March 2023

 Wow, a lot happened this month...

John is friends with any dog he sees. This is our vet/pet store. It's the owner's cute dog.

Fun primary activity day of games

John offered to help me peel the carrots. He did such a good job, there wasn't much carrot left!

The kids love to sleep and snuggle with the puppies!

I got invited to go on the field trip with Savannah on the city bus tour!

The main cathedral in the centro

Savannah's class at Turi

8th Grade went on a river walk

John's class went to the petting zoo.

Christine's class went to the other zoo. Amaru Bioparque

Our horseback riding lessons in Tarqui with Sebastian

Abigail

Christine

A fun tea party with the cousins!

Mark and I went on a date to the Plaza de Herrero where they do a lot of iron work. This was a cool sculpture in the museum.

Outside with the man of fire and iron. Looks a little like Te Fiti from Moana.

We took the kids out of school for a day to go up to Ingapirca. Ruins back to Pre-Colombian and Inca time. Here is a little blurb I found about it. The highlight of the complex is the elliptical Temple of the Sun, the only one of its kind in the Incan empire, built on top of an ancient Cañari ceremonial rock. As well as a site for rituals, is thought that the structure was used to determine the agricultural and religious calendars. The most important event was Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, which is still celebrated at Ingapirca every June. The mind-boggling stonework that is the hallmark of Inca construction can be fully appreciated here, with volcanic rocks hand-carved so precisely that mortar was unnecessary.

The view

We had a friend come visit us. Cardon who we knew in Connecticut as a little kid. Look at those clouds at the top!

This may have been used for agriculture.

Sweet Savannah

The walls

The Sun temple

The temple to the Sun temple in the back

After seeing the ruins, we did a hike around it. Such beautiful mountains!

We had a fun Relief Society activity to celebrate its birthday. We even played musical chairs.

A fun puppet show that told of some traditional folk tales from Ecudor.

Always fun to play with the cousins!

Elena, Abigail and Christine got invited over to their English teacher's house for the day.

Poor sick John. Willow was a good companion.

Happy Pi day!! I usually don't remember in time to celebrate, but this year we did!

Best buddies

St. Patrick's Day pot of gold

Celebrating with the English class

Our good friends the Dickenson's are moving back to the states. All three Sarahs

We had them to dinner before the left and the kids enjoyed playing with Emma.

The Relief Society had a big day activity out in the country to Yungilla. It was beautiful and right in the mountains. There was a pool too. During lunch there was an earthquake!! It was crazy and seemed to last a long time. It was 6.7 and several buildings in Cuenca had damage. There was also someone who died.

Great sisters from our ward, Hermana Warren and Haywood

The beautiful view

Here are a few pictures of the destruction from the earthquake.

This is in the centro

More of horseback riding

Mark and I went on a lunch date and John go to come too!

He had fun with my phone...

We got a new stove and were having a hard time getting the gas tube off the old one to put on the new one. Anita's brother, Segundo who helps clean our house, was helping us. He was using a box cutter to try to get it loose and it slipped and sliced through his hand!! And our water was off too. I took him to the ER to get stitched up, but felt so bad. It was an awful cut!

This cute kids lost his first tooth! The adult teeth are already growing in.

Fun at rock climbing

The second grade had a reading celebration and they all read a part in front of all the parents. Savannah did a great job reading in Spanish and in front of a crowd. She is brave and has a great accent!

Savannah Super Reader!

All of 2nd grade

Playing with the exercise equipment at the park

Bell had a talent show and Adriana played and sang. She's really learned a lot on the guitar!

Date night!

There were 3 in the bed and the little one said...

Don't see this every day in the city...

Elena & Abigail have been going to the gym with Mark each week and are getting buff! Helps when for their silks class.

Day at Baños!

We love the food, especially the empanadas. Too bad we ate most of it before the picture.

Abigail and Elena did a ceramics class

Night out with Dad to see the symphony

Cute puppies like to read with us

It has been raining a lot so Christine wanted to get little booties for Willow so she didn't get as muddy. The only problem is that Willow didn't really like them.