Jardin Borda; Waterfall; and Tamales

Today we went to a place in Cuernavaca called "Jardin Borda." It used to be the fancy schmancy home of a French guy who found a silver mine. It is a beautiful botanical garden. Tessy, Camille, Brianna and Parker.

I loved the ground!! Look how pretty it is!

Not sure what Ellie is doing!!

Tessy Doodle.

This "chair" was in the garden. Perfect for Queen Whitney.

The garden had a little pond where we rented row boats. I got to ride with Whintey, Ellie and Tessy.

There's Brianna, Lulu and Maho up ahead.

Camille, Ellie and Tessy. The garden had several little pools like this. Very pretty.

Sll the cousins: Luke, Camille, Ellie, Parker, Helaman, Laurel, Tessy, Brianna, Whitney and Josh. You can see Abuelitos and Tio Moro off to the right in the distance.

This is a waterfall we went to here in Cuernavaca. We took a picnic (tortas) and had lunch here. You can see the path that goes down and behind the waterfall. Apparently there are even picnic benches there, but because of construction we couldn't go down there.

Brianna on the stairs leading down to the balcony where I took the above photo, and where we ate our lunch.

This is also part of the balcony where we ate lunch. It's all so green and tropical!

Making tamales!!

These cute ladies taught me how to make tamales! They are steaming now as I write this. We will eat them with atole chocolate. YUUUUUUUUUUM!

Pilar (daughter), Luisa (sister to Pilar Mom), Molly, and Pilar.

Homemade Churros

Last night I made homemade churros and Mexican hot chocolate. They were a hit. Maggie, these are for you!! If only we'd have had vanilla ice cream and marachino cherries (yuck), eh? Whitney and Ellie and Tessy had fun rolling the churros in cinnamon and sugar for me.

Cuernavaca--"La Ciudad de Eterna Primavera"

We are renting this home for a week with Mar and Kelly. It's costing each family about $50 per night. It's on a green hillside within a gated community. The homes up here are incredible, as is this home. It has 4 large bedrooms. The hallways are actually balconies that are opened up to the outside. The view is just absolutely breathtaking. Right below us is a golf course and palm trees all around. It feels like paradise. We are feeling awfully spoiled this week! You can see Whitney by the pool.

There's Abuelito....reading?......sleeping? Does it matter? We're on vacation!

I love the pillars!

Tessy and Maho. These tables are right outside the kitchen. We sit here for every meal and admire the view. Or watch the rain.

The front of the door; the outside looking in. I love this big chunky door. All the doors, armoires, furniture and cupboards are the same big, chunky, rustic dark wood. I love it!

I like this plant at the top of the stairs leading down to the house. I thought Mom would appreciate this pic. She probably would've appreciated it more with a nina in it.....

Up above the house, where the parking is.

The stairs going down to the house.

Tessy caught this butterfly.

These are the green hills where the home is that we are staying. It's so green here, it's junle-like!

Molly and Pilar. This is the cute lady that works here at this house. She is the property manager, the gardner, the maid, and yes, the CHEF! The price of this place includes a Chef! All we do is buy the food, or pay her for what she buys, and she cooks all the meals, serves them, then cleans it all up! We took her grocery shopping our first day here. She wouldn't even let me push the cart. And she won't call me Molly. She always says, "Si, Senora." I'm learning some recipes from her. I asked if she'd teach me how to make tamales and atole (a thick, hot chocolate Mexican drink, often drunk with tamales). So we are doing that tomorrow.

The first night she made us Cecina (thin steak, seasoned really yummy) black beans, nopales salad (made from cactus, tomatoe, onion cilanto and chiles), and fresh lime-aid from the limes in the yard. YUM!

This morning she made yummy eggs with chile peppers, potatoes and onions sauteed and then mixed in with the eggs. We ate that with tortillas, salsa and beans.

For lunch today she made sopa y sopes. That's soup and sopes (small, thick corn tortillas with beans, chicken, potatoes, salsa and sour cream on top).

Tonight we gave her the night off and I'm making churros and hot chocolate. I've never made churros, but wanted to give it a try! And it's perfect churro and hot chocolate weather. It's POURING down rain right now, which it does often. Usually it's very light misty rain. But right now we are getting cats-and-dogs-big-fat-rain along with thunder and lightening!

Ninas meet thier Great Grandfather in Tepecoculco

Ninas with thier great grandpa (bis abuelo) Dario Perez. He is 97 years old and very healthy.

All of us and Abuelita with "Papi." That's what Maho and all his cousins grew up calling his grandpa.

When we arrived in Tepe, Abuelita's sisters had a huge banquet prepared for us at the church next to Tia Chela's home. They went all out. Once again, the food was incredible. It has been so much fun getting to know to know all the family here on both sides of Maho's family. Everyone is so loving, warm and welcoming.

These four little girls were amazed by the desserts and wanted their photo taken by the cake.

They thought this jello was especially amazing!

I loved seeing Papi's (Grandpa Dario's) weathered feet in his chanclas (sandles). Those feet have covered so much ground and have taken this man through many many circumstances in life. That's a cane between his feet. He was once the "John Wayne" of this little town, packing a rifle on his horse. At times there were outlaws who would liked to kill him. His had incredible experiences.

He still wears his cowboy hat. He has lots of stories to tell. He told a few that day. He told me a story from his childhood out rabbit hunting with his father. He got emotional a couple times talking about his father.

One really unique thing about this great grandpa is that he has light gray-blue eyes.

The is the house in Tepecoculco, Mexico where Abuelita was born.

Sanchez Family Reunion 2010

Abuelito with of his 13 siblings. One died as a baby, and the oldest brother couldn't make it. They are in order from oldest to youngest. Abuelito is 3rd oldest, and is second in order in this photo. They are: Pablo, Marcelino (Abuelito), Maria, Celia, Yolanda, Ismael, Froylan, Carmela, Rebecca; Bottom (continuing in order from right to left): Alfredo, Moises, Irma. There were nearly 200 people at this reunion with the posterity of those siblings. I'll post more pics later.

This is the church house in San Marcos where we held the reunion. It is so beautiful, inside and out. It is also very old. San Marcos is the place of the very first Mormons in Mexico. Maho's ancestors were among them.

Here's the reunion banner that was made. It includes Abuelito's parents and all 13 living siblings. It was taken many years ago--before his parents died in '97.

Tessy, Ellie and Camille kept themselves entertained by collecting rose petals around the church. Ellie wanted me to take a picture of them "making rain" with the rose petals.

Helaman and Laurel sorta look like they're dancing. Actually they're playing mercy. Laurel won!

One night for dinner at the reunion we had an "elotiza." We ate elotes: corn on the cob on a stick with Mayo, cheese and chili powder. Ohhhhhh, delish!! They boil the corn with an herb called "pericon." It gives the corn such a great flavor. Then with all the fixins--wow, what a treat! You find elote stands everywhere here in Mexico. They cost between 8 and 12 pesos each (70 cents to a dollar).

This was the last day of the reunion. All these cousins are named Mahonry!! There are 3-4 other Mahonry's in the family too, but they weren't around when we thought of this. But my Mahonry is the original. The other's are copycats, 'cause their parents liked his name so well.

Taco Night Out

One night last week (July 21st) sall the adults went out for tacos in San Marcos at a taco joint called Machais. Oooooh wowy!! The best tacos I ever ate. With big bowls full of guacamole. From left to right: Abuelito's arm, Abuelita, Kelly, Mar, Susy, Moroni, Molly, Maho. Maho and I ate all the tacos we wanted, plus two sodas, a bottle of water, and paid about 10 bucks for the both of us! I just can't get over how amazing the food is here!

"Lunada"

Brianna, Whitney and Ellie made some new friends here in Abuelitos' ward. Thier names are Dania and Leslie Lopez. They've been so cute! Each Sunday they have been bringing their Spanish/English dictionary and a notebook full of English words so that they could talk to my ninas.

A couple weeks ago they invited the ninas to a "Lunada." That's a night-time party. It was held at the girls' home. They told the girls to arrive at 6. We got there at about 6:20, and we were the only guests there. The Lopez mom told us that they say 6, so most people get there around 7! In this photo you can see Whitney, Ellie, Brianna, Dania, and Leslie holding a childrens book in English. She brought it out when the ninas got there.
This was a hoot!! They had iguanas that they tied little strings onto, like a leash. Then they tied the leashes around each little girls' wrist and put the lizards on their bellies! We sure got a kick out of that. This is the little sister Tutula, which is an Indian word for pretty. Her dad calls her "Pretty" a lot.

Brianna, Whitney and Dania on the tire swing in their yard. Their home was amongst the humblest I have ever seen in my life. It was so tiny and a quite ramshackle. the yard wasn't much either. But they had a tire swing and a hammock that the kids had fun on. We talked to the girls afterward about how little these kids have, and yet they are so happy, fun, generous, sweet and smart. We pointed out that you don't have to have lots of stuff to be happy.

Swinging on the hammock.

The whole group of kids at the party. The ninas couldn't understand hardly anything that was said to them, but they had a good time. It was certainly a new experience for them!