Guanajuato

The week before Christmas, Laura and I traveled for a few days to Leon (where we spent a week this summer for mission meeting) and Guanajuato. We had a great time shopping, sightseeing, and hanging out with another missionary family, the Brungardts.

After shopping at the leather market (sorry, no pictures) we stopped at HEB. For those of you not familiar with HEB, it is a grocery store that is very popular in Texas. We were so excited to find many of the American things we can't find here and for GREAT prices. Seriously, you have no idea the level of excitement. :) We also enjoyed the fun shopping carts. Rachel especially enjoyed getting to "drive" around the store.


Guanjuato was a beautiful city. It is an old mining town and built into the sides of the mountains. All of the buildings are really close together and so cute!
We loved all the outdoor cafes!Isn't it pretty?

I think we could have spent weeks wandering around the streets...

There are also all of these tunnels to drive through. It's definitely a unique city. Very different from any other I've visited here.
Their market is so much smaller than the one here in Guadalajara!

Merry Christmas!

Can you guess who at least one of these elves is? Journeymen, you should be rather familiar with them both! ;)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1580969101

more izzy

just a few more pictures of crazy izzy!

Last night, the students at the middle school where I help with English classes performed a few Christmas carols that I had been teaching them. They were so excited, and did a great job! They also really enjoyed the cookies I baked for them. They were pretty impressed that I had baked them myself (most people here just don't bake. in fact, it's much more common that an oven is used for storage than anything else here!). One girl said, "homemade cookies are kind of like a window to what it means to be American, right?" haha. Merry Christmas!

Only in Mexico?!?

This van has been parked on our street for quite sometime now (over a month):



It says: Psyco-therapy on wheels. Apparently you can have your session in the back of a van. Haha. Gotta love it!

Science Museum

The Woods, a missionary family from another state here in Mexico is in town this week, so yesterday Missy (Wood) and I loaded up her three kids and the Haynes three kids for a field trip to the children's science museum here in town. I had never been, but it was great! Not to mention we had the whole place to ourselves!

Crazy Izzy

My dog finds the craziest sleeping positions and seems to get comfortable just about anywhere she can! Notice how she likes to have her head up on anything she can use as a pillow. Can we say princess?!?

UT vs. LSU game

On Saturday, David and Becky invited us over to watch the UT/LSU game. Knowing that I'm not the biggest football fan, Laura asked David if I was invited too. He replied that of course I was invited, but I had to show up barefoot and with a tooth blacked out to show my enthusiasm for the Vols. So, Laura and I both showed up barefoot, with freckles drawn on our faces, wearing pigtails and bearing some pretty cute UT football cookies! The Vols may have lost, but they played a pretty good game and we had a great time!

Laura's Birthday: Part 3

On Laura's actual birthday, we had another party at the CEB. Not only did we have a couple more pinatas, we had a "bonfire" (basically we burned whatever wood we could find in a grill. haha. talk about an urban bonfire!) but had to go across the street to the park to get sticks to roast our marshmallows, funfetti cake with funfetti icing! and a "mordida." I got to be the one to mordida Laura (push her face into her cake!), but she got revenge and attacked me with some of the icing. haha.

Laura's Birthday: Part 2

A few days before Laura's birthday we went over to David and Becky's house for dinner to celebrate. Becky "accidentally" put trick candles on her cake and we all got a great laugh out of that one! We also got a picture of the Haynes in front of their tree.

Laura's Birthday: Part #1

A couple weekends ago we began the celebration of Laura's birthday with a party at the CEB (student center) for her and about 7 other people with November birthdays. We had a "carne asada" (cookout), pinata (of course!) and cake. We also played some silly games and had an inflatable moon bounce thingy. Haha!

izzy, izzy

i seriously have the sweetest dog. she might be a bit mischevious, but how can you stay mad at a face that cute? and yes, she is spoiled rotten!

thanksgiving #2

on thanksgiving day, we got together with other missionaries in the city. there was somewhere over 65 people there, and we had a great time and enjoyed some great food! here are just a few pictures:

laura and i before we ate

missionaries LOVE american food!

etel and i. i just love her!

one of my favorite MKs. she's so much fun and it was great to see her, even if just for the day!