High Humidity and Moldy Clothes - Michael

A friend here, who is from California, warned us that our natural fiber clothes will likely start molding within a few months. I put this hat in a closet right after we arrived here and haven't touched it until now. I pulled it out and found it was growing. Not what you want to have happen.

I'm hoping that the mold only happens on things you don't use. We all brought so few outfits that they all get used regularly. Except for my one pair of jeans and most of my socks, I think the rest of my clothes will be okay.

Little Bananas - Michael

We all like these little bananas you can buy here. They're nice, because they don't require so much commitment. Here you tend to find bananas in one of three general sizes.

1. Large - what we normally find in the States.
2. Medium - 4 to 6 inches
3. Small - 1.5 to 3 inches.

Here's Jonah holding a bunch of small bananas.

Watching General Conference - Michael

On Saturday and Sunday, we watched General Conference. It was somewhat similar to our experience of listening to General Conference online, when we lived in Indiana, ten years ago. One tradition that started, when we were in Indiana is that General Conference involves a fair amount of candy. This was no exception, even though we paid $12 for a bag of candy that probably would have cost $6 or $7 in the U.S. Here's the family watching conference.

I just realized that the picture above the couch is crooked.

Because the screen wasn't very big, we set up two laptops to make it easier for both ends of the couch to see. However, they would quickly get out of sync, which we just lived with. One was muted, so that wasn't a problem.

We also kept the glass doors open, because otherwise that room can warm up a bit in the sun (probably would have been the perfect temperature for Hannah). I wish I would have gotten a picture of the neighbor dog that spent most of the day laying just outside the doorway.

While I really missed being able to go the Priesthood session with my brothers, it was a good weekend.

Cowboy Jonah - Hannah

Jonah and his principal, Jose.
 Riding horses was "fun, but a little bit scary."

No Hands!

Riding backwards and drawing shapes on the horse's back

A Walk to Town - Hannah

This post has nothing exciting--no snakes or crocodiles or lost children--just a simple walk to town with the kids for bread and treats. It made for a nice morning.

Here are some pretty flowers we saw on our walk:

 
 

And some cute kids:

And a couple other sites along the way:

Lest you think it's all lovely, here's an unfortunate and all too common site--the garbage along the road:

And here are the kids eating their popsicles:

I thought mine had chocolate chips, but they were actually raisins. Not too bad, though I never would have thought to put raisins in a popsicle.

And finally, here's a photo that Dylan took of the tree back at our house. Can you see the squirrel?

Snake! - Michael

We had a fun lunch today. Our neighbor, Renzo, told me he found a snake over by his chicken coop, which is about 150 feet from our homes. He had called the fire department to come get it. I didn't understand what kind of snake he was talking about. When I saw it I had to run back and get the camera.

Renzo told me he's never seen this kind of snake in the 10 years he's lived in the house. He saw it because he was over at the chicken coop with his wife and their little dog went off and started barking at the snake. Renzo's wife, Gretel, was pretty nervous and carried their dog into the house.

Snake in the weeds.

Snake's in the bag.

Firemen preparing to leave.

Don't worry, Grandma. As somebody suggested on Facebook, we'll arm the kids with machetes when they go out to play. ;-)

Baptism Temple Trip - Michael

On Saturday, Julia and I went with the youth in the branch to the temple in San Jose to do baptisms. That was fun to do. One highlight was the warm shower with lots of water pressure.

In front of the San Jose Temple

After the temple baptisms, we went to a baptism of a young member of the branch. Our branch doesn't have a font, so it was at the branch building in Santa Ana. The building was basically a big fancy house that even had carpet in one room. That was the first time I have seen carpet since we arrived here.

I have some pictures and video, because it was an interesting building for a church and impressive to our branch members as a house.

 "Baptismal Font"

This is just a quick picture I took of ward members before joining the
picture that Brother Wayne Richardson was taking.