The Thomas Family's Guatemala Adventures

Brigham´s 8th Birthday and Baptism!

2010-02-22T17:20:00.001-08:00

Tuesday the 16th of February was a special day for Brigham! It was his real birthday. We woke him up with fireworks outside his window and then served him breakfast in bed. We had to go to the restaurant for a few hours and then we went out to lunch and came home to play football and then we went skating. I was sooooo sore the next day. I used muscles I haven´t used in a long time.

Friday was the begining of a crazy weekend. After I taught my english classes we prepared for a campout. We invited Monkeys family to come from the city, The whitney family and another homeschooling family that the whitneys introduced us to. The first Guatemalan homeschoolers we´ve met. They are the pioneers for Guatemala. We also invited Rodolfo and Melva´. Also a bunch of neighbors. Some we invited couldn´t come and some we didn´t invite came, but we had about 40 people. It was super fun. We roasted hotdogs and made smores and then the girls camped out in the house and the boys slept in tents outside. The challenge was making enough pancakes for everyone the next morning but the teenage girls helped me out a lot.

The neighbors all went home at about noon and we took a few families to the restaurant for pizza. Then we rushed back home just in time for the birthday party. We invited a few of the neighbors to his party and word got out. We ended up with half the village at our house I think. It was fine though. We just had to cut the cake really really small! Brigham was so happy and that´s all that mattered. He got some great gifts. A soccer ball from Monkey´s family, a coloring kit from the Whitney´s, an Uno game (called dos here) from Lilly´s family, and then some other gifts from the neighbors, soap, clean socks, a red polo shirt, a towel. I think some of them were giving him a hint that he needs to bathe more! Just Kidding. I think practical gifts are common here. He is super dirty the days we are home though, because he is outside playing so much. I think he is only clean in the morning for school, and right before he eats and then he gets a nice shower before getting into bed. He´s happy though being a boy.

The party ended at 6 pm. We then rushed and bathed and changed and ran over to the church for the baptism. I was so thrilled with all the support we had for his baptism. Kristina and Lilly came with their families to help with the music, and of course Monkey´s family was there and Rodolfo and Melva´s family came. Rodolfo and Monkey were the witnesses. I think the whole ward came to support us. They were great! We did have to start thirty minutes late though because Nathan´s white pants didn´t fit so we had to send the elders home to get him a pair. The primary children sang for him and Xela and Gabby sang a duet. It was so precious. I wish I could have video taped it. The elders gave the talks which was wonderful because they did it in Spanish and English so all could understand. Ammon said the closing prayer.

We had a super crazy weekend but the only thing that could have made it better would have been to have had our family and friends here with us. We missed all of you.

For more pictures of Ammon look at his birthday post. I had posted pictures of him there but after the post went out.

Monkeys

Neighborhood Fun!

2010-02-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

We have had a really good experience here in Aldea Siguila. We have made some friends and are really enjoying getting to know the neighbors. The two families that live nearest to us are cousins. One is Berta, whose husband has been in the states for the last 16 years and can´t come home because he is their illegally. She has two adult daugters still living at home and a grandaughter I believe who is 5 named Sulma. She loves to play with Gabby. The other family has 3 teenagers and a son that´s 10 but loves to play with Brigham. They are best buddies. His name is Boris. They came one day and helped me build a flower bed and brought cuttings from their garden.

Boris and his brothers built our chicken coop and bunny house. He is the one who gave Brigham the rooster. They have a dog that Gabby has named Max because we can´t pronounce his real name. He takes care of both houses because we feed him our left overs and give him attention. He´s a nice dog. Gabby really likes him.

I am teaching English to the neighbors three days a week. I had to split the class once and may have to again. I am hesitant to do so though because I am so busy. I have between 14 and 20 in my children´s class and 7 in my adult-teenager class. It´s fun though and it is helping me with my spanish.

I have also been asked to teach some of the sisters in the ward piano as sort of an unofficial calling. Not sure how it will work out since my spanish is not quite up to task.

I was so happy yesterday because my visiting teachers came and I actually understood most of the lesson. They made me read in Spanish though which was absolutely horrible. We have been getting home taught every Sunday night which is nice. We feel really loved in this new branch.

Xela´s school pics

2010-02-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

Xela has been going to a public school near the restaurant this year. It is a school just for girls and lets out at 1pm. She wanted to go really bad so she could become more fluent in Spanish. They also have a basketball team.

She was so happy because she got elected queen of her class and had to dress like a rodeo princess and give a speech. She didn´t win queen of the school. It was based on who got the most donations from their class. She had fun with the process though. Her spanish has become soooo good. Everyone says she has a good accent also.

We are so excited for her because she was asked to join the stake children´s chior. They are preparing to sing at the temple dedication which will be really special and other stake events.

I love you Shaky!

Thank you everyone!!

2010-02-18T09:53:00.001-08:00

Thank you so much for all your birthday messages thoughout the year. It means alot to the kids to hear from all of you. I love technology! We are eventually going to turn this blog into a book and so they will have your birthday wishes forever.

Kristina, we would definately love the link. Thank you!

Happy Birthday Brigham!!!

2010-02-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

We have a special boy having a special birthday today!!! Please leave him a birthday message!

Happy Birthday Ammon!!

2010-01-31T20:35:00.000-08:00

Please leave Ammon messages on this post for his birthday. He is a special young man and I am so proud of him. I can´t believe it has been 13 years! Amazing. Time is flying by!

Ammon had a good birthday. We woke him up with fireworks and breakfast in bed. We had Rodolfo and Melva and their kids over for cake. We only do big parties on certain years so it was just a small celebration but fun. We had a little boxing going on.

I love my Ammon. He is so big now. It is so weird how time flew. Everyone said this would happen but I didn´t believe it. I want to freeze time and keep all my children under my wing!

New Year´s Eve, New House, Tapachula Mexico

2010-01-31T16:06:00.000-08:00

Wow!! I have been such a slacker in my blogging. I am so sorry to combine 3 posts into one. Yikes!

The first group of pics are from New Year´s Eve. We had a great time with the Garcia Family. They didn´t get enough of us on Christmas I guess. They also invited another family. He is in the stake presidency and she is a family practice physician. They have two little boys. Melba and Rodolfo are wonderful. He has a business selling auto parts and has a promotion based on volume of sales where he gives people free Gringo Loco Pizza coupons. He has sent us tons of new clients. We go on dates with them regularly. Gabby loves their girls who are 4 and 3 and they have the cutest little boy 1 and a half. We had a delicious barbecue with chicken and chimychury steak. It was sooo delicious. We also let off fireworks and danced and the boys are pretending to be drunk but I promise there was no alcohol involved.

We are really really enjoying the new house. I have been slack and haven´t taken pics of the whole house yet but in all honestly I would like to get some more furniture first. Maybe I will do two posts. One before furniture and one after. It is a beautiful home though and the kids are loving the neighbors and the land. We just don´t have time to shop around for furniture. Our only day off together as a family is Sunday right now. We are thinking about letting Sandra and Sylvia run the restaurant one more day a week though. We are going to wait until after February to figure out which day is our slowest. Probably Wednesday. That being said hopefully one day I will have a couch again.

On the days I am home with Brigham and Gabby, Brigham is outside playing soccer or nerf guns or swinging with his friends. He has tons of little friends that actually helped build the house. Just in time for his birthday. We are planning to have a bonfire and party complete with pinata. We will roast hotdogs and have smores and a campout in the backyard. Anyone want to come? We will hopefully have his baptism that weekend.

We are almost done unpacking. I still have some boxes that I am procrastinating because it isn´t stuff we use on a regular basis. Part of the house still isn´t finished but it is livable. The kitchen has nothing but a huge pantry that fits all the food and the dishes. We have a fridge that we brought from the other house and use plastic tables for counters. The sink right now is the pila (a huge sink like thing we use here to wash dishes and clothes) right outside the kitchen door. Also the master bedroom has no doors yet so we are using one of the other bedrooms right now. We will switch when it is finished. I will probably use it for now as the school room. Also Victor didn´t have time to instal the hotwater heater before he left. We have lived this whole time without one so we will survive a few more months till he comes back in March. I still don´t have a washing macine, but a girl in the neighborhood comes three days a week and washes the clothes for me.

It is super cold here. I don´t remember if I mentioned it before but at night it gets to 30 to 40 degrees. I know that doesn´t sound cold to all of you who just survived a snowstorm in VA but we have no indoor heat and a fireplace doesn´t even touch this big house. The days are beautiful though. 60 to 70 degrees and sunny everyday. Everyone says February is warmer, that January is the only really cold month. If you decide to come for Brigham´s birthday bring your long johns to sleep in!

All the neighbor kids have been begging me to teach them English. Apparantly Victor told them I would. I am starting tomorow. I have no clue how many kids will show up and I really am clueless how to teach when I don´t speak their language really well but we´ll see what happens. Also they range from small children to teenagers so I may have to divide that up later. I will decide after I see how many of each age show up. I´m actually happy to do it. It will give me a chance to get to know my kids friends better and hopefully earn a respect for the family amoung the village.

We are thinking about selling pizzas from the house. There are no pizza restaurants near here. Only delivery though. No eat in obviously, and only the days I am home.

We have neighbors that speak english. An older empty nester couple. She is called the Gringa because she has red hair and green eyes and speaks English but I think she is actually from Belize or somewhere. They have a plot of land they grow all kinds of things on and tons of animals. The kids love to go over there and see the animals.

Also on Friday a family came into the restaurant from the states. Unfortunately I wasn´t there because that´s my day off, but I am very excited to meet them soon. They are from Alaska I think Nathan said and have 4 children close to my kids ages. He is ahead of the construction of the temple here in Quatzaltenango. I´m sure you will be hearing more about them later. I would love to have a friend that I can discuss things with in my native language who can relate to our experiences here.

We were blessed to have a guy come in the restaurant who worked in a NY City pizzaria for 23 years. He taught us how to greatly improve our pizza dough. It is sooo much better now. I just wish we had met him earlier. All is good though with the business. Still not where we want it but sales improving every week.

The last group of pics is from our trip to Tapachula Mexico. We had to renew our passports again. It all went smooth this time because we exited one border and entered a different one. It was a great trip. The highlights were WALMART (I know this is nothing special to all of you but when you haven´t set foot in a walmart for 9 months it is a special moment to wander those well loved aisles. We also went to SAM´S club and Tapachula has a beach called Playa Linda (Cute Beach)27 kilometers away. It was a very very nice beach. They also have a Holiday Inn Express in town that is very reasonably priced and had free HOT breakfast. I definately recommend this as a vacation spot and if any of you decide to go there let us know!! We will meet ya there! They have a nice little airport right in town. We did have a few moments where we got the feeling some people didn´t like gringos but for the most part everyone was nice.

Xela starts school tomorow. I know this will come as a shock to most of you who know our strong opinions on this. We decided to let her because it is an all girl´s school run by a member of our church with an LDS teacher. She wants to be more fluid in Spanish and this really is the best way. She already speaks with a great accent but needs more vocab and help with grammar. They also have a basketball team which she is super excited about. She will be wearing uniforms. MWF a plaid skirt, white blouse, long blue socks, blue sweater and dress shoes. On TTH she will wear the PE outfit which is similiar to a basketball warm up. I will definately post pics in the next post. She wants to start getting me up to go walking every morning at 630 so I guess I should go get some sleep.

Until next time......

Oh! Thanks for the comments on the last post. I love to read your thoughts. Robin you had me rolling as usual. SOOOO funny! I look forward to posts from all.

Mel

Christmas in Guatemala

2009-12-29T15:54:00.001-08:00

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you will all have a Happy New Year.

I hated that we didn´t get to send out and receive Christmas cards this year. Please keep us on the list. We promise to be more settled and able next year.

I would do a year end Christmas Post with details about everyone but I know you have all been following our lives this year via the blog.

I still dont know where my punctuation is located on this keyboard. It is an English keyboard programmed as a spanish one. So please excuse my lack of punctuation throughout this post.

We did have a great year and have been so blessed. We have had trials also but the blessings have made them worthwhile. It has been so fun to watch the kids learn and grow here in Guatemala. They have been humbled in their associations with so many that have so much less than we are accustomed. They have been learning Spanish. I hate when they correct mine but I am so glad that they are progressing so well. There is no better teacher than total immersion. Even little Gabby. Yesterday I asked her ¨Where is your jacket. She said casually with a shrug-- Saber. Which is slang for I dont know and dont really care. We have also been blessed to go on some adventures as a family that none of us will ever forget. We have many opportunities to serve others and share the gospel and it has been fun to watch the kids gain confidence through this. They are also learning first hand how to start and run a business and the challenges that come with that, but they are getting a great education through the process.

Our Christmas was a really great one. The kids and I had the challenge of trying to get presents for Nathan, since we are still totally dependent on him. I am scared to death to drive here. I have had to a couple of times and it was hard. The problem is, the longer I wait the harder it is to drive because I am not used to it. The people are crazy and aggresive drivers. There arnt lights where there should be and tons of motorcycles and bicyclists. It freaks me out because they are always too far in my lane. I will get it together eventually though and be more independent.

We really really missed all of you this year. It is not the same without our family and friends. We did have a family adopt us for Christmas this year and we will be spending New Years with them also. They speak very good English after only one year of studying. So not fair. But it is nice for me. They do have a rule that we have to speak Spanish part of the time though so I can practice.

In Guatemala the Christmas tradition is to celebrate on the 24th. They open gifts at midnight. So we started out the 24th by delivering food and gifts we had helped put together for some of the poor families in Rodolfos ward. He is the Bishop. As you can see in the pictures we had to walk through fields of dirt to get to the first house. It took us about 30 minutes. We took pictures inside the one room home that some members of the church are helping them build. It is not finished yet. We went to their home they live in now. I didnt take pictures because I didnt want to embarass them but they have card board walls and a tarp roof. I cant even imagine. The oldest daughter has a brand new baby. So sad. We ran out of time and werent able to go with them to the other families because Victor was throwing a party at the new almost finished YEAH house. The pics I took were in the dining room living room. The tile wasnt down yet. They covered the floor with pine needles. It smelled so good. The tradition here is to eat tamales for Christmas. Letty made them and they were so delicious. We also drank pounche. A drink similiar to apple cider but full of pieces of fruit you eat when you finish the drink. We met a lot of our soon to be neighbors and the kids made some friends. Victor built a fire out side and let off fireworks and the boys boxed with all the neighbor boys.

Then at 8 we headed back over to Rodolfo and Melvas for dinner. She made a turkey - her first ever. When I told her how we cook turkeys in the states she thought I was crazy and said it would be so dry with no flavor. She poured a marinade of mustard, pineapple juice and spices over it. Then stuffed olives and pineapple under the skin and inside and on top. It was sooo delicious. Then we did the nativity and played reindeer games that Xela made up and then sang some songs and at midnight let off fireworks and opened gifts from them to us and us to them. Then watched them open gifts and then cleaned up. We were soooo tired when we got home. Poor Ammon slept through half of the events he was so sleepy. It was super fun though.

Christmas morning we slept until 8 or 9 and opened gifts. We had a nice relaxed day. Nathan went and got Chinese for lunch. We wanted to go see a family movie but they were all in Spanish. We already saw the scrooge movie and Avatar in Spanish. Its fun to go as a family but would be better in English. The adult movies most time are English with Spanish subtitles which is nice for Nathan and I to go on dates.

The kids favorite gift is the kitten Santa brought. Her name is Angel and she is super sweet. She likes to play but doesnt hurt the kids. The only problem is she wont eat cat food. The family who had her before us couldnt afford cat food and fed her table food.

We really enjoyed the day and were able to reflect on the life of our Saviour Jesus Christ who died for our sins that we may live with him again someday. We are truly grateful for Him and His love for us. We have truly experienced his hand in our life throughout this year and look forward to seeing where he will guide us in the year to come.

I included outside pics of the new house. It is almost finished. I will do a house post soon. We should be moving in in the next few weeks. We will have hot water. Victor is puttin in a water heater. I cant believe it. I totally took hot water for granted my whole life. We will also have to get electic heaters for the house becaus it is super cold at night here. Our elevation is 600 feet above Colorado. It is warm in the day but at night we sleep in jackets with tons of blankets. It is ok now but Jan. and Feb are supposed to get colder.

Watch for the house post in the next few weeks.

Love,
The Thomas Family

Thanksgiving in Guatemala

2009-11-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

We really had a good day. We have so much the be thankful for! I won't bore you with the list, but I will say that I know that all we have comes from my Heavenly Father and that he blesses us daily. We see His hand in our lives and we are so grateful for His guidance. We are most grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ who suffered and died for our sins so we can return to live with him one day and gain eternal life. We are so glad to have His example to follow.

With that all said I would like to thank all of you for your support and love throughout the years. We have the best friends and family ever. We missed all of you this Thanksgiving. It was a great day but not near as great as years past. We missed Betty's cooking and the family football game and watching football and just being together with family. We had to create a family of our own here.

The first picture is a picture of Gabby and her tortilla's Sylvia helped her make. She is so cute making them. Xela makes them also and is getting pretty good at it.

Then I have a picture of Brigham and Gabby. They stay home with me on Mon, Wed, and friday and are getting to be the best of friends. They play so good together. Gabby is loving school. She's starting to learn her letters and sounds. It's so cute. I think Brigham is really enjoying it also. He asked me the other day to start teaching him piano again, which made me really happy because he has a lot of natural talent. It is so nice to spend quality time with the two little ones.

Victor told us he bought a wild turkey for Thanksgiving. He was going to bring it up to the restaurant live on Tuesday night. I was a little freaked out. I barely know what to do with a frozen butterball! Lucky Sylvia volunteered her sister to prepare it for me to cook. Victor took him to their house and she brought it to me Thursday morning all ready to cook. Head and all! Apparantly Victor wanted me to cook the head also. I don't like to see the face of what I'm about to eat. I would make a horrible farmer. He was sad when he got here and I hadn't cooked it. When I told him I didn't know how he said "You just wrap it in foil and pop it in the oven." Like it's a common everyday thing to cook and eat a turkey head. We love Victor! He is a real character.

Our problem was that the only oven we have is a pizza oven. We do not have a temperature dial on the oven. Just on and off. I knew it was way too hot to cook a turkey in and all the other things so it was kind of a crazy time of turning the oven on - letting it heat up and then turning it off and back on when it is cooling down. Yikes! Miraculously everything turned out perfect except one batch of rolls that burned on the bottom.

Thanks to Betty for rushing me last minute family recipes. I have never cooked a whole Thanksgiving Dinner before because we usually have a joint effort with Betty cooking most of the food. Luckily we did it at the restaurant and I had Sylvia here to clean up after me! It is so nice to cook and have some one coming behind you washing and cleaning and putting everything away. She even did most of the dishes when we were done eating!

The guest list was all Victor's family but people that we have become close to on past visits and our during our time here. It included his son Carlos, Thelma (Who we stayed with when we visited with Andy last year. Letty, who is Victor's sister in law and our current land lord. She is in the picture with her daughter TT and Gabby. Her daughter is our dentist and hygenist. Then there is Gloria and Arturu who fed us fiambre this year and their son with his 3 daughters, and of course Sylvia, my right hand. Our other two employees Sandra (sells at the cart) and Mario (Sells out of a warmer bag in the market), also had Thanksgiving Dinner but on their breaks.

We were able to find all our ingredients except stuff to make pies. We couldn't even find frozen pies. Thank goodness we found a place that makes and sells them so I could have pumpkin pie!

Now it's time to focus on Christmas!!! I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season! Hope you had fun shopping in all the craziness today!

Oh and Tina, Thanks for the comment on the past post. It is kind of crazy living in the shadow of volcanoes. I have to really try not to think of the fact that it could potentially be a hazardous problem. Especially with 2012 approaching so fast. LoL! At least we are 4 hours away from Pacaya that has actual lava eruptions regularly. Meanwhile I just soak in the hot springs and sit in the volcanic steam saunas and try to focus on the pleasures of living close to a volcano.

I hope you all noticed the picture posted of me!!! I want no more comments on the subject!!! :)))) I really wanted to wait until I was back to newly wed weight and had a nice tan, but let's face it - that may never be.....

Mel

The Gallo tree lighting.

2009-11-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

This morning Nathan and I were looking out our window and saw this cute little cloud sitting in front of our volcano. I think it is called Santa Maria. Our bedroom window frames it perfectly. Then the volcano behind it erupted and I couldn't help but take a picture. I hate the wires in the way but I guess electricity is more valuable than a perfect picture. Right?

We went Saturday after work to the Inauguration of the Gallo (The Mayor Cerveza)(The Better Beer) Tree. It is a huge fake tree with thousands of lights on it. We are starting to feel the holiday mood so we decided to go and see the lights and the fireworks. Sorry Papa no fotos of the Gallo Girls. They were actually dressed appropriately this time. Whew! We were told they wouldn't be there until later before the concert.

Anyway it was fun. We printed a bunch of fliers to hand out and put on cars and barely touched the people. There were thousands there. Nathan said maybe 20,000. It was great until we were trying to leave and the crowd all tried to funnel into one street. I was actually kind of scared for the kids. I've never experienced anything like that before. Nathan said I am just getting old. We did get to have some Pounche though! Yummmy! It's a hot cider drink with chunks of fruit in it. I love it but not as much as arroz con Leche. Which is a drink made with rice, milk, cinnamon and sugar. It is sooooo good. They weren't selling it though. Then Nathan took us to get chinese tacos (egg rolls). The chinese in Guatemala make the best egg rolls.

We met some new friends at church on Sunday and they were telling us that they were going to start their daughter in piano lessons for Q800 a month. This is $100 a month. It is for 2 lessons a week but is very very good money for here. It inspired me to get to work improving my Spanish and piano skills so I can maybe take two students when I am at home on Mondays and Wednesdays. We'll see if it works out. It won't happen for awhile though.

Nathan took the kids to another tree lighting on Sunday. Brigham, Gabby and I stayed home and watched the fireworks from the roof.

Not much else new.

Hope all are doing great!!

Mel

Pizza Gringo Loco!!!

2009-11-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Wow!! Finally I have a chance to do a blogpost. I am so sorry it has been so long! I just could not for the life of me remember to bring my camera to the restaurant. I forgot it today also, but made Nathan go home and get it. I just can't do a blogpost without photos. I just can't explain things the way pics do.

The first pics are of another visit to Xocomil and Xutulu. We went with Monkey's family when they came for Shazer's birthday. It was so fun and a perfect day. Sunny but not too hot. We even got Gabby to ride some rides.

I posted a few pics of the view from the house. (Excuse the laundry hanging!:)))
I didn't take any of the inside because it is just a temporary house and a lot of empty rooms with boxes. Nothing interesting. When we move to the new house - hopefully before Christmas - I will take tons of pics. I may take some of the current progress if we go out there on Sunday and if I remember the camera! :)

Thanksgiving is approaching and we are trying to get a plan together to close the restaurant and cook dinner for Victor, Carlos, Monkey's family and the missionaries. We'll of course play some football. I'll definately do a post about Thanksgiving in Guate. It won't be the same without our family and friends from VA but it will be fun. We will be thinking of all of you and how grateful we are for such amazing relationships. Thanks for all of your support throughout our adventure.

Christmas decorations are going up here since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Guate. I am so excited to light up the restaurant. I am going on a gold table cloth hunt. Maybe I'll take pics again after it's decorated. I would like to wait until we move to the new house to decorate home. We are really hoping for the first of December. Victor may extend his time here and spend Christmas with us.

We posted pics of the restaurant. There is some pictures of Sandra our full time employee who runs our stand. We are working on getting her a pizza warmer for the stand and eventually we will move her across the street to the bus stop. Our local is near the market so we have lots of foot traffic. It is great for our portion business. Xela was in charge of pics and took pics of the pizza. I will probably change it out eventually with a pic of a fresh complete pizza. Yikes. The slices aren't even straight on the pan! The other girl you see is her sister Sylvia who helps me at the house and comes up to the restaurant to wait on the customers when Nathan has to go run errands or make contacts. She has been a real blessing and a life saver for me. She washes and irons the clothes. Cooks and cleans breakfast and helps me clean the house when I stay home on Mondays and Wednesdays with Gabby and Brigham. I love this time with them so much. We come to the restaurant as a family on the other days which is nice. We have a tv and cable here and a table and chairs in the back for school or games or whatever.

We have cards similiar to subway cards that we give out wherever we go and to our clients. They are buy 10 get 1 free cards that we stamp and we offer 2 for 1 on Tuesdays and Thursdays to compete with Dominos. There is a Pizza Hut and Dominos here but they are quite a bit more expensive than us. There is also a couple of low quality chains that have horrible pizza with hardly any cheese or sauce. No wander the Guatemalans smother their pizza with Ketchup and mayo. They do it here also, but I try not to be too offended. It's just habit and culture. They put it all over their corn on the cob also. I guess it's kind of like steak sauce on steak for me. I put so much I can't even taste the steak sometimes.

We are missing all of you as the Holidays approach. We will definately be thinking of our friends and family these next few months.

Mel

Grandma and Grandpa in Guatemala. Surfing Guatemala.

2009-10-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

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We finally got our first visitors to Guatemala! Yeah! Nathan's parents came to visit us for 11 days and we had a great time. We came to Guatemala City the night before and stayed with Monkey so we wouldn't take any chances of being late. Monkey went with us to the airport so we wouldn't get lost. We still can't find our way around this city. We were so happy to see them.

We took them to a really good restaurant on the way to Quatzaltenango. I didn't take photos but Betty did. They bring out the meat on little mini grills and it is sooooo delicious. When we got home we had a mini Christmas party. Grandma and Granpa brought Christmas with them since we won't be able to come home for the Holidays and the shipping is unpredictable. Speaking of which. We have been in Guatemala City since leaving them at the airport, get our brakes fixed on the suburban, so I don't have our new address with me. But as soon as we return home I will post it. It should be safe to send letters but no money or packages until we get a PO Box.

The next day we took them to Panajachel to see Lake Atitlan. Scholars believe this to be the Waters of Mormon. It is such a beautiful lake. I never tire of going there. The pictures of us on the launcha are taken here. We took the launcha to towns on the lake to shop. Then we walked around Panajachel and shopped and went to the fair. We found a chocolate shop that makes gormet chocolate. The chocolate was soooo delicious. They sell chocao fruit and the nibs also. We would have bought some to send home but we weren't sure if they would let the nibs pass customs, but I think Betty bought some gifts from the chocolate store. I think we all crashed early this night.

The following day, Friday, we went to Huehuetnango to the ruins there. I took lots of photos here for you. I wish we would have had a guide but from what I could tell this city was still inhabited until the Spanish came. Indignius guides led them here and the people of this settlement were masacred. So sad.

Saturday we packed up and hit the Fuentas Georgina's (hotspring pools) on our way to the resort in the coast. I didn't take pictures here but I think Betty did. I have posted pictures from here in past posts. The rest of the pictures are from the resort.

We had a great time. Our days consisted of waking up, eating breakfast and then heading to the beach where Nathan, and the 3 older kids would play in the waves. The waves were way to big for the kids but they had a blast in the white water. Grandma, Grandpa, and I rode a few of those also. Nathan was the brave one that ventured out to the big waves. Ammon got really good at body surfing. I wish I could've got a good picture of him doing this.

Gabby had so much fun playing on the beach with her Grandma. They would sit and let the waves wash up on them and Grandma drew a treasure chest in the sand for the lava rocks they found. The last day Grandma trained her to jump the shallow shore break. The sand was super sticky. It would get ground into our suits and we couldn't get it out. Then we would hit the showers before hitting the pool and swim for a few hours and our suits would still be full of sand when we got to the room. It was crazy.

We went to Antigua one day which was fun . I wish I had had my camera with us because we climbed to the roof of our restaurant and had a beautiful view of the city and surrounding volcanos. The buildings all have beautiful flowers growing over the concrete fences. Betty took photos though so I'm sure you will see them on facebook. We did a lot of shopping here also. I was so proud of Betty and George for speaking spanish and being brave enough to negotiate and purchase stuff themselves. It took me forever to be that brave. I guess all those cruises prepared them. Guatemala is a beautiful country with beautiful people but you can't really travel the country without knowing spanish or having a translator accompany you. Which would be us if you come to visit.

We played with the idea of climbing Pacaya, an active volcano, but chickened out in the end. Nathan and I will probably do it one day with the kids, but we need more details first.

The last couple of days our surburban had bad breaks so we couldn't travel far from the resort.

The last night we found a fantastic restaurant near the resort. I am totally craving the chicken right now just thinking about it. Grandma and Grandpa treated us and it was delicious! Thank you!

I would just like to thank Mama and Papa for coming. We enjoyed their visit so much and really appreciate them treating us to a week at the resort. It was super fun and a time we will never forget. Oh and I forgot to mention that they didn't get sick at all! Yeah!

They also brought us a video Kim made of her kids and Dana and Hannah's family. We loved watching every minute of it. Thank you Kimbo!

Mel

The Last Swim

2009-10-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

Ok!!! I am still alive! I promise! I have finally rejoined the cyber world!! I didn't realize how theraputic it is for me to communicate with all of you on a regular basis. Thank you so much for staying in touch. We haven't had internet since the move to the city (we were trying to decide which company, whether to have it at the restaurant or house or both. Decisions decisions!). Anyway, I have a lot to post so I hope you have alooooot of time. I have 300 pictures on my camera to share but I might die before I have a chance to upload them. I know you are all thinking you want pics of the new living situation and the restaurant but I don't have those yet. I'll try to describe them.

The house is older. It was built before people here had fridges and stoves so the kitchen is teeny tiny. We had to turn the servants bedroom (since we know we aren't getting one of those anytime soon)into a second kitchen to fit the fridge and stove. The living room and dining room are big with a fireplace but we still don't have any furniture for them (besides 2 plastic tables and some plastic chairs). There is also a bathroom downstairs. Upstairs has 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. We had to turn one of the bedrooms into a closet room because the house was also built before closets and kitchen cabinets were common. I had to use my bookshelves to house the dishes. Our landlord had them build us a huge closet rod across the back of the room to hang clothes with a shelf on top. That being said, I haven't unpacked everything because we don't have anywhere to put it. Our games books toys and some clothes are all still packed. We don't want to purchase any shelving ect. because Victor's house will have closets with shelving and kitchen cabinets. This house is only temporary. We do have huge windows everywhere and our bedroom window frames a beautiful volcano perfectly. Yes! We have to wear socks!! Robin - You are so funny! I think you should still sympathize with me! It gets cold at night so we snuggle down under tons of blankets. I'll post pics soon.

We finally found a location for the pizzeria. It is right next to an arcade. Perfect right? I don't even know how to describe our location to Americans. I will just have to take photos and post them. We are right next to the market which is a very busy area during the day, so it will bring us a lot of business.

Thank you so much for all of the suggestions and prayers!! We appreciate them all so much and will definately be using them. You are all hired so hurry up and get down here! We open in a week! I don't care if you eat it all! I would just love to see you all every day.

Leslie and Preston!!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!You do not even know how happy I am for you! I want to cry I am so happy. Your kids will have soooooo much fun. That is one lucky baby! Please please please keep me up to date. I will totally be checking in with you on facebook when I am done here!!!!!

We are at a resort right now with Betty and George on the Pacific Coast. They are visiting us and traded one of their timeshares. It is actually the same place we stayed at when we brought the kids last year. Very beautiful and tranquil here. Look for the next post for more info on this visit. I will try to do it soon. See ya all in a few minutes on facebook! It's time for me to see what you have all been up to!

Mel

News Break!

2009-09-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

We are sad to announce that we are leaving the river. We have loved living in Rio Dulce and the property has been very tranquil and beautiful. We have been able to adjust and relax and get geared up for the next part of our adventure.

Our guatemalan friend in Virginia has offered to let us live in his house near Quatzaltenango (Xela) while we get a Pizzeria up and running. We are really excited about this and will keep you all up to date on how it is going. Nathan will still dabble in the car business, but it hasn't developed like we had hoped. Either there just isn't enough people living in this area or our competition can beat our prices because they don't have to make as big a profit. We don't know, but we are excited about the Pizzeria. It will be called "El Gringo Loco Pizzaria". We have a lot of great ideas as far as marketing that should help launch us pretty quickly. Any ideas or recipes will be welcome! It will also really help the kids education in Spanish, Business Developement, Communication, Success Skills and Mathmatics. They will only be up at the restaurant for a few hours a day, but it will help them in all areas.

We will miss the Rio Dulce lifestyle but it will be really nice for me to be independent again and be able to go and do without being dependent on Nathan. My Spanish is getting better, (Grammar is still a mess, but I can get my thoughts across half the time and can understand at least half of the conversations around me. I still get details confused in a funny way but I don't have the paralyzing fear anymore) and I have been driving a little. Just being able to run to the store or the park with the kids will be wonderful. Quatzaltenango has a huge store very similiar to Walmart and has MCD, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and a huge hospital. Don't worry there will still be plenty of great things to do near where we will be living for our visitors. We will be near the Feutas Georginias, my favorite place to visit here in Guatmala. It is the hotspring pools shown in the photos above, and we will be a few hours from the Pacific Coast and a few hours from Lake Atitlan and a few hours from some great ruins. Also less than an hour is a water park and amusement park. So when you visit you will have a blast. I promise.

The part of Guatemala is called "La Tierra Fria" or the land of cold. It is quite a bit colder than here. We will have to actually wear socks and shoes at night and jackets instead of flip flops all the time, but the days are warm and sunny, and we will be just a few hours from the tropical weather of the coast.

I expect our posts will be quite a bit different now because we are leaving the life of leisure, but we are excited. Pray for us and our new business adventure.

The pictures above are from the Primary Activity Day celebrating the birthday of the Primary. It was a talent show where Brigham and Xela played piano, and Gabby got to hit her first Pinata. So fun. The talent show was super cute. We had two boys do dance and sing to "Billy Jean". They love Michael here. Good thing they didn't understand the words. :)))) Xela was partners for one of the games with a boy that has a big crush on her. We got a big laugh out of that.

I also included pictures from our last visit to Xela. We went with Monkey's family. There are two pics of the fam overlooking Lake Atitlan. We also stayed at the Feutas Georginias in the bungalows there.

There are more pics of the kids swimming in the Rio. Gabby just got brave enough to jump in. She does a little football stance and countdown before she jumps.

Mama,I am so glad to hear that Grandma is getting to see the pics. Crissy! Thank you so much.

Joanne, Keep posting comments cause I love to hear from you. I always look for you to leave a comment.

Robin, I agree about the bugs and critters. Aiyi! I am starting to get used to it a little. Hopefully in the La Tierra Fria they won't be soooo big. Samantha is getting so big. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday she was 1 taking off her clothes and climbing out of the playpen. She has really become such a great young lady. Please tell her high and give Karen a hug for me and tell her I hope she is feeling better.

Kim, Aaron and Grace are soo cute. I love to hear what they are up to. I hope Aaron enjoys school and has a great teacher.

Tina, I answered your ?'s on facebook. Did you get it?

Mel

Xocomil, Xetulul

2009-08-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

First of all I have to thank my new friend Shauna for bringing me some treats from the states! Between Betty and Shauna we have been really blessed. Thank you Shauna for the stuff for the orphanage and for our favorite brownie mix and my raw almonds. I am soo happy.

Check out Nathan's curry crabcakes. They only lasted a few minutes. I didn't try them but they were definately beautiful.

One day I was washing dishes and Brigham ran in the house and said "Mom! You have to come see this gigantic bug I just caught!" He held his hands 2 feet apart to show me the size. I said "Brigham, I don't really want to see a bug that big." (Bad homeschool mom! I know!) He looked at me with big excited eyes and said "But mom! It's so beautiful!" I couldn't resist that, so I went out and took pictures of his big beautiful bug. As you can see it wasn't exactly 2 feet long, but it was definately beautiful. When it flew away it had huge wings like a butterfly. We found out it is called an Esperanza, which means hope. Which is fitting because this post includes information about a foundation we have been looking into called "Cause for Hope".

We had to go to Guatemala City again last Thursday to sell one of Nathan's trucks. We were just going to stay one night with Monkey and his family, but it ended up turning into a weekend fun.

Since we were over halfway to Mazatenango we decided to head over and meet Leonell Bonilla, who works for Cause for Hope. Our new friend Shauna had come to Guatemala the week prior with her father, mother, husband , sister and brother in law to visit the foundation. I think her father either started or is a big part of the foundation. She was so nice and brought us some gifts and craft stuff for the orphanage. She left it for us at Cause for Hope, since as we all know there isn't a trusted shipping service to us at this time.

Monkey's family decided they wanted to come with us also. We left Friday around noon to head to Mazate. We met Leonell at Burger King. Ate lunch real quick and then went to the foundation. www.causeforhope.com We met with Leonell and his boss (I don't remember his name. Bad me.) The foundation gives the people micro loans to start businesses, and then educates them on running a business. They also teach English and Computer Skills and help prospective missionaries financially prepare for missions and help fund their medical preparations and clothing for the mission. Many of the members can't even afford the clothing to be a missionary let alone the expense. We are hoping to be able to help with this somehow.

We then went to a delicious restaurant in Reu. I am so sorry that I don't know the name. It was a very nice place where you order platters of shrimp that come with ceviche and seafood soup for everyone. We also ordered a couple plates of delicious steaks and potatoes for those of us who don't like shrimp. Then we went searching for a nice hotel. We found a place we really like called La Jardin (the garden). It was beautifully landscaped and had condo style habitations with two bedrooms kitchen ect. We piled the two families into one..... hmmmm..... I didn't know how it would work out either but they brought us an extra bed to put in one room and the other had 2 bunks so we all fit. They had a pool, and ping pong. We had a lot of fun hanging out playing that night.

The next day we headed over to the water park Xocomil. It was super packed but so fun. We really had a great time. We will have to go back when it's not so busy so we can ride all the rides. It was a Saturday and a Holiday. We'll go back during the week sometime. Nathan and I have both been before during the week on past visits and it wasn't busy at all. I think Nathan took Kim when they came also.

We left the water park at about 3 and headed over to the amusement park next door called Xetulul. This was so fun. You can get a family season pass for both parks for Q500, which is a little over $50. Crazy right? The amusement park you have to buy tickets for the rides though in addition to the entrance fee, so it wasn't busy at all. The tickets are cheap so it wasn't a big deal, but I guess it's expensive enough to keep the crowds away. The rollercoaster had no wait at all. Pretty much only men rode it. It was so much fun and the landscaping was breathtaking. You all have to come visit so we can take you here.

Nathan and the kids are eating crabs and watching the Redskins right now. Not much has changed. LOL!

We love to hear from all of you so please post a comment!

Mel

Xela

2009-08-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I miss you all so much:-(
Leav me a message or a question.

Courtney,
Lets chat on FB somtime

All those Napolen Dinamite lovers
I have been Drawing alot of my fav animals like

Frig/frog/pig

Dragle/Dragon/eagle

Dragacorn/unacorn/dragon

and more

Don't be scared to put some of you fav mixed animals too

Xela

Utila, Honduras

2009-08-06T13:55:00.001-07:00

"Happy Birthday George!!!" I know it is a day late but we thought of you all day yesterday! We didn't have internet access or phone service since we were in Honduras. We love you! We hope you had a great day and that you were spoiled rotten!

The first picture is a picture of Nathan's second batch of crabs he bought for Q1 each. Nathan and the kids were in heaven.

We had a break in the rain Sunday afternoon so we decided to get a head start and head out a day early for Honduras.

The first few pictures are of us waiting for our ferry from La Ceiba Honduras to Utila. It is called the Utila Princess. The ride out to the Island was a little bumpy but we made it. The first view of Utila was breathtaking. The water was soo blue. Gorgeous!

Our ferry ride was from 9:30 am to 10:30. We found a hotel right away and then headed out to get lunch and explore the island. You can walk from one side of the island to the other in 20 minutes. They also have little TUK-TUK taxis that you can take anywhere on the island. We did this a few times. There is a picture of us on the day we left all 6 piled in with our luggage. We found a restaurant called Evelyn's BBQ. IT was decorated with Bob Marley everything. The decour was fun but the service was absolutely horrible and the food wasn't to good and it was expensive. So if you ever go to Utila don't eat here!!

Then we headed out to explore the opposite side of the island from where we were staying. We ran into the owner of Afton's Dive Shop. (We heard from some of the divers that this is a great dive school and the owner was wonderful to us. He gave us tons of tips about the island) He told us of a great area to take the kids snorkeling on the other side of the island near our hotel. It was a pier just past the public beach called Coral Views. They have a great pier that goes right out to the edge of the coral and you can snorkel right by the pier which made it easier to take turns going out. The kids loved it so much. Then we hit the public beach on the way back to the hotel.

That night we went out to eat at the best little restaurant. It was an Indian/Thai reastaurant. I don't remember the name but I believe it is the only one on the island. It was packed and there was no doubt in my mind why. The food was sooo good.

The next day we went to the other side of the island to a private beach called Bando's beach. It was perfect. Soooo beautiful as you can see in the pictures. There was coral out from the beach. You had to swim a little way and then cross some dead coral and you could snorkel there. Nathan said that it was a wall of coral that you could view from the side. I will have to have him add a comment about it. The kids absolutely loved this place. I didn't go out because of Gabs, and I wasn't brave enough to go without Nate. We also met a parrot named Bud who could say "Hello". The kids had a ball talking to her. The owner has 5 different parrots. We stayed here until about 3 PM then we ate in the IGUANA garden. There are pictures of this place. You can see pictures of the "Utila Spiny Tailed Iguana" that are found only in Utila. These pictures were taken from our table while we ate. We took the tuk-tuk back to the hotel to drop Gabby and I off for her nap and then the rest of the family went back to the pier to snorkel until dark. Gabby was still sleeping when they got back so they left us and went to a place called the "Pizza Nut" to eat pizza and bring some back for us. It was soooo yummy! The crust was super thin. If you are ever in Utila you have to eat here.

The next day we were going to get up and go snorkeling one last time before catching the ferry at 2, but we were too sunburned. We actually applied sunscreen twice but I guess it wasn't quite good enough for the Utila Sun. So we just slept in. We had the Tuk- Tuk pick us up at 12 and take us over to the boat dock. We ate lunch at the best, and I mean the best, sooo good that you would go back to the Island just to eat there, Mexican restaurant. I took a picture of it for the blog it was so good. The enchiladas are the best you will ever eat and the nachos are world famous. Yummm!

So anyway the trip was wonderful and so much fun. Utila is breathtakingly beautiful. When we were researching it the books and websites mentioned that the rainy season doesn't start there until November. This didn't make sense to us since it is so close, but apparantly the tradewinds hold the rain on the mainland until November, so it was clear and beautiful. It is an island that is mainly for dive certifications. They are supposedly the cheapest place in the world to get certified. $250 including accomodations for your open water. Which takes 3 and a half days. Once you get this certification they will take you out for $25 including the equipment rental. So the island was full of young single adults coming to learn how to dive. It had a party atmosphere and we were really the only family on the island. Tourism is down right now because of the political problems, so there weren't many people and whenever you talked to the locals you could tell they were really hurting. It was really sad. July is normally their busiest month and was slower than their slowest month typically. The island's first language is English and second Spanish. So you don't have to worry about communication issues to go here.

As far as political issues we didn't have a problem. I did take a picture of one group of protestors we passed blocking one lane of the road. They all waved at us and smiled because the USA is working to help reinstate their President. I don't know alot about the issues here, but apparantly the President was changing the constitution with out approval from any other government bodies. One thing he changed was "no term limits". So the millitary kidnapped him in the night and congress voted the next day to impeach him. Part of the country loved him so they are protesting.

I also took a picture of one of the palm tree farms. They were so beautiful. I wanted to hang a hammock and chill under the canopy.

That's all I've got this time. Keep checking the comments though for Nathan's description of the snorkeling.

Thanks Kimbo for the rainy day suggestions. It is actually fairly sunny today! Yeah! I will defiantely use the website and the suggestions though. The game sounds so fun. I can't wait for it to rain so we can play it!

Mel

Rainy Season is offiicially here!

2009-08-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

Wow!!! Carumba! We are experiencing something I can't even describe in words. I tried to take pictures but it just doesn't do it justice. It is raining so hard and has rained like this non-stop for a few days and all night. It is so nice to sleep to the rain. The thunder and lightning are amazing, a little scary because it sounds so close, but amazing at the same time. It does present 3 problems however:

1. WE ARE TRAPPED! It is way too dangerous to go out in the boat in this rain. As you can see from the picture of our deck we can't see very far in front of it. Normally we can see the other side of the river clearly. Also, we have a shelter on our boat but it does no good if the rain is coming down this hard. If it doesn't stop we will not be able to go to church tomorow.

2. It makes our house seem wayyyyy too small, because instead of being outside exploring, swimming in the river and playing soccer my kids are instead trapped in the house. The 6 of us crammed in the living room slash dining room, is a little close for comfort.

3. I am currently hanging my clothes to dry and this is a problem because the sun is not coming out to dry them. I did have nate hang a clothesline on the upper deck and I hang clothes on the hammocks but the kids have turned the hammocks into their playground so that doesn't end up so good.

With that said - I still love my Guatemala! (If this last much longer, you may have to ask me again!):))))

Shauna, don't worry it won't be raining like this next week when you come! We will have a week of perfect sunshiny days!

Mel

Everything happens for a reason!

2009-07-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ok - so I have to say that I don't believe in coincidences. I feel that everything happens for a reason.

First of all I just renewed a relationship with an old high school friend on facebook. I commented on her status and mentioned something about Guatemala. Later that night a friend of hers contacted me. She had just booked a flight to Guatemala the day before. Her father is a sponsor for a foundation here in Guatemala. It is started and run by members of our church. www.causeforhope.org . He and his wife are coming to Guatemala and bringing two of their children and their spouses to check on the foundation and tour some of the great places to see here in Guatemala.

Second of all, today we decided to go to lunch with Nate at a new Mexican restaurant here in town. We've been really wanting to try it. Anyway we decided to wait 10 extra minutes so I could hang out the laundry once it was done washing. It's a good thing we did. We rescued a man who was drowning in the middle of the river. For some reason he decided to try to swim the 200 yards from one side to the other and got caught in the current and was not going to make it. We pulled him up on the boat and took him to the other side.

Crazy right? Neither was a coincidence.

We went to the mexican restaurant and it was ooooooh, so delicious! Every one of us cleaned our plates. There was not a smidge of food left. That's a miracle with 4 kids. They gave us a super yummy piece of flan. It was more like cheesecake and one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. Betty's beat it for sure but it was close.

It was raining but not too bad when we left. We should have known it would be pouring in a few minutes. It was reallly, really hot this morning which usually means an earlier rainstorm. We got about a third of the way across and it downpoured. We have shelter on our launcha but that doesn't help much in this situation. It was raining so hard that it hurt your face and it was hard to keep your eyes open. The current picked up and you couldn't see far in front of the boat. It was freaky! Ammon was our hero sitting on the bow of the boat watching out for boats (and now we have added people to his watch:))) Xela prayed and the rain quieted a little so that we could find the house. Needless to say we were soaked every inch through when we got home. Good thing I forgot to bring my camera! We finally felt chilled enough to break out our chocao hot chocolate we bought when we were in Antigua and brew it up. The kids have been asking for me to make it but it is so hot here I always put it off. UMMMM! It was so delicious!

I finally finished off the bananas today. I dehydrated a ton and froze a bunch and have some in the fridge to ripen and make into banana bread. Yumm! Problem is I think I may be allergic to them. I may have over done them with my smoothies and now my body is responding against them. I'm not sure, but today I broke out with a rash after handling them and I have had a bad sinus headache since Sunday. I hope I am wrong. I've never heard of anyone being allergic to bannanas before.

Robin! I totally agree! Let's exterminate all bug like critters anywhere near our home! I am so happy to see your comments. They always put a smile on my face.

Hannah, It sounds like you are having a great summer! I am so glad Dallin learned how to swim. That is such a relief I know! Afton will be right there soon and next summer Henry will be swimming also. Give Grandma a big hug for me. We tried to call her on her birthday and left a message but we didn't get to talk to her. Have fun at family reunion. We are so bummed to miss it this year. It is a highlight of our summer every year. We love to see everyone and catch up with all the cousins. I'm sure it won't be the same without us :))))!!!

Mel

Scorpions, Lizards and other Critters

2009-07-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

So I already told you on facebook but I have to blog about it anyway because it is a new Guatemalan experience and part of the adventure.

Yesterday when I was at church I reached in my bag and pulled out a wooden puzzle. On the bottom was a scorpion. When my hand brushed against something weird I swished it off of the puzzle. It went flying. I looked and it was a scorpion. I screamed and grabbed the kids and ran to the other side of the room. Luckily the Primary President was in there doing singing time. She went over and calmly killed it with her heals picked it up and put it outside. I was shaking so bad, but soon became the object of much humor throughout the building. Apparantly it hitched a ride in my church bag because I pulled it out of the closet zipped it up and didn't unzip it until I went in for the puzzle. I bet you are all dying to come visit now! At least it is the only one I've seen in 4 plus months. Right?

My baby brother got married on Saturday! Congratulations Jared and Nicole! I wish I could have been there. Kelley was the only one to make it I believe. Everyone else is hoping to go to the Colorado reception next month. I don't think I will be able to make it. I'm pretty bummed but they are hoping to come see us at Christmas time. I still wish I could have been there to celebrate with them.

The first pics are of Gabby getting into the brownie mix while Xela was mixing up a batch. It was a mess but so cute I had to take a pic and post it.

The rest of the pics are of our trip to Livingston. We took the same trip on our Guatemalan vacation in 08 so some of the pictures will seem similiar.

We stopped about half way there at a bird island. It was like the one near our house except it had these huge bugs. They look like huge grasshoppers but have bigger wings. The kids and Nathan held them. I didn't of course, but they were cool to look at.

We then went into a Lagoon. I can't remember the name but it had lilly pads everywhere and if you look close enough you can see little birds on them. The water was so glassy. It was amazing. I can't quite describe it. The picture of the boys in the little boat was crazy because the water was so glassy it looked like they were about to go over a waterfall. It was illusion caused by the reflections but it freaked me out at first. I took tons of pictures because I thought the reflections of the nature in the water was so pretty. Maybe Xela will paint one for me one day. When we were coming out of the lagoon we saw children in little homemade wooden boats paddling frantically toward us. One was a little girl selling shells. We bought two from her. One is the one Gabby is holding to her ear. The little boys were selling crabs for a Q a piece. We didn't buy any then.

As we approached Livingston we saw all of the shrimp boats. Apparantly they go out at 5pm and come in at 5am. So the boats look abandoned. The cranes and pelicans perched on them add to the view. They were everywhere. In the trees on the boats flying by. It was amazing.

When we got to Livingston the girls got their hairbraided. Gabby was so cute. She felt so big. In the center of their park they have a concrete pool with crocodiles or alligators. I don't know the difference. We walked through town and checked out the vendors. I bought some coconut oil which was great because I had just ran out. They make delicious coconut rolls there. We walked down to the beach but it was cloudy so we didn't get wet. I had to take a picture of the pigs on the beach with us. It is so classic of Guatemala. Pigs and chickens everywhere. I don't know how the owner's have piece of mind w/out worrying about someone stealing and eating their chickens and pigs. Not to mention the stray dogs making a meal out of them. When we went to the restaurant the lady said they were out of bacon and she was having a hard time finding any in the stores around town. I wanted to tell her there was a bunch of it down at the beach.

There were two little boys practicing playing drums on old cans of various sizes and soda bottles on a stick. It was amazing the rythm they had together and that they could make it work with what little they had. Livingston can only be reached by boat and from what I heard it was settled by people off of a slave ship that swam to shore when the ship wrecked. The african culture is apparant all around you.

Gabby zonked out the minute we hit the river to head home.

We stopped at two places on the way back. One was a ecological farm that is also a college. It teaches the mayan youth two things. One - about all of the animals, insects and bugs that inhabit Guatemala, and two they train them in tourism and how to become business owners. They make and sell 100% natural crafts to fund the college. At this farm they have waterfalls to swim at. We were also given a tour of the trees. The picture of the tree with the red pods hanging off of it is the Cocao tree. This is where our chocolate comes from. These pods have nibs inside with a sweet white fruit on them. The nibs are made into cocao powder. The picture of the little white baby pods are cocao pods also, when they first appear. It was amazing to me that the pods grow right out of the bark. I also took pictures of a line of ants carrying huge chunks of leaves to their home. Our guide told us that they travel like that for 2km. Amazing! We also stopped at the Aguas Calientes. Ahhhh! Natural hot tubs are the best! A little stinky but so relaxing under the canopy of the jungle.

Ohhh! We also stopped at the entrance of the lagoon so Nathan could purchase blue crabs. 20 for Q20 or $2.50. The last part of the ride was in a rainstorm but we got home just before it hit hard.

Sunday we were given a bunch of banans at church by our friend Jorge Garcia. I don't know how many we have but we have frozen a ton for smoothies and my dehydrator is going 24/7. I just hope they don't all ripen at the same time. We gave a lot of them to the guards and to Temio also.

We would love to hear what all of you have been up to, so please leave a comment letting us know!

Mel

2009-07-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much everyone for the sweet birthday messages to Xela. She had so much fun reading them and they made me cry because I miss you all so much. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

I took some pictures of Brigham, Xela and Gabby playing in the rain. They get so excited when they see it raining. They run and grab their umbrellas and head out. Nathan still goes out every night to watch the rain. It is so amazing. It rains so hard and the thunder and lightning is so loud. I have never seen anything like it and it happens night after night. During the day we have light rains but plenty of sunshine. It as at night that the downpours come.

I also included pics from the girls combined B-day party. We had a great time. Gabby got play-doh stuff - her favorite, puzzles, and a Barney matching game. Xela got tons of art supplies, a movie and some shoes. I made the cake but it was so hot that day that it melted. UMMM - I think someone was supposed to give me cake decorating lessons as part of a b-day present!!!! I could have really used them!

One day Gabby said "Mom take my picture." and started striking poses on the countertop no less! It was so cute I couldn't help but give in and include the photos. She has started to sing all the time with a pretend microphone and immitate Hannah Montana. It has started early. She dances and strikes poses. She reminds me of Courtney at this age.

We went again on Saturday to the Hotspring Waterfalls and Lake Izabal. We took Temio's kids. They are having a hard time right now because their Mom deserted them again for like the third time. Temio is so sad and the kids are so young. It breaks my heart, so please include them in your prayers. They are such good kids and Temio is such a good guy! I didn't take pics at the waterfalls because we already posted some in April. The day at the Lake was a little cloudy this time and the water wasn't as clear because it was a little rough. The waterfalls are so cool. The falls are hotwater and the stream is cold. We climbed to the top of the falls and followed the stream to a pool of hot water. It was surrounded by jungle and felt like heaven.

Nathan and I have been thinking lately about the fact that we have seen no public libraries in Guatemala everywhere. When we visited Monkey last week he mentioned that he believes the reason Guatemala is in such poverty is because they don't read. I believe this is true also. If you are never exposed to the greats how can you find your own greatness and expand your thought process. All they get is Hollywood's version of the world through TV and then think they have to go there to be happy. They don't realize that here in Guatemala they can become great and make an impact in the lives of their friends and families here. Guatemala is a beautiful wonderful country with so much potential. Anyway a book I read recently also discussed this fact and I posted it in my classics book club online. Someone in my bookclub actually helps people start libraries in 3rd world countries and offered to help us. He gave me tips on how to find a location and then his ministry helps you build the building. I am sure the books will have to be donated also but they would need to be Spanish. We would need to figure out a way to get people here to donate unused books but I think once they get a book they treasure it. It is a luxury to own one. Anyway we are just starting to think on how it would work out. I feel that too many things happened at just the right time. It is definately something we are supposed to do. Any thoughts on this are welcome.

The boys earned a day with Dad by doing good in school so they are gone with him today. We are going to have a girl day. Movie and brownies (thanks Grandma). We have to break out a Jane Austen Classic movie!

Until next time!

Mel

Happy Birthday Xela!!

2009-07-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Baby Girl. This is a post dedicated to you for your 10th birthday. You are so awesome. I love you so much. Like always said you are the perfect daughter. Whenever I pictured what my little girl would be like I pictured her to be just like you.

Everyone please put your favorite memory of Xela.

Love ya Xe Xe!

Mama

Xelas Question

2009-07-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to mmmmeeeeee, I'm 100 & Threeeee, I smell like a Monkeeeeyyyyy, Okay I better stop. Wow the last two week's were busy. Sorry everyone. Our Computer has been down. Monkey's family is great they laughed when dad said, "See you next week." when we were leaving, because we keep coming back every weekend. Even though it's probly true. JK. Little Thunder is so funny he love's to fight. I think he gave me a couple bruises. "haha" JK

QUESTION
What is your favorite thing we have done so far?

Xela,

Weekend Trips to the City, the 4th and Monkey's House

2009-07-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Wow!! We have been so long posting on the Blog! We went to Guatemala City the Weekend of the 4th and this past weekend and the computer was down for a few days in between. Sorry!

I have to say this about Guatemalans before I forget. They are the most creative business minded group of people I have ever met. For instance. Alot of the people where we live drive motorcycles. The problem is it is really hot here so the black seats become extremely hot when they aren't riding them. We saw a man the other day selling pieces of card board for them to put on their seats while they were in the store. When they came out they just discarded the cardboard because they couldn't hold it while riding. He would pick it up and re-sell it. In the city men will go stake out a block and tell everyone who parks there that they will watch their cars for them. Then when the people come out they tip them. They will also stop traffic for you to pull back out in the street. This is just a small example of what we see. This mindset is rubbing off on Brigham. That and spending his whole life living with Nate. Xela made a beautiful picture of a sunset on the river with a Guatemalan in a fishing boat. Brigham bought it for Q1. Xela was so happy. She was saying "I sold my first work of art!" Then Brigham turned around to me (because he had heard me praising Xela) and sold it to me for Q20s.

I have to try to remember back to the weekend of the 4th. I am so mad that I forgot our camera. It made it to the suburban but when we switched cars it didn't make it to the Rodeo for the trip. We stayed the weekend with one of Nathan's friends from the mission. His name is Carlos (Charly) Monteroso, but we call him Monkey. It is a nickname he picked up on his mission. The missionaries would give him a snickers bar if he would do crazy things like jump off of the roof of the church building. He has a business where he makes trophies and medals and plaques and metal name tags. He is the Bishop in his ward. His wife's name is Lorraina and he has 3 kids, Mohonri (12), Shazer (7) and Thunder(Antonio) (4). They have a great house in Guatemala City. It has a great layout. I was so amazed that they had a clothes washer that was also a dryer. I had never heard of this before. I got to try it out Saturday night. It was amazing.

On the 4th we went to a place near the City called "Aguas Calientes". It was so beautiful there. We picked up two buckets of wings from Pollo Compero for lunch. Yumm! The first thing we did was swim in the pool which Gabby loved so much! She is getting to be a little fish. She swam around with just arm floats this time. Then we took turns going in the volcanic sauna. The women enter through one entrance an the men through another and you go into a large room that has a big square hole in the floor with benches all around it. when you look in the hole you see rocks and boiling hot water from a volcanic hot spring. It was so refreshing to sit in the sauna. Then we went and ate wings and drank from coconuts and then we rented two family spas. They were private rooms with a hot tub and a private showering area. It cost Q20 an hour per hot tub which is $2.50. So worth it! It was so refreshing. Then we went and visited the zoo part of the park that had the most beautiful green parrots walking everywhere on the grass. The kids walked up to them and talked to them. Then a man came and they all started following him. It was the craziest thing, a man with 20 parrots following him. He walked them to their cages and they went right in. It must have been feeding time and he was going to feed them. Then we saw the monkeys. They had so much fun entertaining us. I wish so much I had had my camera! The monkeys in the pictures above were at the zoo the following weekend. They were fun to watch also but they were not near as active and vibrant. They also have a huge playground and a ride area for little kids. It was a beautiful place. I definately recommend it. When you come visit if you fly into Guatemala City we will take you there.

That night we went to the mall which was huge and fancier than any mall I had ever seen in the states. We went to see Ice Age 3 in Spanish. It was fun. We also got to go in some stores and I got some books (they were expensive though!) We were shocked to see that they charge $100 for x-box 360 games and $50 plus for DS games. I think we will have to come home for Thanksgiving to take advantage of the US prices for Christmas!@! And to see all of you of course!

We had a great time with the Monterosa Family. The kids all got along great and they were so hospitable. I felt so bad because they made us sleep in their room both trips to the city and they slept on couches. They fed us some awesome food also. Lorraina's Mom taught me how to make grilled chicken and steak Guatemalan style and told me how to make stuffed fried chilli rellenos! If I master it I will make you all some when we come home to visit.

We heard that tourism in Honduras is down 80% right now and packages are %50 off. So if you are planning a visit, plane flights to San Pedro Sula, Honduras are probably pretty cheap right now. Our neighbor just happened to fly to the states the day of the millitary coup and flew back the day the Pres was supposed to re-enter the country. He said there were no issues or problems.

Then the next weekend we discovered that we needed to go to the Capital again to get our passport extension straightened out. Some rude, mean, old ladies at the Belize border gave us only a 30 day permission which apparantly there is no such thing(We think they wanted a pay off). So we had to have someone change it to 90 days. The Monterosa family opened their home to us again. It reminds me of the old VA hospitality rule.

We had a great time again. They took us shopping. We went to a fancy thrift store that has pretty much all name brand things. I found tons of Gymboree and Children's Place clothes. Some with the tags still on them. There are places here called Pacas. They buy the clothes from the thrift stores in the states by the 100 lbs. This particular paca goes to the other pacas and buys the nice things and then re-sells them. I got the girls some cute things.

Then we went to a place called Price Smart. I am pretty sure it is owned by Cosco. It is also a membership store set up the same as Costco. I was so happy. They have a lot of the foods we miss (even raw almonds). It is still sold at a higher price than at home but cheaper than we can get anywhere else around here. The next day we went to a toy store to go B-day shopping for the girls. You wouldn't beleive how expensive everything was! I about died! No wonder the kids here in Guate don't have very many toys. Ughhh! We have to come home for Thanksgiving!! (Do you think Nathan is getting my message here?)

Saturday we went to the Zoo. You may have gathered that from the pics above. It was so fun. Then we went to Burger King for lunch! Yummy!!! That was my first whopper since moving to Guate! I wish we would get a Chick Fila here!

We ended up staying Saturday night also becuase we were too tired to drive home after the Zoo. We had to borrow clothes from them for church. It was quite funny!

Gabby learned how to ride a tri-cycle. The bikes and even tri-cylcles are over $100 here. It makes me so mad that I didn't make room for the kids bike in the cars or tie them on top or something!!

I also included pics of Gabby and Brigham playing together. They have become the best of friends.

Mama I took a picture of Xela drawing horses with her book you sent her. She is such a good little artist!

Everyone start thinking positive and praying we will be able to work out coming home for a visit in November.

Mel

Bus trip to Guatemala City

2009-06-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Dana! Thank you so much for the Spanish encouragement. I have just broken through another wall and reached a new phase. As long as I keep progressing and pushing through the fear I am happy. I am excited about my new primary calling - I am the nursery teacher. The perfect spot to start me! I only have to give a 5 minute lesson in Spanish so that shouldn't be too hard. Problem is Gabby loves the primary secretary that's been substitute teaching and doesn't want me to be her teacher. I am so sad. I am feeling pretty comfortable talking to little kids in Spanish and am starting to overcome the fear of not speaking perfect sentences and trying to communicate with adults. When we were at the temple on Saturday a group of MTC elders were practicing giving discussions to the members waiting outside the temple. My Spanish is quite a bit better than theirs so I had to kick myself. If they can get out and speak then so can I. One Elder told Nathan (in spanish) that he is going to be in the MTC for 6 years!! Ahhh! The joys of learning a new language.

Last weekend we stayed at the Del Monte Colony Friday and Saturday night. A guy at church can get us a room for free in their hotel like apartments. We left at 3 am Saturday morning to go to Guatemala City to the temple. We were packed into a fifteen passenger van. The trip to the City went good because the kids and Nathan all slept and there was no traffic on the road so the driver was able to cruise at a quick pace.

I forgot to bring my camera. I am so sorry! I think we are going back this weekend though so I promise to take pics and post them.

I forgot to bring sweaters for everyone and we froze. It is so weird to me how we can be so cold when it is 75 degrees outside. The body is a funny thing how it is able to adjust and change with circumstance. I always wandered how in the world the women in Colonial Virginia didn't die wearing all those layers in the heat of summer with no AC. Now I understand. Your body just adjusts.

Some sisters in the branch watched the kids in a little waiting area across from the temple. It is a big room kind of like an airport waiting area and has a big grassy fenced in area behind it for the kids to run around and not distract from the spirit of the temple grounds. The distribution center and cafeteria are also in this building.

It was great to be able to attend the temple. I haven't got to go much since Gabby was born and enjoyed it so much. I freaked out a little when Nathan and I had to separate and go get clothes and change. It went ok but I was a little lost and confused at the system different from what I am used to. Luckily some little old sisters found me wandering around and directed me to where I needed to be.

The trip home was a little more difficult because we picked up 3 more people in the city. It was still fun, because we got to bond with some of the members in the branch. Brigham of course charmed them all and made friends with the driver.

The picture above of Gabby on the stairs in a tie is a funny story. If I could upload video to this computer I would post a video of it but I will have to just try to expain what she does. At least once a day she puts on the boys tie and church shoes and says she is Nathan going to work. She goes outside and pretends the stairs are the boat. She pantomimes him perfectly. She starts out by pretending to start the boat by pulling the string over and over again. Then she sits down and puts her little hand behind her back and pretends to be steering it. The she pulls out a pretend phone from her pocket, dials a number and talks while steering the boat. She finishes by hanging up and putting the phone in her pocket and then getting out of the boat and tying it up. I wish you could see it! It is soo funny and she acts it out perfectly. Yesterday she gave Brigham, Ammon, Xela, Kevin and Angie a ride into town on her boat. I should have took a picture of that! It was so cute.

The other pictures are of Gabby in her new pants Grandma sent in the last goody truck. She is holding her white pants and puzzle. Thank you Grandma. She was so happy. Especially when she discovered they have belt loops for her belts and pockets for her cell phone and quetzalis. She won't wear any pants without pockets and belt loops.

I will get pics of the other kids with their goodies when they come home. Mr. Castillo fixed the pool for us this weekend so they are out swimming their hearts out with his kids. Ammon is on a 30 mile bike ride with the youth from church. Hopefully he will be able to walk when he gets home. Thanks again so much for the fun surprises!

We got
4 PB's
4 frostings
4 brownies
1 big bag of candy
1 licorice
1 bag of books
1 how to draw horses
2 puzzles
1 bag of birthday cereal
1 shout (yeah!)
1 pool float (went immediately into use)
1 pack of nerf bullets
2 pairs of pants

The theif must not have been on this boat!

Gabby keeps asking me about blues clues underwear??? Do you know what she is talking about?

Thanks again so much!

Mel

Pook's Hill and our Hotel in San Ignacio, Belize

2009-06-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

We planned to head back toward the border on the 18th and hopefully do some cave tubing on the way - google this on line it looks sooo fun! Unfortunately it had rained 6 inches the night before so the river activities were closed. This is probably why tourism is down in Belize during the rainy season. I didn't see the sun the whole trip! The country is beautiful though so it radiates a little of it's own sunshine for the soul.

On the way out of Belize City we had 3 great finds! 1. Someone was cooking Belizian Rice and Beans with Chicken and coleslaw on the side of the road! We should have bought more than one portion because it was delicious! Especially with my cold coconut Nathan bought me. 2. A health food store! I was so happy because my colloidial silver had been loaned out and never returned when little Eddy had chicken pox in his eye! Poor thing. I needed to replace that and purchase some other things I had run out of. 3. In our search for Cave Tubing about half way to San Ignacio we found the coolest place out in the jungle! It is a cabanna resort named Pook's hill. They wanted $168 for the night which was out of our budget but the cabanna's do look 5 star on the inside and it has it's own onsite ruins. You can see them with Ammon inside the steam bath. I think they said these are the only ruins found with a steam bath. The owner Ray has a magical place out in the jungle. His son was raised there and over the years collected quite a bug collection! I have never seen anything like that display of bugs! The manager Katy was adorable. She is American but was born and raised in Antigua and Belize then moved to the states for HS and college but returned to Belize because she loves it so much. I definately recommend this place if you enjoy nature. They have some great walking trails through the jungle.

The rest of the pictures are of the resort we stayed at in San Ignacio. I forgot to take a picture of our room. It was really cute. Decorated typica with two bedrooms an living room and a kitchen. The food here is delicious and was actually reasonably priced. We swam for a little while but froze to death and didn't last long. I need sunshine to swim in cool water! Too bad the hot tub was broke.

While we were eating dinner Ray from Pook's hill showed up and ate near us with a bunch of his archealolgy buddies. The stories we heard were hillarious! You wouldn't beleive what these poor people go through to preserve history for us!!

We are not home yet! We are in a small town somewhere in Guatemala having the same car problems as before. We are staying in one of our cheap little Guatemalan hotels with three beds. Yeah! Nathan is out getting us pizza and snacks but will be home soon to put his comments on our trip.

Don't worry we will get home fine with the car. We just didn't make it before dark and didn't want to drive with probs in the dark....

Mel