Day Three - "I step a worm!"

Before Aria headed off to school we played outside for a couple minutes. She is always surprising me with the things she comes up with. I'm not fond of bugs, so it's possible that she learned this from me.

I step a worm!"

I believe that is the same stick from yesterday. She's very loyal to her sticks.

An Austin Powers trick. She actually got it turned all the way around.

It was so nice...when I got home from picking Aria up and running to the grocery store, my next door neighbor took Aria on a little wagon ride. (She is constantly surprising me with the things that come out of her garage. The car above is from them too.) This was just enough time to change, put the groceries away and start an easy dinner. Thank you Julie!!!

5 more days to go. Still missing you Goofydaddy!

PS Aria is working on "I love you daddy" and she should have it down in a few days. It's getting close!!!

Day Two - "Watch the bucket"

Today we had a good morning and we went to the 10:00 service at church. On the way to church Aria started babbling about watching the bucket - haha! Apparently that Water Park really made an impact on her. I had my camera with me and just turned it on while I was driving. My eyes were on the road...not in the view finder :-)

I think she says "Watch the bucket...I'm excited"

After a long nap, Aria woke up a little cranky. So threw her in the stroller and we took a walk around the neighborhood. I saw a stick she might like and I gave it to her. I think that cheered her up!

When we got back to the house, Austin was out playing in his new babypool. It was so hot out I thought it was a perfect time to enjoy a popsicle.

Daddy requests:

Aria asked for Daddy multiple times today. It's hard to keep track! We miss you Goofydaddy.

Panajachel

I tried to blog yesterday, but it didn't seem to go through, so I'll again today. We spent about 5 hours traveling on very poorly maintained roads to the town of Panajachel (pannaHashel). It is one of many towns around lake atitlan, which was a volcano, and another is still active (in the photo). Very nice food and bungalows to stay in, though no hot water. Showers were interesting... 

Today we travelled to chichi which is basically a market that is a city. It is the largest market in central america. We ate in our driver's family's restaurant. Delicious. Just arrived at Xela (shayla). We will be here until thursday. Tomorrow we go to our village in the mountain to begin work on stoves.

Day One

Aria and I had a busy day today. Aria went to her first movie! My company invited us to a free movie to see WALL-E. She actually lasted through the previews and and an hour of the movie. I was impressed with that. She started talking a little loud, calling out the colors she saw on the screen and saying WALL-E at the hour point! She also wanted to start walking around, so we just left because I didn't feeling like pushing it. There were tons of young kids (I'm thinking everyone else had the same idea as me with the free movie). We left at a perfect time because we met up with Austin and family (our neighbors) at the "the fountain". The kids played in the water and had a good time.

Aria jumped right into the fountain

Austin being silly

Aria and Austin playing

We got home in-time for a quick lunch and a nap. Then she woke up, had a snack and we were off to the Water Park to hang out with Austin and family again. HOW FUN! It was $7 for me and Aria was free...well worth it, I think. I liked it as much as she did. There was a whole section where the water wasn't higher than a foot and then a sprinkler area too. She did really well walking around in the water and didn't get to upset with the splashing and water in her face. There was a HUGE bucket on top of one of the structures and it would fill up, then tip over dumping gallons of water. I told Aria to "watch the bucket". She did and couldn't stop thinking about it either. She talked about it for 5 mins after I put her down for the night. She cracks me up.

Aria pauses for a quick pict before the fun starts (thanks Austin for letting her borrow your hat!)

The "bucket" is at the top of the structure behind Aria

Ok, I was looking through my pictures and this one was in there. HAHA! Look at that guy, did he know I was taking a picture of my daughter...not him!

Daddy requests:

• Aria called out for Daddy multiple times at the theater. She thought every man she saw might be Daddy.
• At lunch Aria said "Daddy at work." Awwwww
• In the parking lot at the Water Park she was naming all the colors of the cars and stopped at one and said "Daddy's car." It's funny because it was dark green and not a volvo, but it reminded her of her daddy regardless.

We MISS and LOVE you Goofydaddy! And I am so proud of what you are doing.

Airport fun!

I stayed awake all night and played world of warcraft - I love that game. What can't it do? Ok. A little giddy from being tired. The taxi picked me up at 2:30am, and now our group is waiting to board our plane that will take off at 5:20. Amazingly, the TACA ticket counter was totally crowded at 3:00am! I didn't realize that many people. Would be flying to El Salvador on a Saturday morning... 

I hope this blackberry will work in central america. Otherwise the blog will be boring until I get back. Oh wait. Dana has some videos of Aria to share. I miss you already, Dana! And Aria!

Email test

I'll be in guatemala next week, so I wanted to test the email posting feature. I hope the cute picture of Aria shows up!

pillow gnomes...

I can honestly say i've never lost a sock in the laundry. ever. have you? have you ever lost other larger things? how about a pillow? well we have lost Aria's daycare pillow. we don't know how, but it is gone. the pillow cover survived somehow, but I spent about 2 hours on Sunday scouring the house for the lost pillow.

at the end of every week, Aria's bag of stuff (pillow, bed sheet, blanket, etc.) comes home with whoever picks her up, usually mommy. this past week it was thursday. Aria has 2 pillows, and the one that went with us for the 4th came home. I know cause i pulled it out of the bag when we got home late Saturday.

Now Sunday rolls around, and we've got to get her stuff together for Monday morning. We did a ton of laundry, and then started packing the bag, but no pillow. I looked everywhere. literally. I mean EVERYWHERE. totally objective, looking in the basement, the furnace, etc., where the pillow had no business being. i even looked outside, in case Dana dropped it by accident. so some pillow gnome must have made off with Aria's pillow...

had to post this, as it's driving me nuts!