Morgans pictures day one in Nicaragua

airport in Nicaragua

this girls saw Morgan with her camera and wanted to pose

above pic is museum they built to tell about the theater that was damaged in the 1972 earthquake. they haven't had the money to rebuild a lot of the city that was damaged in that quake.

damaged theater

security guards are all over and they carry these sticks or guns or both

The hotel we found that would serve us dinner. It was around 3:30 pm and so lunch was over and we had a hard time finding a place to cook for all of us. We are finding that the people are up with the sun at 6am they eat at noon and they seem to come back out after the sun sets at 6pm (well for the weekend). Dinners are interesting. Plan 1-2 hours for a meal. They have a couple people cooking and they cook everything from scratch so it takes 30 min -1 hour for them to prepare and cook the food.

Mango tree

Our delicious meal that we waited an hour for, but we were hungry and it all tasted soooo good. We had chicken, rice and beans, and fried thick bananas - the best so far on the trip

Our driver, Alajandro

Yes, it was all a blur getting to Leon, we had been traveling almost 24 hours and in need of much sleep. Below is Kris our amazing craft co-ordinator. She gathered all of the craft supplies and had everything cut and bagged and ready to go!!

Morgan having a little tea party while we were going through and reorganizing the crafts

On our walk around the neighborhood we walked by this church. It is supposedly the oldest church in central and south america. the square in front of the church was a gathering place on the weekend. People hanging around, music, food. There was an open air bus - a bus with the top cut off that drove around the neighborhood also.

Dinner. From left to right: Dan, Omar, Mary, Amy, me, Morgan and Kris - awesome group Angie and her dad and sister were at the other end of the table

Of course Morgan talked us into eating ice cream after dinner. They had all fruit flavors and Chocolate and Vanilla

Fiddler on the Roof

Come see Fiddler on the Roof tonight and tomorrow at Bountiful High School! 7 pm. Finding, making, dieing, sewing, altering, bribing others to make costumes for the show has consumed my life these past months. Few goofy things still, but over all very exciting to see everything coming together! Amazing kids.... out of time off to get costumes out.

Some very handsome performers

Shot of the villagers and house

The Awesome cast

At elementary assembly

My living room for the past two months... this is actually pretty early on and still very clean!! Scary. And yes I haul the costumes to class, assemblies, practices, shows, etc. and back home again because we have nowhere to store them. One day maybe LPA will build an auditorium...

Jr. High assembly

Learning to put the beard on

In the past week...

Yep, Troy was in a bit of pain when the block in his leg wore off after he had the cartilage replaced in his right knee Monday. He's been a bit neglected as I've been at the school all after noon and evening with the High schools musical. This is his lovely cpm machine that keeps his knee moving. Today he actually hobbled around the house a couple of times! Making progress. Good thing we have soooo many children to take care of him while I'm gone. He thinks he'll return to work around Tuesday... we'll see, it's been a bit more intense than he was expecting. He was up and about the day after he had his knee scoped last year and so this has been a bit more difficult being in bed all week.

Last week I made it to the end of one of Grant's basket ball games, first one this year. I know sooo sad. Big shout out to Odie, thanks for being the worlds best tutor last year and watching kids so I could go to basket ball games! This is all I have to show for this year. He is the blur off to the left.

january in review

Victor finishing his first ball for me to take to the orphanage in Nicaragua next week! He help me start so many for people to use, but never had the chance to finish one. awesome

Tanya's basket ball games are right after school so I have yet to see more than a few minutes of a game, Troy's gone to a lot. Here she is doing her math while watching the boys play. She is a great defensive player and gets into peoples faces, but really struggles with offense. Still learning positions and plays, yes she wears two knee braces and an ankle brace. She looks like Troy when he plays ball.

We had a fondue FHE the other night, love dipping anything in chocolate.

Morgan and Sara made lots of chocolate suckers with Morgans chocolate and molds she received from Christmas. Very fun and yummy. Sara even taught us how to make them not stick without spray!

The tent making over the long weekend, it was three times this size, but Tanya had most of it folded up by the time I got the camera.

Troy's short story

Troy posted a new story on his blog if anyone is interested in checking it out you can find it here