Usually on Fridays we try to have some family time.  After our gallivanting all over the place lately, we were ready for an evening at home.

So we made some popcorn and watched God of Wonders (see trailer below).  It was especially appropriate because Nathanael is studying astronomy (and actually the video also talked about water cycles, which Hannah has been studying).

So today for my photo of the day I took a picture of the moon.  I understand that the moon is the same phase wherever you see it around the world (in this case 23% of full), but at a different angle.  As you can see, here (from Hannah’s window at 8:39pm) it looks like a boat or a cradle.  You can even see some of the detail of the surface of the moon on the dark side (click the image for higher resolutions).  Not bad for a point-and-shoot camera in the middle of the city!

We have a bad habit.  There’s a Krispy Kreme at the airport in Mexico City (one at each terminal, actually).  And yes, we have a habit of getting a doughnut when we go to the airport.  It’s not exactly Tim Hortons, but it’s not bad.

Today we went to drop off Brittany, who has been here taking photos for CAM International (soon to be Camino Global).  Brittany is on the plane right now (as far as we know), heading to Uruguay.  She won’t be arriving until tomorrow morning.

We’ll miss Brittany!  It was fun having her around, and I know she took some great pictures.  Thanks, Brittany!

Anyway, while we were hanging out with her, we went to Krispy Kreme and discovered they have everything… except doughnuts.

Come back in half an hour, we were told.

So we did, and we got some raspberry fills.

Here are Hannah and Nathanael with their brand new long awaited doughnuts.

Today among many other things we went for lunch at the home of some friends who currently live in Jesús María.  (I say lunch – I mean the main meal in the middle of the day, which tends to be around 2 or 3pm or so.)  I told them about my project – to take and post 30 photos in 30 days – and they were kind enough to join us for a picture.

We had a great time over great food – and now it’s their turn to visit us.

So here we are with Martín and Lydia, with children Zeltzin, Allan, and Ian, and beside Shari special guest Melanie.

This afternoon Nathanael and I were working on the "ollie", a must for street skateboarding.  (Yes, I developed and taught a skateboarding course back in the day.  Never did much street stuff myself though.  Is there a half pipe around here?)

So here he is, working on it.  He got his body in the right place, but left the poor skateboard behind!

This is part of my 30 pictures in 30 days series.  So far so good.  Click the picture to see this image in our photo gallery.

Life changed again today as Hannah and Nathanael started the school routine again!

Hannah went to school for a fairly normal day – English, Math, Natural Sciences, and playing with her friends of course.  And trying to remember how to manage the huge piece of luggage she has to take to school each day!

Nathanael, who is now home schooled, did an intensive science day, learning about the planets in our solar system and creating a detailed solar system mobile.  So his day was full of painting and balancing.

Busy day – and the beginning of a new semester!  Now to start on the homework…

I really need to write about my adventures of last week.  But I wanted to briefly stop by to tell you about our adventures of today.

On Saturday Nathanael and Hannah were at a birthday party (along with their Mom, my beautiful wife), and Nathanael was playing on one of those big inflatable thingmes.  Another kid apparently thought that Nathanael was just a part of the inflatable thingme, because he jumped right on top of Nathanael.

Nathanael was in a lot of pain – his leg in particular.  He refused to walk on it at all that night, and all the next day.  And he had some trouble sleeping.

Since it’s rather complicated to get answers on something like that on a Sunday, we waited until the less complicated day.

Well, I was rather sick on the complicated day (alright, I really should have been in bed all day).  Nathanael was still not walking on his sore leg.  So off we went to the doctor in the morning.

Dr. Lettuce (el Doctor Lechuga) said he didn’t think it was broken, but it needed to be checked out.  So off we went to the lab in Ixtapaluca to get pictures taken of Nathanael’s bones.

Parking being hard to find, I carried Nathanael quite some way to the lab.  Then we were informed that they couldn’t do that kind of thing in Ixtapaluca.

So off we went to Chalco.

Traffic was atrocious.  We drove around in Chalco, through the market and crowds of people, finally making it to the lab.

I’m sorry, they told us.  We can’t give you the results until tomorrow.

Well, my son’s in pain – and the doctor wanted to see him again today!

Well, we can mark it urgent, if you pay.  Oh, you’ll have to pay.

Well, you’ll have to pay three dollars and change extra.

Fine then – could have told us that at the beginning!

So we did the x-ray, I carried Nathanael back to the car (wasn’t sure if I was going to make it), went home to grab food (I slept – remember, I’m pretty sick here.  Poor Shari is doing all the driving!)  Traffic was terrific again.

Back we went to the lab to get the x-ray, then back to the doctor.

No, it’s not broken!  Just some trauma around the joint.

Off to the pharmacy for the obligatory meds.

More traffic.  By now it’s starting to get dark, and we’re thinking about having cena (last meal of the day) and getting the kids to bed.

Nathanael is gently walking on his leg for the first time since Saturday evening.  Hopefully he’ll be feeling a lot better in a few days, and maybe with an anti-inflammatory he won’t be up a lot in the night.

Another Monday in the life of the Cottrills – two cities, two labs, one doctor — now I’m going to eat cena.

I guess I haven’t really written much about our trip home – since we got home.  So – here goes.

Last I wrote we had arrived in Mexico.  Well, the trip down through Mexico took several days, but was fairly uneventful.  Ok, Shari did get her hand shut in the van door, but she recovered quickly.  And there was that incident with the jellyfish and I, but I’m fine now.  Other than that it was fairly uneventful.

And we didn’t even get stopped by the police until we were on our way to conference.  I felt like saying, "What took you so long?!"

So we arrived home a week ago today, and had a whole day at home before leaving the state.  We got the van cleaned and verified (so we could drive it when we wanted in the city), unloaded the trailer, and did some other quick errands before packing up for our CAM team retreat and then the CAM Mexico conference.

We had a good time with our team, then were able to see missionaries from all over Mexico at the conference.  I always get rather sick at conference – I think it’s because I don’t have time to adjust to the altitude change.  So it’s always a bittersweet experience, but it’s great to see everyone.

The conference always falls on American Thanksgiving, so there’s an arrangement with the hotel that we have a Thanksgivingish dinner one day.  Inexplicably, this Mexican-style decoration showed up (thanks to the hotel staff) that didn’t fit this rather patriotic American holiday at all…

Yes, that’s the 11-point Canadian maple leaf.  So I’m not sure what we were celebrating, but the food was good. And it was a nice blend of cultures to remind us of where we had been and where we were!

So we returned home Saturday night and crashed.

Today we were excited to go to Jesús María to worship with our church!  I can’t possibly express how wonderful it is to be back!  We had a great time seeing friends again, and were even able to go to a birthday party (Melanie’s – Happy Birthday!) and watch a piñata get smashed.  If we doubted whether or not we were home, we don’t doubt it any longer!

Now we’ve stopped home only a couple of days, and most of those days we were out and about.  So as you may imagine, there are several inches of dust all over things, spider webs everywhere, laundry to do, and full and empty boxes, bins and suitcases scattered all over the place.  If we can find our way to our beds tonight, and get all the stuff off them, we will try to get some sleep.  Then maybe we can spend some time getting organized.

Maybe.

Tonight we stop – and we’ll be enjoying a day of rest from driving tomorrow – not too far from the US/MX border.  It’s our second day in Arizona.

Can you believe it though – we’re not even done 60% of our trip south yet!  Yes, Mexico is another BIG country.

In fact, it’s even longer to go when you consider that we’re just stopping home then heading out for a team retreat and then a conference.  So we really don’t get home – really home – until the 26th of November

We were able to stop mid-trip today to get a headlight replaced, so that’s one repair out of the way.  And we finished our drive a little earlier today – and we’re REALLY looking forward to actually getting a little sleep!

Thanks for your prayers.  We’re more than half-way home!

Nathanael in the snow this morning.
The freezing temperatures have followed us
up until this afternoon!

So there was one thing in particular that Hannah and Nathanael were praying for – one thing they wanted to experience in Canada.

Snow.

Frankly, it wasn’t looking too hopeful.  While storms were sweeping the eastern United States, it remained sunny where we were.  But finally, in the early morning of the 31st of October, we got a little snow.

Only about an inch.

But the kids were up before dawn, playing with the snow – something they hadn’t done for five years.

It’s a good thing they got up early – it was pretty much melted before the day was over.  But a small snow man remained behind…

… Shari and I, that is.

What? Really?! Yes, really.

Let’s go back a few years. When we first got married (and what a cool day that was!), we decided that someday, somehow, we would like to take a trip to the UK and Ireland.

So we’ve saved and saved and saved. You know, I get a little money for my birthday, and I set some/all of it aside for this future trip. And so we saved and waited and waited and saved.

Fast forward almost 15 years. We finally decided that we would go, for our 15th anniversary (which technically is in April 2012). You see, it’s a lot cheaper and easier for us to fly from Canada, so the timing was right.

In addition, I could count on one hand the number of overnight times we’ve had without our kids in the last 10 years. Yes, ok, we need to do better trying to get time together as a couple. And we’ll work on that. But it’s a challenge for us for various reasons.

So we decided to take our holiday time and spend time as a couple, specifically.

The original idea was mine. I wanted to go and see some of the places where my family came from (I’m only a second generation Canadian born Canadian on one side). So we’re going to see three of those places, including a place where the Cottrills have probably lived for at least 1000 years.

We’ll also have time to see some of the normal tourist sites (particularly in London). And, for those of you who know my interest in the origins of the Bible, you’ll be interested to know that we’ll be (Lord willing) seeing P52 – the St. John’s Fragment (one of the oldest fragments of the New Testament in existence today).

So, the kids will enjoy some (very) rare time with grandparents, and we’ll enjoy some time together alone. (Well, alone with the 67,435,803 people of the UK and Ireland)

I won’t be blogging, but we may have the occasional update on Facebook and Twitter (mine will also post here at the blog once a week), and I’ll try to eventually get some photos up after we get back.

Also, while we’re gone, I’m going to do something a little different here on the blog. I’ll be posting links to some blog posts from the past few months – highlights, that might interest you for one reason or another. I’ll post one each day (except on Sundays). Just a link, the date, and a few words to explain why you might be interested.

So, enjoy! And I’ll be back sometime in the last half of September with new posts.