Day 2 in Guatemala

On Friday (July 18th) we had our tour of Tikal. We left at 5am for the airport to take a plane to Flores, Guatemala. We then had an hour drive to the actual Tikal sites. Man was it humid there. They don't call it the rain forest for nothing. Within the first 20 minutes me & adam were so drenched from the humidity that it might as well have been raining. Our tour guide was excellant and quite the joker. Which made the 8 kilometer(they use the metric system in Guatemala, not sure how that transfers into miles) hike quite enjoyable. There were so many things to look at. So many types of trees and plants. The huge tree behind the sign (at left) is an "allspice tree". Apparently, allspice (the seasoning) is actually only one spice not several in one, don't laugh if you already knew that, I didn't. Anyway, our tour guide, Juvencio, tore off a leaf and broke it so we could smell it. It smelled just like allspice but much much stronger, our hands smelled like that afterwards.

The national tree. It was so huge it took 2 pictures to fit it all in. The roots themselves were massive. By the time we got to Temple 4 we were so tired. Temple 4 is the farthest away from the rest of the ruins. Adam, Cristina and Shirley walked up the wood staircase to the top of the temple. Here are a couple of pictures from when we got up there.

This was the farthest up you could go.

View of temple 4 from the ground. This is the only part that has been excavated so far. The rest is covered in jungle.

Us in the main plaza of Tikal.

After Tikal Adam & I went on what they call the "Canopy Tour" or otherwise known as a zip line. It was quite a rush and extremely worth the $25 fee. There were 7 stations, where we go from tree to tree and zig zag back and forth. There was a little price to pay, but still worth the ride. We got a little dirty from holding onto the cable above our head. We had to hold on to the cable to help stop our selves so we didn't run into the next tree.

The irony of Adam's shirt was great!!

All of us with our tour guide. We also found out that he has worked on several of the crews that create the challenges on Survivor, including the Guatemala season.

Back in the U. S. of A !!

Well this past week has been quite the adventure. We were blessed enough to actually be able to go visit Adam's mom & stepdad in Guatemala! Marlene (Adam's mom) remarried in 2006 after about 28 years of being single. She married Elder Shirley Christensen of the second quarom of the Seventy of the LDS Church. He has been assigned to the Area Presidency down in Guatemala City, Guatemala for the past year and they will be there for at least another year. Cristina's mom was in Utah for the month of July for vacation and willingly watched Ethan for us so that we could go to Guatemala (An energetic 2 year old and a day of flying DO NOT MIX). Adam's aunt Jody went with us. We had a wonderful time and saw so many things. The country is SOOOO beautiful. The people there are some of the hardest working people I have ever met and some of the kindest. Marlene and Shirley's apartment is huge!! The grounds of their apartment are absolutely beautiful. They live upstairs from the French Embassy so they are pretty safe from crime. They are able to leave their balcony/living room doors open all day and night, which is very helpful given the fact that they don't have A/C, just fans, and it is very humid there.

The next few days are probably going to be blogs about our adventures, so if you don't want to read about it check back in about a week or so. But for those who do, here you go.

DAY 1-GUATEMALA CITY TOUR

We arrived in Guatemala City on Wednesday night, luckily with out any problems. Thursday morning we took a tour of Guatemala City. We went to this look out place where you could look out over the entire city. There are around 30 or so volcanoes in the country of Guatemala. The most famous volcano or the one that is painted the most, Volcan de Agua, is easily seen from just about everywhere you go. ( it is the tall one on the left of the picture)

We then went to the national museum. The museum is filled with artifacts from all the mayan ruins that have so far been excavated. It was pretty interesting.

The picture on the right is of a mayan royalty. The mayan people buried their kings with their most treasured possessions.

This picture depicts the typical clothing of the Mayan people in Guatemala. Unfortunately the Mayan people are not treated very kindly by the Guatemalans.

Here are some pictures of beautiful buildings that you see all over Guatemala. The picture of the wire tower is what they call their Eiffel Tower.

We then went to the "Relief Map". This is a map that is made to scale that a man took a ton of time to make to scale of the entire country of Guatemala. It was pretty interesting to see how much work he put into it.

We then went to the central plaza that has the National Palace and a very large Cathedral(I don't remember what it is called). We were able to go into the Cathedral but the National Palace was closed to the public due to some type of presidential meeting. :(

The National Palace

The Cathedral

The cutest little girl feeding the pidgeons

Anyway, that is pretty much our first day in a nutshell. On the way back home we stopped at this very popular fast food place called "Pollo Campero" and got an ice cream cone. Very delicious!!! Just ask Adam. hee hee

Long live the 80's

So we have been wanting to see Journey for a while now. We had tickets when they came with Def Leppard in 2006, but a little boy named Ethan decided to come early and ruined us going to the concert. (no I am not bitter, anymore) haha. So now it has taken us two concerts to see the bands we were going to see in one. We saw Def Leppard last year w/ Foreigner and Styx. Which just a side note, was an AAAAWWWWEEEEESSSSOOOOMMEEEE concert. Friday we went and saw Journey, Heart, & Cheap Trick with Paul and Janet Henderson.

On the way to the front gate you would have sworn we were late with how fast we (Adam) was walking. Except we weren't. And by the look on his face in the second picture, you would think he did not want to be there. Uh hello, smile!!!

Cheap Trick opened, and they were good, but unfortunately I only knew one of their songs. For those of you who don't know any of their songs, they sing the song that "That 70's Show" opens with. Which they didn't perform. Oh well, we didn't buy the tickets to see them. Heart performed second and apparently woke Adam up. I love going to concerts with him because it is so much fun seeing him get into the music. Unfortunately there were some crabby people at this concert that wanted everyone to sit down the whole concert. Just my opinion, but if you want to sit down and watch a band play, buy the video and stay home. The Band doesn't come and perform so that everyone will stay in their seats and just watch, HHEEELLLLOO. There was actually a guy in front of us that left during Journey cause he was mad that the ENTIRE audience was standing except him. Oh well, his loss not ours.

Heart was awesome. Anne Wilson has got a mean set of lungs on her, she sounded fabulous and can belt out the tunes. **And Nancy Wilson (the skinny one), well as far as I'm concerned, she could be an alternate on my list.

In between Heart and Journey, Adam & Paul went to get Janet & I a pretzel. While we were waiting for the boys to come back Janet & I were luckily reminded of the quality of life that is around this city. Here is just a sample. We didn't want to be too obvious so I took the picture on my phone of this lady who clearly didn't feel the wind blowing on her behind. Gross! Let me just say that it is everyone's own prerogative what kind of underwear they wear, I just don't want to witness it.

(That is the women's white thong hanging out of her pants)

Journey was awesome!! Now I am sure that there are some die hard fans who won't think the same as me, but oh well they aren't writing this. Journey has a new lead singer. He (Arnel Pineda) is from the Philippines and was seen singing Journey songs on You Tube and the band called him and offered him the lead singer position. I had seen them perform on the "Ellen" show several months ago and was impressed with how he sounded. If you ask me, he is every bit as good as Steve Perry. He played to the crowd and was totally entertaining. All in all it was an awesome concert!!!

**Comments via Adam, not Cristina

The Living Planet Aquarium

So we decided to check out the Living Planet Aquarium on the 4th of July, since Adam had the day off. Ethan was very excited to see the fishies. Although Ethan was free, it wasn't worth the $16 for Adam & I to walk through. Here are some pictures though, so enjoy. Ethan loved the fake boat ride, probably because it had a steering wheel. He is a little obsessed with driving things.

Mommy and Ethan in front of the jellyfish. Ethan thought they were going to get him, so he is holding on to me for dear life.

Daddy and Ethan by the sting rays. Their stingers have been removed so you can touch/pet them. Daddy was the only brave one though.

Ethan found Nemo, or "memo" as Ethan pronounces it.

Ethan being so brave to stand in front of the fishies. He really was scared at first for some reason.

Sweet Madame Blue

OK, so I know what you are thinking, "holy cow, two blogs in one week. How did this happen!" And if you aren't thinking that then you haven't been on here in the last few days to see the blog that Cristina posted the other day. So please take a minute and check out what she posted previous to this post.

Today is July 4th, Independence Day, America's Birthday. I have always been a pretty proud American and with that I want to wish all of us a Happy Birthday! If you know me you know that even though there aren't gifts given or big turkey dinners, that today is my favorite holiday. What a great day to celebrate everything we have, especially our freedom. I don't claim to be a world traveler however I have had and opportunity to see a lot of this beautiful world and I feel blessed to have been born with all the rights and privileges that we have. As most of you probably know I was in the Marine Corps reserves for 8 years. In February of 2003 I was activated and deployed over seas. I was in Iraq for a few months. If I learned anything while I was there it was that they envy the freedom that we share. I understand that some of you may not agree with me on this, but unless you have been there, you can't understand the positive effect we are having there, we are helping and they know we are helping. Enough of my soap box.

Us as Americans owe it to our fore fathers and those serving and protecting us right now for what they did/do everyday. By doing that we are saluting our flag and recognizing what those stars and stripes represent. With that all there is left to say is Happy Birthday and God bless America!

Well not a whole lot has been going on so here are a few new pics. Ethan is growing so fast it is hard to keep up with him.

Ethan, Daddy and Ethan's friend Kyle. Ethan's first time on a trampoline.

Apparantly he has moved up from mom's tennis shoes to his aunt's heels. Should we be worried yet???

Man this kid loves to eat!!

M&Ms anyone??? Don't worry he will share his with you, if you don't mind a little spit. :) "Melts in your mouth not in your hands", yeah right!