Potty Trained!!

He did it! Last week Preston and I embarked on a potty training adventure. I dreaded this momemt but with the right material and lots of bribary 3 days later Preston entered big boyhood. I was actually suprised how well he did and even now how well he keeps doing. He has not had a single accident since day 3 of potty training boot camp. What an amazing little man! During the process Preston went to the store and picked out 2 toys that he really wanted. The first one he picked out was a set of tea cups (to Matt's dismay) but he changed his mind when his attention was drawn to a Play Doh Ice Cream maker set. He had to go all day with telling me he had to go potty to get it and wow was he ever motivated. The second toy was a Lego fire truck. If he would do his other business (this was Matt's bribe to him) for 3 days no accidents his mouskadad would buy that for him. From that moment on Preston was on a mission for that fire truck. And voila we have succeeded in potty training.

Our Trip to Guatemala

We are back from reliving Matt's glory days as a missionary in Guatemala.  We started our trip in Guatemala city, but did not stay too long because that is a dangerous place.  We headed up to what is called the Highlands to a city called Santiago Atitlan home to many of the Indians (ancestors to the Mayans) and enjoyed seeing their culture.  I was more in culture shock by how they live.  It was very pretty and very tropical up in the highlands I think I saw almost every kind of fruit tree imaginable while we were there. In order to get to Santiago you have to take a boat across Lake Atitlan (which some people believe to be the Waters of Mormon) a lake surrounded by volcanoes.

From Antigua we took another chicken bus (surprisingly we survived those windy roads and taking turns at 60 mph) to a town Chichicastenango and walked around a huge Indian market that takes place there.  I have never had so many smells going through my nose than what I experienced that day.  Not good smells most of them.   

We went back to Lake Atitlan and stayed in a smaller town and Matt and I  got a not so wanted tour from Raul (probably the first person to really get on my nerves the whole trip) but he showed us some Indian woman weaving  and took us all over the town to see gardens and herbs.  We slipped out of town early the next morning to get away from him.

After being in the mountains we went to a very different town, Antigua.  It is a rich person town and has a lot of Catholic history to it.  There were tons of Catholic monasteries that have been destroyed over time by earthquakes and a lot of other catholic churches built in the Christopher Columbus times by the conquistadors.

On Sunday we went to Parramos which is a little town where Matt served his mission and was his favorite place while on his mission.  It was fun to be able to meet some of the families that Matt spent a lot of time with while serving and it surprised me that after 10 years they still can remember him.  After having spent time with these people I could easily see why this was Matt's favorite place to be while serving his mission.

Tikal was the last place we went and my most favorite.  It was in the jungle up north so we had to take a plane to get there.  We met a nice family while waiting at the airport.  They were picking up their son from his mission in El Salvador and were sort of doing  a "Book of Mormon" tour of Guatemala.  Tikal is what some believe the ancient city of Zerahemla so they had a tour scheduled and invited us to tag along.  We were so lucky that they let us tag along because we would have had no idea where to go.  Tikal is the biggest Mayan city uncovered in the America's something like 16 square miles, so it was a blessing to have an actual tour guide showing us the best of it.  Tikal is considered in the rainforest and I have always wanted to see rainforest's so I accomplished a life goal of mine, although I do not think I ever want to experience that kind of humidity and heat again.  It was a hundred times worse than an Arkansas summer.

Homemade tortillas.  I liked snacking on these.  They were so warm and crispy on the outside. 

some local Santiago residents doing their laundry.

a banana tree.  I even saw an avocado tree, coffee tree, macadamia nut, and mango trees!

One of the 3 volcanoes surrounding Lake Atitlan

 We rode the "chicken buses" all over Guatemala and this is how crowded they would get.  I think we were in one that was even worse than this.  Matt claims the motto for Guatemala is where you can sit 2 Guatemala will sit 5.  I forgot to take a picture of the outside of these buses, mostly because in order to get on one you have to run because they do not stop for you and once you do get on you have to litlerly climb over people to sit down.

Just a local resident.

the top of the Market in Chichi

Soda in a bag...I was not going to do that it just sounds wrong.

It's a half of a house

Coming up on the close of the worlds longest shave.  1 hour has to be some sort of record.

And I thought carrying around Preston was rough.



yes, she is carrying chickens on her head.  I also saw a lady who had two chickens with their legs tied around her arms like a bracelet.  I thought they were dead and then I saw the eyes blink.

Matt driving a Tuk Tuk

The mountains surrounding Lake Atitlan specifically the Mayan head, do you see it?

Matt on Lake Atitlan

Learning the Indian techniques of taking cotton and turning into thread for weaving.

Cemetery in Chichi

Indian Man

Antigua

an everyday occurrence in this country

Classy isn't it.

Antigua's local Pila (or community laundry tub)

One of several catholic ruins sites  in Antigua

Entering Tikal

Grand Plaza in Tikal

Temple of the Jaguar

Yep, that's a tarantula

View of Tikal from the top of Temple 4

Matt and I in the Jungle with the Hendricks family. We met them at the airport on our way to Tikal.  They were picking up their son from his mission in El Salvador and let us tag along on their tour.