Sunshine

Far away, there in the sunshine

are my highest aspirations. I

may not reach them, but I

can look up and see their

beauty, believe in them, and

try to follow where they lead.

(Louise May Alcott)

Being a mother is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. Trying to please everyone, love everyone and be there for everyone is not an easy task. That said, for me being a mother is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I have had my share of heartache and disappointment but for the most part joy has filled my life. As I try to achieve all that I want to be as a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, wife, grandmother, and friend, I know I will not reach my highest aspirations on my own. Thank goodness Heavenly Father did not leave us to do this job alone. I have been studying a lot this year the women in the scriptures. I am amazed at their stories and sometimes at the lack of story that we have for them. I learn from them and they have become my heroes. I am so blessed to be born in this time and in this place to have the fullness of the gospel to teach me how to achieve all my potential. When I think I can't do it anymore, I just have to look around me at the beauty that Heavenly Father has surrounded me with. I need to notice the beauty and take it in and let it lead me where I can find the strength to do it all. I am not perfect. I have made a lot of mistakes but He knew I would. He knew what would bring me joy and peace. Children teach us as much as we teach them. I hope that I can take the lessons learned and 'ameliorate' myself as I walk this journey here on earth. I am grateful that I am a woman and very grateful I have been blessed to be a mother. He is counting on me to do the best job I can despite my weaknesses. He will make me strong. My heart is full as of late with all these thoughts and questions. I have found the answers for me as I have looked towards Him. I can do this task that is given me with love in my heart and joy in my actions. It may be the hardest thing I have ever done but for now I will "look up and see the beauty and believe".

Guatemala Trip

Finally, I have a few minutes to post about our wonderful trip. It has been a hectic two weeks since we have been back. I haven't had time to sit for even a minute. But I finally got all the pictures downloaded and somewhat organized. So here goes the picture tour of our trip!

We arrived in Guatemala City late Saturday night. Sunday we went to church in a small ward building that was right next door to the temple. That was really special. The meeting was all in Spanish so our guide (David) kept some notes and let us know a summary of what the talks were. I was pretty close to the general meaning of things with the little Spanish I know. David (my David) was quite surprised that what I had told him matched closely to what David told us. (I can tell this is going to be completely confusing with both of the David's.)

That night we flew to Flores. We visited Mayan ruins there and saw some very beautiful sights. You can see the volcanoes that we flew over at sunset. David was going crazy in the plane when he saw this. He just loves this kind of stuff! The picture with the Guatemalan lady in it was at a place we bought some souvenirs. She was doing a lot of the making of things there.

Here are pictures of some of the ruins and Mayan temples that we visited. The history of these people fascinated me. David (our guide) did a very good job of tying in their culture with some of the Book of Mormon things we study. That for me was the best part of the trip, all of the classes and learning we got to do along with all the hiking and exploring.

The top row of pictures shows an underground hole that was found near the living structures. Even though the hole was only big enough for Mark (one of the guys with us) could crawl down into what was underneath was amazing. A large enough room to store food and things that needed to be refrigerated. It was their natural refrigerator. I thought how did animals stay out of their stuff but then decided not to worry about it and be grateful for my refrigerator at home!

This set of pictures shows the view from the tops of the temples we climbed. Two of the temples had wooden stairs along side them for us to climb. I think one of them had two hundred stairs. The temple in Lamanoi we could climb the face of still. That was scary coming down from. They say going up is all physical and coming down is all mental. They were not lying about that. Dave kept saying how glad he was not to be worrying about Noah running up and down the steps! I definitely do not think Chad would have even tried it. But I have to say the view from the top was some of the prettiest scenes of the whole trip so very worth the hike up and frightening climb down!

Here are some pictures of the local wildlife. I was overwhelmed at the beauty of the animals. All of these pictures except the Jaguar, parrot, and crocodile were out in the jungles that we hiked in. I have many more pictures of birds, and lizards and other creepy crawling things. We were always on the lookout for a crocodile. We traveled on several rivers and there was always a chance we would see one but no such luck. We went to the Belize Zoo and saw many more animals native to the area and a lot of them were very similar to the ones here in North America.

The sunsets were amazing! I loved watching the sun going down. It did seem to go down a lot earlier than we are used to. The one picture is the front of the very steep climb up the front of the temple in Lamanoi. Thank goodness for the rope to hold on to for the climb down. Not everyone used it, but I felt much better holding on to it.

We went to a Howler monkey reserve. The guide there had worked for over ten years with this little family of howler monkeys and called them down out of the trees for us. The one climbing on Dave's head ate a banana out of my hand. Dave has that on video. The two mamas had little babies on their backs. It is hard to see in the pictures. The one monkey with his back to us is the daddy of the group. They are very territorial so the howling is used to let predators know they are in their space. It sounds very scary - like huge. big lion roaring - but the biggest they get is about 22 lbs. So there bark is definitely bigger than their bite!

The last day we went snorkeling in the Kayes. We took a 23 mile boat ride from Belize City out to the Islands. The water was so beautiful and clear. We snorkeled with the sharks, stingrays, and a variety of beautiful fish! I loved it. I did get a sunburn on my shoulders, I did put lots of sunblock on but I guess not enough. Other than that everything was perfect.

We also went cave tubing and ziplinning. We enjoyed many good eating experiences. Local restaurants as well as the hotel cuisine. We shopped at a local grocery store and I have to say the most shocking thing was the price of ice cream. American the cheapest was $18.00 for a half gallon. The most expensive was around $35.00. At that price it would cure me of all my ice cream cravings! One of the first reats we bought ourselves back in the states was an ice cream at the airport. In the evenings we swam in the hotel pool, played ball in the pool, played card games, dice games and just enjoyed each others company. Every day was filled to the fullest with activities and fun. I am so grateful for the wonderful surprise that David and I got. One night for dessert a large chocolate cake came to our table with the words "Happy Anniversary David and Candice". Then we received the most beautiful bouquet of red roses and white daisy's. I hope all our friends know how much we appreciated that gesture and how special it made our trip. This was a once in a life time experience and I am so glad we decided to go!