Raul's mother's side of the family had a reunion in rural Illinois, so we excitedly flew to Chicago via the airline Mexicana. I wish to take a moment to say a few things about Mexicana... our plane was a bit rundown, but we had excellent service -- no checked baggage fee and they served a meal each way (which came with sudoku placemats). I had forgotten how exciting it is to get a meal, even if it is nasty airplane food.
Nevara had been asking to get her ears pierced for ages, but in Mexico, little girl babies have their ears pierced at the hospital when they are born, so there aren't a lot of places around where you can just walk in and get your ears pierced there. A few hours after the plane landed, we drove to a Claire's and had it done. There were tears, but Nevara was brave and didn't shirk at getting the other ear done. An hour later, after deep-breathing exercises, she was all better. This Thursday, she will have hit the 6-weeks mark, when she can exchange these earrings for something different. She has done an excellent job at keeping her ears clean. I am still very impressed with how she has handled the whole thing from pain to hygene to saving up and buying new earrings.
At the farm there are about 13 head of cattle and many acres of feed corn and soybeans.
Amongst all of the farm equipment, Uncle D also has a Th!nk electric car, and the girls were able to drive around the almost 300 acres with adult supervision.
Each night there was a fire in the firepit after the girls spent a good portion of every day gathering sticks from the oak grove.
The girls and their Abuelita filled water balloons for both firing into the fields with a water balloon slingshot and for the water balloon toss.
The final night there was a big bonfire and fireworks.
Zorra and Nevara were the only kids their age and then there were the two 2-year-olds, T and J. T was a little doll-baby, and the girls enjoyed following her around and playing. J is scrumptios too, but didn't want to have a lot to do with his big girl cousins.
Of course, it wouldn't be a true family gathering if we didn't have Famous Wafers and Cream. We managed to polish off a few logs of it in no time at all.
Our last evening, I was sitting inside, facing the front window while talking with Raul's cousin when behind her I watched as a huge crabapple tree just fell over. There had been no wind nor had anyone cut the tree, it just gave up. The girls and J helped clean up by tossing the crabapples over the fence for the bovine ladies.
Finally, we packed up the car and drove back to Chicago, stopping on the way at White Castle to stock up on their nasty little burgers. Sentimentality makes a pretty good sauce until that wears off and you go, "These are just gross!"
We arrived back in Mexico (missing it while in the US and then immediately regretting being back while in DF traffic). I spent 2 days doing nothing but processing the photos. The family photo is actually a composite of 7 different shots so that I could get everyone's best face in one picture. Zorra didn't smile for almost any shot, so we just had to accept what we had. Nevara looks rough because of the mosquitos. After a very wet summer, the mozzies were monstrous. We had brought bug-off, but it had to be reapplied frequently, and poor Nevara, the morning of the photo she woke up with bugbites around her eyes, at her hair-line, and along her part -- everywhere that we hadn't put the bug lotion. So she was a bit puffy.
Raul's mother's side of the family had a reunion in rural Illinois, so we excitedly flew to Chicago via the airline Mexicana. I wish to take a moment to say a few things about Mexicana... our plane was a bit rundown, but we had excellent service -- no checked baggage fee and they served a meal each way (which came with sudoku placemats). I had forgotten how exciting it is to get a meal, even if it is nasty airplane food.
Nevara had been asking to get her ears pierced for ages, but in Mexico, little girl babies have their ears pierced at the hospital when they are born, so there aren't a lot of places around where you can just walk in and get your ears pierced there. A few hours after the plane landed, we drove to a Claire's and had it done. There were tears, but Nevara was brave and didn't shirk at getting the other ear done. An hour later, after deep-breathing exercises, she was all better. This Thursday, she will have hit the 6-weeks mark, when she can exchange these earrings for something different. She has done an excellent job at keeping her ears clean. I am still very impressed with how she has handled the whole thing from pain to hygene to saving up and buying new earrings.
At the farm there are about 13 head of cattle and many acres of feed corn and soybeans.
Amongst all of the farm equipment, Uncle D also has a Th!nk electric car, and the girls were able to drive around the almost 300 acres with adult supervision.
Each night there was a fire in the firepit after the girls spent a good portion of every day gathering sticks from the oak grove.
The girls and their Abuelita filled water balloons for both firing into the fields with a water balloon slingshot and for the water balloon toss.
The final night there was a big bonfire and fireworks.
Zorra and Nevara were the only kids their age and then there were the two 2-year-olds, T and J. T was a little doll-baby, and the girls enjoyed following her around and playing. J is scrumptios too, but didn't want to have a lot to do with his big girl cousins.
Of course, it wouldn't be a true family gathering if we didn't have Famous Wafers and Cream. We managed to polish off a few logs of it in no time at all.
Our last evening, I was sitting inside, facing the front window while talking with Raul's cousin when behind her I watched as a huge crabapple tree just fell over. There had been no wind nor had anyone cut the tree, it just gave up. The girls and J helped clean up by tossing the crabapples over the fence for the bovine ladies.
Finally, we packed up the car and drove back to Chicago, stopping on the way at White Castle to stock up on their nasty little burgers. Sentimentality makes a pretty good sauce until that wears off and you go, "These are just gross!"
We arrived back in Mexico (missing it while in the US and then immediately regretting being back while in DF traffic). I spent 2 days doing nothing but processing the photos. The family photo is actually a composite of 7 different shots so that I could get everyone's best face in one picture. Zorra didn't smile for almost any shot, so we just had to accept what we had. Nevara looks rough because of the mosquitos. After a very wet summer, the mozzies were monstrous. We had brought bug-off, but it had to be reapplied frequently, and poor Nevara, the morning of the photo she woke up with bugbites around her eyes, at her hair-line, and along her part -- everywhere that we hadn't put the bug lotion. So she was a bit puffy.
I loved Mexicana airline food! We had the best meals each time we flew with them or maybe it was just the novelty of actually being served a meal.
ReplyDeleteThe Reunion locale looks like paradise...my kind of place.
How can you say White Castle is gross?!?! Ok, they are but I still can't ever curb my cravings for them.