Happy Anniversary to Us

I promised a picture of the beautiful flowers here with Grandpa's hand in the photo so you could tell how large the blossoms are. The second flower is even larger. Are you impressed?

Look at what else lives on the temple grounds. These fellas were out for a stroll on our 23rd wedding anniversary, November 20th.

 I took a photo of this smaller guy below out our bedroom window. I was amazed at how long his tail is. It is much longer than you can see. We are on the third floor. Good thing he knows what he is doing. It would be a long drop to the ground. Usually they climb the trees with fruit. I can't imagine that an iguana could manage a coconut. He matched the colors in the tree very well. He was probably up there for the view.

 After working in the temple in the morning we went to lunch at Menestra del Negro to celebrate our anniversary. It is a chain of restaurants and we had seen one near the Malecon on our last bus ride. We often ate lunch at one near our office in Quito. We took Morgan and David to another location downtown on the Gran Plaza. Good traditional food and not expensive. Menestra is the style of the beans or you can choose lentils which is probably even more traditional. They also serve "Christianos y Moros" which is rice (white) and lentils (dark) mixed together. The round thing is a slice of plantain (big green banana) which as been smashed and fried.  I forgot to take a photo until after we had started eating.

Then we took a long walk on the Malecon which is along the Guayas River and finished up with an ice cream cone ($.75) at McDonalds overlooking the water.

The bus ride home was very crowded. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get to the front of the bus in order to get off but it worked out just fine. These people know how to squeeze on and let you squeeze off when you need to. We didn't jump off fast enough and the bus driver yelled at us. But I'm glad I do not have his job. We are getting a bit old and slow. But it suites me fine. I'm comfortable old and slow.

President Groberg gave me an assignment to give a 10 minute talk on happiness at a temple missionary training meeting...in Spanish of course. I was stressed preparing it but it made me happy thinking of all the things that improve my happiness. My family is at the top of the list. Thank you for being such wonderful people, every single one of you. You make it easy to feel happy every single day.

Love you lots, Grandma/Mom/Jeri