Colorful!

It's been an interesting week since I last wrote.  We said goodbye to our old hostel.. Coco sat at the cafe "bar" and had a long sip of milk and chat with Louise her favorite server...

She seriously loved it there and they didn't charge us for our cappuccinos or meals the last day... They made us promise to come back and visit (I think they just want to see Coco)...

We have been settling into our new casa :)

The new landlords have kept their word on every detail associated with our new place, including installing high speed Internet.  They furnished it for us, VERY minimally, but yet its furnished.  It is an adorable little place.   The ceilings are full of skylights which help bring in the natural light.  We will take pictures soon and will upload when we have a few things we want, put into place... :)

Its a two bedroom and we decided to have all of us sleep in one room and make the second a relaxation, prayer, yoga room.  The room's ceiling is all windows and all day long you can see the sky and at night the moon... They had the cleaning lady come and clean it one last time after we had moved in and she kept saying, "wow, its bonita"... Beautiful... God really does answer prayers... :)

On the only truly annoying note was that I got my cell phone stolen.  :(  We were at a very nice grocery store called Super Maxi, which honestly is nicer than the majority of grocery stores in the states.  They make you check your stuff with security, when you enter for fear you may steal something from them, but instead they stole from me... I got home and found my pack to be empty... They have cameras recording everything so we are planning on going back tomorrow and having them check... Oh well, no texting for me... I guess it will bring even more simplicity for my life... :)

Jared and Coco got to spend sometime together on Wednesday as I was busy grading away... They love going to the river and Coco loves to "journal" (which really consists of scribbles and letters)...

Deep thoughts! 

Happy!

We have been taking Coco to the climbing gym here in Cuenca, it is stunning.  She can go all day for $5.00 and they have trainers there who work with her whenever she needs help.. She absolutely loves it and we can just see her confidence growing and growing.  The teachers speak to her in Spanish and she really is picking up a lot...

She always seems to have an audience

Then she started to watch the "big" girls who were older practicing on the ribbons... This brought out a whole other sense of adventure... She absolutely LOVES the ribbons... 

Her teacher!

Such a Happy girl!! :)

She's working on her gracefulness...

Yesterday was Jared's and my 11 year anniversary... I woke up to Jared having left and returning with fresh flowers and pastries (yep, I'm a lucky girl)...

Beautiful!! Flowers were $7.00, WOW!! They make our flat smell amazing...

Coco actually begged us to send her to the school her friends go to and so we decided to let her "try" it yesterday, so we could have a little date time... The school is Montessori and they only speak Spanish... It was a beautiful building and she absolutely loved it... However, she won't be going anytime soon since one of the "points" of this trip was for her to spend ubber amounts of time with her folks... :)  Poor Coco!.... oh wait she wants to be called "Isabel" now! lol...

Jared and I decided to go visit an Orchid farm as I absolutely LOVE orchids.  We were a bit disappointed as only 5 of the 400 were in bloom... Though "lonely planet" said now was the best time to go... Hmmmm?

We then grabbed lunch at our new favorite place, a Tapas restaurant and then walked the many miles to Isabel's school... I even tried grilled octopus, which I was pleasantly surprised to have liked...

We are constantly walking everywhere, which has been sooooo good for my joints... I'm feeling really good... Plus no more allergies (sorry Florida but you're rough on me)...

Another beautiful river along Jared's and my walk...

We then walked to the market and bought fresh fruits and vegetables for our anniversary dinner.  The markets are beautiful...

Beautiful! 

I'm still trying to figure out what many of the fruits are, they have different Spanish names..  I loved taking pictures and posting them into my on-line nutrition course... :)

We bought so much fruit and had to tote them all back to our flat, again another great workout...  We came home and prepared a wonderful salad and I made a great salad dressing of Ecuadorean honey (which is the best I've ever had), olive oil and garlic... Did I mention that the humming birds are the size of a robin in the states?  No wonder the honey is so amazing they can really get busy pollinating everything... 

It was truly a beautiful anniversary... :)

Ecuador is absolutely blossoming with color!! I am in awe of the flowers, parks, rivers, city, food and life in general... It has been a BEAUTIFUL week!! I am thanking God again for all of His blessings!!

Love you all!! :)