Christmas

Elder Potter's newest companion, Elder Johnson from Tennessee.

Before the frenzy.

Rachel's twinkie cookbook

Elders Johnson and Crosby opening their presents. Prep day, they didn't need to wear their suits.

Opening presents.

Grandpa Hawker with the War shadowbox that Jeremy, Jessica and Brooklyn gave him.

Elder Potter's first week

For those of you who haven't heard, Cory has been called to serve a mission in the Pocatello Idaho mission. He lives at home, but we are housing the elders so he gets the opportunity of having companions. He has study time with them in the morning. He was told to get his driver's licence so he could drive the elders around. (Sometime a scary experience for them, fortunately he was blessed with guardian angels.) He works part time at the mission office and part time at the temple visitor's center. He is doing great and so far really enjoying this change in his life.
We see it as a great blessing as he was not doing much and life was pretty boring for him.
nor could we get him to get his licence. So wow, in two weeks he had done the things that we were wanting him to do. The Lord definitely had a hand in this.

In front of the mission offfice. He worked there three days last week.

In front of the temple right before his shift in the visitors center.

Elder Potter in front of the welcome sign for one of the cities he works in.

Here is Cory with his companions. Elder Bradshaw, Elder Dickinson, Elder Potter and Elder Crosby. These are the elders who are living with us now. Wedensday are transfers, then we we will only have two extra. I enjoy having them here. It brings life back into our home.

Cory with Brian

Halloween

Cory's scary Jack-O-Lantern. Cory said that if Ryan's Jack-O-Lantern scared Jaden, What would this do?

This was too good not to post. Paul told his wife that if she could find a costume, he would be an Oompa Loompa. So Keri made one. Funny thing is he teaches at the high school and wore it all day. His plan was to stay hidden in his room. However Keri had car trouble at the kindergarten center and he had to help her. Then he had to attend a meeting at school in the library. He and his daughter, Riley looked great.

Pints of Boo's

How do you like my pints of Boo's? I made these for my visiting teaching ladies. I have shown them to others at Curves and at Brady's. Now I am making labels for some of the ladies there.
Adele made some while she was here.

The ghost says "For your Halloween enjoyment".

Gifts for all

We got the leather vest for Jaden. (This was the smallest that they made) And the dress for Brooklyn. Also some little maracas for each. I had a lot of fun finding things to bring home for family. However getting pictures of the two together was not easy.

Going home.

Friday we spent most of the day sitting in airports. first in Guadalajara and then Dallas. We didn't get into Salt Lake untill almost 11:00 pm. Poor Ryan had to be up late to come get us. Jeremy arrived 15 minutes after us from Florida. Pretty convenient that we could get hum too.
It was a great trip that we totally enjoyed other that the driving and traffic.
I thought the clouds look awesome from the plane. Almost looks like snow drifts.

Lake Chapala from the plane Well at least a part of it.

Mexico Trip Day 4

Thursday we braved the traffic and drove to the Guadaljara Temple. It didn't open until 4:00 so we didn't get to go inside. It felt very peaceful to be on the Temple grounds. We went next door into the Stake center and met a man who was baptized by Wes' last companion. He was also an Elder Potter who married a girl from Blackfoot. How about that! The man is now a Bishop. It was awesome.

Hibiscus Hedge. I bet it is gorgeous when it is in full bloom. There are other colors of hibiscus in there too.

We stopped at the mission home and visited with the Mission President and the Elders. Wes got some of the pamphlets to give to some of the people at the Hotel. We actually forgot to do that before we left, but he did give one to the taxi driver that took us home later that night.

Our landmark to help us find the right road to get back to the Hotel, and we missed the turn off. We did eventually find a road to get us there. Such a headache trying to read the map. Next time we go somewhere like this we will be renting a car with a GPS.

The view from the walkway looking down town. To the right of the walkway is the mercado. Mariachi square is on the other side of the buildings on the left. As we would walk around the streets, it gave me the creeps as it got later. I did not want to be around there too long after dark. There are lots of little stands that people set up to sell stuff. There were all packing up, I guess they didn't want to be there after dark either.

We went to Mariachi square where several groups of Mariahi bands play for the people there. Wes paid to have them come sing to us. It is $10.00 a song. It was fun to see them.

Mexico Trip Day 3

Wednesday we drove to Lake Chapala, it was about a 2 hour drive. It was very pretty around it.
On the way we say many little places along the road selling anything from food to tires. (Lots of little roadside tire stands, roads must be very bad.) After leaving Chapala we were going to go to Zamora, where Wes spent some time on his mission. We drove, and drove, was delayed by road work and then found that we had missed the turn off. (That happened alot). After finding out that it would take about another 3 hrs. we decided to catch the freeway and go back to Guadaljara. But I did get to see some interesting country side and small towns. They gave the impression of going through Fort Hall. Not trailers, but old houses that are all connected.
This is a restaurant in Chapala. Must have been an awesome house of an important person back in the day.

This is a monument for fishermen. The guys in the back are holding a net.

Yep, see we were there. Rich people live over in those housed behind us. They have their own private pier.

It is a really big lake.

The captain of the ship. We were always asked if we wanted to launch over to an island. I didn't feel like these boats looked too safe. Nor was there anything on the island.

Chief Chapala

Some of the fishermen. Look carefully and you can see the pop bottle that this guy and most every other person was using. This guy is casting in this picture. In the background is an older guy with a hat. He was also using a pop bottle. He used tortillas for bait. I wanted to see someone catch a fish, but alas we didn't. They must sell them to all the eating places along the lake since most of them sold only sea food. Hmm I wonder if they catch the octopus there. This technique was ingenius.

A pier on Lake Chapala. Several people fishing.

A cool picture of a coconut tree.

Another market place near the Lake. We bought more gifts here. They had a WC. (I thought those were only in England. But you had to pay 30 cents to go in. there was a guy at the door to take the money and give you some toilet paper. It would be bad if you needed more. He also had a little candy stand there. We didn't buy any candy from him. Anyway I thought it was funny. Oh, nothing opens until noon. Yea, even the WC.

This little Indian lady was doing her weaving. We bought one of the bags that she made. Notice her shirt.

These wells and SOS points were every 5 min. along the freeway. They must have alot of cars overheat. Wes had to check it out.

See the awesome stone fence.