Happy 4th of July

Today is the 4th of July.  We missed celebrating with our family again this year but we had a great day.

It was our P-day so we had laundry and cleaning to do, but we went to lunch with the Hawses at La Toscana, an Italian restaurant recommended to us by the Marlers. The food was authentic and very delicious.  The Ashtars have a restaurant in their lovely home.  There are only four tables and we were the only ones there for lunch. They were so friendly and served us well.  We will definitely go back again.

Preparing food in their spotless kitchen.

Sheyla bringing us our salad.

The Ashtars, mother, daughter & father.
The mother is part Italian and learned the recipes from her
mother and grandmother.

In the evening we met with the other temple missionaries to celebrate President Casos's birthday.  He turned 73 on Saturday.

 
Yesterday we went to a branch, Rama Villa del Mar.  They meet in the closest building to the temple at 8:30.  They have very few youth, no deacons, teachers or priests to prepare and pass the sacrament.  Bill helped the Branch President prepare the sacrament before the meeting. 

Bill with Branch President Vargas preparing the sacrament with bottled water.

This sister is a volunteer at the temple.  She is 63 years old.  She has
7 children, 19 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.

Bill with some missionaries and sisters.

Hermana Alvarenga from Argentina & Hermana Gavica from Mexico. 

More missionaries.
Elder Murri from Washington, Elder Garside from California, Hermana Mansilla
from Bolivia, Hermana Peel from Mesa, Arizona, Herman Wright from Oregon
and Hermana Oteo from Provo, Utah.

Hermana Quiones with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.

After living in our apartment for a year, we finally got our own thermostats.  Before, we had no way of controlling the temperature.  It was all done digitally by the engineers.  We had to always ask them to raise or lower it a  degree or two.  Hopefully this will make our home much more comfortable.

The banks here are very different from the USA.  People go to the banks to pay many of their bills.  We had to pay for our plane tickets to Lima at the bank and recently we went there to pay for Heather's family's rooms here at the Alberque when they come the end of this month.  They do have a special line for old people, handicapped people, pregnant women and people with children.  It is usually a shorter line which can still be a lengthy wait.  There is also a preferential line in the grocery store but it is rarely open.

I finally got a picture of the temple windows at dusk.  They show off much better at this time of day.

The first week in July has always been a busy time for our family.  Besides the 4th of July which we always enjoy, our daughter Heather was born on July 2nd.  She just celebrated her 38th birthday.  She has been such a good daughter and has helped take care of things at home while we have been serving our mission.  She is talented in so many ways and was and has been a happy, fun girl.  We are so proud to call her our daughter.

With her bother Brent, ages 5 & 1. 

Another picture with Brent, ages 7 & 3.

Heather in 1st grade.

One of her Senior pictures, age 17.

Now she is a married mother of two. Happy Birthday, Heather.
We sure do love you.

The 2nd important event in July was the birth of our oldest granddaughter, Sadie Marie Hartman on July 3, 1998.  She made us grandparents for the 1st time.  We loved her from the moment she was born and she has never failed to bring joy to our lives.  She is a very talented artist and can play the piano by ear.  She is living in Utah with Heather's family studying graphic arts. She just turned 18.  She and Heather are 20 years apart.

Happy Birthday, Sadie.  We love you.

Sadie with my Dad.  She was his first great granddaughter.

About 2 years old.

Four or five years old.

Sadie with Brigham, Ellie, Hannah, Abby & Micah.



Sadie is the oldest of nine children.  She has been a wonderful big sister to all of them.

Here she is with her siblings.
Hannah, Abby, Sadie (holding Zech),
Brigham, Jacob, Bekah, Joy & Moses.

Sadie today.

The 3rd important event in July was the wedding of Heather and Robert on July 3, 1999, Sadie's 1st birthday.  It's hard to believe they have been married 17 years.  

Heather and Robert with their children, Micah, 13 and and Ellie, 11.


To celebrate these special events this year, Heather and Robert took their kids and Sadie to Denver, CO to spend some time with the Sollidays. One of the things they did was going to the Renaissance Festival.  It looked like they all had a great time.

So Happy Birthday, America.  Happy birthday, Heather.  Happy Birthday, Sadie.  And Happy Anniversary, Robert & Heather.


And lastly, I just had to post a cute Pickles comic strip to finish off this post.