Day trip to Pacaya

One of our biggest adventures was a day trip to the active volcano Pacaya. This is the volcano that had erupted merely 3 weeks before we arrived, shutting the airport and covering Guatemala City with ash. The original route that we were going to use was closed due to the mudslides and lava fields, so we went another way around. We had hired a driver and ended up waiting an hour at the Maxi Bodega (grocery store---owned by Walmart of course!). Tiffany kept Maryn and Naty busy while we waited: After a long and windy bus ride we got to get out and walk right by the hot lava field. The lava was steaming and even red in places. It was so hot to walk next too! But what an experience. The guide told us that the lava will remain hot/warm for up to 18 months! The place where we hiked was a farmers field and he was now turning to tourism because his grazing fields were covered with lava. He said, "what am I going to do...it's my land!". So he put up a gate and charged admission for people to come and see the lava! How creative.

Here we all are next to the big lava field. We roasted our marshmallows and poked at the red lava and then headed back to the van for the long, windy ride home. Another great memory!

Antigua

After several days in the countryside, we drove up through some small villages to Antigua...the most popular tourist site in the area. Antigua is a beautiful town, with cobblestone streets and beautiful churches and architecture. This is the most famous arch in Antigua with the volcano in the back (behind the cloud).
While some of the cathedrals are restored and functioning, this one was in ruin and was not being restored. It was fully fenced and pieces were falling off.

There were many unique doorways throughout the city. As we walked up and down the streets we would take pictures of the different doorways. Austin thought this one looked like a prison gate!

In Antigua there is a working jade factory. The jade itself is found in eastern guatemala and brought to Antigua to be cut and polished into beautiful jewelry and art. This man was shining the jade from the quary before it was to be cut.

In the jade museum was a replica of the ruins at Tikal (which were not able to go see). Jade was the most important material to the Mayans, far surpasing gold and silver.

These masks were in the museum and were found in the tombs of the royalty of Mayan civilization. The people were buried with jade masks that would help them enter into the afterlife with riches and power.

Our day in Antigua included market shopping and dinner at a nice restaurant before heading home. What a fabulous day!

First night and day in Chimaltenango, Guatemala!

Our trip to Guatemala began on June 15th with an easy flight from Texas to Guatemala City. Customs and immigration was simple and our friends were waiting right outside for us when we arrived. We had 3 suitcases (1 full of food!) and 2 carry ons, so it wasn't too bad. We headed over to pick up our rental car and had our first "experience". The rental car agency had a car for me, but when we were ready to go the keys could not be found. Apparently another worker had taken the keys with him somewhere and would be back in "5 minutes". Well, 5 minutes turned into 45 minutes and by then we were asking them for another car and letting them know it was ridiculous to wait this long. My friends father finally told them we were leaving, ripped up the contract, and we started to leave, when behold, the guy with the keys showed up! So we finally had a car and were on our way out of the city to Chimaltenango for our stay.

The countryside was beautiful as we drove along the highway. There was evidence of the volcano dust in piles on the streets and many mudslides along the sides of the highway. Several sinkholes were clearly marked and you could tell there had been quite a storm with Agatha. It had been 2 weeks and clean up was still on going.

We arrived at the Dougal's in time for dinner. This was our first dinner in Guatemala with all the kids:
Dinner was follwed by a movie night. No TV, just computers, but we had a nice 20 inch screen to watch on. We all huddled in on Tiffanies bed for "The Spy Next Door".

The following morning we went for a walk around the neighborhood. It had been dark when we arrived, so it was neat to go out and see the surrounding homes, farms, and buildings in the neighborhood.

Here's Austin and Libby with our rental car. It gained the nickname of "stinky armpit". It was a 4 cylindar stick shift Marutti. You get what you paid for as I think it was somewhere around $10 a day! But it took us everywhere we needed to go and got awesome gas mileage.

And here is the 3 of us at the front gate of the Dougal's home. We are so grateful to them for letting us stay with them, especially for letting my two boys invade the househould of all girls! It was a great time.

Library Petting Farm Summer Program

Our local library was kicking off their summer reading program with a petting zoo event. I took McKinley and Evan with friends of ours and we really enjoyed it. There was a long line, but once you got up there you could pet the goat, pig, goose, turkey, and sheep. You could also wait in another line to sit on the pony. We did it all, of course, and then loaded up with books from the library to participate in the summer reading program. It was a fun morning!

Evan couldn't just sit on the pony, he had to pretend he was in the rodeo!

McKinley is 6!

My little, sweet darling of a princess is now 6 years old. Wow! What a fun six years it's been already. McKinley is a delightful young girl...almost always sweet and very quiet. She is easily entertained and loves to follow me around and talk to me. I'm not sure what we do all day sometimes, but it's always fun and the time flies by. Here she was on her birthday morning!

This was the present that she just kept mentioning over and over....My Meeba. I didn't have a clue what it was but just knew I had to find it. She told me I got the right one...and I still don't know what it does or is!!??!

And our big surprise for her was this giant dollhouse to go in her room. It's bigger than her and came with some cute furniture. She LOVED it and hasn't stopped pretending and organizing it since she woke up.

Thank you to Grandpa Dick, Nana and Grandad, and Grandma Libby and Grandpa Irv, for sending money to help celebrate McKinley's birthday. She shouted out a great big thank you to all of you after we opened the presents this morning!

Never Forget!

Each year for Memorial Day we go to Fredericksburg, TX for the Memorial Day service on the Nemitz museum grounds. It's always a beautiful service where they honor each branch of the military and dedicate wreaths in honor of the different ships, platoons, squadrons, etc who lost servicemen over the years. This year was no different and it's important that our kids learn and remember these great men and women who served and are serving. This year we had Nana and Grandad visiting with us and so they were able to join us. It was hot, it was uncomfortable, but it was a small price to pay in honor of these heros!

We will never forget!

Field Day and Splash Day

For the end of the year the elementary school has so many fun things. While the older kids are taking final exams and turning in textbooks, the younger kids had Splash Day (McKinley) and Field Day (Evan). I was lucky enough to be able to be there and to share in the cooling off activities of the hot May day!
This was a water sponge relay where the class had to pass the sponge all the way from the front of the line to the back and fill a bucket with the water from the sponge. The class with the most water in the bucket was the winner. Our class ended up with most of the water on their heads...that was way more fun!!
The kindergartners had their very own section of the school yard with a 2 blow up waterslides, pools, waterguns, and a slip-n-slide. They were also treated to unlimited snowcones and a hot dog lunch. Here is McKinley with some of her friends from her class.

Cooling off in the pool!

Evan's favorite activity of field day was pulling the Texas sized pickup truck down the driveway. The class was trying to pull the truck the fastest! It was no easy feat!

Here's Evan's class with his teacher at the head of the pull!

All in all it was such a fun way to end the school year. Both kids had fantastic teachers and an awesome year! We love our school!