Theme Park in Guate

Corey sent us some fun pictures from their day down in Guatemala. Corey, Wes, and Seth went around Antigua. They visited an old convent - 

From my brief googling I'm going to guess these pics are at the Ruins of San Francisco.

I don't really know what is going on, so sorry posterity. I'll see if I can get Wes to document his experience after they get back.

I think this is by the Antigua arch - volcano in the background...

Corey really likes the jacked up school buses!

 

Another guess that these pics are of Caoba Farms and the open air restaurant there.

Or maybe that is the farm where the mom's work while Wes and Seth babysit. They are volunteering doing childcare everyday from 1-4.

Joseph hadn't been to this place, but recommended for them to go visit the "hand of God" thing at Hobbitenango.

The "hand" doesn't look the same as the online pictures. I also hope that that link does not show how much they paid for tickets ($125?!)... cause Corey said they bought a full pass to a theme park - which allowed them to visit all the attractions! Like a red gorilla made out of car tires:

(they had a black panther too) or workout in the gym...

or play miniature golf -

Corey said "You know those youtube videos of guys making stuff out of dirt with a machete? It's like that, but they tried to make Disneyland..."

I think they are having a good experience and that it's been more fun now that Corey is there. 

Wes and Seth in front of the church. There is like a building code on height and color and that everything has to have a wall around it (I think) something like that. 

Here are a few treasures from Wesley over text this week ~ first a text yesterday via Seth's phone: "This is wes, i love you mom. You were right about falling in love with a Guatemalan peter. He’s adorable, but its so sad. And it makes me want to take all these kids home to a first world country. It breaks my heart that these moms have to take care of these kids without any dads. We are so lucky to have such a great man like dad as the pillar if our family"

And from Thursday - Wesley mentioned that he might not want to keep going to school at Skyline. I asked him why and he said: "Well, as ive been here, i was just thinking of how exciting something so new can be. I mean like, sure, i cry myself to sleep at night here, but it can also be a great experience. And also, i was just thinking, the people who are actually friends from skyline, i can hang out with, and i can still ask out girls from skyline" 

I thought that was funny that he said "cry myself to sleep at night here" being as that had been sent on Thursday day, so he was only on his second night there (their flight got cancelled on Sunday because of a storm, so they spent the night in Dallas with my little bro Grant who was able to go get them from the airport, then they travelled and arrived late Monday night, they were getting to bed probably around 2 am Tuesday morning, so he spent that night and Wednesday night, then sent that text about trying himself to sleep. Maybe it was just that first night after they almost felt abandoned at the airport, luckily we had two Guatemalan's sleeping in our basement and Corey went and woke up Junior at 1:30 am and Junior called his sister in Guate who got up and was about to go pick them up, but then the person who was supposed to pick them up came, after Seth's dad Mark got a hold of whoever in Guatemala... that was a bit of a stressful night for us and them!) Anyway... fun stuff going on for them in Central America. 

As for us here at home, today I woke up Lily, Sophi, and Natalie early this morning so that they could go bowling with aunt Beka and uncle Matt. The girls had a great time with them. It was a bowling for charity activity for Big Brothers and Big Sisters - 

It was a luau theme, so the girls were happy to sport their beach wraps that we bought them as a souvenier in Hawaii (at Costco). Beka sent a few videos over Marco Polo which I might try to save and upload to share later. Before the girls left for bowling, we were talking in the kitchen, and a "I Survived..." book about Sept 11th was out on the counter for some reason, Natalie asked a question about it, and soon we were in a very somber conversation and I was choking up and the girls were getting red eyed as I told them about what happened that day. We are coming up on the 20th anniversary of the attack next month, and while it is a very mature topic and hard subject, it's super important to understand what happened that day and I plan on learning more and I want to share it with my kids. So they were in a sober mood when Beka and Matt picked them up at 9am. I told B&M why, and they were ready to turn on fun music and get them happy. They had a good time and brought home pizza to share with us for lunch.

As for the rest of us here at home, we had a work day. I did lots of laundry, I went through the 72 hour kits we made last year, I gathered quite a bit of things to donate, the kids cleaned the main floor, Abi mowed the lawn, and I watched 9-11 videos until too late tonight (1:30 am right now, but trying to finish this). Life is good. I'm happy to believe that, while we are all spread out all over the America's, I believe that God is watching over each of us and that we can trust in him and his plan for us. Corey will be gone all this next week and two days into the new school year. He and Wes are scheduled to arrive home on the night of the 17th.