I have spent the last day unpacking and catching up on everyone else’s blogs. I am finally sitting down to sum up our last week. You might want to just read it in installments because it might be overwhelming!

We left for Ft Worth on Friday the 3rd. The flights went quite well with Jackson. We gave in to the temptation to buy a mini dvd player to take along. It was a life saver. Jackson actually sat back for a few minutes and watched Elmo! We arrived in Ft Worth, got to have dinner with my parents and Graham and Tina, and got to congratulate Graham and Tina on their engagement.

We woke up early Sat morning to drive to the farm where I spent Sat with the ladies of the Kolb family having a girls reunion and Jackson and Seth spent the day at the farm. That evening we met up with some of Seth’s aunts and uncles and cousins and their children for dinner.

(jackson with his second cousins once removed or whatever you call your cousins kids)

We spent the weekend at the farm where Jackson could not get enough of the cows and horses. Ever since we left the farm Jackson has a continuous stream of “Old MacDonald and E-I-E-I-O” in his head.  He mixes the lyrics with his Elmo songs which makes it hard for us to sing along.

The highlight of the weekend for Seth was shooting a wild pig. He cut off the ears to bring back to the lakehouse so that we would believe him. The next day we all treked out to see his victim!

We headed back to Ft Worth on Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the week there. We went to the Ft. Worth Zoo, ate at our favorite restaurants and had lots of fun times with Nama and PopPop Seckinger. Jackson loved Noah, my parents dog, and could not resist the urge to grab his tail whenever it was near.

On Friday we went to the Dallas area for a few hours where Jackson met my co-workers from the Infant and Toddler Intervention Program that I used to work at. It was so much fun for everyone to meet Jackson. After our visit there we met Jonathan, Meredith and Luke for lunch.  On our way back to Ft. Worth Seth started to get a bit green with some kind of stomach virus. He had a rough rest of the weekend with roadtrips and a flight.

On Saturday morning we got up, packed up and drove to Houston. We were in Houston less than 24 hours. We squeezed in a quick visit with Bo and Leigh who were visiting from Germany. And we were surprised to get to see Bonnie too who flew in from Florida. We had a family birthday for Lizzy’s 3rd birthday on Saturday evening.  Jackson enjoyed being around his cousins again. (we can’t wait to live in DC near cousins soon) After the party we drove across Houston to Friendswood where Seth’s parents live.

Sunday morning we enjoyed Easter in Friendswood with both sets of grandparents.  We went to church (leaving Seth at home on his death bed).  Jackson did an Easter egg hunt with Tommy and Ella which was a highlight.  After lunch we rushed off to the airport to catch our flight back to Bogota.

It was a fun getaway! We needed the fresh air and time to rest! We had so much fun seeing family and friends. We are officially on the countdown for our Sept 10th departure!!! We will have a month then to see people before diving in to German. We look forward to seeing friends and family that we haven’t gotten to see on our quick trips home!

Seth turned the BIG 30 on Friday! We headed out of town to the finca with some friends for the weekend and celebrated there! We didn’t take many pictures of the birthday festivities but have a few.

Jackson and I are so thankful for Seth! He is such a loving father and husband! He is the most wonderful friend and I really cannot imagine living life without him!  My friends keep warning me that turning 30 can bring on an early mid-life crisis. So far Seth is his normal cool, calm and collected self! Maybe just a little bit sassier than he was a few years ago!

We celebrated Seth’s birthday a little early (since we were going to be out of town) last week by going to dinner at an Argentinian Steak house

We had a wonderful dinner with grilled beef tenderloin, etc and our friends Nicholas and Kima brought desserts from a wonderful bakery!

Jackson had a great time at the finca this time! He did last time too but was old enough now to really enjoy it!

snacking on the porch, EARLY in the morning!

a little grumpy on our hike

Ben and Katie, our fellow travelers

All geared up!

Valentine’s cookies!

Reading on the way home!

Seth and I had a fabulous trip to Aruba over the weekend. We had been planning it for months and were so excited! We had a few hiccups in the airport when we got kicked out of a restaurant (Crepes and Waffles) because Seth insisted on bringing in McDonald’s to eat while I ate there. That was against policy! We made our way to immigration and security and learned that Colombia has adopted the liquid rules and almost lost about $100 worth of toilitries and makeup. (The day before I realized I was out of contact solution…here in Bogota it was $20 USD!) I could not lose that! Anyhow, they saw our diplomatic passports and quickly returned everything to the bag that they had spread out on the counter. Phew.  We also got dip privileges of getting to wait in the VIP lounge which they pronounce (VEEP).

We made it to our hotel and had a great weekend! We ate lots of yummy meals complete with full conversations uninterrupted by an enthusiastic boy, soaked up the sun by the pool and went on a snorkeling excursion. We ate in outdoor cafes which we can’t do here and walked freely around without worrying about security! It was very relaxing and much needed after a few huge life events over the past few years that have been less than easy…the main things being Jackson’s cancer diagnosis and 2 moves! Our only complaint was that our hotel room was so noisy because of the room above ours.  Sounded like they were moving furniture and doing construction all the time. Seth called down to the desk and they lied and said it was a vacant room. After 2 nights of 24 hour noise Seth went upstairs to find a kitchen. Hardly vacant. The floor above us had a 24 hour buffet for elite customers so they never stopped chopping, blending, etc! They knocked off the cost of one of our nights when they realized the tiny white lie about a vacant room hadn’t been true enough to trick us! In addition they had added new fire alarms and we had a few false alarms, one at 2 am!

We missed Jackson but he had a blast at home with his Mia. He was very excited to have us back and closely watches when we leave the room to ensure we don’t try to sneak away again anytime soon!

On our way to the airport we went to Taco Bell. We had both been looking forward to it since we can’t get it in Bogota. When we walked in we both looked at each other like “this isn’t exactly the cleanest place…”, we proceeded to say over our food “gosh, I sure hope we don’t get sick.” We ate, rushed to the airport and I got hit with the worst food poisoning ever at about 8 pm. I am just now starting to feel a little bit better. If you ever have those gut feelings (pun intended) about a restaurant do not eat it!!!! I won’t be eating Taco Bell again for quite some time!

Despite the few hiccups we had a great time together! Here are a few pictures!

Texas de Brazil! We highly recommend it but maybe not before wearing a bikini!  You really want to get the most out of the “all you can eat.”

the beachfront

Crystal clear water

One of the iguanas we met running freely

Guns up the day Texas Tech beat OSU!

watching our last Aruban sunset

Look at that white beard…we pretend we are still young! 30 is creeping up on this guy!

Overall a fabulous trip! A nice break from bleak Bogota!

Kuddos to the Seckingers.  Yep, it’s Frankfurt, the delicacy being the frankfurter, or perro caliente as we say here.

Drum roll please….#16

This country’s coast stretches over 1,700 miles.  It is the only country in the world with 3 capital cities.  One of the main langauges spoken in this city is Tswana, which is close to a potentially new name for the city, Tshwane. (The government and others are in the process of changing it.) Rugby Union is is one of the most popular sports in the city. The city’s main street, Church Street, is one of the longest straight streets in the world. Many of the city’s streets are linked with jacaranda trees that blossom mauve in spring, giving rise to the city’s nickname “Jacaranda City.”