LeakeSpeak

The 20th of November is the Day of the Revolution, a significant patriotic holiday here in Mexico. Lauryn and Molly’s classes at school each entered floats in the parade in our town. Below are a few photos:

Lauryn and Molly in their traditional Mexican costumes

Flag presentation ceremony at our central town square before the parade

Molly and her float

Lauryn and her float

A few other entries from the parade

On a day of rest a few weeks ago, our family took a drive through a couple of villages in the area. Here are a few photos:

This week is our town’s huge annual celebration and fair, so yesterday evening we went to the fair with our new neighbors who live upstairs from us. It’s neat to see how our friendship with them is developing. We all had a good time, and finished the evening with a round of delicious intestine tacos.

(Really, the tacos were delicious!)

Lauryn, with our town’s well-groomed park in the background:

The main government building of our town, which sits right on the central park:

Molly and I sitting by the fountain, taken by Lauryn:

Lauryn and Molly:

We have taken a number of photos the past 2 or 3 months that haven’t made it onto the blog. They’re mostly of off day activities, because we don’t get to take a lot of photos of ministry activities for a variety of reasons. I’ll go ahead and share some of the photos, probably in several installments. These first ones are photos we took during summer short-term mission trips.

One day, while mission trip participants were at the tourist markets, Lauryn and I walked down to the main market of our state’s capital, where tons of locals do their shopping. We had lunch at a small torta (sandwich) stand that was tucked into a row of shops:

This is the central park and government building of the capital of our state. We were there during a large annual festival, making that particular week the busiest tourist week of the year:

On an off day, we took our summer interns to see our state’s professional baseball team play:

And here’s a bonus photo of Jenna:

In Mexico, kids enter kindergarten at age 3, and it lasts for 3 years. So Molly entered her first year of kindergarten this year, while Lauryn is in third year. We are blessed to have a school just a couple of blocks from our new house in town.

This being my day of rest, I just got back from seeing Lauryn and Molly during recess and buying them a snack. They each had a huevo con chorizo (scrambled egg with spicy sausage) taco and a cup of pineapple juice. Lots of parents come at recess to feed their kids and see them for a little bit, and the school sells food.

This is the covered school yard during recess:

Here are Lauryn in Molly in their school uniforms:

A week ago we posted a video greeting to our home church in Colorado on YouTube. For those who didn’t get to see it, here it is:

Jenna’s birthday and the graduation at Lauryn’s kindergarten fell on the same day this past week. Below are a few photos.

In Mexico, kindergarten lasts for three years instead of just one. Lauryn just completed her second year, but all students participate in the graduation ceremony for the third year students. In the fall, Molly will begin her first year in kindergarten.

Lauryn in her school uniform.

The flag bearers. Lauryn was invited to be a flag bearer for the next school year, but she unfortunately won’t get to do it, because we’re moving to the center of town and she will have to change schools.

Lauryn is in the middle of the group of students standing to the right.

Lauryn and the others marching out after the presentation of the flag and singing of the national anthem.

The graduating third year students.

Lauryn and the rest of the second year students doing a dance in traditional Mexican dress.

And then a few photos from Jenna’s birthday:

Here are a few photos from the two days we spent in Mexico City in December:

They put an ice rink in the zócalo(center city square) with ice hockey demonstrations.  That was, umm, unique for Mexico.  The locals said that is the first time they’ve ever done it.

Shot of the zócalo, with a gigantic Mexican flag in the center and a large cathedral at the rear.

Another shot of the cathedral.

I couldn’t believe how decorated the zócalo was for Christmas.  It was really cool.

The girls enjoyed a trip to the zoo, which was free - who knew?!

The museum of anthropology was really cool.  The only drawback to going with little kids was that we could never stay in one place long enough to learn much about what we were looking at.  Here are some photos, though:

That’s our friend J.C. from Mission Training School who was with us for the day.  Above him is an Aztec calendar.

One of the few times Lauryn stood in one place :)  She’s in front of a statue of Cuitlahuac, for whom her kindergarten is named.

This roof at the museum is held up only by that central column.  Pretty impressive!

More museum…

This was interesting - We didn’t catch the whole performance, but these guys spin around upside down until they’re hanging way high up, then they spend several minutes unwinding while they chant, play drums, etc.  This was in the huge park (Parque de Chapultepec) that the zoo, museum of anthropology, and President’s house, among other things, are in.

The Christmas lights all around the zócalo were spectacular at night - the photo doesn’t do them justice.

By the end of a long day, Molly was asleep standing up.

And…that’s all folks!

Well, after my recent musings about turning 28, I’m glad that I’m no longer the only 28-year-old in the family.  Erin just had her 28th birthday on Saturday.  We celebrated with pizza and a movie the night before her birthday, and dinner and shoe shopping in town the night of her birthday.  Instead of a cake, Erin wanted flan, which is a delicious, custard-like Mexican dessert with caramel sauce.