Trunk or Treat

Gina's birthday was Friday and that night she and Dee were taking the boys to their ward's Trunk or Treat. Then afterwards, we were going to go to dinner.

The night was perfect--it was a teeny bit cool and no rain clouds in sight. I was able to leave work 30 minutes early and made it to the church parking lot shortly after Gina and Dee. I parked in the back since I didn't have any candy with me. Gina and Dee put a cute Halloween backdrop in their trunk and Dee was smart enough to bring a camping chair to sit down in while he passed out the candy.

Jessica got there shortly after I did and I was able to snap some shots of all the munchkins in their costumes. She gave Dee her bowl of candy and he stayed at the car and passed out candy while Gina, Jessica and I took the kids around to each of the trunks. Some of the families decorated their trunks or cars. And some of the adults were in costume--there was even one guy dressed up like Jack Sparrow. The kids really enjoyed it.

After we went around the entire parking lot, the families went into the cultural hall and ate chili. And when they went in, we went to Mi Rancherito in downtown Payson to celebrate Gina's birthday. Garrett dug right into the hot sauce and kept at it--that's what is all over his mouth.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the night:

BLAKE AND GARRETT

SYDNEY AND GANG

DANCING

GARRETT WALKING

GARRETT DANCING

GARRETT

GARRETT

WATER TANK

Many houses have water tanks on top. This is to insure that water is available if the city has problems with the water pressure. The small tank on the very top is ours. The larger tank to the left if our neighbors. Our house is like a duplex. During the daytime the water in the tank gets warm from the sun. In the summer it more than likely gets hot.

STREET WE LIVE ON

This is the street we live on. We live on a u-shaped street. The street runs in front of the houses at each end of the street we live on. We live at the bottom of the u.

TRASH RECEPTACLE

The trash receptacle across the street from our house. The receptacles are up high to keep the dogs from getting into the garbage but it is not unusual to see horses getting into the garbage looking for something to eat. Your mother does more than her share of picking up the trash from the ground.

BARBQUE AREA BEHIND OUR HOUSE

Video of barbeque area at the house

ENTRY TO OUR HOUSE

This is the entry to our house. The front of the house does not face the street, it faces the house next door to us.

DOMINGO AND BARBARITA OBREGON

Domingo and Barbarita brought us dish of food that she had prepared. They arrived at that same time that the zone leaders arrived. The child is their grandson. The zone leaders are Elder Godoy, from Buenos Aires, and Elder Jensen, from Las Vegas. The came over on p-day to spend some time with us.

This is a one horse carriage. We frequently see these carriages being drawn by two and sometimes three horses. The horses are almost always very malnourished. They work all day and then are turned loose at night to find something to eat. If there is no grass they go through the garbage just like the dogs or pigs do.

Garbage collector. There is a large open field where these scavengers have been dumping the garbage they pick up. The city dug a trench along the side of the field so they couldn't have access to the field so they now dump the garbage in the trench.

Alejandro Gabriel Leguizamon - newest member of our branch.

Look for his story in chapter 8.

A variety of glassware.

More glassware - sitting in the sun so the paint will dry.

The designs are sprayed on using a stencil and spray paint.

Your mother teaching and playing grandmother at the same time. The baby was born less than a week ago and every time we go to visit Olivera family they bring the baby to your mother. The baby belongs to Sister Olivera's younger sister.

Ramon's nephew coloring the page your mother gave him.

Note the handle that your mother is holding. One son draws the handle design on wood as part of his job. The father uses a jig saw to cut the handle and he attaches the handle.

Another picture of the glassware.

More glassware the famiy makes. Your mother made a copy of a page from a coloring book to take to the young boy for him to color.

One of the finished artisan works that the Olivera family makes. The father cuts the bottle tops off and smooths the top so no one will get cut. The mother paints the bottles and the father puts the handles on. Each of their children also has a specific assignment for which they get paid.

Ramon Olivera cutting a bottle top off. He scores the bottle with a glass cutter then he taps the inside of the bottle with the metal tool he is using until the top breaks off.

Horses are turned loose on the streets to find something to eat. This horse was across the street from our house. I took the picture from an upstairs window.

Sunday Dinner

After we all got out of church today, Gina and Jessica came over with their families. We took advantage of the time to get video of some of the kids. Baby R was the main star of most of the videos, but we got enough of the other grandkids to make Buddy and Grandmama happy.

While Jessica was holding Baby R, Aunt Gina was making him laugh. It's pretty cute.

And then Sydney got into the action of making him laugh, which is apparently a regular part of their day-to-day lives.

Here's one of Garrett saying how Buddy and Grandmama are in the "shission" aka "mission".

This one has most of the kids in one video:

New York Trip

I went to New York last week with some friends from work and we had a lot of fun. Here are some highlights:

Manhattan Temple
5th Row Center Seats to Wicked!
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (wore the wrong shoes)
Grimaldi's pizza
Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, NJ (home of Cake Boss)
Shopping in China Town and Little Italy
Central Park (wore the right shoes)
Lots of good looking guys in New York!