To Mimi,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIMI!

Wishing you a wonderful Birthday.

We love you and miss you.

Hugs & kisses

Guatemalan "thrift store"

We found the "thrift store" it is called the "paca" or "ropa americana". I found four long sleeve shirts for the kids and a nice fleece for Naomi and some new shoes for Chloe Ann. This is all stuff from the states! I asked one of the vendors he said they buy up there and bring it down here to sell. There was Gap, Polo, Old Navy, anything I would find at a thrift store in the states. What a business.

Let me tell you going to the thrift store in a third world country is very different. Its outside underneath a huge roof, kind of like the French market. There were probably 200 vendors. All the vendors yell the whole time you are in there. "everything is cheap" "come see what I have" "everything in my shop is 10 quetzales" "Stick your hand in and see what you pull out" "C'mon' C'mon C'mon in". It was hilarious. Naomi got a little nervous so Danny took her and the kids out then I could really concentrate on digging in.

Thanks Graced for your offer you are so thoughtful, but I found the thrift store!! YEA
Abbey the thrift store feeling definitely is universal but not to worry we had our germ-X!!! :)

Sorry guys I could not figure out how to flip the video around. Anyone else know how? At least you guys get the idea.

Naomi started walkng!

Naomi has been trying to walk for a while, she has finally figured out how to do it. The older kids were over one year old before they walked. Naomi started walking at 9 months!! I think it's because she is trying to keep up with the big kids.

Days of the Dead

Danny had a holiday from language school November 1st, so we joined the locals and went to Sumpango to fly Barriletes (kites)! It was the day of the dead or all saints day. Try to figure that one out. The tradition is that the dead have 24 hours to come back and greet their loved ones. So everyone goes to the cemetery to clean, paint and decorate the graves. These graves were a work of art. It was so neat to see all these beautiful people working together as families. Some families did not have much to decorate their graves with but they were clean and painted, others were very elaborate.

These kites are huge!!

They write messages on kites and fly them so the dead relatives can read the message. It was a very happy occasion. I thought it might be morbid but it was not in the least. The kites were amazing some of them were so big they did not fly these were only for display.


Danny and I could not get over how it was so much fun but at the same time complete chaos. We were all in one soccer field and everyone was trying to fly a kite. We had some serious tangles. The people would walk up to the mass, bite the string, tie it back and go fly their kites.

We forgot the boys hats so they bought some local hats, don't they look cute!

We had to try the roasted corn it was soooo good. The Guatemalans like it with lime and salt. We liked it with Parmesan cheese and hot sauce.

We loved laying on the blanket watching all the kites! There were so many to see.

Our favorite part was being together as a family and seeing other families have such a good time.