me gusta mexico mucho

i have returned from a great week in the land of sombreros...complete with guacamole, churros and an infinite number of trips to the super chico for be-light.

we did quite a bit of manual labor at the orphanage...the main projects were:

• painting, moving and installing a playground for the kids [which involved, among other things, lots of hole digging and the risk of being impaled by rebar]
• cleaning up the property, removing thorny brush and shoveling rock
• putting the finishing touches on the new bedrooms and bathrooms for the kids [resulting in "the incident" - daryl and i accidentally getting high on some serious paint fumes...now that's what i call a memory]

we accomplished much more than we thought would be possible in one short week, but the highlight was most definitely the kids. they are fun, loving and pretty hilarious...listening to them laugh is one of my favorite things.

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to mexico i go

a week from today i'll be heading back to the 'house of joy' orphanage in san pedro mexico. i was there last october, just two weeks after they officially opened their doors. on that trip our team of five helped make their new house a home by painting the interior and having fun playing with the seven kids who lived there. we also heard some sweet stories about our new friends ruby and lizeth, and spent a lot of time cracking up at little aneth's laugh.

our team has grown to nine and it sounds like the orphanage has grown to seventeen! the plan this time is to install ceiling fans in the interior, build a playground outside and create a fire-pit with a seating area on the property. we're excited to see how the building has progressed in the six months since we've seen it, but we're even more excited to see our friends again! [one can only hope that our serenading drunk friend will pay us another visit]

after our last trip, heidi [our fearless leader] made a 2010 calendar with pictures from our visit and sent it to the kids. our april trip was already marked and terry [the missionary] tells us the kids are counting down the days! here they are looking at the photos and anticipating our arrival...

although, if i'm honest, i do have to say that one of the driving forces behind my desire to go on this trip has to do with the guys that sell fried dough out of their pickup trucks...it's mmm mmm good.

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spring break: part deux

kim's spring break was this week so i made the sacrifice and went on a second spring break trip, because that's what friends do. if anyone else needs me to be their friend, i'm available.

we flew to kim's favorite place [aka las vegas] to visit the dyers and gamble away our life savings [kidding!]. we took mallory to the golden nugget for a girls night and spend the rest of our days hanging out, playing with maddie, and shopping [i watched]. then at night we headed out on the town. thanks for letting us visit you dyer family...it was fab!

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