Ecuador-Monday, December 19th: Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands

On Monday we flew over to the Galapagos. It's only a couple hour flight, but quite a feat to get through everything to make it.  There are extra baggage checks with all bags being locked to make sure nothing extra is added and then once landing on Baltra island we took the airport bus to the water shuttle to get to Santa Cruz Island and then a 45 minute taxi to get to the other side of the island where Puerto Ayora is (the main city where we were staying.)

We stopped at Los Gemelos (the twin craters)

and as we were driving we saw a lot of tortoises right along side the road.  Katie pointed some of them out that were in a field of cattle.  Brielle hadn't yet seen them and told Katie "Umm, those our cows." 

We hit the ground running, trying to fit as much in as possible.  We dropped off all the veterinary supplies at the clinic, dropped our bags off at home and walked down to the docks.  We caught a water taxi over to Angermeyer point where we walked to Las Grietas.

The board walks were all new since James had been there 3 years before.  We loved swimming and cliff jumping.  The water was a bit chilly, but nice and clear.  It's a mixture of salt and fresh water.

The walking path to and from Las Grietas is very pretty.

It takes you right along this salt lake and the Alemanes Beach.    

After not eating since the airplane that morning, everyone had worked up quite an appetite.  We stopped at the store for breakfast food first.  We then found a yummy restaurant on Kiosk street.  

The restaurant that had been recommended to us wasn't open on Mondays, so we picked another that looked good. The mango juice tasted like dessert.  Ethan tried a hamburger with a fried egg on it.  Brielle had a taco--she and Preston especially loved the rice and beans.  

Ecuador-Sunday, December 18th: Quito

My parents have a pretty great view from their dining room.  It was clear enough Sunday morning to see the volcanos.

We took time Sunday morning to try out some of the different fruits.  The kids loved breaking open the coconut.  Ethan spent his morning grating it.  We all loved the dragon fruit.

We went to church in Turubamba.

Ethan and Preston jumped in and participated in primary and sharing time.  I stayed with them and translated the best I could.  Brielle was more hesitant and chose to stay with Grandma.

After church we drove through the Historic district in Quito. We were going to walk around and explore, but it pouring rain.  It slowed down when we got to the Basilica, but we decided to try again the next week.

A prior missionary and his family came over for dinner that night. Brielle was very particular about getting the napkins folded just right. 

Ecuador-Saturday, December 17th: Quito

It was hard to choose how to spend the day on Saturday.  There were so many things we wanted to do in the Quito area, and not enough time to fit everything in.  We decided to try something new to everyone and explore the cloud forest at the Yanacocha Reserve.

The drive there was along a dirt road for the end.  We were amazed my Dad was able find it.  As we were hiking Preston looked out at the view and exclaimed "This looks like Ecuador!"

There were so many pretty flowers and plants along the way.

We made it to the hummingbird hang out right before a big rainstorm hit.

Luckily there was a tunnel close by that we were able to hide out in for a while until the rain died down a bit.

We headed to Mitad del Mundo to hang out on the equator.

Every tried their hand at balancing an egg between the northern and southern hemispheres.

But as we were leaving and Preston saw the playground, he yelled out "Finally!" as if THIS is why he came all the way to Ecuador. 

That night we walked over to the grocery store to check out the differences from what we're used to. Lots of different fruits to try out that we don't see in our local stores.

Traveling to Ecuador

We are back and had a great time in Ecuador for Christmas.  We have so many pictures I'll do a post for each day.  We kept very busy, it was wonderful. 

We had lots of luggage and were surprised it all made it without issue.  We packed food to take down for the missionaries, school supplies to donate

and lots of veterinary supplies that the clinic on the Galapagos can't get.  

Our flight left LA at 9pm.  I thought the kids would all sleep during the 7 hour flight to Panama.  They did not.  The screens on the backs of each airplane seat were so exciting and Preston was thrilled to be on an airplane.

Everything was going smoothly and we were on our way from Panama to Quito when our plane hit a bird and had to turn around.  We ended up hanging out in the Panama airport for most of the day on Friday.

Once we finally figured out that we could get on a flight later that evening we decided to get out of the airport to officially get a Panama passport stamp for the kids.  They were not impressed by the hot humid weather.

After around 24 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Quito and were so excited to see my parents and start the real adventures.

Thankful Tree 2016

Kids love the tradition of setting up our thankful tree.  While still in October they kept reminding me and asking when we would get it up and ready.

Preston is at a fun age this year.  I love the things he came up with.  (On the days he said something other than Airplanes...there were at least 10 of those on the tree)

He has been scared of witches since Halloween and in every single prayer includes a blessing that the witches won't tickle him.

As always, we have so much to be thankful for.  It is nice to take some time and acknowledge our gratitude for so many blessings in our lives.

Halloween Food

We had lots of different parties and had fun playing with our food for Halloween time this year.  I didn't get pictures of everything, but as I was going through pictures I found I had a few I'll want to put up to remember to do in the future.  Ethan and Brielle were very excited about it this year and requested different things.

For our carving pumpkin night we made mummy stromboli. We then roasted our pumpkin seeds for snacking on.  I think Ethan and I are the only ones that like the pumpkin seeds, but I don't like tossing them.

Preston has found a new love of quesadillas this month after turning them into jack-o-lanterns.  He continues to ask for a quesadilla, with cheese that looks like a pumpkin.

For dessert one Sunday Brielle requested a flourless cake.  We turned it into a spiderweb.  

Ethan requested another spider web for our 7-layer bean dip, which we made a couple times during the month for different events and on Halloween night.

We also made pumpkin shaped cheeseballs a couple of times and veggie trays with lots of carrots shaped into a jack-o-lantern.  Basically, we just like to play with our food around here.

Happy Halloween!!

We've enjoyed October with outings and traditions celebrating fall and having fun with the Halloween Holiday.

We all went to a pumpkin patch earlier in the month in Avila Beach, but Preston and James got to go again closer to home to choose our pumpkins.

Preston loved driving the tractor and wasn't sure he wanted to leave.

The big kids were happy with Preston's choices for their pumpkins and had fun carving them

Ethan decided on Luke Skywalker this year.  His friends were Darth Vader and Anniken, so they enjoyed sticking together as a star wars group at the school and church halloween carnivals.

Brielle as a good witch.  

I thought Preston would want to be a pilot, or an airplane as he still asks about airplanes every single day.  But when we asked he said he wanted to be a rocket ship and stuck with that idea.  As I was trying to sew the flames and windows on his costume he was 'helping' by trying to sit on my lap, then on my back, then was unwinding a spool of thread...when we finished and cleaned up he smiles and gives me a thumbs up and says 'good team work!'.