Bits of my weekend, vol. 16

I should probably apologize for the crazy amounts of photos from this weekend, but I think I do that every Sunday, so consider this a blanket apology from hence forth. However, I do have a special surprise from Russ' show Saturday night. It's at the very bottom...

More family in town this weekend! First we were off to the zoo!

To the sting-rays!



So very many monkeys at the zoo!

The cute Howard family!

This penguin was SO CLOSE to Macy and just kept getting closer.

The heat + lots of walking like a big boy + staying up too late = this face.

"Psst! Hey eliot, let's go to City Garden since it's so h.o.t.!"

Get it, Eliot, get it!

Saturday night Russ had a show downtown St. Louis. (photo stolen from Mike R.)



Fundies Undies!

Who doesn't match their nail polish to their ice cream? That's good planning, folks.

On Sunday we got out and Eliot tried his new bike. We're moving up around here...new bed, new bike! Ahhhh! Somebody slow it down!





And without further ado...it's a DOUBLE BUMP-IT!!!! Julie, that's for you!

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True friends...

read your facebook status and then send you pics like this! HA!

Do you see it? That is a 'bump-it' in full effect. If your head looked like this ten years ago a doctor would make you wear a helmet until your cranium looked normal again.

Last week I was at an Excel conference (yes, you read that right) and had to sit behind a whole row of bump-it patrons. If that's not FB status worthy, I don't know what is. That night I got home and this little treat above was in my inbox from my friend Julie.

It delighted me. So much so that I made it a category on my blog, hoping others will send me more. I'm hoping to inspire an army of bump-it spotters across the country. From sea to shining sea. Perhaps I could make a spreadsheet out of the data. Or just leave it at this one. So, go...go Bump-it Brigade! Spot, click, and send.

**I do not condone nor judge the use of said bump-it.

***If you say "bump-it" over and over, it no longer sound like a real word/phrase but more like a speech impediment on your way to saying something else.

****The original title to this post was "friends don't let friends bump-it, they just take pictures' but that sounded a bit off. You're welcome.

Guate pic/story dump #ITS THE LAST ONE!

Wednesday through Friday was thankfully uneventful. We spent days at the children's hospital, evenings at the pool and bouncing around between our favorite restaurants. Although I did get a call on my Guate cell phone from the ambassador making sure we were okay and checking to see if we had gotten flights out. Yeah, no bigs.

Mel was able to fly back in to Guate Wednesday night so we finally got to hang out on Thursday.

KKG!

Scandalous 4 year old...

A pretty accurate picture of what Eliot could do for hours on end. o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d.

The team at Santo Domingo!


All the Mohr's!

Finally on our way home!


And now we can get back to regular life...

Guate pic/story dump #6

Monday was a blur. A little case of "second verse, same as the first." Flights canceled, hours on the phone rescheduling for Friday, time loving on the kids at the local hospital.

Tuesday we told the team we were having a fun day but didn't tell them any details. I thought it was appropriate for this experience to spend the morning at the nut farm. Literally. The macadamia nut farm.

So, we hired a fleet of tuk-tuks and headed toward the most incredibly awkward farm tour I've ever experienced. Not sure what I was expecting but I will recommend not taking any conservative friends that could be easily offended.





The farm had a couple puppies that E was slightly obsessed with!


Then off to a different hotel/restaurant for some much needed pool time.



At this great hotel they have a great playground, so Madi and E had a fun afternoon. I think we all needed a little break.

Guate pic/story dump #5

(I like to draw stories out. over several weeks. a good month or two past the date of occurance. It's all about building suspense. You're welcome.)


Sunday we woke up to blue-ish skies, not really blue but not raining, so it counts. That made a world of difference. I ran to the Bodegona for more phone minutes and a few snacks. The scuttlebutt (I wonder if scuttlebutt translates to Spanish?) around the store was the storm and all it's damage, including mudslides and flooded roads. We didn't have internet at the hotel since Saturday morning so had no way of really knowing what was going on.

While we were finalizing details for our Baylor church service, I ran into our housekeeper who told me she didn't get to go home because of the roads. I casually mentioned how it might not be the best of {bad} ideas to try to drive to another country if she couldn't even get to her house outside Antigua. Her eyes got very big, so either I said something really wrong in Spanish or the idea was as crazy as I thought it was.

Emergency meeting #426: to drive or to stay. No idea if we'd make it to San Salvador, no idea what flights would actually be left.

There are times when I'd like to grab a bag of fruit snacks and my tag blanket and stop being the adult.

Divide and conquer: Russ upstairs to host church, me back on ye ol' telefono. This time, straight to the Supervisor, my bestie. Out of nowhere, she had 9 spots open up on the flights for Monday morning. We had heard the airport may be opening Sunday afternoon but people had already canceled their flights, opening spots for us. This was unbelievable.

3 hours and a can of pringles later, I had everyone re-assigned to new flights (again)out of Guate City ranging from Monday afternoon to Friday morning.

Sunday night we had the opportunity to serve at a local school. Families that were displaced because of mudslides came to stay there until further notice. The school needed hands to help distribute dinner, so chipped in and then were able to play with the kids for a little while before returning to the hotel. Eliot had a very important job of handing out spoons. Every time we'd leave a room he'd yell, "Let's feed more people!"






A pic taken a few days later of the clean up at a nearby town of debris from the mudslide:

Bits of my weekend, vol. 15

Hello, photo overload, how was your weekend?! My parents in town + holiday weekend = hope you like pictures!

We started the weekend at Ted Drews...ahhhhhh so good....

Saturday morning we started with blueberry waffles made from scratch (read: ran out of bisquick) then off to downtown for the airshow!


Waiting (ever so patiently) for the show to start.

E was learning how to use a crazy creek independently, some moments were better than others.



Saturday evening my parents help us set up Eliot's new bedroom set. He's in an official big boy bed. What did parents do before craigslist? Once the room is all put together and painted, I'll take more pics and show ya!

Then back to downtown for the John Legend show and fireworks!



My parents had to leave Sunday afternoon but I don't think we could have packed any more into their visit! It was so great to see them again.


After a very long nap in his new bed, Eliot and I went off to the Seibels for a little BBQ and fireworks!

Eliot showing his true feelings toward the popper thingys. He got over it pretty quickly...then we moved onto sparklers before heading to the real fireworks.



Hope everyone had an amazing weekend and if you're one of my little MI friends, squeeze those parents of mine and then send them back, please!

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