Rainbeau Seitz

Another month, another trip to Nuevo Laredo. Considering how often we visit our friends in Mexico, it’s a shame that my Spanish is so terrible. We had another wonderful week, filled with LOTS of delicious food, cement mixing, roof building, and awful Spanglish.

Welcome home Rainbeau.

On the first day, Abril decided to try out the new basketballs Dad brought.

For dessert that first night, Ana made us an apple & cheese pie, with “Bienvenidos” in the crust.

This is inside that huge Catholic cathedral we visit every year.

Manuel, I could shoot you for days and days.

These are the homemade popsicles or polos (pronounced poi-yo) that Nelly brought to us while we worked.

Mom chowing down a vanilla polo.

Hi Reuben!

Here is the Kid’s Club singing us a few songs.

Manuel did an amazing job leading the Wednesday evening service.

Damaris & Abril were a little preoccupied.

Federico is a beast on the tamborine!

Antonio played too!

This was the first time we met this fellow. The Kid’s Club is growing fast and there were many children that we had never seen before.

Here is my Dad, who’s wearing the shirt they gave us last year & the name-tag they gave us this year, and Reuben who will one day be an international singing sensation.

Damaris & Davíd enjoying Mapy’s dog.

Reuben, the perfect exposure test subject.

Reuben’s parents, Roberto & Kasumi.

One afternoon we all went to the Nuevo Laredo Regional Zoo.

I love this photo because the giraffe is in Mexico, but the buildings right behind him are in America. Most people don’t understand how close the border cities really are.

Here is my mother trying to steal Damaris away from me.

We tried to teach Antonio Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” only to find out that he already knew it! Either way, he was too embarrassed to sing it in front of us.

The flock of ostriches were right by the fence, catching flies.

You said you wanted a closer look, right?

We often tease our Mexican friends about being so much shorter than us.

Luckily Ana has quite the sense of humor.

That night we all went out for dinner. While we ate our dessert, which was Bill’s annual strawberry birthday cake, we shared stories of memories we have together. This was the first time we heard our Mexican friends’ interpretation of events we’ve experienced together. Needless to say, it got pretty sappy by the end.

My all-time favorite photo of Anita!

This week we learned the quickest way to Damaris’ heart is to spin her. It doesn’t matter which direction, or at what speed– just spin!

For as long as we’ve been coming on these trips (a decade) we’ve brought digital cameras to document the week. We send pictures and photo albums back to our friends across the border. But in the last couple years they have their own cameras and have turned the tables on us, taking our picture.

I wonder who they share their photos with?