Christmas

On Saturday the 5th, Carmen and I had a booth at the Christmas craft fair, selling art cards. We sold 167 (or so) out of 200 (or so.) I sorrily admit that I was a--um--well---lets see now--a bit shaky-- then again, once you get enough praise the feeling passes. We were fairly successful; I paid off my micro---macro, credit loan. And we put $ 100 aside for next time's costs. I'm taking orders for Christmas gifts.

Merry Christmas,

Narah

Hiya, sorry that I haven't written in a while...  I am enjoying my new haircut,  and we are going to see our friends from Mexico in July...  Oh, and I am 11 now!  Carmen and I have been taking photos with our new cameras and are going to sell art cards!  We gave some to mom on her birthday, Oma and Opa for their anniversary and uncle Steve for his birthday.  Here are some of my most recent photos...  On our computers we can adjust the levels of the photos...  The only one that is here like that is the rose one, the others are original 

My new hair

 My New Hair!!!

Love you all,

Narah

School, sewing, spring, SLRs.  School is going well, a little bit every day.  Sewing is very fun too!!! I am making a long-sleeve peasant blouse.  I go on Tuesday for an hour. Spring, bare foot, tee-shirts; I am wishing that I could time travel back to Las Glorias...  Friends, family, pool and fun!  I got a new camera is an SLR Nikon D60.  Carmen and I are planning to sell our photos on cards.  It is bedtime in 5 mins...  Sooo, TTYL (Talk To You Later).

Love you all,

Narah      

Home again

Hi all, here we are back at home missing Mexico, playing in the snow.  It is nice to see friends and family again.  At first it was strange and I didn't like it, I am still saying, well we can go again now!  We are also eating lots of Mexican foods, and have a sense of adventure.  Hopefully we will get to know the Mexican family that has joined my choir.  And learn some Spanish.  I will try to keep this blog going...

Viva Mexico,

Love you all,

Narah

I must report the good times and the hard times.  We have all been under the weather, we are hoping to be better soon.  Good news is that I saw Las Vegas!  (at about 100 km an hour) I was saying to Papa "tell me if you see any cool buildings" Levi says "What, are you going to drift off or something?"  We did see the "CN tower"-- or the "Space needle" we couldn't tell.  Megan and family, I saw your hotel in a map...  Did you stay at the Excalibur as well as the Luxor?  

After a night or two we got to death valley...  pretty neat place, desert, salt flats, rock hills.  Levi and I tried to catch geckos, did a junior ranger program, and we lived a few nights nights without electricity.  

Supper and a movie is almost ready.

Love you all,

Narah    

Carnaval photos

Scenes form the Guymas Carnival----and our little family Carnival.

Love you all,

Narah

Hi, we are in Arizona, at a KOA in Kingman.  We aren't going to the "Grand Canyon" this trip, we thought we might as well see Las Vegas- if one has to in one's life.  Not to mention the tourists in Grand Canyon area.  Death Valley is this trip.  

Mom wrote this about leaving Mexico and driving 900 kms- in one day.

A long days drive

from dawn on the 

rocky hills around Hotel

Playa de Cortez - cobbled, quiet,

colonial charming; carrying

treasures away from the 

beaches-like conquistadores-

seahorses, pufferfish,

shells, skulls, and broken tiles.

A long day's drive past

fruitstands & pack horses,

taco shacks & military checkpoints.

To the borderland of

cactus & barbed wire...

Then through - all at once

through-

The sights, smells, sounds

and mysteries of Mexico

don't fade but disappear

into memory

And all the tangible is 

understandable suddenly

conversations overhearable

signs each readable

instantly.

And we wouldn't stay there

but drove further North -

A kind of grief hiding

in with the tiredness and 

stress and the growing dark.

Love you all,

Narah

Comment Help

Hi, a couple of people have had trouble posting comments, you have to preview them before you post them, it seems.  

Love you all,

Narah

Copper Canyon

Hola amigos!  We took the Ferrilcarial Mexicana through the Copper Canyon.  It was amaizing!  Beautiful valleys, deep canyons, great expiriences.  It was a 12 hr train ride, but there were such great vistas, that you hardly noticed the time.  Okay, I guess I can't hide the unspokenof.  I, as a child, and Skylar and Levi as children, got a little bit tired.  We took a taxi from our campsite, hotel Bugenbalia, to the train station.  We took the second train that came in at 10:15 or so.  Took the train, as I said it was remarkable.  We hopped off the train in Creel (remember to roll the R in Creel) and stayed at Hotel Margaritas Plaza Mexicana; a wonderfull hotel where we were filled up with a 2 course breakfast and supper.  The next day we took a wander around Creel, esta MUCHO FRIO!  The people in Creel are tourists, mexicans and Raramuris.  The Raramuris are wonderfull people, the have woven shawls, they carry babies in them...  The are like the people you wish you were, they live in caves in the hills.  Mom should be writing this, she appreciated them very much, she says: run away and join the Raramuris.  On our last day in Creel we went on a horse back ride.  It was wonderful.  We were up on a mountain, we had to get used to the terrain, up hills on rocks, downhill on rocks.  It WAS SO FUN!   We were on such an amazing ride.  I LOVED IT!  We even got to trot for a very short amount of time.  Now we are in Guymas, near San Carlos, where Carnival is on.  We went to a parade, there are lots of rides, loud music.  Its pretty neat.  

Love you all,

Narah

  

More cool Mexican culture.

I am very exited to add to our list of Mexican culture.  The campsite we were at last night was accessed by a 45 minute dirt road.  As truly as it is Saturday and Valentines day, all the kids from Isla de piedra (stone island) were riding their bikes to school.  There must have been 100 of them at least, some were sweating, some were so sick of pedaling all that way...8 or so kids decided to hitch an UNINVITED ride on the side and back of the trailer!  If you're wondering if we are crazy letting kids ride on your trailer oma and opa, people also ride in the back of pick up trucks and on ATVs on the high way and no helmets.   We are planning to take the train to Creel on Monday, should be very interesting.  We are at Hotel Bungbalas or something...  In El Fuerte.   

Hope these pictures from the Mazatlan market interest you.  Food for thought.

Love you all,

Narah  

fun in the sun

Us kids on the boat ride back from bird island.

At the Mr. Moro's resterant.  Camarones tacos y pescado tacos.  YUM!  We have americanized/CANADIANIZED* so many of the mexican foods, we have hard shelled tacos, no fresh tortillas, here the cashier catches them as they come of the conveyer belt.  They even have tortilla soup!  As to your question Anne, "basta" is "that's enough" "cuando termina?" is "when does it end?".  

*I LOVE CANADA!

We are on Isla de la Piedra, just south of Mazatlan.  I'll tell more later...

Hasta luego,

Narah.

Horatio, the manager here has organized 2 tours for the people here at the campsite.  The first one was to 'Bird Island'.  When we got off the boat, we saw an osprey nest.  It was in a big cactus, verry-er-ouchy.  There were Caracaras, vultures, frigate birds and pelicans nesting.  Caracaras steal other birds eggs.  Vultures eat off things that are dying.  Frigate birds steal food from other birds, because they can't take off from water.  Pelicans eggs are pelican eggs.  After, we had lunch.

Tour #2  A cultural tour:   We went to a museum about the tamazulas, they were 8 feet tall!  They used hammer like wepans and sling shots for battle.  The museum had a mammoth tusk in it.  Then we went to 2 old ruins, from the 16 and 17th century.  Then we went to the 'Old Tower'.  It was too cool.  Then we went to the government bulding.  So Mexicans from there joined us for the rest of the tour.  Horatio took us to a resturaunt and we all had lunch there. After that they took us to a traditional dance...

See?

This dance was called 'The Rancher's wedding.

For the last part of the tour we went on a small gondela/catamaran.  We played music and danced.  Oh, did I mention that after the traditional dance all of the croud was welcomed to the dance floor.  All of the kids ran away.  

We met some very good friends at Mr. Moro's, they are enrolled with the same homeschool program, self design.  They are from Mission, BC.  

Playing Lego in the sun.  We have seen days with 32 C!!  Or so.

Love you all,

Narah  

Hello from Las Glorias!

Buenos tardes amigos!  Como estas?  I'm just showing off.  We are in Mr Moro's campground.  It has been a few wet days, swimming and all.  8 hrs in all this week.  Today, 4 hrs!  We went in the pool, then the ocean, and took to the waves, and went and got beat up by them.  I got a nose bleed.  IT WAS SO FUN, being twirled and whirled under water by them.   Then we jumped in the pool again and again.  It is so beautiful here in Las Glorias.  Trucks on the beach, frigate birds,   sandy feet.  Alamos was beautiful too, there were locals on horses on cobbled streets.  High side walks in case of floods.  Trying to communicate with the Mexicans.  Levi got caught in a tight situation trying to talk to someone.  His learning from that experience is "One word leads to more words, so you might as well keep your mouth shut."     

Pelicans, Palapas and Pesos.

It is so fun saying "hola!" to people you see.  When you are on the streets in some towns, people come up to you and wash your windows or try to sell you news papers and all you know how to say is "gracias" or "no gracias".  You noticed right away when you crossed the border (which took a while*) that you were in the Spanish speaking world.  It was a neat feeling: three lanes of car and us with our big rig, squishing in the lanes trying to navigate. Looking for signs we could read.  Levi and I were looking for English signs.  "Burger King!" "KFC!" "a WI-FI campsite!"  "Wow maybe high tech stuff!".  There wern't alot of sighns like that though.  

Today we met some Mexican teens and played soccer, baseball and hung out.  One of them spoke English.  But we still needed the Spanish English/ English Spanish dictonary.  Another thing that is neat about this campsite is that, people in trucks and people with stands come and sell you things.  We all went swimming today, warm water, warm weather.  

We went to neuevo Bahia Kino, went to the beach, got groceries and ate out. I had my first Mexican qesadillia, YUM!  Mom has found that she has a weakness for Mexican clay items.

*(Which took awhile)  First we thought that it was Sunday, but it was really Saturday.  The truck crossing was closed on Sunday, so we got to stay an extra night at Patagonia Lake State Park.  So on Monday we set of at what we thought was 7:00 am- it was 8:00 am.  We miss the turn for the truck crossing.  And the other crossing that we were on wasn't closed Sundays.  We crossed with no trouble but the- PERMITS.  Everything was fine (except a little running around to get copies and what not.) Then we got the run around about whose name was on which vehicle.  They sent us over to customs and the customs guy wasn't there, and another guy found him polishing his shoes.  He sent us to another place to cancel the truck permit.  The person there sent us back to customs.  Over all it took 3 ish hours.  It was all fixed with the word 'PAPA'.  Pix later.

Love you all,

Adios Amigos,

Narah

A few posts in one.

I deleted the last few posts accidentally, they were drafts, sorry that it seems like  I haven't posted, but at least I wrote, I was thinking of you.  In brief these those posts were saying:  We were in Chowcilla Park near Fresno...  Next deleted post:  We were in 29 Palms.  There was an indoor pool and Papa, Skylar, Levi and I went swimming.  It was really fun. We also went to Joshua Tree National Park, it was AMAZING!  

And now for today:  We are in Picacho Park, Arazona.  We are hoping to get to Mexico tomorrow morning.  It will be FUN!  I might not be able to post for a while, so, talk to you later.

Love you all,

Narah

A Post in Pix

San Fransisco.

We changed our plans, and went to the Exploratorium yesterday, we had a lot of fun!  There was the Annual International Rubik's Cube contest...  One year someone saw someone do it in 9 or 10 seconds!  I have not yet figured it out.  The mind exhibit was fun, there was a mirror that had two sides: one of them showed the person that you see yourself as, and the other the person that  other people see you as.  There are LOTS  more cool exhibits...  For more details on exhibits ask me to tell you.    After the Exploratorium we went to the Sojourners Community, and did church there.  It was a neat feeling in the service.  A feeling of, I can only describe it as a sparkle.   We are staying in a place called Cowchila RV Park, near Fresno, the places here are starting to sound more and more like names from the Muppets.

Love you all,

Narah      

 I'll skip over the drive here, and just talk about where we are.  Today we are going to San Fransisco, but right now we are at KOA Petaluma.  It has a petting zoo, a pool and a hot tub...  It also has cows!  We saw a new born calf.  Sky is better.  In San Fransisco, we are going to the Exploratorium and the Farmer's Market.  Last Night we went to a movie in the lounge here: Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Sky was set on going.  AND in Petaluma, I got a awsome new hat, the kind that you can put buttons on!

More later,

Love you all,

Narah 

Hey, Its me again.  We are now in C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A-!  Its not that different than Oregon...  Except for the scattered palm trees...  We saw the Giant Redwoods, it was AMAZING!  Some have been alive since Jesus was on earth, that is so cool to know as you are walking among them.  We are in another one of those parking spots with a bit more grass and a outside hot tub and swimming pool.  Levi, Papa, Skylar and I went in the hot tub last night, and Mom stayed and made stir fry and rice...  Papa and Skylar stayed in the whole time, but Levi and I went a bit wild!  We would stay in the hot tub for a while, then we would jump in the swimming pool and get FROSTBITE.  OK I have to admit Levi went in first, and the second thing that I want to admit is that at first we just went on the steps, slowly, slowly...  And then, we decided to do our polar bear swim.  Yes, it hurt.  But to make up for it we watched some of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, it was Mama's pick.  I like the parts that I can understand.  I think we are going to play Questions today.  Any way here are some pix of the Redwoods. 

Hiya all!  I was sooo happy to see all my followers.   Anyways, last night we stayed at Umpqua Light house state park, and now we are at Gold City RV park, with about 2 RVs here.  It is basically a parking space with plug-ins and WI-FI!  The bathrooms here have puzzles on the wall. Lately I've been hogging Papa's ipod, listening to Adventures in Odyssey.  Troughtons, do you know what radio station, what day and what time it plays on?  If not that is OK we have lots...  The radio station would probably not be clear.  ALSO we played on the dunes at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, Levi and I went barefoot, cold, but it got us into the spirit!  (I know what you are thinking: OH NO NOT THE ALSO AGAIN, and OH NO NOT THE CAPITALS AGAIN!)  And we ALSO had some great fish and chips today!

Love you all,

Narah

We did our big foray into the city of Portland today!  We took the max and went to Powell Books, the world's biggest book store.  It is a new and used book store...  There are different rooms for different areas eg: kids = The Rose Room.  Sadly I didn't get anything, I didn't see anything that grabbed me.  But Levi got a Calvin and Hobbes used and it was  $4.95, and The Diary of a Whimpy kid 2.  He is going to share both of them...  We are still at Crown Point RV park, but we are leaving tomorrow.  I also got 2 new buttons for my backpack, a bird and hands with a plant in them.  They are smaller than the other ones and don't say anything, but they are still cool.  OH, AND IN THE PARKING LOT FOR THE MULTNOMAH FALLS WE SAW A HAWAII LICENCE PLATE!!!

Love you all,

Narah

10th

OK, it is the 10th now...  Reporting from Portland Oregon.  We are at an RV park called Crown Point RV park.  We went Multnomah falls and hiked to an altitude of 620 feet!  It was tiring and we forgot the water in the car :( .  But it was worth it!  Mom and Papa were carrying Sky more than half the way ;) .  Hey Corbetts, we are in a town called Corbett...  We ALSO started school today and played soccer and a little bit of baseball.

Love you all Narah

The first few days...

Jan 9th ish...  I am sitting in a rest area in southern Washington just near Portland, with transport trucks all around us. Today we took the ferry to Tsawassen, for, it seemed like hours.  They hassled us a bit at the border, because PAPA went in the wrong lane...  SO, they inspected the camper.  BUT NOW WE ARE FINALLY HERE!! There is no Internet, so I am going to submit this as soon as possible. we are having bagels and soup for supper. This might not interest you, but after all I am the writer, and you are the reader. Its not like: I'm the king of the castle and you are the dirty rascal.  Both the reader and the writer are important.

HERE IS MY BLOG!