Dancing girl

I thought this might not happen.

One of the things I worried about when moving to Peru was what would Emily do about dancing. 

I could not imagine her not dancing.

 Emily started dance classes when she was three years old.  It was a big part of her life.  She was at dance three or four or five days every week.  She had been in The Nutcracker every December since she was six years old.  In the summer she was in Sleeping Beauty.  She had friends at dance.  She wore a leotard more than pajamas and could put her hair in a bun while dancing.

The year we lived in Washington she still went to dance.  Again she was in The Nutcracker.  Her dance friends were her church friends and her school friends.

I had found dance studios in Lima before we even packed our moving boxes.

The end of July we arrived in Lima.

And Emily would not go to dance.  She said that she did not speak Spanish and would not understand the instructions.

She would not try.

From July to December the ward insisted that Emily dance.

The Relief Society asked her to choreograph, perform and teach an American dance to the ward.

The Stake asked her to choreograph, teach, and perform at a shopping mall, a flash mob dance with the young men and women at youth conference.

She was asked to choreograph, teach and perform with the young women at the ward Christmas Party. It was like no one remembered she was 15 years old.

 She still danced in the car and in the house.  She talked to school friends about dancing. 

She missed dance.

We insisted she find a way to dance by the end of summer. (That was February, we're in South America)

Emily and her friends found a dance studio where they spoke English. They took a taxi after school and it was a long, long drive to pick her up.  Her friends were beginners so it did not make sense for Emily to be in their class.  They all auditioned in April at another studio.  Emily was placed in Level 3 so she could learn "character dances" and routines for the examinations.  There were girls her age in the class but also 10 year olds.  She understood Spanish enough to dance but not to socialize.  At this point I am proud of her for dancing just because she loves dancing.

So since then, she has had exams but not the results.  Her teachers have moved her to dancing with Levels 6-8 and Saturday she had her first performance.  There was one point in the dance where Emily was in the front center stage dancing with no one around and a big smile on her face.

It was awesome.

Earthquakes are scary

We had an earthquake yesterday afternoon and it was intense.

It was only a 5.5 but definitely the strongest I have felt in Lima.  I would say I have felt maybe ten earthquakes in our 16 months here.  Earthquakes are loud and sound like a semi-truck driving through the house.  I was sitting on the couch and felt the house shake, I realized it was an earthquake, I could see the house shake and still had time to think I should go outside before the ceiling comes down.  I ran out the front door and still there was shaking, maybe that was me. That is a long time for the earth to move.

Emily was at school.  There was screaming and crying while diving under the desks.  When the shaking stopped they went outside.  There was a big earthquake in Lima in 2007 and the people that experienced it are still traumatized.  I can understand, my heart raced for a couple of hours yesterday.

I noticed when we returned home last night the angle of this picture.  I guess that is what happens when you shake the cement house.

October Tricks

and treats.

Lonny had meetings in SLC before, during and after General Conference, it was Emily's spring break from school, Jenny and Jon had just moved to Utah and were expecting a baby, Geoff had fall break from school, my nephew was getting married in Logan, and the stars had aligned so we could see the kids and the grandkids and all the chaos that means.

Honestly, it is not too much fun to fly back and forth between Peru and the US.  This time we flew from Lima to Atlanta, which if you look on a map is pretty much straight north and 6 hours of flying.  The flights to the USA from Lima are all at night.  Our flight left right before midnight.  From Atlanta we flew to SLC which is another 4 hours.  Those flight times for such a distance probably don't sound so bad but the two hours in traffic to arrive at the airport and immigration and customs and security in and out of the country and baggage claim and the ride to wherever you are staying is exhausting.  I have some twenty stamps in my passport (which is a mere 18 months old) and every stamp earned with blood, sweat and tears.  Anyway . . .

thank goodness, the visit was so awesome.  We stayed at Jenny and Jon's spacious "bed and breakfast".  Justin and Miranda and kids also stayed conference weekend.  Eric showed up.  Lonny occasionally made an appearance between meetings.  It was loud and messy.  Geoff, Alayna and Adelaide arrived week two.

Emily and I shopped for things we needed (wanted) to take back and stayed one night in SLC with Lonny.  We had a visit with a friend (and former Seminary student) from Peru who lives in the states now.  I wish I had a photo of him across the table topped with cheesecake,

but he is standing behind Emily in this picture from last year's youth conference.  I really miss having him in seminary, he always asked good questions.  I must also include the photo of him below taken on Emily's phone while she was in a Just Dance competition (which by the way she won that day) at a stake youth sports day.  Her friends took pictures of themselves while they had her phone.  This particular one is precious.  Ha.

  

One of the things I had been working on since July was superhero clothes for the grandkids.  Last Christmas when the whole family was together we had a pirate party.  Who could forget this?

 The grandkids said do it again so hopefully they gather together for giving thanks with a superhero party.  I had someone make the tulle skirts for the girls because frankly, I don't know where to buy superheromakinfabric in Lima.  I had acquired shirts and shorts and superhero underwear (completely necessary) and boots last summer.  I made the logos in Lima but had to buy the fabric for capes in UT and sew them while I was at Jenny's.  The whole thing was an ordeal but some cute kids looked adorable prethanksgiving partay.

And on my last day in the USA, Jenny woke me at 5 a.m. to say they were on their way to the hospital.  I was so happy to see little baby Luke 10 days early.  We took the kids to see their little brother Saturday afternoon.  Kirsten was apprehensive to hold him at first but then could not quit.  Colton was such a little sweetheart.  He immediately asked if Luke was their baby and could they take him home?  And he could not stop kissing his little face.  Max did not notice there was a baby.

My Life

here . . . is somewhat difficult to explain.  I get asked all the time what it is like to live in Peru.  Such a hard question.  It is good, that is the short answer.  It is weird, there is another answer.  It is normal.  It is not normal.  It is complicated, there is the answer.

Lonny and I went to the store Maestro on Saturday for light bulbs and those little fuzzy circle thingys that stick to the bottom of the dining room chairs so the chairs slide across the floor.

 That was normal, right?  I could have been doing that if I lived in the USA and I probably have.

Maestro is like Home Depot except for the Spanish, 220 voltage and everyone having a similar hair color.  (Sometimes I feel self conscious that I am one of those things not like the other, sometimes I don't.)

And then I saw this and I remembered I wasn't in Kansas or maybe even the 21st century anymore.  And honestly do lime green toilets make what it is like to live in Peru bizarre or awesome?

Where was I . . .

 School was out . . . . . 

so went home to WA for the month of July, not in this particular vessel, although that may have been more interesting.  I suggest a ferry route between Lima and where I want to sail.

Emily tried to paddle her way back south.

 Took a vacation within a vacation

with a trek to UT.

Saw some beautiful people

and rode around on a boat

really fast.

(Remember when Jon could not wakeboard?) 

Counted the days it did not rain

One . . .

two . . .

three . . .

it was raining in Utah:(

not in WA,  four . . .

five . . .

six . . .

seven . . .

eight . . .

nine . . .

ten . . .

eleven . . . okay, no rain the month of July.

None.

Why then did we return to Peru

(after seeing this, why do you ask?)

and winter with Geoff and Alayna and Adelaide?

I don't know.

So they could hike across Peru

 and then they flew home to move to AZ.  Geoff changed his mind and decided to attend law school at Arizona State University.

Meanwhile Eric left India, where he was digging wells

and hanging out,

to come home to his family in Peru.  And alas he returns to BYU after visiting 37 gazillion tourist sites.  Once you have been to the chocolate museum where else can you go.  

The end.

27 Dresses + 3

Emily at the orphanage.

Emily's school requires a personal project which begins in 2nd semester of their 9th grade year and is completed in November of the 10th grade.  She became a student at Roosevelt midway through this time period so she had until May to complete her project.  The assignment is not a part of any class and is totally accomplished outside of the regular school day.  The point is to choose a subject that interests you and to do some in-depth research.  Then produce a product and a research paper on your topic.

One of her friends whipped together some make up and used Emily as her model when they had the student's project fair last November.  Another friend made cupcakes using popular Peruvian desserts for the flavors.  The options really were wide open.

With my background you would think I suggested Emily's topic but no, it came out of her head.  I did suggest she make only ten dresses but Emily was full of ambition.  We bought the fabric over Christmas break in the USA and brought it home.  She did not know how to sew so I would show her the steps one at a time and she would complete them.  

The dresses are so cute.  All thirty of them.  One dress is still with her counselor at school but the other 29 went to an orphanage in Lima.

It would have been nice to see little girls in the dresses but there were still smiles all around.  It was a good day.

BYU blue?

We may be the accidental BYU family.

Lonny and I met at Ricks College and married after graduating.  (only in the church does it make sense for a girl from Oregon and a guy from Washington to meet in Idaho and get married in California) We lived in Oregon for six months before moving to Provo to attend BYU.  We both had preferred Ricks over BYU initially but after graduating with only associates degrees from the then two year school we had to move on.  I don't remember considering any other options at this point.  Since we were married we had to agree.  Lonny had grown up as a University of Washington fan.  I had grown up in the same town as the University of Oregon.  My mom had been an employee and a graduate of the U of O.  I had worked at concessions during football games while a teenager.  Although we cheered for our home teams in athletics I don't think we thought twice about attending either for undergraduate.

So we moved to Provo.

Lonny graduated from BYU with a bachelors degree in economics in the spring of 1982.  He only applied to BYU and the University of Washington for law school with every intention of moving to Seattle.  Turning down Washington for law school was hugely disappointing.  BYU offered a scholarship that meant we would pay $600 total for the three years of tuition  Even then that was a bargain.

In the spring of 1985,  Lonny graduated from Law School and I graduated with a bachelors degree in fashion design.

I also have a picture of myself like this but not scanned into this computer.  Someday when I go to my other home it will sit here.

And so we were BYU fans wherever we were.  We bought our kids a BYU shirt here and there.

There was no plan for where they would go to school.  Justin was an Oklahoma State fan but wanted to attend Utah State primarily to reunite with a childhood friend.  The out of state tuition determined the outcome and he reluctantly made his way to Provo.

Justin and Miranda graduated from BYU in the spring of 2006.  He graduated from BYU law school in 2010, twenty five years after his Dad.

Jenny originally turned down BYU and spent her first year of college at BYU Idaho.  She married a BYU student and so transferred to Provo.  Jenny and Jon graduated from BYU in the spring of 2005.  Jonathan's a University of Oklahoma fan and attended OU his first semester before transferring.

Geoff graduated from BYU this past April.  Alayna graduated last April in 2012.

Geoff will attend BYU Law School in the fall.  So in three years another graduation.  And in the mean time a graduation next year when Eric finishes his degree at BYU in mechanical engineering.

That is a lot of BYU graduates and graduations.

Emily has a couple of years to weigh her options.

BYU Cougar or possibly a pirate.