Pachuca here we come!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCH!

THOUGHT:  "TO SERVE YOU ONLY NEED A HEART FULL OF GRACE AND A SOUL                 
                              GENERATED BY LOVE."     MLK

Monday, Feb 15th  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCH!!!

We wish our son in law a very happy birthday today!  There is a big storm in North Carolina  right now so we hope he gets to do something fun.  Hopefully they won't get stuck in their apartment all day.  Spencer is there visiting and Beka's school got cancelled today because of the storm.
I had a great day serving Sister Whitehead.  She is my mission presidents wife.  She is going home to the states on Thursday to get a total hip replacement next Monday.  She wanted to make cookies for her missionaries before she left so the President can have those at the zone conferences he will have while she is gone.  I think we make 150 sugar cookies and 275 chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies.
It took us about 4 hours.  We were both tired but we felt successful in getting a big job done.  Her kitchen was wonderful to be in with big windows and lots of counter space.  I felt like I was on vacation.  We got President and Greg and went to lunch at PF Changs to celebrate our job well done!
We got home around 5 pm and I had to lay down for a minute to rest my back.  FHE started at 6:30.  We had a lesson by the Hackings on the city - Parangaricutirimicuaro - and how it came to pass.  There was a couple from the town out in their corn field when the earth started to shake and spew out smoke and rocks. Within one week there was a 1,000 ft tall volcano in the middle of their corn field.  It continued to spew out gases, rocks and lava for 9 years and then went dormant.  Weird.  It is the newest volcano in the Western Hemisphere.  This happened in 1943.  Great story and pics.  Mexico is still a wild place to be!

At PF Changs with the Whiteheads!

This is some of the cookies we made today!

Tuesday, Feb 16th

Today was a very nice day.  We feel so lucky today because we got to go to a devotional this morning with Elder Oaks and Elder Clayton.  It was just the church employees and some of the missionary couples.  It was up close and personal.  Elder Clayton spoke about the family proclamation and Elder Oaks talked about the area plan of conversion and baptism.  It was awesome to be only 5 feet away from them and feel their spirit.  Elder Oaks appears young and energetic at 82.  We even got to shake his hand after the meeting.  This is one of the perks of being a missionary!  Good times!!  We had to leave right after greeting them because we were 1/2 hour late getting up to the Pachuca mission for a zone conference.  We drove up there as quickly as possible and made it in perfect time.  President Egbert was planning on us being late so it all worked out.  Greg did his schpeel and we had a nice visit with lots of the missionaries.  We found out when we got there that Sister Egbert had fallen in the Sams Club parking lot two weeks ago and broke her leg.  She had a nice pretty blue cast on and was scooting around on an office chair she had bought.  It was lots easier to do that than walk around with the crutches.  She is a nurse so this is a good experience for her.  Poor girl.  After the long zone conference we drove back to the city of Pachuca and went to a Dennys like place called Madero's for lunch.  We had soup and a sandwich.  We got to their wonderful mission home around 5 pm.  They live on a golf course and their house is made of windows and wonderful views.  I am very sensitive about windows and sunshine and such since my window isn't all that great in our place.  At least we have a window!!!  We spent the rest of the evening at the house.  Pres. & Sister Egbert had to go to the mission office to do some stuff with some missionaries so we hung out at the mission home!  It is weird how so many of the mission homes are freezing even when the weather is nice and mild outside.  They must be so insulated.  We had two heaters on just to get the upstairs warmed up a bit!
We will have a great sleep in the nice big bed though!!!  Sweet dreams!!

Elder Oaks at our devotional!

Someone started this huge stinky fire next to the church
where we were doing the zone conference!

Zone conference for Pachuca mission

Zone conference

President & Sister Egberts mission home

Wednesday, Feb 17th

We were up early and going to the zone conference that was here in town.  We got there, set everything up and when all the missionaries got there we had zone pictures taken.  Sister Egbert had all the sisters dress in pastel tops and black skirts.  I didn't get the memo so I had a blue skirt on so I probably stick out like a sore thumb.  Dang!  We did the zone conference and Greg & I actually left early because I was freezing in the church as well.  We drove over to the mall here in Pachuca and I bought me two pastel shirts that I can wear tomorrow to get pics taken in.  We went back to the mission home to wait for the Egberts to get done.  They arrived about 3:30.  We jumped in the car and drove to Italiannis for lunch/dinner.  Poor Sister Egbert had to walk in with her crutches.  I was commenting on how we should have gone some place easier for her to get to - to eat!  She laughed and said she did very well getting around anywhere she wanted to go!  We had a nice lunch/dinner and a nice visit!  We finished and left the restaurant and got in the car and drove home.  We all went in the house and Sister Egbert headed for the bathroom.  Pretty soon she called Pres. Egbert to come in the bathroom to help her.  She was lying on the floor and she didn't feel very well.  Pres. got her up and was walking her over to the stairs to go up to their room.  She wanted to lie down because she was short of breath.  I took one look at her and knew something was terribly wrong.  We only got her half way up to her room.  She had to lie down on the stairs because she couldn't breathe.  She had lost all the color in her face and was confused.  We finally got her up to her room where we got her changed into some comfy clothes and the guys gave her a blessing.  We whisked her off to the ER.  Earlier in the day she had told me how her broken leg had hurt her so much for two weeks until yesterday.  It finally quit hurting and felt so much better.  We quickly figured out that she had had a blood clot in her broken leg that had now moved to her lungs!  We got her to the ER where they found a huge clot in her lungs.  SCAREY!  If we hadn't been there she would have gone upstairs to bed and who knows what would have happened.  Tonight she is in Intensive Care with oxygen and IV's and a heart monitor.  Poor President Egbert can't even be with her.  The rules of Intensive Care is that one person can visit between noon and one, and 5-6 pm.  That's all!  This day has turned out terrible but we are so happy we got her to the hospital in time for care.  The hospital she is in is very small and quite old.  We are praying she does OK tonight!

Had to make a stop at the mall for a pastel shirt for mission pics!

Us sitting at the hospital in Pachuca waiting to hear
how Sister Egbert is doing with her blood clot in her lung!!
We had to practically drag her to the hospital!!

Here she is - headed to Intensive Care
with a huge blood clot in her lung!!

Thursday, Feb 18th

We didn't get to hear how Sister Egbert was until about noon today.  I guess she had a bad night where her blood pressure dropped really low and her heart rate stayed really high.  I guess she passed a very large clot!  She is lucky to be alive.  President Egbert didn't know what else to do so we got up early and left by 7:15 to drive an hour to a little town to do the final zone conference with us.  We met at the church, did the picture thing and Greg did his schpeel.  We said goodbye to President and left to drive home since we couldn't get in to see Sister Egbert there wasn't any reason to hang around there. We drove to a nearby town to look for a hospital for Pres. Titensor since we were now in his mission. We found one little clinic that would help see the missionaries if they were sick but it was not a hospital.  After getting very lost a few times we finally found this really nice hospital where we feel good about sending the missionaries to if they were very sick.  Success!!!  We did have two altercations on our way to Tule where we were searching for the hospital.  First off we were driving in a small town and we ended up going down a one way street the wrong way - WHICH PEOPLE DO ALL THE TIME IN THIS COUNTRY!! We got to the street where we could turn - which we did and off we went down the road.  Guess who showed up behind me ! YIKES a motorcycle cop was pulling me over.  This is a first for me!  I am an angel driver😇  I pulled over and Greg had to talk to the officer.  He turned out to be very nice and only told us to pay better attention.  WHEW!  No harm, no foul!  The cops are never nice down here.  They always want a bribe when they pull you over.  Then we were driving along a few minutes later and we got stuck behind a big bus.  He was in the right lane and the left lane had cleared out so I pulled over into the left lane and started driving.  There were people on the side of the road yelling something, but I had no idea what they were saying.  I just kept going right across the railroad tracks.  As soon as I got onto the tracks I looked to my left and saw a train coming.  It wasn't very far away and it scared me!  I gassed it and made it safe and sound across the tracks!  The train honked at me and off we went!  It has been quite the time the past few days.  We made it home finally and are glad to be here!  We had a quiet evening almost!  We bought a treadmill from the Toblers and I am up to 3 1/3 miles on it so that is what I spent my time doing tonight.  Greg did his usual computer and phone stuff!  Good night!!

Following President Egbert to the zone conference this morning!
We weren't sure that bus would make the turn up there!

Driving down the streets in Tapatepec

The church in this town!

The LDS Church in this town!  Very nice!

A lady going for a walk in her bathrobe!

Following this truck with the wheelchair in the back
3 guys sitting in the cab of the truck!
Someone is very nice to take the handicapped guy around!

They are having a HAY DAY!
Hay harvesting time!!

Roadside restaurant!!

This is what lost looks like!!

This cute dog sleeping in the street until I woke him up
to take his pic!

This is also what lost looks like!

And this!!

This cute lady had a pretty lacey skirt under her skirt!!

A home sitting in the dust and dirt!!

Ferocious dog barking on his roof!
Actually he is mostly crying to get down
to play with the kids that are walking
down the street!!

And I think this is the 4th lost pic.
We are suppose to be on a nice paved road, not this dirt road!

We are suppose to be out there somewhere
but we can't find the right road to get there!

We finally found the right road!!!

YEAH!  We found this terrific hospital we have been
looking for - for one hour!!!

This town is famous for the huge cement plant

This truck is loaded with who knows what!
I love a good lean!!

Friday, Feb 19th

This mission keeps ticking along.  We got up, got ready and headed over to the temple clinic.  Greg went to the clinic and I did a session at the temple.  The session was small and all went very well.  We went to the yarn store over there by the temple to pick up some yarn for Sister Pratt and then we drove home.  The traffic was bad and it took us over an hour to get home.  My nerves were shot and I need to spend some down time when my nerves are shot!  I am almost finished with my 8th afghan so I worked on it for awhile.  I even took a teeny, tiny nap!  The Andersons came down and we had plans to go to Cheesecake Factory for our Valentines dinner.  We never got to go last weekend because Greg was gone and the Andersons were home sick.  We had a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake.  It wasn't even crowded for a Friday night!  We came back home and watched a little old mystery show on Netflix with the Andersons.   We are starting to figure out what is left that we want to do before we go home!  There isn't much for us but we are trying to help the Andersons and the Sandbergs do some things they want to do!  It has been so nice for us to have a car and be able to go and do when we want!  We are very lucky!

Crazy travel day

THOUGHT:  "A HEART TRULY IN LOVE NEVER LOSES HOPE, BUT ALWAYS BELIEVES 
                        IN THE PROMISE OF LOVE.  NO MATTER HOW LONG THE TIME AND HOW
                        FAR THE DISTANCE, A PERSON IN LOVE CAN SACRIFICE."

Friday/Sat Feb 12 - 13

We had to go across town to buy some more permethrin - the chemical we use to keep mosquitos away.  A couple of the missions on the coasts needed more.  Missionaries use it to spray their clothes and bed clothing to keep mosquitos away.  The mosquitos carry Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika.  The missionaries still have to use repellant (which they often don't) but since I sent my first batch the number of infections is down.  I got home just in time to finish packing - I had to go to Queretaro to pick up a missionary with psychosis and accompany him home.  I took Uber to the bus terminal and it took over an hour.  I went by bus since the airport was basically almost shut down due to the visit of the Pope.  The buses leave about every 20 minutes so there was no problem catching one.  It was a luxury line and it was luxury.  It took a little over 3 hours to get their and the Mejoradas were waiting to take me to my hotel.  I stayed in a nice Holiday Inn Express that overlooked the city.  They picked me up early with the elder to take us to the Queretaro airport - most flights in Mexico have change in Mexico City so that is what we had to do - we had almost 2 hours lay over and took time to get a subway sandwich.  The flight to Merida was about 2 hours and I had 2 1/2 hours in the Merida airport to wait for my plane back to Mexico City.  Big travel day.  I got home a little after 9 at night after a really long day.  

Waiting for the taxi out in front of our hotel
to take him to the bus stop.
Traffic is horrible today because the Pope
is in town and roads are blocked off!

Greg took this pic of Queretaro while he was riding into town on the bus!!

I had a lot more fun than Greg on Saturday.  The Andersons needed to go to the store so I drove them.  We saw this wonderful display - probably for Valentines.  Bonnie and I bought small Valentines gifts for our husbands.  Later in the day we made a pizza and watched a murder mystery on Netflix!
Then I did laundry and finished that before Greg got home!!!  Busy day!!

I took the Andersons shopping on Saturday and we
saw these marvelous displays of succulents
out in the middle of the mall.
They are beautiful.

Another planter full of plants!

Sunday Feb 14

Happy Valentine's day.  I got home about 9:30 Saturday night and failed - no Valentine's treat for my sweet wife - she bought me some chocolate covered pretzels.  Oh, Well.  We spent the morning doing our reports for Elder Schwitzer.  Peg has not felt well the last few days so she came home after sacrament meeting.  I toughed it out and it was well worth it.  After church we had a quick dinner with the Andersons and the Sandbergs.  Elder Sandberg has been not feeling well lately - lightheaded and slightly slow heart rate.  We took him Thursday to a cardiologist and he checked out ok.  I drove up to the stake center for stake priesthood meeting with Elder Anderson and Elder Carson.  The meeting was about helping Future Melchisadek priesthood holders.  After the meeting we went home on a different route and they were having a big celebration at a catholic church and had the main road shut down - we tried to find another route but got stuck in a major traffic jam.  We got home 50 minutes later.  

These are my beautiful Valentines and 15th month
anniversary roses with the Valentines from the
grandkids behind on the cupboard.
Great day!

Another great week in Paradise!

THOUGHT:  "WHERE I LACK..... GOD'S GOT MY BACK!

Monday, Feb 8th

We had a mellow morning.  IT'S TIME!!! We headed over to the area offices early to talk to Elder Munoz about our release date.  He is checking on a few things, but it looks like I will get to go home someday!  I don't have to live here forever!!!!!  I had my Spanish class at noon and Greg was there asking everyone to help him get his agenda ready for his Area Presidency meeting.  We hooked up with the Zapatas  after that because they have been asking and asking to go to IHOP for unlimited pancakes.  We showed them how to get on the purple bus and ride it down the street to IHOP.  We had a great brunch and the pancakes weren't even that bad either.  We caught the bus back up the street and they were back at work before they knew it!!  FHE was Elder Valenzuela for the Area Presidency giving us a lesson on the area plan of baptism and conversion.   He did a great job.  We all love Elder Valenzuela.  Beka called during the meeting.  It's always fun to talk to her!  She got 100% on her eye exam and is doing fabulous in PA school in North Carolina!  Lots of BLESSINGS!!

At IHOP eating our never ending stack of pancakes!

Tuesday, Feb 9th  WE GOT OUR RELEASE DATE!

We got our release date today.  I am not announcing it yet but it will be sometime before summer.😄 Now it is hard to believe we have been here for almost a year and a half!  Time goes by faster looking back than it does looking forward.  We have started making a bucket list of things we want to see and do before we leave!  Today was a mellow day where we did some errands and had a visit with some of the senior missionaries and kept busy doing little things.

Wednesday, Feb 10th  HAPPY 15 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Today was kind of a weird day!  I felt out of sorts this morning as we were getting ready to go to the Temple with the Crickmores.  We finally got out the door and almost to the temple when Spencer called us with a problem.  He woke up this morning with a strange headache and he couldn't put words together either to say them or spell them.  He went to work anyway where he got nauseated and his right hand was tingling.  Greg told him to go to Instacare.  We then went in and did a session at the temple so for 2 hours we didn't know what was happening with Spencer.  I called him the second I got out.  He had gone home and taken a nap for 2 hours.  He felt a lot better but I was still so worried about him.  Spencer thought he was having a stroke!  I was kind of mad at him for not going to the Instacare just because something could have happened while he was taking his nap!  He was saved and it probably is a miracle so I am going to count it as one!  He is doing fine now.
The Crickmores had some missionaries with them at the temple.  We all went downstairs to eat lunch in the temple cafeteria.  This is usually Greg's favorite place to eat in Salt Lake.  The food was OK, but very Mexican - DUH!😫   We love being with the Crickmores.  They are mission president of the Chalco mission which is a hard and poor area.  The Crickmores are from San Diego so this has been a real adventure for them here.  They will go home in June.
Anywhooo-  we went to the yarn store to see if I could get any of the cream colored yarn but nope!
We drove home and ended up making pizza with the Griffins and watching the movie Creed.

At the Temple with the Crickmores

Thursday, Feb 11th

Today has been a very long day!  It started at 4 am this morning with a call from Elder Sandberg who was having heart issues in the night.  I was so worried about him I didn't get back to sleep until after 6 and then had to be up by 7:30 to throw some clothes on and go the Area Presidents meeting we have every other month now.  These are hard meetings for me due to the fact they are all in Spanish and everyone is talking quiet and fast!  I sit on the sideline and try to stay awake while Greg tells the Area Presidency about all the marvelous things he is doing.  He has really changed the medical situation around here in Mexico for the good!  We went downstairs tot he 1st floor to visit the Zapatas who are new to the mission office there.  It was very fun to see them again.  We talked to them about going to lunch, but the Hackings called and needed us to take them to find the Drivers License place so Elder Hacking could get his new drivers license.  We took him to the place where we got ours in November but he was back out in a second because it had moved clear up the street.  It took us awhile and some stops and asking people but we finally found the darn place.  Sister Hacking and I waited in the car and had a nice visit.  Greg did some grocery shopping and soon the deed was accomplished!  We stopped at our favorite mall for a late lunch at Chilis on the way home.

Friday, Feb 12th   HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHIE!!!
ALSO WELCOME TO THE POPE WHO FLEW IN THIS EVENING AND MESSED UP ALL THE TRAFFIC IN THIS CRAZY TOWN!
ALSO WELCOME TO ELDER OAKS!  HE PICKED A REALLY GREAT WEEK TO COME - THE SAME WEEK AS THE POPE!!!!

Today is my cute son's birthday.  He turns 30 today.  Where oh where did the time go???  He was always my little buddy being the last of 4 children until he was 5 years old and Spencer came along!
I am so lucky to have such awesome kids as the 6 I have!!
We didn't go to the temple clinic today because Greg had to accompany another Elder home with some mental issues.  We took a little trip up to the Pueblito that is about 30 minutes away to get some more Permethrin for the missions that have mosquito problems.  I sure hope this stuff is helping especially now that the new Zika virus is out and about in southern Mexico.  This Permethrin is suppose to be better than OFF or other bug sprays.  The darn mosquitos already are giving lots of people Dengue and Chikungunya which are awful for the missionaries to get.  These diseases give you high fevers and achy joints for up to 6 months.  Bad deal!  We made it back home in time for me to feel Greg some lunch and send him on his way.  He had to take a taxi over to the bus station, catch a bus to Quetaro to pick up the missionary first thing in the morning.  The bus ride was 3 hours long and the mission President and wife picked him up and took him out for ice cream - not dinner so you can imagine how grumpy he was!  He loves dinner!!!!  Everyone around here is always so nice to take such good care of me!  The Andersons had me up for a movie off of Netflix.  It was a movie set in Paris about a older guy who's wife died and he met a young woman who befriended him.  His own kids were not very nice and lived in the states but came to visit finally after a long wait.  It wasn't a very happy movie, but touching in the end.   Except we didn't get to watch the end because the Internet went out with about 20 minutes left in the show!  The Internet has been so horrible for over a month here in Teca Once.  We are all going crazy!!   The Andersons are so nice.  The Griffins are always fun to hang out with but they were out of town for the weekend with Elder Oaks down in Tuxtla.  Life is very nuts here!!!!

We had to go into a part of Mexico city
that looks like you think Mexico looks like!
We took pics driving down the street!

This is some kind of meat or remains sitting out in the sun
waiting for a buyer!  YUM!

Breakfast for dinner

Sat Feb 6, 2016

I had my monthly meeting with the doctors at the temple clinic - only 3 of us were there for most of the meeting.  We discussed Zika Fever and our new Facebook page for doctors in Mexico.  We also go over our schedule and had a few odds and ends to review.  The Griffins came with me to meet the new visitor's center directors who are neighbors of theirs from Arizona.  On the way home we passed by a plaza where the Harstons told us there were some fun restaurants.  When we go home we took Sister Anderson to Michael's to get some crafts for her nursery class.  We waited forever in our apartment with substandard WIFI for some elders that were sick to drop by - they were 90 minutes late.  We then went with the Griffin's to a mall in Interlomas where we ate at an Argentinian steakhouse - which was just ok.  We got there at the end of their early buffet and it was picked over.  Peg is still struggling with a chest cold.

Sunday Feb 7 2016

I had to run to see an elder in the hospital with a thrombosis in his brain which is affecting his eye muscles.  He is on Heparin and hopefully will get rid of his double vision and ptosis.  We then walked to church (yea) since Elder Anderson is sick and he is the reason we drive to church.  He is blaming Peg for passing on her cold.  Church was fast and testimony meeting.  The latest emphasis with the missionaries is to preach repentance and baptism to the converted - with special attention to members truly repenting during the week and taking the sacrament worthily.  2 Nephi 31: 17-19 is a great reference on this.  It talks about not just baptism as the gate but repentance and baptism as the gate to eternal life.  I guess we all need to do a little better with this.  After Church we had our monthly dinner with all of the senior missionaries - Peg and Sister Sandberg made a breakfast casserole and pancakes - fun for a change.  Not much going on Super Bowl wise - I did check the score a couple of times on my ESPN app.  We have other priorities.  Spent most of the night talking with the other Senior couples.

Post girls visit!

THOUGHT:   "LIFE ISN'T A MATTER OF MILESTONES....  BUT OF MOMENTS" 

            Rose Kennedy

Wednesday - Friday Feb 3rd - 5th

These past three days have been a real bummer.  I felt like I was getting sick on Tuesday when the girls were leaving but I ignored it.  By Wednesday I was down and out with a horrible cough and extremely achy body.  This is the first time I have been sick on my mission - so for 15 months! All I wanted to do was stay in bed and sleep for 3 days and that is pretty much what I did!  I didn't even leave our place on Wednesday or Thursday.  Friday was Temple clinic day and I couldn't move to go with Greg to the temple.  Also I didn't want to spread this bug.  When Greg got home he was in a very grumpy mood.  I ask what his problem was - his answer...."The traffic is horrible.  It took me 1 1/2 hours to get home from the Temple."  I laughed out loud to him!!!  I have been driving in this messy traffic now for 15 months.  The one time he drives he can't handle any of it!  Ha!  I have won! There have been a lot of days when the only nerve I have left has been so abused by the traffic.  I am glad other people get frustrated too.  I am in a place of my own, because none of my friends around here drive at all so they don't understand how hard it is!  I should be a taxi or uber driver down here and make a little extra cash!!  Now that's a thought!  We did go up to the Andersons on Friday night and watch a movie with them.  It was nice to get out and have a little association with someone besides Greg staring at his computer or phone all day!  Even though I have been so sick I have tried to get on the treadmill we got from the Toblers before they left.  I am sure that has added to my exhaustion but at least I have started to do some walking!   What a week!!!!

Yay! Kids came to visit!

THOUGHT: "IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW SLOWLY YOU GO SO LONG AS YOU DO NOT STOP. "    Confucius  

Tuesday, Jan. 26th

Today has been such an exciting day!  We FINALLY convinced one of my children to come visit us!  Actually Spencer has been here to visit, but Sara and her daughter came tonight for ONE whole week!  We spent all day cleaning our place, vacuuming,  food shopping, doing laundry, etc.  We went up to Walmart to pick up some things and got back just in time to leave to get to the airport in time to pick the girls up.  We left home at 6:28 pm.  Their flight was suppose to land around 8 pm.  Google maps said it would take us just over an hour to get there.  Sara called and let us know the flight was leaving a little late so we figured we would be right on time.  We headed down one of the side streets to get to the Viaducto that is usually quite fast.  It took us 1 hour and 2 minutes to get to the freeway.  I was so stressed that we would never make it in time and Sara and Hadley would be stuck in the middle of Mexico City with no where to go!  The freeway was very busy, but we were able to move a little faster there.  We flew into the parking lot and up to the area where the International flights come in.  We were wandering around for about 5 minutes and out they popped from Customs.  It couldn't have been better planning!  I was so nervous that we would be so late.  I can't believe how much Hadley has grown.  I am guessing all of my cute grandkids have grown so much!  We got everyone tucked in the car and drove to our place!  Sara kept saying - wow this place is so much smaller than it looks on face time.  Ha!  We are very used to it now.  I don't know what we will do with our big house at home!  We got the blow up mattress up and the regular mattress out for Sara.  This was a good choice since the blow up has a hole in it and Hadley was in a crack in the morning!!  It took us a while to get everyone settled down, but we all got to sleep.  I am so happy they are here!

I can see Sara and Hadley coming!!
I can't believe I didn't get in trouble for taking this pic.

Our first sight of Hadley and Sara!

They are really here!!

Happy to see this bug!

Having dinner at VIPS!

Wednesday, Jan. 27th

Hadley was up early and ready to go!  We got up, put the beds away and had french toast for breakfast.  We decided to go ride on the Turi bus today.  We walked across the bridge and caught a purple bus to the Auditorium where we caught the turi bus.  We sat up on top so we could see the sights of Mexico city.  It was a nice warm sunny day and we didn't have any suntan lotion.  We rode the bus down to the Latin American tower.  We went up to the top of the tall tower to overlook the city!  This city is so huge, you can't possibly see the edge of any side of it!  It goes on and on and on.
After the tower we walked over to the house of blue tiles Sanborns to eat some Mexican lunch!  So far - no diarrhea!  That's always a great thing!!  After lunch we walked down the street for about 1/2 mile to the zocolo - the town square.  We walked through the huge Cathedral there and got tickets to go up to the roof of the Cathedral.  We were up in the bell towers of the church.  Really cool place to be!  It was fun to be in the Cathedral today.  They are hanging up huge pics of the Pope who is coming to this Cathedral on Feb. 12th.  Everyone is working very hard to spiff up the place!  If would be kind of fun to go see the Pope, but there will be about 500,000 people in the square and that doesn't seem like a great idea!  Elder Oaks is coming the same day to do a mission tour so maybe we can go see him.  That would be much better!!  We were able to catch a turi bus and ride it back to the Auditorium where we caught a purple bus back home!  We all got some sun and had a very fun time seeing the sights of Mexico!  We were all tired, but I took the girls around to meet my friends here in the hotel.  They agree with me that everyone is so nice around here!  We love our life around here!

My red roses for the 22nd of the month!
I love the new rose in the back!!

Our first outing on the purple bus.
We are heading to the turibus for an adventurous day!

Waiting on the steps of the National Auditorium for the turibus!

Here is comes!

We sat on top so we could see everything out in the open.

We got the biggest kick out of the wires that are thick everywhere.

You could reach up and touch them if you wanted to end your life!!!

We saw fountains and statues

Big old houses filled with plants

Sara had the camera and took pics around the city!

Hadley got bored and was playing with her iPad.
She couldn't see in the sunshine so she is covered up!
We should all have been covered up cause we got
sunburned!  We haven't had to even think about the sun until today!

Pics around the city

Of big buildings

I love this girls hugs!

On the bell tower tour on top of the main Cathedral!

One of the bell towers

The huge Mexican flag in the zocolo!

The main government building

A little nook up on the bell tower with Grandpa

with mom!

Out in front of the big Cathedral.

We watched them put up this pic of the Pope
who comes on Feb 12th

Add caption

Thursday, Jan 28th

Hadley was up early and ready to go again this morning.  We had cold cereal and got ready to go to the zoo today.  Come to find out the zoo is free.  We rode the purple bus down to the zoo and had a great day there.  It was a fabulous zoo with all kinds of animals.  We took lots of pics and I will put some of them up here.  We ate Dominos pizza at the zoo for lunch and kept going!  Good times!!
We were all tired again and barely made it home.  The Griffins had given us a few movies and Hadley had fun watching movies and making all kinds of artistic posters for our place!  To bed, To bed!

Hadley wanted to help me un-decorate my
Christmas tree so I left it up until she came.

The map of this large zoo!

This guy is not very social!

Greg had hurt his knee on the Bell tower yesterday
so he was a really happy guy today!!
We did have yummy pepperoni pizza at the zoo!

This seal was so funny.
He kept swimming past us and staring at us
like we were the idiots!
Duh!!!

See how he stares at Sara.

There is a huge fowl section in this zoo.
I am amazed at all the beautiful colors!!!

This guy has long hairy looking feathers.

This is blurry of these ducks cause they
were fighting.  Look at the sore on the one ducks
breast.  

This made me laugh - looking at these swans
sitting in their (pond).  I think there is
about 2-3 inches of water they are sitting in.

One of my favorite pics of this tiger.

This hammock has some animal sleeping in it!

This baboon is holding a baby
Can you see it??

Panda bear with an itchy backside!!

This panda sleeping up in his treehouse!

Birds of Paradise flowers

This red gorilla is huge.

Look at this guys huge paws.
He is sleeping with one eye open!!

Not sure what kind of animal this guy is but he loves
chewing on the big wooden post
look below!

Out in front of the free zoo!

Squirrels everywhere.  They are so cute!

We walked past the Anthropology museum with this
carved large statue out in front!

A bus ride home.  We are TIRED!

Always enough energy to stick fingers in the water - anywhere!!

Resting at home after a big day!!

Friday, Jan 29th

Today was a very nice day!  Greg had to go work at the clinic at the Temple.  We made him babysit Hadley while Sara and I went and did a Spanish session at the Temple.  Hadley was Greg's nurse for all the missionaries that came in to see him.  She was so cute with them.  We had an entertaining session at the temple as I usually do!  We came out, took pics and were off to lunch at McDonalds.  I took a pic of me at this McDonalds right after we got here all by myself in the play place.  I was sure missing my grandkids then.  It was very fun to take a pic with Hadley at the play place.  That felt much nicer! After our sundaes we were off to the Ciudadela.  This is a big fun place for tourists to shop for all kinds of Mexican junk!  Sara and I both got silver rings and she got other stuff for Hadley!  We stopped at La Onda for authentic tacos on the way home tonight.  Sara loved these tacos just as much as we have the past 15 months.  YUM! This mission would have been so much easier if my kids had come and stayed for months at a time!😜

Refreshed and ready to go!

Even mom looks refreshed!

Sara and I did a session at the Temple
in Spanish!

Hadley was grandpa's nurse in helping with the missionaries
while we were at the Temple

We stopped at my yarn shop by the temple.  This is the
owner of the yarn shop.  She is so sweet  I am waiting
for some cream colored yarn to make a new afghan.
Not here yet!

We drove past a little housing development

Want to move in???

Rent is pretty cheap here!

Hadley blowing in the wind at McDonalds

We are so mean making Hadley eat her lunch
when all she wants to do is play with her
Mexican friends!  Communication is no
problem for these kids!!

Here is my happy pic!
I finally have a grandchild here to
take to McDonalds!  YAY!

Pic of the Ciudadela.
Tons of shops with tons of stuff to buy!

Hadley and I found an old dog toy to kick around in the
little square while waiting for mom to get done shopping!

On our way into La Onda we found this large present
sitting in the street!

The teeny, tiny bathroom at La Onda!

Can't wait for dinner!

Saturday  Jan 30th

We got up, packed up and took off for Guanajuato.  This city is so pretty.  It is full of tunnels underground to drive through and lots of stuff to look at!  It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive and it took us 6 hours to get there due to a dang bicycle pilgrimage that millions of people were doing to some lake up by where we were going.  We had to keep slowing down because they were riding by the thousands along the freeway! UGH!  Note to self - don't go out of the city on this weekend!  It is also a holiday on Monday which is hard to keep track of due to the number of holidays they have down here.  About every 3 weeks there is another holiday around here!  We finally made it to our hotel - the  Real de Minas.  Greg and the kids stayed at this hotel back in Y2K when they were on a humanitarian  trip down here!  We love this hotel, even though it is very old.  We hurried and unpacked and drove to see the mummies which are the most popular thing to see here.  Sara remembered them as being lots more of a big deal.  They have cut off lots of the places to look at the mummies since we were there last March.  Hadley didn't care for the mummies so we hurried through the tour and did some shopping outside with all of the little tiendas.  We took the car back to the hotel and got a taxi to go to the town square to find some dinner.  That place was packed with people and it was very pretty and fun to be there.  We picked what we thought was a nice little sidewalk restaurant to eat at.  We all ordered.  It became an epic fail soon after they brought the food.  We ordered chicken and rice soup and they brought this soup with yucky chicken in it and some vegetables - no rice.  It didn't taste very good so that was our first problem.  I ordered fajitas and they came with chicken and napal which is made from the prickly pear cactus.  They shave off all of the thorns and cook it up like green beans.  Sara ordered enchiladas swissas.  The waiter said they were no picante - not spicy.  They were very spicy and she couldn't eat them.  She then ordered a hamburger and potato wedges.  The potato wedges were good, but I am pretty sure the hamburger was made out of ground up hotdog stuff!  She only threw up twice in her napkin so that turned out good!  We gave up and left that place.  We walked around the square and watched the people which is my favorite thing to do!  We caught a taxi back to our hotel - through the tunnels.  We were all tired and happy to be going to bed.  We all slept in our clothes due to the cold temp in our room.  OHHHHH MEXICO!!!   Greg snored all night and no one got any sleep!  More good times!!

The mummies!

Hadley wasn't thrilled with looking at these =
especially the babies.  This baby still has
all of it's hair.  

this mom was 8 months pregnant with this baby
when they found her buried here.

Tons of little shops outside of the mummies collection.

Sights around Guanahuato 

The Cathedral with fountain in the zocolo
in Guanajuato 

We picked what looked like a yummy place to eat!
It turned out to be an epic fail for Sara!
Yummy hamburgers for her!!

This is an old, funky wall

Getting a taxi!

We got a green one to take us back to our hotel.

A pic of us driving around in the tunnels below the city!

The taxi driver left his window down so we were
breathing car exhaust

Our hotel at night!

Beautiful flower bouquet in the lobby

The city on the hill at night!

The old doors going into the bathroom

Our hotel room that was freezing.
I slept in my clothes it was so cold!

THOUGHT:  "GOD CARES A LOT MORE ABOUT WHO WE ARE AND ABOUT WHO WE               ARE BECOMING, THAN ABOUT WHO WE ONCE WERE"   Elder Dale G. Renland   
Sunday Jan 31
We got up early to drive to Queretaro to hear Elder Renlund.  We had planned on the breakfast buffet which was supposed to start at 7:30 but it wasn't ready.  We left about 7:45 and got to Queretaro about 9, but missed the turnoff for the chapel and then found out that the chapel I found on LDS.org was the wrong one.  We finally got to the right one at 9:45 - 15 minutes after the meeting started.  They saved a parking space for us and ushered me up to the first row (Peg, Sara and Hadley chose to stay in the back due to Spanish deficiency.)  The gist of Elder Renlund's talk was that the atonement is there for everyone and the Lord wants nothing more than to have us take advantage of it.  He shook everyone's hand that was there and it took him 45 minutes to do that.  We were able to talk briefly.  We ran into Elder Valenzuela's daughter who stayed to translate and was going to take a bus to Mexico City to stay with her parents while her husband was out of town.  We told her that we could take her and she rode with us home to Mexico.  We dropped her off at the Valenzuela's and they invited us in for lemonade.  They have a beautiful home (apartment) in a secure high rise.  We came home and spent the evening at the Griffin's

Another pic of our hotel!

Driving into Quetaro 

Elder Renland stood and shook every persons hand here
at the Stake conference.  We waited until the end.

Hadley was running around so Pres. Meyorajada caught
her and brought her over so she could shake Elder Renland.

Elder Renland wanted to do bones.
Hadley just wanted to run around!

Waiting outside to say goodbye to Elder Renland

John wandering around!

Waving goodbye.  Standing with Gabby Valenzuela
who we ended up bringing home to the city to be with her parents.

Monday, Feb 1st

Our last day together.  Tomorrow my little buddy goes home!!  We have had so much fun having the girls here this past week.  Today was another big and busy day.  We got up and got ready to leave.  Today was Teotihuican - the pyramids.  We got there fairly early in the day and there were buses already everywhere.  Today is a holiday here in Mexico so we figured we would have some crowds.
We had a great time at the Pyramids because Hadley could run and climb and run and climb to her hearts content!  Sara has been so stressed when we have been out in public this week.  Hadley is a little pill about running off to see something or touch something.  We had all the space in the world for her to run today and she loved it!  I think we even wore her out.  We saw the Temple of Quetzacoatl.  We got back in our car and drove up to the Sun Pyramid.  I patiently waited at the bottom while Greg Sara and Hadley climbed up to the top.  Sara had fun getting a few knickknacks while at the Pyramids.  The weather was warm and sunny and I got myself a new hat to boot!!
We drove around to the other side of the pyramids to a really cool cave called La Grutas where we had lunch!  Good old Mexican food and we even got serenaded.  Today was a great day!

Hadley and her root beer at the pyramids.

Tourists!

Steep steps everywhere!

Hadley up on the corner waving!

Steep steps up the Temple of Quetzacoatl

Hadley and I made it to the top.
Looking down on Sara and Greg to the left of the white tent.

You have to hike up the steep steps and then down the other side
to the actual temple.  Hadley went down some stairs below Greg!

Sara just sliding her way down the steps!

Trying to help scaredy cat back down the steep steps!

Us girls in front of the sun pyramid with my new hat
Hadley is holding!

Cute pic!

Climbing up the Sun

The lady in white in the middle holding on to the
rope reminds me of Sara going up and down this pyramid.

See them waving up there!!

almost to the top!

They made it to the top!

Coming down so painful!

Hadley scooting down on her bum
while Sara clinging onto Greg!

They made it!

We walked over to the museum.  We found a nice seat
on the side of the rock wall!

Sitting on top of La Gruta
the huge cave where we ate lunch!

The menu explaining the bugs you can eat here!

At one end of the cave is this stairway filled with
candles.  Not sure what they are for, but
Hadley couldn't resist blowing some out!

So guess who is so tired!

Hadley had the camera and had a nice photo shoot!

Tuesday, Feb 2nd     HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN STEVENS! and Happy Groundhog Day!

😪😩😂 Yes, this is a very sad day.  I can't believe it has been a whole week since Sara and Hadley came to visit.  My only happy thought is that we now only have 3 months left on our mission.  We were up and packed up and out the door by 9:45 to get to the airport.  Some days the traffic is so bad that you have to plan way ahead to get someplace on time.  Hadley had to see adios to the people that work here at the hotel and off we went!  We got to the airport and got them checked in with plenty of time to go.  To celebrate their departure we got hot fudge sundaes at McDonalds at 11 am this morning.  We were all so sad we could hardly enjoy those!  We walked the girls down to security.  As they disappeared behind the wall we could hear Hadley sobbing and sobbing.  Sara said she was making other old ladies cry just to hear that sad cry!!!
They made it home after a long flight to Dallas, then a long wait, then another long flight to Salt Lake.  Thank you Sara and Hadley for all of the happy times and fun.  Also thank you for taking a full and heavy suitcase home with stuff we are starting to get rid of here in our place.

After dropping off the girls we had to take a long trip around the city to go to Pres. and Sister Titensors house.  Wow they live in a beautiful place up in a very nice neighborhood.  You don't even know you are in Mexico while in this place.  We even found Harry Potters house!!!  We had to give President Titensor a shot in his shoulder and some medication.  Sister Titensor felt so sorry for us she fed us some homemade sloppy joes for lunch!  I felt a little less sad, but it was still hard to go back home to our empty little quiet place!! I guess that is one of the problems of having visitors!  I will take the bad if I get to enjoy the great times like we had!!

Our hotel lobby saying goodbye

Hadley with Sonja, Enrique and Laura

Goodbye from the parking garage at our hotel

This poor little home right next to the parking garage at the airport

The plastic car up on the wall!!

Our celebratory hot fudge sundaes before they left!
Good bye girls!  Thanks for the fun!

The view from the rooftop of the Titensors house

The mission home - The Titensors

Harry Potters house - we think!!

Sara made a yummy chicken dinner we finally ate after they left.
We simply ran out of time with them!