FOTO FRIDAY - 9/30/16

Dear Family and Friends,

The Seine river in Paris, France on a cloud leaden day.  This picture was taken about 2006.

Have a love filled weekend.

Nancy

In the Air Again...

Dear Family and Friends,

It seems like we just returned from our trip to Minnesota.  We have had about three weeks to unpack, do laundry, catch up with friends and repack for our next trip.

On Monday we are leaving for a two month trip.  First, we are headed to China for a month.  The first two weeks will be with family and we are excited about that. The second two weeks we will be on our own, with a tour guide, touring southern China. Then we will fly to Singapore for a few days before we get on our cruise to Australia and New Zealand.  We will return to Cuenca the second week in December.

Chuck has his little handy dandy smiley face neck rest packed and ready.

For this trip we will have little internet access.  Chuck found this link that you can use to find out what URL's can be accessed in China.  You can use this link to see if your email or website can be seen in China.

http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/ 

We will not have access to our blog, Facebook, or even my gmail account. Maybe Chuck will be able to receive email with his ymail account but we don't know for sure.

I can not be sharing posts on the blog about this trip until we return in December.
I have reinstated FOTO FRIDAY, beginning tomorrow, to have photos from our past to keep us in your thoughts until we return.

Love,
Nancy

Fun Time at the Minnesota State Fair

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I have returned to Cuenca from our fun trip to visit family in Minnesota.  We had three glorious days at the Minnesota State Fair.  This fair is one of the largest in the USA.

Merri and Ken have ten children.  The five oldest were living at the 4-H building on the fairgrounds.  They were all involved with the 4-H State Arts-In program. We were there to see all their hard work.

We accompanied Merri, Ken and the five youngest kids to the fair.  Here we are, tickets in hand, going into the entrance.

Nathaniel, using a map of the fairgrounds, deciding which route is best to get to the 4-H building.

Off we go, Merri and her youngest ones leading the way.

The 4-H building is where the musical is performed.  This musical is put together by the 4-H kids.  They make the costumes, design and build the set, do all the lighting and other technical things and perform.

Portia, our oldest granddaughter, was hired as a staff member.  She is a student at Seattle Pacific University.  She returned home for a month to be with family and earn college money.

Paris was a dorm helper.  She helped make sure the kids were safe and the rules were followed.

Joshua played saxophone in the orchestra during the performances.

Petra was a performer in the musical show.

Paige worked in the technical arena, helping to build the set, run the lights and passing out programs.

Here she is passing out programs for the show we were attending.

Petra was one of the performers in the musical.  She is in the front row, right hand side.

They perform about three, high energy, shows a day during the fair.

After enjoying the performance, hugging and congratulating the kids for a job well done, Chuck and I set out to see the rest of the fair.

The majestic Clydesdales were a big hit.

We loved the baby animals.

Here is a new born goat.

These piglets were just hours old.

Smartly dressed riders and their horses.

There was all kinds of food.  Fried everything, sweet corn, cheese curds, everything you can think of.  Here is a sign for sweet corn ice cream.

We visited the commercial vendors, saw the displays of quilts and other crafts, and enjoyed down time sitting and listening to music throughout the fair grounds.

While not at the fair, the kids enjoyed the hotel swimming pool.

A fun time was had by everyone.

Love,
Nancy