Kelsey took two weeks off from work to go on a trip with his family and that left Kefford with two weeks off from work. We found out that Chair The Hope was doing a trip to Merida, Mexico combining charity work, giving wheelchairs to those in need, with vacation fun. Since we had the time and Avynlea and Rylee would be out of school we decided to take Avynlea and Rylee with us and go on this humanitarian trip. Kefford and I already had our passports but Rylee and Avy needed theirs so on March 6th we took them out of school and went to Parma to get their application turned in. We were told that it could take up to 11 weeks to get them back which took us to a week before we had to leave and we thought was enough time so we didn't do a rush job. Turns out maybe we should have done that rush job because as it got closer and closer to our time to leave their passport status never changed from "in process". It was stressful and we did everythingwe could to get those passports back. We contacted the passport office, we contacted our congressman and had him look into it for us, we looked into flying to Seattle to pick up the passports ourselves but therefore no appointments, we prayed and I did a lot of crying. Nothing worked those passports were not budging and the night before we resigned ourselves to the fact that Avynlea and Rylee were not going to be able to travel the next day with us to Mexico. I know everyone was upset and disappointed but Avy and Rylee were so sweet in not letting their disappointment show. I did not want to go without them and would have stayed home as well but Avy and Kefford both said we had to go to not lose even more money by not going. So super early Monday morning Avynlea drove Kefford and I to the airport and we flew to Mexico on our own.
Our one and only stop was in Dallas Texas and we thought it was fun that for about an hour we were in the same state as Ryker. Kefford and I took a picture with the only Texas sign we could find by our terminal so we could send it to him.
The flights were uneventful and when we landed in Mexico as we are waiting in line for customs we met up with the rest of the people who were going on this humanitarian trip with us. I was really hoping nobody had kids with them because it would make me sad that ours were not there but they did. There were three other family and they all had kids ranging from 8-17, it hard for me but I tried to just push it behind and not think about it and move on.
Heather and Nate Ogden were the founders of the Chair The Hope organization and their daughter Senia worked for them. They got to the Hotel the day before and were waiting for us there. The hotel we stayed at for the first half of our trip was privately owned and a little off the beaten path. It was about an hour outside of Merida I would say and did not have any touristy stuff close by. Up until the morning we left we had the place to ourselves which was fun.
Tuesday was one of our tourist days. We loaded up in the morning and Nate asked Kefford to help him into the van. Nate is a quadriplegic and needs help to get from and into his wheelchair and his wife and Daughters all have gotten really good at helping him. I thought it was cool for Nate to give Kefford a chance to serve.
Out first stop was at Chichen Itźa and we had a guide who told us all of the history and that was really fun. People used to be able to tour inside the buildings but because of erosion and Mexico wanting to preserve the history they have them closed. Our guide said he was giving tours back when they were able to go inside and walking up the steep steps was pretty rough.
A very popular game was played in this arena back in the day. They would have to hit a ball using only their hips, elbows or knees through this hoop in order to gain points. The winner was then sacrificed, nice game. It was an honor to be put to death and the athletes would train their entire lives to win and then be killed.
After Chichen Itźa we traveled to our next stop where we ate lunch and then got to swim in the Cenotes. Cenotes are natural swimming holes or swimming caves. We got to the Cenote at the perfect time, for about 15 minutes we had the place to ourselves which was such a blessing. After that 15 minutes it got so crowded and full of people that it lost its magic. The water was chilly but it was so pretty and swimming in it was really fun.
After we changed out of our swimming suits we were taken around to see how the people of Mexico lived during the Mayan times. I liked seeing the little houses they loved in and watching the girl make tortillas was really fun. Getting to sample one of the tortillas was even more fun, I love homemade tortillas!
The picture on the left is an example of an Ofendra which I especially enjoyed seeing.