Proud to be an American!

Today was the annual international day. It's nice to see everyone dressed up like their home country. Here's a picture of the kids getting ready to march in the parade.

We are blessed to have real live American Marines here. I think these guys are all there are here. It was great seeing them carry our flag for the parade. I think Gwen was feeling a bit shy!

Here's our host country proudly wearing their colors.

Jay with his buddy in the hat. This boy is also our next door neighbor and sadly for us they are moving in December to Alaska.

I know it's hard to believe that it is sooooo HOT here right now! Everyone was looking for shade.

Gwen and the Beanstock

I love these pictures that Jay took of our trees in bloom here.

There is such a nice smell when you walk past these beauties.

Such a vibrant color isn't it!

Happily Gwen's bean plant made it to the day of her assembly. Hers was the tallest in her class. Most of the kids' bean plants died and had to start a new one. She measured and watered and took care of it for weeks. She is ready now to plant it outside in hopes of it producing a bean or two.

New Missionmerries and Halloween

We have a 12 elders here now! These are the ones serving in our branch. The guy without a badge is from Houston here on business. 2 from Mozambique, 1 from Portugal, 1 Canadian, 3 American.

Maren went as a Ninja to the school dance. She said it was very successful this year with nearly every one dressing up.

We had torrential rain during our Halloween party. Thankfully it let up before trick or treating.

Gwen went as Sally of course, from Nightmare before Christmas. Jay and his buddy made their costumes they are the ghost bookends.

Summer, Fall and Winter

We had a very restful October break. We took the boat out to the clean beach and had lots of fun playing in the waves and of course digging very large holes.

Gwen loved "surfing". She collected lots of shells and fed the crabs. Summer is here again!

On the other side of the hemisphere Jana and Missy got ready for Aunt Lisa's famous Halloween Party. I tried to upload another picture with Will in it but it didn't work.

Jana and Will have quickly moved into winter. All I can say is "BRRRRRRR"!

Fall didn't last very long!

Somebody's Birthday Shout Hooray!

When I think of you I think of you reading at breakfast just about every morning. Going quickly from Hank the Cow Dog to Harry Potter. And most importantly peeking in on you at night and seeing you reading the scriptures. Making my heart swell with gratitude.

We wouldn't have Feather if it wasn't for you!

Do you remember wanting to be a butterfly when you grew up?

What a beautiful, fun, intelligent, happy, content, witty young women you are! It is pure delight to watch and be a part of your life. I love you!

Hamburgers at the girls home

We had a fun Saturday at the girls home where I teach sewing. Some of the volunteers got together with their families to give the girls a nice treat of hamburgers.
Gwen and her friend Kate went around giving them juice. I don't have a picture of Jay, but the girls were quite taken with him. They called him "the white boy"
Boy do I look pale!! The girl I'm holding is Grace. She was in my english class and very smart. As of this day there are 61 girls in the home. A few of the older girls put on a dance for us before we had to leave. It was a nice day.

The hardest part

I have seen some real growth in Will this summer, he makes us all laugh with his voice imitations which sound like the real deal. He was a great sport when we went camping and all seven of us crammed into a five man tent. He is taking some classes at UVU and is real excited to be back to his routine.
Jana my amazing daughter, who has been ready for this moment for probably 2 years now. It was so fun getting her set up in her dorm. She has wasted no time in making new friends, a group of them hiked to the "Y" their first night there!
BYU is such a beautiful campus. She is going to love it there! And it's great that she can spend time with Will.