Peru

My Nick has been serving a mission in Peru for almost seven months now. I would have posted more pics of him.....but...Ive yet to receive any!!!! I wrote him last night and gave him the word! Im sick of waiting for pictures! Seven months without even one single picture is NOT COOL!!! However, thank goodness for Sister Chipman, his mission presidents wife, as she has their mission blog and I found these pics on there. (It made me cry when I saw my boy!) In the first picture he is the happy one in the middle, and in the second picture he is on the end on the left. To date, these are the only pictures I have seen of my kid! He sent his memory card home with a companion that lives in the SLC area at Christmas time, along with a Christmas gift for us, but the kid wasnt able to stop by our house on his way to BYU Rexburg, so I still havent received them! Its sooo frustrating! Nick is doing well and is very happy. He is eating all sorts of unpleasant foods like, cow tongue and stomach and guinea pig and soy milk and other ickies...I told him I feel bad that those people eat guinea pigs! I used to have them as pets when I was young and I loved them. They make sweet pets. They come to you and know you and stuff.... I cant imagine eating one! Besides that, they are really cute little critters! Nick says he gets three buckets of cold water to shower with each day. My guess is, his hair is never very clean because its sooo thick that it repels water and it would take alot more than three buckets to get it wet or rinsed. Lol.... he said he never feels clean! Anyway, he is doing a great job and learning alot. He has the language down really well and loves the Peruvian people. Im so proud of my son and grateful he is having a great experience.

The Race

My sisters, nieces, daughter and I went to Vegas last weekend to attend and/or to race in a half marathon. The theme was St. Patricks Day and there were tons of people dressed up in crazy outfits or wearing something green.
This guy walked around playing the bagpipes before the race started. It was cool! I love bagpipes and thought he really set the mood for the race.

Here are the girls getting ready to start the race and a few pics of them racing. My sister came in second place in her age group (40-44). She is 44. She missed first by thirty seconds! Not bad for her first race ever! Alison came in fifth in her age group (20-24), and my niece was twentieth,(20-24). None of them were used to running hills, dirt and gravel, which made the race alot more difficult for them. It was kind of windy, but even so, the weather was wonderful! We had so much fun before, during and after the race! I love these people!








After the race and they took off thier shoes they found blisters and lifting toenails...ouch and super gross!

Helga has a boyfriend

There is a ritual every morning at our house. Helga is sleeping on our bed and we hear barking outside. She immediately jumps up and off the bed squealing and heads for the door. The barking dog is her boyfriend calling for her. His name is Kaiser, but we've nicknamed him Frenny. When I look out my window that's facing his house, I see him sitting, staring and barking at our house. One of us lets Helga out and off she goes to meet him. Sometimes he runs as fast as he can to her, and other times, like in the photo, he stops and they have a stare down. Eventually, he crouches down low, sneaks up to her, and when he gets close enough she pounces on him! When they, meet up they always kiss.....and of course sniff....you know, gotta check things out dog style! Then, they wrestle, chase each other and explore off and on throughout the day! They are best buds and love each other!

Helga Baby

This is our Helga,..Helga baby.. Helgabelle. Shes just over a year and a half old. I know her name is ugly, but there's a reason for it. When our puppies were born we gave each one a temporary name. She was the biggest puppy in the litter, so we called her Helga after that huge "Helga The Gladiator" woman on the American Gladiator television show. We werent planning on keeping a puppy, but my daughter insisted that she was keeping one and picked Helga. Gosh, we are so glad that she did! Little did we know that Helgas mother would die within the year, and we feel lucky to still have part of her with us. Helga is a sweet goofy dog and we love her sooo much! When we decided to keep her we tried to change her name, but nothing else fit. Look at her, though her name may not be the cutest, she certainly is! :)