Emily Smith

These are for the few of you that aren't my family and weren't present for the pictures. Enjoy.

P.S. I like you family.

My first rattlesnake in Mexico. We were driving up to the hacienda and the van suddenly stopped. Crossing right in front was a 3.5 foot rattlesnake. It had at least 10 rattles on it and its tail was black and white striped. It was a beautiful site but I was glad to be in the car. Too bad I didn't have my camera to take any pictures.
First hacienda. There is a member who remodeled an old hacienda. There was a dinner there last night for the high school teachers. I didn't bring my camera. It was amazing though. Imagine an old Mexican house with at least 9 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. It is all built around a beautiful courtyard. I felt very Mask of Zorro-esk. I think we are going to go back later so I'll take some pictures.
First Mexican Chinese Food. It tasted about as good as it sounds, but it was a fun adventure and it didn't make me sick! Something to be grateful for.

We headed to the great city of Chihuahua, Mexico yesterday. It is about 4 hours away by bus. The eighth graders were taking a field trip so Brittany and I went a long. The students screamed the entire way there, most of the time there, and the entire way back. I learned that I am not made to teach middle school. But, it was fun.This is a picture that I took. Chihuahua is a really big city. It is much larger than Boise. One thing I really liked about the city was the architecture. It was really interesting. They had a lot of statues all over. Also, the Catholic churches were really pretty. We didn't get to explore much but I saw a lot from the road. If you look in the middle, you can see an old Catholic church with two towers and a dome.
The point of going on the field trip was to visit an interactive museum. It is similar to The Discovery Center but better. There was a whole wing devoted to physics and technology. When I saw this color wheel, I couldn't resist taking a picture. It made me think of dad. When you spin the wheel really fast, the colors combine and the wheel looks white. The other wing had things like a space station showing what they do there. You could climb into the sleeping chambers and strap yourself in. They also had a lifesize model of what the earth would look like from the moon. We got to go into the center of a volcano and take a slide through the center of the earth. We got to walk on the earth's plates and learn about plate tectonics. I'll stop writing because this is probably getting boring. But, it was a great museum. It cost $2.50 per person.
A statue outside the museum. I really liked it.
This is me right outside the goverment's museum dedicated to the history and culture of Chihuahua. There were a lot of really fun things in there. One exhibit even featured the Mormons and the Mennonites. We met a really adventurous older couple from Seattle who are traveling through Mexico using the Mexican bus system. They don't speak Spanish. The best part of the museum was a room that was built over 350 years ago. It was a prison during the time of the Mexican Revolution. A priest named Hidalgo did a lot to start the revolution. He was kept prisoner here in the very room where we were. It was ancient. The walls were crumbling. He was eventually shot. He is a hero to Mexicans. I really enjoy going in old places and imagining the events taking place.

We passed some cornfields. The Farnsworth's said that the farmers take the cornstalks and put them in the towers so they can feed them to the cows and donkeys.
We made fajitas on the grill up in Pacheco. They were heavenly. Fresh tortillas, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, chicken, tomatoes, jalepenos.
This was down the road a little ways from the cave. It was so pretty.
Walking down from Cueva de la Olla. It was one of the most beautiful sights ever. It was especially beautiful because the sun was setting.
Brittany and I inside the cave looking out over the valley below the cave.
The site where we camped. It was really nice. The stars were amazing. You can see the Milky Way galaxy really clearly here. Out where we camped there was literally no light because there was a new moon. I've never seen stars like that before. We slept under the stars.

Me taking a picture of myself.

There is an area called Valley of the Caves. There are hundreds of caves carved into the cliffs. In one of the caves, they found a huge pot that served as a corn grainery. They think that it was built sometime around 1000 AD. It was a beautiful area and we took a lot of pictures. The geologic features down there were gorgeous.
Pacheco is one of the early colonies settled by the LDS. It is up in the mountains in a really remote area. Almost everyone has gone elsewhere. There is only one white family left there. It is so beautiful though. We went camping on a member's land up there.
This was the view from the cave with the giant pot in it. Who can see what they like to call duck rock?
Me with really dirty hair from the ride up on dirt roads with windows opened. I was happy because no wild animals ate me and we were heading to watch Conference.
A really cool rock formation on the way home from Pacheco.

It was a great weekend with a lot of great pictures, but my computer is about to die and I don't have the charger with me so I'll just download one picture for now and do the rest later.

This is what the Farnsworths like to call a real Mexican Burrito. We saw a couple of them on our drive through the mountains.

The Farnsworth's are taking Brittany and me camping this weekend. We are going to go up in the mountains and enjoy the changing colors of the leaves. I'll post some pictures as soon as I have them.

Today my students wrote a poem together about a picture of two cheetahs wrestling. I would post a photo from online but it would probably break all sorts of copyright laws and I don't want to deal with that. So, use your imaginations and be impressed by the mad skills of the 4th graders. While you are at it, enjoy the picture of the dog that I took with my very own camera.

Two cats, golden and black
Killers of friends?
Danger, scared, wrestling furiously
Smells of dust and blood and sweaty fur
Deep roars, whack!
Springing, jumping, playing
Finishes as quickly as it started

I'm going to the temple this evening. I figured I would post a picture so you can see what it looks like. If you want to see President Hinckley's original sketch, you can go to visitmormoncolonies.com