Kansas

Time for some more stories. This time we will travel to a small town in Kansas called Liberal. Here is where Elias' family resides and where his little sister recently graduated from high school. This is also where I got to learn how to cook real, good Mexican food. I have never seen a bucket of lard so large but yet oh-so-tasty. My low calorie, light meal, hot weather thoughts were thrown out for pure delicious cheesey-fried goodness! I have never had better Mexican food and I promise I am not saying this because my possibly, maybe future mother-in-law made the majority of the food. ;)

This picture needs to be clicked on to see larger because HELL-OOO, this is a beautiful thing. Fresh homemade tortillas (like fresh meaning just before the meal was served, they were made), homemade Mac N' Cheese and the main event - Chile Rellenos. Lord have mercy these were good... I don't know if you can see but there is also a homemade salsa on top of the relleno. I swear this woman would just put things in her pan or her blender and they would come out tasting like pure delicious wonderful. The chiles were filled with Mennonite cheese that yours truly stuffed in there. In fact, that tortilla is possible one of the ones I made.

That's right!! I can make tortillas! The real deal people! haha... I obviously feel very special in this picture.

So I had to cover the food portion first and these two pictures really only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the food we ate.  There was roasted pork (for the meat eater), salsa de aguacate (no not guacamole), beans, rice, etc. etc. SO the reason we were out there (besides the food ;)) was for his little sister's graduation.

This is Marina (little sister and graduate) and the momma. You can see Abel in the background which is Elias' nephew. The guy in the cowboy hat is Julio, the man of the family. :)

Marina hugging Julio. On the left there is again Abel and on the right, the momma.

Myself hugging Marina and you can see to the right of her (and Elias') sister Veronica (also called Vero). Vero is holding Marina's baby, AJ who is fricken' ADORABLE. To the left in the background there is Frey and Mareli.

Here are some pictures highlighting some of the other fun times we had out there...

Elias and I all ready for graduation on the front porch.

The cute little baby AJ taking a snooze while we were out on a walk around town.

Elias and his sister, Marina.

The storm moving in. There was really cool lighting, so we took a couple of pics.

Hail. 

It was pretty decent size hail too!

Reading and snuggling in the heat and rain.

Elias' mom lit this candle when we first arrived and let it burn the whole time apparently. I think Elias told me this is to bless our trip or make our trip a good one. Not sure. He is not home right now but if I am wrong I will let you all know. 

Grandma and happy baby!!

His mom whipped out some of the old pics. Check out Elias looking so put together! You can't see it in the shot but he is wearing cowboy boots. I guess this is one of his teachers from elementary school and then his mom is on the right.

I swear this is how he still sleeps - on his belly with his mouth wide open! ha!

I love this one. He was called a "cry baby" when is was a kid. The outfit he is sporting is actually his older sister's graduation gown from like the fifth grade. Elias was so upset that he didn't get a "gown" to wear that he cried until they gave it to him to put on. This is too funny! :)

Scrub-a-dub-dub. Always have to have a naked baby shot.

The ice cream man! He went around the neighborhoods selling delicious fruit/ice cream bars of all different flavors. Some were pretty exotic, kind of reminded me of my time in South America.

Saying goodbye to the madre. :(

The flight to Denver where we caught our connection back to Seattle. Pretty. I miss those Midwestern storms!

Since we were just hopping from Denver, CO to Liberal, KS we took a propeller plane.

We just walked right off and then into the airport. Fun!

Finally home and relaxing!

Can't wait to see his fam again! We had a great time but it is always good to be back home on the couch drinking beer. Amen!

Next story and pics: our first camping trip in Washington! Stay tuned!

A & E