Guatemala Part 1

Over Thanksgiving, Jeff and I flew to Guatemala with Ryan and Laurie to visit Fred and Nancy for the week. We took a red eye flight, so we got in to Guatemala City at 7:00 am. Fred and Nancy were there to pick us up, and they looked so tall compared to all the Guatemalans. 

We spent Saturday driving around and seeing some of the sights close by. We stopped by a market where flowers are sold and then ended up at the shopping mall in the city. It was a great contrast between old world (no money) and new (lots of money and Americanization). 

Sunday, we went to church in the branch Fred and Nancy attend. Jeff translated for us as much as he could, but there wasn't much any of the rest of us understood. We went into the primary and gave the kids the bracelets and bookmarks our kids had made for them. They were so cute and sweet, and couldn't believe that Fred and Nancy have 34 grandchildren!

My eyes were closed in all the pics. Dang.

After church, we stopped by a roadside pineapple stand for a little pina. 

Then we went to the temple to meet the Gardner's. They have been serving in the temple for 3 months, and it was fun to see them again. It was beautiful weather most of the time we were there, and I couldn't get over how temperate their "winter" is.

We went back to the apartment and changed our clothes, then went to Kaminaljuyu, a very old ruin right in the city. We saw some Mayan rituals going on, but nothing crazy. No chickens being sacrificed or anything.

Selfie with the city behind me

We went to the cemetery and the huge city dump. I need to get some pics of that off of the camera. It was incredibly disgusting. 

Monday morning, we woke up early to catch a 7am flight to Flores. The plane was delayed for an hour because of fog, but eventually we made it there. We met our tour guide, Pablo, and he drove us the hour it took to get to Tikal. He was with us all day, giving us the grand tour of Tikal. And it was grand!

First off, the park is huge. Way bigger than any of the other ruins we saw in Mexico. It took about 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other. There are at least 5 temples that are named, and many others in some state of restoration. There is also a huge courtyard and other buildings as well.

Many Mormons, including Fred, are convinced that this is a Book of Mormon city. It's the right time period (600 BC-900 AD) and definitely the right climate if you're going to be running around in a loin cloth, but I'm not 100% convinced. Maybe if we had had an LDS tour guide to convince me, it may have made a difference. As it was, I enjoyed it for the beauty and peace I felt there.

The jungle surrounding the temples is impressive and provide a lot of shade (something Chichen Itza is sorely lacking). 

This pic of Laurie looked fake to me, like she's standing in front of a backdrop.

Jeff got some good shots (yet to be edited)

Walking through the jungle, swinging like Tarzan

Of all the places we saw in Guatemala, this was my favorite. It is so unique and impressive and beautiful.

Scene from Temple IV. They told us that this was the shot used in the first Star Wars movie.

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At the end of the day,we drove back to Flores and took a plane back to Guatemala City. We were all exhausted, but it was so worthwhile. 

Pre Halloween

During the past few years, Jeff has made friends with the Passey's from Midway. He has done braces on three of their kids, and they really hit it off. Justin and Liz invited our family to their house for dinner and to hang out. They recently had 9 lab puppies, and our kids were so excited to play with them. We had a great night with them (Liz made homemade marshmallows, which were quite the hit!).

The BYU volleyball team is currently ranked #10 in the nation, and we took time out of a Saturday to cheer them on. The kids always love finding Cosmo, no matter how many times they have seen him. 

Colleen and Tyler invited Jeff and me to go on a road rally with them. It was a costume event, with a Wizard of Oz theme. Since we aren't too big on costumes, we decided to go as people of Oz. Easy peasy. I thought the Wicked shirt added a bit of fun, too. 

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We didn't get any pictures of the actual race, but we had a blast. After a slow start, we got on track and blazed through the race. There were six locations we had to find, with some challenges along the way. We started and ended at a church in Riverton, which was decked out like a scene from the movie. 

At each location, we were given a clue and we had to figure out where our next destination was. We ended up finishing in 6th place out of 24, and we easily could have done better. We were only 6 minutes behind the winner, and we had some mistakes that cost us. Now that we got our feet wet, we can really compete to win next year!

I have been helping out with the Take Home Library at school every week, and the boys love coming to play with all the toys. I love watching them play together. They are such good buddies.

A couple months ago, McKay fell out of Allie's bed during the middle of the night and knocked his tooth loose. After watching it for several weeks, Jeff decided it was time to pull it. McKay was constantly knocking it, making it bleed, and wouldn't bite any food with it. It just was going to be a nuisance for the next three years. So, it came out.

My cute little jack-o-lantern, just in time for Halloween. 

Fall Break

We usually go to Moab for Fall Break, but decided to switch it up a little this year. We decided to go to Zion instead. Haha, big change, huh? Chris and Sheri, Laurie, and Greg and Noel all made the trip with us, and we had quite the group!

Because hotel rooms are super expensivee, we only had one small room at the Hampton, which means we had to get creative with our sleeping arrangements. There was a small bench in the room, and McKay thought it would make a perfect bed. He stayed there until 5 am, when he came and got in bed with us. Ah, to be small.

The best part about the Hampton is the breakfast in the morning. We always get more than our fair share of food (and hot chocolate), which is a dream come true for the kids. Adults too, to be honest. 

 

With our huge group, we didn't end up doing that much hiking. We did a lot of riding around on shuttles to and from the visitors center (Zion was so busy that shuttles were the only way to travel around). Our group easily took up half a shuttle on our own!

Boy cousins hanging out

Our longest hike was a 3 miler, to the Emerald Pools. The little boys cried a lot on the way down, but they made it. The scenery was absolutely stunning. It looked like we were standing by a backdrop!

We did manage to get together for one family photo after our day of hiking. 

After two days (just one night) at Zion, the rest of Jeff's family headed home and we spent the rest of the weekend in St. George. We loved going to visit Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Don. The hat the boys are wearing was their great-great grandpa Esplin's. Super cool.

Fall in the 801

September was a little cold and wet, but October has been spectacular! We took our annual drive up Provo Canyon a couple weeks ago, and it did NOT disappoint. Bex even got to tag along.

We had been talking about hiking the Y for Activity Days for months, and finally had a free morning to do that. We had five girls come and they all made it to the top! Allie was a fun little hiker. 

We also hit up the pumpkin patch with the Trapnell's and got a few cute shots there, too

One of our favorite fall activities is Hee Haw Farms. The Konold's came with us again this year, and there just wasn't enough time for all the fun we had. 

Double Chin Kyla probably wasn't supposed to hold the goat, but she did. Of course.

The Haunted Hayride was a little scary, but I think girls just like to scream.

Carter dressed himself (quite nicely, I think) and practiced his beanbag toss. 

That was only the beginning of our FunTober! Stay tuned. 

Latest

Laurie, Sheri, Noel and I took our annual girl's trip to SLC the before Laurie's birthday. We only could get away for one night, so we didn't have nearly enough time to hang out. We made the most of the time we had, though. We had some good sun and sat by the pool for a while.

We had so much fun making this music video. Seriously, we spent hours on it because it was too much fun. Shot on location at the Grand in SLC.

We are talking about a bigger trip next year, maybe to Arizona to see Wicked. 

On Friday nights, if our boys have gone to bed every night during the week, they get to sleep with one of the older kids. McKay chose Allie's bed, which must have been very different for him, because he fell out of bed in the middle of the night. 

I heard a thunk and crying, followed by "he's bleeding!" I ran into her room, and saw it was just his lip, so I put him in bed with me so I could hold a tissue on it to stop the bleeding. The next morning, McKay complained that his teeth were hurting, and I realized it was a little more than just a lip injury.

That tooth may fall out (Jeff and Damon were on a scout campout, so he wasn't here to check him out during the night. He would have been able to push that tooth back up into the gums, which would have given it a better chance), but luckily, we know a good orthodontist. 

Soccer is coming to an end (for fall). We have had a lot of games that overlapped, and last night was the final one for now. I had to get a pic of my three favorite soccer players. Allie has made so much progress and scored several goals this year. Kyla, when she wasn't completely uninterested, was awesome and scored a ton. She is really good at kicking the ball with both feet, which I think is impressive. Damon's team is playing some tough competition this year, so it's been a bit of a challenge, but they are so fun to watch. Damon is fast! If he could just get a little more hustle and aggression, he could be really good. 

McKay deleted a bunch of pics off my phone accidentally, so I had to screenshot these couple from Instagram so I could have them forever. This is from Carter's first day of preschool, apparently three weeks ago. :) He goes on Tuesday and Thursday morning for 2 hours and he absolutely loves it. I really wish I had gotten him in a preschool that was held more often, but it's better than nothing. 

September 19th was National Talk Like a Pirate Day at Krispy Kreme, so the boys and I got dressed up for our free dozen. Free three dozen, actually, one for each of us! We went at about 10:30 am and didn't have to wait in line. I heard the line got ridiculous as the day went on!