Breakfast: oatmeal, bananas and carrot cake.  This was a welcome change in food.

This was the day where D was sent to re-roof another house with a small crew of guys.  Our team worked hard on finishing the houses, including laying down new cement for the entryway (the original porch was placed in the wrong area before we arrived, as can be seen here).  I did not feel too useful on this day, but I did a lot of sanding on the inside since the wood is unfinished.

On the left hand side you can see the hole that was made for a whirlybird, which allows for ventilation.

Cement was also needed for the clothesline.

The families were excited to see the arrival of their mattresses and beds.  Two little kids put together the beds in no time flat.

The families graciously provided lunch for us.  This was no small feat, especially since our group was so large.  Check out this wood burning stove! 

Fried chicken, macaroni salad, beans and tortillas.  There was so much food, and they kept on offering us more.

For dinner we had chicken wrapped in foil, salad, rice, flour tortillas and fresh guacamole.  I think this was my favorite dinner at IDT.

There was a spectacular sunset after dinner. 

Before we went on the trip we were told to bring our own snacks.  D said not to worry, because “this is WPC, of course there will be plenty of snacks”.  Sure enough, there were more than enough snacks to go around. 

The kids stayed up late most nights playing card games.  D and I hung out for a little while before turning in early. 

Chilaquiles for breakfast.

Today was painting day for me, and roofing day for D.  The future homeowners and friends/relatives helped us paint.  It was nice that they wanted to contribute.

One of our team members was able to have the paint donated by Dunn Edwards.  I think the colors turned out nice, and they looked nice side-by-side.

D hammed it up on the roof.

Coming together…

Dinner was posole.  It was good, but I needed a palate cleanser—too much of the same flavors was getting monotonous.

Ice cream outing to the rescue!

I think this guy stayed open a little later just for us.  I’m sure our large group made it worth his while.

Una paleta con cajeta.  I thought it was an ice cream bar with a block of caramel, but the brown part tasted kind of fruity, like a fruit leather.  It was good, just not what I was expecting.

D woke up early to go running, as he was able to recruit some running partners (not me, of course).  At 6:45 a.m. we had a short devotional message by Gerald.  The theme of the week was God as the Potter, with us as the clay. 

Monday morning was probably our best breakfast of the week: egg, potato and bacon burritos.

We loaded up the vans and headed for the worksite.  Turns out that the two houses we were building were on the same lot, and the church  where the VBS was held was also within walking distance.

This is a picture of where one of the families was living.  (The boy in the wheelchair was a friend/relative of the family we were building for).  The two outhouses in the back were donated by our church not too long prior to our arrival.  (That’s what we used to go when we were on the jobsite).

Inside shot.

There were various kids that appeared throughout the week to check out the progress—very cute.

Here is a picture of the materials we started out with.  It is hard to believe that we were able to make two houses from this.  The only thing that was pre-made was the cement foundation, which you can see in the back left.

D and I worked on different houses.  I think most of the spouses were split up.  I was assigned to the wall team and D was assigned to the roof team.  The first day there was a lot of measuring, cutting and nailing.  By the end of the day, the walls were up and the roofs were in place!

As you can see, it was pretty overcast in the morning.  The cool weather was definitely a blessing, and it lasted each day of the build.

For lunch we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, chips and snacks.  The afternoon brought the heavy lifting.  Knowing that I could not be of much help, I decided to document the process. 

There was barbed wire right near the edge of the house, which made putting the roof on even more precarious.

D had the privilege of using the “Red Head” to attach the wood to the concrete for the first time.  These are the casings as evidence.  I think he just enjoyed yelling “Fire in the Hole!”

It was a good, productive day.  No major injuries, just sore muscles.

For dinner we had “Eat Like a Local” night: beans, rice, corn tortillas and nopales (cactus).  This vegetarian meal did not go over too well with some, especially after the hard day of work.  The nopales were reminiscent of green beans, and did not have much flavor. 

Norma did make us another cake though, so that was nice.  D and I both went to sleep early—we needed it.

This is the team that our church sent down to Baja this year.  This was D’s fourth time going, and my first.  We had a big team this year, 40+ people.  We built two houses and ran a VBS for the kids in Vincente Guerrero.

We rode down in four 14 passenger vans, plus two vans for another church from Northern California, Orchard Valley.  D was the navigator for our van, although our veteran driver Gerald, knew where he was going.  D was in charge of giving the driver the tolls.

We said goodbye to our kids in the parking lot.  We are so fortunate that they were able to stay with my parents for the week.

We left on Sunday, soon after our scheduled departure time of 8 a.m.  The ride was bumpy, and the back seats have no head support, so I started to feel carsick.  Fortunately, it was not too long before our first stop at a Costco in Ensenada.  I was able to get some Dramamine from “Dr.” Miles, and felt much better the rest of the way. 

The Costco food court was almost exactly the same as in the States.  D had our van’s food money and ordered hot dogs, and a pizza for us.  FYI, the exchange rates is about 12 pesos to a dollar.

One different thing is that they have mango slushies, which were very good and refreshing.

Our kids love mango, and they would have loved this drink!

We arrived at our base camp at around 3 p.m.

We received a short orientation and were told that the other group that was scheduled to be there cancelled.  We were happy, because that meant more room for us!  We picked out our beds, and unpacked our things.  About an hour later we were informed that it turned out that the group was in fact coming.  We had to consolidate rooms to make more room, and we ended up having to squeeze nine women into our cabin.  I ended up on a top bunk, but in the end it was fine. 

Here’s a picture of D’s room, to give you an idea of our sleeping quarters.

Here are some pictures of the IDT facility…

Kitchen

Dining Hall

Santiago’s—a small gift shop.

Bathroom facilities:

This policy took some getting used to!

For dinner, we went out to get tacos.

I ate one pork taco and one beef taco.  Both were good, but I especially enjoyed the pork, which they cut off a spit, as shown above.

D went across the street and Lynnus bought him a container of mango that was cut fresh in front of them.  I think this huge cup cost only around $2!  Again, the kids would have loved this.

Back at IDT, our leader Gerald had the kitchen staff make a special birthday cake for Pastor Curt of Orchard Valley.

Tres leches cake with fresh strawberries—yum!  We were well fed for the next day’s build!

Both k and n completed two sessions of swim lessons.  The surprising thing is that they both seemed to actually enjoy it.  Well, it is surprising to me, since I hated swim lessons.  Both kids made good progress this year.  They are still spending plenty of time in our community pool with D on the weekends.

Going through a paper airplane stage…good thing we have a lot of scratch paper.

D and I were able to go to a two-day parenting conference featuring Paul Tripp at Lighthouse Church in Torrance.  I thought it was a really good opportunity for D and I to digest some parenting instruction together.  The speaker had some really solid, Biblically-based points, and his stories were quite entertaining.  There was also childcare, which we took advantage of on Saturday.  We were also able to try out two restaurants in the South Bay, which we rarely visit.

Friday night the kids were with my parents, so we turned it into “date night”.  We ate at a small banh mi shop called Little House of Mary.

We shared a roast pork and lemongrass chicken.  They were a lot bigger than this picture makes them appear.  I was so full, but I kept eating because they were so good!  The roast pork was quite juicy (dipped in au jus) while the chicken had a more subtle, yet distinct lemongrass flavor.  They were around $6.50 each, so much more expensive than most banh mi places, but they had much more meat, and definitely worth it. 

After the conference on Saturday we went to The Local Place (off-shoot of King’s Hawaiian) with the kids.  We ordered two three item combo plates so we ended up trying lots of different entrees.  Overall it was pretty good, but nothing really stood out. 

We also took home two malasadas which dobash filling and a long john (which was smushed in transit). 

Yum!

One of k’s classmates graciously invited us to go to Chick Fil A for a “behind the scenes” tour the day after school let out. 

It started out with breakfast—yum! 

Next everyone had to put on a hat before going into the kitchen.

There were boxes of lemons in the back for their fresh-squeezed lemonade.  They gave the kids a lemon to take home.

Our tour guide introduced us to the fry-o-lator.

The guy in the drive-thru was probably wondering what was going on.

For the finale, we were given a demo of the shake and ice cream machine.

The kids tried their hand at the soft serve machine.  Ice cream for breakfast—what a treat!  A fun way to kick off the summer!

There is a program during the summer that has become quite popular called “Kids Bowl Free”.  It is a pretty good deal, with the caveat that you still have to pay for shoe rentals, which cost $4 at Irvine Lanes, where we went. 

This was the first time either k or n had gone bowling.  I cannot remember the last time I was in a bowling alley.  There were bumpers that could be programmed to go up or down depending on the player’s skill.  There was also a metal contraption that little kids could use to push the bowl down the lane.  Both k and n felt most comfortable with the six pound ball, which was the lightest we could find. 

The kids were allowed to bowl two games each.  Considering how long each game lasted, this was more than enough!

This was the scoreboard from the first game.  (n had a lot of help from D).  k improved and won the second game.  Neither one seemed to really care about the score, though.  It was more about the experience. 

A couple of months ago, PBS came to tape a PSA at the library story time that Nathan and I had been attending.  Someone told us they saw us on television, so I started looking for it with no luck.  My sister told me the three videos were actually located on the Orange County Public Library website.  So here they are—you can play “spot L + n”.