Sunday, February 22, 2009

Mexico finally...

-preface-
this will be a very long post, those who dare beware

We returned safe and sound from our trip to Mexico late last Saturday night and I'm just getting around to this.. and even though I need to get this taken care of because its old news I feel terrible posting about this when other things (ie Gilbert falling out of his 2nd story window) have happened. I guess it goes with the "living away from home" territory. I can't tell you how frustrating it is hearing all these terrible things* happening at HOME to people I LOVE and being so far away from it all. It is such a helpless, detaching feeling. One of the prices we are paying for our Californian adventure. Don't get me wrong, I do still believe this is where we are supposed to be, but it is a learning process. My poor poor family that I don't even feel a part of. I love you all dearly and you're in my constant thoughts and prayers... This 'curse' as Kennan has coined is difficult and I fear it knocking on my door. But life is still going on and because I can't cry, laugh, yell, and plead with you in person does not mean I don't feel it.



On to our trip... Coleen is very involved in her Rotary Club and discovered this organization a few years ago. For Christmas, long before I came along, the Clark's have been forgoing sibling gift exchanges for a service project gift (quite glad the Williams are still doing it the old fashion way). Since I've been in the family we have done stoves, wheel chairs, and schools. It's actually really impressive and I will say this again and again.... the Clark's are much better people than I am. But hey, at least I get to basque in their presence every couple of months.

Anyway, Coleen is really careful to which organizations she will donate, always making sure her donations are going to the right places. Project Amigo was one she believed in. They are based out of Colima Mexico where they try to give the opportunity of education to less fortunate families. What we have been doing as a family is sponsoring children for their education each year. In addition to the sponsorship program the organization offers a 'work week' for volunteers to come to Colima to help. Coleen said she would pay our expenses if we could make it down there for a week. Out of the 18 Clark adults 11 of us were able to make it down and what a week we had!!

Now this was something Coleen had orchestrated and thus none of us really new what we were going to be doing while were down there. On the plane rides we kept thinking "we're flying blind"

Fear not though... because we walked out of the airport to this


As we arrived we learned our work week was called 'literacy week' and we would be involved in organizing and distributing mini libraries.

Meet Bernice.
The first day there, we all went to a turtle reserve with students that are being helped by Project Amigo. At the turtle reserve we we're able to meet the child we sponsored and spend some time with all the kids (no kidding Nate and I had 18 kids we were in charge of)

Only in Mexico do you get to see baby turtles born that morning...

And hold them...

And set them FREE!! This was really cool... we all got our own turtle and we stood in a straight line and set them down to swim to freedom!

Before we could deliver the mini libraries we had to put them together...

Delivering them was a lot more fun. We'd bring the books to the schools then the kids would pick a book and come read them to us.

Nate and his amigo

Nate scaring kids...

scaring kids again...

Me and my amigas!

Lots of amigos!
Nate and his girlfriends (the one on the right)
So... it didn't take very much time for our little friends to read us their books and people like me can only speak Spanish for so long. So... we resorted to things like this.
And instant celebrityhood! It was really funny, I am cool.
Hottie
And... scaring kids again.

The down time was on the buses so we had a lot of this going on (reminiscent of the Guat)

This is the volcano in our village, Cofradia :)
The fam with Coleen's Sponsoree Guia at the Hacienda

In front of 'Hacienda'. The accommodations were just charming! They were definitely Mexican but clean and had a lot of Mexican character.

We ate the majority of our meals in the Hacienda and they were really delicious. Mexican, but clean and a little Americanized some of the time.

The girls on the city center corner!

And finally....

Just a few "Only in Mexico's" I couldn't leave out

An elephant driving down the street

And dyed Chickie's :)

The End, Thank you JayDee and Coleen for the amazing week. It was such an incredible experience!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Wicked and Moonana's birthday

Last week we all met up in the city to see Wicked in lou of Miranda's birthday. It was awesome and the Korean Charcoal BBQ afterwards was as well!


The birthday girl with Grandpa and Nannie!






Yum yum...

Daddio thought he was back in Korea himself... trying to say "hi" in Korean and all.

Mom was an expert meet turner..

Happy Birthday Miranda!

My new love in life...

Carmel-by-the-sea.... sigh....


Do you see this? Yeah... the whole town is just as picturesque.


Ma and Pa (wouldn't it be so fun to be an architect in this town?)






I love these people


Uh... we introduced the ocean to Redford and Lucy.


As you can see the ocean agreed with Redford



And Nate boy too... :)




Monterey!


We stayed in Pacific Grove which is only about 5 minutes away from Monterey and of course we had to head down to Cannery Row.


This guy is one of the reasons I love Monterey so much (the one on the right of course). I love writers who have a niche in which they write and its almost like your transported into that world/time period/etc. Steinbeck was that way for me and I will always associate Monterey with his stories.







We were blessed with the most beautiful weather!




I almost made my Dad stay in these houses instead of with the rest of us...





See what I mean about the weather? AND I found my next weekend stay bed and breakfast... its called Seven Gables... AMAZING.


ah.... cute...




Boo ya... I never remember the ocean in Monterey looking so beautiful!

Momma and Papa come to town and down to Monteray

Back to real life after the holidays and I can't say anything in real life has been terribly interesting. But this last weekend ma and pa came to visit! We decided to head down to Monterey for the weeekend to get some fresh air and an away place for all of us. I have a friend who gave us a great rate for her rental in Pacific Grove and it was such a nice escape.


We got in Friday night around six and decided to take it easy and stayed in and played game.

I don't think I have every really played Scrabble, but it was actually kind of fun... don't look to closely at the board there are definately some made up words there.

Now Scrabble was fun.... this chracter not so much fun to play with. Love him, but honestly Dad....



We also got a little Rummy in... until my Dad could take no more.


Oh... and Redford was present :)