Finally got a shot on the sly of Dave with his new facial hair. Well, half of it.

This weekend's highlights:

Friday, Dave and I saw our first movie in Mexico. The movie theater plays a couple of movies a week in English with Spanish subtitles, so we saw Hancock. I liked it alot. It only cost about $4 per person and a big thing of popcorn was about $3. Laura watched our kids for us. I've been about 4 weeks straight with no break from the kids so it was a welcome couple of hours.

Saturday, we went to a party at the Lakeside Society. They were earning money for the art program they do. They had a clown for the kids and sold food from various restaurants in the area. The kids had hoped to sell some art they made at the art classes but we couldn't find it. Then we were invited to a birthday party for a kid turning six in our development, Diego. They swam in the pool, had a magician, 4 pinatas, and a huge cake. Birthday parties are apparently a huge deal here. They usually invite everyone's whole family, spend oodles of money, and it lasts hours. This one, the swimming started at about 2pm and though we left at about 8pm, we could see people still out til 10 or so. We had planned on going into Guadalajara for the day, but then remembered the birthday, so maybe next week.

Sunday was our third Sunday at church. The kids really like primary, it's so much smaller I think they feel more important. I got asked to be a teacher in the womens' organization. I'll teach once a month in English, of course. Dave got asked to set up the chairs and organize the sacrament every week, so we'll be arriving early every week. Apparently, this congregation has a bit of trouble, because they have to mix English and Spanish. It's very hard for the the nationalities to mix. While many of the Americans know some Spanish and the Mexicans know some English, it's not enough to truly integrate the congregation. It gets hard to concentrate in the main meeting, because all the speakers have to be translated. It kind of breaks the momentum of a talk. I have to admit that even though I've really never liked speaking in church, it will be doubling daunting here. I hope they ask Dave first.

After church, we took a drive around the lake. We saw a couple of villages and tried to impress upon the kids how poor they are and how lucky we are. I'm not sure they got it. Kids don't see a dirt backyard and hanging laundry and think poverty, they think mudpies and forts. I hope it sinks in somehow while we're here.

For dinner we cooked out with some nieghbors; Diego's parents, Fausto and Madeline and some Americans, Dion and Po. It was nice. We had to explain the whole no beer and coffee thing which is always fun. I bought some steaks for it on Saturday at a local butcher's. I explained in my broken Spanish that I wanted 6 steaks, but he gave me 5. And then later I realized he gave me back about $10 too little change. The steaks we pretty tough and we learned that almost all of the meat here has to be marinated for about 24 hours to be chewable. Everyone was polite and ate some anyway. Live and learn.

Monday: The kids found an abandoned kitty and played with it most of the day. Dave and I don't like pets, but it was nice to have the kids occupied. We'll probably take it to a shelter tomorrow.

Just another day (or two) in paradise


Yesterday, we took the kids horseback riding in Ajijic with Joce and her mother, Laura. Laura had been such a great help to us since we've been here. She's our rental agent, the Primary President at church, and had helped us get settled with school, shopping, etc. The kids went riding for about 15 minutes but that was enough for my inexperienced kids. Cost 140 pesos, about $14 for all 4.















Today, went into the Ajijic outdoor market, tianguis, for some chicken and shrimp. Laura was there to help me, but I bought the chicken and shrimp all on my own. Luckily for me, the stall workers understand broken Spanish. Then it was a quiet day at home. While Charlie had a siesta, we went swimming. Then the kids set up a tent, borrowed from Joce, in the spare room while Amelia and I made apple cake.

Here are a few pictures we took yesterday.

My kids and Joce in the car on the way to the park.














These are little bugs that come in everytime we open a door. They are called bobos.














This is the pool we use everyday in front of all the construction workers.
I'm a little offended there have been no cat-calls.














The kids at the Saturday art lesson (more like freeforall) at the Lake Chapala Society.















This is a car we saw on a drive, 12 Mexicans stuffed into a Suburban.














Lastly, our cute little Charlie. Just thought it was a good picture that Dave took.














Still working on a picture of Dave with facial hair.