Sunday

My parents left on Monday, March 8th.  Here are a few pictures from our last full day.

At church

After church we went out to Cholula since the archeological site is free on Sundays.  We had fun walking around the ruins.  This picture was taken near the church on to of the pyramid.

This little girl wanted her picture taken with Daniel.  He wasn't that excited.

For dinner we ate tamales that were made by the second counselor in our bishopric, Brother Cholula.  He and his wife sell tamales for a living.  The red ones are desert tamales - they are sweet and sometimes have a cream or fruit filling.

Yummy!

We had a lot of fun with my parents here.  They helped the kids with their schoolwork and helped with stuff around the house.  Their 10 days here went really fast.

The Market

On the weekends, markets spring up all over the place.  People set up their booths in parks and along pedestrian-only streets.  There must be some system to it, because the same booths are in the same spot every weekend.  We had fun taking my parents to some of our favorite ones.

Joseph is excited with the new leather wallet that Nana and Papa bought him.

Time for an ice cream break . . .

Stephen was the only one brave enough to try the chili-lined cup.  He had mango ice cream - actually it was more like sherbert.  Most of the frozen fruit treats are made with water, not milk.

This is a cute street near one of our favorite markets.

After the markets, we visited a talavera factory (where they make pottery like the plates in this picture).  Here we are waiting for Karl to get the car.

In the evening, just the adults headed back downtown.  We enjoyed watching these dancers in their traditional "China Poblano" costumes.

These three dancers were siblings.

The Cathedral always looks beautiful at night.

After watching the dancing, we went out to dinner.

It was a fun evening and the food was delicious.

Tecali

We decided to take my parents out to Tecali while they were here (back in the first week of March).  Tecali is a little town about an hour or so away with a ton of marble and onyx shops.  Elena and Chiara came along.

Elena in front of a large piece of onyx.

A cute little church.  Churches are everywhere here in Mexico.

We had fun exploring this old convent before shopping for fun onyx souvenirs.  The following pictures are all from the convent.  It was built in the early 1500's.  Notice how small Chiara looks next to the huge convent doors.

The roof would have been made of wood, and has deteriorated.  But that made it seem twice as cool.  Elena said it reminded her of Cair Paravel (from The Chronicles of Narnia)

Intricate carvings.

You can still see some of the design that was painted on this arch.

Elena

My Dad

Karl checks out this cool stone basin.

These stairs led to the entrance of a bell tower, but it was blocked off.

Karl and Krista

A parting view.

These women typify old Mexico.

The new church for Tecali - very picturesque.

Driving home towards Popo.  There was a beautiful sunset - this picture doesn't do it justice.

Puebla With My Parents

After the fun in Cuernavaca and Tepotzlan, it was nice to bring my parents home to Puebla.  We took a wrong turn and there were a ton of topes (speed bumps), but we made it.

Elena, my Mom, and I after church on Sunday.

Heading out for a Sunday walk.  Chiara has a little yogurt drink in her mouth.

Great view of Popocatepetl as we start walking.

On Monday the kids headed off to public school.  This is Joseph.

Daniel

Stephen

You can see our lovely van in the background.  We have poured way more money into this car than we would have liked, but it did manage to carry all nine of us home from Cuernavaca, and later, with the Watts, it got ten of us to Oaxaca and back (scaring us along the way by quitting in the middle of nowhere, but that'll be a future post).  It is the ward bus from our area of town.  The kids that live in our area come over for rides on mutual nights, and we give three to five extra people rides to church every Sunday (along with our seven).  We've had fourteen people (some kids) in here on several different occasions.

While the kids were at school, my parents, Chiara, and I walked to Costco.  We took this picture from the pedestrian bridge we crossed on the way.

Here you can see where Iztaccihuatl is in relation to Popo.

As you can see, Costco looks pretty much the same everywhere.

Stephen read the scripture in Spanish for FHE Monday night.

This is Daniela, a college student who lives in our neighborhood.  Her roommate isn't LDS, and she doesn't have family here, so she has FHE with us every week.

As you can see, Chiara loves playing with Daniela.

The kids show Daniela their favorite Veggie Tales' songs.

On Tuesday, we took my parents to see downtown Puebla.  This is the Casa de Aguiles Serdan.  It is the house of some famous revolutionaries in Mexico.  Two brothers were killed here, and all those holes that you see are bullet holes.

Karl, Stephen, my Dad, me

My parents and I in front of the palace of government.

My parents with the Cathedral in the background.

Karl and I in front of the Cathedral.