I'm BACK in business (the mom business that is!)

AWESOME...

TIRED...

RENEWED...

EXCITED...

LAUGHTER...

ADVENTURES...

AMAZING!

Those are some of the words that describe the missions trip to Mexico! Now I am home and back to business...but let me tell you I missed my family, but enjoyed the time I didn't have to clothe, bathe, feed or put kids down to sleep! It was a much needed time!

Here are some of the pictures that I took from the trip...what an experience it was to be down there! Beware this is like the longest I have ever done...sorry it is so long!  

There were 8 of us younger women that met up with the Chica (5 kids) and Bain (2 daughters) family who went down a week before us.  Only 6 of us came back as Beth and Sam stayed for an extra week with the Bain's and Chica's to sight see and do a few other things.  

The day we left, this is in Houston at the airport, I found out my cousin Bethany and her b/f were there waiting to head to Oregon, they are from Tennessee!  Crazy that I saw her there!  Fun though that we got to!  And I got to meet her boyfriend!

A few of the girlies asleep on the plane!

Kimmie Bain and Anna Chica...it was fun to have some of the younger kids on the trip...Zach was the youngest 9 yrs...it helped to have their families there because I wasn't so homesick! :) 

oh and the mask that Anna has on is one of the ones I bought for Dan and the boys!  :) Which the boys enjoy, I must say!

Noah Chica in his Nacho Libre cap and mask!!  It was hilarious ! 
These past couple pics and these ahead are taken on Saturday when we went to some town an 1 1/2 hour away and got to go on an 2 hour excursion on a wooden boat!  It was a nice day!  

Kayla Bain and Anna Chica, eating corn on a stick

Sophie and Amanda enjoying their corn on a stick also..

These are all the boats lined up waiting for people to go out on them.  

Corn vender...they would row up in their small wooden bought and sell corn...some of the people on our boat bought some to eat...they could buy grilled and then put chili powder on it...or mayo, salt and parmesan...looked not so yummy!  I did try a bite though!

The guys behind were playing music...there were a lot of boats floating around with musicians selling theiri music to entertain. Even though you could hear them without paying them! :)

 (l-r) Sam, Kristin, me and Brittnay)

The guy who rowed the boat we were on.

Heading to Texcoco, that is the town we stayed in.

All 20 of us were in a van together...who needs seatbelts?  You don't have to wear them there only in the front seat.  So needless to say we were holding each other in!  Those people down there drive crazy!  But Antono was an aWESOME driver and he went and drove with us everywhere!  WE almost crashed a handful of times!  :)  I got a lil nervous, only a few times! HA!

Sunday we had church at the place we were all staying at, so Roland and Joann and the Nevin's who are missionaries down there, they brought their church people to us and we had a service and then a bbq....went on til 5 p.m. and started around 10 .m. but we had a blast bbqing, playing vball for a few hours, and just visiting!  We were exhausted!  Also, it rains almost everyday in Mexico...it's beautiful in the morning and then around 4 or 5 p.m. the wind blows and it rains for 1/2 hour to 1hour.  Then it is nice again!  but we had the 80's everyday!  It was great!

Noah Chica bbqing!

Carl Chica preaching.  I know he was teaching out of John, other than that, I didn't know what he talked about! :)

One of the buildings where the Bains, and Chica's stayed, and also where the kitchen and where we ate at. 

NOah and Kimmie letting someone in the gate...we had a gated area where we were staying, so it was safe!  It was beautiful on the inside...although the outside it was graffitied on, but everything is like that in Mexico...

This is where us girls stayed...one of the windows got broke on Sunday from soccer being played and a sink was also broken, because it wasn't on the wall very well...fun times! At least it is stinkinn' cheap to fix things down there!

Monday we went to Heroes to do a VBS, it was a new place, and it was at a park...no bathrooms really near by...fun...we had a handful of kids the first day and by the end of the week there were a lot more...the parents have a hard time letting kids go out because of the drug/gang problem there!  

Roland and Joann- missionaries that we worked with!  They are super sweet and so much fun to get to know!

(l-r) Ashely, Sam, Kristin, Beth and myself.

We ate out a few differ times...and it is also super cheap to eat out...this is like an open garage doors to a restaurant...but it was super good!  

All the different salsas, limes and pineapples...used to top our tacos.  Brittnay, Amanda and Kendra Chica.

Sorry it's sideways...but this is the pork that some of us had on our tacos...I'm sure there were a few flies on it...but none of us got sick from this food.  Btw, I never got sick, sick...I'm so thankful, but most of the girls had their moments!

Tuesday after VBS we went to the pyramids and this is actually after; me, Kendra and Caley having some refreshment after the long walk in the sun!

This is some of the smaller pyramids...but it was a gorgeous day and not much smog at all!  There weren't many clear days like this!

Carl and his "friend" in the museum!  I guess last year they said this statue looked like him! So of course I had to get a pic.

From up top of the Sun Pyramid...

The group of us that hiked up it...there were a lot of stairs...not sure how many though.  People from around the world come to see these pyramids and "worship" the sun while they are here...weird...but we did see one guy doing it. 

A look from below...it was HUGE!

AFter VBS one day, Kendra was super tired and Anna (her lil sis) yelled loudly in her ear and Kendra was a lil irritated!  BUt I thought it was a fun pic! :)  I was actually trying to just take one of Kendra and Caley sleeping, but Anna did it right when I took the pic!  :)

Carl, Mark and Noah all played bball and soccer with the teens...took thema while to come over to play though!

Kayla Bain...such a sweetie!  And she has beautiful baby blues! :)

This is at an indoor market, all the zapatos - shoe stores look like this...swamped with shoes everywhere..every girls dream! :)

Sophie and Laura (her mom) Chica!  Aren't they cute! 

Laura Chica, Karen Bain, and myself...

WE took a "combi" - double slug bug van and taxi to and from dinner one night...there were all 20 of us in it!  So safe!  :)  (l-r) Noah (in red shirt), Mark (but you can't really see his face), Kimmie, Sam, Kayla and Ashley.

Sohpie Chica and myself.  

Me, Caley and Kendra being silly..in the combi taxi

Karen, Beth and Kristin

 

More VBS kids...

Playing a Mexican game that the kids know down there that one of the mom's taught us
Singing or something...

An adorable little boy named Cesar.

Amanda being crazy...she was acting like  a monkey!  She is a goof, but always can make you laugh! This was like 1 a.m. when we were playing cards on the last night!

This is on the last day of VBS...they were all so sad that we were leaving!  We had kids accept Christ and planted seeds in other lives!  I got to know some of the parents that came...a little difficult with the language barrier, but other than that we could show them love and try to speak a little bit! 

Caley with a little boy named Luis...him and his sister were so cute!  They came everyday!  

Card games and more card games...it twas so fun playing games, we usually did this every evening, sometimes til 1:30 a.m...some of us were a lil crazy about staying up late...but it was well worth it and so fun!  Right side of table...Karen and then Sam (front); Left side, (back to front) Brittnay, Kristin, and Sophia! Behind Karen you see all those encouragement cards on the wall!  Those are all we wrote to each other, the wall was filled up!  So cool to be able to encourage each other!

Noah Chica being like some of the Mexicans with slicked back hair!  He is a funny guy!  

Beth, Kristina and me, right before we left to head to the airport.  We were sad to be leaving...the trip went by way to fast!

Caley and myself...at the Mexico Airport...waiting, and waiting... so some of you might not know what happened...we arrived at the Mexico Airport on Sat. August 1st and were expecting to get our flight at 5:25 p.m., found out it was delayed and got on a while later but were then told that we would miss our connecting flight from Houston to Portland!  Especially since we would only have a 1 hour layover in Houston, not enough time to even get through customs, get our luggage and re check in.  So when we arrived to Houston, we tried to make our flight, but when we got down to baggage they already had our new tickets and a voucher to stay in  a hotel!  They are prepared!  So we got to stay in a very nice Hilton Hotel that was GORGEOUS!  By the time we got there it was almost 10 p.m. so we got our rooms, we all got our own beds, two to a room, and they were wonderful!  We ate dinner on them and it felt so good to drink, ice cold water and not have to worry about getting sick...oh and flushing the toilet paper down...we really take those things for granted when we can do it daily!  :0) I almost felt bad flushing it down and then remembered, oh yah, we are in the states again!

So the next morning after 3 hours of sleep, we got on our shuttle at 5 a.m. and it was 90 degrees and like 100% humidity in TX-  AWFUL!  I felt like I just stepped into a sauna!  WE get to the airport and check in only to find out that we were put on standby and would only get onto the flight if there was room...it was not even 8 a.m. and the flight would be leaving at 8:30 I think.  So we waited, no big deal!  Until...the plane boarded and there was NO room in the inn...haha!  BUMMER!  SO guess what?  Our next flight was at 8:59 P.M.!  That's right...P.M.!  12 hours of waiting in the airport...when we could have slept in at the hotel, gone swimming and relaxed!  No hard feelings whatsoever!  :)  We were bummed needless to say!  

And another CAley moment...

I tried to catch a picture in the air of Caley flying on to her bed...but my camera wasn't fast enough.  

Caley being silly again...seems to be a recurring event! :)

Workin out at 11:30 p.m.  well we didn't last long, we were just checking out the beautiful hotel that Continental Airlines put us in for the night!  

Caley and myself at the airport waiting...and waiting...don't we look so tired! Caley is being a lil overdramatic in the picture! But really this is how we felt after we found out we didn't get on the first flight to Portland! BLAH!

So here's what we did...after finding out our flight wouldn't be leaving for another 12 hours...we found a couple police officers in the airport and they helped us find transportation to a mall, so we arrived at a mall, get out of the taxi and a mall cop dude saw us and was like what is going on, since some of the girls had pillows with them, come to find out the mall doesn't open til NOON...did I mention that it was only 10 :15 a.m.?  Are you kidding me?  We were thinking!  But he said we could still go in because the movies opened at 10.  Unfortunately there was nothing we really wanted to see, so we hung out in the food court area and relaxed til the mall opened up and then got pedicures done, did a little shopping, ate and then got a cab back to the airport around 4 p.m.  

Ah...much needed pedis...the after picture.

This is what we needed...

First time pedicures for three of the girls.  I think they enjoyed it! :)  It was well worth it!  

Almost home...but not quite yet!  Us at Deerbrook Mall in Houston, TX.  

So the story ends that we had a wonderful time serving, sighseeing, exhausting time...but so good and God protected us and gave us the strength to get through this trip!  And it was AMAZING to walk out into Portland smell fresh air!  Oh, boy did we miss that!  There are so many stories to share and not enough time to do so...but what memories do I have now!  If you want to read some of the stories there is a side link that says, "Salem Heights TExcoco Mission trip"  
SO  A HUGE thanks to you that helped financially, that prayed and encouraged my husband and kids while I was gone!  What a great time to go serve our Heavenly Father!  And my amazing hubby who allowed me to go on this trip!  I love you babe!