Sure is Great Turning 8

Isaac

Loves to Perform and make people laugh
Does a Rooster Call to signal he is ready for a tuck-in
Big Sweet Tooth
Snacker
Adores Cole
Loves to Learn
Very Obedient
Pleaser
Social
Loves to speak in accents
Good Sense of Humor
Wishes he had hair that doesn't stick up
Talker
Loves his Family
Never remembers to make his bed
Does push-ups like a pro
Creative
Constantly writing and drawing
Not a shy bone in his body
Anticipates and Loves Events
Enthusiastic about almost everything
Deep thinker
Can't wait to be a dad someday...talks about it a lot.

Bienvenidos a Peru

We just got back from an amazing experience visiting the 

Trujillo, Peru mission

 where our brother-in-law, Terry, 

is the mission president.  

A lot of family and friends have asked how our trip went and the only way to

come close to sharing our experience is through pictures... 

very difficult to describe in words.

 The days may be out of order, but I am just glad to get it documented.

I divided our trip into 9 posts

So here is the first....

 We took a one hour flight to L.A.

 Then got an 8 hour flight from L.A. to Lima

 We flew through the night and arrived in Lima, Peru in the morning...unfortunately, our flight to Trujillo was canceled,so we spent 5 hours in the food court,
eating Papa John's pizza and having McDonald's ice cream cones.

By the way, the ice cream cones are better in Peru.
I stayed entertained watching a dramatic conversation going on via the computer with the girl in the far right background of this photo.  Tears, laughter, a crazy laugh--back to tears, anger and then the crazy laugh.  I was completely mesmerized even though I couldn't understand a word she was saying.
  

It was so great to finally spot our destination after 24 hours of travel.

 Nothing like having a warm welcome waiting outside for us.

As soon as we saw the Turks and these missionaries...

it was all worth it!

First Day--Amazing Race

We got our suitcases loaded up and headed for the mission home where we received our 

"Amazing Race" assignment.

(For our stay --all the nearby mission zones -- rearranged their p-days so they could do an activity with our family ..this was the best part of the trip)

We had a race/competition through the city of Trujillo to capture photos of some of the highlights.

We were divided into teams and we each got paired up with a couple of missionaries.
The following pictures are from each of our stops.

We took taxis and the bus to get around.  

I have never experienced anything like driving in Peru....

there are no hard rules, not stop signs, no real lanes.

Survival of the fittest.....and Terry and Janet are not afraid.

This structure was built to welcome the Pope to Trujillo years ago.  

The majority of Peruvians are Catholic.

Probably the prettiest spot in the whole city is the cemetery.  

This is right next to the temple site.

Street Vendors

This is the largest mosaic in the world...beautiful.  It goes on for blocks.

Don't wake the Peruvian dog, he needs his beauty rest.

Our last stop and requirement was to eat a Mcflurry from McDonald's.

Mission Home

Hi-speed internet makes it easy to keep in touch

Tom and I had our own little bungalow.

We were fed very well

Our rooftop view

Day Two

My favorite part of this whole trip was being around the missionaries.  We had the chance to meet a lot of the different zones each day.  On Friday we woke up and

 went to the beach to play volleyball and fly kites.  The beach is nothing like it is in the U.S.  

There are no crowds.  They are not a big deal here.  

The only people who really appreciate them are the avid surfers.  They will come to Trujillo to ride the longest waves in the world.  They are not big and impressive, just a long ride.

A couple of these missionaries play college volleyball...so it was fun!

The weather here is a perfect 70 degrees with a cool breeze.

As you can see, we were the only ones on the beach....except for this machete juggler

That suddenly started to walk really close to me with knives flying.

I would rather watch one of the missionaries do back flips on the beach.

Cole wanted to learn how to do a standing back flip, 

so this Elder worked with him.

I wish I got the shot of him landing one....he worked at it and finally got it.