A couple of weekends ago, we went on our first roadtrip in Colombia and our first real vacation since the summer of 2006. Needless to say, we were really looking forward to it.

We went to a town about 50 miles away (which actually turned out to be about 4 hours there and 3 hours back) called Melgar. It was a dramatic change from Bogota, where it’s 2,600 meters above sea level and about 65 degrees year round. Melgar is at about 350 meters and the high was anywhere from 85 to 95 while we were there.

We stayed in a hotel that several people had recommended. We were told that it was a 5-star hotel at reasonable prices. Turns out, as Kristen said, the stars don’t shine quite as brightly in Colombia. We ended up with a room that smelled liked sewage, water leaked from the ceiling, and the room was decorated liked a 1970s Days Inn. We aren’t complaining and under other circumstances would have been quite fine with our accomodations, but when you expect 5-star and come in way below that, it can be a little shocking.

The rest of the resort compound was very nice. The pool was one of the things we looked forward to most. Being able to be outside and in the warm sun. There were several pools at the compound, but the one at our hotel was a salt-water pool. The water was filled with salt-water, which actually wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t real strong. They also had a small zoo and other activities to do.

Jackson just loved the pool. It was his first time in a pool, and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to go somewhere with a pool. Kristen got him a floatie while in the States, so he just basked in the freedom to float around in the pool without anyone holding him or telling him where to go. It was such a joy to watch him enjoy the water.

We also met an American family at the hotel who was in Colombia adopting their 3rd Colombian child. It was fun having a chance to be a familiar American face in a foreign country. (Actually, they were the same to us.) It turns out they were going to be coming to the embassy in a few days to finalize the adoption process. So we invited them to our apartment a few days later for dinner, which they seemed to appreciate. They were staying in one-room in a hotel with 2 little girls plus their newly adopted son. They said that dinners weren’t always warm and didn’t quite feel like home in the hotel. They really seemed to like the night away from “normal” and a hot meal. And today I got to see them get a visa for their son before they head back to the US tomorrow.

It was great getting to show Christ’s love to strangers and getting to use the resources God has given us in Colombia (like a big apartment and a large dining room table to fit 6 adults and 6 kids-another Embassy family also joined us for dinner that night).

So, that’s our first Colombian vacation for you! When my parents visit in 2 weeks we have another mini-roadtrip and overnight planned so we will likely have more travel stories to come.

As we have mentioned before, Jackson is on the adventure of trying new fruits and veggies. Yesterday was the debut of green peas in his little world. It was quite a shake-up for him. He was in disbelief that we would do such a thing! We thought you would enjoy a slideshow…

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If you have never read the book “Little Pea” we highly recommend it!

It’s been a while since we have posted. It’s been quite a month with travel, sickness, birthdays, friends, family, leading a small group through our church…you get the idea.

Most of you know that Jackson and I went back to the states for 2 weeks to visit with family and friends. It was a great time of seeing everyone even though we were both quite sick. Seth held down the fort here which meant that he got to order in McDonald’s (as you saw in the last post), he got to get his hair cut shorter than I like it because I wouldn’t be here to see it, and he was able to get in a years worth of play station. I got to go to Target (2 times in th first 2 days), eat at Chick-fil-a and Pappasito’s (tex-mex!), and got to drive a car with drivers that appear to be far more civil than in Bogota. I also got to celebrate my birthday at home and hosted a “Big Sister” Party for my niece, Lizzy, who is going to welcome here baby sister in a couple of weeks.

Jackson is growing up way too fast!! Everyday it seems he is doing something new. He is now sitting up really well independently, pulling the lever on his See n’Say toy, looking for Daddy when I say “where’s daddy?”, babbling using ba, ma, and lots of other sounds. His latest habit is to fake laugh hysterically as if he just told the funniest joke. If you don’t laugh with him and acknowledge how funny he is, he goes on and on. If laughing at his own jokes doesn’t work to grab your attention he pulls out the fake cough. It’s quite humorous. He keeps us on our toes. Now that he is starting to feel better I will get to feed him some of the baby food I have been making. I’m sure we will have some funny food face pictures soon.

I started work this week which has been interesting. Seth and I worked hard last weekend to get my work room all set up in our apartment. I had three appts and 3 cancellations due to illness and an evaluation this morning which resulted in another regular kiddo. Currently I have 4 regulars and some pending evals. I think it is going to be hard to balance it all but so far Jackson has done well. And so as long as he’s happy, I am willing to give it a try. It is fun to use my brain in a different way than I have gotten to for the last few months.

Keeping with the theme of jumping from random thoughts, Seth and I went to a restaurant tonight for Valentine’s Day. We spotted it with my parents. It was called Houston’s Tex-Mex. Not the best food we’ve ever had, and the waiter wasn’t that impressed when Seth told him we were actually from Houston. But, we had a really funny experience. We decided to order “fun” drinks because the waiter said it was still happy hour. This isn’t something we usually do and haven’t since we have been in Colombia so we were a bit naive. A few minutes later the waiter returned with 4 drinks. We thought maybe we had mis-spoken in Spanish. I had ordered a strawberry daiquiri and mine came with a pitcher of daiquiri on the side. Seth got 2xs his drink. When we asked about the confusion they said, “it’s happy hour, you get double the drink for the price of one”. So, in the states it’s the one drink for half the price and in Colombia it’s twice the drink for the full price. We left a table full of alcohol. Originally we were going to share a drink but they said we couldn’t because it was happy hour…we hardly made it through the first drinks.

Tomorrow we are leaving for a family getaway. Seth and I haven’t gone on a getaway since July 06 so we are very excited. It will be Jack’s first time to swim in a pool since here it’s in the 60s and there it’s in the 80s. He’s got a bag all loaded down with the pool floaty, sunscreen and swim diapers! We can’t wait. We are excited to be able to nap when he naps and have some time away from our noisy metro apartment. We will post pictures when we get back. You can all pray for health and safety. We have been through a few tough weeks with sickness and this is our first Colombian road trip so we are hoping for the best.

Seth forwarded me an email from the state dept today indicating that we will get our next bid list in August I believe….then turn it back in during Sept. Isn’t it amazing that this adventure never slows down. I can’t even get my feet on the ground before something else comes up.

We hope that you are all doing well! Keep posting on your blogs, although we are bad at regular correspondence we feel like we can stay up on things through your updates!