Thanksgiving

In Honduras they do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but the school takes the Thanksgiving holiday because of all of the American employees. Our pastor is an American and likes to have the Americans that go to the church over for Thanksgiving dinner. We all went to his in-laws house, which is the man (Jim) holding Jack in the picture. Below is all of the people that went to the dinner.

From left to right: Caroline, Mike, Jack, Andrea and her parents (in the back), Jim, Carla and her husband Nelson, Jenny, Bani and Herb (our pastor and his wife), and their daughter Carla.

Jack's Play Area

Now that Jack is mobile we needed to make him a separate play area. Our kitchen, dining area and living room are one small room. As you can see from the pictures there is a gate that keeps Jack out of the kitchen. The floor is tile and we got foam matting to put down in his area so that he does not bump his head. He is crawling and standing, but falls a lot! I tried to model Kathy Sanger's play area, but I did not have nearly enough toys!

Jack likes to laugh and he laughs at the funniest things. I started blowing on the standing toy trying to get rid of a hair that was on it and Jack started laughing uncontrollably. I am not sure why that was funny, but his daddy caught it on video! Enjoy!

Market Trip

Jack has been on many adventures. One recent adventure has been going to the market. Here he is picking out a flower to plant in our yard. Flowers are much cheaper here than in the states. For example, you can get a small rose bush for 30 Lempiras (which is about $1.50)....that is much cheaper than in the states! So...we got a rose to plant in our yard!

Party Time

Last Saturday night we went to a "Fall" party. Since there is not really fall here we all really miss it and feel the need to pretend that it is fall. We brought fall foods like sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie. There are lots of sweet potatoes here, but pumpkin is a little harder to come by! We were supposed to dress up like cowboys and girls, some I think confused cowboys and rednecks, but I won't say who. I think that you can tell by the pictures! Jack had a great time laughing at Jayden Priest!

The Franck Family

Gene and Mary Smith (the couple that took us to the hospital when Jack was born)

Rachel and Aaron Halbert (our former next door neighbors)

Eating Time

Jack has been eating some solid food since the end of August...and recently I have been letting him explore his food...the pictures at the top are of him exploring his food and the video at the bottom is Mike feeding Jack for the first time.

Piñata

For birthdays here, it is a tradition to have a Piñata filled with candy. We went to a birthday party yesterday for Arelia Priest who turned two and she had a Hello Kitty Piñata. Mike got to hold it while each kid got ten hits at it until it came apart. I think Mike really enjoyed holding Hello Kitty! The Priest family are some of our good friends here...some of the only people our age!

Jack's First Track Meet

Since the beginning of September we have been coaching track. We take turns waiting for Jack to wake from his nap and then take him to practice. The kids love him, especially the girls. They all want to hold him, which is good and bad. I think that Jack had a good time!



We still have one more meet in San Pedro Sula, but only Mike is going because it takes 4 1/2 hours to get there by bus! Meets here are different than in the states. One of the things that I find funny here is how they start a race...they have this clapper thing that consist of two pieces of wood they clap together (not a gun or whistle). There is a picture of it below! They also don't use blocks when they start a race like the 100 meter or 200 meter...they barely even get into a race position...weird! I tried to have them use blocks, but since no one else does they don't want to either. They did pray before they ran and I am sure that helped!

Getting out of the House

Sometimes Jack and I need to get out of the house...so we go visiting. One of my favorite places to visit is is couple that are in their 80s that live here. They are our pastor's wife's parents. They are very good to us and usually feed us lunch when we come by. The last time that we were there we got to hold the puppies that their dog had just had a couple of weeks before...that was great! Jack was a little afraid, but got used to it! I used to hold puppies as a child all the time and have forgotten how cool it is!

Caroline's Relatives

I did not include my family that we visited while we were in the states (besides my parents) and thought that you would like to see them too!

My brother Tommy and his wife Amy

My nephew Christopher

My Uncle James and Aunt Maybelline

My Cousin's children...Jarrod and Christian

My cousin Michele and her husband Keith

My mama's side of the family!

Oh...The Places We Went...and the people we saw!

These are some of the people that we saw while we were in the states...they are not in order and it is not everyone that we saw...but it gives you an idea of how busy we were!

James, Amy and Jackson......... Greg and Pauline

Todd, Mary and Joshua............ Tim and Julie

James and Margie.......................... Lisa

David and Tammy............................ Mary

Sandy and Amanda

Ann...........................................Meg

Mark

David and Anna

Claire

Matt

Lillian and friends

Todd and Mary

Jason and Amy

Scot, Eleta, and Manda............. Sherley and Max

Celia and Grandpa

Steve and June..............................Jennifer

Brad, Melinda and Justin............Uncle Frank

Mark, Kathy, Lydia and Baby Mark

Amy

Bert and Janet...................................Alan

Lily and Amy

Scott and Sarah

Johnny and Angela................Pedro and Kenny

Lydia, Mark, Melinda and Justin

Randall and Michelle