Mimi's Visit- Post 1

Wow!  Has it really been two weeks since I posted to our blog???  I have a lot of catching up to do and will try to get it done this week.  I'll start where I left off.  My mom and her friend, Mrs. Ann, arrived on May 21 for a week long visit.  Oh what a fun week that was and I'll post about it in two separate (long) posts.  The first post is below:

Their flight was supposed to land at 9:30 p.m.  They were late booking their tickets and could not come in on the noon flight.  They were delayed a bit and were late arriving.  It was after 11:00 p.m. before they finally arrived at the mission house in Guatemala City.  David went to the airport to pick them up and I stayed back with the sleeping kids.

Mrs. Ann and my mama arriving at the Arkansas Mission House in Guatemala City- tired, but happy.

The next morning they got to see the kids for the first time.  Both boys went right to them liked they knew them well.  That made my mama happy.  We ate breakfast and got dressed for the day.  Before heading out we took a few photos-

Mrs. Ann, me, Ben, my mama (Margaret), and Cruz

Our first stop of the day was the La Aurora Zoo.  We love this zoo!  It seems to just get better and better each time we go.  We would highly recommend it to anyone traveling here that likes zoos.

Mimi and Cruz

Cruz really enjoyed the zoo this time.  He recognized most of the animals and loved looking at all of them.

having fun

Our family at the zoo. 

After leaving we stopped by Taco Bell for lunch (where Ben grabbed and pulled my food out into the floor- our life is SOOO crazy these days).  We then dropped David and the boys off at the mission house so the boys could nap and us girls headed to the market.  We had such a fun afternoon shopping, laughing, and being together.  I miss girl time!

These two shopped 'til they dropped.  We stopped by a coffee shop for a little cappuccino and dessert.  Did I already mention how much fun we had that afternoon???

We got back to the mission house just in time to arrange some supper for them and then David and I headed out on a little date.  My mom and Mrs. Ann watched the boys so we could go out alone.  We went to Nais (pronounced "nice").  It was a nice, quiet, laid back, enjoyable, peaceful, (you get the point) meal.  We enjoyed ourselves a lot.  Not only did they keep the kids but they paid for our meal.  How sweet!  We shared a spinach dip for our appetizer and then had pollo 'ol Jack for our meal.  It's chicken with a BBQ type sauce and fettuccini Alfredo on the side.  It's one of David's favorite meals.  I enjoyed a frozen naranjada- orange juice with soda (Nais has the best ones) and David had a frozen fruit punch.  It was a refreshing evening for us.  Afterwards we ran by the grocery store before returning to our crazy life at home.

date night!!!

We had to put our car in the shop while in the Capital so that delayed us from leaving on Thursday morning to go to our house in Camotan.  It was after lunch before we got on the road.  Waiting and then traveling four hours to our house pretty much summed up that day.

my mom, Ben, and me at our mission house

On Friday morning we got Cruz dressed for school only to take him and find the school locked up and closed.  This is not the first time for this to happen and the second time in the last 1.5 weeks alone.  Somehow we are not getting the memos that all of the other students have glued in their notebook.
It is very aggravating!

Anyway I snapped a quick photo of Cruz and my mom before we left.  She loved seeing him in his uniform.

We then loaded up and headed up the mountain to the village of Lagunetas.  I wanted to show them where we have our Bible study and let them meet some of the people we visit with there.  They both loved the bumpy mountain roads (I'm kidding).  It was a fun adventure for them and I know they enjoyed it a lot.

Mrs. Ann and my mom with a few village ladies 

They loved getting to hold the chickens that the family has.

A photo with the lady of the house where we meet for Bible study (she is six months pregnant with their 7th child).  They loved getting to see how the people live.  I think it broke their hearts some to see such sad conditions. 

We came back down the mountain and went into Jocotan.  Our first stop was the coffee shop for a snack.  Mrs. Ann enjoyed a bottle Coke.  I couldn't resist a cappuccino, and my mom and Cruz shared a fruit smoothie.  We also ate cake and cookies.  Yum!

Mrs. Ann

David then dropped us off at the Central Park and we spent a while walking around town and looking at the market.  They took in lots of sights and smells.  They picked up a few local items to take back home.  It was fun.

My mom and Cruz trying on a few hats.

We took a tuk tuk home.  I was anxious to let them ride one because I knew they would love it.  What a fun morning we had!!!

tuk tuking (is that a word, ha ha)

After a much needed nap/ rest time we spent the rest of the day visiting.  We took a little joy ride in the car to show them more of Jocotan and our town, Camotan.  We picked up some mangos, a watermelon, and some avocados from some street vendors before returning home.  That night we grilled hot dogs and made homemade vanilla ice cream for supper.  It had been a fun, laugh filled day!