La Familia Hernández

At the kids’ school, they do a running competition every fall. The kids have to qualify by running about 3/4 of a mile around a course. The top 10 runners for girls and boys grades 3-5 qualify for the Turkey Trot and the first place winner each gets a free turkey. Lucia and Marco both qualified this year, so I went to watch them compete. The PE teacher predicted that Lucia would win for the girls since she had been getting the best time. Marco was up against 4th and 5th graders and was the smallest kid out there, so he thought of it as a practice run for next year. The girls ran first. They were all kind of bunched up at the starting line when the whistle was blown, but one girl was on the end and got a good take off from the starting line-she got a really good lead so Lucia wasn’t able to catch up and came in 2nd place. I was really proud of her! Marco was towards the back of the pack when a boy in front of him tripped and fell, causing Marco to fall over him. He got back up though and ran his heart out-coming in 8th place and beating 2 4th graders! He couldn’t breath at the end of it, but I was so proud of him for not giving up! I see two future track stars here.

Dress-ups, the mall, the park, lots of fun in November with our cousins! Now, if I can only get the other pictures to upload.

We managed to fit in one Pumpkin patch during the month, but with soccer, Saturdays were pretty full.

We attended Grandma and Grandpa’s ward Trunk-or-Treat. Sylvie just wanted to be a ballerina this year.

Tessa won the prize for Prettiest Costume-a fairy.

Marco was Legolas from Lord of The Rings-minus the blond wig.Mom and I passing out candy.

The only picture of all the kids together.

Assessing their loot.Tessa’s preschool group.There’s a reason Sylvie didn’t get to go Trick-or-Treating on Halloween. She got into the Halloween candy and ate 14 candy bars. So, she and I stayed home while Julio took the other kids out.Lucia was a 50’s girl-she looked so pretty with her hair curled. I wore my Peruvian attire-here I am with my Peruvian friend Roxanna at our ward Trunk-or-Treat, which was on November 1st.

Lucia invited her friends Heather and Deirdre to the trunk-or-treat.

Another year down-always so much fun with the kids and always WAY too much candy!!!!

The first weekend in October, we were able to go to Utah for my mission reunion and General Conference. Lucia and Marco stayed at Grandma’s house so they wouldn’t have to miss school. We left on Thursday afternoon and drove to Wendover and stayed the night in a hotel, then drove the remainder of the way on Friday morning. We went to John and April’s for lunch and to visit a bit, then we went to my mission reunion in Sandy. It was so much fun seeing four of my former companions and chatting and reminiscing about Uruguay! I also got to see President and Sister Monson and hear them speak. His greatest accomplishment as a mission President were not the number of baptisms they had, but the number of missionaries who stayed active in the church and strong in the gospel after their missions.

The former missionaries of Uruguay Montevideo West Mission under Kevin MonsonCaprene and me-she was my 9th companion-we served in Salto together and then were roommates at BYU.

Jessica Parrish Nelson-my very last companion-we served in Rivera together.Mindy Roberts Lambson-we also served in Salto together.

These girls were so patient and well behaved.

With President and Sister Monson. Angie Nordgran-who I served with in Colonia-took off before I got a picture with her!

My page from the mission book.Saturday we headed up to Brighton in Little Cottonwood Canyon to see the beautiful scenery.

Julio insisted we go to Chuck-a-Rama for lunch. Never again! The scones were the ONLY thing worth eating there.

Julio and I got to go to the Saturday morning session of Conference. It was an awesome experience! I got to see my first mission President-Elder Robbins speak and hear the first ever talks given in the speakers native languages.

Second cousins.Steve and Great Grandma, Tessa and Sylvia

Saturday night we got together with Grandma and Steve, Amanda and her kids, and Amber at John and April’s for dinner. It was a short trip, but well worth it! We’re thankful for the experience and for John and April for letting us stay with them. And to my husband who wanted to go to LA for his birthday weekend but did this instead.

School started on August 14th this year. Why does it seem to get earlier every year?! We are very happy with all of the kids’ teachers.

Lucia-5th grade (last year in elementary! ) has Mr. Cordellos-he’s a bearded guy who lives up in the hills and says “folks” and “good times” and plays guitar in class. But he has very good control of the class, never loses his cool, and he uses a lot of technology with the kids-they have ipads that they use for writing compositions, they have a huge screen tv on the wall that he uses to teach and also show video clips and such. I even got to use it to do my art docent presentation-I made a powerpoint and hooked it up to the tv. Very cool! She’s happy, even though her best friend Deirdre isn’t in her class this year-they still see each other at recess. Lucia, of course is doing very well academically-she’s on book 4 of the Harry Potter series right now, has gotten 100% on most of her math tests-that math stuff is hard too! I have a hard time understanding it. Her new after school activity this year is ukelele since they didn’t have a band teacher. She likes it so far. She also got the responsibility award the first month of school

Marco-3rd grade has Mrs. Parsons. She is such a good teacher! Marco wasn’t happy at first, but that’s just because he didn’t know her. She just knows what she’s doing and loves doing it. They’ve already been to the Planetarium this year! He got the responsibility aware the first month of school! He does excellent in math and is right on grade level for reading. Go Marco!

Sylvie-1st grade has Ms. Pacheco. I wasn’t sure about her at first, but having been in her classroom, she is definitely the best fit for Sylvie. She is so structured and so even-tempered. She never raises her voice and she has high expectations for her students. She’s a tiny lady-barely taller than her students, but she’s definitely in charge! Sylvie has 3 aides that come in throughout the day and they are so nice and so helpful. She is still struggling with staying on task and getting her work done, but most days she gets all of her stars on her chart-one for each subject of the day.At first she hated PE, but she’s getting used to it. she also has speech and OT. First grade is still an adjustment, but I’m sure she’ll get there. On a sad note-her best friend Marisa moved away. Now she says, she has no friends. I know that kids like her, because they’re always saying hi or hugging her, but I guess Marisa was just someone she connected with well.

I accompanied Marco while Julio took Sylvie-Lucia went by herself-no parents allowed! Marco didn’t want his picture taken.