Home...and Gone Again

Jaden and I arrived back from Florida and drove directly to pick up the rental van for the Mariachi tour that left the next day. Sadly, we spendt the next 3 hours trying to pick up our trailer and get the lights connected properly. To this day I don't understand why when 1) you tell a van rental company that you are using a trailer and pay them extra for the "towing package" so they can have things ready for you and 2) you tell the Uhaul rental company the make/model/year of the vehicle you will have and you STILL have to buy a $30 part to be able to connect the lights properly. After that fiasco was settled, and I ended where I should have started 2 1/2 hours earlier, we made it home to buzz through some laundry, figure out what to eat, and repack our suitcases. Later that night Stephen got home too.

The next morning we headed out with the mariachi group for a 12 day tour of AZ and CA. We didn't get a lot of pics. I meant to get some from other people's cameras but....no such luck.

The tour was wonderful but difficult. Nearly all of us got sick so it was a bit miserable but - God is strong even in our weakness!!!

The group got to play in a lot of unique settings.

This church meets in a school and has their offices in what used to be a winery. So, we got to play in a winery courtyard!

We had some grocery shopping to do and this grocery store has the COOLEST carts! They are nearly impossible to drive through the aisles though! If you think a regular shopping cart has a terrible turning radius....try driving one of these! Jaden didn't mind though. He was all over BOTH wheels! Thankfully Mia didn't seem to mind too much!

(there was more work happening and LOTS of driving - but on to the fun day).....

Exactly one week after we crossed the threshold of Disneyworld, Orlando, FL we stepped into Disneyland, Anaheim, CA. It was fun but, let me tell you.....don't try to do both within a week while traveling half the width of a continent by plane and the other half by car to get there!

Whereas we didn't see Mickey till 10pm at Disneyworld, we saw him first thing at Disneyland!

Jaden was VERY interested in the band that played on Main Street.

...and watching Mickey dance of course...

Daddy's shoulders always provide the perfect view!

In front of the Disneyland castle (much smaller than Disneyworld)

Waiting in line for the "Findind Nemo" ride

We went on an "actual" submarine...

Eating goldfish while watching the fish out the submarine window.

Alyssa (one of the mariachi members) with a sculpted hedge waiting for "It's a Small World"

Our crew got a boat to ourselves.

We did a lot of things this day but Jaden was much more tired than at Disneyworld (I wonder why......) Really, what he wanted to do was....push the stroller!

He got to play and run at Goofy's house

Goofy has a crazy sounding piano that Jaden loved.

We hit the road again the next day but had a small window of time to visit the beach. Well, actually, the idea was 2-3 hours at the beach. but we got about 1. See, I kinda forgot about LA area traffic. Who would think that the last 8 miles to the coast in Santa Monica would take 50 minutes!

The water was MUCH colder than FL and Jaden wasn't impressed. So...we played in the sand. Here I am with jaden and Mia - you can see the group members enjoying the surf.

When Jaden did get brave enough to sit at the edge of the water - a BIG wave came and doused him with sand.

We stayed nice and far away from the water after that!

The other Mariachi's enjoying the COLD water....maybe this is why we all started getting sick the next day!?!?!?!

We finally made it Lodi, CA (way north). Between members who were staying with hosts on the outskirts of town and having to take people back and forth to the hospital and/or to rest and heal Stephen, Jaden and I ended up without a way to get back and forth to the church. A nice family let Stephen and I borrow their vehicle - probably the ONLY time in our lives we'll ever drive a Cadillac Escalade - so of course, we had to take a picture!!

These maracas were one of Jaden's favorite toys on the tour. We would just go NUTS! Sometimes while the mariachi was playing....and sometimes just to whatever music happened to be in his head!

In Lodi we played on the field outside their church/school. This was our BIGGEST concert ever! There were 565 people that they COUNTED there!

The next day we played at a Farmer's Market. There were a good number of people filling the chairs at the performance area and many that stopped by to listen for awhile during their strolling the market.

These two little girls in the front were really into dancing!

In Bakersfield, CA we played for a missions dinner at a church

and the next day did an outreach performance in the park near a lake

Then, before heading further south towards LA we played for a wedding. A woman found our group on the internet and called to see if we could play for her wedding. She didn't realize that we weren't from CA! When she told us the date and the location we realized that just "by chance" we were going to be only 45 minutes away that very day! God must have really wanted us at that wedding! It was a beautiful afternoon for an outdoor celebration and the people REALLY enjoyed the music. Isn't is amazing how God puts things together!?!

One last pic....our friend Cesar, who used to be in the mariachi group but has sinced moved to Las Vegas, Nevada drove a LONG way with his new wife to see us on tour! Thanks for coming to visit! :-)