A brief look at our month

I feel bad that I haven't been keeping up on the blog, but then again, for it to be fun to read, it has to be fun to do. More than anything, I have been terrible about taking pictures. I have also been teaching a course in Guayaquil for a Master's program, in Spanish, and aside from hours and hours of prep, the actual stress of having to travel there every other weekend for three weekends in total has really taken its toll. Also, need I remind you, my Overdrive Media Console has forced me into reclusion. Soon, I expect that the novelty will begin to wear off, but until then, happy reading! :)

So, what have we got this month?

A beautiful, relaxing, warm trip to the beach house, where the kids played in the pool nonstop and we only saw the actual ocean for about one hour on Saturday.

Awesome weather, blue skies and no rain, and terrific food - the highlight being grilled prawns at $10 for about 5! YUM! Andres's great aunt went, as well, so we had a full house!

More pool pictures. (There are a lot more. Sorry, but since that is all we seem to do at the beach, the all look the same!)

Our home away from home. Too bad it takes five hours to get there. If only it were a two-hour trip!

Right after we got back from the beach, we started a bit of stress. Andres' mom went back into the hospital for pneumonia (and her stay lasted about 2 weeks again - but she is doing much better at the moment), I started prepping for a new English class I was informed about just a day before we started the cycle (on my birthday, no less!) and then I started the stress of preparing class for, and traveling to, Guayaquil. Well, only one more weekend of that (July 1-2) and I'll be done, and my students are awesome and, though my Spanish is a train wreck, it has been SO MUCH EASIER teaching it (Collaborative Learning) the second time around. The biggest source of stress has been trying to find resources and materials in Spanish, so some translating has been needed as well...

Also during this month I (well, Andres too) have attempted to start up running (jogging) again. We have taken the kids to the park a few times, and Daddy plays soccer with them while I walk/jog. They love it, and we get exercise. A win-win. But it always depends on the weather. Since we usually get home around 5 pm, that is usually when the cold mountain wind starts to descend on the city, so we usually don't bother. We have all been with the sniffles for a few weeks, and that icy cold thin mountain air does NOT help!

Plus, Nico usually peters out on us and then someone has to carry him back from the park. Of course, he doesn't mind!

Also, a friend of ours, the one who gave us the big crates of fruit a couple of weeks ago, sent us a huge crate of the most delicious strawberries I have ever had. If you got anywhere near this, it smelled like Strawberry Shortcake's hair. Pure heaven! Of course we couldn't get through them all. We ate about a fourth of them (you can't see it in the picture, but there is another layer under that top layer), froze another fourth, and with about half of them Andres made homemade strawberry preserves. Wow! It turned out so so so good!

It felt like strawberry heaven!

So, that is basically what we've been up to this month! I hope to get better about posting this upcoming month!