Courtesy of the wonderful Amanda Hansen

October 2009

City Creek Trails, Pocatello, ID

We have had a nice month or so. Halle had her first birthday (almost a month ago) and seriously made a haul. So many presents! Thanks everyone for coming! Our camera died before cake, but we have copies from family. She has been a happy girl and working on walking more and more each day. I realized she was walking more at Lonny's parents house and at my sister's home and noticed that she just slips too much on our wood floors, and chooses to crawl instead. She's getting there though. She's just super funny and we're loving having a one-year old!




I was certain Halle would be grossed out by the pumpkin guts, but she had no problem reaching in, pulling stuff out, wiping her hands off on her belly, and eating slimy pumpkin seeds. I really am not kidding when I say she will eat ANYTHING!



Can't get enough of this girl



She was our little pumpkin this year but absolutely would not keep her "stem hat" on. Silly girl- she knows her hair is too cute to cover it up!

Happy Fall! I love the season so much. I've realized I really enjoy raking leaves on a nice crisp fall afternoon. I've already raked a bunch, but I'm sure I'll get more chances; hopefully the weather will stay nice long enough to get the yard cleaned up again, or else I might change my mind about enjoying raking leaves. What can I say, I'm a fair-weather fan.

Warning: lots of pictures and lots and lots of words. I originally planned to just put of pictures, but I can't not explain them! I learned so much and the tour we went on was by a man named Helaman and you guessed it, he's a member. He is so knowledgable about how the Book of Mormon ties into the Mayan ruins. He said there are many archaeologists who have been trying to interpret the hieroglyphics for a very long time, with no luck. We know that the language won't by interpreted until the Lord decides it is time.



First things first! We were in the ocean at about 8 am. Cloudy skies, looks like rain, and we were the only ones out there but it was awesome- actually pretty warm water! Next we were at the pool with a "swim-up" bar where we were the only ones drinking non-alcoholic pina-coladas and other fruity drinks.


Ek' Balam is a place of ruins similar to Chichen Itza, but not nearly as huge. They have found many ruins that have not been restored yet.



Standing on top of one of the buildings where the high priest lived. The group of trees behind my head is another ruin that hasn't been restored. I thought at first that our tour guide meant that it was behind the trees, but it is under the trees. These building were not just found sitting fully put together. They are covered in dirt and have become a hill with trees all over it. It's amazing how much work it must take to restore just one building. They would number each stone, take it off, clean it, and reattach it all like a puzzle!! Crazy and amazing!
The bigger building on the far right of the picture is the temple. We didn't go inside, but even from the carvings on the outside of it, it is obvious that it is a temple.


Quiz in a baptismal font.


Can you see that there are dark skinned people facing a single light skinned person?



View from very high up on the temple. The building right above my head is the one I was standing on a few pictures above.



These next few are at Chichen Itza. I remember in 6th grade learning about Mayan and Incan History. We learned about a game they would play that had stone walls with small hoops on both sides and someone was sacrificed at the end of the game. This picture shows one of the walls and at the end of the field is the large stone place where the high priest would sit. At the end of the game he would decide if the loser or the winner was the one who was sacrificed. It was an honor to be the one sacrificed. Our tour guide brought up that we learn in the scriptures that it was always the best that was sacrificed, so it may have been more frequently the winner of the game who was sacrificed.


It's kind of hard to see, but this picture shows 2 men facing right. The men are wearing padding or armor, which tells us this game was pretty rough. They all also have a stick of some sort stuck through the nose. Interesting. The picture is from the stone at the base of the walls of the game.
Each wall had 3 sets of 2 teams of 7. In other words, the game consisted of 2 teams of 7 people each. 7 symbolically means perfect, so between the 2 walls there are 6 sets of teams, and the 7th was the team who played in the game. Each set of teams on the walls showed one person from one of the teams beheaded. The loser, or the winner whichever it was.


Close up of the place where the high priest sat during the game. One of the few examples where you can see where there was color on the stone. I can't even imagine how elaborately these were all painted at one point.


smooch


The famous Chichen Itza. I'm not sure why this is underlined, but I can't seem to change it at the moment. Each side of the temple is a season: fall, winter, summer, spring. This location is where you can stand on March 21st (spring equinox) and when the sun sets you can see the shadow of a serpent coming down the steps. The base of the steps are serpents heads and with all the levels of the temple, it looks like a squiggly serpent coming down. 16 days before the 21st is when the shadow is first seen, but it only shows 6 squiggles (for lack of a better word). On the 21st is when there are 8 squiggles. But 16 days after the 21st is when the sight is more impressive, which is when the steps show 9 squiggles. What day is that? April 6th. Coincidence...I think not. Also, on April 6th at sunset, the shadow of the building itself points to another building in the plaza area right to where a statue sits called Chac Mol (sorry no picture). Chac Mol is reclining on his back and is holding a plate up kind of on his chest. This is where the heart is placed of someone who was sacrificed. We are asked to give a broken heart and a contrite spirit, but because the Lamanites had become wicked, even giving a broken heart had become perverted from what it originally meant. Chac Mol is thought to be a symbol of Jesus Christ who they were giving the broken heart to. It's sad that so much of the truth had been changed or lost.



At the resort where we stayed, there was live entertainment every night. Fire dancers, Mayan dancers, and this night was a band and a mechanical surfboard. Of course, Lonny couldn't pass that up! Most people need to be drunk to try something like this, or shouldn't be drunk to try it!


Why not- I'll try!



We went to an "Eco-archaeological Park" called Xcaret. I don't have a picture of us floating the underground river, but it was my favorite part!


Lots of animals, including mannatees, jaguars, sting rays, sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, iguanas everywhere, wild boars, flamingos, and lots of other birds and fish.




That isn't us in the water, but I love the shot of the dolphins jumping over them!


So relaxing and beautiful. Even though it was the rainy season, the temperature was never below 90 during the day, and the rain was warm and usually really refreshing. We loved this trip and would love to return someday!

This feels like the fastest month of my life! In short, my brother Quinten, affectionately known as Quiz, came home from his mission to Birmingham, England on the 2nd of Sept. We've been to Soda each weekend for Labor Day and his Mission report and have had so much fun! (Side note: learned to play the card game "Five Crowns" with my card shark cousins and I loved it so much I went out and bought it! So, needless to say, game night at the Walkers is an open invite).

Because Quiz has seen very little sun for the past two years, and because we have heard of "Book of Mormon tours", our whole family is GOING TO CANCUN ON THURSDAY!!! I just started packing today and I am giddy with excitement... probably won't sleep tonight...or the next night. Halle will be staying here in Blackfoot and I am looking forward to being able to just play, but I already miss her and I'm not even gone!!! She knows who her momma is and calls me by name (Mama, not Jesse) and I'm just trying not to think about how much I am going to miss her by the time next Wed morning comes around.

Anyway, please wish us a good trip, because it's kind of, not completely, but sort of hurricane season and we just really want a couple days of sun, due to the original reason we are going. Plus it's Mexico, so come on!!
Our fresh-and-never-been-used Passports are ready to go and so are we!! Have a good week!

What do you do when you realize your 10 month old truly thinks of ways to outsmart you?
My sweet baby girl has always been a really good napper. She acts sleepy, clingy, and puts her face on anything soft: pant legs, my face, my hair, any blanket, burp rag or hand towel she can get her hands on, shoes... you get the picture. Anyway, two times now today she has shown me her tell-tale signs that she just wants to be laid down. Both times, she grabs her blanket, never fusses, and acts like she's about to take a nap. Earlier, I went in to find her covered in wipes, with wet pants because she had sat on a pile of them. How did she get wipes in her crib you might ask? Well, my awesome tri-purpose hand-me-down crib- (and this is in no way sarcastic-- I LOVE THIS CRIB) has a changing table attached to one end where I have always kept her diapers, wipes, lotion, etc. Well, now that "little miss thang" can stand and thinks she's too big for her britches, she reaches up over the side of the crib for anything she can touch. This morning's treasure: wipes. I am posting about this because I laid her down 30 minutes ago or so and she has been so quiet, I was just sure she's asleep, but I currently hear movement and quiet "talking" sounds that usually mean "I am pretty darn content at the moment". I know I should go up there, but I'm afraid of what I will find, because, yes, I left the wipes in the same place they were this morning. I guess you live, you learn.....to move the wipes.

Jesse is taking a little nap right now so I will be blogging without her permission. Last weekend we braved the slightly unfavorable weather to get our house painted. We have been planning to do it all summer but have been so busy on the weekends that we haven't been able to get to this project as soon as we wanted. Well, we finally got it done. I'm not sure these pictures give it justice, so you may have to come visit us to get the full effect. I think it looks much better...now we just need to paint our grass:)

This summer, some of the people I work with at the dental office decided to run the relay which starts in Idaho Falls called "To Bone and Back". It is 20 miles to Bone, ID, and 20 miles back. In total a 40 mile run/ 8 team members= 5 miles each. They have the course broken up into 5 mile legs. I was going to run the last leg which was mostly flat since I am probably the least experienced runner (my own fault) on the team, but i ended up doing the 4th leg which included several hills, the last one being quite a doozy. But we really had a good time!


Me, Kristin, Emily, Kristy, Shaina, and Paul before the race- getting pumped up- can't you tell? the other 2 members of our team, Katie and Lynn, had to come up later.

My cheering section!

The "passing of the baton" - actually a small plastic bone- to bone and back- you get it.
Listening to my Black Eyed Peas- my main go-to music for running. Good beat, a couple songs are very motivational "Give it whatcha got". Don't mock it till you try it.
The whole team at the end of the race. Glad we did it, glad to be done, will definitely do it again. Note to self: next time train by running a hill once in awhile!

We've been sort-of busy so far this summer, but we're having a great time!

We finally were able to take Halle on a bike ride in this bike trailer Amanda let us borrow- so now we know we definitely are going to get one for ourselves. Halle had a great time, though she is sort of too small for the straps.

This was how she ended up both times she came along- our first clue that the straps were kind of ineffective.

We were able to see my Grandma and Grandpa Kunz over the 4th of July weekend. My cute grandma is so great!

Lovin' Baked beans=JOKER FACE

I was finally able to let Halle try out her swimsuit this summer at Ross Park. She loved just sitting and splashing in the kiddie pool, which I realized she can do at home just as easily, but at least we were able to get out of Blackfoot!


By the way: "Little Miss Halle Bear", as her friends call her, is now 9 months old. Here's where she at:
Teeth:2
Mobility: TONS! Mostly army crawls, but will do the regular crawling for a minute until she falls on her belly, then she really takes off. Pulls herself to standing as often as possible. It is her new favorite thing to do.
Talking: Still loves to squeal on occasion, but mostly makes little high pitched, but soft, "dramatic sounds" like she's telling a story about all the things that go on in the day.
Kisses: open mouthed of course. Tries to give kisses even with her binkie in her mouth and ends up just pounding her binkie into our faces.

We're just loving life and having a great summer!!