Our Trip to Guatemala - Days 1-4

Bienvenidos David, Jayna, Bekah, and Lydia!

This was the sign that greeted us when we got to the Juillards' house on Saturday evening. And we got there just in time to see the sunset behind Volcan Fuego. 

We got settled in Saturday night and then headed to church with the Juillards on Sunday morning. 

The service was in Spanish, with an English translation.  The songs alternated verses in Spanish and English.  It was pretty neat, and the girls had fun in their classes.

 

On Monday, we headed about two hours away to the beach, to the Paredon Surf house.  Tuesday was Rob's birthday and this was his birthday choice. 

We stayed in rustic open-air casitas (little huts), complete with mosquito netting over the beds.  The bathroom, although private, was also open air. 

We got in our suits and headed straight to the beach.  We all got knocked down a time or two in the surf and then headed back for quick showers and a change of clothes. 

Then there was the relaxing walk on the beach at sunset.  We caught the photo below right as the surf came up around Rob and Amanda.  Ha ha!

Later, we headed back to the "reception" hut and hung out while dinner was being prepared. 

Dinner was all served around this huge table.  We didn't get there early enough to all sit together, so the kiddos were way down at the end of the table. 

It was pretty remote.  We were a good ways from the nearest town and were left to eat what the hotel served. 

The kids all relaxed, played games, and eventually showed they were getting pretty tired. 

We got the girls tucked in under their mosquito nets.  Then David and I got settled in under our mosquito nets, all happy and smiling, not knowing what we were up against that night. 

About 3 or 4 a.m., Lydia came to tell us the Bekah needed us.  She had just vomited.  And she continued every 45 minutes for the rest of the night.  In the middle of this, the water stopped running in the bathroom.  That was super convenient.  When it was finally daylight, we got some antinausea medicine into Bekah.  Poor thing.  I felt SO HORRIBLE for her. 

 

She was scheduled for a surfing lesson with David the next morning.  But she ended up sleeping the morning away while David, Rob and Eli went for their surf lesson.  I tried to catch a glimpse of them from our casita.

Thankfully, Amanda was able to get some great pictures of the surf lessons and surfing for the rest of the day. 

David and Rob split the rental of a surfboard and took turns on it all morning. 

When I came out to check on them, I found David resting in a hammock.  He'd gotten tossed by a wave and was feeling sick. 

I checked on Lydia.  She was doing great.  And I headed back to the casita with Bekah again. 

And that's the last of the pictures.  Because shortly after this, Rob and Amanda were calling us to share some brownies for Rob's birthday, and David was losing his breakfast in the bathroom.  Poor guy.  It's been a while since I've seen him that sick.  Because we were kind of stuck with whatever they served in the hotel, and we were pretty sure it was their food that made David and Bekah sick, we were a little leary of trying it again.  I had to personally supervise a smoothie being made for Bekah to make sure that not only was the blender washed in purified water, but that the fruit was washed.  And washed in purified water.  We hated that this was all happening on Rob's birthday, but there was no stopping a food-borne illness. 

 

We did a quick change of plans, got out of staying at the casita for another night, packed the bags and headed back on the VERY bumpy road.  We stopped along the way for David to get sick again.  It was a rough trip.  Be we were SO VERY THANKFUL to be back at the Juillards' house with no mosquitos, clean bathrooms, good food, and clean water. 

 

David slept the night away while the nausea medicine kicked in...and got up in time for the nausea to hit Lydia.  Thankfully, her case was only a mild one and she never actually vomited. 

 

After a full day of rest on Wednesday, we were pretty much back to normal. 

To Love & Be Loved

Summer

A Time to Remember: Cuddles with GG

Those Eyes

Alice! Videos

I managed to capture Lydia's entire scene from the play Alice!  She's the first oyster in the second set up oysters that comes in.  She has her hair up in a bun.


And here's the whole group taking a bow.

Alice! Lydia's School Play

The middle school theatre department held auditions for the play, "Alice!", adapted from Alice and Wonderland.    Lydia decided to try out for the part of the Queen of Hearts.  I personally thought that Lydia was do a great job in this role. 

David and I have done a wonderful job of instilling a great amount of self-confidence in our children.  They both are quite confident that they can accomplish whatever it is that they want.  This is bolstered by the fact that a number of things come quite easily for them.  They are quick learners.    However, those two things coupled together sometimes prove to be their downfall, in that they do not always properly prepare for things like auditions.  

This is what happened here.  Lydia wanted to be Queen of Hearts.  She felt confident that her few minutes of preparation would be enough for her to sail through the audition.  This proved not to be the case, and Lydia learned a great lesson.

Lydia got the part of the understudy for Oyster 1.  I was unaware that there were even any oysters in Alice and Wonderland, but apparently there are.  Lydia was disappointed to not get the part she tried out for, but decided to push through, do her best, and learn the ropes of the theatre department while she was at it. 

And her hard work and dedication paid off, because when the primary for Oyster 1 decided she didn't want the part and dropped out of the play, Lydia got boosted from understudy to primary.  So on Friday night, she performed at Oyster 1.  (You've got to start somewhere, right?)

Here she is after they dolled her up in all of her makeup before the show. 

This adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was very modern. 

There were very few props. 

And Alice wore a blue shirt and overalls.  The red queen (our friend, Makayla) wore bright red pants, a leather jacket, and a spiked headband.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were hilarious, played by 2/3 of the Parker triplets.  They are the ones that quoted the poem that introduced the Oysters (in the Walrus and the Carpenter).

There's Lydia, on the left.

The play continued through...the Queen of Hearts appeared...and soon it was time for the bows.  The oysters even got to have their own bow. 

And then the full cast bow. 

   

We got Lydia some flowers for her first theatrical performance.  She just beamed!! 

After Friday night's performance, we got a quick pic with Makayla (the red queen, and her carpool buddy for the past two weeks) and then we headed to Sonic to get some celebratory Sonic Blasts. 

Only Lydia reached between the seats to change the radio station, and got horribly stuck.  Cassidy was in the back seat trying to pull her back, and I was trying to free her from the front.  It was hilarious!!

 

And then I let her eat sugar.

Silly mom.

On Saturday, Lydia had to be there for both the understudy performance at 2:00 (since she had no understudy) and the primary performance at 6:30.  

When I dropped her off, I got to see some of the behind the scenes prep/makeup. 

After the 6:30 show, Lydia got some pictures with some of her castmates/friends. 

Here she is with Riley Cyrus, who played Alice. 

And Maddie Stanton, who played something that I can't remember the name of.  It was basically a narrator for Alice's thoughts. 

 

And here she is with Summer Stille, who came to watch the performance, and the Cheshire Cat.  

A quick pic of Lydia on the stage, and we were off for the evening!

I took one VERY tired girl home tonight!  This has been the craziest of weeks!!  So glad the play is finally over and that Lydia pushed through to the end.