MERRY CHRISTMAS

On Christmas Day we had Mindy, Trevor, Alex, Kayla, Briella, Holly, Scott, Jackson, Annalee, Terra and Brock for dinner especially prepared by their dad, who is a great cook. Terra and Holly brought yummy desserts, Mindy brought a wonderful salad and home made dressing. The rest of us brought are empty tummies and had a feast!!! Thank you... we all enjoyed it!!! After the meal we opened presents, it was fun to watch the grandchildren open presents and show their surprise and joy. It is always great to have the grandchildren around, they are spontaneous and sincere with their feelings. Ivete had a hair cut and Annalee looked at her and said, "Ivete hair". She noticed that Ivete had a hair cut. It is amazing to see how bright children are. Kayla is always happy and smiling, she loves to play "ring around the roses", Alex and Jackson behaved very well. After everybody left we laid down and enjoyed one of the movies Mindy gave us. Thanks Mindy!!! It is always a treat to have all of you together. Angie and Austin where are you??? We missed you!!! Happy New Year.

Trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel

Yes, we are back from an exotic vacation. We went to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Pictures will come later. We will describe some of things we saw. Cairo is the capital of Egypt with about 17 million people and no traffic lights, then you can imagine cars and people and handcarts, in other words, everything moving in the same place and at sometimes in opposite directions. It is quite dry and dusty. We went to Cairo, Memphis and Giza.
Egypt is an ancient country with lots of history. There we had a dinner and show(we did not care much for the show) on a cruise on the Nile River. This river was and is very important to the people. As there is no rain, Nile river is the only source of water. Also when Pharaoh(king of Egypt) ordered that 2 yr. old and younger to be killed, his mother put him in a kind of basket made of papyrus and put him in the water, so Pharaoh's daughter who was down the river picked him up and raised him as a prince(Moses prince of Egypt). Alligators do not get close to papyrus, they do not know if it is because there is some smell that the alligators do not like or not.
In Egypt there are more than 60 pyramids, we visited the most famous ones (Kefren, Queops and Mikerinos). We went inside of some of them. The colors of the paintings and hieroglyphs on the walls are incredible. The rest of artifacts were taken and put in the Cairo Museum. We also visited the Valley of Kings, another burial site. They mummified the person and buried the person with a bunch of their belongings, including grains. The reason for mummification was that they believed that the spirit would come back again and take the body(kind of resurrection, but not exactly). Then we visited some archaeological sites such as Luxor and Karnack. Karnack is amazing. You cannot believe that they would get one block of rock and make big obelisks, gigantic columns and statues. When we post some pics. you will see.
In Jordan we visited Gerash and Petra. Gerash was a huge archaeological site, the kind I always wanted to see my whole life. Then we went to Petra which is one of the 7 modern Wonders of the World. It is a gigantic site where buildings where sculpted in the rocks, but they were used as burial sites. It is kind of like taking Zions or Bryce Canyon National Park and engraved a building in it. Yes, it is man made. It is beautiful. In order to see the sites you can go on foot, by donkey and parts of it by camel. So you can imagine the smell of "fresh squeezed donkey and camel souvenirs." You need to look up to see the sites but look down to not bring souvenirs home on your shoes. Part of the way they have some employees picking them up, but you need to be careful. Some of the sites you can see with some walking but we hiked up to the "Monastery". We think we hiked about 6 miles that day, but it was worth it.
In Israel, we visited Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Jerusalem, Jericho etc. We sailed on the Sea of Galilee, this sea is fresh water, in other words it is a lake and guess what, it looks like Bear Lake. The geography of the Holy Land is so similar to Utah, some times you think that you have been spun around and when you opened your eyes you are in Utah or the Holy Land. Ed floated on the Dead Sea. I did not, because I hurt my leg snorkeling in the Red Sea. We snorkeled on the Jordan side of the Red Sea, but we could see Israel from Jordan. The amount of fish close to shore was incredible. What I like about snorkeling is to see the fish swimming so peacefully, they are not afraid of you and you are not afraid of them. By the Dead Sea there was the black mud that is supposed to be good for your skin, we got in there. It was fun!
Biblical sites are said to be "the traditional site" because they are not totally sure they know exactly were it is. On most of the sites there are churches built and some trinket shops with a small part of the natural terrain where the site is supposed to be. So if you really want to walk where Jesus walked you should have gone there 2000 years ago, but passing this part, there some sites where you can feel that it is real, like the Garden Tomb(place where Jesus was buried) Pres. Harold B. Lee stated that it is the real site and when I got inside I had a feeling that the place was empty and as I was leaving there was a sign on the door "He is not here, he is risen".
Herod's Temple(which is the same site as the temple of Solomon) is the site that Palestinians and Israelis fight over, today this site belongs to the Palestinians. But I felt such a peaceful and good spirit there, similar to when I go to the temple. It is sad that they kill each other because of it.
Jericho is a beautiful city. It is an oasis in the middle of the desert. It is amazing seeing all the dry land around it and green, healthy vegetation because of the spring water.
We walked through the Hezekiah's tunnel (about half mile) with water up around our knees and other times higher, it is very dark, we had flashlights, it is very narrow and some areas you have to duck down to pass. It was a lot of fun. When we have more time we will upload some pictures.

General Conference Dinner

After LDS Church General Conference on Sunday, our family got together for dinner. Yummy food...Mindy brought a delicious pumpkin pie, Holly brought a wonderful colorful garden salad and a fruit salad, we baked a turkey and we had a feast. Angie and Austin brought happy smiles and hungry tummies all the way from Colorado. Grandkids with their endless energy and happy laughs and smiles kept us entertained. We missed Terra and Brock. But the best part, as usual is, after dinner, we share what touched us the most during conference. It is so good to talk about the gospel and feel the spirit and the diversity of messages each person takes from the talks. Scott took very good notes and he could even tell us the color of tie each speaker was wearing... It is a blessing to have 5 more temples announced. It was quite a surprise, to have one announced for Rome, Italy...Can't wait for the Ensign to refresh our minds with the wonderful messages given. It is so good to have a living prophet. It was so cutie to hear Kayla singing "I love to see the Temple" and Jackson singing "Popcorn popping on a Apricot Tree."... Love you all!!!

MOMIX

Yesterday we went to MOMIX. It was quiet a show!!! The artists were very talented. We had hard time finding a parking spot because of the U of U game at Rice Stadium. Finally we got a spot and our walk for the day too. It was fun. It helps to keep us in shape.
Except for two parts we did not care for, we enjoyed the rest of the show. As Ed said, "I couldn't imagine that someone could do that". Performers were so flexible like they were made of rubber and at the same time they were flexing they would stop and they would be as hard as a board. One lady spun, spun, spun one hundred times, then suddenly she stopped. It is hard to describe. It was amazing!!! We had a great time. Click on the following link to see a sample of what we saw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70R4kueQlEg

Mount Timpanogos Temple Visit

Last Saturday we had a special treat, "Having the family together for a temple session" (Lee, Maryann, Ed and Ivete, Roger and Lorna, Scott and Holly, Brock and Terra). We missed John and Pat, Austin and Angie and Trevor and Mindy, Elaine's children and Lorna's children... Hope next time you can make it.... We went to Mount Timpanogos. It was so good... The good spirit we feel in Temple is amazing!!!! Lorna brought some family names, which added to the experience. After the session we went to the Temple Cafeteria and most of us forgot to bring money to pay for the food, so we borrowed from each other ... nobody starved...everybody is alive and well...Yaaaayy!!!! We got pictures...thanks to Holly....

Cecret Lake

A couple of weeks ago we headed for the mountains at the Big Cottonwood Canyon

Ha umas semanas atras fomos para as montanhas no Canyon chamado Grande Bosque de Algodao(Nao vi nenhum algodao). Como nao ha praia aqui, a diversao e ir para as montanhas. Agumas tem uns parques legais, outras tem so a natureza na forma original.

We hiked about 3 mile round trip. The weather was just perfect. It was interesting to see snow that has not melted.

Caminhamos mais ou menos uns 4 km (ida e volta). O tempo esta perfeito, bem gostoso, nem quente nem frio. Esta parte branca no meio e neve que nunca derreteu.

On the way up we saw many interesting things like this. Who tied this tree down? It is amazing to see what nature can do

No caminho vimos muitas coisas interessantes como esta. Quem amarrou esta arvore? E incrivel, as raizes se trancaram desta maneira que parece que esta amarrada. E incrivel o que a natureza faz.

Berry, berry, quite contrary.....

Isto e um trocadilho com a palavra berry que significa a familia dos morangos, framboesas, estas frutinhas pequeninas que os ursos adoram.

Gorgeous wild flowers!!!!
Flores silvestres lindas!!!!

Despite the adversity, wild flowers survive and show their beauty
Apesar das adversidades, as flores silvestres sobrevivem e mostram a sua beleza.

Even in hard spots. Mesmos em lugares duros(situacoes dificeis) When we got there. Surprise!!! We found a "Cecret Lake" with "c". Until you get there you have no ideia that there is a lake hidden in the middle of the mountains

Quando chegamos la em cima. Surpresa!!! Encontramos este lago secreto no meio das montanhas. Ate que se chegue la em cima nao se ve ou se tem ideia de que ha um lago, por isso e chamado de lago "Cecret", apesar da palavra "secret" ser escrita com "s" em ingles.

This is one of Ed's favorite view because of the rocks.

Esta e uma das vistas mais favoritas do Ed por causa das rochas.

Enjoy some of the views in this little clip.

Aprecie um pouco do panorama neste filmezinho

This lake was full of water salamanders

Este lago estava cheio de salamandra da agua Some people picked them up

Algumas pessoas pegaram-nas na maoNothing like soaking up the sun.....

Nada como um banho de sol dentro da agua

Hiking around the lake

Caminhado em volta do lago. "Caminhando contra o vento sem lenco sem documento, no sol de quase setembro, eu vou...." (a turma mais experiente(popular "velha") deve se lembrar desta musica de Caetano Veloso...)Let's rest before heading down

Vamos descansar antes de voltar

Vernal Trip

We headed to Vernal to visit the Dinosaur Quarry, Vernal Temple and Dinosaur Museum.
Petunias on Main Street were gorgeous!!!!

On our trips, we always try to go to the temple nearby whenever possible and it is always one of the highlights of our trips. The sweet spirit we feel there is a huge contrast to what is outside.

This is a real dinosaur bone. This bone is taller than me. It is displayed at the Quarry Entrance. It can be touched and felt.Then we went on a 1 mile hike and saw dinosaur bones in their natural habitat as you can see below.

Below the dark area you can see a back bone.

These are some of the fossils we could touch during our tour.

This leaf was found when the rock was cut open.

This is some of the scenery we enjoyed!

This building was built around rocks which have embedded in them more than 2000 dinosaur bones. The building is closed due to structural damages and it is not safe. It will be reopened in 2011.

Dinosaur skeleton in the Museum.


This is a real bone and they let you touch it!!!!


We had a knowledgeable tour guide who taught us
and let us touch the fossils along the way, but we
could not bring any souvenirs.....


Another bone embedded in the rock.