Thanksgiving in Utah

We met Alana and Ian in Utah and had our smallest number of people for Thanksgiving that I can remember. Evan is at the Mission Training Center and leaving for Argentina on December 14. In this picture, we are on the balcony of the townhouse with BYU and the MTC in the background, toasting Evan and his mission.
One of the reasons we like spending Thanksgiving in Utah is that it starts out the Christmas season so appropriately - with shopping early in the cold on Black Friday and then going up to Temple Square to watch them switch on the hundreds of thousands of lights. Pictured above is the Assembly Hall.
We had Belgian waffles at a place near Temple Square that has the best Belgian waffles we have had since Brussels. We also attended the Christensen wedding reception, that had an incredibly beautifully decorated ward building - it felt like being in a home. It was nice to see the whole Christensen family again and also to be able to see the Warnick family. We love Utah but will be glad to be back in CA this afternoon.

Evan at the Mission Training Center

Evan sent pictures of life in the Mission Training Center in Provo. He says the work is hard but that his Spanish is improving quickly.
Evan is pictured here with his two companions. One is from Santaquin, Utah and the other is from Bountiful, Utah.
This is his District at the Mission Training Center.
This is the Provo Temple, located right across the street from the Mission Training Center. I think Evan got particularly homesick when the fall days were this beautiful and he could hear the cheering for the BYU football games - and he wasn't able to go to them. Just wait two years and he'll be back there cheering for his team.
This is Evan's desk in his room. He already has the pictures of family and friends hanging on the bulletin board.

Work (and some relaxing) in Hawaii

Right after my re-election campaign, I flew to Hawaii to do a different kind of work - getting the condo. on North Shore fixed up with a new bathroom and some painting. My parents flew over first with Helen and then I joined them. We made a lot of trips to Home Depot and Lowes and made some important decisions. Tat joined us for a good part of the time up on North Shore.
We took an afternoon off and went to the beach in the afternoon. The waves were pretty big at Shark's Cove.
All during the election campaign one of the things that kept me going was the thought of sitting in the hammock at Turtle Bay and reading Smithsonian magazine. . .I finally got to do it for a couple of hours and it was just as great as I remembered.
My parents and I would take a daily walk around Turtle Bay every evening for exercise. It was beautiful to watch the waves rolling in.