Mexican Moments with Greg and Peg: 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

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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!!