Summer 2012

A great birthday, with chocolate cake, strawberry ice cream, and tropical flowers!  This is at our kitchen table.

We had a nice lunch in the Colonial District, complete with virgin piña colada.  Behind us is the Columbus House, built and lived in by Diego, Columbus' son.

In August, a delightful surprise visit from Andrea Garcia, youngest daughter of President and Sister Garcia, who served in the East Mission while we served in the West.  Andrea arrived in 2005 at the age of 14 and now is a student at BYU - a beautiful and delightful young woman.

July in Sunriver, Oregon.  Our traditional talent show, with the original five Bairs miming "Treat yoa muddah right!"  An all-star cast! :)

The Joneses brought their talent all the way from Connecticut!  Great singing, great guitar playing, great number.

Joel, Sheri, and Nate enjoyed the talent show not a little.

It was so  fun to have everyone together- Nate and Amy with Karina; Bonnie; Bert and Jen with Melody; Joel and Sheri; Elise and Chad; los Padres with Keane Cooper.
In front, Grant Bair, Lily Cooper, Rachel Bair, Gavin and Arwen Jones.

September in the DR

These two women attended the Conference.  Here they're about half a block away from the Stake Center, and they may have a long walk ahead.

Earlier in the day we attended the Stake Conference at San Cristobal, where some of our temple obreras greeted me afterwards. What sweet women they are!

The mission training center (CCM here) has firesides each Sunday night, and last night was our turn to speak.  There's always ice cream afterward in the cafeteria.  These missionaries from Haiti are really enjoying theirs!

The temple grounds

A big white wall surrounds the temple, and everyone coming in has to pass the guard house. (Here they call it the casita, which means little house.) You can barely see the top of it on the far left, above the fence.

He watches beside the gate

This is Brother Lara, one of the security guards, in front of the casita. All the guards must have temple recommends and are here 24/7 to protect the temple. They work 12 hours at a time and regularly check different places in and around the temple. They like it when we give them cookies. His wife works in the temple one evening a week. He is a very pleasant man and cares a lot about taking care of the temple.

By the way, the casita is air conditioned. Can you imagine being there in that tiny house for hours at a time in 90-degree heat with humidity almost that high?

Red, white, and blue

The guards put up the flag in the morning and take it down in the evening.

Reading in the grass

One morning as I looked toward the temple from our living room window, this is what I saw. Can you tell what someone was saying?

View at night

The temple is beautiful day and night.