Days like these

We have made it through our first week of no neighbors. I am not liking it very much, our afternoons are much quieter. We have been trying to fill them up with fun things to do. It is hard when you live in the middle of no where! Today the kids used their creative side. I love days like these. They all hang out at the kitchen table and create beautiful masterpieces. They get along and help each other. It is like listening to sweet music. They are so happy even though there is so much they are missing. I could learn a lot from them.

Monday we did some valentine treats. It was weird to not do some for their classmates. But, nice because they didn't bring home a ton of junk. The boys helped me make the cookies. I love days like these when they help. Not because I asked them to but because they wanted to. We are making memories. Hopefully ones the kids will cherish forever.

Some things we saw

Some things we did

Here is the torture, I am glad I got one good one.

They still had time to collect seashells.

Dakota using her skills. She loves to take photos!On V-day with our hot dogs.
We had a great table, window right by the beach, can't get better than this.
Fun at Daryl and Penny's!

Dakota just studied the Atacama Desert, she had to get her photo taken in it. She thought it was pretty neat to see it in person.

They sell a variety of things along the road, here is just one. It was a goat and the most disgusting things sold. NO, we didn't buy the guys just wanted a photo! Crashed out on the boat. Poor kids we did some much they could hardly keep their eyes open for the penguins.

On the farm in Chile

We made it home! Chile was wonderful, very different from what I had pictured in my mind. When we flew in we drove to the farm. It is about 2 hours south of Santiago. I didn't know how much desert there is. It is basically all desert at least what we saw. The mountains are all around, too. I just thought you could see them from the beach but you are in them. It is beautiful in a desert kind of way. There is pool at the guest home, the kids had a blast swimming. Saturday was spent seeing the farm, swimming, and visiting a near by town. Always have time for shopping! It is very exciting to see the beginning stages of something that will be huge someday. The farm will be all olives in the next 3 years and will have an olive press. The trees that were just planted are little sticks in the ground with a couple of leaves on them. The farm is in a huge valley with mountains all around. Sunday was spent driving to La Serena where Daryl and Penny live, Spencer's boss and wife. It took about 8 hours to get there, with stops of course, it is north of the farm.

Monday Spencer worked most of the day, kind of why he was there. After we went to the beach and took some photos! I completely tortured the kids. All they wanted was to play and look for seashells. In the evening the kids got spoiled with kids to play with and activities to do. They got a jump house, trampoline, pin pong, and fuse ball.

Tuesday we got up early to travel 2 hours north to take a boat out in the ocean. We saw many different types of animals. There was hope of seeing dolphins but they didn't show their faces. Once we got back to Daryl and Penny's home, which is absolutely beautiful, we packed up and drove 5 hours to Santiago to a hotel! That was Valentines Day and they do celebrate in Chile. We stopped at a small beach town to have dinner. I was not so brave so I had a hot dog along with the kids and Spencer ate fish. That is their main dish, they eat is fish. Not such a great place for someone who can't stand it!

Wednesday we flew home! We are so grateful we got to go! More photos to come...

All these photos were taken on the farm.

Middle of no where

Have you ever wondered what the middle of no where looks like? Well, here you go. If you ever come visit us you will really find out. We do live in a beautiful part of the country. I just wish we didn't have to drive so far to get here.

We said good-bye today to our only neighbors, the Jones. No matter how many times I do, it is never easy. I hate this! But, at least we are leaving for Chile on Friday! The kids are excited, I am excited, this is prefect timing!!! Have a great week!

A list of words

A couple of Sundays ago we were struggling to understand Sacrament meeting. That is not unusual for us. I still can't understand what is going on. Some people I can pick words out, I should be proud of that. It is hard! Spencer was doing his best to translate when I had this idea pop in my brain. I told Austin and Dakota to write down every word they heard. They thought it was a great idea. By the end Dakota had a whole page of words and Austin was not too far behind her. It showed them how much they really do understand when they put their minds to it. Before I know it they will be translating for me.

This last Sunday we experienced something very special. A act of courage that I wish all of you could of witnessed. Dakota is known to stand and bear her testimony on fast Sunday. This day was no different except that she did it in Portuguese!!!! She brought the Spirit into the meeting, for me. It was sweet, short, but beautiful. What a testimony should be. You should of heard the whispers of astonishment. The members around us turned to her and said "how beautiful, great job!" We are proud parents. I am so grateful for the experiences we are having they are truly priceless.

The Learning Center

Today was a great day! It was my first time teaching English in the Learning Center. I was so nervous, I woke up at 6:30 and my stomach was in knots.

Here is the story: First what is the Learning Center? It is a place the employees can come to learn. There are 4 computers they can use, a small library they can check books out and during their lunch hour they can take English lessons. It is only open during lunch an then on Thursday night for the families who live on the farm to come use. This has been the sole responsibly of the Jones.

Second the problem: the senior missionary couple, the Jones, are going home Wednesday. This has been known for a year. The church has been working on their replacement for that long. One couple got denied 3 times, they chose not to keep trying, and another couple decided not to come because of heath reasons. That put them back at square one about a month ago.

Third the solution: ME! Spencer and I thought, when we first learned about this, that there can be no way the Learning Center should close when there is a capable teacher right here. These 6 employees have worked hard at learning English it is only fair to them that it should keep going. Then I get a phone call from Spencer's boss to officially ask me to take this on. Since I already knew I was going to I agreed. That came with some added pressure to keep this going.

It is going to be great for us. Almost all of us has a responsibility. You know mine now. Dakota gets to work with the computers. Anyone who comes in she helps. There is a typing program on them that some employees are learning. Austin is helping a young man read in English. He speaks pretty good English. Madison gets to run the library. Anyone who wants to checks out/return a book goes to her. Dillon gets to stay quiet! He has the computers to play games on.

I have 2 classes the more advanced one is from 11-11:30 and the beginner class from 11:30-12. The first one has 7 employees and the latter one has 3.

Thirteen months ago we were going 100 mph and then everything stopped. This last year feels like we have been going 5 mph. So not complaining. It has been wonderful but something has been missing. I love to serve and I just don't get that opportunity to do so out here. I had the thought come to me yesterday that gave me some chills. Maybe I need the learning center more then I need neighbors! I kind of hate to admit this because I love people too. I know this is an answer to my prayers. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with exactly what I need!

Here I am today! Dakota was the photographer. The dictionary is a must to have!
Austin helping Humberto. He is not a member but his choice of reading material is the Book of Mormon.

Estrada quebrada

We were excited to learn that the government allocated money to fix our "broken road" until they started to work. The road has intermittent problems, maybe more than intermittent. There are 18 km from the first problem area to the last and probably 25% of the area between looks like the sample picture (obstacles in view are worse than they appear.) It adds at least 30 minutes to our trip to and from Formosa. We just had to have a dent fixed on one of the front rims of the car and the tire on the other side had two large bubbles protruding from the side. We are not sure the alignment was beneficial since by the time it got back to the farm it had had its share of opportunities to become misaligned again. So, last week, the crews showed up to start spending our tax "reales." We were disappointed when we went this weekend and found that they have only resurfaced the already smooth areas of the road. Spencer stopped and talked to a flagger last week and asked why they were not working on the problem areas and he said that is not what they were hired to do. We hope that someone else was hired to work on those parts before we lose any part of our car in the holes.

More horses and doughnuts

Today was Dakota's turn to work with Moonlight. Does this count as exercise? If you ask Dakota she would she YES! Moonlight still does not like the halter but she likes Dakota. She fought her, good thing Dakota was quick to calm her down.

They are still friends! Dakota can work her better then Spencer. Not because she has more skill then him. She just has that special touch!

Here is the link for the yummy doughnuts! I can't remember how I found her blog but everything looks yummy on it. I made a maple glaze, super yum! Happens to be my favorite flavor of doughnut! If I can make these anyone can.

http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=5396

Baked not fried

I found a recipe for doughnuts, we had to try them. Some days we have a little extra time on our hands. I love it because we have more time to be a family then ever before. Almost everything we make is from scratch. There are not many foods here that are processed. It does not mean I am turning into a wonderful cook. It just means we have a little more disasters in the kitchen. We were very happy that this one was not a disaster. They were delicious! I think they are almost healthy because they are baked not fried!