Mid January

In the middle of January, Josh got some good ski days in (he and Nate love skiing together now) and was chosen as student of the week by one of his teachers (his peer tutor teacher who loves him). And Megan went climbing with her friend Samara (she loves it!) and counted down the days until Lia got home. Then Ollie got a hair cut so was ready to see Lia. Lastly, we welcomed Lia's good friend Ellie back home. 

End of the Mission

Lia did some service and sweated it out in the heat, spent time with members of the ward, learned how to make some Paraguayan food with her friend Andi and her husband and the other sisters, cleaned the baptismal font, had a meeting and saw her old companion, did a little shopping, did some studying in her apartment, and was excited to see her convert Jose out with the missionaries. 

Punta Mita

At the beginning of January before the kids went back to school, we took a quick trip to Punta Mita in Mexico and invited Janet and Kent to come with us. Nate's friend Jamie offered us his house. Nate had been there a few times before and loved it! (And Nate and I had been there with another friend from work and I loved it too.) I was really torn about going without Lia, especially when she was so close to coming home, but we decided the offer was too good to turn down. And Josh decided he would rather go to his friend Joseph's cabin that he'd been invited to, so I felt a little better about going when it wasn't the WHOLE family except Lia. We had great food, a great swimming pool and view of the ocean on the back deck, really great beaches and golfing, and more great food. We also went on an incredible whale watching boat ride where we got up close and personal with the whales. We felt so spoiled and were so grateful we got to go!