Mexico: March 26-28

It seems as if this is the year of Mexico for the Nadalets. We have been down almost every month, it seems, and have no plan of quitting anytime soon. This particular trip was not for any particular "reason," other than Caitlin needed a ride back to the States (she had gone down the week before with another church, and spent a week of her spring break on the ranch). This trip definitely taught us about how Mexico = Flexico. We ended up driving Scott out to the hotel where Praxis was staying on Friday night, before we even made it to the Ranch. We stayed in Carter's lofthouse, near Jen's lofthouse. It was fun to stay down there and feel like "staff."

Saturday morning came and I helped with breakfast and then Matt & I helped lead different builds. I had never led a build in any sort of capacity before, so this was a challenge for me (even though Steve was really leading, Jen was second in command, and then Caitlin and I were kinda helping out where needed). Also, we had 35 people at our site, so it was a bit like herding cats. Matt led with Evan, and they had only 10 people. I know, we should have sent people over, but our group of 35 were all newbies who wanted to stick together. So we finally finished the build around 4 and went into town (the 5 of us) for tacos and ice cream.

Below you can see Evan running down the "sidewalk" to get Danny's attention, as he drove by. He did it and Danny came by to say hi.

Some very inappropriate bunny cookies.

So we met this guy who was building a house with his Romanian Baptist Church from Fresno. He told us about these natural hot springs on the beach and "all you have to do is dig down and hot water flows up and fills the holw." We had a shovel, got some shorts from the Segundas, and went down to the beach. We dug 3 different holes (the last one was like 4 feet deep) and no hot water. I'm sure the locals were laughing at us gringos going on a Mexican snipe hunt. But we got back to the Ranch and the Johnsons and Van Nesses said it was a true story and they are really there. We will have to go back another time, when we have more time and it isn't getting dark soon!

I think this next picture was right after Caitlin accidentally threw sand at Evan.

This picture kind of encapsulates the night. Chaos. And laughing. And I think Evan jumped on Jen's foot. haha

We ran some errands on our way out of town on Sunday, getting cheap medicine, sodas for Jason -- you know, the usual. And ended with Horchata and ice cream!

Another fun weekend. Another good time getting to know Jen better. Another really long drive, for one weekend. But still, ever so worth it!

St. Patrick's Day

Well I am only 3 weeks late with these pictures! That's better than a month! haha

We have a tradition of celebrating St. Patrick's Day with Kev and Linds. I think this was either our third or fourth year doing it. Check out this post for a picture from 2 years ago. It was a week after our honeymoon, in our cozy (read: crappy) little apartment! We made green beer. I think it was just bud light with green dye. Then last year we tried guinness floats (you know, ice cream with guinness on top). Also in the apartment - our last little shindig there. The floats were okay. This year we just did a 6 pack of Guinness, had to keep it simple since the boys were in a wedding the next day and we were all at the rehearsal this night. Maybe next year we will do a full dinner with corned beef and hash?

Here are some pictures of us enjoying our Guinnesses and being goofy. Well Matt and Kev were being goofy. They were also totally entranced by the "rocket" inside the bottle, it makes the beer smoother and like it is fresh from the draught. yummy!

This is Matt patronizing me. Can you tell? And look at poor Halvsies all flopped around in my lap! haha

A Thursday Night Wedding

Back in March, a couple good friends of ours tied the knot. Matthew was a groomsman, but I was lucky enough to just attend the wedding. I don't know if that's the right word - but it was nice to not worry about what happened when and making sure everything went smoothly. Here are a few pictures:

The guys walked in like a mob with their sunglasses on - spreading out so that the groom could "appear" from behind them. It was awesome

Me and the hubs at the table. We like to be goofy!

Marcos (another groomsman) insisted that we have a good picture together. Mom, here is one of us smiling all nice and pretty -I think we look pretty dang good, if I do say so myself hehe

Kevin & Linds, our good friends. Kevin was also a groomsman.

Being goofy!

Again with the goofiness...

Jake'snew father in law gave him a sword during his toast. That was pretty dang sweet!

This was the group that we went camping with on New Years. The 3 guys were obviously in the wedding, we girls sat together during the ceremony and called ourselves the first wives club - cuz we were just waiting for our hubbys! Isn't the bride just stunning?

Lastly, the favors. Delicious cookies. I'm going to post the recipe on Newly Wife soon. :)