Highlights of January 2017

We can summarize the events of January with one word - SNOW!

We spent almost every day removing snow from our driveway and also from the church.

Icicles from our frozen rain gutter

This is the worst winter since the 1983-84 winter when we first moved to Logan.

Kohler's bird feeder in the back yard

Closeup - It got higher later in the month

 At least we had a few "partly cloudy" days mixed in, but they were cold.

Winter clouds

The snow piled so high there was no place to put it.

This calls for a bigger snowblower

The mailbox got covered (and broken)

 Once we shoveled the snow in the driveway the snow plows would come and bury the entrance of our driveway.

This is extra heavy snow

It took both of us to keep up with the snowfall.

Diane shoveling snow too deep for the snowblower

We ain't in Brazil no longer

 Just so you know, double negatives are good grammar in Portuguese. There was so much snow on the roof we decided to get some off, but only got part way up.

Snow on the roof

Snow pile in the side yard

 Yes we had a white Christmas, but we had a whiter January.

Snow cave anyone?

One night while out shoveling snow I saw a deer just down the street. It didn't seem to bother with what I was doing so I went in to take a couple of photos.

Night prowler

Down in the valley for the winter

 My left shoulder got really sore so I finally went in to see the doctor - tendonitis. He sent me to a physical therapist who gave me some shoulder exercises. Now both shoulders are sore (though not as bad).

After taking down Christmas decorations we spent the month getting the house in order. This included replacing toilets, putting up bulletin boards and pegboards in the office and crafts rooms, cleaning out the attics and getting rid of lots of stuff, and installing new blinds in the upstairs rooms. We wondered what to do with our travel pictures and those we brought back from Brazil. We decided to load the bare walls in the basement. They actually look quite nice in a spacious room.

Welcome to Brazil

Have we really been to all these places?

 The end of the month brought the Chinese New Year. We now have a Mandarin branch in our stake. I offered to take my musical instruments from China to display. It ended up we (Wei) and I also gave a presentation about the musical instruments. He plays the "erhu", the Chinese violin. We are actually in the process of passing along about half of our musical instrument collection.

Two smiling faces for Chinese New Year

We were visited by a traditional dragon

Paul and Wei presenting traditional Chinese musical instruments

 After the presentation several of the branch members came up to play some of the instruments.

Showing off the instruments to some of the children in the branch.

Yes, we are glad January is over. We still have a lot of snow on the ground, but hope it will be gone before July.

Highlights of December 2016

Once we got back from our cruise we were already into the Christmas season without being ready. We started decorating the house for Christmas, which meant finding our Christmas decorations. We gave away our tree so for the first time in years we went shopping for a Christmas tree.

The week after we returned was finals week at the university. I had a review session with the class on Monday, the first day of finals, made up the final during the week, and gave the final on Friday. I spent most of Friday and Saturday grading the final and turned in the grades at the beginning of the next week. This ended my teaching career (unless they ask me to teach some time in the future).

Meanwhile, we had the upstairs painted: the master bedroom before Christmas and the other three rooms between Christmas and New Years. We also did a lot of other work, like replacing toilets and lights. This seems to be a never-ending process.

We did have time for several Christmas celebrations. We were invited to the ECE Christmas dinner at the Bluebird. We walked around Logan in the cold looking at gingerbread houses in the stores. We attended the Celebration of Christ at our stake center. This is a multi-faith activity. It starts with hundreds of nativity scenes scattered around the meetinghouse.

From Spain

Miniature

From Africa

There were also musical performances from many of the churches in Logan. It is nice to celebrate Christmas together. I helped the event planner with setting up the sound system for the performances. It included a performance from our neighborhood orchestra. Andrea, Alyssa, Kohler, and Lauren would have been part of this performance if they hadn't moved to Indiana.

Neighborhood orchestra performs

The event included a live nativity outside with several primary children playing the parts of Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Angels, and Wise Men.

Live nativity

They even had animals, such as sheep, and yes, even a camel.

The camel

Our Christmas celebration was very simple. On Christmas Eve our friends Rehan, Suat, and their daughter Jaren came to visit. We were able to tell them about how we celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Day, Sunday, we had a nice Sacrament Meeting with the choir and speakers. We actually got up late and didn't even open presents until after noon. 

We did get out of the valley for at least a day. The daughter of Brent and Lisa Robinson was married and had a reception in Salt Lake. Brent was my counselor in the married student ward. It is hard to believe they have a daughter old enough to get married. It gave us a chance to stop in Layton and at the Container Store in Salt Lake (Diane's favorite) before the reception at Trolly Square.

The new year is upon us so we cleaned out the attics (both are now completely empty) so we can find what we have and decide what to do with it. We have accumulated a lot of things in the past 34 years we have lived in Logan.

Fiji

Fiji (Dec 9-11, 2016)

Dec 9 (Fri) - Fiji

            When we arrived in Fiji we went through customs and then got on a bus that took us to the Radisson Blu Resort. We checked in and then went to our room. We were greeted to the sound of the lali, a drum used in Fiji to signal a gathering.

A lali greeting

We are in Fiji

We had dinner in the Thai restaurant here at the resort. We then changed into our swimming suits and went in some of the pools. The water was lukewarm. It felt good. It was a nice way to relax for the evening. 

Dec 10 (Sat) - Fiji

           Today was our Fiji day. We got our swimming suits on and went out to the beach. We put our towels and things on some rocks and then we walked down the beach looking for shells, seeing tiny crabs, and getting our feet wet. It was low tide.

Fijian flower

Getting her feet wet in Fiji

Look, I found some coral

We then came back to the pool in the resort and relaxed on lounge chairs.

One of the pools in the resort

Lounging around

After we finished at the pool we changed into our clothes and walked around the resort.

Ready to go

Fountain in the resort

Paul plays the lali 

Tropical flower

 We decided to walk to the port. We are on an Denarau Island that has several resorts and many private houses. The port is the only shopping area (other than in the resort shops) on the island. It was a nice walk.

Fountain

The stick men

The resort is around this bay 

Bright tropical tree

Port Denarau

We found a place for lunch where Diane had a fish burger and Paul ate Palusami - a local delicacy - oven-baked, stuffed local spinach and coconut with grilled tomatoes and caramelized onions with crispy dalo (a root of some type). 

Our eatery

Palusami

We then did some souvenir shopping. We bought a lali (drum) which we are having them ship. We also bought a sulu (men's skirt), 2 tapa mats, and a picture of a village. At another store we bought a bula shirt for Paul and a sulu chamba dress for Diane. By the time we got back to the resort we were very hot and tired.

We changed quickly back into our swimsuits then went to the pool. It was so nice to cool off in the pool. We then checked the beach again. This time it was high tide. We got up to our necks in the ocean. It was warm.

We went to the Blu Brazzerie for dinner. Diane had the salad bar and Paul had Mahi Mahi, which included the salad bar. We watched the progress of the sun setting. It was beautiful. After dinner we came back to the room for the night.

Dinner at the Blu Brazzerie

Lantern lighting ceremony

Fijian sunset

A very peaceful night

Dec 11 (Sun) - Fiji

            This morning we got up about 7 AM, dressed and had the breakfast buffet at the Blu Brazzerie. It was good. They even had some good papaya, something we miss from Brazil.

Breakfast time

After breakfast we walked along the beach and found some more shells. We went to the spot where we could see the other side of the spit that went out into the ocean. There was another island there. It is privately owned.

Not so distant island

We packed our bags and spent the day lounging around the resort. We found a shady spot to sit, visit, and relax.

Walking around the resort

Our guardian 

We found a Mexican restaurant called "Mamacita". We went there for lunch and had some tacos. Paul had pork and Diane had chicken.

About 4:30 PM we went to Alan McKay's room (our tour guide) to cool down and visit with others there. We changed our clothes in their bathroom, ready to go to the airport.

Alan McKay

At 5:45 PM we went to the lobby and loaded our luggage on the bus to the airport. We then went through the check-in and immigration process and waited to board our plane for Las Angles. We left Fiji at 9:40 PM and tried to sleep most of the time on the plane.

Sunday December 11^th. We had two Sundays because of crossing the international dateline. We left LA at about 4 PM and got into Salt Lake at about 6:20 PM. We were glad there was no snow on the ground and the roads were clear. We got home around 8:30 PM.

This was a good vacation, but it was OH so nice to be home again.

Fim

Aukland

Aukland (Dec 9, 2016)

Dec 9 (Fri) - Auckland
           Today We pulled into Aukland, New Zealand's largest city. This is our last port. 

Aukland port

Ferry building

 We got on a bus and had a brief tour of Aukland on the way to the airport, but didn't have a chance to get out and walk around. At least we got some pictures through the windows of the bus.

Church

High Court

Aukland History Building

Shipping containers 

Container loading cranes

Aukland garden

Holy Trinity Cathedral

Aukland War Memorial

We were then dropped off at the airport. We had to wait for a while until it was time for us to check in. Once we checked in we went to the gate. We started boarding at about 1:15 PM and left at about 2 PM. It was a 2 1/2 -hour flight to Fiji. 

Statue at the airport

To be continued: