At the Ranch

Saturday was one of the highlights of our time here. We headed out to the Rodriguez ranch. Rene Rodriguez works at Innotec and this is his dad's ranch, about 1/2 hour outside of Saltillo. (The pictures are in no particular order--sorry about that!)

They had lots of horses there--about 15 colts and another 15 still to be born. This one was less than a week old.


It was pretty much a whole afternoon of eating. When most of the food was done, Senor Rodriguez brought out these jumbo marshmallows for the kids to roast!

Our family was able to stay overnight, so we enjoyed a beautiful sunset...

...and a campfire!

There was also a beautiful sunrise the next morning!

This is a picture of the ranch. The home is small and simple but very "ranch-y"--lots of wood and leather. They own most of the valley. We had fun checking out all of the different cacti and watching the prairie dogs pop out of their holes!

OK, this is just a random picture meant for Grandma Van! She used to tell us how they would do prank calls asking "Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Well, let him out!" We never knew what she was talking about. I looked in the windowsill of the ranch and, lo and behold, it was Prince Albert in a can!!

A picture of the ranch house.

Rene and Claudia have two daughters--Valaria and Ximena. Ximena was so good with the horses and took our kids on ride after ride.

A picture of all the food. Mexicans certainly know how to grill. They always throw on these little red sausages (down in the corner). They also did shish kebabs, potatoes, green onions, gorditas, and lots of meat. One of the best meats is arrechera which is cow diaphragm--something we throw away in the states.

Trina taking her turn on the horse. By the end of the day, they were pros and were riding alone or leading others on the horse!

Mike talking with Senor Rodriguez.

Innotec de Mexico

The girls all bought these bags at the market for 40 pesos (about $4)

Today we stopped by Innotec for lunch. Just as in Michigan, they have a couple of "lunch ladies" who make the lunch for the employees each day. But first, we said hi to Luis...

This is the Innotec lunchroom. Lucia and her mom, Laura (sister and mom of Carlos, one of the team members) make the lunches each day. It was incredible--as good as any restaurant food I've had. Tamales, really flavored refried beans, and a corn and nopale (cactus) soup. Add a little Mexican Coke to that and we were in heaven! Everyone was very nice to us and Celia was like a movie star. After having been there with Mike a few weeks ago, everyone was excited to see her again!

This is the view of Arteaga from the highway. Last time we were here, the streets were all torn up and they were in the middle of a big city overhaul. It was dusty and confusing because of closed roads. I was amazed at the transformation when we came back this time. Many of the homes have been painted these bright colors (the picture doesn't capture it, but it's beautiful to see alongside the road) and the roads and sidewalks have all been completed. The town is so cute now.

Our time in Mexico is coming to a close. The pattern is always the same. It takes a few days to settle in and I always wonder what we'll do with all our time. But then we get used to things and get busy and the time seems too short! Our plan is to stay here through the weekend and then head up to South Padre Island on Monday.

The Market

Today was an adventure! Rebecca and I decided to brave downtown Saltillo and take all eight kids to the market. She drove the Sprinter and did an amazing job maneuvering through lots of busy, narrow, one way streets. We walked a few blocks before finding the market.

I didn't take a single picture inside the market! It's a two story building with lots of food products and restaurants on the top floor and other goods on the bottom floor. It was certainly an advantage to have almost all girls. They were very excited to be shopping so it all went really smoothly. We certainly drew a fair bit of attention with our "siete ninas"--and one little boy!

Will wasn't quite as enthused about the whole shopping experience!

Tonight we're having a sleepover extravaganza! The three Grant girls came along home with us. We're down to our final days together, but we're excited that they'll be headed back to Michigan next month.

Museo del Desierto

Yesterday we took all the kids to the Desert Museum.





The museum covers all things desert: The history of this area of Mexico, desert animals, cacti, prairie dogs. And then, after thinking about the hot, dry desert, we pay a visit to the ice cream man! Mexico has the best ice cream! Caiti and Trina are giving thumbs up to the mango and the limon!

I think the Desert Museum is my favorite spot in all of Saltillo. It's a beautiful museum with beautiful grounds and overlooks the whole city.

These cement slides transport us from the museum down to a picnic/playground area. Rebecca took one step too many and had no choice but to join the kids on their way down!

A Day in the LIfe...

last  night  my mom  killed  a cockroach.  Now ants are crawling around it.  It was freaky!  

This is one of our favorite things to do, going round and round the courtyard.


We thought we'd give you a little tour of our house (apologies to VD Kuyls--it will always be YOUR house!).      The house has an open courtyard in the middle with the hallway around.  Each room is off the hallway.  I love that we can be outside even when we're inside!

                                          This is one of Celia's favorite things to do WITHOUT TRINA!!!!!
She copied my idea when Trina got a pic. too! And she was just faking it so she could be in the blog!
             -- Celia!

Celia and Trina's bedroom.  My bed is the bunk bed.  We have an extra bed too. (by Trina)

This is our living room. We like to watch movies on the T.V.  But it's way smaller then our theatre size T.V. at home! We're still adjusting! (by Celia)

This is Ella and Faith's room. But... they don't have a dead cockroach sitting on their floor! (by Celia)

This is where we dry our clothes. In this weather it only takes at the least about a half and hour.

This is the kitchen where mom makes all our DELICIOUS food! (by Celia)

This is the table where all four of us do all our homework.

This is the courtyard A.K.A Chucha's bedroom!  Chucha likes being here with her "peeps"!  The only thing she doesn't like is the bells.  Each morning the cathedral bells chime and she howls along with them!

Night before last, we went to watch the Innotec softball team play.  We thought they did amazing, but apparently that's because we arrived in time for their slight rally and missed the painful first innings :-).

But why watch a boring softball game when instead we can play with beer caps we found in the dirt!

 

Chicken Fights!

It's too late to download pictures right now, but hopefully we'll get some more on tomorrow.  We spent another fun afternoon with Rebecca and her kids.  It's amazing how well everyone gets along.  We swam for a long time in the pool.  We've introduced the gentle Grant girls to chicken fights and I don't think they'll ever be the same!  (And neither will my neck!)  The highlight of my day was taking the Sprinter to a car place that cleaned the outside and THE INSIDE for $12!!!!  Any of you who have seen the inside of the Sprinter will understand when I say it's almost worth the drive down here just for that!  The plan for tomorrow is the Desert Museum so hopefully we'll have some fun photos to post of that.

Leaving Aguascalientes...

Sunday morning we all had breakfast together at a beautiful restaurant right in the middle of the city.

Outside the restaurant was a beautiful city park and the vendors were setting up shop. All the kids really got into painting these pictures!

The Sprinter behaved on the drive back to Saltillo. Unfortunately, traffic did not. We got stuck in a few jams, preventing us from getting to Sunday evening church as we had hoped. Instead we walked to the Arteaga market, grabbed some churros and yogurt, and called it a night.