South of the border part II

I love to see the Temple! It's still unbelievable to me that there is a Temple in Colonia Juarez. Unbelievably amazing!



*Mi familia. So glad that we could all be together, even if it was only for a couple of days.

*Can't believe that the road up to Pacheco is being paved. Never ever imagined that! The boys were SO excited to see these massive pieces of construction equipment.

*Ethan rollin' around

*Emily learning how to dive. Perfectly even with the diving board!

*Ethan doing the "running man" off the diving board. All the kids LOVE to swim!


*As per family tradition.... PINATA time!!! Poor little horsie

*Elizabeth learning to dive

*Grandpa and Ethan, probably singing "I'm just a little Old Hoppy Toad"...I haven't posted that one yet, have I? Gotta do that!

*Mexican Spa treatments anyone? Next picture will explain the proper procedure....

*Close your eyes!!!!! I don't think this treatment is exactly relaxing, but definitely invigorating!



*Here are some of the grandkids with Gma and the grave site of Edson Whipple...my great great grandfather. He was an amazing man who crossed the plains with the pioneers. I am so blessed to have him and many many others in my family line. What examples of faith and determination.

*Very peaceful and fun. So glad that things have calmed down.



*The hillsides are covered with "pretty" rocks. The white quartz rocks. Kaylee loves finding them. She collects rocks from just about anywhere that has a ground.



*So glad there is a train in Mexa for Ethan to play with. This train has been around for over 30 years. Still in great shape! All aboard!

*One of the girls' favorite pass-time was playing "store" with grandma's collection of thimbles. They played and played with those and get this....not one broke!!

*One of my favorite things- fresh roasted chilaca!!! It is the best! Out here chilaca is called "Anehime" chili. Roast them, let them steam in a plastic bag and then peel them. Add a fresh homemade tortilla with with a little salt and wow...life seriously doesn't taste much better than this!

*Grandma's piano is perfect for a house full of guests. See those earphones? They plug right into the piano so only the pianist can hear the music if the rest of the house perfers not to hear the concerto.

*Faster daddy, faster!!! And so my daddy went faster!

South of the border part I

This summer we also enjoyed traveling to Mexico, back to my home town. This time we drove. We decided to drive all night across the great state of Texas. I think I actually liked it better! The kids were sleeping, we didn't have to stop so many times for potty breaks and food. Just get a good nap before leaving, some good snacks and books on tape and hey...you're good!

• Here Maria is teaching us how to make tortillas! All we had to do was try and make them round, but I'm not sure any of us succeeded in that!

• Maria and her husband gave us a large bucket full of green beans to bottle! Delicious!!!

• Grandpa's orchard was full of big beautiful peaches this year! It was fun picking them and canning them! Riding on the 4-wheeler was so much fun! The wagon was even recently painted yellow and green for the grandkids!
  
  

*The mountain range near my home. This particular one is called the Indian Princess. See why? I love it.

*The popcicles, paletas, there are so incredible!!! Here Little Miss is enjoying a mango one.





*Maria laughing at me and my attempts to make a ROUND, not triangular, square or anyother shape of tortilla. I failed.... but it was good!

*Lee and I caught cuddling in the peach trees.

*First time grandkids saw Maria. We consider eachother family.

*Tea party time. Grandma has the largest trunk of costumes that I have ever seen!!! I keep forgetting that I don't need to pack regular clothes for my kids. Everyday is dress up day!

Seattle part 2

Downtown Seattle, near Pike Place, the 3rd most germiest spot in the world!!! The GUM WALL!!! So gross but so colorful at the same time!

The famous troll under the freeway. He is actually clutching a Volkswagon Bug in his hand. Way cool.

Pike Place again

Lee and I snuck away for an overnight date to Leavenworth, WA. Small town in the Cascade Mountains. Absolutely beautiful! The whole town decided to redue itself into a Bavarian town. Shop after shop after shop. There was a chocolate shop on every block. My kind of shopping!

I give up on trying to organzie these pictures and text. The site just does what it wants to!!! Argh!

To the North Pacific we go! part 1

This summer we flew our family over countless miles to visit our Reynolds' side of the family. It was a long overdue trip. Knowing that we would be traveling to an area that was a good 30 degrees cooler than we were currently in Texas, I saved out everyone's Winter clothes! Packing was interesting to say the least! Complete Summer and Winter outfits for each person for at least 7 days. Had to go buy more suitcases for this visit!

We did so many fun things, that it would be difficult to share them all. Here are just a few pictures highlighting our trip.

We found a train not too far away, in Snowqualmie, that took us for a little ride up into the amazing mountains. This was the kids first train ride and they boys, especially could hardly contain themselves. Unfortunately Elizabeth wasn't feel well that day, so she stayed home with A. Becky.

• Next several picture are of us camping near the beach. It was wonderful and wonderfully COLD! I think the nights were in the 40's. The scenery was breath taking. The kids loved the freedom of running around playing with cousins and eating lots of yummy camping food! All of Lee's family was able to attend, except for one niece who had to work.
  
  
  
  
  

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  We tried to take a picture of all the grandkids, with all of them looking, but that was a laugh!
  
  
  
  

• Here Elizabeth is wearing a WW II army wool sweater from Grandpa and a woolly hat from Grandma. Yes, she was very cold!
  
  
  
  
  

Here is Lee with his "partners in crime!"
DeeAnn

Ken

Jared

Lee

Brenda

• Brenda had the right idea! This is very popular in WA! :o)

• Grandpa and Grandma enjoying watching their family around the campfire retelling childhood memories.... horse in the house, fireworks in the pond...tuna can....broken glass bowl.... and on and on!

• Lee and his brothers

Ken, Lee and Jared















The beach was covered with crabs! Dead crabs anyway.















Check out Seth's face! The water was freezing!!!!
















Kaylee jumping for joy in being able to run free along a nice puddle filled beach.

Sunsets were amazing, just amazing. Would have been really romantic, but being that there were over 14 kids running around....hum it would seem that we all have already enjoyed romantic sunsets...

Everything in WA is so lush and green and covered with delicate raindrops for most of the year. While camping and driving through the forests and what-not...it was hard not to believe in the fairytales and folklore of trolls, goblins, fairies, big foot, vampires, werewolves... It's probably a good thing that I don't live there, my imagination would take over!

Playing with cousins everyday. Even though the age difference ranged from 16 to 2, they all had so much fun together.

Check this out! They grow giant marshmallows in WA!

The boys were all fascinated with Boeing, but then why wouldn't they?

Here are G&G with their son and his children after church.