A New Adventure

Isaac has started reading! He brings home his reading book from school each night and loves to sit and practice reading. The boys think it's pretty fun that brother can read stories to them.

Daddy's Home from Mexico....

and Mommy just got up from a long, rainy Sunday afternoon nap.

Ahhhh, life is good.

:-)

Jeremiah's Home from Tixbacab

I got home Friday night, Oct 12th. Sure is good to see Shanelle and the boys again! Tixbacab was a lot of fun, very hot, and hard work. We were down there to investigate to see if we can build long-term relationships with the people of the 360 person village and to work on the church building.



Above shows the outside of the church and below shows the inside. It is just the one room. The floor was dirt and the walls and ceiling were cinder blocks we cemented and tiled the floor while locals cement-plastered the walls and ceiling to smooth them out. On the right, in the picture above, we built a palapa so members could have a good outside spot for social events.



We went swimming every night to cool down and wash off. We rode in cattle car to get to the various cenotes that we swam in.



Tixbacab is in the Yucatan jungle. To get to the cenotes, we'd have to walk single-file on the path that the person in front was blazing with their machete. We saw a Boa and a couple frogs and the cenotes, but otherwise they were quiet and great places to swim.



The cenotes don't have a bottom (that a person can reach) so the locals can't use them to learn to swim. In fact, since there aren't pools or rivers, the locals can't swim. In the picture below, you can see a few locals that came to watch us swim. A couple got in (with their clothes on) to sit on a little ledge in the water.



Below is a picture taken looking up at our favorite cenote. To get to the cenote, you have to walk into a cave into blackness. You decend a little and then turn a corner and you see the blue water illuminated from above via this hole in the ceiling.



A couple people in the village have beds, but nearly everyone sleeps in hammocks. Hammocks were nice because of the heat and because of the other inhabitants in the houses. In our house, we saw a millipede (3 inches long), a bat, a few lizards, and various bugs. Here's a picture of my room and my hammock.



The villages in the area are built around a town center. We spend a lot of time playing with the kids in the town center. The kids loved the attention and we enjoyed the play time, even though it was H O T.

Asher at the Mall

We spent part of our Asher-Mommy time this morning at the mall. It took us 10 minutes to walk past the pet store. :-)

NOT MY SON!

Before you read, and as clarification, this article is not about one of my sons. But when I read this, I thought about how Isaac could come up with this plan too, right down to the carseat in the driver's seat to be "safe". I'm sure it made complete sense to the kid at the time.

6-Year-Old Crashes Car On Way To Get Food

Police: Boy Was In Child Seat While Driving

POSTED: 1:17 pm MDT October 9, 2007

UPDATED: 2:07 pm MDT October 9, 2007

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- A small power outage in Broomfield was blamed on a 6-year-old boy who decided he was hungry and wanted to drive his grandmother's car to a nearby restaurant while sitting in his child seat.He didn't get that far.The car came to a stop after striking an electrical box near 120th Avenue and Greenway Drive around 8:30 a.m.

The boy was not hurt in the crash.Police said the boy grabbed the keys to his grandmother's car, moved his booster seat from the back into the driver's seat, started the engine and put the car in reverse.Afer 49 feet, he struck a curb, then went nearly another 30 feet before hitting the electrical box. Shaken, the boy ran back into the townhome complex and told his grandmother about what he did.

By the time both the boy and woman went back outside to the scene, police officers were there, responding to a call of a hit-and-run.Officers questioned the boy and the 6-year-old fessed up in a manner that was very matter-of fact and yet very adorable, said Broomfield police spokeswoman Colleen O'Connell.The power outage affected about 200 people.

Just One

I hardly took any pictures this weekend, shame on me. This one from the park cracked me up though. What is with this "cheese" smile?!

On a side note, he doesn't look very baby anymore does he? WAHHH! :-(

Samuel's First Karate Class

Since Samuel is three now, he can start karate. He talks about it all the time and practices his "moves" with the older boys at home.

He sat on the mat very patiently with Spencer waiting for class to begin, thumb in mouth.

His teachers showed him around the obstacle course, which he was interested in, but decided not to participate in. :-)

We were surprised that he was so timid, but his teachers said sometimes it takes a few weeks, so we're planning to try again this week.