New Year's Eve 2011

New Year's Eve on the beach...

 We heard that the fireworks were going to be launched at the beach, so we headed down a couple of hours before sunset to get a good spot for the festivities.



Earlier that day some talented beach goers made this crocodile in the sand.

Evan wanted to dig a big hole in the sand.

Dad helped him make the hole big enough to jump in.  They even dug down far enough to find water.

As the sun started to go down, the shore birds came out for their evening crab hunt.

I don't think I will ever tire of watching the sun go down over the ocean.

As soon as the sun went down, the party started.  A stage had been set up and band after band cycled through playing their festive cumbia music.

To entertain themselves, the kids used their new glow sticks (aka light sabers) for an epic battle at the beach.  They even found a cute little friend that joined them for the war.

Here they are battling with a projectile in the background.

The bands were fabulous.  We finally dragged the kids away from their battle and brought them over to listen to the music.

A view back towards La Serena from the beach.

Finally the time had arrived. 

The "fuegos artificiales" were launced from barges anchored off the shore.  The synchronized show was fabulous.  We saw fireworks like we had never seen before.

The 15 minute show was extremely entertaining.

Feliz Ano Nuevo a todos!

15th Anniversary

Over 15 years ago, David and I were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend.  She made sure that everything was taken care of...a picnic lunch at a park in downtown Provo with other couples.  We enjoyed a nice lunch together and stayed to talk and throw around a football for hours after the other couples had already gone home.  We had another date that week, an engagement two months later, and a temple marriage in Salt Lake City 5 months later.  It was a whirl wind adventure at the time.  We were both finishing up our university studies, both working at the Missionary Training Center, and both had demanding callings at church.  David was in the bishopric in his student ward and I was in the Relief Society Presidency in mine.  We found time to get together and have fun like butterfly collecting up Provo Canyon and bike riding down to Utah Lake.  Even though it all happened so fast, nothing had ever felt as right as this did.  Here we find ourselves 15 years later.  We feel so lucky to have found eachother, but know that it really isn't luck at all.  To celebrate, we headed to "el centro" for dinner.  We found a nice little restaurant across from La Revoca, downtown's shopping center.  We ate the local catch of the day called Reinetta and did some great people watching.

Here's to 15 fabulous years.

Christmas Cookies

For Christmas we baked a bunch of cookies to give to our friends here in Chile.  When David's parents were here, they brought us some brown sugar (not found here) and a gigantic bag of chocolate chips, which are very expensive here.  We went to town and made hundreds of chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, and sugar cookies to share.  The best part is sampling the mishapen ones.  Everyone helped with the mixing and the rolling.  We had a great day.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Feliz Navidad 2011

A new tradition for Christmas in Chile:  spend the day of Christmas Eve at the beach. 

David showed the kids how to collect sand crabs in the surf.

As you get deeper and deeper into the water the sand crabs get bigger.  Dave also found some regular crabs in the sand.  The problem with those guys is that they have pinchers.  This is just a little one but Dave found a couple as big as his hand.

The boys befriended a stray dog.

The dog loved the attention.  He would jump up in the air and bite at the wet sand that the boys would throw for him.

BJ had such a good time with that dog.

We stayed until the sun went down.  In the evening, the pelicans come out to fish.  Every few minutes a new flock would fly by .

The lighthouse was even decorated for Christmas.

When we got home from the beach around 10PM, the kids discovered that El Viejo Pascuero "Santa" had already come to our house.  We were wondering how it was going to work out because they told us that Santa comes Christmas Eve in Chile and that everyone opens their presents at midnight.  Luckily Santa was on the ball and visited us when we were at the beach.

He even filled the stockings.

And put candies in our shoes?  OK, that's new but fun.

 So, we waited until midnight and then opened our gifts.

El Viejo Pascuero was good to us this year.  We must have been nice.

Jill models the new earrings and flowers she got from David.

Right around the corner from our house is a small store that sells candy and ice cream and other little things.  Each of the kids went to the store separately and purchased treats for eachother for Christmas.  Feliz Navidad a todos!

Pan de Pascua

Pan de Pascua at our local Jumbo store.

During the month of December there were bins and bins of this stuff.

Pan de Pascua is basically fruit cake.  It is well loved here during the Christmas holidays.  The stores are full of it and people make their own versions at home from recipes handed down from generation to generation.  I'll admit, we were a little relunctant to try it at first. 

Our picky eater, BJ tried some that our friend Patricia made for us.

BJ gave it a thumbs up.