No More Mexico

I was supposed to leave for Mexico today but because of the drug war going on at the border I have to stay home. :(

When Mike & I were in the airport leaving for New York I was watching the news and the US Embassy came on and started talking about the war in Mexico. They started talking about American's being kidnapped and the cops being killed and everything that was happening. I hadn't really known any of this was going on before. The US Embassy said they advise all students who are traveling there for spring break NOT to go. I probably still would have gone but I honestly felt like this was in part, an answer to my prayers.

I went to NY and 4 days after returning home, today, was supposed to fly to Mexico for 10 days and then a day later fly to Florida for a week. At first I thought that I could totally handle all the vacationing but as it drew closer I was double thinking my plans. I started wishing that I could stay home from one of the trips and decided it should be Mexico. So I prayed that I wouldn't have to go. Now I know that my prayers did not cause this war and I definetally didn't want every other student to have to stay home as well, but as thankful as I was that I no longer am going to Mexico, I am sad as well. It would have been another amazing experience. I went last year and volunteered at an orphanage down there and this year we were going to build a house and visit the orphanage. So I am sad, but I will hopefully be productive and get school & work caught up before I go to Florida.

Anyways, in an end, I pray that God will watch over all the innocent people involved in this war and that communities and citizens will be guided in what to do to find safety.

Here are some pictures from my trip to Mexico last year and some of the kids from the orphanage we volunteered at, I am so sad I won't be seeing them again this year! :(

Me and two of the girls that I became inseparable with: America & CharvaliaMe and Charvalia hanging out during play time & spending time together. She had the cutest little attitude. I loved it. She kinda acted like me. Haha.A few days after we had been volunteering I was with America when they got called in for dinner. She got up and started to run in and then she stopped, ran back to me, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and turned back to run inside. It was the sweetest thing in the world I thought. America was more shy & quiet but so loving and lovable!

During play time we would bring out the babies who were around 12 months to 18 months old. When it was time for them to go inside we would start taking them back to the house and just realizing they were headed back to the house, they would start crying! It was awful. There just weren't enough caregivers for the kids so if the babies weren't with us they had to lay in their cribs. The man who ran the orpahange told us the children's stories and they are horrific. I could never imagine in my wildest nightmares the things that these kids have been through and had to witness. So as hard as it is where they are, I know they are loved and in a much better place than where they were. Oh yea... I forgot how when I was working I stepped on a couple of rusty nails. They went into my foot and I had to actually pull them out... NOT a good experience. They told us to be careful of lice and not let the kids play with our hair, but uh... EVERY kid kept wanting to play with my hair and I just gave in. This little boy was one of my favorite's. He concentrated so hard on doing my hair and then would come to my front look at me, squint, and then walk back around and change it. He did this over and over until it was perfect.With the pigtails, the hat, and the sunglasses, he decided I was complete! YAY!

Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Like I said in the post below I was able to go to NY to see Ben become a Bar Mitzvah. It was SO SO SO SO SO good to see the family and to be able to spend time with them during this special time in Ben's life. I loved nannying for them and wish I could have done it longer. They are special kids and a special family that will always be close in my heart.

The Bar Mitzvah was a huge event and reminded me a lot of a wedding. LOL. True though. It is what I always wanted my wedding to be like with the party celebration instead of a typical reception. It was busy, special, nice, traditional, and when party time came wild and oh so much fun! This was what the Bar Mitzvah entailed:

Friday night:

Dinner at the Adler's

Saturday:

Bar Mitzvah Ceremony

Lunch

Dinner & Rock Climbing/Dance Party

Sunday:

Brunch

It was a full weekend event but it was AMAZING! The events were great, but like I've said, nothing beat just spending time with the family!

Here are some pictures from the festivities of the weekend...

Ben, Me, Emma, & Sam -- Awe!!!! They have grown up so much! They are SO CUTE!

The kids and the UT nannies, in chronological order. ;^)

Us Utah girls with Jodie.
Ben's Bar Mitzvah cake - that he designed!

He actually lit a candle and gave a cupcake to special people who have hard big impacts in his life. He gave one to his mom, dad, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, friends, and... us baby-sitters!

They rented a rock climbing gym where we spent the whole night rock climbing and dancing to some great music. It was so FUN!!!

NEW YORK!!!!!!!

The family I used nanny for invited me out for Ben's Bar Mitzvah. I baby-sat Ben 4 years ago! I love him so much! I love the whole family! So there was no way that I was missing it! It was so good to see them! I nannied in 2004 and then went back again in 2005 and nannied over Ben's 9th birthday so it has been a while since I have seen the family and they have all grown up SO MUCH!!!! It was so fun to see them and it really made me realize that I shouldn't go so long in between seeing them. But I guess life gets busy right!?

So I flew out Wednesday morning and got to NY Wednesday night. I went with Mike who has never been to New York before so we did A TON of touring and sightseeing. Mike got a hotel in the Financial District of Manhattan and I was planning on staying with my friend Mikell who is a nanny 30 minutes out of the city. At the last minute staying at Mikell's fell through. ACK! I was going to visit some other friend's Sheena & Jason Larkin and they are SO NICE they said I could stay at their place which thank goodness was only like 1.5 miles from Mike's hotel... PERFECT!!!! It was SO MUCH FUN to see them! I totally forgot how great they are too until we saw them again. They are both so nice and so funny! They are one of those perfect couples that you love to be around! Since Mike & I had plans every night we were there plus Sheena & Jason were really busy the only time we actually got to "go out" with them was Wednesday night when we got there. We went out for some NY style pizza. It was so good and again... just so fun to catch up and talk. They are going to stay in NY because Jason has gotten a job with a firm there in the city - which is AMAZING given the economy and job market so kudos to Jason! That is HUGE!!!!!!!

Mike and I kept very busy so here are some things that we did:

Wednesday -

walk around Manhattan Financial District

dinner with Sheena & Jason

chill & watch "Top Chef" with them

Thursday -

Battery Park

Going inside the Statue of Liberty

Look at Ellis Island

Watch some AMAZING street dancers

Eat a hot dog on the street
Tour NBC Studio's

Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe

Phantom of the Opera on Broadway

Times Square at Night

Friday -

Tour of Rockefellar Square

Top of the Rock

Chinatown

Walk Central Park

Time Square in the day

Some amazing park I don't know the name of - but we LOVED it!

Bar Mitzvah Dinner

Walk the Brooklyn Bridge at Night

Saturday -

Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah Lunch

Picture's at house with family

Bar Mitzvah celebration dinner, dance, rock climbing PARTY!!!!!

Sunday -

Bar Mitzvah Brunch with family

I felt like we did alot in the time that we were there. We did some more little things but those were the main highlights.

This is inside the statue of liberty, looking up at how it was constructed.

On the NBC studio tour we were two of six people. At the end they ask for volunteers to be a anchor person and a weather person. Nobody else volunteered so Mike and I did both. I was the anchor person and Mike was the weather man. LOL. It was a fun experience.

Sheena & Jason suggested that we walk the Brooklyn Bridge at night. We did and it was BEAUTIFUL! Just looking at the city all lit up was incredible! Like all of NY, pictures just can't do it justice!

We got a tour of Rockafellar Square and went to the top of the Rock (the top of the Rockafellar Center) and we were actually the only two on the tour. It was really interesting and we both liked it alot! The view at the top of the rock was amazing although Mike kept telling me to not climb on the fence because it made him nervous. ;^)

Saint Petersburg - The END of my trip to Russia

I just decided to put on some random pictures to finish up the last week and a half of my trip. LOL. Lots to cover in one post but I figured it's the only way it will get done. So here is our trip to Saint Petersburg and then some more from being back in Moscow.

This is on Christmas Day in Russia. We went to a museum on Napolean. The invader who tried to conquer Europe. He was actually stopped in Moscow. It was an awesome museum and since it was Christmas we got to see a special live performance that was broadcasted on TV. It was a reinactment. I enjoyed it even though I didn't understand what they were saying.
The inside of the museum is a dome and all the way around the dome is a painting of the war. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Some Russian police officer's that I met... very nice! ;^)

When I saw this sign, I knew I had been in Russia too long because I was beginning to understand and be able to read Russian.

Hard Rock Cafe Moscow. Where is this place not!?

We went to a chocolate factory!

Inside yet another AMAZING palace. This one was COMPLETELY covered in gold. Seriously. Real gold too was what they initially used.

Don't you worry about this ice melting - it's cold enough there that ice sculptures stay frozen day in and day out.

This is a masque

Saint Peter (the first King's) home - I really grew to admire him & his life.

This boat set off the bomb that began the revolutionary war. Well it let people know that there was a war. This was the war that killed Anastasia's father, the king and her whole family. Which is a sad story since he was a good king.

Another palace - It was built for Saint Peter's daughter and holy amazing! SO DETAILED!!! Not even to mention huge! It took over 4 hours to walk through - and we skipped the last half!

This was one of my favorite places in the palace. It was a hallway that was pained by Divinci I think. They had different rooms in the palace for various artisits: Michaelangelo, Raphael, Divinci, etc. THey were all pretty dang incredible. I never knew I could love art so much. At the top of each of these arches was painted 4 scenes from the bible. Each was different, in this picture you can see Adam & Eve being cast out of the garden.

This was my favorite place in St. Petersburg... It was the first museum in Russia and it was a collection of wierd things. Saint Peter loved learning and working with the townspeople. He would take classes and then work with them and make sure they were building or doing whatever correctly. He took an anatomy class in another country and began to really appreciate the human body. He came back to Russia and made it legal to disect human cadaver's for medical purposes. He also passed a law that all stillborn fetus's with birth defects be sent to him so he could prove they weren't monster's. It was incredible to look at all of these fetus's and to see the variety of birth defects that are out there. It was incredible and at the same time so sad. It again really made me appreciate the plan of happiness that we know about and have a better understanding of why things happen and the fact that these children's bodies will be perfect one day.

Russians don't drink cold water. It's all room temperature or heated up to make herbal tea. One morning I filled up my water bottle with water from the kettle. We left the apartment around 10:30 AM and by the time this picture was taken at 2:30, the water in my bottle had turned to ice! Yikes, it must've been cold walking around St. Petersburg but I didn't notice at all.

The Savior on the Blood Cathedral in St. Petersburg ... INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Every part of these cathedral is covered with these amazing mosaic pictures of events from the bible. I loved loved loved loved it! The time that it must have taken to do this is something else. It was beautiful!!!!

Oh yea... can't forget this. After the train ride to St. Petersburg I had to use the bathroom. I paid about 1 American dollar to use this bathroom. I walked in and I thought, SHOOT this is a shower not a toilet. But then realized every stall looked like this. So I walked in. It's kinda like an outhouse, not a real toilet. But it is on the ground. I figured out the best way to do my business and then realized there was no toilet paper in there. Apparently you have to get that out by the lady you pay. So I left and then came back with toilet paper. THEN i decided I needed a picture of this toilet and as I took it, in fell my camera case. BLAH!!!!! That was not a good experience!

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New Year's in Moscow

Sorry that I am so slow at posting --- things are crazy as always with school and work and life in general lol. But I will be having lots of posts coming up if I can stay on top of it all. So... To Celebrate the New Year in Moscow, this is how we began!

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Sister Tatiana Ignatova and me. (A companion from my mission - from Omsk, Russia)

The next few pictures are from a Exhibition Center we went spent most of the day at! There were tons of amazing buildings and exhibitions that we went to! I loved it! The pictures don't really do them justice, like everything - they were just so neat!



We went to a museum where you got to try on clothes from different parts of Russia throughout different times in history. LOL. That was lots of fun! :^D

We also went to a shark exhibition which was neat. I liked this fish below.

This was a dinosaur exhibition - I loved how they spelled Dinosaur. Without actually being able to read Russian, I knew what it said.

We saw a few more things before going to celebrate the New Year. We spent New Year's Eve with a few of Tonya's friends from church. It was a small gathering but it was lots of fun. Thankfully a lot of them spoke English. In Russia they all eat Mandarin Oranges for New Year's... I guess it's a big thing. It surely looked like it from the people going crazy at the grocery store. HAPPY 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!