Hola!!!

(If you have not read my posts about Come Before Winter: Fiji, please do so. Here is Part 1 and Part 2.)

After returning from Fiji, I had two and a half weeks to prepare for our trip to Mexico. On July 21 at 6:30am, David, Samuel, Jeremiah, my Mom (Marilyn) and I piled into our van and headed south. We arrived at our first stop, Matehuala, at 9pm. It was a long day, complete with returning home after 45 min. to get the correct car title (yes, I had gotten the wrong one), crossing the border (which wasn't too bad - we had the boys scooters and they were quite happy to get out of the car at that point), getting lost in Nuevo Laredo (don't get me started talking about NL), driving through heavy rain as we twisted through mountainous terrain, traffic jams (sitting for an hour without hardly moving) and not being able to find our hotel. We finally just stopped somewhere, got a room and went to bed. We were exhausted.Jeremiah watching his new video in the car (The Laurie Berkner Band -- highly recommended!)

In case you're ever wondering, Matehuala does not have a McDonalds, so don't bank on a breakfast that you know. We ended up going to the bakery section of Wal-Mart (Walmart, but no McDonald's -- what has our world come to?) to get muffins for breakfast.

We met Sara in Queretero at about 2pm (a 3 hour trip turned into a 5 hour trip -- the story of our week). We tried to treat her to Chili's for lunch, but that required parking in a parking garage, which we couldn't do because we had a cartop carrier on the van (good thing David remembered that before we tried to go inside). So we ended up at McDonald's. Ironic, isn't it? Actually, it was the best McDonald's I've been to (and I've been to a lot of McDonald's) -- the playground was spectacular. The boys were in heaven. We then followed Sara to Morelia, thanks to Chema's secret back way. Explain this to me: how do you see a sign that says "Morelia: 64 km" and then 1 km later see the next sign that says "Morelia: 74 km" and a few km later, see one that says "Morelia: 76 km". After 20+ hours in the car, that is not very reassuring. But we made it and we were glad to be at Sara & Summer's beautiful new house.

So the trip was exhausting, but the boys did great. And we couldn't have done it without Mom! Thank you Mom!!! And then Sara introduced us to "Super Tacos" from a taco stand down the street. Oh my goodness, they were soooooooo good!! It made up for the trip. :) (that and being with Sara, of course.)

Here's a shameless plug for my sister and her team: Visit Team Mexico's blog. It's so exciting what the Lord is doing through this small team in Morelia.

Sunday morning we went to church with them. How fun it was to see Sara on the praise team singing in Spanish. It continues to amaze me how fluent my baby sister is in another language. It's crazy really!! We went out to eat with the rest of the team for lunch and then home for some lounging around.

Sandy, Sara & Aldo leading praise at the Rio de Vida Church in Morelia.

Chema & Jeremiah at church (if you want to know who Chema is, email Sara) :)

Monday morning we woke up and drove to the beach (yes, we drove some more). Three hours this time. We stayed with some friends of Sara's, Malcolm & Tammy Pointon and their son Jordan.

Jordan, Tammy & Malcolm Pointon

Malcolm is Kiwi. Turns out they know several of the women I spent time with in Fiji from New Zealand -- small world!! Malcolm is a surfer so he let Samuel borrow some Boogie Boards for our trip to the beach. What pure, unadulterated joy!
Monday night we ate tacos with the Pointons and then Tues. we went back to the beach. Here are some pics:




Wednesday morning we hung around the Pointons house and then left at lunch time to head back to Morelia. The drive from Lazaro Cardenas to Morelia is probably the most beautiful drive I've ever seen. It was really spectacular!

Wednesday was also Sara's birthday. So we went to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant with Sara & Summer. It was sooo yummy!!! After dinner, Sara opened presents. Happy Birthday Sara!!

Thursday we picked up Victoria & Sophie (the oldest daughters of Sam & Ann Gonzalez -- Sara's teammates) and went to the zoo. Morelia has a fantastic zoo. It's beautiful and well kept. The animals are closer than at the FW zoo (my only comparison) and there's a really neat playground which the kids love.

Jeremiah, Victoria, Samuel & Sophie at the Morelia zoo.

After the zoo, we had lunch at the Gonzo's. I have video of Jeremiah and Sam G. playing guitar together that is priceless. I will try to upload it -- we'll see how that goes.

After the boys went to bed, Sara & I went to get Super Tacos for dinner. :)

Friday, Samuel went to Victoria's to play while the rest of us went downtown shopping. Sara realized that she had never taken David & I to some of the artisan markets downtown. So we did that. We also ate lunch there. It was fun to be downtown--such a beautiful place! And good shopping too!

Jeremiah & Aunt Sara enjoying a snack near the Artisan Market.

We picked up Samuel and went back to Sara's to begin the process of packing. :(

We left Sat. morning at 6am -- made it to Nuevo Laredo by 6:30pm -- record time. However, we did not leave Nuevo Laredo until 11:30pm. Again, don't get me started about NL. David insisted on driving home, "We're not going to stop now. We're only 5 hours from home." So he drove for 2 hours and I drove the rest of the way (because David got the stomach flu). We got home at 4:30am.

All in all, the trip was a blast! I'm not sure we'll do the driving thing again anytime soon, but I'm glad we did it. Now we know! Although David has figured out a lot of ways to make the cost of flying more economical than driving (he even included depreciation on the car -- now that's a new one).

I've said it before on this blog, but it bears repeating: I have the greatest sister in the world. I am so proud of her, her adventurous spirit, how level-headed she is, how much she loves the Mexican people, what a great aunt she is. I could go on and on -- but suffice it to say, I love you Sara!