Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Yearly Visit

I love it when my sister Jackie and her family come to visit us! They made the trip and stayed all last week. Her girls were very excited that we had a horse this year that they could ride all by themselves. I hopped on my horse, Ebby, and we went for a ride every day I think. We rode horses a lot. Kamysha would be such a cowgirl if she had the opportunity. By the end of the week she would help me catch Snowball in the field, lead her up to the hitching rail, pull out her saddle. She needed a little help to put the saddle on the back of Snowball. Then she would cinch her up and put on the bridle. I don't think it would take her very long to build the muscles to lift the saddle and she would be off and riding.


This would amaze me every time. Karyssa had no fear of the horses. She would lead Ebby up to the hitching rail all by herself. It scared me a little to have her just take off walking.









Waiting for me to catch the horses.




We went to Bear Lake on Wednesday. We rented a paddle boat and a trike/paddle boat. It was fun once we had them to our spot on the beach but getting them there from the rental shack was awful. It took Michael and Kamysha in the paddle boat and Chad and Kaylynn in the trike an hour of pedaling. Needless to say the guys had their wives take them back to the shack!





One of the best things about Bear Lake is the fact that it doesn't get very deep, very fast.















Karyssa let me bury her in the sand!



I took Kamysha to our combined YM/YW activity. We played Siamese baseball. It was pretty fun!





After we went riding, since the horses were really good. We would give them grain.



















Waiting for their turn to ride the horses.





Little Ethan loved the horses as well.






We also went bowling, floated the river, hiked to the intermittent spring, rode 4-wheelers, jumped on the trampoline, and played lots of games! After a week of going, going, and more going, Buckie and I were tuckered out! Ha Ha



Just kidding, this picture was taken the 3rd day they were here. I was just pretending to sleep. I was actually talking to Jackie who is in the chair just to the right in this picture. I really was exhausted but I had so much fun. My house is definitely too quite without them here! Can't wait for 2 weeks when I'm going to go see them for Labor Day!!!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Mud anyone?







Last night for mutual we played mud volleyball with the young men. It was so much fun. I was a little nervous about diving for the ball but decided that I could not be shown up by the young women in my group.


I would definitely do this again. Maybe next year for the fourth of July I'll get a team together to play in the annual mud volleyball contest!

Friday, July 8, 2011

High Water

On the fourth of July we woke up to a 5 foot section of our bank taken out by the high run-off this year. It was pretty crazy and lots of people came to see it. On Tuesday it was alot worse. We were afraid people were going to drive to our house and fall into the creek so we put up a sign to drive on the other side of the garage.

The water was relentless and just kept undercutting the road then the top would fall in because there was nothing there to hold the ground up. We contacted the County road and bridge. They came and dumped some concrete into the river using a backhoe to hold it in place so the water wouldn't just wash it away. So this is now what our place looks like.




We have to wait until the creek dries up so we can fix the road. Hopefully it does dry up this year. I haven't seen a year when it does though so that is a good thing this year.


Chad finally got a hammock stand for the hammock that he bought in Guatemala. He is now relaxing every moment he can.




Buckie even seems to enjoy it.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Guatemala Day 1

We arrived in Guatemala City around 6 in the morning. Red eye flights are never fun. Especially since we have stuff planned for the whole day. Thursday's are market days in Chichicastenango. So that is where we were headed first. When we arrived we went to a hotel/museum. This is where we saw these awesome parrots. They were the first birds to greet us in Spanish "Hola!"


We went to a couple different places in Chichi. This lady is part of a co-op. This is where we first saw how they did their weaving which had been passed down from generation to generation.


She asked for a male volunteer. I talked Chad into going up to get dressed in the traditional clothing of the Maya people.

All of the buildings we saw were located inside the market of Chichi. There were mobs of people trying to sell us stuff. They would never go inside which I found interesting. However, they always waited outside.

We were exhausted by the time we finally made it to our hotel. Hotel Atitlan, located on Lake Atitlan. The grounds were so awesome. The last of the pictures are our hotel.












Day 2

We took a ferry across Lake Atitlan today to see some of the surrounding villages. We couldn't resist the "titanic picture"

We were loaded into the back of some pickup trucks. To go from San Lucas to San Juan.

In San Juan we were transferred into tuk tuks. These vehicles were so fun!


We went to a coffee plantation to learn how coffee is made. These are the different stages of the coffee bean.


We went to a public school. The children loved us. They wanted to see more "whiteys"!




Then we were able to see how they make their own yarn from a cotton tree. How they then use different plants to dye the cotton.



These cute ladies sold Chad a shirt as we were walking back to the ferry.





From there Chad and I went to the Nature Preserve. We went zip lining. The first thing we saw were some spider monkeys.

All ready to go!!




Go Chad. When the guy at the end would signal we would have to reach behind us with our gloved hand and push down on the cable to slow ourselves down. If we didn't slow ourselves we were then yanked to a stop by a rope so we wouldn't slam into a rock wall. It was fun but a little scary at first while testing out the stopping methods!








Day 3

I was excited for today. We went kayaking from Santa Cruz to San Marcos. We then hiked back to Santa Cruz. The kayaking was fun. The water was just the right temperature.


Look at that view. There were 3 volcanoes surrounding Lake Atitlan.


This is the group of us that hiked back.


We thought it was going to be an easy trail to hike. I wore flip flops to kayak in because I didn't want my shoes wet and I also didn't want blisters from hiking in wet shoes.




We soon found out that an "easy hike" was not going to be so easy.



Try climbing down that in sandals.


We don't look too worse for the wear though. Lunch at this hotel was the best food we had had thus far on the trip.