Its Been Awhile!

Howdy everybody!!

Its been a solid month since we last posted something. Sorry we are not very experienced or diligent bloggers. Its been a few pretty crazy, sometimes busy, and exciting weeks though.

We finished up our time in Xela on September 12. Julie`s classes finished up well and our time that last week at the clinic was really fun and we definitely felt like we were of use. It kinda felt like we were really settling in to the city as it was time to leave.

After leaving Xela we had about a week to travel through Guatemala before meeting Julie`s mom and stepdad in Honduras for a week. We definitely packed a lot into that week of traveling. Some highlights were taking a 4 dollar, 3-hour horseback tour around the volcanic lake Atitlan, meeting and traveling the week with a really cool Austrian dude, meeting our first (and after that our first 700) Israeli tourists, climbing and swimming through some jungle caves, climbing through some waterfalls and jumping off the top on a verrry safe rope tied to a rock, some sweet hikes, checking out Tikal (a huge Mayan ruin in the jungle that can be seen in Return of the Jedi). We also had two memorable nights... one was in a hostel in the middle of the jungle. It started with me waking up out of our tiny, smokin hot, loft room and barfing my guts out, then going back to bed and waking up half of the hostel a few hours later when I woke up swinging my fists and yelling because I was dreaming that there was someone in our room. This was followed by Julie and I talking for about an hour til we could fall asleep again, then we were up again when Julie spotted a pretty sizable scorpion about a foot from my head. Then the last event of our night of about 2 hours of sleep was me waking up again but to see Julie wide awake with her headlamp on, trying not to wake me up but she thought she had heard some footsteps. So, for the rest of the night we slept with our headlamps on. We were both pretty relieved to see the daylight and get the heck outta dodge. The other memorable night was spent in Honduras, who just went through a military coup about two months ago. We were there 2 nights before the overthrown president re-entered the capital. Our taxi driver wanted to drop us off at "the safest place in town" which happened to be overlooking the city square which was full of young people shouting and demonstrating in the streets. I told him that wasn´t quite what we called a fun night, so he took us to the next safest place, which he swore by. The place was clean and fine, but still definitely in earshot of the madness. It probably sounds worse than it really was, as there was no violence involved, but it was still pretty darn crazy.

Soon we arrived in an awesome resort in Roatan Honduras to do some scuba diving! Julie´s mom and stepdad were there waiting for us. It was sooo good to see them and for them to know we were safe and sound and that I hadn't lost too much diarrhea weight. The diving was absolutely amazing and inexpensive. We had a very relaxing week and it was a much needed break!

From there we flew (to avoid the Honduran capital) to Managua, Nicaragua and stayed there a few days to visit an orphanage just outside the city. It was really good to visit with the orphanage director and some of the kids who had been there since I was last here and for Julie and I to spend some time with other kids who were there relaxing on the Sunday afternoon.

Last Monday we realized we had a few free days until the mission base here in Granada was ready to have us, so we took the time to visit one of Julie`s best friends and her new husband honeymooning in Costa Rica! Honeymoon with Casey and Greg Cunningham!! We were bummed about missing their wedding but it was perhaps more special, and definitely more random to be a part of the honeymoon. We spent a couple of days there on the beach, highlighted by some good gringo food and getting to be surfer dudes for a day. We came through injury free!..and only 1 surfboard broken out of 4:)

We´ve been here in Granada, Nicaragua since Friday and are very excited about things going on here. We will update again soon with things we will be getting involved in here in Nica!

Love you all!

The Kidds