Silly Boys

They have such funny senses of humor.

Homecoming Week

Ali and Logan experienced their first homecoming week, and took full advantage of all that was offered. Ali went to the bonfire, the both painted their faces school colors, and went to the Homecoming football game. Everyone loved Logan's sign-he even got a few offers to buy it.

Ali went to the dance with some of her friends.

And Logan did not go to the dance with some of his friends. They went to dinner and watched a movie! But the friend's mom had the balloons for his older sister's pictures, and they humored her with some pictures too.

It's fun seeing them get involved and having fun.

Brought to you by Grandma

Our Peru trip was possible because my mom came to watch the kids! The had so much fun with her, and we didn't worry about them one bit. 

I sure love her!

Rainbow Mountain

 After Machu Picchu, our favorite part of Peru was visiting Rainbow Mountain. This mountain was constantly under snow until about six years ago, so it is a fairly recent discovery. We went here the second day we were in Peru, and Jason was experiencing some pretty serious altitude sickness. He didn't feel good (dizzy, nauseous, headache, no appetite, etc) the day before as we wandered around Cusco (12,000 feet) and we were worried about how he would do on a strenuous hike up to Rainbow Mountain's peak  (17,000 feet). He prayed and asked for the strength to do the hike, and felt reassured that he would be able to do it. He woke that morning feeling much better, and was able to make the hike up to the peak just fine. However, on the way back down, his altitude sickness came back with a vengeance. It was a pretty obvious illustration of what he could do on his own, as compared to what he could do with the Lord's help.

Machu Picchu!

Of course, the main reason for going to Peru was to see Machu Picchu. And it did not disappoint. It was absolutely amazing. We went on two different days, in the afternoon one day and the morning of the next. Some parts of the ruins are only open in the morning, and others only in the afternoon so that worked out great! We hired a guide the first day, and wandered on our own the second, and both days were wonderful in their own way. The weather forecast called for rain all day both of the days we planned to visit, but in actuality it only sprinkled a bit one of the days, for which we were so thankful. One lovely surprise was that I didn't realize the area around Machu Picchu was so mountainous and beautiful, and we really enjoyed the views. We were also pleasantly surprised that we had internet service in this remote place, so we were able to Facetime with our kids and show them a tiny bit of the ruins-so cool! We count ourselves lucky to have been there and seen this amazing place.

Peru!

Jason and I went to Peru in September! We've been wanting to go see Machu Picchu for a few years, so this year we made it happen. We flew from Chicago to New York/ Atlanta, to Lima, and then to Cusco. We've been spoiled living in Chicago where there are often direct flights to so many places, so three legs of a trip felt like A LOT. We were super grateful that all flights both on the way there and on the way home were on time. We had one little hiccup on the way home where the airline had us booked on a flight they canceled, but after an hour of holding our ground the poor airline employee got us rebooked on the right flight, and we were able to leave as planned. It was fun to see our "find my phone" dots in South America (our first visit to that continent!), and to see the Andes Mountains poking through the clouds on our flight in.

We spent some time on both ends of our trip in Cusco. We really enjoyed their Plaza des Armas and spent a lot of time resting and people watching there.

We toured a couple of the main cathedrals in the main square including Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus.

We enjoyed our hotel and loved the view of the city at night!

There were stray dogs all over, and it looked like this one was waiting in line at this market for his turn at the butcher's shop.

It was cool to see the buildings built on ancient foundations!

While waiting for one of our flights we met a lovely Peruvian woman. Jason asked her to tell us the foods we should be sure and eat while we were there, and she wrote us a list! It was a fun little scavenger hunt looking for everything she recommended while we were there. We found and tried them all, and many of them were among the meals that were our favorites.

We enjoyed the ruins of Sacsayhuaman. The rocks were huge and fit together so perfectly, it is mind boggling to imagine them building it. There were 100s of High School aged boys there while we were visiting, practicing some sort of show. It was really cool to see them dance and hear them chant the way their ancestors must have years ago in that very spot!

Another church we visited was the Church of Santa Domingo. So pretty. These last two sites we visited on our last day in country. I had decided to rinse my retainers in the local water the night before ( I was so tired of them not really getting clean!), and my stomach was very unhappy with me about it. We took the day very slowly and took cabs rather than walked, so we were still able to do all the things we had wanted to. It was a hard day, but we managed.

Young Men's Theme

Did you know the Young Men have a theme? They do, and for one of his goals Eli memorized it.

Two dogs

Max was a bit confused about this little dog!

Warhammer

Logan has a friend who has introduced him to this game called Warhammer. It is a very complicated game that boggles my mind with it's intricacy, but one cool part is all the pieces you use in the game are little models that one assembles and then paints. So it's a way to combine modeling, military strategy, and complex role playing games all into one-no wonder he likes it! He's turned the store room into his workshop and creates these fantastically detailed tiny models. 

Each ones takes him about two hours to paint!

Feed my Starving Children

Ali, Logan, and Eli all decided for one of their youth goals that they wanted to go to Feed My Starving Children at least once a quarter, and we've had a lot of fun with it.

One time we pulled up at the same time as one of Ali's best friends, Linda, and her family! What are the odds? We packed with them and enjoyed getting to know her family.

Another trip we invited my cousin Michelle and her family along, and we packed 24 boxes with them-our record!

Yet another time, Eli and I invited his friend Nile and his mom to come with us. They had never been, and loved it!

It's been a great goal that our whole family (and lots of friends!) have enjoyed helping them meet.