Christmas in a Nutcracker Shell

This is life when you are an only child. Lots of attention from Mom and playing "Ring around the Rosie" with your stuffed animals.

Sam has been obsessed with horses for the past little while. He rides anything he can. This includes the arms of the couch, mom and dad, and even dishrags with pictures of horses on them. I knew Santa would have no trouble deciding what Sam needed for Christmas.

Dad gave Sam a Christmas Eve haircut and then we headed over to Israel and Melissa's for Peruvian Christmas. Dinner started at 10:00 PM and presents at midnight. After that we had hot chocolate and Pannetone (Christmas Bread) and made it home by 2:00 AM.




Sam caught on to opening presents pretty quickly. It took him a few tries to remember that there was actually a gift inside the box. Pablo gave him a new pair of shoes. I picked them up and put them away with his other gifts so they wouldn't get lost in all the shuffle. In the midst of playing with the farm toy that his Abuelitos gave him he stopped and looked around. "Shoes?" he asked. Right then and there he removed his "Old" shoes and wanted the cool new Converse sneakers on his feet. Then he had to show them off to everyone.



Christmas Morning

This expression is shock and excitement and wonder. Sam walked into the living room and stopped in his tracks and just stared at the horse. Then he went right to it and petted it and loved it. His expression never changed. He can ride it like crazy. He spent most of the day on it and takes it very seriously.

Merry Christmas!

We finally broke down and put up the Christmas tree. I don't know why we are feeling so scroodgey this year, but we just are not in the Christmas decorating mood around here. Sam on the other hand loves lights and Santa (HoHoHo) and always gets very excited to see everyone else's trees and decorations. In fact he woke up in the middle of the night and asked to go see the Christmas tree. He thinks it is so pretty. He knows he isn't supposed to touch it and is very careful not to. He does get as close as he can and then he blows on it. I think he thinks the lights are candles. (We've celebrated a lot of birthdays lately and he has the blowing out the candles thing figured out.)

We went to Sam's friend Gabe's birthday yesterday and brought home dinosaur stickers. Sam has been enjoying them.

Thanksgiving in Idaho

We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho and then Sam and I spent another week just hanging out while Daniel flew out to Virginia to help his mom move to Utah. Sam loved spending time with Nana and Papa and Lindsey and Andrew.

Sam especially liked playing with Gus. He fed Gus treats and shared his cup with him (Gross, I know). He loved to pet him and tell him to sit. Gus pretty much did his best to ignore Sam, but Sam had the best time.

Sam and "Ballball"

We went to the BYU vs. TCU game on Thursday night and Sammy had the best time. He loves "ballball". The weather was perfect. No wind and the temperature was very mild. We didn't put our coats on until the second half. Sam really likes to yell "First Down!" and raise his arms for a touchdown. He also likes the cougar fight song and does the actions at the end.

Halloween Tricks and Treats

Sam was a little frog for Halloween. One day we were at the store and he saw this frog costume. He pointed to it and said, "Oh wow! Wook! Wow!" I figured that if he used 75% percent of his vocabulary to express his interest it must be The Costume.

This is Sam and his friend Lincoln at Pumpkin Land. These pumpkins were ginormous, but they were also starting to rot. I'm thinking Pumpkin Land hit its peak around Oct 20th. But we still had a great time.

We wandered around the corn maze with our friends Caroline and Lincoln.

Sam loved running through the paths and scaring birds out of the corn.


I tried all day long to get a good picture of Sam, smiling in his costume. It never happened. He was happy, but so interested in his costume, his shoes, the leaves, the candy, and whatever else was going on that I could never get him to look at the camera.

The church had a Halloween carnival on the 30th and we all had a good time. Sam likes to carry around his Pumpkin (Bapum) and especially likes candy.



The Young Women had a fish pond and Sam won a monster finger puppet. He was super excited. He ran around the gym saying, "RAaar!" and showing everyone his new toy.

...And now for the tricks
While we were eating dinner on Halloween night we heard a strange noise and then the whole house shook. We opened the front door and the whole neighborhood was out on porches wondering what in the world had happened. Once again disaster has struck our little house. We have these monster elm trees that we want to have trimmed, but it is so expensive! We're talking several thousand dollars. So every time we have a storm we hold our breath, afraid that some enormous branch is going to come crashing through the roof. Well last night there wasn't even a breath of wind, but a huge limb from one of the trees fell down into the tree below it, sending other branches into the power lines across the street. I was so scared. I was relieved that no one was hurt especially considering that it was Halloween and there were a lot of people on the street and in our yard just moments before this happened. The power grounded through the tree and into the ground and shook the whole neighborhood. The fire department and the city power trucks all showed up and closed the street.

Sam thought the whole thing was great. The lights, the trucks, the firemen. I was mortified and worried. It has all turned out okay though. We had called the city last year to ask them to cut the branches that hung out over the street. They said they wouldn't do it because they didn't touch the power lines and it wasn't a hazard. So then last night they worked until almost midnight cutting branches.

This morning they came with the chipper and took away most of the debris. They were really great. Very professional and safe last night. I assumed they would only do what was essential and then leave the rest for us, but they went out of their way to cut extra branches and they did a great job.

The good news is that everything is okay and I think that now it might not be as expensive to have the rest of the branches cut. In other good news Daniel got a promotion and a raise yesterday, so does anyone know any good tree cutters in the area?

It seems like we have been so busy lately, but I have no idea what we have been doing. I'm working about 16 hours a week. Usually I work in the evenings from 7 PM to 3 AM. It works out really well because Daniel is able to be with Sam and I do get a little bit of sleep. Sam has gotten to be really good at going to bed and sleeps through the night, usually. One night I got home at about 4 AM I found this:

It looked really funny before Sam moved his arm because they were sleeping in the exact same position. Sam must have not been sleeping well that night. I was so tired that I just scooted him over and crawled in next to him. Awfully cozy.

Saturday we took Sam to the BYU game. The weather was threatening so we decided to come late and leave early if necessary. We watched the 1st quarter from home and arrived at the game toward the end of the 2nd. Sam was a little overwhelmed. We thought he would love it because when "ballball" comes on TV he loves to watch and cheer. We watched the half time show and by the time the 3rd quarter started Sam was really into it. He was yelling and cheering. He had everyone around us entertained.

Then the snow began and we decided to leave while we were still having a good time. We watched the very end of the game from home. It was snowing like crazy. The entire field was white. We had a great time. We'll have to go again when it isn't so wet.

Game Day Before...

...(Doesn't he look so big in his jersey!)...



...and After

He's either very disappointed by BYU's loss to UCLA or bearing his testimony. He likes to wear Daniel's missionary name tag.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

It was Daniel's birthday on Wednesday. We went to PF Changs to celebrate with Daniel's brothers (Israel and Pablo), Israel's wife Melissa, and Jeris and Suzanna.

Blowing out the candle.

Sam loves to show off his belly button. Can you blame him? It's awfully cute.

The Gonzalez boys.

Jeris and Suz

Israel and Melissa

Sammy believes in cleanliness.

He loves to sweep and mop the floors.

I submit this as evidence that he has seen this done.

He loves to throw things away (i.e. Daniel's shoes), and then un-throw things away. I am constantly finding garbage strewn about and things that don't belong in the garbage thrown away. One afternoon he dragged the kitchen garbage bag out of the can and down the hallway to the back door. He wanted to take it out to the big garbage can.

Then after a hard days work he climbed into the bathtub and scrubbed himself. Now that's a kid committed to clean.

Last of the Peru Pics


These are the last of our pictures from Peru. We have a lot more pictures from the first half of the trip. We got way behind on picture taking. This is at the Temple of the Sun at some ruins just outside of Lima. There were several cultures that built this city of worship over many many years. The Incas were the last group here. This is Daniel, Sam, Jenna, Carlos and Judy.

This is inside the Temple of the Mamacuna. It is a temple dedicated to women. Young virgins were selected from the people (mostly from nobility) and taken to this temple to be raised by priestesses to either be wives for nobility or sacrifices to the sun god. It was really interesting.

The architecture is really amazing. There was a lot of symbolism in the building.

I saw this dog at the ruins and I thought at first it was diseased, but it turns out that it is just a super ugly breed of hairless Peruvian dog. All the dogs I saw in Peru that weren't strays were dressed up.

These are friends of Daniel's from high school.

We have news from Peru. All of Daniel's family in Lima are just fine. Daniel's grandfather in Ica is fine. Some cousins we had visited in Ica lost their house, but are not hurt. Many of their neighbors were killed. Thanks to everyone who has called us in concern. We are waiting to find out if there is anything we can do through LDS humanitarian services. What a scary thing!

Link to News Article

Last night there was a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in Peru. Its epicenter was in Ica. Here is a link to an article about it. They estimate that over 300 people were killed. Buildings were destroyed in many cities including Lima and Ica. A church I remembered seeing in Ica was damaged and is in one of the photos from the article. The Panamerican Highway we took from Lima to Ica was heavily damaged. Phone lines are down so we haven't heard anything yet from Daniel's relatives. I'm hoping everyone is doing okay. Please keep them in your prayers. I'll post an update when I find anything out.

Last Day in Ica

We met Daniel's grandfather on our last day in Ica, the town where Daniel's mom grew up. We have always talked about how suprised we were that Sam has such light colored eyes. Even though there are a lot of light eyes in both Daniel's and my families, we just assumed any of our kids would have dark eyes. Abuelito Julio looked at Sam and immediately said "He has my father's eyes". So there you have it, Sam's eyes and his middle name come from his great-great grandfather Nieri.

Meeting Abuelito Julio was a very happy and emotional moment. Even when they lived in Peru Daniel didn't get to see him very often. Sam loved him and warmed up to him right away.

We met at an oasis call Huacachina. It was a really pretty lagoon in the middle of sand dunes. There is a legend about a mermaid who lives in the water. We didn't see her, but we did see a statue and read a poem about it all, so that is pretty much proof that she exists.

Tuesday June 26: Ica and Nazca

We traveled to Ica very comfortably. I wish the plane ride from Atlanta to Lima was as deluxe as this bus. It was about 4 hours to Ica and two more to Nazca.

I only post this picture in the spirit of honest journalism. We were so tired! We had gone to bed late as usual and had to be on the bus at 7:00 AM. Sam stayed in his sleepers and the rest of us looked like we should have. But check out how comfortable this bus was. Tons of leg room, huge cushioned seats. I even got to nap. It was wonderful.

This is Hotel Austria. We stayed here in Ica. We dropped off our bags and went to Nazca for the rest of the day. It was $30 a night and actually quite comfortable. I love the prices in Peru. The owners remembered Daniel's family from when they used to visit when they were younger. Ica was so warm and sunny. We were able to thaw out from the coldest winter Lima has seen in 30 years. (Of course the lows were only about 40 degrees, but with the humidity it was cold to your bones.)

Sam is wearing his Nazca shirt that his Abuelita Lucy bought him. He stayed safely on the ground with his Abuelitos while the rest of us adventurers took a little plane ride over the lines.

Here we are, pre-flight at the Nazca Airport. The Nazca lines are thousands of years old. They were rediscovered in the 1930's when airplanes first started to cross the desert here. They were created by pushing the top black layer of sand to the sides revealing the lighter colored sand underneath. It never rains and so the lines are never disturbed. When the wind blows at night the lines seem to clean themselves. It is really fascinating. I had seen several documentaries on the History Channel about them, so I was super excited to see them in person.

Double click on the pictures to enlarge them. This is "The Hummingbird".

These figures are called "The Tree" and "The Hands"

This is "The Trapezoid". This is the line that prompts some people to suggest that these lines were created by aliens and that this is a runway. There are lots of figures in the shape of animals, plants, and humans, but there are also hundreds of incredibly straight lines that seem to go from horizon to horizon.

This is called "The Astronaut" Daniel and I think that it was created later by copycats. It is really different from the other lines and it is on the side of the mountain and visible from the ground unlike the other lines. That is our amateur opinion.

Here we are after the flight, a little airsick, but also STARVING! We hadn't eaten all day because we had to rush to make it to Nazca and take one of the last flights of the day. We had a great pilot and a fabulous time.