Date Night at Santo Domingo del Cerro

Our mission team left on a Thursday.  Our summer students and boys were at Camp Guamiski until Friday.  So what do we do with a whole evening off to ourselves in the midst of a very busy summer season?  We go out to a nice, fancy meal together. 

Santo Domingo del Cerro is just up the mountain from Antigua.  It is a beautiful area filled with museums and a wonderful restaurant.  We love to go from time to time just to hang out and enjoy some fresh air.  We had been there for coffee and dessert on Mother's Day and I told David then that I would like to return for this particular night.  I am glad we did.  We had a wonderful evening there together.

It was drizzling rain that evening when we arrived but it didn't stop us from walking around and exploring the property.  I took a few random photos of the place to share.

 

 

 

 

 

taking advantage of a little one on one time

 

The restaurant is called El Tenedor (the fork).  This is the fountain outside of it. 

 

A cloudy view of Agua volcano.

 

 

table for two 💗

 

David's fish

 

my pasta

 

 

coffee and dessert

 

 

 

The restaurant is so pretty at night!

 

 

view of Antigua down below 

 

 

 

a beautiful ballerina fountain

 

 It was a fun relaxing evening and was much needed after a few steady weeks of being on the go.

 

Here is a short video I made of our date night.

Mother's Day 2023

In Guatemala I get to celebrate Mother's Day twice.  Mother's Day in Guatemala falls on May 10.  This year that was on a Wednesday.  Then, we celebrate again on the Sunday that it falls in the States.  When you add in the last day of school celebration, that gives me almost a whole week to be celebrated.  I'm not complaining!!  You know I love to celebrate. 

 

I got these delicious cupcakes from San Martin on the Guatemala day. They were just as yummy as they were pretty.

 

On Sunday morning I woke up to beautiful decorations in my kitchen and dining room.

 

I had a homemade card and new San Martin coffee cup waiting for me on the table.  I love collecting San Martin special occasion coffee cups!  This one for Mother's Day was very pretty!

 

 

For breakfast we had blueberry pecan pancakes, bacon, and fruit.

 

me and my boys on Mother's Day morninig

 

 

We took a few photos before leaving for church.

After church we had lunch with our friends the Johnsons at Pappy's BBQ in Antigua.

 

my delicious pulled pork plate

 

Afterwards, our family drove up to Santo Domingo del Cerro for a fun outdoor outing.

 

We spent a lot of time walking around.  There is so much to see and explore there. It is a beautiful place and was a wonderful choice for a Mother's Day outing.

 

Antigua down below.

 

We stopped by the restaurant for coffee and dessert.

 

 

creme brulee and flan

 

A view of Agua Volcano from the restaurant.

 

A view of Fuego and Acatenango volcanoes.

 

We walked through the museums.

 

 

I took a picture of Cruz with this statue of Tecun Uman, who is the national hero of Guatemala.

It reminded us of the time he had to dress up as Tecun Uman to march with his school in the Guatemala Independence Day parade in Jocotan. We still laugh about that!! You can read about that in this blog post of us celebrating Guatemala's Independence Day in 2013.

 

 

me and my sweet Ben

 

one of the museums on the property

 

There were many water fountains throughout the property and I think the boys played in almost every one of them.

 

 

 

Trying to take a family picture with this crew is a chore!

 

but it can also be a lot of fun!

 

We stopped at the lookout on the drive back down to town.  They had been offering helicopter tours over Antigua all day.  We stopped to watch them.

 

Antigua in the distance.

 

That evening we went to El Bosque, which is in town.  It is a beautiful outdoor area with restaurants, short walking trails, outdoor games,  and fire pits.  It has become our favorite place to go in town to relax.

 

me and the boys sitting by the fire at El Bosque

 

There are individual fire pits all over the property.  They are free to use and enjoy.

 

Our friends, the Johnsons, joined us for the evening.  Here I am with my sweet friend Sara.  I was glad to get to spend part of Mother's Day with her. In this season of life, I am thankful for friends here like her that I can walk this journey with.

We were married fourteen years before God gave us kids.  That's a long time to wait but we are thankful that in His perfect timing He blessed us with our two boys.  Not much in this life will ever bring me as much joy as I get from being a mother.  It is something I will never take for granted.