a weekend in mexico!

Maybe you remember last spring, we took a trip down to Mexico?  Nathan's sister Jenna and her husband Adam live down there at an orphanage (for lack of a better word) called Casa Vida y Esperanza (CVE).  They have 5 adorable kiddos that they are hoping to adopt.  Our kids love to be with their cousins!

Since the kids aren't adopted yet, they can't come into the States.  So we go to them :)  It's a bit of a drive, but it is WELL worth it.  We absolutely love visiting CVE!

The kids geared themselves up for a 22-ish hour drive.  A friend told me that it would make our journey to Papua New Guinea feel like a breeze!  I thought that was a good point :)  

We did let the kids watch a couple of movies on the drive.  My very talented hubby crafted a wooden platform thingy, and he velcroed my laptop to it.  Lol!  He is one creative guy :)

Thankfully, this is how our kids looked from about 10 pm until 6 am.  Praise the Lord that they sleep well in the van!

We stopped in AZ at this awesome place called Texas Canyon.  Tons of humongous rocks piled on each other.  It is really cool.  Our kids were very thrilled to get out and run off some energy!  This was at approximately hour #20 of our drive :)

Adam and Jenna met us in Nogales, AZ and drove us across the border.  I am always so grateful that they are willing to come pick us up!  The border intimidates me :)

Our kids were so glad to be reunited with their cousins!

Adam and Jenna have baby bunnies, which were a huge hit!

We had SUCH a good weekend.  Adam and Jenna planned some fun things to do...

We went out to eat, which is always such good food!  And once again, our kids were very happy that they each got their own bottle of pop!  Lucky for them, they can't drink the local water :)

We visited Cafe Sed, which is my personal favorite!  How awesome that I can get the chai that I love in Mexico! (Doesn't Nathan look tired in this picture!  Lol...poor guy.  I took a 3 hour nap that day, since we had driven all through the night.  But Nathan didn't take a nap.  He was too busy being selfless and playing with the kids!)

We stayed at the cutest little house, which was really perfect for our family!

 Oh, kind of off the subject, but we had our very first tick experience!  Gross.  Poor Daisy.  She was very brave though, and we were thankful that Adam removed it for her!  Good job, bro:)

Some other fun things...

A trip to the river!  Our kids had a blast there.

Prooooobably not the most sanitary experience though :)  Here is Daisy, holding what we guessed is a cow bone.  Haha!

We were able to spend an evening with Keith and Alisa, our really good friends from Gateway days!  We can't begin to say how much we LOVE this family.  We are thrilled that God called them to CVE and we know they will be such a blessing to everyone down there!

Kaine LOVED playing soccer in their courtyard with their kids!

We sang some songs--Braden played the guitar and Adam played a drum.  What a great end to the evening!

For lunch on Saturday, we went back into town for some Mexican hot dogs. They are sooo good.  They put beans, tomatoes and mayo on them.  Even though it may sounds gross, they are so amazing!  

On Saturdays at CVE, they have a whole afternoon of softball.  The little kids play first, then the older kids, and then the adults.  It was so much fun to watch!

My girls played with the kids on a big dirt pile during the games.  They had a blast, but they sure got dirty :)

These two...so funny :)

We ended with another trip to town, this time for ice cream, after church on Sunday.

Here we are with Adam and Jenna.  We love these two so much!  And God has been so gracious to them--it may sound difficult to get married and already have 5 kids.  But even though it has it's challenges, they are soooo in love :)  We are beyond happy for them.

And here is a picture of all the kids.  We will cherish these sweet memories with them!

(top row:  Fe, Kaine, Halle, Mari. 

bottom row:  Perla, Layla, Leo, Daisy, Mili)

Adam and Jenna, thank you for an amazing weekend!  We are so glad it worked out for us to come.  We love you guys!