Just about my favorite part of the day...

This is one of the highlights of my day.

They come running when they see me at the door.  They cheep outside the door if I don't come soon enough.  They come up the steps and cheep louder if I am really slow.   

My favorites are the baby chicks.  When they are little, the others let the babies have first pick of anything I toss out.  It's so much fun to watch them!  What a great place to live!

Anniversary Trip 2011

We recently celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary.

It fell on a Monday, so we celebrated the weekend before.  We were able to combine mission business with a  wonderful side trip which found us at this beautiful resort. 

This is the front entrance.

 

This is a view of the beach fale we stayed at.  Ours was the one on the right.

Here is a front view of it. 

A closer view of  the hand-carved poles

I'm not sure what this is that Mike has uploaded.  When I clicked on it, it acted like it might delete, so I'm not going to try anymore.  I do remember taking a picture of a crawling crab right outside the fale door.  Maybe that is what it is. 

 

The "business" that we had to conduct was to drive a van to the other side of the island and drop it off to some missionaries.  So, I drove (!!!***!!!) our car and Mike drove the van.  When we left, it was pouring down rain, but it stopped before we got out of town and I then spent the next 10 minutes and pretty mucy the entire windshield wiper fluid trying to figure out how to turn off the wipers.  But I did it!

Even though we did not get to travel together, we both enjoyed wonderful views along the way.

This is the chapel that is just now being rebuilt after the Sept 2009 tsunami.  The work is coming along great!

Had you seen the before and after pictures, you would be amazed.

This is a view outside our fale.  It was so peaceful and gorgeous.

And, we enjoyed our outdoor dinner one evening, with this as our view. 

We've celebrated 33 anniversaries in wonderful ways and all sorts of places.  This was probably my favorite. 

I feel so blessed to know that we will be celebrating throughout the eternities.

Another Mickal...

This is Siva and David with their son, Fernandez, who has recently had his first name changed to Mickal. 

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?!

David and Siva have raised him since he was a newborn.  They are working on getting him legally adopted so they can have him sealed to them.  Our goal is to have that happen before we leave.

It's safe to say Elder and Sister Merrell have a soft spot in their hearts for this little guy.