Just a Warning...

If you ever go to Mexico, don't buy a ring that's too big. You're just buying one big distraction.



Part of that distraction is a 15-passenger van full of enough girls, snacks, and movies to keep a person occupied for the long drive ahead. Staying occupied means watching the kissing scene on Win a Date with Tad Hamilton enough times to make good old Papa Haynie go a little crazy in the driver's seat. When the rewind button gets nixed, staying occupied means singing along to the expertly-picked Mexico Mix (thanks Bri & Kendra!) loud enough to keep driving him crazy even when the movie is off.

Then the distraction turns into remembering the wonderful chicken shack. And the salsa that was ridiculously hot, a.k.a. wonderful. But if you eat salsa that's hot, you need a drink. If you need a drink in Mexico, you need to know how to read Mexican labels. We may never know what Kindal and I drank that day...


Then while you're drinking your juice(?) you can be entertained by the random beauty queens that drive down the street on cars. But to fully understand this, we have to go back to the reading Mexican labels principle. There was just no way for us to really know what they were queens of, but they had pretty dresses.


After the mysterious beauty queens, you should take Kenny's advice and "sit right here, and drink some root beer in Mexico." (Edited version. You can't really take Kenny's advice at face value or you'll end up only singing about beaches, regrets, and lost love. Depressing.) Then try smashing the root beer cans. Can't be done.
Then just laugh at your sad attempts to smash the root beer cans. And laugh because that's what Kindal makes you do when she sets her self-timer.

Then go shopping! But this is where you can run into trouble. There will be lots of cute people with lots of colorful things that they just firmly believe you need to own. Then there's this whole sketchy process of bartering the price with them.
"It's $10.00."
"Um, how about $5.00?"
"No, $8.00."
"Yeah, ok, that sounds good."
"Yes, fine, hold my baby and come pay back here by my four other ridiculously cute children."
"Um, ok. Did you say $12.00?"
Such a sucker, dang it.

And then one of those little shop men will come pull you by the hand to all of his jewelry, and he will be extremely excited. He'll show you a bracelet and tell you, "Look, it's too small, just like your wrists!" Then you will wonder if you should be excited or offended. And then he'll tell you that you need to buy it, and he'll show you a ring and say you can have that, too. So stop right there and remember that Mexico is hot so your hands are not in their normal state. When you try on a ring and it fits just right, not good.

Now it's winter, and the ring will repeatedly fall off. It'll fall onto your keyboard when you type, underneath your bed when you make it, into the sink when you wash your hands, etc. Every time it falls you get stuck in a terrible cycle. Pick it up, put it on, remember when you got it, then think of the 15-passenger van...

Don't buy a ring that's too big in Mexico. Two years later, it's still a distraction.

Hehehe....

Dear Kendra,

When I made this post, I looked through all my Mexico pictures for old times' sake....and you have no idea how much I laughed when I saw this wonderful picture. It gave me instant joy, and I'm still laughing right now after looking at it again. What's remembering Mexico without remembering the after effects of those sweet braids? I suppose I'll take off the picture if you seriously insist...and if you pay me. Oh my goodness I love it. And I love you.

Kenny C. forever!

Maddie

P.S. We're re-creating this picture after Mexico 2010. And we're bringing both our moo-mixers.