Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

We went to Izamal over Spring break. Things to know about Izamal: - It's mostly painted yellow. That's sort of its famous "thing." - It has been continuously inhabited since possibly as far back as 750 B.C. - There are 5 pyramids within the city limits and a couple more just outside. The biggest one,  Kinich Kak Moo , is the biggest pyramid in all of the Yucatan and you are welcome to climb up it since the Spanish already hauled off all of the nicely carved stones to build the Franciscan monastery.  - The monastery has a huge courtyard area, the second largest atrium of any in the word except the Vatican.  I do not know what this tiny door is for. We had a nice breakfast. Joseph is hard into his emo era and refuses to cut his bangs, but they're starting to get in the way of daily activities, thus: We went on an ATV tour of the town and surrounding pyramids, and I didn't take any other pictures besides this one. Argh. This is the big pyramid. In this picture, w...

Today was all soccer, all day. We started off at the Copa Yucatán tournament, where the Quetzales lost a game and won a game, but didn't make enough goals to get through to the third round. They were all pretty cheerful about it, thought. It was a three-event and, I confess, I wasn't sorry to miss the third day. And then in the evening, the church youth groups from the whole region got together for a sports and games night. Our little soccer team got clobbered by two other teams and also didn't make it through to the third round, but they left with a cupful of gummy bears from the snack table, so they were happy.

Joseph's bite is a long and winding story that isn't nearly over. Here's our current status with his rejilla (grill) device that is supposed to discourage tongue thrust. The pictures are of Joseph closing his teeth as much as he can. You can see the back molars meet, but the front teeth are still open. Left is three months ago, right is today. The open bite has definitely improved a bit. We'll check again in three more months.

Lisa's sister, Lori, and family are in town for four days and we did the whirlwind tour of the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán Saturday : Pyramids of Uxmal. That's the Pyramid of the Magician behind them. It has this fun interactive thing where you can clap your hands in just the right spot, and the returning echo sounds like a bird. I am now an annoying repository of random Maya facts. You have been warned. Lori and Evelyn standing in a Maya arch. Joseph and Benjamin. Maybe the best part of this trip was seeing the boy cousins bond. 🥰 We finished off the night at a soccer tournament. I think our team ultimately came in 3rd place. It was a lovely sunset. And the other team brought their own color commentator to livestream the game on Facebook. I mean ... ya'll. Sunday : After church, we drove out to the Santa Barbara cenotes. Google Maps seems to have a higher failure rate in Mexico than the U.S. and we ended up taking the scenic route through a random baseball field p...