Uncle Neea

We made it to Florida! After 28 long hours of travel and a night in the airport, we made it home. Got to hang out with family today and even had some donkeys come and visit us in the backyard. Judah calls Lynea "Uncle Neea" to which everyone say, "No, that's Aunt Neea." But, if my Uncle Rick taught me something growing up it was that Uncle's don't always have to be parent-like. So, when I'm alone with Judah I try to reinforce the Uncle Neea as in "Where's Uncle Neea?", cause I think it's quite hilarious. We'll see how long we can keep it going.

Other than that, it's good to be home.

Uncle Neea and Judah

Uncle Neea and Apollo

Giving thanks

The airport isn’t the ideal place to spend thanksgiving (we’ve got 12 hours in Mexico City today, and 10 hours in Dallas tomorrow). But it does give us lots of time to sit and reflect on our year. And really, our life. All the people we are thankful for and indebted to. The list is endless. Just yesterday a friend we met in Yelapa decided to put us up in a hotel for our last night in Mexico and buy us dinner. What a gift. It’s all gift. Life is a gift. May we receive it with gratitude. And in the same way that we have received, may we freely give.

Thank you to all our friends and family, who have been in our lives for years. Thanks to all our new friends that we met along the way this year. This year has truly been a gift.

Joy

Waiting for our boat this morning. Heading home.

Some photos...

Living in a fishing village/beach culture definitely has its advantages. Fresh fish is one of them.

This is a picture of what most of the roads look like in town. No cars. Only horses, mules, and 4-wheelers (and people afoot). We were walking to a friend's house to cook up this fish.

Our tent, in the garden.

Beans are growing!

Lunch at the garden. Fish + Tortillas = Fish Tacos.

Couldn't tell if this iguana was nervous and escaping the ocean waves, or if he was just chillin'. The  waves knocked him off a couple times and he climbed back up.

Lynea's happy with her spices in the kitchen.

I got some extra work clearing this land...with a machete. I've learned how to use one somewhat proficiently while living abroad. It did give me the blister pictured below, though.

We went on a little hike.

The view from the bridge.

We get to play in the dirt everyday. Hence, we are very dirty and smelly everyday. Lynea's transplanting this papaya tree.

I make tables out of bamboo and ax. Hear me roar!!

One day the ocean push the river way back and it flooded the garden. Me and this dude, Alonso, dug out a path for the river to flow back into the sea. He said it was a normal thing.

We planted stuff...

Progress

My bosses asked me to make another short update video for their company. Here's what I came up with.

Operation: Big Garden

We're in a tiny fishing village called Yelapa, helping to develop a new garden project. We've had to put up a fence to keep the iguanas out. It's been lots of hard work so far, but good. I've been digging lots of post holes, transplanting banana trees, and climbing other trees to cut down big limbs for the fence. Lynea has been doing a stellar job creating the garden beds. She was even running the tiller the other day!
We're back in our tent, but at this point it's the closest thing to a home that we have, so we're happy.

I decided to throw the pictures and videos into a little movie this time.