We had to wake up at 4am so by the time our first interview was over, we were starving.

We walked to the town centre and asked some people where we could get some frijoles and guacamole. We were met with blank stares and mumblings about cabeza and lengua. Ivan eventually stopped to ask a man at one of the many taco stands we were passing if he served guacamole. He didn’t. What do you want? He asked in Spanish and Ivan replied frijoles y tortillas y guacamole y verduras. He looked at us suspiciously with his broken teeth and sweaty brow and Ivan clarified no meat.

How about fish? Another sweating fat toothless man wearing a cooking apron appeared out of nowhere, keen to help. No, no meat. Ivan repeated.

Head scratching, sighing, suspicious side glances and vague pointing in different directions ensued until one of them mumbled something a Chinese place with maybe what we were after.

The Chinese place sold sushi, go figure. With a huge selection I figured I’d just ask for the vegetarian roll. Turns out that despite a four page double sided menu, they had not a single vegetarian roll. And every single roll had philidelphia cream cheese in it too.

So we asked for 2 rolls with just avocado, carrot & cucumber. The lady checked the menu. We assured her we’d checked it already. She found one with avocado, carrot, cucumber, crab and philidelphia. We said yes yes, but without the crab and philidelphia. She didn’t understand why. There was a quick consultation with the chef to confirm this was possible and finally we were satisfied.

The sushi was awful. And a few hundred pounds of shrimp and chicken had somehow found their way into the side of vegetable rice Ivan ordered. We left with queasy tummies.

After an afternoon snack of canned beans from a gas station, we finally arrived back in Obregon.

The good news? We’re one step closer to Seattle…Visas approved!

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This little family just got hit with a nasty 24 hour bug. Urghh. The worst is over now though, and we’re slowly starting to eat solids and feel a bit better on our feet.

Last Friday Ivan and I took a much needed road trip to Alamos. It was a spur of the moment thing, fueled by the fact that we have another few days to wait until our visa interview and this heat plus lack of things to do here is driving us nuts. So we hired a car for the day, left Mika with her grandma and drove for 2 hours to Alamos for a very good breakfast. We played a long scrabble game, talked about our wedding and drank a couple cups of pretty good coffee before jumping back in the car and driving home again.

It wasn’t so much for the breakfast that we did the trip. It was for everything. For the 2 hour drive with no baby, for 7 hours of just Ivan and I, for the excitement of being somewhere new (even if only for a few hours) and for sitting in a beautiful tranquil setting for 3 hours together. It was just what we needed.

The place is in Alamos and is called Teresita’s. It’s super cute as you can tell from these pictures!

Mika was perfect for her Grandma. She napped, she played, she ate and she was super stoked to see us when we got home. Oh, in other news…Mika is starting to walk! Her record so far is EIGHT steps! I’m kinda embarrassed to say that I almost cried the first time she did it. I have no idea why, but it just feels so…momentous. This is IT. This is huge. She’ll never be a little crawling baby ever again. I’m so proud and excited, but clearly also a little bit teary at the thought of it all

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We finally managed to get everyone together for some family photos. The only one missing is Ivan’s dad! We spent the early evening playing in the backyard of Ivan’s brother’s home and then we finished the night with some sushi and gorgeous entertainment in the form of Mika and her little cousin Maria-Renee. It kinda sucks knowing we’ll be so far away from this soon!

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This is a very frequent view in our lives right now. Reheating beans.

This is the air conditioning unit that sits above us when we eat.

This is our latest morning walk – to buy veges. But you’ll notice, as colorful and amazing as this looks, the actual lack of veges in sight. In fact, I can only see carrots, some green beans and some corn. The rest is just amazingly sweet and delicious fruit.

Mika rides in her car.

Oh hi there! This is Mika, hanging out in the door to the office.

Her latest trick!! She stands and she dances! Well, dancing is a stretch. But she’s pretty excited Look at those strong legs!!!

I’m shooting a wedding tomorrow, then we’ll be in full ‘getting ready to leave’ mode, which means getting rid of a few things still, planning any last minute beach trips, having lunch with family and spending as much time together as possible (not hard, considering we spend all day in a small house together ).

I’m actually starting to feel a bit sad about leaving Mexico…but just sad enough to really appreciate everything about right now. Not sad enough to not be crazy excited about Seattle!!

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• Cheap good avocados, reliably
• The way that people say ‘que hermosa!’ and ‘mira! que bonita‘ all the time when they see Mika
• How the people from the local store always scoop Mika up the second we walk in and play with her til we leave
• How around 5pm when the sun is low, kids play around the streets
• Sunday lunches with Ivan’s mum and brother’s family
• The great typography and bright colors on buildings and taco stands
• The way that the taco stands all start setting up on their corners just before dark, in anticipation for the families and people who will soon head out to eat
• Fresh corn tortillas a 30 second walk away from our house
• Fresh flour tortillas a 2 minute walk away from our house
• The awesome cinema (with new lazyboy reclining chairs and to-your-seat service) that reliably fucks up every movie at some point so we can keep going back for free
• Being able to leave Mika with her grandma and just pop out to see a movie
• Fresh coconut water from the coconut.
• Evening walks where the warm breeze makes it super comfortable being in short shorts and jandals
• Being able to take Mika to see her little cousins whenever we like
• Hanging out with Ivan all day, everyday, whenever we feel like it
• And for some reason the lack of variety here, making beans and vegetables the most desirable meal option for multiple days in a row will surely have some kind of nostalgic appeal to it one day

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