Monday, March 21, 2011
Morgan and Cole are getting a lot more confident in the water. I am pretty proud of them since they are able to do things that I've never learned to do. Such as putting my face in the water without pluggin my nose! Alysa is trying to get a little bit braver. She tried to put her face in the water while plugging her nose. She got her nose and eyes in for about 1/4 of a second. I guess that's progress though!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
I had forgotten how entertaining plastic easter egg can be! I pulled out of tiny stash of Easter decorations. There was a bag of plastic eggs. Cole, Alysa, and Laina could have played with them the entire day if I hadn't made them do some schoolwork. They were spinning them like tops and having contests to see whose would spin the longest. They also enjoyed painting and coloring pages for decorations.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
We sent off two more bags to states. I am definitely having mixed emotions. I can't believe how close it is getting to us leaving. Yet at the same time, I don't think it'll ever get here! I am really going to miss Guatemala but we are ready to come "home"....wherever that may be!
We enjoyed a fun night of Uno tonight. The kids have been begging us to play with them for a week or so. They just wait until after bedtime to started asking us. We keep telling them that they need to ask us BEFORE bedtime!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
My older sister (Brittany) is the food storage specialist in her ward now. She is also one of the most extreme couponers that I know. (Yes, she puts me to shame!) She has combined the two and found a deal for pork that ends up being about $.50/lb after tax, coupons, and weight overage. Last I heard she was ordering over 1,000 pounds of pork for her ward. I am desperately wanting to get some pork for when we get back. The problem lies in the fact that I don't have a freezer and both of my sisters' freezers are full. So, I have been watching craigslist in hopes of finding an inexpensive freezer. At lunch time, I refreshed my screen and low and behold, there is an upright freezer for $50!!! I freaked out and called Meghan on skype. I was so excited that I was screaming and the kids thought there was a fire or something. Meghan called the person while I was still on skype with her. The person had posted the freezer a half hour before and had already sold it! UGH!! I told Morgan that I felt like Anne of Green Gables going from an emotional high to an emotional low. She asked me if I was in the 'depths of despair'. I still have hope that we will be able to get a freezer and I will enjoy delicious pulled pork when we get back to the states!!!
I went to the sewing class again. I was on my own today because Sully didn't come and Lily didn't get there until we were finishing. I think I did amazing well considering I didn't understand half of what was being said! I think most of the people were more lost than I was. They said that sewing is its own language that they don't understand!
With all of the Anne of Green Gable talk, the girls and I watched the rest of the movie tonight while Chris and Cole were watching a basketball game with the Bottemas.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Chris took Cole to the dentist today. It was our last dentist appointment and I am so happy! I would be happy if I never had to see another dentist for a long time. (No offense all of my friends in the dental field!!) While they were out, Chris also took Alysa to pick out some new church shoes. I was hoping she'd be able to last until we got back to the states and we could get the clothes/shoes out of the storage unit. No such luck!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
While still being lazy and laying in bed, Chris asked if we wanted to do something different. So, off to Lake Atitlan we went. We grabbed some McDonalds to eat on the couple hour drive. We have been wanting to go on the zipline tour by the lake for quite a while, but just haven't gotten around to it. Since our time is getting shorter, we thought we better do it before it is too late. Alysa really didn't want to go, so Chris stayed with her. The other kids were totally excited though. Laina wasn't even concerned about having to go tandem with a stranger! The kid has no apprehension.
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| Morgan has a thing for flowers. She got it from her Grandma Hunsaker. |
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| Pre-tour. |
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| The practice run. Such excellent form! |
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| We had to hike about 20 minutes up the mountain. Part way we got to have our picture taken with a couple monkeys! One is right above mine and Morgan's helmets. |
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| The monkey |
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| We had to cross a ton of rope bridges. The kids act like they've been doing this their whole lives! |
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| Our scenery for the hike. |
The first line! Morgan and Cole acted like they were professionals. They couldn't get enough of it. I attempted to look at the beautiful scenery only to realize that I needed to watch for the red flag to start braking. Braking consisted of pulling down on the cable with an extra reinforced glove. Mine ended up getting so hot that it was burning my hand by the last couple of lines! I also somehow managed to knock my helmet off on the first line. It's a good thing that I had the chin strap on!  |
| "Where's Cole?" -Look in the middle of the picture towards the left. Look for the tiny red dot of a helmet. This gives you an idea of how high up we were and how far we were flying through the sky! |
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| Morgan a.k.a. little polka dot above the trees. |
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| Alysa got to hike back down with Chris. It was kind of ironic that she wore her "Daddy's Girl" t-shirt today! |
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| Alysa's photographic skills. I really like the pink sweatshirt draped over the shoulder! |
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| Some strange plant thing! |
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| Laina on the last of the eight lines with her guide, Pedro. After the fourth line, Laina informed me that she had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad. How am I supposed to take her to the bathroom when she's got a harness on? I asked her if she could hold it. She said she'd try. That's real reassuring! I was so worried that she was going to pee on the guide! She did amazing though. On one of the lines, something happened and her guide ended up hanging down way below her and stopped about 1/4 of the way out from the end. Nobody was really sure what was going on. The other guide had to jump back on the cable and go out to them. The 2nd guide had to help get Pedro back up to the main cable and then they had to join together and hand pull themselves (with Laina between them) back to the ending platform. Talk about stressing out a mom!! They were laughing so I was a little more relaxed but still, my 5 year old is dangling who knows how far above the ground! She was still smiling and didn't show an ounce of fear or worry! |
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| Out of the 8 people in our group, Morgan and I were the only ones who tried the swings at the end of the trip. They were a blast! |
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| On our drive home, we went past the temple and got to see it lit up for the first time!! Now we just need to get the circus that is in the field below the temple to go away so that the lights don't conflict! |
On Saturday, we went on the ziplines in Panajachel, Guatemala. When we got there Mom, Cole and Laina and I got geared up. Alysa didn't want to go so Dad stayed with her.
On the first zipline I got really scared. It is kind of scary jumpng off a cliff and depending on a cable 1,500 feet above the ground! After the first I was fine. It was really fun. After the ziplines, there were swings and things. (I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. And again!) Only Mom and I went on them though.
An excerpt from Cole's journal entry:
My favorite zipline was the fourth one. The longest zipline took forty two seconds? The shortest zipline was 5.2 seconds! Laina had to go with a guide because she wasn't big enough to go by herself. On either the fifth or sixth Laina's guide got stopped in the middle of the zipline, so the other guide had to go and handpull them to the other side! I had tons of fun doing the ziplines, and I hope I can do it again in my life.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The municipality of La Esperanza has started a program in the central park each Sunday for different churches. Today it was our ward's turn. I thought the choir was just going to sing one song, but it turned out to be a big huge deal. There were a ton of people there. When I got there, a bunch of missionaries were there and asked if I would accompany them for two songs. Of course they were two songs that I'm not really familiar with. It was horrible! Oops! I forgot to see how many verses there were and stopped playing while they kept singing! Oh, well. The choir did o.k. I'm just glad that it is over!
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