Our great neice Stephany Frias joined the LDS church while visiting my parents (her great grandfather), about 7 years ago. My dad is a convert to the LDS church as well, he converted after he had moved to America and was around 40 years old, so he was the only member in his family for awhile. Stephany has stayed very active in the church and when she went back to Mexico she met Mahonry from her new ward, and they soon fell in love. Now, years later, they decided to get married, first by a judge in their city of Morelia in Michoacan, and the next day in the Mexico City LDS temple, which is a four hour drive. She called me and Becca and my mom to ask if we would come. We would be her only family in the temple and we wanted to be there to support her so we all flew out there. I first had to fly to Boise, and then back through SLC (seems absurd) to get the better price, but that's okay because I got to spend a little extra time with Becca and the Romney family for that evening.
We all had a layover in SLC so we met up with my mom there, exchanged our money to pesos at the airport in SLC, and flew onto Guadalajara.
Gio (front left), Lizeth's husband (Lizeth and Stephany are sisters), picked us up from the airport and drove us four hours to Morelia to our hotel where we met up with some family for dinner. Gabby is standing in the back next to Stephany (her mom), and Mahonry is in between Stephany and I. Gabby and Mahonry don't speak a lot of english, and we don't speak very fluent spanish, but we can get by. And with Gio and Stephany there to translate (and Beto and Miguelito later on), we did fine.
This was my dinner. Enchiladas with sweet potatoes. So Yummy! And you're going to see a lot more pictures of food because that's one of my favorite things about trips. I love experiencing and trying different foods from different cultures.
The hotel Gabby got for us in Morelia was beautiful; so rustic and antique looking, we absolutely loved just walking around the grounds.
Becca and I shared a room and then mom had a room to herself (she needs one to herself with her health; it'd be hard to share a bathroom with three people).
We took this outside our hotel room. Can you believe those plants!!! Amazingly gorgeous!
I love the sweet breads in Mexico. They ate a lot more bread than I expected, and less tortilla chips. My favorite is the Concha sweet bread (the one on the right).
These little lizards were running around everywhere.
Mom, Becca and Gabby outside the hotel Friday morning(we flew in Thursday night).
Gabby took us around the town that morning and afternoon. We visited a couple of cathedrals that were so grand and magnificent.
Here's the aquaduct.
And this is what a typical street looks like. Cement walls, often painted red or white or pink or yellow, and sadly, you often find graffiti.
They insisted we try Gazpacho while we were there as it's famous to Morelia. It's basically various fruits cut up into cubes and then layered with hot sauce, salt and pepper, chili powder, juice and a sprinkled with cheese (they only used these white, soft cheese while we were there, and that was everywhere we went. It reminded me of cotija or like a mix between feta and cotija). We had jicama, mango and pineapple in our cup, with tangerine juice. It was yummy, though I don't know that it would be something I would want over and over again.
Just look at this organ in the cathedral! It's huge!
I love the high ceilings with the stained glass of the saints.
While walking around the city, you often see stands set up where people are selling food. And sometimes they'll just walk around as you're driving, and when you stop, they'll come up to the car to see if you want to buy the food they have.
This guy was playing music on the streets, trying to make a little money.
Driving was a bit crazy, as they don't use turn signals, or even stay in lanes (drive down the middle of a lane), and they often honk and just butt in wherever they need to go, so I was grateful I didn't have to drive and could just sit back and relax (sort of) and trust my driver to take us safely wherever we were headed. The family mostly didn't allow us to use Uber or any sort of transportation, so we only did that a couple of times; otherwise they were always with us which was super nice. I always felt very safe with them.
Before we had to meet Stephany to help her get in her dress for photos, Becca and I took a little stroll near our hotel to explore the area.
We stumbled across this helado shop (ice cream) and we weren't going to buy any, but after we sampled some, it would have been impossible to not have more! It was so yummy and creamy and they had different flavors (not even sure what flavors they were) that were amazing!
In the picture below, this guy painted the top half of his body in silver and when the traffic light turned red, he'd plop his bucket in front of the line of cars and juggle his swords/machetes, trying to make a little extra money.
Friday night was the civil marriage with the judge, which has to be done before the temple sealing; and the sealing has to be done within 2 days of the civil wedding. Beto, Stephany's oldest brother, walked her down the aisle as Miguel, her dad, passed away 1 1/2 years ago.
After the marriage there was food, music and dancing. For hours! We left early at 1am :). Stephany said she got home around 3am. Here we are with Lupita, Gabby's older sister(later that evening, I'll have accidentally knocked over my sparkling juice glass onto her. So embarassing and I felt awful! But she was super nice about it.)
Here at the table we have Gabby, her nephew and his wife, then Gabby and Miguel(stephany's brother, my great nephew) and their baby Emma.
I got to hold baby Emma for awhile which I loved. I feel very comfortable with a baby in my arms.
My sister, mom and I got up and danced for about an hour. Stephany said we either had to dance or be a part of the group of single women when she threw her bouquet; we chose dancing. :)
