Rencher Family Blog

Christmas in our Hearts All Year Long 2011

2012-01-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas Morning!

After the presents…before the clean up.

Ashlee and Oliver the “King” of Christmas Eve.

Santa and his little Elves taking Christmas Cookies around to the Neighbors in the red sleigh.

Trent and Ryan having some giggles.

Cookie making day!

Our official cookie taster.

Mercedes painted this beautiful picture for Ben!

Man gifts…

Our weather was warm and mild so the boys spent lots of time outside being “biker boys”

Oliver, Ryan and Ben sure had fun together!

Family Picture taken on Christmas Eve.

I think Jay and Trent wanted in this picture too! Photo-hogs.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree…

2011-12-07T21:01:00.001-08:00

Choosing a Christmas tree is always an adventure in the Northwest! As you can see we started with an umbrella but it stopped raining when we got there. We found the perfect tree farm out in Seabeck this year and went with the Baldridge Family (annual tradition) and both found really pretty trees! They are Norwegian Spruce trees with very sharp little needles. Don’t think my three grandson’s coming for Christmas are going to touch the tree this year!

Warm Fire, Hot Chocolate, good friends.

Trees loaded up ready to go to their new home.

We love our tree all lit up and today I wrapped presents pretty much all day so they are ready for when the kids all come home. Our grandson Benjamin asked me on the phone yesterday if he could open his presents right when he gets to our house!

Decorating! Room by room…getting ready…..

FOR THIS JOLLY GUY TO COME TO OUR HOUSE! CAN’T WAIT!

Thankful in November

2011-11-19T11:46:00.001-08:00

For: A really fun day in San Francisco! We spent the day at Fisherman’s Wharf enjoying the views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the Sea Lions lounging in the sun, the Sourdough Bread Company Factory and Store and we even found an In-n-Out Burger so that really made Trent’s day! It was a beautiful day there with no fog and lots to explore.

For: A warm relaxing vacation to our favorite beach in the world in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. We enjoyed digging our feet into the sand, watching the sunsets, the fisherman, the warm ocean, celebrating my 11-11-11 Birthday and of course the churro’s in Bucerious and the adventure of taking the buses everywhere always proves a good time!

For: Home, Family and the beautiful colors of leaves we have in our yard and the Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner! I love this time of year…so much to look forward to!

Idaho in September 2011

2011-10-01T22:25:00.001-07:00

We spent the first two weeks of September in Idaho. We celebrated my Dad’s 80th Birthday with a big party and all 10 of us siblings were together for the first time in 29 years! This picture below is of ALL 12 of us taken the day of Dad’s party. Left to right: Linda, Melanie, Dianne, Julie, Dan, Gayla, Barry, Jennifer, front row left: David, Mom, Dad and Randy. It was pretty difficult for the poor photographer to get a good picture with out someone goofing off which we are all pretty good at! Lucky for me Trent took this at the same time.

Me and my Sweet Sister’s!

Mom and Dad

THE PARTY! Above Dad speaking at the end of the program. He was really happy to see so many friends, family and co-worker’s there and lots of ward/church people they know. Ben and Mercedes were the “cake” server’s . We did a musical tribute to Dad. Us sister’s sang a song to Dad that we used to sing when we were in High School. We had several musical number’s preformed by various family member’s. .

Below: Picture of all the family singing Happy Birthday to Dad at the end.

Allison, Trent and Ben

Here we are at a Graveside Memorial Service for my brother-in-law Jeff Stoddard held in Sugar City. A windy cold day but a beautiful ceremony and so nice to be together!

And we did the following in Ashton, Rexburg and Blackfoot:

Fishing

Catching big grasshoppers at the farm.

Farmer Ryan

Four Wheeling

Swinging

Shooting the Bow and Arrow, Ben was really good at hitting his target!

Beautiful Sunsets Dad, David, Trent and Jay going fishing at the river at sunset.

Randy, white kitty and I enjoying Mom and Dad’s beautiful garden.

Dad feeding the horse apples in the backyard. Dad cooked us a wonderful Dutch Oven dinner (below) He is a wonderful Dutch Oven cook! Yummy.

Out standing in the wheat fields at Dad’s farm…favorite place to be. We really had such a great time it was HARD to tell everyone good-bye as we left to drive back home. We should have slipped the contents of this basket below in our car on our way out though…..

Best of Summer

2011-09-02T21:46:00.001-07:00

The kids/grandkids have come and gone but needless to say, having them here was the best part of our summer! We spent time at the beach, in the backyard, having campfires almost every night, going to Seattle , picking blackberries and good stuff out of the garden, a visit with “Uncle” Ryan and of course as much Central Market Pizza and icecream as possible!

This was the best invention ever! The kids LOVED being pulled around the yard by Poppie they had a blast. Ryan would even go sit in the wagon waiting for Trent to come pull him.

Ships Ahoy to Alaska

2011-08-12T18:36:00.001-07:00

First stop was Ketchikan… Barry and Camille. Below Camille, Mom, Dianne and Linda Bears, Totem Polls, Waterfalls, lots of eagles and salmon in the river’s. This town was fun to explore and the weather was warm and beautiful. Next day the cruise ship wound through the Tracy Arm towards this huge Glacier that you can see in the photo’s below. The Glacier ahead. This was a beautiful sight! We we were there early in the morning and there was a lot of ice in the water from the Glacier some chunks were five stories high and that was just what you could see above water.

Next stop was the capitol of Alaska, Juneau. We took a bus tour out to this Mendenhall Glacier it was an amazing sight to see. We even saw a real black bear this time by a river. Below is a the Glacier and next pic is a huge glacier waterfall one can hike out to. Today we went to Skagway. It was the cutest tourist town with board walk streets and where most stores are only open during the summer for the cruise ships. We went to a museum and learned about the Klondike Gold Rush then rode this cool old rail train that went on a 3 1/2 hour adventure up the mountain to White Pass and followed part of the trail of the Gold Rush. The train ride was scenic and little scary sometimes but our favorite adventure in Alaska.

Mom and Dad boarding the big ol’ ship after our train ride. We had beautiful weather everywhere we went on this cruise and below are pictures of our last formal dinner there. The food was so good and we got spoiled real bad being waited on and NO dishes to wash!

Last stop was in Victoria Canada. We only had 4 hours here but WOW what a beautiful city. Best thing was we took the double decker bus tour around the city and bought some sweet Canadian Oreo cookies to bring home for the kids. Below is the famous Empress Hotel. Back home again on Sunday morning. So sad to say good-bye to everyone though.

Our Princess Cruise ship crossing Puget Sound a view from our back deck. Ships Ahoy Mattie!

Two Weeks of July Fun

2011-07-27T13:46:00.001-07:00

These past two weeks we had a visit from Ashlee, Oliver (2 years old) and Uly from Southern California. Uly had never been to the Pacific Northwest before and Ashlee is always happy to be home so we had some good times sightseeing, spoiling Oliver, going to the beach, eating, visiting and did I mention spoiling Oliver? Here’s some pic’s from the past two weeks:

And a Happy Birthday to Ashlee party at the beach with good friends,cake and a bonfire.

Bear Sightings and other Summer fun July 2011

2011-07-10T20:50:00.001-07:00

Indianola WA with Millington’s who came today from Boise to spend the week here in Seattle. We had such a good time together and enjoyed some very nice weather. Here’s what we’ve been up to this past week:

Today we had an adventure! We went to Sequim WA to visit the Olympic Game Farm where the animals come right up to your car as you drive thru and you give them bread. They really do put their whole heads in the window and it is a screaming good time!!

This bear was totally posing for us! We threw him extra treats!Fuzzy Bear needs a good hygienist.

This Big Fellow was as large it seemed as our our car and made us all nervous when he put his head in the car window for bread…he was huge!! A good hike down to the beach at Dungeness Spit in Sequim WA

Friday we went on an electric boat and did a two hour cruise around Lake Union in the heart of Seattle. It was something we had never done after living all these years near Seattle. We enjoyed seeing the house boats, the University of WA Orthodontic School where Trent went to school that sits on the banks of Lake Union, the float planes and boat traffic and of course the beautiful Seattle skyline. The most fun was spending it with Gayla, Lance and their family !

This is the famous “Sleepless In Seattle” house boat. And to top the day off…a beautiful sunset from the ferry window, going back to Poulsbo.

Father Love

2011-06-20T21:39:00.001-07:00

Happy Father’s Day to this Awesome Father-Husband-Dr.-Poppie! We Love you!

Here’s what’s been going on around the Rencher Farm lately: flower’s blooming, garden growing, bunnies eating the garden and a fun day trip to Fort Worden:

AND words of wisdom for the day:

Catching up…

2011-05-21T17:23:00.001-07:00

Here are a few things we have been up to lately:

We celebrated Trent’s 46th birthday on May 17th…in Idaho. We made super yummy chocolate cupcakes, he got lots of great gifts and I (Di) made Thai food for dinner.

We celebrated Mother’s Day in Idaho too. We went to Allison’s ward where they handed the Mom’s and women over 18 delish cupcakes from a cupcake store downtown Rexburg…score!!! After we spent the evening at my sister Linda’s where we had a dessert and enjoyed visiting with all the Mom’s. In the pic above: Mom, Julie, Linda, Dianne and Tyra. It was wonderful spending Mother’s Day with my own Mother, Allison and my sister’s.

We drove to Salt Lake to help Allison with her booth at the International Quilt market. Wow her booth was amazing and she did such a wonderful job of displaying a few of her quilts. It was amazing how many people came by to meet her and take pic’s with her. We were so excited that she was so well known in the quilt/fabric/pattern/world and we all had a great time. Ben and Mercedes came and helped us too and we hung out a lot at a cool hotel with an indoor swimming pool water park. Good for Allison!!

Ryan and Trent at the Easter egg hunt at Rexburg Park which lasted about 20 seconds. BenBen below got there on time with Allison, he got a bucket full of eggs and shared too!

Bear World in Ribgy was on our list to “do/see” every time we have driven by for YEARS so this weekend we finally went there. It was top notch from start to end. LOTS of bears and other amazing animals to see, petting zoo, rides at the end and places to walk around we had such a good time, everyone loved it.

There were a whole bunch of new baby bears and this cute worker let everyone pet a baby!

Who are these bears?

BenBen loved riding the cute train that went around and around in a big circle he was all smiles.

We had a big Easter egg hunt at a park in the evening…here are the “girls” Mercedes, Allison, Dianne and Ashley Baldridge

Now we are actually home ALL summer and have been out planting the garden, weeding, weeding, chasing wild bunnies out of the garden and enjoying some beautiful weather. Isn’t life just so sweet! Now can’t wait for all the kids and grandsons to come home this summer!

Mexico Sun and Fun April 2011

2011-04-27T17:58:00.001-07:00

After Ben graduated on Saturday we flew to Mexico for some fun in:

Nothing more beautiful than these Mexico sunsets….until next time!

Graduation

2011-04-10T20:13:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Ben for graduating yesterday from BYU-I!! He was pretty happy to be DONE with school at least for now. GOOD JOB!

Mom and Dad came and Dad even saw his best childhood buddy there CJ Egbert! They attended here about 62 years ago! Things have really changed at BYU-I. Especially the new BYU-I center where graduation was held. It was just finished and is just a bit smaller than the new Conference Center in Salt Lake. This was the first graduation to be held there.

Four Rencher Grandchildren graduated today, Ben, Kyle, Amber and Julie Rencher (not in picture) Grandma and Grandpa Rencher have come to many graduations over the years!

President Clark giving Ben his Diploma…

Congratulations!!

Abroad Book 2

2011-04-03T20:50:00.001-07:00

Ok peoples, we took 911 pictures….this is just really killing me to have to sort thru these pictures and choose just a few…but here goes the rest of the trip…

MORROCO

Today we got a rich cultural experience going from Spain to Tangier. We went with a Rick Steve’s recommended guide who met us at the ferry on the Africa side. He drove us around the country side where we saw the beautiful coast line, new parts with beautiful homes, new towns and a cool cave, a few camels there just for the tourists and our favorite, old town where the crazy market was. It was a world all in itself! Construction workers hauling supplies thru the crowded market streets. The Kasbah is within the Old Town and is an old fortress which is now a residential area with alley’s and interesting things to see everywhere we looked. A view from the top of the Kasbah looking out over Tangier and Morocco. Camels were along the roadside just for tourists to ride, we didn’t have time…and that was fine with us! Below is a picture from the old market which had tons of shoe places. The people wear these beautiful shoes some with ornate pointy toes!

Pretty sure that we don’t need to see any more hanging chickens….our chickens would be really offended if they knew about these. Trent and his ride. Olives and more olives of all kinds were sold at the market, we tasted several kinds they were super good. They make a flat disk shaped bread every day and they eat it for dinner, ummm wanting some right now! These women in the park are waiting for their bread to bake in a community oven. They are never seen with the men. There are never any women in any of the places to eat. Their lives are very separate.

ARCOS – SPAIN

Our tour in Morocco was 8 hours. Our ferry across to Spain was supposed to leave at 7:30 pm BUT as the guide said “It goes whenever…nobody really knows when it leaves…” so it really left 12:30 am SO we got back to Spain at 2:30 am it was a long night (oh wait it’s morning now) to our hotel in a white village inland called Arcos. We arrived at 4 am and couldn’t find our hotel which took another hour to find as we got lost in the narrow winding streets of Arcos. The streets got so narrow Craig had to get out and measure to see if the car would fit, and it did and we found the hotel and we fell into bed at 5:15 am. We woke up to discover an amazing hillside village which was a blast to explore!

Yup these are the tiny narrow streets.

SEVILLA

Our family visited Sevilla 10 years ago 2001 when Allison was studying Spanish here. We have fond memories of Sevilla as this is where she met Jay! We were so excited to be back! Entrance to the huge cathedral, third largest in the world. Beautiful inside!

It took us an hour or so to find our hotel in the old town part of Sevilla. The roads are narrow and you can’t tell where you are (unless Jay or Allison were with us..) but we finally found this Hotel which was in a cool part pretty close to the Cathedral and within walking distance of everything. Below is inside this church and below is the front of the Cathedral. A visit to the Alcazar in the afternoon and we met a big group of school girls. The below is in a room of the Royal Palace inside the Alcazar the walls and ceilings were covered with beautiful tile-work. I took tons of pictures that look like quilt patterns. The orange trees were heavy with oranges and had blossoms on them that smelled like heaven everywhere you went you could smell the orange trees. Sevilla is known for it’s oranges. We picked one and it wasn’t ripe and was bitter bitter bitter. The girls, myself, LuAnn and Connie….we had so much fun together, it was wonderful sharing it with friends/family. We climbed to the top of the bell tower over looking Sevilla. The bells rang at 4:00 they rang right over our heads, it was pretty loud but so cool!! Below is the Plaza de Espana. Not us in the boat…next time. Spanish Roses It is hard to see from this picture but all the lamp posts, railings on all the fences, etc. were all decorated with Spanish tiles and ceramics, it was really beautiful. Spanish Fans are a serious business in Sevilla. We rented this four person bike to ride around a beautiful park adjacent to the Plaza de Espana. This was such a fun day! SEGOVIA

One of the coolest things we discovered in Spain is their AVA trains. They travel 130 mph, smooth as glass, leave on time, have great seating and you get a beautiful view! We traveled from Sevilla to Madrid then the next day was our last day in Spain. We took a day trip by train again, to Segovia. This town was pretty amazing to explore. The date on a plaque on this door was 1412. This is a Roman aqueduct which was built 2,000 years ago without any mortar and still works. It carries water from the rio frio to the alcazar castle. This is the Alcazar! It was a royal palace in the middle ages then became a prison for 200years. King PhilipII and Queen Isabel lived here. This queen we learned changed her name to Queen Mercedes of Spain, after she was baptized as an adult. View from the top of the Tower. There were little towns as far as you could see and a famous convent where the Nuns make good almond cookies for tourists! We loved being in Spain. We are home safe and sound and will look forward to another trip back……someday! Now we need to stay home and plant the garden and….and…and

Abroad Book 1

2011-04-03T18:08:00.001-07:00

First: Paris! It has been 11 years since we were here and we were super excited to see this beautiful city again, especially in the spring time. We had perfect weather, got in to a lot of the sights, mastered the art of riding the subway, savored their amazing food and enjoyed the French-way. Here are some of the places we went:

The Louvre at night. Pretty awesome picture with my so so camera! We spent a long afternoon/evening here enjoying the art and checking on the Mona Lisa. She’s good, even though her painting had been moved to a larger so she is all by herself now. Below picture of two men in contemplation…

The little French town of Auriel we stayed in a few miles from the center of Paris…so French!

The Notre- Dame, we got there at 6 just in time to hear the organ play and a boys choir sing for mass, it was pretty spectacular. I can never get over how LARGE this church is! What the….who is that, some sort of bush man? The Army Museum and Crypt of Napoleon. Guy heaven with all the war memorabilia. It had war display’s up until World War 2 which was interesting being that Trent’s Dad was here serving then and participated in liberating France. Loved this museum! A must see.

The Champs de- Elysees is a fun stroll full of people watching, big stores and the best were the police were on rollerblades, sounds fun right! The Arc de Triomphe is in the back ground.

“Sup” we loved this sign in the subway because Ben and Jay always say “Sup”? As in WHATS UP!! It made us laugh every time we saw it… The Palace of Versailles was in one word: WOW and a LONG walk around the palace, garden’s and two miles thru the estate gardens was the home of Marie Antoinette. Our feet hurt by the end of this day but it was worth every second…so much awe it was hard to take in. Snack time before returning to Paris by train. We lived on French Baguettes and Nutella…

This is the Sacre’-Coeur Cathedral which is one of the most photographed images in Paris besides the Eiffel Tower. It sits way up on the highest hill overlooking the whole city of Paris. It was built as a memorial to the 58,000 French Soldiers who were killed in the war of 1870. It also has a huge famous mosaic tile of the Coming Christ in the front of the cathedral which one cannot take photo’s…except we don’t read very well and sort of took one and sort of got TOLD “no-photo’s” It was too dark in there so it didn’t turn out anyway!

MADRID

Next stop was Madrid. We loved Madrid. It has the coolest train system underground and above, has amazing art museums, palaces, people everywhere in the streets at night and the jamon hanging in all the little deli’s. The people here eat lots of aged ham/tapas/olives/bread. This was our hotel/hostel in the heart of Madrid you can see me on the balcony of the 5th floor. A Spanish family rents out 5 rooms in their apartment home it was fun seeing how they lived and Trent had fun talking to them. In the afternoon and at night the people walk the streets it is PACKED like in this photo below, this is on a Saturday night and everywhere you look the streets look like this. There are street performers everywhere.

The Manhattan side of Madrid.

MALAGA, NERJA AND RHODA SPAIN Caves in Nerja Spain on the Costa del Sol. Largest Stalactite Caves in the world.Fell in LOVE with Paella. Made over a big fire at a beachside restaurant called Ayos. Costa del Sol. We met Trent’s brother Craig and his wife and their friends Luann and Don Hunsaker in Malaga. We spent the next seven days exploring southern Spain. We made some really fun memories of getting lost, windy roads, beach towns, white villages, old towns etc.

Cathedral in Malaga.

Now we are exploring a really cool town really HIGH up in the mountains called Ronda.

This road sign was posted BIG all along the winding roads we took from Ronda to Gibraltar…pretty clear that if you are on your “bike” better watch out!!!

GIBRALTAR

We hired a guide to drive us in his van to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was the most amazing tour and the view from the top was beautiful you could see Spain, Africa and Gibraltar. Gibraltar is owned by England so it is English. We loved exploring this town and buying good English candies and chocolates at the English grocery store ! The view from the top and if you are scarred of heights, this is not the place to be! Below is a naughty little aggressive monkey who was trying to climb in Trent’s window. The monkeys were everywhere and would literally make a running leap and jump on you….Jay warned us!

Vegas Baby Baby Baby

2011-03-06T19:48:00.001-08:00

This past week we had a birthday party in Vegas with our three grandson’s. All three were born in March so we had a party for Oliver who turned 2 on March 4, Ryan who turns 1 on the 11th and Benjamin who turns 4 on the 27th. Allison flew from Idaho Falls to meet us us there with Ben and Ryan on the Allegiant airline which was a sweet and quick flight except for a 3 hour delay getting there. Ashlee and her boyfriend Uly drove to Vegas from CA with Oliver. We had a blast with everyone and the little guys had so much fun together and had some good cousin/Nan and Poppie time! Here are some pictures of our week:

We love our three handsome grandsons! Snuggling with Poppie. Oliver and Ben sorta watching something on the Disney Channel. Birthday Cake for Ryan, Ben and Oliver. Playing at the park near by. We ate at this buffet at Luxor with Ashlee, Oliver and Uly. The food was yummy and we made such a big mess you should have seen the floor when we got done!Trent’s new friend the M&M man at the M&M factory. A trip to Ben’s favorite place Chuck E Cheese!

Funnel water display in the center of the mall at City Center. This was really fun for the little guys to play and watch the water swirl up and down. HUGE Golden bunny inside new City Center Mall called Ariel. Chinese Display at Atrium Gardens “year of the rabbit” display’s Belliago. Favorite place for Ryan to be, he was smiling ear to ear when he was on Poppie’s shoulders.Favorite fountain show at Belliago! Atrium Gardens inside Belliago

Costa Rica 2011

2011-02-09T17:58:00.001-08:00

First day hike to the Poas Volcano. It was foggy so we couldn’t see into the crater but a cool hike. We stopped at a fun tour of a coffee plantation on our way back…someone worked there that sort of looked like Trent…..

Cheap transportation and safe too?

Banana Plantation. It was really cool to see how bananas arrive at our Central Market .

We got to our lodge in the Tortuguero National Park by boat, it was a 2 hr. boat ride up river and we had a wonderful time at this resort deep in the Rain Forest. We didn’t get rained on which was actually quite unusual in this part of the world.

Yup… it was a blast zip-lining thru the jungle with monkeys everywhere…it was unreal!!

A quick stop in Nicaragua just for pictures, on our river cruise.

The rain forests were full of unusually large trees, flower’s and we saw lots of birds & critters

Trent, Lance and Troy found a ‘Nachoooooooooooo cart” sitting in front of an Immigration office and were about to take it for a spin until a truck full of police officer’s pulled up and gave them a “don’t even think about it” sort of look.

Suspension bridges in the rain forest.

This bug was as long as Trent’s hand and was luckily outside our hotel room in the hallway and not INSIDE my room….

Don’t touch the wires…… Being with friends and family was the best part!

We spent a few days on the Pacific coast, it was beautiful.

The blue butterfly is a symbol of Costa Rica and if you see one in the rain forest it is supposed to bring you good luck!

Waiting for the bus downtown San Jose…looks like a long wait.

Lance and Laura

Troy and Kristi

Christmas 2010

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Snow, snuggling with grandsons, sugar cookies, sub zero temperatures, snapping photo’s, and lots of smiles! We loved Christmas!!

A Lot Like Christmas…

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It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here…

Ashlee and Silas October Visit

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Little man Silas Oliver 19 months old is usually smiling and laughs at anything…adorable!!

Silas and Jack went for lots and lots of wagon rides!

Silas wanted to do all the cooking….and re-arranged my kitchen to make it more efficient.

We loved having Ashlee home!!!

Nan and the little man in the garden.

Gathering the eggs… Doin’ the chores…we got our first green egg today too!

Silas loved loved loved riding the little green tractor and the only time we saw him “mad” was when he had to come inside….not so happy about that! Little piano player! He loved all the sounds especially the low key’s…so cute!! Not so helpful helping Momma Ashlee sew…. Superman eating his waffles. I can drive this thing and beep the horn at the same time….

Idaho!! October 2010

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This little guy learned how to crawl and sit up so good while we were there!! This little guy loved all the pumpkins we took to them from our garden!

This little guy loves Daddy kisses. These handsome guys are digging potatoes at the Farm in Ashton This super sweet Allison is cooking scones/dutch oven potatoes etc. etc. so yummy!! These three boy’s are waiting for dinner….These two chicas are thinking how good the scones were with honey butter! This swing is being enjoyed by Mercedes…the fields all around are being harvested now. This picture and the following are taken at a cool park in Rexburg where you can feed the ducks and walk on trails, fish, ride bikes, etc. we loved spending some time there! How cute is this picture!!!

We went to a beautiful wedding of Jeff and Mikeala Rencher in the Twin Falls Temple. It was such fun to see so much of our family! Below are Trent and his Dad and brother’s

The Happy Couple! Trent’s Mom Louise, Trent, Ryan and Dianne Wait…one more picture…he isn’t really posing is he?

That Harvest Time of Year!!

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Pumpkin head

Today we harvested some of the pumpkins…favorite time of year!!!

We planted “rainbow” carrots and this is how they turned out…red, yellow, white, and orange

And a special thanks today to our 10 hens who lay a LOT of eggs!

Farmer Trent picked buckets and buckets of sweet corn today too.And raspberries still need to be picked…hey where are the kids when we need them?

Happy Fall 2010!

September Blessings

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Flower’s from the garden

Ryan enjoying his first corn cob…he got real mad when we took it away…

Having our grandson’s Benjamin and Ryan here for two weeks.

The ferry ride to Seattle as Allison started her long drive home to Idaho. Jay met her in Boise (Happy Birthday Jay). We miss everyone already!!

Just a few more hugs and kisses…

The same day Allison left we flew to Oakland CA for Kyle Rencher and Amber’s wedding in the Oakland temple. We went downtown San Francisco one afternoon and had a blast exploring China Town and shopping of course. The wedding was beautiful, a perfect day. Congratulations to Kyle and Amber!

Kyle and Amber Rencher (who’s the happy guy on the left?)

Summer Visitor’s…

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Our nieces Tyra Peterson and Alexis Millington came to stay with us for a week in August. We had the best time, laughed a LOT and had a blast going to the beaches…shopping, downtown Poulsbo, Seattle, Aquarium, Mariner’s Game etc. etc. Here is a snapshot of our time together…

Lexi on the left, Tyra on the right

Until next time…

AND

Allison, Benjamin and Ryan came to visit August 17 and we LOVE having them here and playing with the sweet grandson’s!! Here’s what we’ve been up to…

And Friday we had Julie and Hal and Tyra, Mike, Melissa, Drake, Madeline and Cache come to Seattle. We all went to the Mariner’s game Friday night then yesterday Saturday we enjoyed visiting, going downtown Poulsbo for doughnuts, the beach and cut massive amounts of beautiful hydrangeas for Julie and Melissa to take home and dry.

Having family come visit is the BEST!! Miss you guys already!

MercedesBens Open house in Ohio 7/31/10

2010-08-06T19:36:00.001-07:00

The evening started with a carriage ride drawn by four Belgium horses.

The dinner/reception was held under a big tent in the yard, it was perfect weather and everything was beautiful!

Mercedes sister Lori made all the sweets including these beautiful cupcakes, she even made the daisy flower’s on top and they tasted so good everyone had one in each hand!!

Nieces

Sister’s: Mercedes, Rebecca, Josie, Julie and Lori (one missing Rita who couldn’t be there) We love this family!

Wedding day picture displayed at reception along with other’s.

Party boy…

Mother of the groom and the lucky new mother-in-law

Mercedes family live in this beautiful historical home in Findlay, Ohio. We loved spending time with their family this past weekend and getting to know them better! We were amazed how many connections we have and mutual people we know which is amazing since we are from here and they are from Michigan and more recently Ohio.

The happy couple! Congratulations again!!

Celebrations!!

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Mercedes graduated from BYU-I on the 23rd of July…way to go!!

Celebrating Ben’s 23rd birthday on July 22nd at a pancake restaurant, yum

We celebrated at a local park with a big fire, a game of Frisbee and a hot dog roast, a skunk even visited nearby but we were quiet not to disturb him as he made his way around the park.

Hanging out with the grandson’s is the best!

We spent an afternoon at the beautiful farm in Ashton. Allison and Ryan are trying out the new swing.

Ryan is such a happy little guy, we had lots of fun with him. He’s 4 months old already!

Biker boy’s. Rexburg has lots of nice parks, bike trails, etc. We loved re-discovering it this summer.

We took a quick trip down to Salt Lake to donate a Tahitian quilt that we had been given a few years ago by Trent’s mother. Trent’s grandmother brought it home from Tahiti in 1935 after Trent’s grandfather was Mission President there. It had been basted only and never finished. I sent it to Hawaii to the Cultural Center where the sister missionaries finished it by hand. It has amazing missionary history on both sides of our family and we were thrilled to have it finished and donated to the Church History Library in Salt Lake where it will be displayed. The pictures below show the quilt with Trent’s parents before we took it down to Salt Lake. It is beautiful!!

July 26, 2010

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Happy 25th Birthday to our beautiful Ashlee!! Today was a very happy day 25 years ago when she was born!

Father’s Day

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SUNRISE at 4 ;45 am

Happy Father’s Day spent with Trent’s Dad, Lance and Tyler and Trent of course!

Louise, Tamla, Benjamin Jay and Trent

Grandpa is trying on his new Father’s Day gloves and you’ll see in the back the rose bush clippings he got from our yard and Lance and Laura’s, so he can take them back to Idaho to grow them, he is a wonderful gardener and loves his flower’s.

Jack and Grandpa Rencher were best buddies!

Trent getting ready to leave for our Youth Trek at 5 am on the 23rd. He survived and loved it and the youth had a great experience! A warm shower and a comfy bed never felt so good when he got home too!

Hawaii 2010

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Trent choosing his surf board…on Waikiki

Trent dreaming this was him…

King Kamahama statue on Waikiki Beach, everyone throws their flower Lei’s on his arms.

This is a 1957 CHEVY in Honolulu, my parents had one of these when I was born…yes I was born in 1957 (what a year!!)

So I was very happy to find this coconut icecream bar which is from MEXICO, at my favorite little store in Hanalaie, Kauai

Here….

Exploring

Beaching it…

So many beautiful waterfalls….

The Waialulu Lighthouse in Kauai, largest “light” inside in the world.

Wind- in- our- hair- picture- eating lunch with some friends on the Air force base in Honolulu

Favorite road in Kauai called Tree Tunnel Road, it is beautiful!!

Hide and seek

Hiking out to a place called Queen’s Bath in Kauai you can see the pool below.

Plumeria

Sunset at Princeville . Aloha from Hawaii!

What the . . .

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After spending a month with Nan and Poppy, what do you mean we are going back to Ohio??

Who will hold me 24/7?

Nooooooooooooo, you need to hold me all the time!!

May 17, 2010 Happy Birthday Trent!

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Trent is:

Farmer Trent getting his garden ready…. with his little helper….

Father of the Groom!

Dad and Poppy

Best Husband Ever!

Best of the best-baby holder!

Happy Birthday From Ryan, Benjamin Jay, Allison, Jay, Ashlee, Silas, Ben and Mercedes, Jack and Dianne, WE LOVE YOU!!

Chicks and Babies….ahh…Life is so good!

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These new chicks are Americana’s and will lay (eventually) green and blue eggs.

Benjamin is our little farmer boy, loves all the animals and takes care of the chicks.

Baby Ryan is already 7 weeks old! He is getting chubby and sure is sweet!! He gets lots of kisses…

We loved having baby Silas here a few weeks ago! He is already ONE and such a happy guy!

More wedding pictures taken by our friend David Fox 4/10/10

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Mercedes and Mom

Wedding Bliss 4/10/10 Ben + Mercedes Rencher

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Here comes the bride…

Julie Rencher caught the bouquet…

Ben hanging out while the photographer was taking pictures before the reception.

Handsome

Opening presents, starting new…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR ALLISON TODAY!!! April 2, 2010

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WE LOVE YOU LOTS!!

Welcome baby Ryan Trent Harris on March 11, 2010!!

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Today Ryan is 4 day’s old, 0 weeks!!

Nan and Ryan when he first came home on Saturday.

Note: This little baby doesn’t take up much room in this car seat….

We waited at a local park while Allison was in the hospital. This is Ben’s favorite of all time things to do, slosh in the water and throw rocks and sticks. He is a blast to play with!!

Allison and Jay live less than a half hour from Kirtland, Ohio. So yesterday while everyone napped, we drove to Kirtland and took the temple tour. We loved learning about the early Saints here in this area. The temple is still used for a variety of venue’s and has been restored beautifully.

Signs of Spring from our House…

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Our Weeping Cherry Tree is in bloom…

Fresh cut daffodils from the yard…

Sailboats out on the water today…

Making wedding pom-pom’s for Ben and Mercedes wedding reception…just around the corner now, April 10th!

Trent mowed the lawn today for the first time this year…

And Jack got a spring-trim so now he looks like a “new-puppy” again.

Happy First Birthday to Silas Oliver!!!! March 4, 2010

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We love you!!

Mexico Feb.2010 Puerto Vallarta

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Sunsets

Sister’s

Shopping Sand

Singing sombrero's

Sweets

Sweethearts in dorkshorts

Super Nacho000000000’sSmiling senora’s

Saying goodbye…

The End

Dianne’s new trick

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We often encounter a problem with our amorlesis falling over when they get tall. Dianne came up with this ingenius idea to keep the from doing so. She used clear tape on the top of the container which still allows her to water them too!

Happy 2010!!

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Happy 2010 to you!!!

Here are a few of our favorite memories of Christmas this year…

Santa LOVE

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Silas LOVED Santa!

Ben tells Santa exactly what he wants for Christmas (remote control car)

Ben, Santa, Silas and Ashlee at the Port Gamble Country Christmas Festival

Hayride around Port Gamble.

Dear Santa: Trent has been a good boy (mostly) and wants a shiny orange tractor, just like this….

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Happy Holiday’s

Our annual Christmas tree hunt! There were lots of beautiful trees this year. Once we got everyone to “agree” we were on our way home to decorate!

The amazing tree-cutter!

This is it!

Benjamin and Allison Baldridge having lots of fun tree hunting!

Yes, that is a the tree saw, our sweet friend (we think) Charley is holding behind Ben’s head. Ben and Mercedes = Cute

This is the tree farm in Seabeck we cut our tree at this year.

Someone in this picture is on the NAUGHTY LIST…..

Benjamin and Benjamin

Our annual Turkey Shoot on Thanksgiving Day was a big success. We have some awesome shooter’s in this family.

Allison working on a little baby quilt for her new son and Jack is supervising.

Happy Birthday Dianne, Allison made this really really good pumpkin Cheesecake , it was gone in 2 day’s!

The farmer’s finishing up their last minute outside chores before winter sets in.

Oh How We Love Fall…

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Farmer Trent with his prized pumpkins!

Bringing up the pumpkins from the garden with the little BenBen supervising.

Yes, these giant potato’s grew in our garden, they are like Ashton potato’s, we couldn’t believe how big they were when we dug them up!!

Best buddies…

Trent and I took a wonderful trip to Zion’s National Park a few weeks ago, it was beautiful!!

Ok, I give up…I can’t climb any more of these cliffs!

The famous Zion’s Arch. It is huge!

The highlight of our trip was going to the finish line of the St. George marathon to see my awesome brother Dr. Barry finish, and look he’s still smiling! This is his family, Camille, Grant, Emmie, Clara, Benjamin and Neal.

And…instead of running the marathon, we

ran over to In-N-Out Burger for some GREAT burger’s! They are simply the best!

Now that is one happy customer!

Sleeping on the Job…

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Trent and BenBen were mowing the lawn and look who fell asleep!

Our chicken’s are laying eggs again! So every morning BenBen and Trent, go down to the chicken coop in their jammies and boots to check for eggs at 7:30 am, he is really good at getting eggs. We like the green ones best, they match my family room wall perfect.

Somewhere over the rainbow,…in our back yard we were treated to this beautiful picture.

Yes, this is the biggest carrot we have ever grown or seen!

Dinner?

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The last bits of summer…

Yes, we camped in the pouring rain over the weekend, but besides being wet, we had lots of fun! Here is BenBen and I early one morning taking a walk.

The dog has the good-life part all figured out!

Dutch oven king of the world. (Inside: Dutch oven lasagna and a carmel apple cobbler that smelled like heaven and tasted as good)

We froze the last of our corn (almost the last) the other day, this little guy LOVES fresh corn and wants it for every meal.

My hired tree cutting mountain men. They cut down some big tree’s to clear this view below. It’s a good thing I couldn’t see Ben hanging in a tree cutting with this chain saw!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAY MICHAEL HARRIS ON THE 6TH!! BenBen decorated his cake with mega tall candles and mega huge cheese ball cheeto’s. Yummy combination!

Look who’s the Best in the West

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This is an insert of the local paper on who’s the best in Kitsap County (where we live)

Even though I retired a year ago, I’m still voted the Best Orthodontist in Kitsap County! Yea!

Simply the Best!!

Jamming with my sister and other fun stuff

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This week we had visitor’s! My sister Julie, Hal and Tyra Peterson came from Idaho Falls. We had a wonderful time with them. We went to two Mariner’s games, to Seattle a couple times, to beaches, picked wild black berries and made jam, ate doughnuts downtown Poulsbo at Sly’s bakery and visited Port Gamble. The time went too fast though, we miss them!

Shipmate Benjamin Jay on his way to the Seattle Aquarium, and below, riding with Uncle Ben and helping Poppy feed the chicken’s in jammies and boots.

A sink full of flower’s from the garden.

Ben and Mercedes on the famous Merry Go Round on the Pier.

Tyra on our way home from visiting Pikes Place Market, the Aquarium, downtown Seattle.

Hal picking these (below), Julie picking flower’s.

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A week of pure summer heaven!!

Oregon Coast, Benjamin taking Jack for a beach stroll.

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach

Chillin’ at Oswald State Park, Ben loved throwing rocks in the ocean.

Celebrating Ben’s 22nd birthday, and…

celebrating Ashlee’s 24th birthday (equal’s more yummy cake)

Cousin’s Benjamin and Silas getting to know each other.

Benjamin loves picking blackberries, he call’s them blueberries. He loves eating them more.

Today was a record breaking day of heat in Seattle, it hit 103! So we spent lots of time at the beach by our house.

Silas Oliver loving the beach! He is the most smiley baby!

The boy’s are back in town, and we love having them here for the summer!!

Snuggle time at the beach with Ashlee and Silas.

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Happy 24th Birthday to our Ashlee today on July 26th!

We LOVE you!!

Momma Ashlee with Silas and David, at Amy’s wedding June 20th.

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HAPPY 22 TODAY ON JULY 22nd, TO THIS

HANDSOME GUY! You are awesome!

Why we love Idaho….

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This morning I am taking a walk down the QUIET road beside the “farm”. The Teton mountain’s in the background are a WOW this time of year with the green fields in front of them! We never get tired of this beautiful view!!

Zooming in on the mountain’s from the lawn at the house. My brother Dan, climbed the Grand Teton several years ago…I always think of that when I see the Teton’s. For those of us who have climbed to “Table Rock” there is a good view of that to the right of the Grand Teton.

Trent and my Dad pulled this wagon out of the barn in back, this is the last flat bed wagon of it’s kind sold in Fremont County. It should be in a parade or something!

The Poppies and Peonies were spectacular this time of year.

Ben and his friend Ryan from Bainbridge Island, taking a 4-wheelin’’ adventure ride thru the fields and down to the river one evening.

Mom and I had such fun in her sewing room at the farm. She made her first rag quilt (above), a 9 –patch table runner and a flannel receiving blanket. It is always fun to sew with her and visit, I wish I could have stayed longer especially since we found a great new quilt store in Rexburg called Quilted Hearts. We were in there for an hour dreaming up projects, the fabric’s and crafts were really fun.

Mom and Dad swinging in the new love-seat Dad made. It sits in the front yard with an amazing view of the Teton’s and fields around. A perfect spot to sit with your honey and snuggle and take in the peace and quiet.

We got to celebrate Father’s Day with Grandpa Rencher, Grandpa Hillam, Trent and David. This is a four generation’s picture with David Newton (Ashlee’s boyfriend), baby Silas Oliver, Trent and his Dad. And of course Grandma. Sure was great seeing everyone! Happy first Father’s Day to David!! Silas is a cutie and such a good baby! We celebrated the wedding of our niece Amy Dance, to Skyler Young on June 20th in Blackfoot. Congratulation’s to the beautiful couple! My sister Linda, (mother of the bride), myself, my sister Gayla, brother Randy, and sister Julie. It was such fun spending the evening together. Randy and Gayla sang a beautiful song at the wedding. Ben accompanied them on his guitar.

Ben and Mercedes Eating the good eat’s in the kitchen, the food was so good, especially the brownies and chocolate covered strawberries, the salads, more cookies, chocolate everything…. Trent and Silas at a party for Amy and Skyler before the wedding. Trent’s Dad used to have a truck like this that he drove when he worked in Yellowstone when Trent was a boy. So this restored version was pretty cool. We had a great two weeks in Idaho, it is always a wonderful vacation to see so much family and re-visit places we love there.

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10 years ago, Trent’s Dad helped transplant this rose bush from our last home in Poulsbo. He started it from a small clipping and now it is beautiful! It is a tiger rose (Grandpa Rencher and I made up that name because we can’t remember what it is really called). But it is a very unusual rose because he is a huge rose gardener person and has never seen one or heard of this rose since. So it is a treasure to us, and every year at this time when it blooms, it reminds us of Grandpa Rencher and the love and patience it took to grow this rose! Best part is that it’s a climber and so the deer can’t reach it!!

The first of the garden “goodies” and man are they good, dirt and all! Oh and by the way, we have had a record 29 days of warm sunny day’s with NO rain, it’s been the most beautiful spring on record. We have been loving every minute of it!

This is what “the boss” and our good friend Mitch Davis have been doing, 10-12 hours a day!! Our house next door is ALMOST done, and looking beautiful. I’ll include more pictures soon. Know anyone who is looking for a new home, nice view, and great neighbors?

Our Stake RS organized a Humanitarian Day last week called “A Thousand Threads of Love” which included gathering new quilts for the “Linus Project” who give them to sick children and teenagers in the hospitals. We had over 230 beautiful quilts donated that day. This is my friend Suzanne and I sewing tags on the donated quilts that day, we had stacks and stacks of quilts. It was the most fun project! Especially since I LOVE quilts and making them

. We also made hat’s and scarves for “Stand up for Kids” a county organization who gives them to teenagers at Christmas time, we had SO many donated and made lots more that day. This is our Stake RS Presidency, me, April Dever in the middle and Valerie Johnson who is our President. We had lots of fun trying on the hats and scarves! We also made over a 1000 art kits and 75 scrub tops for an orphanage in Ethopia. We had over 150 women working for 3 hours making projects, it was an amazing day. There are sure a lot of good women in this church!! You go girls!! And, you’d think I would have been “sewn-out” with the project above…but NO. I bought this old feed sack from an antique store in Millersville Ohio last Oct. when we were visiting Amish country with Allison and Jay. I had been thinking about what to do with it, so I had the idea to cut it open on one side and the bottom and make myself a little apron. Wallllllllla, I use a lot of apron’s, seems someone is messy when they cook!

Man and man’s fuzzy best friend. Jack has been supervising the house project, sitting patiently in the shade watching all of us work. He must think we are crazy! And we think he has the “good life”.

Visiting Ben’s mission in Mexico, Feb. 2009

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In February, we visited Ben’s mission! It was an awesome trip, we loved every minute of it. We loved the people, food, beautiful small town’s and the cities. We especially loved meeting all the people he knew and loved. It was the trip of a life time. I have been wanting to post this before now, but everything got in the way. So, a few months later, here we go….

Mexico City with Elder Reyes, his sister and her friend. We loved exploring the historical district and the city is the 2nd largest in the world over 20 million, so obviously we only got a sneak peak. We were thankful for our guides, Elder Reyes was lots of fun, he lives here.

Trent and Ben eating the best food in the “whole world”, Taco’s el pastor! They both ate 10 taco’s and man, we wish they made these in the states. Good reason to go back to Mexico!

Driving was an absolute nightmare! We had a map (sort of) and it took us 3 hours to find our hotel the first night. Ben was map boy, he and Trent were amazing figuring out the streets and turns we were supposed to be on. It took 3 hours to find the airport going back too, we finally just followed the airplane’s in the sky to where they were landing…

Today we climbed this! This is Tiotihuacan, third largest pyramid in the world. This place was amazing, and quite a view from the top. This is the pyramid of the sun.

Church in Ben’s favorite town of Cocoyoc. The people were so excited to see him.

Chicken Dinner anyone?

The cactus fields around the town of Chuautla, a beautiful mountainous area that we loved exploring on Sunday afternoon, the mountains were huge and it was so green.

This is a street in the very small town of Cocoyoc. The kids are just getting out of school. We picked up Jarsson from school and went to his house where we ate lunch. This family is one of Ben’s favorite’s and they fed the Elder’s all the time. Ben and his companion lived one street over from this one.

Jarsson and Naomi Razo. They LOVED Ben, and were so excited to see him!!!

This is Heidi, their Mom, who is an amazing cook in her little one stove, one shelf kitchen. I don’t know how she does it, but she made us the best soup and fried taco’s ever. She was a sweetheart. They were really sad when we left.

Above the town of Tepoztlan where they were having a huge festival. The surrounding area was beautiful steep mountains, we loved exploring this town. Below is a cathedral at night in the town of Cuautla. Walking around the town’s at night was our favorite because it was warm and the street market’s were incredible.

This is Felix and his family who met us in Cuernavaca. Ben baptized Felix first and now his whole family has joined the church. It has been really sweet to see the change the gospel brought to this family, they are so happy now. It was great to meet them after hearing their story and knowing how much they loved Ben.

We had dinner in Cuernavaca one evening with President Gardner and his wife Theresa. It was amazing to meet them and get a glimpse into the mission life of a President and to see the love and respect he had for Elder Rencher. We loved the stories they shared.

Today we drove from Cuernavaca to Acapulco, a 3-4 hour drive on the most beautiful toll freeway. It was really cool to see all the little town’s along the way. We were excited to get to Ben’s last area, Acapulco. Below is the sunset that first night.

Overlooking Ben’s area he served in in Acapulco. It was SO hot here, in the 90’s and 99% humidity, it was scorching, but beautiful. The ocean was warm and we swam in it and enjoyed exploring the area’s he served and the costal area. We were especially glad when Ben showed us where there was a new Costco so we could have some PIZZA!!!

This is the Esparza family who live in Acapulco. The Mommita was the one who cooked for the Elder’s and she has since opened this little restaurant on the street up in the hills from the beach. They were SO happy to see Ben, now that they could finally hug him, they all hugged him forever, it was so sweet to see the love in this humble family. Ben baptized the sister Ceci in the ocean when he served here. Yuan on the end (left) is on a mission now in the Yucatan.

Elana (the Mommita) and Brenda, her daughter making us some really good lunch. Chili rellano, and tostada’s. They were incredible people and we will never forget the kindness they showed to Ben and his companion while they served there. I wish we could have brought them all home with us!!

Amor, from Mexico!!

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Happy Birthday today to our Trent, Dad, Poppie, We LOVE you!!!

Someone is so lucky, to get an I-pod touch….let’s see how lucky I will be to use it too!!