One of the fun parts (and perhaps the most stressful) of traveling in a foreign country is trying to figure out what to order from the menu. I am a little picky…tending to steer clear of meats whenever possible.  If you had to buy your meat like this, wouldn’t you want to become a vegan, too?  I’ve learned to accept the fact that if I find a meat-less dish, it probably has cheese.  Cheese is also sold on open counters,...

Tapalpa is 1 of the designated 36 “Magic” towns in Mexico, and is a small alpine mountain town Southwest of Lake Chapala and Guadalajara.   It rightly deserves this title, and were thrilled to make an overnight trek with some good friends up to this sweet mountain village! Like any Mexican village, a chapel and plaza mark the center of town and most activity. I’ve never learned if it is...

Jared received a phone call from a long-lost second cousin, who was visiting Mexico with her (Mexican) husband and their 7 children, for the very first time! Long story short, our little two bedroom home was dotted with air mattresses and cots donated by our friends for two nights as we hosted their family. Their family wasn’t interested in making big road trips with their 7 kids (they were already spending a lot of time on the road),...

A new roof, that is… Sometimes I find it amazing that we can be friends with people that we can barely communicate with! One of the new families in our church ward/congregation has 3 children who are all close in age to our children. The parents, Maria and Luis, parents do not speak English, and so I do my best to put together my truly terrible Spanish in return. They live up at the very top of the hill in Chapala, which means that...

Ella and Maiya enjoy having play dates as often as possible. One day when their friend, Alex, was over…we discovered them in the front gate “selling” beaded jewelry they had made. We thought it was cute, and didn’t stop them. We live on a dead-end street with very little traffic. We were surprised when they actually managed to sell a few of their very unique creations! Business owners in training… The house...

I attended my first circus since my childhood (Mom—did I ever go to a circus? I’m thinking maybe…), and it was quite the experience! This flat empty property became a large circus arena almost overnight. I asked Jared how in the world they could set up these tents, and he suggested they still use elephants (as in the Dumbo movie)…. It was a Mexican ghetto circus…and not a cheap one! We went with some friends...