April 8, 2010

The whole family went to see Alice in Wonderland, in 2D last night. It was a cute movie.

Later on as the kids were getting ready for bed, Alena made herself a pillow chair and said: "I need a pig for my aching feet".

She is such a silly girl

My kids continue to amaze me!!!!

Wednesday, February 24,2010

We had an enjoyable time at the Santiago Temple. It is a very small Temple with beautiful flowers and garden area around it, all nestled in a very busy city. It only took Brian twice driving around the block to get us to the gate to get in. It is on a busy one way street. Apparently, the key to the gate was a white shirt and tie because it magically opened when Brian's Dad got out to see how to open the gate. The temple President was very nice and came down to welcome us there. He was from the Provo area. The session was in spanish but they provided head phones for us. Then after the session we had some Italian food at the restaurant next to our hotel.

We are heading for home tomorrow evening. Not looking forward to the 9 hour flight to Atlanta and then the other two flights. I am also not looking forward to housework, dishes, laundry......But sure miss the kids a whole bunch!! We just called them on skype and Alena looks sad and is missing us also.

One thing that we have really been grateful for is the internet and the ability to call the kids every night through skype. If you ever travel abroad, it is a great way to keep in touch with those left at home. Brian even called the Wursten's and we are saddened to hear of the passing of Bonnie Shumway.

2-24-2010

Update by Brian.

It's 3:00 pm (Santiago time) on Wednesday. We are back in Santiago waiting in the hotel lobby to get into our hotel room. We left the coast early this morning to meet up with one of my Dad's old students. He gave us a tour of a drip irrigated Avocado, Clementine, Orange and Cherry orchards. It was interesting, the clementines were just starting to ripen and we "borrowed" a couple. They tasted great.

We are going to try to hit the 5:30 session at the Santiago Temple. More later.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Yesterday we took it kind of easy. Dwayne (Brian's Padre), has hurt his knee so we drove into Vina Del Mar to do some shopping and by the time we got there and found a place to park it was way after lunch. So we went to get some lunch at a restaurant. We walked by a table of four missionaries having lunch. One from Chile, one from Peru, One from Kentucky, and the other from Utah (Lehi). Dwayne decided to pay for the missionaries lunch and then they wanted to have a picture taken of all of us. We shopped and then just came back to the hotel and watched a movie.

Today we went up the coast to a little city called Quintero and spent a little time looking around up there and on our way back we stopped at a beach in Concon and took a horse ride along the beach. They did not adjust the saddles so it was not very comfortable. But it was still fun.

Seagull dive-bombing Brian because he was getting to close.










Crazy mountain bike racers in Valpariso, Chile.











Coast near Concon, Chile

























Coast near Concon
















Sand dunes near hotel.

Yesterday, we started off the day by heading to some sand dunes that are only about 5 minutes away from the hotel. It was really neat! It was fun to stand on the top of them and make little avalanches and watch the sand slide down the side of the dune.
We walked up the coast later and took a bunch of pictures of the coast line. Brian likes to take pictures of the seagulls and they do not like it much when you get too close to their nest. It looked like they were dive bombing him when he got too close. (luckily no white bombs fell on him!)

Dinner has been very interesting here in Chile. There are not very many people who speak English. With the help of an English to Spanish dictionary on the Ipod and a little pocket one, we kind of get there. We still get a few surprises however. The trip to the supermarcado was fun. It is interesting to see the markets and how items are packaged. There are not a whole lot of refrigerated and frozen items. The eggs are not refrigerated and the milk and most of the juices come in box type containers (kind of like the milk from Gossners- only bigger).

Today (Sunday – Feb 21) we drove down to Valpariso. We wandered around and ran into a mountain bike race that was coming down some of the steep streets of Valpariso. These guys were crazy. I’ll post a picture that Brian took of them riding out the side of a gazebo type building onto a ramp. Overall we just took it kind of easy.

February 19, 2010

Chilean pacific coast view from our hotel

The coast is a very rocky.

A little windy with and a hot chick (comments courtesy of Brian)

Blogger in action

Vina Del Mar

Brian and Dwayne went and rented a car and arrived back to the hotel (3 hours later), and we drove from Santiago to Vina Del Mar which is about 70 miles west on the coast of Chile. It is a very busy place. It is summertime here and lots of people vacationing. The resort it set on the coast and is ok. We went into find dinner (they eat very late here) and some groceries at the supermarcado. Everything is an adventure here. What you get to eat isn't always what you thought you were ordering. It would help if we spoke spanish a little better. OK maybe alot better. We found the supermarcado in the mall.

The water with gas got Lona twice today. Once we bought water from someone selling it on the street in Santiago and she opened it and got a shower. And then when we stopped for lunch on our way to Vina Del Mar, they bought more water and she opened it and got sprayed again.

February 18, 2010

Chile!
The flight from Atlanta to Santiago that left Atlanta at 8:30 pm and was a looooonnnnnnnnnggggggg 9 hours. With very little leg room and families traveling with little ones, we were not able to really get any sleep on the plane. After having to pay a reciprocity fee of $131 each to come to this country, and go through customs we got to our hotel just after 9 am Chile time. Apparently the US charges Chilean citizens to come into the US so they are getting even. We took a couple hours to nap and then we were off to look around for a little bit before we met Brian’s parents to do a little shopping.
We found out you have to watch what kind of bottle water you are buying. As strange as it sounds it comes with and without gas, (CO2). Kind of like my husband after a Mexican meal (HA HA).

We went over to one Brian’s dad’s previous PhD students’ home to dinner with his family. It was a wonderful evening and dinner took at least two hours and we were eating the whole time. Dinner seems to be quite a production at lasts a while.
When we got back to the hotel we used Skype to make a video call to the kids back home. Brian brought his laptop and a webcam so we could talk and see the kids. It worked really well once we were able to get an internet connection. It was great seeing the kids and knowing they are all fine. It worked particularly well with Alena because she does not communicate that well on the phone yet.

December 4,2009

Reflecting on past Christmases and we remembered Justin asking for Santa to put a carrot in his sock instead of an orange.

Brandon thinks we should leave out cheese for Santa.

Brittney (a long time ago) didn't want to go down stairs on Christmas morning- afraid Santa was still there.

November 22, 2009

I am very thankful for many things. But have an overwhelming feeling of failure a lot lately. I really hope that I never caused my parents to feel the way that I feel lately.

Pheasant Hunting

Brian and Brandon went pheasant hunting today for the first time. They had a guide and were able to get four pheasants. I think they had a good time. We had pheasent tacos for dinner. Alena didn't want to try them. She has had something for a couple days with a fever. No fever all day long until about an hour before dinner, and it decided to return. So she ate chicken taco instead of pheasant.

November 4, 2009

Can't believe that it is November already!!!
I have a new favorite singer. His name is Darius Rucker, and the song that I really like is "It won't be like this for long", although I do like some of his others also. I look at my kids and the stages that they are in right now, and just really like the song and how it makes me feel like I should enjoy my kids and what they are doing now.

Alena, Justin, and Nicole had a good time trick or treating on halloween. We had a fun day carving our giganic pumpkins (pics coming soon), which we didn't know that was the variety that we planted.

October 20, 2009

Why is it that my oldest daughter is the one who can make me the maddest!!! All we asked for was a little help from all of the kids to help clean things up, and she sat on her butt and did something on that stupid computer. Finally, we made our way to the couch to vacuum it and she still wasn't moving. So I unplugged her computer, boy did she blow her top!! She acts so immature I cannot believe it sometimes. Blames things on Brandon, which was totally out of line. And she does this all the time. She is so picked on, and has so much to do that maybe a half hour later, she left to go hang out with the brother of the person she used to be dating. Which is another thing that really irritates me. I advised her to move on and not to pursue a relationship with the brother of someone she was dating before, But to Brittney- I must be one dumb Mom!

Now that the venting is done, we were watching TV and a commercial came on that had a lot of money in it, Dad asked Justin and Alena what they would buy with the money. Justin's response was a gun. Alena's was clothes and shoes. Dad's response to Alena-- She's such a girly girl. Funny kids.

October 1, 2009

ALENA

Well, I guess what we have been doing really does sink in.

We were getting the kids ready for bed, it was later than usual so Brian suggested that we skip reading our scriptures before bed. Alena immediately pleaded "please" (meaning that she did not want to skip reading our scriptures), so we read before we put them to bed. I am very pleased with my little Alena, and for her keeping us on the right track. Thanks, Kiddo.

September 19,2009

Well I am constantly amazed at how stupid people get when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. We went to Salt Lake yesterday, and we were at an intersection where the power was out, and three or four people go through the intersection at one time. Like they owned the road, like they were better than the other people at the intersection.
And how often are you driving and have somebody fly by you driving very wreck less, to later end up right there at an intersection down the road 20 or so miles. Just a little venting. But smile!!!!

September 12,2009

I am proud of my Awesome husband today. He rode a leg (one of the hardest--3600 feet of elevation gain) of the Lotoja today with a group, and preliminary time was that they took 9th place of the relay riders!!! There was between 60 and 65 relay teams. He is such an inspiration for me. He is truly Awesome!!!

This is one sexy leg with a cool tattoo on it!!