Vacation with the Folks... PART 1

Wow, where to begin...? Well, my dad just left Ecuador after spending 2 weeks visiting the country and my mom will be staying another two weeks. She just can't get enough of us....

It's been a few weeks since we've posted as we've been busy with our visitors, but we now have much to share with you. Hannah and I took 2 weeks of vacation so we could focus on having fun and spending time with the folks. We traveled to a few different places and had many adventures, all etched in video, thanks to Dad, whether we like it or not. We won't be able to share much video with you, but we do have pictures.

We went to so many places, better that I publish the events one at a time. I will start from the beginning. The first few days were spent in Tumbaco getting use to our surroundings and going through the bags! There were so many things we couldn't bring the first time and that we've been looking forward to getting for 6 months now, like our boots for service, good coffee, etc... The morning after our parents arrival was by far the most exciting morning, knowing that we would get to open the rest our "presents". (The night before, we had to at least take a peak into the bags.) Here are a few shots of the luggage party...

Nice collection... I could sell these on the Tumbaco Black Market for a lot of money...



Judit, a pioneer in our hall says, "Thanks for my umbrella. Just last week, I lost my own umbrella to a wild dog out in service. Grabbed it right out of my hand, as I used it to defend myself against his attack." You see they are not only needed to ward off the sun and rain, but to defend us from wind animals too. And drunk men trying to rob you, but that's another blog experience for another day...

This beautiful kettle was a gift from mommy dear. Now our house is a home.

Wow, this was a surprise and a great one at that. I think we can drink good coffee now for the next 6 months on this stash. It was either that or we were going to have to go to Peru, the nearest Starbucks to get a decent cup. Thanks Sonya and Dad!

This was our bedroom while the parents took over our room.

Then, on Wednesday we all went out in service together and had a nice time, ending with a little Suess family coffee break at the local cane juice tent. A little risky for the newbies perhaps, but as our motto for the trip became, "let's eat whatever questionable food we want. Just take a grapefruit seed extract!" And hey, it must have worked because neither of them got sick once from the food or anything else. So that in of itself was a success.

Dad was given clothes hanging duty while he was here, a job that I believe he came to enjoy. I mean, with this view from the roof, with the mountains as our backyard, hanging clothes is quite relaxing.

On Thursday, they finally got to meet our congregation and the substitute family we've had these past months. A number of the brothers and sisters have been practicing the names Brad and Dorothy and little english sentences for MONTHS in anticipation of their arrival. Everyone was really excited to meet them.

Great sunset shots from our roof that mom took.

The following day, Friday, we took a short flight to Guayaquil, which is a sticky hot city on the coast, to visit Bethel. Once we arrived and watched a short, but beautifully put together video on the work being done in Ecuador, we took our tour. A friend of ours offered to give the tour, although he'd never done so in english before. We had a great lunch, saw some "old" (6 months old) friends and then continued our tour. This time we didn't get to swim in the pool, as we weren't overnight guests :(

From there, we went to Salinas, a beach town about 2 hours north, where we stayed one night at a great hotel close to the water. We wanted to make sure, since we didn't get to go to The Galapagos, we at least got to see the beach while our parents were here. Below are some pictures of the beach.... Next post... Back to the city of Guayaquil to hang out with our Mexican friends!





We spent many an hour searching for sea glass for mom's collection...

Some of the pictures came out clearer than others. Unfortunatley, I forgot my camera, so we took picutres with the camcorder. Not super great quality, but it works...

In front of the Naval Museum

We may not have been able to stay at the expensive Beach front Hotel, but we pretended to over their buffett breakfast.

View from our Hotel room terrace

Vendors on the beaches of Salinas sell everything from fresh whole coconuts, to hair braiding, to tattooing, to cotton candy.