Road Warrior

Or maybe the title of this blog post should be "Road Weary Deliriousness."

This Winters' family has been doing A LOT of driving lately...over the last three weekends, we have embarked on three out-of-town trips and logged almost 1500 miles. Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it! Down to Austin, over to Abilene, and up to Oklahoma...we.are.worn.out. Well, Mommy and Daddy are for sure, but baby J is still going strong! Case in point...

Uncle Scott filmed this one of Jameston two weekends ago on our trip to Abilene. They had a great time "playing football," talking and singing, and moving like crazy in the backseat :-) I know, it's a long video, but he just kept on going! Thank goodness for all the distractionary stuff we have to keep babies entertained (and for video cameras, too). We are so lucky to have such a good lil' traveler!

Noodles? No thanks!

Jameston tried pasta for the first time on Monday night, and even though Mommy had high hopes (and predicted he would like it just like her :-) he was not a fan. At all. Maybe he didn't like it because it was a new texture or just too hard to chew? Who knows...all we know is that, just like the avocado that we tried and he disliked when he was almost 7-months-old, we will try (try) again and hope he learns to like noodles (since Mommy cooks a lot of Italian!).

Until then, we have this cute video to watch to remind us of his first reactions to the new food:

To Granny and Papa's house he went...

While we were in Guatemala, Jameston stayed with Brett's parents and sister in Austin. They were so kind to drive to Dallas from Austin two times and to keep our little guy while we were gone! Although it was so hard to leave him behind for the trip, we know he was in wonderful hands (in fact, we were afraid he wouldn't want to come back home with us :-) We weren't worried about him at all, since he is such a good baby; we were more worried about us and how we were going to handle being away from him that long!!

These pictures and videos show just how much fun he had with them (and how busy they were while we were gone):

He swam (which he LOVES to do),

helped Papa in the garden,

won over the affection of Minnie, a 100-year-old member of Brett's parents' church,

helped Papa lead Bible class,

learned about many things, such as flowers, while in the great and beautiful outdoors,

and had a grand time!

From what we were told, he did not skip a beat and was a very good little boy!

Jameston, we are so very proud of you (and missed you terribly while we were gone)!

Here's a cute video of him "eating lunch" while in Granny and Aunt Kayla's company:

Thank you Kayla, Granny, and Papa for taking such great care of Jameston. He misses you and can't wait to see you again soon!!

Guatemala 2010-Tourist Post

While we were in Guatemala, we also had the chance to take in the beautiful surroundings on our days off. Brett and I went earlier than the rest of the church group to celebrate our anniversary.

Leaving on a jet plane were some very anxious parents,

who originally planned on taking Jameston with us (and going on a child-free cruise later on in the summer/early fall) but decided instead to make the mission trip to Guatemala also a mini-vacation

We landed in Guatemala City, drove to Antigua, and arrived at our hotel late that night on Thursday, July 1st. So we had two full days to rest and relax before the mission work began on the 4th. That Friday we relaxed at our BEAUTIFUL hotel Casa Santo Domingo:

One of the main outdoor wings taking you to the concierge/front desk

A great BIG tree we spotted as workers were setting up for a banquet that Friday

A view from the top of the hotel

Our quaint and quiet room...it gets cool at night in Guatemala (in the upper 50's to low 60's), so they had the fireplace ready to go if you wanted

View outside from our patio: it rained several nights while we were there, so there was nothing like opening our patio door to hear rain falling on the roof and plants outside. SOOOO relaxing!

Parrots!

Oh, and I can't forget, we also did some relaxing that Friday by the picturesque pool...

The hotel is a restored monastery from the 1700's and has ornate structures all throughout the hotel grounds.

The central fountain

The furniture and doors are amazing at the hotel and also throughout the rest of Antigua

Picture of a Catholic church near the central park in Antigua one night on a stroll after dinner

And a nine-piece band playing right outside the main city building that night

(It's a little grainy and hard to make out, and I wish I would have captured the old woman dancing to the music in the street :-)

We also had the chance to see what remains of the nuns' convent (also from the 1700's) right outside of Antigua in a town called Santa Ines, where we held our fourth day of clinic

For our second day of R&R, Brett and I booked a tour to Lake Atitlan, about two hours from Antigua. The lake, which is the deepest in Central America, is surrounded by three volcanoes. Needless to say , it was BEAUTIFUL!!

A driver dropped us off in Panajachel, and we boated across the lake

to the towns of Santiago

and San Pedro

In San Pedro (also known by the locals as "Hippy Town," because of all the backpackers and hostel-dwellers), we grabbed a bite to eat and took in the views.

Ah, my favorite touristy picture...

Notice the workers on the scaffolding behind Brett! On our way back to the main dock, it started to rain some. We could see remnants of the mudslides that occurred after Hurricane Agatha

A;so, after three days of clinic, we had Wednesday off and opted for a more low-key outing (as opposed to our trek up Volcano Pacaya two years ago :-) to a coffee farm. As admitted coffee-fanatics, we had a great time and learned a lot about the coffee process.

Yummy cup of FRESH coffee!

Also, that day we met a girl traveling by herself from Germany, and took her up on her offer to visit a Bavarian restaurant after the coffee tour. Our lunch there just so happened to coincide with the World Cup semi-final match between Germany and Spain. It was fun to watch the last half of the game with people from Germany:

One night we went to one of the most popular local restaurants called Frieda's (after Kahlo) with our friends, the Hammets. Great company and great food (and great painting of her and the famous unibrow, I might add :-)!

Also, we were able to check out some local and very modern art at the event center where we met members from the churches of Antigua, Solala, and Chimaltenango. So cool!

After some busy (but very relaxing) couple of days of vacation in the midst of mission work, Brett and I were so, so ready to get back to Jameston at home in Dallas!

Guatemala 2010-Mission Post

Brett and I returned from a mission trip with our church to Guatemala on the 10th---and I am just now posting about it because 1) it's been a little nuts around here, and 2) I had to wait for some pictures from friends since we did not do a good job documenting this year! We went for the first time two years ago (if you'd like a refresher, click here) and could not return last year due to me being 30 weeks pregnant. So, needless to say, we were anxious to go back this summer to continue the mission work. Also, without needing to be said I'm sure, it was very hard for us to make the decision to go this year having a 9 1/2-month-old! After many discussions and prayers, we decided at the beginning of the year we were going to make the trip again, and since then we had been preparing (not only Jameston but ourselves, too :)

Brett and I were lucky to be a part of the medical team again this summer. Although he would much rather help with the construction side of things, he was gracious enough to help me out this year, and I can honestly say I could not have done it with out him! He was not only my assistant in every sense of the word (helping me pack and unpack my supplies every day when we moved clinics, getting everything set-up for testing and cleaning ears and taking earmold impression, etc.), but he was also my rock of support. The first day was a little overwhelming with no interpreter, but we survived and I have Brett to thank. Since it has taken me longer than I had wanted to post these, here are a few pictures with no further ado.

Load 'em up and move 'em out...So many bags! All of these plus four (count 'em four, two for each of us) carry-ons!

The church buses ready for the first day of clinic

All the meds in the pharmacy...they were busy!

The construction team's work, laying the groundwork for the new church in Chimaltenango

The children's team hard at work!

A view of the town of Pastores, also known as "Boot Town," during our break at lunch

Some patients waiting in line to be seen in Zacatecas Canton

More patients in Chimaltenango

My testing room in Pastores

Brett, Lupe and me with a patient

My favorite patient of the week, Kayla, and her very-pregnant mommy, who brought her sweet daughter to two days of clinic

A view of the beautiful countryside in Santa Ines

Some of the children of Santa Ines...so sweet and precious!

We had such a wonderful time again this year! It is hard to express all the emotions you feel not only when you are carrying out the mission work but also when you return home. While there, you realize how patient and caring and thankful these people are (and how you need to work more on those traits yourself), and when you get home you really understand how blessed you are by many things people in a third-world country would consider luxuries. It is a truly humbling experience that we just can't get enough of and hope to continue to be a part of every summer.

This year's trip was different than our first trip, too, because we had a baby to get home to. While we were gone, it made us realize just how blessed we are to have a healthy little boy, a roof over our head, food on the table every meal of every day, the list could go on and on. We thank God we could go again this summer, and we look forward to the next trip!