Snow in Southern Utah?

We took a short trip up to St. George to see friends and family this last week. The weather forecast called for rain and possible snow flurries. We've lived in the desert long enough to know that snow doesn't stick if it ever does fall so we didn't think weather would be a problem for us.

On Wednesday night, we went up to Hurricane in a slight drizzle to spend the evening with our friends, the Sanders. Just before 10pm, Felycia looked at the window and said, "I think it's snowing." Snow would have been fine, but the wind was blowing so hard that it appeared to be coming down sideways. By the time we left about 20 minutes later, it was a real blizzard. The van was covered and so were the streets. We took it real slow and made it back to the main road and from there, the road was more wet because of all the traffic. Felycia called Grandma Larkin in St. George to see if it was snowing there. Grandma looked outside and said it was just raining.

I-15 was nearly deserted. I've never seen such a small amount of traffic, even in the middle of the night. By the time we got to Grandma's it was snowing pretty good in St. George, too. We called her and told her to come outside as we drove up. She laughed and told us that it must have started right after she hung up with us. In the 10 minutes it took to get there, the cars were all covered with snow. Here are some pictures but they don't do justice to the amount of snow coming down.

Another Photo

Deric sent a photo of 6 elders on a Pepsi billboard - thanks to Photoshop. I've tried to upload it, but I keep getting an internal error. I've even brought the photo up in Photoshop, resized it, and saved it at a lower resolution. It still won't work. The thing I really liked about the photo is that there are smaller billboards under the huge one. They are all CocaCola ads. I think in many places, the Coke would have the big billboard and Pepsi the smaller ones. I guess my parents will have to drink Pepsi when we go to San Pedro Sula...

Random Photos from Honduras

Deric sent these photos through Skype while we were talking on Christmas.



This is a beautiful sunrise in San Pedro Sula. I didn't think to ask why he was taking pictures of a sunrise instead of sleeping or studying.









Deric said that these vehicles are everywhere. They remind me of the matatus in Nairobi.







This is the garbage truck. The man sitting in the back has to make sure nothing falls out. Doesn't look like a fun job to me. At least someone will do it.

It appears we will be able to find things to eat that are familiar. Church's Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Wendy's are in this photo. I wonder if a Frosty will be the same there...

Christmas 2010

Our Skype rang in the middle of opening presents and it was Deric (Elder Larkin). We love that the mission president is okay with the missionaries using Skype to call home. There are two reasons. First, it's free and an international call isn's cheap. Second, I get to SEE my son. There are some pictures here to let all of our friends and family see him, too. He is a goofy kid. The first picture is when we told him to smile. The second one, he was laughing at us laughing at him. The third one shows one of his companions, Elder Simon from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The last one is Elder Groten's name tag. He is from New Mexico and is full blood Navajo. We told Deric that if he ever has to drive to Aunt Cristi's in Texas, he can stop and see Elder Groten and his family.




Deric was telling us that he is going to be working on a training video for all the greenies who come to the mission. This past week, they have been traveling around the mission to do some filming for the video. He is liking the work he is doing. He figured out how to send photos on Skype while we were talking. I will put them in another post. Deric looks good except for his hair. He said that the barber cut it shorter than he wanted it. The sides almost looked completely shaved off. We told him that we are starting to work on plans for our trip to get him. He doesn't want to talk about it until the Mother's Day phone call. I guess that's okay for him, but we need reservations before that. E-mail will have to be the way it all gets coordinated. We are looking forward to that trip in 6 months.