Desierto de Los Leones

First a P.S. I think I fixed the videos in my last post so you should look at them now =). 

So, this little day trip was just so fun that I thought it needed it's own separate post. On Saturday, June 11, The Tay Team and I went on a little day hike and picnic with the Olsons. Elder Olson went to dental school at UCLA with my mom and introduced her to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later baptized her. They are on a mission in Mexico City and are in the same ward as Ie Mei.

We had our picnic lunch at a stone table in the sun.  Sandwiches, chips, granola bars and crackers were some of the items on the menu.

There is an ex-convent in the park that we took a little tour of. Elder Olson is quite familiar with this place these days and gave us a great tour.

The building was beautiful, the rose gardens were exquisite and the tunnels were exciting. The Olsons, like I said, are familiar, so they were prepared with flashlights for us to see where we were going. Occasionally we turned them off and I couldn't see anything. Those tunnels gave a new meaning to the term "pitch black."

We then hiked a little to some hermitas which were little cabins that the monks would stay in for periods of a month. I'm not exactly sure, but I believe a lot of the monks were under a vow of silence at the convent and they would take turns staying in these hermitas during their silence.

 We played at the little playground and those Tay Team kids are just something else. Siblings and families are just wonderful.

Sorry that you're blurry, Mylee, but everyone can still see your smiling face shining through!

So, if you're in Mexico City sometime, make the Tay Team take you to Desierto de los Leones because it was one of my favorite places to see. 

Recent Ramblings on Mexico

This is going to be jumbled up because it's been a little while since I've blogged, but I just wanted to share some highlights from the past little while. In no particular order:

Mexico Traffic is still crazy and hilarious. I think it's funny how when a traffic light goes out everyone starts honking their horns. Last I checked, honking doesn't make the traffic lights work. But I guess I understand if they just really want to let their stress out, I'd probably end up honking my horn too if I was stuck in gridlock in Mexico City.

The other day we picked Brad up from work and we saw this:

That is a trailer that has lot its owner. A trolebus (trolley bus) is trying to squeeze past it to get to its next stop. A few minutes later we located the truck. I'm not sure how the trolebus managed to squeeze past this...perhaps it didn't and was the cause for Mexico City's traffic that day.

Last weekend Brad and Ie Mei went on a romantic getaway. I watched the four little ones. Sometimes I become super uptight auntie and boss them around which is really mean, so I made sure to just be fun. The kids went to bed around 10 PM on Friday and I let them watch star wars 3 times in a 24 hour period. But, we did do some fun things like have a picnic in the back yard. 

Ailee had this to say about it:

Jackson's been dying for me to put up videos. So, this is for Jackson mostly, not because I want to show off how good I am at sword duels, because that is clearly not the case.

I am going to miss tacos off the street: this was my third and final time having Mexican street food, well for this visit at least. I hope to come back and eat it again soon.

We've had plenty of fun in the kitchen making everything from beef and broccoli to orange rolls to rainbow cake! Pictures of rainbow cake to come.

Last Friday we went to the most beautiful outdoor mall. It had a bunch of ritzy stores but that's not the reason it  felt like heaven. It was the most beautiful day and it was early evening and the sun was setting and they have fountains everywhere and it's so peaceful and basically, I just wouldn't mind taking a stroll around that mall every night this summer. Maybe it's just the summer air that I love so much.

I meant to post this while I was in Mexico, but now I'm home so I will have to post a couple more about Mexico from California, but enjoy these random things!

Best Friends

Ever since I was born, I've had a best friend. His name is Jonathan Reagan West. He has always taken care of me.

Today he is 23 years old. 

We're less than two years apart and I hear that we never fought and that we used to play really well together. 

We still do. 

We have a lot of memories together. Like in pre-school when our school put on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As you can see, I'm a lovely little flower. Jonathan was Doc. I remember Mom made our costumes. Jonathan wore a white beard and stuffed a pillow under his shirt so he would have a round belly.

 We danced and sang together. Ie Mei got married when I was 8 and Jonathan was 10. We sang at her wedding. You know that cute little rendition of L-O-V-E from The Little Rascals that Waldo and Darla perform? Yeah. We sang that. 

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful brother who I get along with and who always takes care of me. He is one of the most kind, caring, intelligent, loving boys I know. He is a great brother, son, uncle and friend. I am so proud of him and all the hard work he has done throughout his life. He is a great example to me. Happy Birthday Jonathan! I love you!

Pictures found in Ie Mei's photo album here in Mexico City. 

Girls Only

This past weekend, Ie Mei and I went on a little girls trip with some ladies from the English-speaking ward. 

Just a heads up, this is kind of lengthy, so feel free to just look at the pictures. We embarked on our adventure to Puebla at about 8:30 AM on Friday and arrived at our destination around 11:00.

We ate at the most delicious sandwich shop for lunch. If you're ever in Puebla, Mexico, I highly recommend you go and eat here. Cemitas Las Poblanitas.

You see those spicy looking things? I put those in my sandwich. They were delicious, but I did work up quite a sweat eating them.

Puebla is famous for a type of pottery called Talavera, so after lunch we visited a workshop where they showed us the whole process.

 It's amazing how these artists paint everything freehand. Everything was beautiful. Later that day we walked through a lot of different Talavera shops and Ie Mei bought me a serving plate for my late birthday present. I may be biased, but I think my plate is the most beautiful piece that came home in our van.

Puebla has the most beautiful colored buildings with these cute stone sidewalks. This is my favorite picture of the trip. I just love my sister. She is beautiful.

Right after this beautiful picture was taken, we had a crazy hail storm. 

Being a Californian, and it being spring and all, I was of course wearing flip flops, but it eventually died down and we were able to visit some churches and go to dinner at an Italian/Poblano restaurant. Puebla is also famous for its mole which is a chocolate chili sauce. I figured I had to try it. Not my favorite, but I'm glad I tried something new. The churches on the other hand were lovely and I really did like those. 

By the time we were back at our hotel we were ready to pass out. The next morning we ate breakfast and we were on our way to Tecali, the Onix capital of the world. Ok, I made that up, but we shopped for hours and hours looking at all these different shops with all the same things made of onix. I found some good finds though. 

After all the shopping, I was glad to take a break and take a look at the church. I love this picture of this cute church with the bright blue sky. 

We walked down the street to the convent which is now ruins and it was really cool. It hasn't had a roof in I don't know how many years so now instead of an interior floor with stone, it is a beautiful grassy field. 

It was such a nice weekend with my sister and I'm glad I was able to visit so many interesting sites. The only down side is the sickness that Ie Mei and I have been experiencing all last night and today, but other than that it was a delightful, delicious, de-lovely trip. Thank you Ie Mei Lynn for a wonderful weekend!

Cutie Ailee

Jackson, Lance, and Mylee leave for the bus stop at 7:00 AM, so I'm rarely ever awake to hang out with them before school starts. Ailee, however, gets up after I do and therefore I get to pretend she's my little dolly and help her get dressed. And being a hair enthusiast, I love doing her hair. 

Some days she lets me, and some days she doesn't. But it's getting easier because I am brainwashing her little by little. In the mornings we just like to repeat to each other: "Ponytails don't hurt. They're just pretty." This isn't evil, is it? I mean, it can't be a crime if you get a cute girl looking like this every day:

right?

She fell asleep when Ie Mei was reading to her the other night.

I'm a Warrior.

At least I feel like one after posing like one for so long. 

Mondays and Wednesdays in Mexico City include a yoga session in Bosques de Las Lomas. For some reason when I was younger I imagined yoga as a meditation rather than a form of exercise. Last Monday was my first session and I was surprised by how hard it was and how sore I was for days and days afterwards. After 10 minutes I was sweating, wondering when the pain was going to end, but I couldn't ask because everyone is silent during yoga. However, I have lived to write about it and it turns out yoga is 2 hours long.

Today was my second time at yoga and once again, I was dying.

Downward facing dog. Upward facing dog. Warrior 1. Warrior 2. Warrior 3. Flow. High Plank. Low Plank. Triangle. Airplane. Crow. 

And those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head right now. As much as it hurts, yoga is amazing because you get to work all these muscles you didn't even know existed. 

The last thing we do in our sessions is Savasana. I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it's apparently also called the corpse pose, in which you lay on your back on your mat and close your eyes as you listen to music and slowly release the tension in all your body parts. The instructor, Lisa, then comes around and places a washcloth over your eyes and then drapes a blanket over your body all the way up to your neck and it is the most amazing feeling. Ie Mei and I agreed that it only feels so good because we worked our bodies so hard. It turns out I can get through 2 hours of yoga a lot better when I know Savasana is coming.

Ailee joined us for yoga today and copied some of the poses on her own mat. She is a really cute warrior.

More adventures

Today was a wonderful day full of new adventures. Ie Mei is part of a club here in Mexico City for people who are not native to Mexico. They get together for luncheons and activities and have various charities that they help out with. Ie Mei has been involved with making baby blankets for a hospital in Mexico that delivers 25-30 babies a day. I don't know too much about it, but Ie Mei does!

Today was baby blanket day! We went to a woman's house and made 119 blankets that we get to deliver later this month! It was such a fun and rewarding experience and I'm excited that I get to go deliver them with Ie Mei and see the people that will benefit from them.

So giving service is another thing I'm loving in Mexico. One thing I am not falling in love with is the traffic. I've never seen anything like it and I'm from LA!! It is absolutely ridiculous. I dread getting in the car because after 10 minutes I feel like I've been at sea for hours.

No one follows traffic laws here. Brother Medrano was driving us around Polanco and I saw the words "ALTA" on a sign which means stop in Spanish. I got my body all ready for the stop, but it never came. You pretty much get to pick and choose which driving laws to follow.

Ie Mei gave Mexican driving a try and she's really good at it. We ran a red light on our way to the church for our Relief Society activity. I'm partially joking. She is very good at driving amongst all the chaos here. I don't know that I could ever do it unless I was forced to.

Other than the worse than usual traffic, today was yet again, a wonderful day. Ailee and I had a photo shoot: