Hello Bloggy, My Old Friend

Sooooo....the last time I blogged it was about Christmas....and it's about to be Christmas again. That's pretty pathetic. In my defense, I used to be pretty good at keeping a journal so at least I'd have some sort of record of my life, but the last few months I've been pretty bad at that too. I blame the pregnancy. I'm learning that basically anything wrong with you can be blamed on pregnancy. Last night I woke up with a stabbing pain in my right calf. It hurt so bad I reflexively squeezed Ben's arm and startled him so bad he thought I was in labor. Haha poor kid. Nope, just a ridiculously painful leg cramp caused by nothing. When I researched what could cause that it listed a few things that didn't really apply to me, stating that it's most common in people over 50 (thanks for that), but then at the bottom mentioned that certain medical conditions can also cause that to happen, pregnancy was the first on the list.

So yeah, I'm officially listing lack of motivation to blog under the infinite list of possible pregnancy symptoms.

Since I last blogged in January a lot has changed! Most notably, that we are expecting our little girl in just 3 months! Some other updates:

• Ben finished his 2nd year of med school
• Ben was called (again) as the Elder's Quorum President and worked through the changes that came with April General Conference
• Ben took Step 1 of his board exam and did great!
• We had our first family members to visit us (on purpose) in Texas! Erica and Rich made a brief stop in Texas and we loved seeing them for a bit. (Britt had technically been in our apartment before them, but that was only because a hurricane cancelled her flight...sooo...)
• I was released from Young Women's and called as the Primary Chorister. (But I can't seem to get out of my choir director calling...)
• We celebrated our 2 year anniversary!
• Ben spent 6 weeks down in San Antonio doing officer's basic training, a requirement for his army scholarship.
• I spent 6 weeks in a deep depression. 
• I spent some time in Utah and attended our AWESOME family reunion. 
• Ben started his 3rd year of med school, which means that he's out of the classroom and into rotations. So far he's done his Psych, OMM, and Pediatric rotations. Up next is Ob/Gyn
• We moved to a new apartment! (WAY bigger and the same price...definitely worth it.) 

Our move was a pretty eventful Saturday. With Ben as Elders Quorum President we are only too aware of how many people are constantly asking for help moving so we didn't really want to send an email out to everyone. We reached out to a few of our friends in the ward, but no one could help so we just kind of told ourselves that we could do it on our own. We were really only worried about a few things and we didn't have THAT much stuff. We also had our new apartment for about a month before we had to be out of our old one so we were able to slowly move over the non-essential items. The day of the actual move we loaded up the truck pretty easily, but our new apartment is on the third floor and that definitely became a bigger factor than I wanted to admit. Keep in mind that at this point I'm roughly three months pregnant and I had strained something in my back while exercising and couldn't bend or lift without pain. Ben tried his best to do it all on his own, I'll never forget watching him basically wearing our coach like a backpack and walking it up the stairs, but eventually we got to the last item. Our electronic piano. There was no way one person could move that. After having moved a truck full of stuff in the CRAZY heat we were feeling pretty desperate at this point. We called a few other people last minute, but didn't have any luck. We eventually got the piano to the bottom of the stairs. We had a rough go, but we got it up the first set of stairs. At this point we started talking about the idea of a communal piano. We'd just leave it by the stairs and it'd be open to the community to play on! I mean they do that in some places right?? After about 15 minutes of recovery and dread we got ready to move the piano up the last set of stairs. There were a few bumps and bruises on the way, but we eventually got it upstairs. The only consolation is that we shouldn't have to move our own stuff again in the near future. We are planning to stay in this apartment until residency at which time we will have orders from the military so they will pay for us to get movers. Woo!

And now an update from the pictures in my phone:

N&M Crossfit day! It was the first time I'd tried crossfit and it was really fun! Mainly because I had a group of friends doing it with me. As you can tell by the tshirts we divided into teams. When Ashly found out she was paired with me her initial reaction was, "Oh man! Now I'm going to actually have to do the workout!"

When Rich and Erica arrived with Mckay and Macey we suddenly realized we don't have any toys for children. So we had to improvise a little bit...

Checking out the famous Fort Worth Stock Yards for the first time. Erica and Rich finally forced us to be tourists. 

I still don't understand why the Stock Yards is cool...but apparently it's worth it to see these long horns. 

One day I mentioned to Ben that I was craving caramel popcorn. I then I went to a YW presidency meeting and came home to THIS. It was the best day ever.

Ben and I chaperoned a Valentines Dance and we were in charge of the photo booth. 

Birthday Dinner to Sushi for my birthday! 

The theme of my birthday party was "Angel Emilye"

Maria (my boss) had a baby a few months ago and her baby shower was the weirdest shower I've ever been to. Maybe it's typical to have lots of drinking at non-Mormon baby showers, but it seemed a little insensitive to me! 

A girl in our ward was looking to expand her photography portfolio and asked for volunteers to be guinea pigs. I was excited for the chance to get pictures before I started showing so I signed us up! She was super nervous, but we got a few cute pictures so it was worth it! 

 

How I announced our news to my co-workers :)

Well this hasn't been the most amazing blog post, but it's a quick overview of what we've been up to! 

All I Want For Christmas

Oh Christmas. Our Christmas seemed to start right after Thanksgiving when we went to Elf with Ana and Matt. I failed to put these pictures in my previous post, so here they are.

December was a very full month, but mainly full of fun things so I'm not complaining! It started off with us going to a Christmas party thrown by some friends in the ward. Overall the night was really fun, but it did start out some what stressful. I had worked that morning and because we hadn't been able to get to the temple in November (and the temple was closed in October) Ben came with me to work so we could head to the temple together once I was off. By the time we got home it was about an hour before the party. We check the mail because our white elephant gift was supposed to arrive by then. As I was walking to the mail I see a man in a white mail van go to the office door, see that it's closed, and drive away. When we check the status of the package on amazon it now says that delivery was attempted and the person wasn't home. WHAT?! First off, amazon always drops off packages in front of your door. Secondly, that man did NOT try and see we were home at all. (We have learned since this incidence that some of our amazon delivery people are the worst and never even try to drop it off at your apartment. They just dump them all at the office. The other day we had three packages at our door from amazon and only the top one was actually addressed to us.) So by this time I'm fuming. All my middle school insecurities are rushing back to me as I contemplate us being the only people without a real white elephant gift. I will not be the kid that brings the unwanted present! I'm not reliving 7th grade math class! Also, around this same time I have this horrible feeling that we were supposed to bring a treat with us to this party. I reread the invitation and it definitely says bring a dessert or favorite dish to share. I was so focused on thinking of a cool white elephant gift that I totally spaced it! So now we've got 40 minutes to whip something up. Ben goes racing to Walmart as I start preparations on some peanut butter kiss cookies. By the time we arrive at the actual party I'm grumpy, stressed, and dreading the moment we tell everyone our present is actually empty. After mingling for a bit and eating some of the treats people brought our moods lifted a bit. Then we played some group games which were a lot of fun! At the white elephant gift exchange people seemed to be okay with the fact our present would need to be delivered a little later and let us play along. It was pretty fun even though the gift we ended up with was pretty useless. It is a water fountain thing. Something you'd have at an office or something. Apparently it was a gift from last years party and when the lady went home with it she immediately stuck it in her closet to be her gift for the next year. So I guess we will keep it just in case we get invited to this same party this December. Also, there was this terrifying moment when I thought we were going to go home with a real fish. Luckily, the host of the party took pity on me because she saw my face as I opened it. Pets are bad enough if they are cute! I'm not taking care of no fish! Also, I have no clue where we would have put it. Maybe on the back of the toilet? And then one day if I accidentally tip the bowl over and the fish happens to fall into the toilet.... Anyways, it was a good thing we didn't go home with that fish.

The next weekend we had two Christmas parties. The ward party on Friday and a doctor party on Saturday. I could not WAIT to get the ward party over with. We were in charge of the service project. Recently, some experiences with different callings has made me realize that problems arise when you are put "in charge" of something, but you really aren't in charge. When something is delegated to you it is best if it is all put into your hands instead of you being the face of it, but someone else is still telling you want needs to happen. Basically, things did not go as smoothly with this service project as we would have hoped. It was just having the members make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but somehow it ended up being way too complicated. Add to that the fact that the choir was performing during the program and you'll understand why I was happy to be done with the ward party. But the ward members seemed to enjoy it so we will go ahead and place it in the win pile.

They went all out with the decorations...this is the candy cane forest.

Then on Saturday we went to a party being thrown by the clinic that Ben will occasionally volunteer at by translating for the doctors. The clinic is for low income families and is completely run by volunteers. It was a little awkward at first because we didn't really know hardly anyone there, but Ben wanted to go because apparently only one med student went last year and that's all they've been hearing about for the last year. It was a rough start. Conversation around dinner all had to do with doctor things which gets boring reaalll quick for me. (I know, life's gonna be fun.) Luckily things picked up after dinner when we started the white elephant gift exchange! (Which I believe was called a Chinese gift exchange on our invitation to the party...ahhh Texas.) This was the best kind of gift exchange because we didn't actually have to provide any gifts! The board for the clinic provided them as a thank you to their volunteers. At first it didn't look like I was going to participate because there were only enough gifts for a few spouses to get one, but the cutest old man (who had taken a liking to Ben and I when he heard us speaking Spanish) came up behind me and gave me his ticket. At first, people were a little hesitant to steal, but then I picked these really cute bowls and people stopped being shy. After someone stole my bowls I picked a cute fruit bowl and then a candle...basically Ben and I unwrapped more presents than anyone else because we kept picking the good stuff! We ended up stealing back the fruit bowl and some towels. The best part of the whole thing was one of the doctors totally loved me. He kept talking about how I had the magic touch and would only let me pick the gifts that he opened. Haha it was fantastic! Then after the gift exchange I found out that him and his wife always wanted a daughter and they would have named her Emily. So I've basically been adopted. Just thought y'all should know. It was seriously hilarious.

The next Christmas party was the most highly anticipated. The Nayar & McIntyre Christmas party!! (Yes that's right....4 Christmas parties. When we saw a 5th invite we couldn't bring ourselves to go.) We went to this fancy Moroccan restaurant. The food was fine, but I was most excited about Ben meeting my coworkers. I wanted him to see how fun they are and for them to see how awesome he is. He fit in perfectly, as I knew he would. My coworkers really liked him. The girls have told me on multiple occasions that Ben and I are the only people who give them hope that love exists. The other day I was telling them that Ben and I spent New Years Eve watching movies and doing a puzzle together and she said, "You two really found each other." I couldn't agree more. :) The craziest part of the N&M party was when Lakshmi and Maria gave us our Christmas presents which were APPLE WATCHES. When I saw the shape of the box I guessed it was a watch, but never in a million years would I have guess it would be the new apple watch. There are perks to working in big and small companies, but I really prefer the small company. We are such a close group it makes work parties fun and not awkward (I'm looking at you ZRT Christmas party of 2015).

The week before Christmas we dressed up at work...I found this sweater at Goodwill in June and had the foresight to buy it. It will be my Ugly Sweater for the next 20 years. (see Mel's blog if you doubt the need for a good ugly sweater)

Not wanting to have to spend money on Christmas pajamas I'm wearing Ben's school shirt that has some evergreen trees and snow on it. 

After the N&M party it was just a few days until we headed to Idaho! I'm really lucky in that I really do enjoy being with my in-laws. I especially love watching Ben with them. He gets a few more laughs with them than he would get from me with his cheesy jokes. They all love him...it's so cute! We decided that in order to save money we were going to fly to SLC and then take the bus to Rexburg. That wouldn't have been quite so bad if we didn't also have a layover in Denver. Basically it was a 13 hr day of travelling. Probably never doing that again, but it honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. It helps that I never get to be with Ben that long...it made the travelling not seem so bad as got to be with him.

Our week in Idaho was full of fun and zero responsibilities...it was amazing! We played lots of games, watched a bunch of movies, did some puzzles, and just had a great time!

This is a Sound of Music puzzle which was super fun. Whenever we were working on it at least someone would be humming some of the music.

Painting mice! I think this tradition is so fun, but I always wish I was better at it. I'm telling you it's got to be in the Jack genes. I don't know how they get such perfect lines! Ben graciously fixed parts of my mouse that I couldn't get to cooperate.

The second we picked out the kissing mice I knew I was gonna make Ben take a picture like this. I personally think it's adorable. 

So, last year we made a cute gingerbread house, but we were totally upstaged by Sterling and Dan's giant gingerbread rocket. This year I suggested we could create an American Ninja Warrior course and Ben liked the idea so we went with it. Little did we know in a few short hours it would tear our marriage apart......haha okay not really, but there was a point where Ben basically forced me to let him work on what I was doing cause I was losing my mind. In the end it all worked out and we were happy with our finished product.

See those Candy Canes with Life Savers hanging off of them...that's what almost robbed me of my sanity. 

Not pictured: all the hot chocolate we drank, tim-tam's we ate, handbells we rang, songs we sang, racquetball we played, and laughs we shared. One note on the racquetball- I played Ben's mom as he played with two of his brothers. None of us had played since last year, but man Ben's mom was killing me. We played three games and by the third game she was trying to give me points. I would get to serve as many times as I needed, but she'd never let herself get a second try. I've never felt so much pressure to win.  

One kind of unique thing we did was play a family history memory game. Ben's dad reminds me of our dad in a lot of ways. He wanted to include a little more worthwhile activity in our to do list so he suggested we all find an ancestor and play a game of memory with their name and a story from their life. Ben's family is a little different from ours in that they allow him to suggest these activities and don't mock him for his efforts. For real, in the end it was really fun, but at first all I could think was Dad would have had a LOT more resistance in our house haha poor Dad. The Jacks are a little less sassy than the Messerlys. I looked up one of our ancestors and we all went around and shared a story from an ancestor. It was fun listening to the stories, but I mainly enjoyed looking through our ancestors and reading different stories that are in the family search website. I believe the ancestor I found was Grandma Miller's father...I think. His Dad was killed by a tree falling on him when he was just a few feet away. It was a traumatic experience for him and he kept asking why it wasn't him that died. His father had kids to take care of, but he wouldn't have been missed. After struggling for a while he finally heard the voice of the Lord tell him that he didn't take him because he wouldn't have been of any use to him. He said his father was in the spirit world teaching the gospel and is of great use, but he would have been useless to him. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what it said. A pretty humbling experience! He later had a heath scare and almost died. When he saw his father calling for him to come join him he asked to stay on earth a little longer. Yall should look up his memories in family search because it's a good story, but I'm not gonna write it all out here. 

Anyways...we had an awesome Christmas. We missed our Messerly family, but I was so glad we got to Facetime together on Christmas Eve. Family time is the best time! Love you all!!

Happy New Year from the Jack/Messerlys!

One (or multiple) Fine Day(s)

Since I last posted here we've celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving (and now Christmas and New Year...oops), Ben and I both received new callings, and I choreographed a dance for my coworkers that we performed for my boss on her birthday. So lets get started.

First off, Halloween. Recently I was going through some of my client's pictures (we have them send pictures as part of the proof of a legitimate marriage) and decided Ben and I needed to take more pictures together. I had taken it easy on Ben the first year of marriage cause I know he isn't a fan of pictures, but I decided things needed to change. So...that inspired me to start looking for fun things we could do that would have cute picture opportunities. I'm a huge fan of corn mazes, but most of them are kind of lame around our area. Most are designed with kids in mind so they are like 3 ft tall. I found an awesome corn maze about an hour and a half away that became a haunted maze after dark. Ben has always wanted to take me to a haunted house because he loves scaring me so I figured I could convince him to make the drive if I played up the haunted aspect. Being the giving and amazing man he is he gave me half of his Saturday so we could go. It did not disappoint! There were some fun little carnival rides, amazing kettle corn, creepy mazes, and fireworks. There were also nasty farm animals to pet, but we didn't really take advantage of that part.

We also got in the Halloween mood when we went to a Halloween party thrown by a couple in our ward. We didn't really want to spend any money on costumes so we came up with something that didn't require us to buy anything. We are big fans of America Ninja Warrior. I don't know what it is, but that show is so addicting! Ben has dreams to be on it one day and if he wasn't a medical student I would totally be down for that. (Although in order to get on it we are going to have to pray someone in our family gets some life altering disease. They always need an sob story to get coverage.) Maybe 10 years down the road...for those of you who aren't familiar with the show there are a bunch of obstacles that people try to get through so they can hit the buzzer at the end of the course. There are a bunch of levels and if you make it to the end you are named an American Ninja Warrior and you win a million dollars. The only lame part is that there has only been one season that someone has actually completed it. (Well technically two people finished that year, but they gave the million to the one that did it fastest. They obviously made things a lot harder since that year because no one has won since.) So by the end of the season you're super into it and then it's just disappointing when your favorites inevitably fail. I digress....so we grabbed some work out clothes and ironed on some letters and become "Beast Ninjas" for Halloween. (Every contestant comes up with some ninja name for themselves when they go on the show)

This is a picture of me throwing cheese onto Ben's face. We totally won. Although I will say it wasn't because of my excellent aim. Ben was diving for those slices! Commitment people. 

We may have had a slightly lame costume compared to every one else at the party, but we were fine with that. Although I will say we had the best dessert at the party. I saw these adorable "Melting Witch" brownies on pinterest and knew I had to try them. They were basically the reason I convinced Ben we should go to that party...I needed an excuse to make them. So yeah, our treat put everyone to shame.

As you know, actual Halloween day fell on a week day. One of the first things I learned about my job when I started is that they don't mess around with Halloween. Maria and Lakshmi started a contest between some of the other immigration offices and the Dallas Chief Council and his office are the judges. They won last year and needed to defend their crown. There was a ridiculous amount of work time going into coming up with our costume idea and story line. To help demonstrate home important this is to you let me tell you that at my performance review a few weeks later one of the biggest praises they gave me had to do with me coming up with the story line for our costumes. We basically shut down the office that morning and had our photo shoot. Then the attorneys spent the rest of the day in Photoshop putting together the final product. This was our entry:

Hopefully you can read all of it because we were pretty proud of it.

I'm a method actor as you can see

As you may have guessed by looking at the previous photos it's A LOT of fun working in my office. I really lucked out. I'm not just doing work I enjoy, but I'm working with people I really enjoy being around. Because our bosses are so awesome we always want to do something great for their birthdays, but the fact that they can buy anything they want for themselves makes it tricky. Especially Maria, she has expensive taste. So, as we were discussing what to her for her this year Karina brought up a suggestion Lakshmi gave them last year which was to make a dance for her. The minute she said it I insisted we do that. I immediately started listening to some classic 70's and 80's music and the inspiration was flowing. I spent a Saturday choreographing the dance and then a week teaching it to the girls. Then the day of the performance came. Lakshmi ushered Maria into the room that had been decked out to have an 80's disco feel. From the minute she walked in the room throughout the whole dance she was cracking up. It was so. much. fun. The whole video can me found on the Nayar & McIntyre facebook page, but I've put a clip of the ending below for those who don't want to spend 4 minutes of there life watching me dance around like a fool.

After Maria's birthday the big holiday was Thanksgiving! I had seen some pretty cheap tickets to Utah a few months back and decided since it wasn't going to be possible to spend time with both families this Christmas we'd fly to Utah for Thanksgiving instead. The catch was that we had to come home Saturday morning because coming home Sunday wasn't so cheap. We only had about 48 hrs in Utah, but we had all sorts of fun! Wednesday night Matt graciously picked us up even though the airport was a mad house! Luckily, we timed it perfectly and Matt didn't have to try and circle around again. On the way home we were supposed to stop at Ben's favorite wing place in Salt Lake, but unfortunately they were closed (and they didn't update their hours online!). That was a little heartbreaking because that was basically the one thing Ben wanted out of this trip. I felt so bad, but he said it was okay and we settled with Buffalo Wild Wings. If anyone is planning to come from Utah to visit us stop by Wing Coop and grab a few tenders for Ben on your way. When we finally arrived home Ana came over and the four of us had fun chatting.

Thursday morning I went to the gym with Ana because they were letting guests in free. I did my first cardio based gym class in months. Maybe even years. My calves were killing me the next day from all that hoping around. While it was fun, I missed my BodyPump. That afternoon Danny brought over a van full of food he had been cooking all morning. Dane joined us at the house and we had a yummy lunch/dinner. After dinner was over video games were played by Ben and Matt and Ana and I took the opportunity to play around on the piano for a bit. It was an exhausting day! By the end of it Ben and Ana literally woke me up with a bag of tootsie rolls so I would play 5 Crowns with them. I was so tired. We were staying up later than normal and it was even worse than it seemed because Texas is an hour later than Utah so our body's clocks were all out of wack. The next day I opted for not going to the gym with Ana so we could sleep in a little. Friday was pretty chill in the morning. Matt and I played some Super Mario. He was Mario, I was Mario's hat. I'm not usually a big fan of video games, but I'll admit when we were heading home I was already telling Ben I wanted to play that game again. Friday evening was a blast! We had dinner at Zupas! Oh Zupas...how I've missed you! There is nothing in Texas that even compares! Then we headed up to Salt Lake to see Elf: The Musical. It was super cute! We all had a good time. On our way home we discovered that Loren was heading our way so Ben and I got to say hi to Loren, Luke, and Charlie before we left bright and early Saturday morning. Such a quick trip, but definitely worth it.

Now we are back to normal life. I'm getting used to being in the YW presidency and Ben is about to be called as Elders Quorum President. I also still direct the choir...but I try not to think about that much. 😇 I'll post a separate post about all the fun we during Christmas time. Life is fun over here in Texas, but also pretty busy. We sure do me yall! Come visit!!

I'm Leaving On A Jetplane

I'm officially a world traveler. Britt and I spent a week in August adventuring all over Mexico City with Mom and Dad. While the adventures were fun I was just happy to have a week spending time with Midge and the parents. Some of the best moments of the week were just funny things Mom and Dad said.

Ben dropped me off at the Dallas airport Saturday afternoon. Britt's flight from Portland had a little layover in Dallas so we met up there and flew to Mexico together. It was the first international flight for both of us so we were new to the immigration and customs protocols, but we made it through without any problem. It only took a few encounters with customs people for me to be SUPER excited to be in a Spanish speaking country and then it got even better as we see the most adorable balloon and sign sticking up above a large group of people.

Heading to MEXICO!!

Look at Mom's adorable hands holding that in the air so we can see it! Tears.

Follow the Shells Home

After getting picked up by Mom and Dad at the airport we headed home and had a fun night in. We used the night to get settled and plan the week again. Midge also used that night to get acquainted with Dad's cookie supply. The parent's didn't take long to get in some zingers. As Midge is pulling out literally every box of cookies to try a bit of each option Mom says, "Well I guess we didn't need to say eat anything you want." Soon after this incident Dad starts telling us about how his bikes in the exercise room have been vandalized. He told us that he let the front desk know about it, but he wasn't satisfied with their response so he's been "patrolling the area." He'll look at the exercise room when he leaves in the morning and again when he comes back from work, so at least he could tell them when the culprit is striking. Classic! So yes, everyone was in fine form.

Sunday was a chill day as well. I went to Mom and Dad's ward. A cute little thing I learned while leaving to go to church with Mom and Dad. As we were leaving Dad said, "Oh sweetheart, kiss," and they kissed before leaving together. I asked what that was about and they said because they never leave each other anymore they don't get to kiss goodbye. So now they kiss as they leave together. Hilarious and adorable. It was fun going to church in Spanish again. That night we had a potluck on the roof with all the other senior missionaries in the building. That's right, on the roof. These senior missionaries are pretty crazy! Also we thoroughly enjoyed that all the missionaries checking in with Dad and his bike situation. It's the talk of the town!!

Our real adventures started bright and early on Monday morning. Our driver, Ezra, arrived for us at 7 am and we headed off to Teotihuacan. We had heard that Ezra was a character from quite a few people, but we had no idea.Within just a few minutes he told us he thinks once people are of a certain age and still in a single ward they should just put them in a room, turn off the lights, and let them do what they will. Hahahaha! Oh Ezra. When we arrived at the pyramids Ezra acted as our unofficial tour guide. Britt and I enjoyed listening to Ezra while slyly trying to read the sign next to whatever he was talking about just to see if it said anything remotely close to what he was saying. The trick was to not let him see you reading it or he'd try and change his story a little bit. Ezra also came in handy when dealing with the billions of people trying to sell you stuff. We got there pretty early in the day so for a while we were the only people in our area so all the people would try and get us to buy things. Since it was our first day I felt awkward having to try and turn them all down, but Ezra did it very well. He was very polite about it and handled it well. (After a week of being a tourist in Mexico City I got a lot better at telling people no thank you.) The pyramids were super fun to see! I'm not huge on heights so I decided to just climb the Sun. Even though it is the taller one it's stairs aren't as steep as the moon so it looked much less threatening. Ezra and Mom waited near the bottom for us as Midge and I climbed to the top. We took a few pictures, enjoyed the view, Britt tried to kill herself, and then we headed back down.

Mom and I waiting for Midge to climb the Moon

Life's lonely at the top.

I call this look the "I'm a tourist"

Where have I seen this before?

Oh yeah...(couldn't get through a blog post without a little bit of Ben thrown in there) :)

On our way down this tour guide was walking down the steps in front of us. He's obviously walked those step a thousand times and was kind of lollygagging. I, of course, was gripping the rope that serves as a hand rail with all my might. As I'm passing by him all the sudden he slips. I reach out to grab him thinking no one is dying on my watch! After he steadies himself we kind of laugh it off and I tell him to be careful. A few minutes later that same guy passes by Britt and thinking she is me starts talking to her in Spanish. She says she understood enough to know he was referring to the almost fall and laughed along with him. Oh! Another great thing about this trip was Britt's constant desire to buy a jaguar. Mom had told her Rich had purchased one for like $100 pesos or something like that. I don't remember the numbers now. Basically a heck of a lot cheaper than any were being sold for. Most of the sellers tell them that must have been one of the smaller jaguars, but Mom thought it was a big one. So every time we passed someone selling jaguars (which was literally everyone) Britt made Mom stop and ask. (I refused to help with the bartering for moral reasons....okay I just hate bartering. When I did finally buy something I bought it for full price reasoning that I have a much easier life than that lady, I can let her rip me off a few dollars.) When we came down from the Sun we passed other vendors and again Britt was trying to get a dang jaguar. Ezra was there this time as well which helped get the price a little lower, but eventually it was midge just saying, "Two hundred," that got the guy to give it to her for two hundred pesos. A genius negotiator that one. ;)

After the pyramids we went to see the cathedral that's falling down and the new cathedral that's next to it and the other cathedral that's up the long hill next to it. I want to say they are all called the Cathedral of Guadalupe...but I'm not sure.

After those cathedrals we headed to our own, the temple. It was technically closed, but Ezra knows people and just yelled out the window to the security guards and they let us in haha. We walked around the visitors center for a bit and then called it a day. It may not sound like a long day, but when you are spending hours in the car in horrific traffic every day is a long day. We were said to see Ezra go...it was nice having a tour guide, but we bid farewell and prepared our selves for uber driver after uber driver.

Tuesday we spent a GOOD amount of time at the Frida Kahlo museum (and Mom was still calling her Frida Karoll by the end.) Her museum was cool, she had a very difficult life that I never knew about. Really all I knew about her was the eyebrow when I went in that place. Oh! Also, when we were waiting in line outside we met this Australian couple who had been traveling for like 5 months. When they heard I lived in Texas the dude was like...so is it really like it shows on Friday Night Lights? He wanted to know if we really were super crazy about high school football. I told him unfortunately, high school football is not a part of my every day life.

Frida and Diego

The Blue House

 After Frida we went adventuring and found somewhere to eat. I used my amazing map skills and got us there walking. Also, if you are ever walking in a touristy part of town be prepared for a thousand taxi drivers to yell, "Taxi!" as you walk by them. Britt had read good things about this restaurant. When we got there the dude asked for IDs, but let us in anyways when we told him we didn't have them. Apparently that's just keeping up appearances. Midge LOVED her tacos that she ordered and Mom watched in horror as she poured spicy salsa all over them and ate the spices pepper that came on the side. Midge and spice have an interesting relationship. It was entertaining watching her talk back to the salsa, "Okay, okay, I see you!" After the restaurant we went to an artisan market where every booth is basically selling the same thing and you just go around to find the best prices. Possibly being aware of that the vendors really don't want you leaving their shop to look around. Mom would always make sure to never promise we were coming back, tal vez...tal vez. I mastered the art of looking, but not appearing like I was looking so I wouldn't be sucked into a shop. Once you were in you had to fight your way out. Britt found some cute things and I bought some souvenirs for my co-workers and then we headed home to a yummy dinner made by Mom. Oh, a funny little side note. In the apartment Mom and Dad live in the acoustics are a little wonky. You can basically here everything that's said in that place no matter where you are. There were multiple times during the trip that Britt and I would be talking about something and then realize, THE ACOUSTICS!

Wednesday was quite the day. All our days were fun in Mexico, but this one had its moments. By this time I was really feeling this whole transition from never venturing out to do anything to days full of venturing. It started out with a fun ride in an uber. Mom was talking to the uber driver and of course mentioned she was here as a missionary. Some of the drivers take that as their cue to stop asking questions, but he was interested. So he started asking about our beliefs and what not. Mom was fielding most the questions and I'd pop in here and there. Then he asks so are you based in the Bible? It was like an Hermana Messi switch was turned on. All the sudden this dude and I launch into like a 30 minute discussion about religion. It was a pretty good chat. He seemed more curious than interested, but who knows. Although it did end on a sad note when he asked if we (Britt and I) were like his daughters were we used to be close to our dad, but now only like being with our mom. Haha I really wasn't sure how to answer that one. Soon after that we arrived at our destination, the Anthropology Museum. Now, I can enjoy a museum usually. I just tend to enjoy it a little quicker than most. So when it had been an hour and a half and we had covered like a quarter of the museum I was a little distressed. Luckily, we agreed to only do half the museum and we were out of there in about three hours. Midge did agree that if she realized how much there was and how long it would take she would have gone a little faster through the caveman periods. We were already exhausted when we reached the cool part! Although there was one moment that had me enjoying myself. Midge, of course, was desperate for any females involved in the history. So as she came to a statue that seemed to obviously been a women's body she asked mom to read the description. As Mom translates it she start saying this represents a man who skinned woman and wore her skin as an offering to a God. There was a beat and Midge just says, "That was not what I was hoping for." It was just too good.

Did we ever determine if this was real? Rich?

On our way to the next activity we stopped for an Helote

Midge quickly learned they are the best things ever

After that we walked over to the castle. It was a bit of a jaunt, but we made it. On the way there we discovered that the wild life in the touristy areas are QUITE friendly. The squirrels were just jumping on Britt's legs like nothing! The castle was fun, the best part definitely being the places where they still had the rooms set up like they would've been in the old days and we got to look in of their lives. After the castle we were REALLY exhausted, but we were right next to the Zoo and we had to see the pandas! It would probably be like the only time we'd get to see pandas in a Zoo so we hurried over there. We were on a time crunch cause we needed to meet Dad at the house by 4:30 to head to dinner before the ballet. Our feet were tired, neither Midge and I wore great shoes for these, and I had just about had it. We finally reached the Zoo, saw the Panda, got lost for a second, and then hightailed it out of there.

We got to the apartment and collapsed. When Dad arrived I reluctantly got up and we headed off to dinner. Dinner really lifted our spirits! We went to a place that Mom and Dad had been to before. They said they had Mariachis, but when they'd been before they hadn't heard them. The Mariachis were playing when we arrived, and by the time we were seated they were singing around our table. They were super impressive! One of their guys could really sing!

Then the food came. Everyone was VERY happy with their food...except for Dad, but before you feel bad for him let me just tell you that he ordered fried chicken!! You're in Mexico Pops!! Fried chicken?! He said it was dry and def not up to KFC standards. However, the best part was when Dad was trying to get through this dry chicken breast he says, "This chicken had a big pechuga!" For those who don't know, pechuga means breast. I was dying. Never thought I'd hear Dad say that. Absolutely hilarious. Also, there was the moment when Dad asked the waiter how he leaves a tip and the waiter starts going on about well it depends on the type of service you received. If you thought it was good you can leave a certain amount...haha Dad's like no I just want to know where to write it on the receipt.

We had arrived with plenty of time before the ballet so we had some sobremesa, but still had time to kill. We walked around the square a bit, but then headed to sit around waiting for the ballet doors to open. The ballet started at 8:30 and by 8:15 the doors still hadn't opened! There were like 4 different lines that had formed by one door. We knew there was going to be a mad rush to get in and sure enough the second the door starts to open people to charge it! There was only ONE dude taking tickets and telling people where their seats were, but he ripped through those tickets like the pro his is! We were in our seats in minutes. Speaking of which, so we were seated on row A. Dad told us that as best as they could tell row A was a few rows back cause there were rows AA BB CC and DD. Nope. We were straight up front row. Luckily, it wasn't a bad thing in this type of performance and we were able to see all the dances perfectly. There was this one dance where people started coming out in giant paper mache head and on stilts. That was one moment where we weren't so keen on being up front. Midge and I feared for our lives a bit. The performance was AMAZING and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. You want to know how much Dad enjoyed it? Midge convinced him to by the DVD of the performance they were selling outside! So, the day ended on a positive note. Minus the 10 minutes of confusion where we couldn't find our uber and Britt was repeatedly telling Dad to just cancel the ride and get a new one. Ahh, good times.

Thursday was a great day. It was a day of redemption. We had killed ourselves the day before trying to see everything so we decided to have a more relaxed day and decided to go to the Zoo to give it a real walk through. Also, this time we weren't going to have food in Mom's bag so she wouldn't have to pay to leave it in a cubby. We started out taking pictures by the angel's wings then we headed over to my favorite activity of the entire trip. Paddle boats. There is a little lake by the Zoo where you can rent paddle boats. They are made for 2 or 4 people, but we figured we could just have 3 in the 4 person boat. Turns out we didn't think that through. So we manage to get in our boat and Britt and I are pedaling away in front with Mom in the back. I'm thinking this is a little more difficult than I thought it would be. Midge and I can tell that Mom seems to be struggling a little bit. She is pressing as hard as she can but the peddles go like an inch. We soon realize that when someone isn't helping pedal on the other side of the boat it's nearly impossible to push the pedal. So Midge and I take care of propelling us forward and Mom just handles steering. Throughout this whole discovering we are just cracking up. Poor Mom back there trying to contribute, but not having a chance in the world to be able to move that thing. It was seriously the most hilarious time. Every once in a while we'd hear Mom try to pedal and we'd reprimand her.

After a hilarious time on the lake we headed to the Zoo. It was quite an impressive Zoo! And most of the animals we were interested in out and about. Also, lets take a moment to appreciate the poor gazelle/deer type animals. There were SO MANY places with those dang animals and no one cared about them. They are not the animals you go to the Zoo to see. Poor guys.

Probably the favorite animal of the whole Zoo

Can you stop King Julian?? I mean just look at him basking in the sun!

Don't worry...the Zoo wasn't...un-bear-able :)

This guy was in his cave and right as we walked by decided to let us check him out. Guess he can't resist the cat-walk. :)

Friday. I honestly don't remember much about Friday. I know we went out to eat and had some super yummy churros. Other than that it's a blur. Maybe Friday was a chill day because everyone saw that I was a little worn out by all the outings. Then Saturday came and it was time to go. It was sad to say goodbye, but we left with many, many good memories. That week did make me long for the days of going to school 20 minutes from Mom and Dads house. Getting to see family whenever. Ugh. Man now I'm getting sad! This family reunion needs to come faster!

The trip home was a little stressful. By Thursday or Friday Dad was telling us about this hurricane that was headed to Texas. I knew from Ben that our area wasn't affected at all, but our flight was delayed quite a bit. Midge did miss her connecting flight, but we just took her home with us and it actually was a really fun night. We finally had a family member visit us in Texas! And even though she didn't visit of her own free will...we're counting it!

Our time in Mexico was unforgettable. Mom and Dad are just the best people in the world. It was so fun being in their little world. They are so cute, trying to do missionary work whenever they can. They would share a card or thought with every uber driver that would let them. We knew how long every uber driver had been with uber and if they'd lived in Mexico City their whole life. One night I heard Mom asking Dad if they had rated their uber drivers yet. Haha always wanting to make someones day. A good review can go a long way! At another time Mom bought Britt and I some super cute bags. When she paid full price she said, "Maybe he can buy his granddaughter something special with that." So yes, Mexico City is definitely better for having two Messerlys down there. I'll be happy to have them back in Utah, but I'm so happy that they are helping spread a little happiness in Mexico City. Much needed happiness.