California and Mexico

Brian, Susanne, and Elliott moved to Rosarito, Mexico at the end of December/beginning of January to start their adventure as missionaries in Mexico through YWAM. We were all itching to go visit and since our nephew, Elliott, turned 1 in March we decided it was the perfect reason to plan a road trip. The trip turned even more eventful when Brian and Susanne decided to do a house build in lieu of gifts for Elliott. Here's the link to Susanne's blog post to read about how this decision came about, Susanne is a much more talented writer than I am! Elliott's-birthday-house-build. We decided if we were going right past Disneyland on our way down how could we not stop? Grandpa and Grandma were very generous and gave us season passes for Christmas so we were set! We packed up and began our journey south, first stop DISNEYLAND!!! All 3 kids did an excellent job in the car, we were so thankful! We stopped about every 4 hours and made it to Anaheim in 2 days. Here are some pictures of our time in "The Happiest Place on Earth." Which by the way, Taylor was very quick to point out heaven is going to be much better, but she did agree this might be the best place on earth.

 Mom and Hailey on Dumbo

 Disneyland is great because kids of all sizes can go on most of the rides.    
Can you find Hailey, Kevin, and Taylor paddling in the canoe?
 The Rocket Ships

 We have a picture of the girls with EVERY princess. Hailey says her favorite is Tiana and Taylor says Rapunzel so I chose to include those two in this post.
 Taylor LOVED royalty etiquette lessons from the Lords and Ladies.
The condo we stayed at had 2 pictures hanging in the girl's bedroom, one of Goofy and next to Hailey's bed was one of Donald Duck. When I asked Hailey whose autograph she REALLY wanted to get she enthusiastically said "Donald!" Daddy got Hailey in the right place at the right time so not only did Hailey get Donald's autograph she got to walk around all of Main Street with him. Hailey was completely speechless! Good work Dad!
The girls LOVED the castle! 
 Taylor was slightly jealous of Hailey's experience with Donald. After being in Disneyland several days and figuring out the system we were able to get her a personal experience with Jessie. 
 For those of you who haven't been to Disneyland in years meeting the characters is an attraction that you wait in line for now. We waited close to an hour to meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.


 Poor Micah ended up getting sick several days into our trip. We were at California Adventure and he woke from a nap burning up! I quickly found First Aid and discovered he had a fever of 103.9. Although we were trying to cool him down a bit he thought it was the greatest treat to splash around in the water.
 Aunt Angela joined us our last day at Disneyland. The girls were so excited and enjoyed every second with her.

 On the Jungle Cruise

After 6 days in Disneyland/California Adventure the 8 of us, with ALL our luggage, squeezed into the Suburban and drove to Rosarito, MX. Below is a picture of us at a local taco stand enjoying some delicious perrones.



Last, but not least - the house build! We worked with Brian and Susanne's DTS class to build a 16'x20' home for a Grandma and her 2 Grand kids. Here's the link to Susanne's post about the house build with more pictures and story A-home-of-hope
 The beginning of the first day
 Hard at work! Tabitha is getting a tutorial in using the saw.
 Everyone worked hard! The girls had so much fun painting and hammering and playing with the kids. Obviously the language barrier was challenging, but once  Aunt Susanne helped break the ice between the kids the girls were inseparable. Taylor knew her "Dora the Explorer" Spanish so she was good to go. She walked around saying, "Vamanos amigos, vamanos!" In fact, Taylor was convinced she was fluent in Spanish by the end of the first day. Whenever I asked her a question she would respond to me in "Spanish" and I would tell her to translate for me because "no hablo espanol!" It was adorable! 
Here's everybody at the completion of the house build on the 2nd day. We were all moved to tears by the entire experience, including the little ones. The family was so thankful for God's provision of this home and we were very humbled that God would use us to help provide for this family. Thank you Brian, Susanne, and of course Elliott for the priceless experience to love and serve this family. Thank you Lord for using us, your children, to show your love to others!

Happy 1st Birthday, Elliott!!!!

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