Alcatraz

We went to Alcatraz Island on May 18th. We had a good time, even though San Francisco was freezing!  I had on about 6 layers, including a winter scarf.  Amazing how the humidity can make it so cold.  But we went with some great senior couples who are really fun to be with.  We are all about the same age (well, ranging from 80 to 60) and the guys like to kid each other a lot, which makes for some pretty fun times.  We ate fish and chips on Pier 39 after, and made it back to San Jose before the bad traffic hit.  Here we are before our ship sailed, and the rest are of the prison.

This last one is the view of San Francisco from the island.  It's breathtaking on a cloudy day; can't imagine how beautiful it would be on a sunny day.

We had a busy few days then got to see Paul and Lin in Hayward.  They had an open house where they invited a lot of people over for a Korean Barbeque.  Lin is a wonderful cook, and we had great food.  You can see the new wood floor they had installed.  They practically gutted the home they bought; took out a wall and the carpet; had the fireplace re-surfaced, painted it all, inside and out, and replaced all the bathroom showers, cabinets, toilets, floors.  The only thing they couldn't afford to do right now is the kitchen, but are planning on doing that later.  It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath place, about 30 years old, and cost them 450,000.  No basement, and a very small yard.  But that's the Bay area for you!   This is Paul with a cousin on Lin's and a view of the inside from the patio door.

Then yesterday was the MSA Memorial Day barbeque.  It was great!  Dad and I helped fix the food, and got to talk to lots of people we had never met before.  They think about 150 people came, which is about a third more than last year.  It was a great success.  My phone didn't sync the pictures from that, so I am going to go out and go back in and see if I can post some of them.

It was cold, so not a lot of swimmers. That's Dad on the left in his apron!

 

The middle one is of Eric, one of our sweet MSA brothers, with a bunch of Spanish speaking ladies.  He was having a great time!

Well, time to get to work.  Hope all of you had a good Memorial Day weekend, and that you are enjoying life!  Love you all so much.

Keeping busy

I can't believe its been almost 3 weeks since I posted last.  Time is really flying by.  We have been keeping busy.  On May 2nd I attended a Relief Society Women's Conference where the theme was "Look up, Step up".  They talked about how to keep focused on serving the Lord and being the best you can be.  The luncheon theme went along with that, using shoes (step up) as décor and dessert.  One lady in the Stake made a cake for each table with a pair of high heels (made of sugar) in the center:

Isn't that amazing?  The boxes on the table contained cupcakes decorated as shoes also.  She and her daughter made them all.  It was a fun day.

We prepared and served lunch to the mission leadership council, which consists of Zone leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders.  We made pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and a fruit tray, served with chips and homemade cookies.  Dad and I have been on a diet (we both have gained weight on our mission), and we haven't had any sugar for 3 weeks.  So then I go and make cookies!  Yikes!  What was I thinking?  I can't resist my cookies, let alone the dough.  I made Snickerdoodles and Parfait (of which I ate WAY too much dough), and Dad said that wasn't enough cookies, so I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, but I didn't have enough chocolate chips, so added white yogurt chips also.  Holy cow, were they good!  So we fell off the wagon and are still trying to get back on.  Here are some of the Sisters that come to the training

We're getting pretty good at feeding 50-60 people!

Saturday was the baptism of the son of one of our mid-singles.  He is such a cute boy.  He wanted his mom to make special cupcakes to serve for refreshments, so she and a lady in the ward made some that looked like an ice cream soda

They were incredible.  They had injected them with a jelly filling.  Dad and I succumbed, so now we are going to have to double our efforts to get back on our sugar smart diet!

Mother's Day was great.  It was so fun to receive a package and cards.  Knowing you were all thinking of me made it a great day, and it was wonderful to talk to you as well.  Here I am modeling my new scarfs and purse.

They were prefect!  Plus I get to pick my own present from Amazon.  Thank you so much for being such wonderful daughters.  I love you all so much.

We are trying hard to stay busy and not dwell on the fact that we are winding down.  We have lots planned for the next few months, so that's good.  We are staying healthy, and enjoying the perfect weather.  Hope spring and warm weather comes for all of you soon. 

I know this is a busy time for everyone with kids in school, what with last minute projects, concerts and make-up work, but hope you get a minute to say hi. Kiss your families for us and tell them we love them all.

Baby geese

The geese are back!  I have been looking for new babies for several weeks, and finally saw them today.  They must be only a few days old, as I have seen the parents around for awhile but no babies. 

Aren't they cute?  I stood and watched as they crossed the road from one side of our complex to the other (a very busy road), and held my breath.  But everyone stopped and watched, as fascinated as I was. 

We have been keeping busy.  We got re-acquainted with a sister we had met about 6 months ago, Brynne.  She is not a member but wants to be.  The problem is, she is on probation, and is an addict.  We started working with her the first time, and then she disappeared; ended up back in rehab.  So she's out again, and we aren't going to teach her missionary lessons.  We will leave that to the younger missionaries to do in 8 or 9 months when she is off probation.  She can't be baptized until then anyway, so we are doing the 12 steps with her.  She also has schizo-affective disorder, which is schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder combined.  Sounds scary, but we find a lot of common ground with her.  Everything we learned from our 3 years as addiction recovery missionaries is coming back to us, and we took her to a recovery meeting up by Stanford Tuesday night.  They only hold 2 such meetings in all of San Jose, so they aren't convenient, but it was sure a good meeting.  Walking into it was like coming home.  We felt God's love there, as we did in the jail and prison all those years ago.  We are very happy to be able to get to know Brynne and hope we can help her.

The ward keeps adding more people to our list of those to teach the Temple Preparation lessons to; we are up to 5.  Its great, but the problem is that we are teaching them on a one-on-one basis.  There aren't enough free evenings for us in the week to teach that many, plus see Brynne, but we are making it work.  It's wonderful to feel so needed!  It will help our last 5 months go by even quicker. 

We continue to enjoy our work, and love the people.  We are learning so much about ourselves, and growing in many ways.  We sure appreciate the love and support from our family.  We hope you are all doing well.  October will be here before you know it!  Thanks for the cute message on Facebook, Megan!

At the Institute dinner last night, the sister missionaries asked if they could sing for us.  One of them is from Tonga, and the other from China. They performed a beautiful Tongan number for us, where they harmonized.  It was amazing!

What sweet ladies!  They work with the young single adults that come to the Institute, so they come and help with the dinner as well.  We had about 130 there last night, as it was a special dinner where they invited the high school seniors to come and check out the Center for Young Adults, attend the dinner and a class.  Everyone was thrilled that so many showed up. 

We went to our favorite beach again on Monday, and took another senior couple, the Nelsons.  It was freezing!  Foggy, windy, cold.  There was a poor little bird that was injured on the beach, and couldn't walk or fly. 

I don't suppose he survived much longer.  The beach was littered with dead jelly fish.  Strange - don't know if it happens every year or what.  Plus there weren't any sand dollars - I spent hours looking!  I guess everything has its season.

We have a service project coming up on Saturday, where we help clean up the West Valley College grounds.  It was the first thing we did last year just after we got here.  Hard to believe its been a whole year!

Well, better get busy.  Hope to hear from you all.  Love you lots.

 

Happy Easter

Easter, Conference weekend, spring.  Three of my favorite things.  We have been busy, busy, busy.  After the General Women's Meeting last Saturday, I got invited to go out to dinner with some of the MSA sisters to celebrate one of their birthdays.  We went to an upscale Mexican Restaurant and had a great meal.

Two token old ladies with 4 mid singles.  It was Claudia's birthday, the sister in black on the left.
It was so nice to be invited along.  They are such sweet sisters.

Sunday we had a fireside where 4 people who were converts from other countries spoke.  It was a good evening to a busy Sunday, where we attended lots of meetings!  Go, go, go.

Monday 4 Senior missionary couples drove up to Muir Woods.  We had a great time.  Its not too bad a drive, and the weather was perfect.

Aren't they amazing trees?  Some of the oldest and tallest trees in the world!
There were a ton of people there.  We got there early so had a good parking place, but when we went back to the van to eat lunch, cars were just streaming in, all trying to find a parking place.  We were going to just sit in the car and eat our lunch, but a lady (?) came up to us and asked if we were leaving.  We told her that we were going to eat our lunch first.  She said, "Really?  With all these people looking for a parking place,  you're going to just sit here and eat?"  Dad said, yes, we are!  She argued a bit more and then stomped off!  So we got in the car, and one of the other guys said he thought we should just go, so we did.  We drove a couple of miles down the road and pulled off to eat.  I guess it was the right thing to do, but can you believe the nerve of some people?

On Tuesday we took the young Elders out to dinner at a place called Harry's Haufbrau.  They serve pretty standard American fare, with lots of choices of meats, with mashed potatoes and gravy and salads, veggies, etc.  One of the Elders is from the Philippines, and had never had turkey. So he decided to try it, with stuffing and all.  He loved it!  He scarfed down a huge plate full in 10 minutes!  He's just a little guy, but said he has gained 13 pounds since he got here (2 months ago)!  I told him they are going to have to roll him home!

Then Wednesday we took them up to the Temple for the Zone Temple Day.  Again, a beautiful day, and we fed them lunch.  He ate it all up!  We then helped at the Institute dinner again; always fun.

Yesterday we shopped for the mission leadership luncheon we do once a month.  Had to go to 4 stores to get all we needed.  There is no such thing as convenient shopping here.  Then we taught Temple Prep to a Saratoga Mid Single sister.  She is so sweet, and is getting excited about going to the Temple in the near future.  It's such a privilege to teach those lessons, and then get to go with them to the temple.

And today was the luncheon.  We served taco salad.  They loved it, but you should see how high they pile the food on their plates!  We ran out of taco meat.  We bought enough for 80, and only served 55, but they like their meat!  We'll just get more for the next one, I guess.  We're thinking about pulled pork sandwiches.  Sounds yummy, huh?  It's fun to fix the lunch for them, and they are always so appreciative.  What great people we work with! The new couple, the Nelsons, helped us, and she made the best salsas.  One with tomatoes and the other with corn and beans.  I'll get the recipes for sure.  I'm going to be good at fixing meals for lots of people, so I guess we'll have to have everyone over when we get back.

These are all the Zone leaders, and Sister Trainer Leaders in the mission.  A great looking bunch of young people, huh?

Tomorrow and Sunday we go to the stake center to watch conference, and keep a watch out for Amy.  Can't wait!  Hope you all get to enjoy the meetings as well, and that all is well with you.  We love and miss you tons!

Marching into April....

Has this month gone fast or what?  Seems like T was just here, and it's been 3 weeks.  April is in a week.  Where does the time go?  Hope the weather where you are is warm and sunny. 

We had a chance to attend a Stake Cultural Event last week, where the youth performed.  The program was called, "We are that we might have JOY".  They took 8 or 10 things that brought them joy and performed musical numbers and dances to fit that subject.  It was amazing.  Each number had elaborate costumes, talented singers and kids who were not afraid to dress up and show off!  The Los Altos Stake does this every 3 years, in place of the old time Road Shows (remember them?!) They decided they shouldn't be competing to see who was "best", but just have a great time showcasing their talents.  There were over 200 kids who participated.  They performed over 3 nights, with a matinee on Saturday.  It was really something.

 Christmas

 Sleep

 This orchestra performed the theme from Star Wars with the director dressed as Darth Vader and the kids in other Star Wars costumes.

 The "hippie" piece

 Travel and adventure

Such a fun event.

On Monday we went to the mid-single FHE, where they talked about the 5 languages of love.  It was very well attended (about 37 people), and they had a good time learning how to both express love for others and learning how their friends and family express love to them.  Dad and I learned a few hints to keep our relationship strong as well, and it was just a great evening.

We met with our Bishop last night, and he wants us to focus on the Saratoga Mid Singles for our last 6 months, visiting them in their homes and expressing love, support and concern.  We are perfectly happy to do that, instead of wandering around trying to find people.  We really love the singles in the Saratoga Ward, and it will be hard to say goodbye.

Some of the recent senior couple arrivals here in the mission are more adventurous than ones in the past, and are planning trips for us all on our P days.  This Monday we will head up to Muir Woods.  In May we will all take a trip to Alcatraz.  We're more than happy to have these opportunities, especially with such great people to go with.  Dad's also glad he can go somewhere where he doesn't have to drive! 

We will take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes.

Hope you are all doing well.  We love it when you add your comments! 

Have a great week!

Fun with Tracy

We've spent the last 5 days with Tracy.  We've had a great time.  The night before she came in I went to a bridal shower for one of our MSA sisters.  Her name is Amy, she's 42 years old, never been married, and as excited kid at Christmas!  It was so fun to hear her talk about what a wonderful guy her fiancé is, and the wonders of being in love.  Her colors are red and black, and here is the table decoration they had.  Fresh roses!  Beautiful.

Here she is with the bride's bouquet they made of the ribbons from her gifts.  I gave her a hot pad/wash cloth set I had crocheted, and she was so sweet.  She said she didn't have anyone in her family who could crochet, so was delighted to receive a handmade gift.  We're so happy for her.

So Tracy got here Friday night.  I had cooked a turkey that I had bought at Thanksgiving, so we had a mini-Thanksgiving dinner that night.  I even made a pumpkin pie!  Yum.  Then the next day we got up early and headed up to San Francisco.  The weather was absolutely perfect - no clouds or fog, and in the low 70s.  We spend most the day at Golden Gate Park, taking in a wonderful exhibit at the de Young Art Museum, and touring the Japanese Tea Garden.

There's a Scottish bag piper because the exhibit was from Scotland.  It had some amazing masterpieces.  We then went down to the Embarcadero where we walked around while waiting for a table at "The Rainforest Café", a fun restaurant that is kind of like The Mayan in SLC used to be, only with good food!  There were animated stuffed animal exhibits, live entertainers, thunder and lightening, etc., all supposedly like a rain forest.  It was fun!  After dinner we were tired, so headed home, but got caught in bad traffic in SF, but got to drive through Chinatown.  Fun, but crazy!

Sunday, Dad and I went to Sacrament meeting then we headed for Monterey.  We walked around down there (again the weather was beautiful), ate a picnic lunch, then drove the 17 mile scenic highway where some beautiful cypress trees are, and great views of the ocean.  We even saw some whales out in the distance. 

Monday was beach day.  We started out at our favorite beach, Sunset, where we gathered sea shells, then went to Ano Nuevo State Park, where Northern Elephant Seals go to mate, give birth, molt, and rest.  A lot of the adults were gone, but we still saw some, along with the "weaners", or the baby seals that have been weaned, and are teaching themselves how to swim.  The mothers nurse the babies for only one month, then leave them on their own.  They learn how to swim, and take off for the Aleutian Islands.  About half of them survive that first year, and they head back to Ano Nuevo again. 

They're active mostly at night, so we only saw them sleeping.  By this time of year they have lost half their body weight, so are very skinny.  But they soon head back into open water to feed, and re-gain their weight. 

We then headed up to Half Moon Bay where we had dinner at Sam's Chowder House.  We took pictures of our food! 

Tracy's lobster roll

 

Dad's halibut

My crab and shrimp salad (wonderful dressing)

 

We were pretty worn out by Tuesday!  We thought of heading up to Muir Woods to see the redwoods, but didn't want to drive that far, so went into Saratoga to the Montalvo Art Center.  It's an old mansion that has been turned into a place for artists and performances by dancers, singers, plays, etc.  The grounds are pretty and they have nature trails.

We were too tired to even hike the trails, so wandered around Saratoga and Los Gatos and headed home.  We had a relaxing evening, and said goodbye to our T this morning.  She made it home safely, and we hope she gets some rest from her vacation!  We loved having her here.

So that's our week.  Hope all of you had a great one as well.  Hope to hear from you ALL soon.
Much love