Trip to Monterrey, Mexico

I'm finally getting the blog done from our trip to Monterrey! It was a great trip and Adriana and I had fun seeing old friends as well as speaking Spanish all the time. I learned a lot as well as how many words I don't know, especially the slang words. Adriana added a few palabras en español to her vocabulary... such as gracias, hola y Papa. Before we went she knew how to say agua y mas tambien.



The family we stayed with have 3 girls. One is in Utah studying English and the other two became Adriana's best friends! I had to put a few pictures of our cutie to start with.

Her new best friends.

We also had fun meeting up with lots of other friends. This is Patty y Arturo. Mark worked with her husband at Cemex. The babies are only 3 months apart so they had fun together.

A hug and kiss picture!

I was able to get my old Spanish teacher back for a few more lessons.

They had us over one night for dinner and Adriana had fun playing with Diana's niece.

ADRIANA WITH HER OLD FRIENDS!

Playing at the park with Alejandro.

Adriana y Debanhi

Adriana y Melanie

Of course Aylin aka Rraarrraaa

One of the other really fun things we did was go to Bioparque de Estrella. It has lots of exotic animals as well as an open safari! It was great and Adriana loved to see all the animals in person. She has really taken a fancy to animals of all kinds and knows all the sounds.

The camel... quite aggressive about getting the food. I got knocked off the bench because he was sniffing me for food even though I didn't have any. :)

The Giraffe was much more tame and we even got to pet it. Adriana wasn't thrilled about the close proximity.

More animals...

The Guzman family with their new daughter!

We had fun playing around afterwards too.

We went to Adriana's adopted grandma's house several times also and she loved to play in all the cupboards.

At the airport saying good-bye which was very hard for all of us! We've been home for almost 3 weeks and Adriana still asks for Debanhi and Aylin every day! We have talked on the phone a few times, but can't wait to see them again!

Halloween!

This was Adriana's first time going trick-or-treating and she loved it. I don't think she was exactly sure why we were doing it all, but who really knows (or wants to) anyway. :)

Here she is in her dragon costume before we left.

Check out all that padding in the front and back!

And one after all the hard work, enjoying the reward.

We only went down a few streets, but Adriana's candy bag was getting pretty full. However, she insisted on carrying it herself, even if that meant dragging it behind her. When we got home she enjoyed answering the door with us as others came to our house. It was a great Halloween! Here is a little video of her.

A Fun time in the Mountains of Utah

A few weeks ago, we went to Utah for my brother's wedding party (which was tons of fun). We were also able to see a lot of family and friends. Since there are so many pictures, I'll let them do most of the talking (especially the super cute ones of Adriana)

The wedding party was up Big Cottonwood Canyon at the Brighton Ski Resort. My brother is on the ski patrol there and met his wife while she was working there as well. Before the party we took a small hike with some family members around Lake Solitude. Here are a few of the shots.

And on to the party! Adriana and Kat always have a good time together!

A great waterfall and we didn't even have to hike to it!

Adriana was examining the rocks - much to Emily's delight - and even tried to eat a few.

Here is the crew!

And the happy couple, Chris and Di!

Adriana had fun while the band took a break.

And at the end of the party!

While in the mountains, we also went to my family's cabin. It's up in the Uinta mountains and just the perfect place.

The real photographer!

I love this one!

We stayed with Mark's brother Hyrum and his family. Here are his cute kids. Adriana had tons of fun playing with them.

We also went out to the park with his sister Amy and her family.

Lincoln and Adriana.

Aleia and Adriana.

How much is too much?

Mark's Grandma Bartholomew (90 years young!)

And Grandpa Tanner (91 years young!)

Then we stayed with my sister-in-law the last few nights after Mark left to go back to Dallas. Adriana loved playing with her cousins and they were like big brothers to her!

In addition to seeing lots of family on both sides, we were able to visit several friends.

This is our friend from Monterrey who came up to Provo to learn English.

Some of my favorite roommies!

A mini Jerusalem reunion with my roommates. All 4 of us together again after almost 10 years! And of course we had to take a walk down memory lane.

Here we are with some members of the Romero family. Mark taught them in El Salvador on his mission more than 9 years ago!! They are a golden family. Tricia (on the right) served her own mission in Washington DC a few years ago and now lives with her husband (Mike) in Orem. We were very luck because we also got to see Belma (Tricia's mom, in the red) who was visiting from El Salvador!

It was a great trip and we really enjoyed seeing so many people. These pictures are just a small sample of the people we saw and the things we did. And we wish we could have seen more of you folkies in UT. At least we can exchange blogs!