I looked out the window

and what did I see?  This. 

 

We flew to Ecuador for Thanksgiving because who doesn't?

We stayed one night in a completely normal Hilton Hotel and our window overlooked the Guayaquil Temple and a toy store that advertised Black Friday sales.  (We North Americans have exported the most random ideas.  Explain black Friday when you don't have Thanksgiving Thursday.)

Wednesday morning we flew to the Galapagos for an Island cruise.  Our boat held the 27 guests and 13 crew.  We three were the only Americans.  We spent five days with 2 Canadians, 2 Australians, 3 Swiss and 17 Swedish, one Indian chef and the Ecuadorian crew.

The entire adventure reminded me of an elementary school field trip.  We left the boat each morning on the 2 dinghies to see the sights and then landed for a hike and snorkeling.  We returned to the boat for lunch, a short siesta then did everything on repeat in the afternoon.

The views were amazing.

That's our boat out there.

 

I needed a break . . .

from setting my alarm for 5 a.m.  It's summer vacation and like everywhere else that means no school and no Seminary.  I am sleeping in and ignoring my studies like a normal high schooler.  I should be more responsible since I am the teacher.  When summer break ends Seminary will once again take over my time.  Some days it feels like that it is all I do.  I must wake up at 5 a.m. which always feels like the middle of the night when the alarm goes off.  Seminary is at 6 a.m. at my house with 14 students who rarely miss a day.  Most days all 14 are in the house.  They may walk in the door unconscious but I feel it is my duty to wake them up.  Sometimes I put them to sleep though and that is not my favorite thing.  I intend to get them thinking but not to incite pandemonium.  It's a fine line.  The bus picks them up for school in front of the house.  Sometimes I take a nap after they leave so I don't feel exhausted all day.   That can only last until nine though because the maid, the gardener and the window washer arrive.  It is a weird life.  There may be someone else mowing the lawn and scrubbing the tub but I have another lesson to prepare. 

I took this picture on dress-up weird day so my apologies.

I would never have imagined that I would teach Seminary for more than five years because I so enjoy being asleep at 6:30 in the morning.  (I am going to need a vacation after this 3 year trip to Peru.)  Honestly, I will miss my rise and shine party each morning with these beautiful faces.

What was I saying . . . .

because some details of the last six months are a missing.

I took Emily to the airport last week and she flew to South America by herself.  She has flown here and there and everywhere so getting through security and finding her gate and not speaking to strangers (ha)and filling out the customs form and speaking Spanish and answering questions through immigration and customs then arriving at home in a taxi were not a concern.  Lonny's flight a week earlier had been delayed which required staying one night in a hotel in Houston.  I hoped that would not happen to my 17 year old child without a parent because then I would have worried.

Leaving her at the airport though made me consider how short the time is I have left with her.  She will graduate from high school in May and be off to college in the fall.  I started to think of the important questions I should answer . . .

like who will change the radio station in the car when a song plays that no one wants to hear?  

Emily has danced since she was three years old.  I have driven her to dance class three to five times a week the last fifteen years.  She does not have a driver's license and still depends on her parents for rides.

What will I do then, when before I was doing something for her?

I have had one or more children at home for the last 33+ years.  When asked what I do my answer is I am a Mom.  I am not so much worried about what to do when she is away.

I just wonder who I will be?

Summer Lovin

Shortest summer ever.  So, we are back in Peru.  With wintertime here in the south and the school bell ringing Monday morning the evidence was in.  Summer vacay over.  In this odd life we repeat winter/summer for a not your typical year, so don't be packing the swimsuits up yet.

And it may have been summer in North America but did someone tell Alaska?

Cruising to Alaska with Disney

Colton did not want to get his photo taken but he is going to love these pics of him and Woody

and Captain Mickey,

 and Mrs. Incredible!

 Mickey and Minnie were his pals by this time.

So funny story.  Emily met the boy in front of Pluto when we were still in Vancouver.  He was standing with his cousin at the ship rail as we began sailing and the three of them began talking.  Emily told them she was from OK?! (which she does sometimes), and the two boys said they were from Tulsa, ha!  But twilightzoneweirder than that, the girl in the green sweatshirt is from Peru and goes to the same school as Emily!

Seriously, how many schools are there in the world?

Colton drove this boat

to these 12 whales.  We seriously thought we were on the Discovery channel with this spectacle.  The whales surrounded the boat (sometimes touching the boat) for nearly an hour, surfacing like this eight times.

The captain said never go on another whale watching trip because nothing would ever compare.

That was not the only boat we sailed on this summer.

Some awesome friends got a brand new sailboat, it was so fun to go out with them.  I love where we live.  The couple on the right have a missionary son in the Jenks, OK Ward right now!

So a month of summertime:

*7 days on a cruise

*a week for Emily at Adventure For Youth

*a week with family

didn't leave much time

for planking,

pyramids
(They were trying to qualify for awkward family photos.)

or parades.

I want this

and that.

School's out

in the jungle! Summer break in January and February means school days in June.  Her biology class took a little week long field trip to the jungle.  It took an airplane flight and a boat ride to arrive at class.

Looks like Disney jungle ride to me.

Some of the boat rides were four or five hours long.

A walk through the Amazon Basin and Palm Swamps to see peccaries, howling monkeys,

 fireflies, macaws, 

tarantulas

and a jaguar!

The lodge 

and the mud boots.

because it rains in the jungle.

Sitting in an airport

 heading back to civilization.

Welcome to the jungle.

The Prom Dress

was an experience.

One of the challenges of living in Peru is trying to buy something.  Lima has many beautiful spacious malls that appear to rival any mall in America.  Yet the selections and sizes are limited and anything imported is at a crazy price.  Emily needed a prom dress and I can't say there were any prom dress stores, let alone a dress her style and her size.

In Lima there is a shopping area called Gamarra.  It is large and frantic and hectic but it is where the Peruvians shop for lots of items and the only place to shop for many items.  It is really the only place to shop for fabric.  Gamarra is also dangerous and sketchy.  While we have been here the whole area was shut down for a brief time because of riots and some people were murdered there. It is notorious for thieves because of the predictable exchange of money.  I had never been there until February of this year when I accompanied a friend and her seamstress to buy fabric.  I was fascinated at the amount of fabric available to buy.  At JoAnn's if you want to buy prom dress fabric they might have an aisle of options.  In Gamarra there were stores with taffeta and silk and lace and satin, etc. etc. and all in every color imaginable.  The options were overwhelming and I loved it.  Everyone told me how they hated Gamarra but I am thinking wow, this is incredible.  I was only there to observe but somehow I started talking to this girl and when we parted she left me a note with her name and number and  website.  She is a dress designer.

To make a long story shorter we hired Claudia to make a dress for Emily's Prom.  She has a beautiful showroom beside her home which is almost directly across the street from Emily's friend from school.  A place we had been numerous times.  That was quite the coincidence since this town has 10 million residents.  While in the process of designing and making Emily's dress Claudia was invited to show a collection at Miami's Fashion Week.  She won best up and coming designer there and now she has been asked to show her collection at Italy's Fashion Week.  

She asked Emily what shoes she was going to wear and then said she would just have shoes made.  The dress was stunning on Emily.  She looked beautiful in the green.  The dress was meticulously made to every minor detail.  It was a really fun experience, one I will never forget.

Emily and friends and dates went together to the dance. 

 They met at her friends house before for pictures. (The friend that lives across the street from Claudia.)  Lonny and I arrived right before Emily.  She had been at another friend's getting ready.  

 (The nicest houses in Lima are modern, the walls are just unpainted, unfinished cement. Her friends house is so beautiful it looks like a museum with all of the art work on the walls. Those paintings were all the work of Maria's dad,(Maria is standing next to Emily)also one of Emily's friends. The houses are inside a security wall so it is safe to open the floor to ceiling windows and let the outside in.)  

The bodice fabric is handwoven velvet and satin.  In fact the velvet started out white and was dyed to the finished color.

Emily and Jonathan

The dance was outside.

We are in Peru, doesn't matter that winter is next week.  The dance was outside.