Christmas 2017

Twas a month before Christmas and our tree is up,
we left early to enjoy Thanksgiving with family ,friends and sup.
For a much needed road trip,which took us far far away,
to our roots in California, cherished friends, family and ocean bay.

This summer Jim climbed the roof to install solar panels,
while I calmly knitted away his burial flannels!!
Costa Rica reunion had so many high lights;
volcanoes, monkeys,waves and awesome sights.

Our service is spent with our BYU Pathway Connect Mission.
Again helping young adults grow and find education fun.

We send our LOVE to LIGHT the WAY

Retracing our footsteps

Thanksgiving time reminds us that we are thankful for family, friends, food, fun, and faith. We celebrated with a road trip starting North to Reno, leaving in snow and rain, even having to stop and get warmer gear ie cute scarf in Reno. Then we traveled through the beautiful Mountains through Donner pass and into Brentwood California using the back roads following the Sacramento River

Of course Jim loved seeing the use of Solar power and even a solar field!

This drive along the river was colorful and new to us.

We loved visiting with Clark and Jill and learning how to play Golf, a card game.

Boys will be boys,

Charice and Clay are living in Clovis, which is near Fresno, near Yosemite. Addison and Abby loved doing hair and I was lucky to get a massage from Charice, so I felt really pampered!  

Too bad the Thanksgiving Photos are not on my photo, We had a great feast with Clay frying the turkey. We also found some fun stores in the city and started our Christmas shopping,, shhhh! I wont give away any secrets but, we did get a big bang out of it! Next day we drove mostly west to the beach, It brought back memories of visiting Loraine and Bob and all of the "cousins"

Pismo Beach was almost 90 degrees! Heavenly! I didnt want to leave, but I was looking forward to Solvang, a cute Scandinavian town where we went on our honeymoon. Only this time, I had already been to Denmark so I wasnt as impressed! We went swimming at the local Y and walked and talked about old times and memories.

Our next drive took us to Venture where Jim had many memories with his family. My feet were starting to hurt so, off to buy new shoes in Thousand Oaks and have a great visit with the Dittmans. Saturday and Sunday we visited my old stomping grounds, Simi Valley. Memories shared with dear friends mostly after ward hopping to both Erringer an Township building. I left feeling sad and happy. Sad to leave so many good friends and happy that I can share my time with grandchildren and serve missions with Jim. The last part of our trip as we headed North was with our dear friends, the Hanks, who lived right off the I 15 and we continue North and the Warnicks in Las Vegas. When we got to the Hanks we shared Mission stories from Philadelphia and our European missions. And when we got to Las Vegas Loraine and I laughed as we shared memories of our first trip to Europe in 1973! SOOO all and all it was a memorable trip  with love, fun, food and faith shared with friends and family.

colorful October

The traditional visit to see the harvest colors started early as did our biannual church Conference in Salt Lake City. This year we were lucky to see the last session in person because my brother Craig's son Austin is singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We experienced joyful sounds and colors this month  

My Cousin Annette moved just South of us.!

Missionary reunions! This one celebrates Switzerland, honoring the Todds, who returned from work on the Paris Temple and our beloved Murdocks who will be serving again in New Zealand 

Many sporting events,  Here is Orem girls Cross country with Mariah

Birthday boy, Jake and Layla at David Larkins wedding

Every month I get to play with out youngest grandson Ike

Nattie taught us how to make our pumpkins glow with crayons, fire under the direction of grandpa

Logan crossed the finish line 4 th in the state and is now being recruited by various colleges,!  

it is a balancing act trying to keep up with all the kids and their activities but, we love it and certainly miss not celebrating with Emily and Victoria who also have birthdays this month, Happy Harvest to ALL, We had great color this year

end of a great summer and start of a new school year

 I have always loved school. I love the time of year with color and weather changing. That is one reason why going to visit family with rain is enjoyable for me. We spent our last official holiday, Labor day, in Michigan. The kids and mom are all excited to start the new school year, that makes four different school in the Mercado family. Karina and  6 of hers started school in Aug with 6 different schools, including Karina continuing with her nursing education.
And Jim and I have started another year serving with the Pathwayconnect mission as part of BYU Pathway Worldwide. The name has changed several times, but it continues to be the very affordable online education program associated with BYU I . We meet with our students once a week and help them with their classes. Each semester they have an Institute class and either Life skills, English or Math. I do the homework right along side of them.

Wanderlust travels in Aug.

After having so much fun in Costa Rica with family and loving sharing new adventures, I have been busy finding new and fun activities with family and friends.

Just last weekend we went up to Seattle to see Jan and Jarons cute family with Emily and Cade the only ones home now.

The timing was perfect to share the eclipse excitement. We also got to go to the Seattle Temple and to see Seth and Mackenzie new place

The week before Seattle, I got to go to McCall, Idaho and play with the McDonalds, We swam , boated, Kayaked , ate great food and I learned how to play poker!

I even got to swim to the island with Karina, We had the kids escort us in the kayak and paddle boat, It was freezing but we did it!!

More sailing and water fun with Dereks family and I even got to see Derek swim backstroke in a race after the grandkids.

Jim and I continued to do hikes, bikes and swimming. Utah is a great place to explore, We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

Jim is 70ish

Jim turned 70ish this year so we celebrate at Nikkis place with Shelley and all the kids   Nikki found these old photos of Jim and we celebrated at her place. We spent the day driving up North stopping along the way at various fruit stands. We are still trying to find fresh peaches and apricots. We already have cherries frozen from our tree and a lot of yellow squash.

These year we moved the tomatoes but they are still doing great.

missionary photo

who looks like him? one of the grandkids for sure!

High School graduation

College graduation

here is Nikki, Charice, Shelley and Angie at the Chatterley reunion

And another one with all the kids with Clark on one end and Jaron on the other.

of course, no birthday is not complete with out a work project, Here he is fixing the water leak from my bathroom. After our return from Costa Rica, I was so tired the next night, that I left the water on when I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. We are much happier with tile through out the whole addition that Jim made to the bathroom-closet.

We  took a day trip up to Park City to walk and swim and just enjoy some time together. What I really need is more time together. After being in the Costa Rican beach environment, I just cant seem to get enough fun in the sun and being with family.