Sophia is Mama

I miss our little Sophia!

We're Home

We are so glad to be home. We had a wonderful trip, but we are glad to be back to our family and friends. Our trip from the cruise ship all the way to Shirley and Jack's house took us 18 hours. We were tired old folks!

Cartegena, Columbia

I just overheard a lady saying she would have never gotten off the ship in Columbia. Well, it helps that Denny speaks Spanish, and he can get us around fairly easily. We decided to make our way onto a main thoroughfare from the ship, and look for a city busy or a taxi and head to the walled, Old City. We did just that for $6 (way cheaper than the shore excursions booked on ship). He dropped us right at the entrance to the walled city, and we did a walking tour. I just thought it was magnificent, because it wasn't as much a tourist place as an authentic south american city. There were definitely your tourist trap stores, but mostly, it was a historical area with beautiful narrow streets with flower covered balconies overhead. Most of the doors in that area were those huge mission-style doors, but cut into each one was a smaller door for entering. Our taxi driver told us only the "upper class" lived in that area. We stood on the wall, built in the early 1600's. We thoroughly enjoyed our only visit to South America. Now, we are at sea for two days, and then will land in Miami Sunday morning. We will fly to L.A., where we will be picked up by Shirley and Jack's daughter in law. From there we will go to Silverlakes to spend the night, then head home on Monday. Denny will be glad to be back on solid ground again, as his stomach has been a little queasy with the rough seas. I just think he needs a cup of real coffee! So, our first stop on Monday, will be Starbucks in Victorville!

Panama Canal

We are just finishing up on the last lock to head into the Caribbean Sea and on to Columbia. This has been such an amazing trip. The Panama Canal was so very interessting! Well, the pics say it all.
OK. Well, I guess I forgot to upload the pics. I will add them in a bit......

The Zip Line Pictures

I have limited time online, so I will spend it with adding our pics. The Canopy Tour, riding a zip line over the rainforest was just unbelievable. Denny and I were definitely the oldest. The most terrifying was standing on the narrow platform 5 stories up hugging a tree so you didn't fall! Also, I had a hard time slowing down, so I was pretty sure I was gonna crush the guy who was supposed to catch me on the next platform. Thankfully, he knew what he was doing and slowed me down from his end..... I am not sure I would do it again, but I would definitely recommend that you try it!

Panama Cruisin'

We are going through the Panama Canal, and you can SEE US!!! I am sitting on ship watching us on the webcam.....don't know how to save it!

Somewhere Off the Coast of Guatemala

Well, I have some catching up to do. We have been to Cabo, Acapulco and yesterday Huatulco. Cabo is not much........ but we did sail right past the famous arch that everyone takes pics of. Acapulco was pretty fascinating, and we walked quite a bit, saw the Cliff divers, saw the Old Town, took a bus to Starbucks (of course), and saw the newer resort area. We enjoyed many sights and sounds of Acapulco. Yesterday we disembarked in Huatulco with the intention of going snorkeling. We found a taxi and headed to the beach the driver recommended, La Entrega Bay. We rented snorkeling equipment and had a fantastic time snorkeling. Another couple told us to head out around the point and go to another beach, so we swam out there and saw many, many colorful fish. We headed back to the ship, but stopped and ate $1 tacos near the marina. It was so good. When we returned to the ship, we found out that Jack and Shirley had eaten at the same taco stand. We went back on the ship and ate lunch, then headed to our room to relax. There was a marimba band on the deck right below our balcony, so it was fun to sit back and relax and listen to the music from our room. Our first cruise we had an inside stateroom. Having a balcony is just fantastic. It is so great sitting out there, doing my Bible study, or just watching the sea. Early this morning dolphins were jumping out of the water, visible from our balcony. I would not want to take another cruise without getting a balcony room.

Panama Cruisin'

Hey, we are on a cruise ship, cruisin along the Pacific shore of Baja. Can you believe how much luggage we brought to the ship? Of course, that is for four of us. We left L.A. on Monday, November 23, and we are about to disembark at Cabo. I don't have a lot of time to update today, but for those of you who don't know, we are on a cruise to the Panama Canal, then across the Caribbean to Miami. We have left my mom in the good care of Denny's sister Joni, who is holding down the fort for us back in Tucson.
We are with my cousins, Shirley and Jack Parkes. So far, wonderful experience on this, our second cruise..... We have a balcony room, so we can sit out on our balcony and enjoy the scenery while reading, etc. It is just a wonderful break!

On the Road Again

We just received information about the family for whom we will be building a house in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. We will leave next week, taking our grandson, Cody and his friend Mike with us. We are looking forward to being involved in this endeavor with Northwest Bible Church and Amor Ministries.

Why Not? It is an Adventure and We're Retired!

Wes, Julie and Tressa at the Copper Canyon overlook

Eating lunch of Gorditas and Chili Rellenos

Picking up some trinkets made by the Tarahumara

This Tarahumara women was weaving baskets

She was delighted to show off her darling baby

Views of the Samachique Village

Typica

"Why not, It's an adventure, and we are retired!" Those are always Denny's words when I suggest we do something that we haven't done before. Last week, I was chatting on Facebook with my good friend, Julie Shoemaker. She and her husband, Wes have ministered to the Tarahumara people in Samachique, Chihuahua, Mexico for many years. We have supported them (minimally) and Denny has taken groups of young people down to help them at various times, but I have never been to their village.
Wes had bottomed out on one of the horrible roads he needs to travel to various villages and towns. He did not realize he had a crack in his oil pan and all of the oil leaked out of his engine. The engine seized up and he was stranded out in the middle of nowhere. The Wycliffe mechanic felt that Wes should bring the van back to the states if at all possible. Julie asked if we were up for an adventure. She needed someone with a truck like ours to take her and Tressa (their daughter) down to Samachique, hauling a car dolly to bring Wes and the van back to the states before their visas ran out. Of course, you know our answer, "Why not? It is an adventure, and we're retired!"
We left early Saturday, October 31 and drove for about 15 hours, through the Copper Canyon, to the village. On Sunday we went to the English gathering in the village and did a walking tour around the village. On Monday, Tressa had some medical and dental work attended to at the hospital in the village while Denny and Wes loaded the van and I visited with some people who shared their vision for expanding the birthing center to include training in midwifery. On Tuesday morning, we loaded up the truck, pulling the van and headed to Creel. We dropped the van in Creel and took a side trip to the lookout of the Copper Canyon. We bought gifts made by the Tarahumara people there, and ate Gorditas and Chili Rellenos. It was quite an experience. We headed back to pick up the van and began the long trip home through beautiful Chihuahua. It looks nothing like Sonora. There are farms and rather modern, more developed cities. We stopped in Gomez Farias and got motel rooms and ate dinner at a local restaurant that Wes and Julie were familiar with. They have made this trip many times over the nearly 20 years that they have been doing translation work with Wycliffe.
On Wednesday morning, we got up and headed home, twelve hours two days in a row.
My respect and admiration for the Shoemakers, who have willingly let go of the comfortable life to live in an area with few modern conveniences. They do not have running water in their home. They take a shower by heating water, hoisting it up in a bucket and standing under it! They walk through the long grass to an outhouse. There are some other ministries in this same village, including a large hospital with four doctors, a birthing center and a full time midwife. We met many missionaries from various organizations working with these people in unique endeavors. One was a man who is attempting to teach the village people to build furniture as a means of income.
Wes and Julie are friends and neighbors to the people of this village and they do many things for them besides working on literacy projects and Bible translation.
We were very impressed that they really need a high clearance, four wheel drive small truck. We have watched Julie and Wes get along with other people's cast off vehicles for all the years we have known them. We really want to help them get a decent vehicle that will facilitate the work that they do. I lay in my comfortable bed last night wondering how we were going to do that, but it is a goal of mine to get the word out. We have seen pictures of the village and read the Shoemaker's monthly update for years. There is nothing like visiting Samachique and seeing it for myself.

Howard Family Mexico Trip 2009

Each year our family gathers at Playa Bonita RV Park in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. All of our family was there, plus some friends and extended family. It was a great, relaxing time.

Where in the World is the Howard Family?

We have had a great time with the family in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. Most everyone has now gone home. It looks like this is the only time this year we will all be together, so we were able to get a last minute family picture before everyone took off.
We are still here, sailing, walking on the beach, reading and generally enjoying the beachfront site on the Sea of Cortez. Also, we have several couple friends who are always here in October. Today 8 of us went to the Family of God Church and then out to breakfast. We spent the afternoon sailing.

Ray and Denise Go Geocaching With Us

My brother Ray and his wife Denise are here visiting my mother and us for the long weekend. Last night we went karaoking with them, and Ray brought down the house, but the place we went shall remain nameless! Today, they went geocaching with us.

Life in a snapshot - The Boston Globe

I had a pleasant moment on the phone today with an old friend. We were catching up, and she was telling me about her two little 2 year old grandsons. She commented that she had thought maybe she would never be a grandparent and then here are these two grandsons born three months apart. She spends her days now running Grandma's Daycare!
It reminded me of a column I had read by Ellen Goodman. Here is an excerpt:


Life in a snapshot - The Boston Globe

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"Parents - I remember well - are caught in the dailiness of child-raising. But grandparents, imbued with a different sense of time, create a narrative arc across generations. If parents are the forward momentum of a child’s life, we become the curators of traditions.

How odd, I think, as I sort the photographs, that of all the generations, mine would end up as traditionalists. Weren’t we the ones who upended the whole culture, the relationships between husbands and wives, the preconceptions about family? Aren’t we the people who were born before TV and, in a blink, got Medicare cards and iPhones at the same time? Weren’t we our country’s designated change agents?

Yet, here we are after all this time, with our children’s children. We have become, of all things, of all people, the collectors of memories and builders of family traditions. This is what we do with small people on a small island, one snapshot, one story, and one summer at a time."

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ACLU uses Facebook quiz to warn that users' personal data is at risk | www.azstarnet.com ®

This is why I ignore most of the invites on Facebook. I don't want to take the chance of Identity Theft. Please don't take it personally...

Cash for Clunkers?

Geocaching Around Home

We are at home in Tucson, supervising the remodel of our swimming pool. Also, I have been doing my payback days to Amphi district by doing Dibels testing with first graders at Mesa Verde Elementary School.
When it cools down a bit in the evening we go geocaching. We found one this evening not far from the house.... about 1 and 1/2 miles. We picked up some trash on the way out, as we usually do.
I thought I should show off my geocaching boots which my sister gave me. And since my mother keeps putting Denny's socks in MY sock drawer, I figured I would wear them to keep the cholla from "jumping" on me!