for us it was such a moment! I pray that God will use that conversation for good and that Favie will know that she is perfect and beautiful and that her body is the temple of the holy spirit and I hope that she will be one less pregnant teen in Mexico city knowing that. I know that's not a conversation the nuns would be having with her!
We took some memorable trips since the last time I blogged to. All of the cautions that they gave us on that first day of orientation made us more careful but we never had any issues while traveling the country. We felt safe all of the time traveling or walking home from the store at night. We spent Thanksgiving eating fajitas on a booze cruise in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California (west coast) with my in-laws taking pictures of the sunset through the arch at the end of the peninsula. We spent Christmas with my parents in Puebla (to the East) exploring the Largest base pyramid in the world. We traveled via an Executive coach bus to Michoacán (to the West) for New Years. One of my favorite things was our trip to the Avacado Groves such a peaceful experience.
In May right before we packed up our house we took a trip to the southern shores of Oaxaca to Xipolite. A small town, quiet street with restaurants that spilled out into the street. It was a slow moving hippie town. We flew to the closest airport and took a taxi to the town. Such a contrast from our busy city. Our hotel was an open air old wood shack with 30 some rooms right on the ocean. I mean right on the ocean. It was so loud the first night at high tide I thought we would get splashed and was dreaming that the waves were coming in our balcony door. There was a fitted sheet and a top sheet. No comforter as it was such a warm damp climate. No air conditioning, just a ceiling fan. And it was bring your own towels and soap. $30/night! :) It was perfect. We lived in our suits and bare feet for 4 days. The weather was perfect, we arrived as a hurricane was leaving! Everyday was better than the one before. It made it really hard to leave. We took a minivan up through the twisty roads of the mountains to the city of Oaxaca. It was really curvy and scary at times when there wasn't a guard rail and you're looking down and you're above the clouds. It's not a great feeling. But it was absolutely beautiful. The higher altitude we drove the cooler and cleaner the air was. We stopped for a stretch break (during the 6 hour drive) in a small mountain town. People were wearing winter scarves and long sleeves. It seemed as if they stared at the strange looking white people in our shorts and t-shirts as we crossed the street to buy some hot cocoa! Me and Sally were so excited to have hot cocoa in the summer. We descended to a valley where the city was. It was a lot like Puebla only every street going our for blocks and blocks was nice, no trash, no crappy houses just historic buildings made into apartments or some kind of retail place or coffee shop. The main cathedral in the center of town was modest and the tall dark wooden doors and their all white etched glass windows with pictures angels were welcoming. Unlike the markets in D.F. here in Oaxaca the markets were
But see.. that's the thing... it's not really the end. We want to stay in this beautiful country. Doug is done with his juvenile research but would like to continue the research a lot deeper. His interest for this country and it's laws is just getting bigger and he wants to make a difference. That will mean more time! Sally's school is also something that we cherish there and believe that it is the best for our daughter to do another year in the school perfecting her adorable Spanish. :) So we will hopefully be returning in the Fall for another year of adventure.
PRAYERS:
*That Doug will find a sponsor or Foundation that will sponsor his research and support him
financially as a researcher
*I can quickly get my business up and running as a photographer in Mexico City.
*Language studies for me. I will continue teaching a photography course at a Christian Arts school
which is helping a ton for my Spanish practice but I need to get better!
Friday, January 25, 2013
TANGLED in ribbon and glue.
Tangled Party for Sally's 4th Birthday
Her first birthday party with friends.
Her birthday is on Christmas
so we did this party 2 1/2 weeks after.
This is our day in pictures.
To get the kids to the party I researched on Pinterest
Tangled Party and Rapunzel Invitations.
I did what I could with the materials here in Mexico
But I still loved how they turned out.
And of course they are in spanish. It says:
Come Let Your Hair Down
We are Celebrating the birthday of
Sally Keillor
January 19, 3pm-7pm
There will be games, piñata, cake and fun
In Sally's Tower
Her first birthday party with friends.
Her birthday is on Christmas
so we did this party 2 1/2 weeks after.
This is our day in pictures.
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| To get the kids to the party I researched on Pinterest Tangled Party and Rapunzel Invitations. I did what I could with the materials here in Mexico But I still loved how they turned out. And of course they are in spanish. It says: Come Let Your Hair Down We are Celebrating the birthday of Sally Keillor January 19, 3pm-7pm There will be games, piñata, cake and fun In Sally's Tower |
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| SO EXCITED FOR HER PARTY!! She wanted to leave the couch in the middle to lay on while the guests arrived. We had to kindly tell her no and do it in a way that made her think the other location was her idea. Just to avoid a fit.  was cut our from a yellow piece of paper after copying it from a stencil. I suggest making a stencil and painting each star yellow to save cutting time. Get the sun pattern here |
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| I bought these little tiarras from the dollar section and painted them with purple nail polish. Then I braided the yard to the crown. I packaged the flowers separate for the girls to create their own project at the party. |
I downloaded a lot of pictures from the internet and had to chose carefully because a lot of them had very low pixel counts and turned out poorly. I printed coloring sheets for the kids and had to only choose one. Make sure you find a good site with high resolution. These Flynn posters turned out great. I cut out the noses and the kids were blind folded one by one and played "Pin the nose on Flynn Rider." They had so much fun.
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| Our transformed driveway/courtyard. The couch was from the guy upstairs! The pillows were from the apartment next door. They matched our decor perfectly! |
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| The Rapunzel Frying pan plates were so cute. Click here: how to make the frying pans |
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| The tower was made of cocoa crispies. The roof was an ice cream cone with white chocolate. The fondant was matched to hang over as a roof. |
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| The river was cream cheese frosting with cocoa crispy pebbles in the stream. The flowers were the same as the ones that were in Sally's hair. |
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| Marshmallow fondant from scratch Recipe Here and lemon/raspberry pound cake Recipe Here I used pound cake so I could carve the hills easily. |
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| This was the courtyard right before it was invaded by people and food. Each flag above was cut out from a plastic tablecloth and each star was hand cut from paper all by my friend. We hung them on plastic ribbon with staples. |
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| This dress was the second one. If you noticed in the first picture she was wearing a different one. The mother who borrowed us the dress, showed up before the party and gave Sally her very own dress... I cried, I was so happy! |
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| Figuring our her new dress. |
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| Waiting for her friends to show up after being dressed up already for 3 hours |
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| Paint like Rapunzel |
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| The Magic Flower |
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| She insisted on posing this way |
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| Excited about the cake and presents |
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| These are stinkin adorable. Rapunzel and Flynn's boat on the water |
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| In Mexico it is customary to sing a little song about biting into the cake. Then you say "again, again!" and then a brave adult pushes your head into the cake. You can see Doug's hand is smashing poor little Rapunzel into her Marshmallow Fondant. She didn't mind :) |
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| Rapunzel's Paint brushes. I loved the look of these. And they tasted DELICIOUS. Colored white Chocolate in the colors of Rapunzel and Pascal |
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| Happy Girl, Happy mama. I was so excited for this party and it turned out PERFECTLY!! |
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Tree Houses and Adventure
You'd think we were in Hobbiton! It was green, the doors were short, the people we fun and the walk we took proved that this was a close second to the birthplace of hobbits.
We were invited to go to 'the forest' with some new friends of ours. I was a little nervous to say the least. We said yes for another weekend adventure up in the mountains but I couldn't help but wonder...Where were they really taking us? Why the Forest? Is something weird going to happen to us? But really, I had hung out with the wife a few times and felt comfortable but the husband is very hippie, bohemian and I didn't quite know what this mountain forest party had in store for us.
We left in the early afternoon and drove up the mountain, similar to last weekend to the sheep farms but more to the South West of our house. We drove through a really nice part of town with nice stores at the base of the mountain. The further up we got the poorer it seemed. Edwardo (the musician and friend that invited us and was driving us) said that a lot of people in this village work for the rich people up the mountain or in the valley, where we live. There were a lot of stray dogs, graffiti and concrete block houses with tarps as roofs. We kept climbing until the trees appeared greener and there were gates to the houses. Finally we rounded to the neighborhood where the Casa Del Arbol is. Which literally means tree house. The first tower we saw was stone with large windows around the top. Then on the left we saw a little tiny door leading up a stone staircase to a garden next to a brown gated driveway. Then next entrance was a large wooden door sculpted by the man who owns the property. Engraved in the wood were two peacocks and a large tree. Above the arched door read: Casa Del Arbol. With a tower hugging each side of the stone wall surrounding the wooden door it stood 15 tall or more. The red clay, pointy roofed towers had windows in the top, similar to Rapunzel and I couldn't help but tell Sally that it was. The third entrance was a black gate with a shorter wider tower at it's side to welcome visitors. There was a pink flowered tree in front of the gate, just beginning to bloom. We pulled through the gate, parked the car and met the people who lived there. We met a young man (son of the land owner) and his beautiful African wife, it was her birthday party. Me and Greta went around and took pictures before the sun got too low in the sky and the girls played on the tree swing in the yard. There were 3 terraces of lawn, the highest was a large yard with prune trees, just blooming a few of their pink flowers peeking out from burgundy buds. The grass was green and the air was warm. Sally felt so much freedom. The yard was surrounded by a tall iron artistic fence with gates entering each separate smaller yard of the 'tree houses'. The second, lower tier of the lawn was an open lawn with tall trees bordering. The lowest was also bordered with tall trees and had some other smaller newer trees. It was refreshing to be in the midst of all that earth and no smog.
We went investigating the land. Doug, Edwardo, Gret, Mildred, Sally and I walked up a stone staircase at the beginning of the driveway just inside the black gate. The short staircase lead to a heavy iron door that creaked as you pulled it open. We walked through and up a wild daisy quilted stone driveway. We passed 3 larger houses each unique from the other. The flowers were in bloom and it really felt like a fairytale. The sun was more direct the higher we walked and it warmed us as we rounded secret paths that opened to new trees and new hobbit homes. There was one that was across a short bridge that had a hidden entrance other than the door and it had a small path leading to the side porch and a small pond that was empty. The carvings on the porch walls were a pair of Chinese dragons facing the door that was nestled in between floor to ceiling windows. Many of the homes had towers, different styles; Russian, Castle-like and fantasy-like. Our walk came to an end as we met a young man walking past his very large/deep empty lake in front of his home. He was a cousin of the party host and helped us find our way through the twisty garden paths. Me and sally found two more tree swings and took a picture on each one. We were hanging back, enjoying the sunlight and the swings. We entered the lawn from the top tier through a small white metal gate and walked down very old rickety wooden steps. Doug and I hugged as we walked across the green grass and just felt happy to be there and as we watched our silly girl put a leaf in the collar of her shirt as she stood on a stump of a tree, closed her eyes and put out her arms to be a tree. haha.
We got back from our walk to see the food was being served. We ate pork ribs and tortillas and lamb stew. It was delicious. But the party really got started at dusk as one by one the men took their djembe drums and started a beat. In African dance it's common that the men play and the women dance. The host's wife danced first and made us all wish we had those African moves! Girl could shake it! A women was handed a scarf and had to dance with it, then pass the scarf to another woman. When it was my turn I brought Sally with me. She hopefully took the eyes off of me. By dark, she was shakin it in the middle of the circle by herself. And when each drum beat song would end she'd say, 'ahhh man! It's over.' She had fun, we had fun and it really blew our minds at this opportunity to see such an amazing place and experience a little of Africa in Mexico.
Click here to see the pictures of the day.
We were invited to go to 'the forest' with some new friends of ours. I was a little nervous to say the least. We said yes for another weekend adventure up in the mountains but I couldn't help but wonder...Where were they really taking us? Why the Forest? Is something weird going to happen to us? But really, I had hung out with the wife a few times and felt comfortable but the husband is very hippie, bohemian and I didn't quite know what this mountain forest party had in store for us.
We left in the early afternoon and drove up the mountain, similar to last weekend to the sheep farms but more to the South West of our house. We drove through a really nice part of town with nice stores at the base of the mountain. The further up we got the poorer it seemed. Edwardo (the musician and friend that invited us and was driving us) said that a lot of people in this village work for the rich people up the mountain or in the valley, where we live. There were a lot of stray dogs, graffiti and concrete block houses with tarps as roofs. We kept climbing until the trees appeared greener and there were gates to the houses. Finally we rounded to the neighborhood where the Casa Del Arbol is. Which literally means tree house. The first tower we saw was stone with large windows around the top. Then on the left we saw a little tiny door leading up a stone staircase to a garden next to a brown gated driveway. Then next entrance was a large wooden door sculpted by the man who owns the property. Engraved in the wood were two peacocks and a large tree. Above the arched door read: Casa Del Arbol. With a tower hugging each side of the stone wall surrounding the wooden door it stood 15 tall or more. The red clay, pointy roofed towers had windows in the top, similar to Rapunzel and I couldn't help but tell Sally that it was. The third entrance was a black gate with a shorter wider tower at it's side to welcome visitors. There was a pink flowered tree in front of the gate, just beginning to bloom. We pulled through the gate, parked the car and met the people who lived there. We met a young man (son of the land owner) and his beautiful African wife, it was her birthday party. Me and Greta went around and took pictures before the sun got too low in the sky and the girls played on the tree swing in the yard. There were 3 terraces of lawn, the highest was a large yard with prune trees, just blooming a few of their pink flowers peeking out from burgundy buds. The grass was green and the air was warm. Sally felt so much freedom. The yard was surrounded by a tall iron artistic fence with gates entering each separate smaller yard of the 'tree houses'. The second, lower tier of the lawn was an open lawn with tall trees bordering. The lowest was also bordered with tall trees and had some other smaller newer trees. It was refreshing to be in the midst of all that earth and no smog.
We went investigating the land. Doug, Edwardo, Gret, Mildred, Sally and I walked up a stone staircase at the beginning of the driveway just inside the black gate. The short staircase lead to a heavy iron door that creaked as you pulled it open. We walked through and up a wild daisy quilted stone driveway. We passed 3 larger houses each unique from the other. The flowers were in bloom and it really felt like a fairytale. The sun was more direct the higher we walked and it warmed us as we rounded secret paths that opened to new trees and new hobbit homes. There was one that was across a short bridge that had a hidden entrance other than the door and it had a small path leading to the side porch and a small pond that was empty. The carvings on the porch walls were a pair of Chinese dragons facing the door that was nestled in between floor to ceiling windows. Many of the homes had towers, different styles; Russian, Castle-like and fantasy-like. Our walk came to an end as we met a young man walking past his very large/deep empty lake in front of his home. He was a cousin of the party host and helped us find our way through the twisty garden paths. Me and sally found two more tree swings and took a picture on each one. We were hanging back, enjoying the sunlight and the swings. We entered the lawn from the top tier through a small white metal gate and walked down very old rickety wooden steps. Doug and I hugged as we walked across the green grass and just felt happy to be there and as we watched our silly girl put a leaf in the collar of her shirt as she stood on a stump of a tree, closed her eyes and put out her arms to be a tree. haha.
We got back from our walk to see the food was being served. We ate pork ribs and tortillas and lamb stew. It was delicious. But the party really got started at dusk as one by one the men took their djembe drums and started a beat. In African dance it's common that the men play and the women dance. The host's wife danced first and made us all wish we had those African moves! Girl could shake it! A women was handed a scarf and had to dance with it, then pass the scarf to another woman. When it was my turn I brought Sally with me. She hopefully took the eyes off of me. By dark, she was shakin it in the middle of the circle by herself. And when each drum beat song would end she'd say, 'ahhh man! It's over.' She had fun, we had fun and it really blew our minds at this opportunity to see such an amazing place and experience a little of Africa in Mexico.
Click here to see the pictures of the day.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Sheep and Snowmen
Driving south up the mountain we pass many businesses on the main busy road. There are dozens of people with colored balloons in hand to sell. Each person was selling the same colored balloons. The balloons read: Reyes Magos and have a silhouette picture of the three wisemen on their camels. Tomorrow is the day of the magi kings. It's to remember the kings bringing Jesus their gifts. So the children write what gift they'd like on a little card and send up the balloon to heaven. The next morning (*Spoiler alert) the parents buy the gift and write a letter as if they are the kings who secretly brought the gifts in the night. Reaching higher into the gloomy clouds we turned right up the street to look down into the smoggy city that is also today filled with low lying fog. The houses we pass are poor, cinder block houses without paint. There are stray dogs walking along side our slow moving car. There are tarp restaurants selling tacos of different animals. One of them had a rams head stuffed and sitting next to the open fire stove they've created. Graffiti covered walls hugged the road where steep hills cascaded down next to us. One of the tarp stands was selling Labrador puppies. We curved back to the left and passed some small stores of pottery. There are larger plots of land up here and we passed at least three outdoor paint ball courses. How fun! Just further down the road we passed our first field of ovejas (sheep). The mountains continued high above these flat lands. They were misty blue and foggy. Sally is sitting in font of me in the car, donning her sheep embroidered sweater she got from her friend. She is excited to get up to the farm we are visiting. She doesn't care much about the sheep, but the horses. She is remembering the horse that she rode a lot in Maryland at the brook side stables near our. House. His name was Teddy. He was a short, brown pony. He had a T shaved into his hip. She rode him first and always loved him most.
We waited for an escort to come help us find the way and when he came we followed him into a hidden driveway and did a couple of switchbacks until we came to another driveway with a greenish iron gateway. The driveway was like a 90 degree incline. I assumed our SUV would just tip backwards and roll back down. But no, we didn't. The driveway was made from cobblestones, much like the streets of Coyoacan where we live. We arrived at a green lawn on top of a bluff over looking a forest of pine trees with cobblestones bouncing the vehicle up and down as we parked in the yard. There was a cobblestone cabin with smoke rising from the chimney. We entered through a glass entryway with light-green rot iron trimming leading to the aged wooden front door. We entered into a world of antique bookshelves, stoves, trinkets and taxidermy. The fire was blazing in the corner fireplace to the left and we were quickly drawn to it to escape the misty cool air outside. Sally went outside right away to the playground next to the cabin. We diverted her to the stable to see the Horses. Beautiful horses were quietly in their stalls, the sheep however, were anything but quiet. They had their brand new babies wobbling next to them and they weren't about to have onlookers. They baah'd angerly at us as their babies attempted to feed. The mamas wouldn't sit still because we were there. The mothers had black faces, feet and tails and their wool was white. The babies were all black and like I said, wobbly. There were two stalls of sheep and Sally did like them until she saw a picture I took of the mama and it had a reflection of blue eyes. She wrote them off saying they weren't real sheep because sheep have black eyes and that wasn't a real sheep. Ha! The stable was open on both ends. We walked past the animals and came out on the other end to a cobblestone patio overlooking a grassy hill sinking into a sea of pine trees. There was a run down smaller shed on the tree line. The sidewalks were wet from the misty air or a previous rain. After a few minutes a light rain started and we filed indoors to the fire.
Soup was then served to the children as they sat around a rectangle table in the orange room with antique decor on the walls and a wagon wheel for a window. After the kids were fed the adults sat down around a series of tables placed longways taking up the living room, dining room and kitchen. We were served the same soup; red tomato base broth with broken spaghetti noodles. I added cream and chicharon to mine. Chicharon is fried pig skin. When it is fried it puffs up like a chip. You break off what you want and eat it or put it in the soup. It tastes like crunchy, salty ham. Who'd a thunk? Second course was rice with corn, guacamole, cactus and onion salad and Mole. Mole is a brown cocoa based sauce, blended with poblano peppers and almonds. Normally it is placed over a chicken breast or a cut of meat but this one had shredded chicken in it. It is served with tortillas of course and today we also had fresh baked french bread. Near the end of our lunch or rather after 'comida' (food that is served later than lunch is simply called comida or 'food'. It doesn't have a reference) we heard the rain really coming down outside. Veronica told me to come quick, it was hailing. It actually had been for quite some time because the grass and the field had turned white from it all. We took the kids outside after the rain and hail stopped. It had collected on some tents that were set up in the yard and on a tarp that was set out. The children collected it and brought it to me and Sally. We started some tiny snowmen and then some of the other kids made small heads. We used sticks for arms and nose and then someone came out with bottle caps for eyes. You have to make due in the mountains when they aren't used to making snowmen with button eyes and carrots for noses. :) We laughed a lot and I loved getting to see Sally play in the 'snow'. Even if it was just mushy hail.
Our toes and shoes were wet. We cuddled back in around the fire place along with 25 other cold people in the house and laughed as a child blew out his candles on his birthday cake. One of the uncles who'd had too much tequila smashed his face in a he went to take a bite out of the cake. Which is custom around here. After they sing you your birthday song, you blow out your candle and then take a bite from the side of the cake. He did and then when they coaxed him to take another, the uncle behind him just pushed his head and WHAM! right up his nose. The poor birthday boy, 5 years old. lol. We drank hot guava and cinnamon mild and ate cake in the living room of the cabin. The family is also Arabic from Lebanon and they drank Arabic coffee and smoked their cigarettes in front of the fireplace. We left around dusk because it cools down very fast in the night hours. Coming back through the small town we could see down in the valley the lights of Mexico City twinkling. In the night it almost looks magical, the lights rising up the side of the next mountain with the city going on and on for miles. So pretty. How lucky am I, how lucky am I?
Soup was then served to the children as they sat around a rectangle table in the orange room with antique decor on the walls and a wagon wheel for a window. After the kids were fed the adults sat down around a series of tables placed longways taking up the living room, dining room and kitchen. We were served the same soup; red tomato base broth with broken spaghetti noodles. I added cream and chicharon to mine. Chicharon is fried pig skin. When it is fried it puffs up like a chip. You break off what you want and eat it or put it in the soup. It tastes like crunchy, salty ham. Who'd a thunk? Second course was rice with corn, guacamole, cactus and onion salad and Mole. Mole is a brown cocoa based sauce, blended with poblano peppers and almonds. Normally it is placed over a chicken breast or a cut of meat but this one had shredded chicken in it. It is served with tortillas of course and today we also had fresh baked french bread. Near the end of our lunch or rather after 'comida' (food that is served later than lunch is simply called comida or 'food'. It doesn't have a reference) we heard the rain really coming down outside. Veronica told me to come quick, it was hailing. It actually had been for quite some time because the grass and the field had turned white from it all. We took the kids outside after the rain and hail stopped. It had collected on some tents that were set up in the yard and on a tarp that was set out. The children collected it and brought it to me and Sally. We started some tiny snowmen and then some of the other kids made small heads. We used sticks for arms and nose and then someone came out with bottle caps for eyes. You have to make due in the mountains when they aren't used to making snowmen with button eyes and carrots for noses. :) We laughed a lot and I loved getting to see Sally play in the 'snow'. Even if it was just mushy hail.
Our toes and shoes were wet. We cuddled back in around the fire place along with 25 other cold people in the house and laughed as a child blew out his candles on his birthday cake. One of the uncles who'd had too much tequila smashed his face in a he went to take a bite out of the cake. Which is custom around here. After they sing you your birthday song, you blow out your candle and then take a bite from the side of the cake. He did and then when they coaxed him to take another, the uncle behind him just pushed his head and WHAM! right up his nose. The poor birthday boy, 5 years old. lol. We drank hot guava and cinnamon mild and ate cake in the living room of the cabin. The family is also Arabic from Lebanon and they drank Arabic coffee and smoked their cigarettes in front of the fireplace. We left around dusk because it cools down very fast in the night hours. Coming back through the small town we could see down in the valley the lights of Mexico City twinkling. In the night it almost looks magical, the lights rising up the side of the next mountain with the city going on and on for miles. So pretty. How lucky am I, how lucky am I?
Groves of Trees and Smokey Blue Mountains
We arrived to Morelia at night. Morelia is where the family of our friend Rafa (Rafael) lives. They moved out of Torreon a couple of years ago to escape the terrible violence there. Read more about Torreon Violence. They have found a haven in Morelia. Coming through the dark hills, a sea of yellow lights appeared below in the valley with a shining cathedral standing out with 2 tall towers reaching high into the darkness. This was our first impression of a historical beautiful town. The second impression was how this shining city was really a small town kinda place. There was a pickup truck next to us at a stoplight with 2 horses standing in the bed with no tailgate. I wish I had taken a picture. You'll just have to imagine it.
The State where Morelia resides is Michoacán and it's claim to fame is the abundance of Monarch Butterflies. They migrate there every year multiplying the population in this state in Mexico. Just today actually on our way home I saw a flock of 'black birds' only to be corrected that it was thousands of monarchs bending and swaying as if they were the creative school of fish in Finding Nemo. I was shocked at how many there were. Click here to read about the migration.
We were introduced to the family on New Years Eve morning after a good night sleep. Our friend Rafa drove us and his niece Alejandra down the hill to the historic downtown area in the valley. He left to go help prepare the food for the NYE party that night and left us with Ale. The colonial beauty of the architecture made an impression on me and my camera. (Photos on Facebook) Each door and archway was more enchanting than the one before. We got back to the house and had a nap before waking up to go to our New Years Eve party with the family at 8:30pm. Arriving to the Solon we had some guacamole and chips at each table to munch on. Seriously THE best guac I've ever eaten. So yummy! They told us that the avocados were picked from a family farm close by. So fresh, so good. The next day when we finally woke up at noon Veronica (Rafa's wife) told me to put my shoes on. I don't understand everything that they say here but I talked to Doug and he said, "Oh yeah, she probably said that because we're going on a trip now." Haha. It was an hour and a half trip to be exact, to the avocado groves owned by Rafa's dad, also Rafael.
We drove out of the gray cloud cover of Morelia up through hills and valleys, making our way up to 2200km or 7200ft. The sky broke up half way to our destination to a beautiful blue and white sky. We got to a small town with quaint shops bordering the main street. Each building was painted the same, brick red on the bottom and white on the top half; businesses and apartments alike. Each business had it's name written in the same script above the door with the first letter in Red to match the lower half of the building and the other letters in black. A light drizzle came down from the returning gray sky as we made our way through the town, Santa Clara del cobre (Saint Clara of copper). We meant to stop and shop there but it was New Years Day and they were all closed. There was however still some activity in the town. The women strolled along the sidewalks with large shawls around their shoulders to keep warm. We passed through and kept winding up the hill to the groves. Shortly out of town we saw the trees covering the hills. Beautiful contrasting colors of brownish grass and the green trees, red soil against the gray sky. We saw different fenced in groves marking who owned which. We climbed up a red gravel road that eventually brought us to a brown iron fence. The Grandpa got out of the car and unlocked and opened it. We drove though, now with 4 foot high walls of dirt and cactus on both sides of the driveway. We drove up the steep, bumpy, gravel road until we pulled to the side to see the water collection pool where they collect rain water for the trees when the dry season starves the trees of rain. The air was cool and clear. Cleaner than the smog filled Mexico City air. In the distance you could see the lines of trees down the side of the mountain. Further yet the mountains far off appeared in a blue hue unable to make out the curves of the hills, just a solid bluish gray. We hadn't realized that we would be harvesting the black avocados ourselves. They handed us white woven plastic bags to collect the ones that were 'almost ready to fall off the tree'. The ones I picked still had green on them but it was exciting! We walked up the hill down the straight rows of 6 foot trees. Our goal was a large oak at the top of the hill. Sally chose certain trees to climb up. They were so easy to climp. The long branches of long skinny leaves leaned down over the trunk, making a canape. She would walk through the branches into the magical room inside, then climb the few branches and peak her little blond head out of the top! We reached our destination with only 3 aguacates (avocados). We spent some family time, just the three of us sitting at the top of the hill over looking peaks and valleys of trees. I kept reminding Sally to put this in her memory so she could remember this feeling forever. It wasn't until almost back down to the driveway where are cars rested that I realized how very quiet it was there. So quiet. You could almost hear the mist coming down from the clouds. Sally and I laid down and realized the silence together. . . . . What a wonderful day. What an amazing place to experience. Then mountains, the clean air, the silence. When we reached the base of the hill, our chilly fingers tightening we smelled a fire. The Grandma had a small fire started, surrounded by rocks with a flat pizza pan resting atop. She had tortillas warming and taco meat ready to eat. The avocados weren't ready for eating yet, I wished I could have smeared some into a tortilla right there. We ate and then took off at dusk, back down through the hills to the town. Some stores were now open and we walked through a few. We bought some beautiful copper items and headed back to Morelia. So glad we've met this family to take us on adventures.
The State where Morelia resides is Michoacán and it's claim to fame is the abundance of Monarch Butterflies. They migrate there every year multiplying the population in this state in Mexico. Just today actually on our way home I saw a flock of 'black birds' only to be corrected that it was thousands of monarchs bending and swaying as if they were the creative school of fish in Finding Nemo. I was shocked at how many there were. Click here to read about the migration.
We were introduced to the family on New Years Eve morning after a good night sleep. Our friend Rafa drove us and his niece Alejandra down the hill to the historic downtown area in the valley. He left to go help prepare the food for the NYE party that night and left us with Ale. The colonial beauty of the architecture made an impression on me and my camera. (Photos on Facebook) Each door and archway was more enchanting than the one before. We got back to the house and had a nap before waking up to go to our New Years Eve party with the family at 8:30pm. Arriving to the Solon we had some guacamole and chips at each table to munch on. Seriously THE best guac I've ever eaten. So yummy! They told us that the avocados were picked from a family farm close by. So fresh, so good. The next day when we finally woke up at noon Veronica (Rafa's wife) told me to put my shoes on. I don't understand everything that they say here but I talked to Doug and he said, "Oh yeah, she probably said that because we're going on a trip now." Haha. It was an hour and a half trip to be exact, to the avocado groves owned by Rafa's dad, also Rafael.
We drove out of the gray cloud cover of Morelia up through hills and valleys, making our way up to 2200km or 7200ft. The sky broke up half way to our destination to a beautiful blue and white sky. We got to a small town with quaint shops bordering the main street. Each building was painted the same, brick red on the bottom and white on the top half; businesses and apartments alike. Each business had it's name written in the same script above the door with the first letter in Red to match the lower half of the building and the other letters in black. A light drizzle came down from the returning gray sky as we made our way through the town, Santa Clara del cobre (Saint Clara of copper). We meant to stop and shop there but it was New Years Day and they were all closed. There was however still some activity in the town. The women strolled along the sidewalks with large shawls around their shoulders to keep warm. We passed through and kept winding up the hill to the groves. Shortly out of town we saw the trees covering the hills. Beautiful contrasting colors of brownish grass and the green trees, red soil against the gray sky. We saw different fenced in groves marking who owned which. We climbed up a red gravel road that eventually brought us to a brown iron fence. The Grandpa got out of the car and unlocked and opened it. We drove though, now with 4 foot high walls of dirt and cactus on both sides of the driveway. We drove up the steep, bumpy, gravel road until we pulled to the side to see the water collection pool where they collect rain water for the trees when the dry season starves the trees of rain. The air was cool and clear. Cleaner than the smog filled Mexico City air. In the distance you could see the lines of trees down the side of the mountain. Further yet the mountains far off appeared in a blue hue unable to make out the curves of the hills, just a solid bluish gray. We hadn't realized that we would be harvesting the black avocados ourselves. They handed us white woven plastic bags to collect the ones that were 'almost ready to fall off the tree'. The ones I picked still had green on them but it was exciting! We walked up the hill down the straight rows of 6 foot trees. Our goal was a large oak at the top of the hill. Sally chose certain trees to climb up. They were so easy to climp. The long branches of long skinny leaves leaned down over the trunk, making a canape. She would walk through the branches into the magical room inside, then climb the few branches and peak her little blond head out of the top! We reached our destination with only 3 aguacates (avocados). We spent some family time, just the three of us sitting at the top of the hill over looking peaks and valleys of trees. I kept reminding Sally to put this in her memory so she could remember this feeling forever. It wasn't until almost back down to the driveway where are cars rested that I realized how very quiet it was there. So quiet. You could almost hear the mist coming down from the clouds. Sally and I laid down and realized the silence together. . . . . What a wonderful day. What an amazing place to experience. Then mountains, the clean air, the silence. When we reached the base of the hill, our chilly fingers tightening we smelled a fire. The Grandma had a small fire started, surrounded by rocks with a flat pizza pan resting atop. She had tortillas warming and taco meat ready to eat. The avocados weren't ready for eating yet, I wished I could have smeared some into a tortilla right there. We ate and then took off at dusk, back down through the hills to the town. Some stores were now open and we walked through a few. We bought some beautiful copper items and headed back to Morelia. So glad we've met this family to take us on adventures.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Holidays Mexican Style
Holidays are full of fun, family and food. Since we are in Mexico we are experiencing the fun, family and a whole new world of food. In the US the words that come to mind for food on the holidays for me are as follows.
Thanksgiving- Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie.
Thanksgiving-We were lucky enough to get to have Doug's parents here for the Thanksgiving holiday. We spent 2 days here in Mexico City and then went on an AeroMexico plane to Los Cabos. We spent 5 days in the beautiful sun (as it only rains an average of 4 days a year in Los Cabos) and in the water. We had a few pools at the all inclusive resort and we swam in all of them. The ocean on the East coast of the baja peninsula is 'swimmable' so they say. It has a rough rip current that is dangerous. The Pacific side on the West coast is deadly and there are warning signs to never swim. We attempted to swim in the roped off area for swimming and the current got the best of me and Doug, at the same time. We weren't watching a a wave sucked us right in from the beach. It pulled us under and spun us as if we were in a washing machine and filled our swimming apparel with sand. I was under there for what felt like minutes and when I had no breath left I reached the surface and could touch the bottom. I was sitting on the steep incline of a beach and looked up at my exhausted husband. His eyes were open wide and he was shaking his head. We were both completely confused at what just happened. My in-laws didn't even know we were in distress. That's how fast it happened. The rest of the time the ocean scared me. I respected it and kept my distance. We got tickets for a dinner cruise for Thanksgiving night. We had a huge buffet at the hotel that was serving Turkey and Mashed potatoes but we were excited about what the cruise had in store for us. When we arrived to the marina and waited in line to board the 2 floored boat. The crew came out in hip hop style dancing to their favorite song, then the captain came out and waved. We boarded and they handed us a drink from the choice of 3 colorful concoctions. We set sail and at sunset they served us tacos with chicken or beef steak, guacamole, salsa, cooked veggies and chips. It wasn't Turkey and potatoes but it was yummy.
Christmas we had my mom and dad here in Mexico City. We took a 2 hour bus to Puebla on Christmas Eve morning. We got to Puebla around lunch time then rode with our friend Luis and his dad in their car to Tehuacan after eating in a gorgeous courtyard of a yellow building with ornate white decals and trim. The sky was blue and made for nice pictures. We drove 2 more hours to Tehuacan for Christmas Eve dinner. We stayed in a beautiful old hotel that was decorated with Christmas lights and poinsettias. The warmth of the sun bathed the courtyard that both our rooms overlooked. At 7:30 Luis came to pick us up for dinner. We arrived at the house of his parents and the evening was warm and sunny. There was a rotating Christmas tree in the corner of the decorated dining room. All set for dinner. Our presents were placed under the tree with the others. We laughed and talked until almost 10 when we finally sat down for our dinner. The first course was a creamy white soup served with a white bread. I took the first spoonful and THEN decided to ask what was in the soup. Of course, hazelnut, of which I am allergic. They only make this special soup on Christmas of all holidays. So I started to freak out and missed the next course as I was carted off to find one of the only open pharmacies to buy some benadryl 'just in case'. When we got back dinner continued as planned. We had a buffet of meats and sides. Ham, Chicken, pork, fish. Delicious sweet potatoe-ish dish. Salad with a lime vinaigrette and then caramel jello and homemade ice cream for dessert. It was great, but after the hazelnut scare I just wasn't hungry and couldn't eat any of it. The next day (Christmas day) we ate left overs plus some new dishes for late lunch with more of the family there. It was again buffet style. For their family, and maybe other Mexicans, it is normal to have a big dinner on Christmas eve and then a buffet on Christmas day. They open gifts at midnight on Christmas eve, but since we were accustomed to opening on the eve or the next day they had us open our gifts before we ate. Our family in the US does the big dinner on Christmas Day. No pie or Christmas cookies, but still what an experience.
New Years Eve we were invited to another state bordering D.F. (Mexico City) called Michoacán. We rode an executive bus on a 4 hour trip to Morelia, a town where our friends' family live. We toured the historic downtown and I took a lot of pictures. (on facebook). Then on New Years Eve we went to a party at a salon. A salon is an empty house or party room that you can rent for parties. We enjoyed fresh guacamole from the avacado tree farm that our friend's dad owns. Best guac ever! Then we had a buffet at 10ish. There was beef. I mean like an entire cow. Tongue and all. BLUCK!! I did try it. did I like it? Not so much. The other dishes were candied ham with pineapple, Hot dog soup with white beans and bacon, Grilled veggies, seasoned noodles and shredded pork. All served with a hot side of corn tortillas. For desserts we had jello with fruit in it and Carmel pecan cheesecake! The cheesecake was to die for! As midnight came some of the neighbors in the town set of weak looking colorful fireworks, it entertained us though. We donned shiny hats with 2013 on them and some genius of a person gave noisemakers to the children. Oh joy! We took a bazillion family pictures and kissed just as many people at the stroke of midnight. I video taped all the kissing. I know so many Americans that would have been so uncomfortable at that moment. lol. We sat down around 1:00am to watch 2 of the cousins do a Magic Show. It was SO funny. I'm sure that it was funny because of how late it was, but nonetheless it was entertaining. We got home around 2:40 only because we hitched a ride with the couple who have a 5 month old and wanted to get to bet. The other 40 people stayed a lot longer, some until 5am. Yikes. We slept until noon the next day and had a yummy taco brunch with some of the leftovers from the night before. Then after lunch we took a mini trip up to the aguacate orchard... Stay tuned to hear what an aguacate is.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL
FROM THE KEILLORS IN
MEXICO
Thanksgiving- Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie.
Christmas- Ham or Turkey with sweet potatoes and green bean casserole and pie.
New Years Eve- Little Smokey's and left over Christmas cookies.
Allow me spell out for you our fun experiences here in Mexico over the holidays.
Thanksgiving-We were lucky enough to get to have Doug's parents here for the Thanksgiving holiday. We spent 2 days here in Mexico City and then went on an AeroMexico plane to Los Cabos. We spent 5 days in the beautiful sun (as it only rains an average of 4 days a year in Los Cabos) and in the water. We had a few pools at the all inclusive resort and we swam in all of them. The ocean on the East coast of the baja peninsula is 'swimmable' so they say. It has a rough rip current that is dangerous. The Pacific side on the West coast is deadly and there are warning signs to never swim. We attempted to swim in the roped off area for swimming and the current got the best of me and Doug, at the same time. We weren't watching a a wave sucked us right in from the beach. It pulled us under and spun us as if we were in a washing machine and filled our swimming apparel with sand. I was under there for what felt like minutes and when I had no breath left I reached the surface and could touch the bottom. I was sitting on the steep incline of a beach and looked up at my exhausted husband. His eyes were open wide and he was shaking his head. We were both completely confused at what just happened. My in-laws didn't even know we were in distress. That's how fast it happened. The rest of the time the ocean scared me. I respected it and kept my distance. We got tickets for a dinner cruise for Thanksgiving night. We had a huge buffet at the hotel that was serving Turkey and Mashed potatoes but we were excited about what the cruise had in store for us. When we arrived to the marina and waited in line to board the 2 floored boat. The crew came out in hip hop style dancing to their favorite song, then the captain came out and waved. We boarded and they handed us a drink from the choice of 3 colorful concoctions. We set sail and at sunset they served us tacos with chicken or beef steak, guacamole, salsa, cooked veggies and chips. It wasn't Turkey and potatoes but it was yummy.
Christmas we had my mom and dad here in Mexico City. We took a 2 hour bus to Puebla on Christmas Eve morning. We got to Puebla around lunch time then rode with our friend Luis and his dad in their car to Tehuacan after eating in a gorgeous courtyard of a yellow building with ornate white decals and trim. The sky was blue and made for nice pictures. We drove 2 more hours to Tehuacan for Christmas Eve dinner. We stayed in a beautiful old hotel that was decorated with Christmas lights and poinsettias. The warmth of the sun bathed the courtyard that both our rooms overlooked. At 7:30 Luis came to pick us up for dinner. We arrived at the house of his parents and the evening was warm and sunny. There was a rotating Christmas tree in the corner of the decorated dining room. All set for dinner. Our presents were placed under the tree with the others. We laughed and talked until almost 10 when we finally sat down for our dinner. The first course was a creamy white soup served with a white bread. I took the first spoonful and THEN decided to ask what was in the soup. Of course, hazelnut, of which I am allergic. They only make this special soup on Christmas of all holidays. So I started to freak out and missed the next course as I was carted off to find one of the only open pharmacies to buy some benadryl 'just in case'. When we got back dinner continued as planned. We had a buffet of meats and sides. Ham, Chicken, pork, fish. Delicious sweet potatoe-ish dish. Salad with a lime vinaigrette and then caramel jello and homemade ice cream for dessert. It was great, but after the hazelnut scare I just wasn't hungry and couldn't eat any of it. The next day (Christmas day) we ate left overs plus some new dishes for late lunch with more of the family there. It was again buffet style. For their family, and maybe other Mexicans, it is normal to have a big dinner on Christmas eve and then a buffet on Christmas day. They open gifts at midnight on Christmas eve, but since we were accustomed to opening on the eve or the next day they had us open our gifts before we ate. Our family in the US does the big dinner on Christmas Day. No pie or Christmas cookies, but still what an experience.
New Years Eve we were invited to another state bordering D.F. (Mexico City) called Michoacán. We rode an executive bus on a 4 hour trip to Morelia, a town where our friends' family live. We toured the historic downtown and I took a lot of pictures. (on facebook). Then on New Years Eve we went to a party at a salon. A salon is an empty house or party room that you can rent for parties. We enjoyed fresh guacamole from the avacado tree farm that our friend's dad owns. Best guac ever! Then we had a buffet at 10ish. There was beef. I mean like an entire cow. Tongue and all. BLUCK!! I did try it. did I like it? Not so much. The other dishes were candied ham with pineapple, Hot dog soup with white beans and bacon, Grilled veggies, seasoned noodles and shredded pork. All served with a hot side of corn tortillas. For desserts we had jello with fruit in it and Carmel pecan cheesecake! The cheesecake was to die for! As midnight came some of the neighbors in the town set of weak looking colorful fireworks, it entertained us though. We donned shiny hats with 2013 on them and some genius of a person gave noisemakers to the children. Oh joy! We took a bazillion family pictures and kissed just as many people at the stroke of midnight. I video taped all the kissing. I know so many Americans that would have been so uncomfortable at that moment. lol. We sat down around 1:00am to watch 2 of the cousins do a Magic Show. It was SO funny. I'm sure that it was funny because of how late it was, but nonetheless it was entertaining. We got home around 2:40 only because we hitched a ride with the couple who have a 5 month old and wanted to get to bet. The other 40 people stayed a lot longer, some until 5am. Yikes. We slept until noon the next day and had a yummy taco brunch with some of the leftovers from the night before. Then after lunch we took a mini trip up to the aguacate orchard... Stay tuned to hear what an aguacate is.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL
FROM THE KEILLORS IN
MEXICO
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