Here is one more picutre of the boys on horse back!!

The bottom picture is of Nancy! She is Adrian's sister . . . . she lives near Mexico City!

FROM MEXICO!

Jimmy's niece, Nancy just sent over some picutres from Mexico!!! The first picture has Jimmy's sister - Julie in the background!! We miss her so much - she has been living in Mexico for the last 3 year . . .
Gavino has developed a love for horses . . . . he can't say enough about how much fun he had with the horses! The second picture has a picture of Jimmy's oldest brother, Cresencio! Can you tell they are brothers!!!

Cabela's

On our way home from Chicago - we found a Cabela's store near Rockford, IL. I had never been to one of these stores . . . . although . . . . .we have helped support them via the catalog/Internet stores! As much as stores like this give me an immediate headache . . . . we did enjoy looking at all the mounts they had. It was more like a museum than a store! The kids also loved the aquarium!

Grandma & Grandpas

Here are some fun pictures of the cousins from this weekend!!

Baby Evan will be one month on the 12th . . . he is sure growing fast!!

The boys are home!

We arrived at the airport at about 6:15 p.m. - right when the plane was scheduled to land - but due to waiting at customs/security/and baggage it was about 7:00 p.m. before we saw Gavino and Jimmy! The girls were beginning to get worried! Vanessa and Mateo were so happy to have their brother back home again!!

Jimmy & Gavino had a wonderful time in Mexico. Jimmy's mom and dad had 3 of their daughters (Julie, Elba, and Teressa) and 2 of their sons together again! They were missing one sister(Francisca) who is in Texas and two brothers (Humberto & Jaime). It is very difficult to get the entire family together when they live across two countries!

Gavino loved every second of being outside and with the animals. He was able to ride horse and help his uncle and grandpa feed the animals. He barely noticed the language barrier!

As much as he loved his vacation - he was so happy to come home to his family. We really identified that he is a major link in our family . . . . he is best friends with both Vanessa and Mateo. . . .without him the other kids didn't know what to do with themselves!! He was greatly missed!

To Chicago . . . .

We set out at about 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, to head to Chicago to pick up the boys. Good thing Vanessa had some small change in her purse . . . . as mom was not prepared for the tolls of Illinois!! I'm not sure what they paid for as the highway was awful with pot holes!! We got to our hotel at about 3:00 p.m. then ran to get a bite to eat (and some shoes for Mateo . . . . as he got himself ready and had his big snow boots on!) Chicago had no snow!! The girls were so excited to get back to the hotel to do some swimming before picking up the boys at the airport at 6:00 p.m. Unfortunately - the pool at the hotel was shut down due to some people breaking glass into the pool the night before. They offered to shuttle us to another hotel for swimming - but due to our time schedules - it just never fit in. The hotel was very nice . . . . the 3rd picture is a picture from outside our room looking down onto the restaurant below!

Snow/Tamales

Last weekend, the girls and I decided to tackle making tamales! The girls like the ritual of
making the tamale's even more than eating them! As you can clearly see - - - it is a messy
project!! Even without having the boys home . . . all the tamales were gone before the vacation was over!

Mateo even had fun making them . .. in the picture - the very large one was made by Mateo. He was so proud when he ate them . . . . that he took part in making them!!

Because of the heavy snow on the day we made them . . . . . DJ missed out on most of the work . . . but was over in time to enjoy eating them!!