Richardson Report

One of the things that this city is famous for is the Malecón - the 3 mile long walk that skirts the edge of the bay.  On Monday afternoon we decided to sneak in a walk before we went to dinner.  Someday we want to catch the sunset but with the time change the sun sets at 5:45pm!  I'm not usually thinking about the sunset at 5pm.  We missed it the first few days we were here and still haven't had an actual sunset experience, but it's reportedly the "best in Mexico", according to travel websites galore!  So we'll have to be sure to experience that a few times. Ice cream is a must when walking on the Malecón - and we found Maracuya ice cream - a family favorite! Life in Mexico... For starters, our washer works great but it does not dry our clothes (contrary to what the owner told us) Our house.  We have a front and garage doors at the sidewalk but the entire property is walled and the actual entrance to the house is the door you see back by the car.  So ...

  We are in La Paz! The house is good. It’s not a four-star hotel or anything like that, but it’s a middle-class house in Mexico. It’s not super well-stocked so we’re going to buy some beach towels and some mixing bowls tomorrow. But the kids love having a pool, and that is really why we picked this house out of all the options. We went to church today and that was super fun. Everybody’s always so nice in Mexico. They have a friendly culture. The kids of course didn’t understand anything and Faith said when they sang songs at primary in Spanish she recognized the music but she couldn’t remember the English words. I think it’s just harder to come up with them when something else is coming into your ear.  I was able to pick out the general topics for what people were saying and sometimes I heard entire phrases that I could translate. That was very exciting!   Apparently they clean the church building on Saturday evenings and Josh caught that announcement and volunteered us ...

So in between travels here is what we've been working on >>>> I spent 2.5 days repainting rooms in my house.  Not pictured is Logan's bedroom. First, the library walls - I had already primed the bottom which used to be maroon.  But it was time to finish.  Here's how it looked when I started  Here's how it looked when I finished.  I love it! I also repainted over the dark brown walls in the hallway bathroom with a modified blue similar to what is in Kenna and Faith's room.  It kind of looks greenish in some lights, but works for me. For my birthday I was sick, but my birthday wish was for a family hike up Dollar Mountain - so the following weekend when we were feeling better we took a quick hike between rainstorms.  Gorgeous valley views from halfway up... Before we left we had Zahid over for a missionary discussion, and he stayed for our faux Thanksgiving dinner and a couple rounds of Air Pictionary.  He's a quiet guy but super fun and...

One of the things I wanted to do this year was enjoy some time with my kids before these three, too, are all grown up and leave me like my very selfish older three kids have done.  Who said they could grow up and have their own adventures?!?!  Also, I've been homeschooling for 18 years and I've always wanted to take school on the road.  This year we were able to make that happen a little bit. Because we had a good friend spending a semester in Atlanta we decided to head that direction.  I also totally love Charleston when my sisters and I had our sisters weekend there, so I knew I wanted to take Josh there and explore a little more of the south.  And finally, we've been mulling over the idea of purchasing some sort of rv/camper and so we decided to rent a small rv and have a test run to see if we like them.  Thus, our September trip became a way to satisfy so many desires. One thing about Walmart is that you know wherever you are you can get what you need. ...