Day 7- Quetzaltenango (Temple Dedication)

We got tickets to attend the temple dedication from Tyler's mission president.  They were broadcasting the dedication to all the stake centers, so we made our way over there in the morning.  As we were just sitting there, Tyler noticed our tickets were a different color than everyone elses.  As he read through the tickets, he realized that our tickets were for attendance in the temple!!!  We raced up to the temple where they allowed us to go right in and park.  It was so amazing to go inside and see the grandeur and design of such a beautiful building.  We got white hankies that had the temple and dedication date embroidered on the corner.  The service has so spiritual just thinking about the great blessing it is to these amazing and humble people to finally have a temple in their area.  My favorite part was singing "The Spirit of God,"  as the voices just vibrated all throughout the temple and in my mind throughout the whole town with every stake center participating as well.  

 

After the dedication, we started driving to Panajahcel and Lake Atitlan.  Some claim that Lake Atitlan is the "Waters of Mormon" in the Book of Mormon.  It was only suppose to be a 2 hour drive.  We were well into an hour of it when the traffic came to a complete stop.  People were out of their cars just hanging out.  The word on the street was that there was construction and the road was going to be closed for several hours!  Then we started hearing it was going to be closed over night.  Well, instead of taking our chances we just decided to take a detour through the southern route.  It made our drive an extra 5 hours!  We pulled into the town about 9pm.  I was sad that we got in so late because I'm sure the scenery would have been exceptional coming in with several volcanoes and the lake.

Day 8- Panajachel/Lake Atitlan

We only had until 10 am to discover this city before we needed to head to Guatemala City and catch the airplane home.  We definitely needed more time.  But I'm glad we even had the small amount of time as we did.  We took a half hour tour on the lake.  The tour guide was first asking for 300Q's for the ride.  We didn't have that much left on us, so we offered him half of that and he took it. The lake is surrounded by three volcanoes.  It was a beautiful morning! 

 We ate dinner and breakfast at this small family restaurant across the street from our hotel.  The kids were cute little helpers.  The food was really good and the best priced for the whole trip. 

  This is the outside of our hotel room.  It was the nicest place we stayed at.
 

Some waterfalls as we were heading out.  Goodbye Guatemala!!  It was fun!  We are already talking about "next time" when we come with the kids (in another 10 years!)

Here's Makenzie in typical Guatemalan dress.

The baby in my belly....

IS

A 

GIRL!!!!

Another toddler in the house?

We have really enjoyed Lilly as our new pet.  This past week we put all the Christmas decorations up and got the tree up.  I really thought we were going to have some problems from Gavin touching all the ornaments.  Well, we have had minimal problems from Gavin, but tons of mischief from this kitty!! She is constantly climbing the tree and nabbing all the ornaments and using them as cat toys.  Hopefully it will become old news quick or she gets to spend a lot more time in "time-out!"  Ha Ha!

Cheap Entertainment

 The kitty's room is the laundry room.  I have been finding Gavin in there a lot with Lilly.  He likes to make the dryer her bed and play in there with her.

 

 

The boys are completely fascinated with the washing machine.  They watched 2 whole loads be washed the other morning.  Of course, we had to jimmy-rig it with a pencil, so the lid could stay up the whole time.  At one point, Gavin lost his sippy cup during the spin cycle.  I think he was traumatized and learned his lesson.  Luckily it did not break open!

 

School Pics

I did not buy any school pictures this year, because we got a whole bunch of pictures taken from Tyler's co-worker instead.  The kids still came home with little magnets with their pictures on them to convince us to buy them.  I really was surprised at how cute they were!!!  I'm a little sad that we didn't get them, so I just took a photo of them.  They aren't the best quality, but something I can now have for free! :)

Another set of stitches...

If you recall back in June, Jordan gashed his head open while playing outside the first week we moved to Ohio. Tyler, being the doctor he was, did the stitches himself.  So yesterday, Gavin was running into the living room and he tripped and fell right onto the corner of the piano bench.  Ouch!  Tyler knew right away he needed some stitches.  So we set up our kitchen island for another round of stitches.  I was laughing because Gavin was so innocent in the whole thing.  He simply laid down. 

 

I joked that he was like Isaac in the Bible getting ready to be sacrificed on the alter by his Father Abraham!!  We gave him Tyler's phone to watch a movie and he was completely distracted.  He didn't even flinch or cry!!  He totally surprised us.