Just the Judd's

Mendoza was of course amazing. I was so happy to be able to be there with Tanner. We rented a car, which was interesting... only because they drive like crazy people, and Tanner hasn't driven a stick in 7 years. He was great though, and we didn't have any accidents!
Here is at a park with the Cuidad de Mendoza crest behind us:

We started off by hanging out in the city, and going to all the park they have. It was so beautiful and so full of trees. That was my favorite part of Mendoza - all the tree lined streets. The city was full of vineyards, and we finally got to eat lots and lots of Italian food. I was starting to get sick of all the meat!

We went out to San Rafael the next day to try and find the Choquevilca family, and also to see Tanner's cousin who is serving there right now. This is the view on the way there. These are the great Andes mountains: We got to Argentina in the beginning of Spring, so you can imagine how green it gets later on in the year.
We met up with Blake, Tanner's cousin, and took the missionaries out to ice cream. It was actually kind of weird to talk to people other than Tanner in English.


After about an hour of driving and stopping at random houses asking for directions, we finally found the Choquevilca family! Tanner was so excited because this was one of his favorite families. Tanner hadn't had any contact with them for 7 years, so when he knocked on the door, and the mom answered, she started to cry and was so happy to see him.
We got to spend about an hour with them, and got to catch up on everything. They got sealed in the temple in 2004, and just three years later the dad died of a severe form of Lupus. It was so sad to hear their story, but it was so wonderful to hear that they got sealed in the temple and that they would be together again. Tanner would talk about the dad saying what a wonderful man he was, so it was sad to hear he had past away. When Tanner baptized them, there were only the three kids, and at the time they were so little! It was cool to see them all grown up, and to meet the littler ones.
Tanner set up their email accounts so we can keep in touch, I wanted to do so much more for this wonderful family.
We then headed back to the city to the church building where Tanner had gone to when he was a missionary. It was still just a little house where everyone meets.

The president of the branch threw us a big dinner and invited the people Tanner knew and baptized when he was a missionary. They made us empanadas, and lots and lots of meat.
Here are the two kids that Tanner baptized eight years ago. They are now 19 and 17. They both still had pictures of Tanner and his companion on their baptism day in a frame! They were so nice, and we had such a good time visiting!

We then took a trip up to the mountains... Here is just an awesome view on the side of the road:
Here is Puente del Inca. It use to be an old hotel until an avalanche destroyed it. Now it is a cool tourist sight because of the cool colors that are all around it.
We then headed up to Aconcagua. It is the tallest mountain in the Americas. It's actually kind of funny because Tanner had been to this mountain 3 times before, and every time he went it was always cloudy and could never see the top. Today, as you can see, is as clear as the sky can get. However, there was an avalanche this past winter that completely took out the route to the mountain. So even though Tanner FINALLY got to see the top of the mountain, this is as close as we could get to it!
I know I have told some of you about our awesome Mendoza zoo trip. That will come later, because there are some pretty funny pictures and this post would just be TOO long if I added them!

Next up.... Cordoba and Buenos Aires (again)