a few from mom & dad's visit

Thought it was finally time to post a brief picture summary of my time with mom and dad...

this = a bus in Guatemala City.

We had breakfast at El Tenedor (a nice restaurant up on a hill that overlooks Antigua) with Marta Thursday morning. And this is my new dress that my best friend sent me as a surprise!!

(I <3 summer dresses:)

Then I took mom and dad to Centro Scheel for a tour and they got to help serve lunch, which was super cool because they got to see the face of every single child that attends the school where I work, so this was special to me!

In the afternoon we visited Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm with Elsa & her daughter where I got to practice a lot of translating && we learned all about macadamia nut production.

And on Friday mom and dad went to work with me at the San Felipe location of Nuestros Ahijados where they helped serve the the woman of the Mother's Club vegetable donations.

Then we headed to Katerin's to celebrate her 12th birthday!

Here is Katerin and her beautiful family...

and her giant piñata!

And we had a triple chocolate cake for her, with like 18 candles

(because she wanted me to put them all on there)

and i smashed her face in the cake! haha - it's a tradition here! :-P

Then she modeled some new school clothing && wore the biggest smile the rest of the afternoon! It was really sweet to celebrate her birthday with her, and really wonderful that mom and dad could be there too! Along with items to celebrate her birthday we brought the news that as of that morning (Friday) it had been made official that Katerin is now our "Ahijada" god-daughter. So everyone was just really excited and it was a really nice day.

Sunday we watched the processional of St. Bartelow from the roof-top terrace of Cafe Sky.

Then Monday we went to Lake Atitlan & Panajachel for a night away...

We stayed in Jaibalito at a place called "Casa del Mundo" and it was just absolutely gorgeous! This was our room, decorated with typical Mayan colors and with our private balcony that overlooked the lake and 2 volcanoes. We really enjoyed our stay here, it was relaxing and a great way to finish up our time together before they headed back to the U.S.

Wednesday morning I brought mom and dad to the airport and they cried... (typical) lol But now they know a little bit better why I'm so attached to Guatemala and it was really cool to have the chance to show them what my life here is all about. I'm glad they got to come.

[EDIT] This morning a helicopter crashed into the house next door/in front of mine. It was a very dramatic morning and the police are still on the rooftop taking care of the situation. My road is blocked off and there's news people everywhere... Thank the Lord (as far as I know) nobody died, there were 4 people involved and only one was seriously injured...