Ben's Graduation

Now I am going back in time. In the past month and a half we have had 26 guests in our home. I am just now updating my blog with varios activities. This post is of Ben's graduation. Click on the link below to see several of the pictures. Our thanks to Barb Boyer for taking over 200 pictures at graduation.https://picasaweb.google.com/perumom/20110702BenSGraduation?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN_gjdXyt9Qv&feat=directlink

Youth Retreat

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a VERY long time. I will make up for that, I promise. We have been blessed with many weeks of company and a great group of young people who just left this morning. We spent 3 wonderful days at camp for the winter youth retreat. We had 171 campers and prepared food for 180! I had the privilege of helping in the kitchen. Wow, talk about exhausting. Yet...I would do it again in a heartbeat. I am sending some pictures your way. Click on the link below to view all the pictures that we took at the retreat.
https://picasaweb.google.com/perumom/CongresoDeJovenes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfVsPPZoMPW5QE

While the Cat's Away

While David has been in Lima this week we have been doing some painting in the kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room and hallway of the house. It is looking great! It is nice to have bigger children to help out.

I did all of the cutting in at the ceiling level.



Abigail and mom working in the laundry room.

This is the ugly green that was on the walls in the kitchen. Now it looks like this...

Clean bright walls, I love it!!

Yeah, this is how we all felt at the end of the day.

This girl inhaled too many paint fumes!

Family Work Time at Camp

On Tuesday, we went to camp for the afternoon. We enjoyed being able to do a bit of physical labor. It was a nice time together.

David, Steve, their dad and the camp caretaker all worked on putting up the beams to hold the roofing for the bathroom/shower area at the pool.

The girls worked on laying bricks for a sidewalk outside the dining room. It is harder than you might think to get the bricks level.

The finished product... it still needs to be extended down further, but this was the goal for today.

Benjamin is 18!

6 months
One year

5 years

10 years

Graduation Picture

Two of his favorite things: the beach and his french horn

Macchu Picchu

After a 2 hour train ride, we had a great breakfast at this little

restaurant before getting on the bus to go into Macchu Picchu.

Beucase of the rain, the river was very angry and muddy.

Totally awesome! You HAVE to visit Macchu Picchu. It is incredible.

We were so thankful that the rain held off until we were almost done sightseeing. The clouds were ever present as you can tell. It was chilly.

While Ben and David climbed Winupicchu with its 100's and 100's of steps,

the rest of toured the ruins.

Climbing up and up and up

Picnic lunch at about 10,000 feet. We moved slowly.
Llamas and alpacas

A lot of the trip to Abancay (where we spent the night with friends) we were beside the river. As you can tell, it was raining.

Looking down on the city of Abancay. This was one of my favorite cities.

Breathtaking beauty

Thousands of vicuñas along the way, even in the road.

Unfortunately this bus decided he needed ALL the road on the curve around the mountain. We had only been on the road for 30 minutes. Thankfully there wasn't much damage. He even had the nerve to yell at David and tell him how much room he had to get over. Yeah, we were by the ditch and the mountain.

Notice the difference in the signs. We decided to go to the right so we could save a few kilometers to get to Cuzco :)