Basketball Trip

Ethan got to experience a first yesterday.  He flew to Guayaquil to play in a basketball tournament.  How cool is that?  Poor guy didn't feel very well, but he wouldn't have missed this day for nothing.  He has been sick since Friday and is still not feeling well today.

Here are a couple of pictures from his trip.

Here is a picture of the top of a volcano taken from the plane.

Shannon had an appointment to preach outside the city today.  Since Ethan was running a fever this morning we decided to let the kids stay home and I went with Shannon.  Here are a couple of pictures from our drive.  I know that I post pictures of volcanoes all the time but they are just so "wow."  A picture really doesn't do it justice, so if you want to get the full effect you will have to come for a visit.

Ok, if you are a grandparent of Ethan or Megan, you may not want to read the next part of this blog.

On our way back to the city Shannon got the great idea to have the kids take Molly outside to go potty.  I really wasn't too keen on the idea, but went along with it.  We gave them precise instructions and then told them to call us as soon as they got back inside.  Well, they called alright.  And it was not good news.  They were locked out of our apartment.  We told them to buzz all the other apartments (there is only two other apartments) and no one was home.  What were we going to do?  Shannon tells Ethan to climb over the fence.  Well, more like a wall and call us back.   I am almost in a panic and about to call in the calvary, which would have been our other missionary friends. (Phil and Deanna or Jen and Mickey)  Oh wait I forgot to mention that Shannon's phone is out of minutes and we can't call the kids or anyone for that matter.  What a great situation to be in.  We finally get a call from Megan saying that Ethan was in and everything was fine.  Wow!  That was a scary moment.

Please note:  This whole ordeal was over in about ten minutes.

A little taste of home

We received this in the mail today.

Peanut brittle from Aunt Linda.  It took a whole month to get here but it was worth the wait.  Ethan was with us when we went to the post office and he was so excited to open it.  He said it was like opening a christmas present.  We could even smell it before we got it open.  All we can say is thank you aunt Linda and yummy.

Aunt Linda sent a card with the peanut brittle and inside the card was this.

It's a letter to santa that Shannon had written when he was seven years old and was published in the newspaper.  It's 30 years old!  Aunt Linda found it while going through grandma Pruitt's stuff.  Cleta (Shannon's grandma) sent us another one of these last year while we were in Costa Rica.  It was a year ago yesterday since grandma Pruitt passed away.  Isn't it cool how God sends you little comforts?

For those of you who can't read the paper very well, here is what it says:

Dear Santa,

I have been a pretty good boy this year, mom said, so will you please bring me a jogging suit, electric baseball game, B.B. gun, boxing gloves, hotwheel cars, match box and cars.

Santa, this isn't very much so hurry and bring all of this to me, OK?  Thanks.

Shannon 

Age 7

Grandma Pruitt was a great lady and we miss her lots.  (This was taken right before we left for CR)

Flowers

I had a little free time today and decided to go out and take a few pictures.  Flowers are not my favorite thing to take pictures of but they will do.  When your kids are old and don't like their picture taken you gotta do what you gotta do.

The first two were taken at a roadside flower stand.  All the rest were taken at a local park.

My best friend

Meet my best friend, the English-Spanish dictionary.  I don't know what I would do without it.  It goes everywhere with us.  It actually stays in the car because we have two or three in the house.  I have been known to take it to church with me.  It drives me crazy to hear a word and not know the meaning.  It also helps when we are in a bind and need to know a word to complete our sentences.  For example:
Tuesday when I needed to leave the car at the kids school because I couldn't drive, I needed to ask the guard if it would be ok.  But, (there has always got to be a but) I didn't know the word for leave.  So I get out my handy dandy dictionary and look it up.  Once you find the word all you have to do next is conjugate it right.  Speaking of conjugating, Megan made this statement the other day, "If I have to conjugate one more verb, my brain is going to explode."  And I just laughed!  Ok back to the story, after looking up the word "to leave" I was ready to say what I needed to say.  It turned out great!

Another picture from Shannon's travels.

Tuesday Randomness

Pico and Placa is evil!  Pico y placa = the day we are not allowed to drive in the peak hours of traffic.  Shannon was out of town for meetings and Ethan had basketball practice right after school and Megan had a choir concert at 7:00.  So what that meant for me was this:

A.  Get to the school by 3:30 because after 4:00 it means an $88 ticket and my car impounded.
B.  Sit and watch E's practice until 5:00 and then catch a taxi home.
C.  Get home eat something little and get ready to go back to the school.
D.  Walk back to the school for the concert.
E.  Take car home from the school because by this time it's 8:00 and I can drive again.

With pico y placa things can get tricky.  You just have to think of creative ways to work with the system.  I think I did pretty good.

Speaking of driving here in Quito.  I have decided that if you do not have road rage before you come here, you will when you leave.  Driving here makes me so nervous.

The next bit of randomness is this:
Ecuador is filled with beautiful sites.  Most of them breath taking and a picture doesn't do it justice.  Here are a few pictures that Shannon has taken on some of his trips.

How would you like to receive your milk by horse every morning?

Basketball

Shannon is the assistant basketball coach this year at AAI.

Ethan is the one farthest to the left.

Ethan bringing the ball up the court.

This is from last year.  I will never forget Katie going to E's ball games with us being E's biggest fan.  (Oh and yelling at all the players.  Remember that Katie?)  Oh how I miss you!  Games are not the same without you.  And let me tell you, you would have a lot to yell about here.  The ref's are so different here than in the states.  You can bear hug a guy and get a jump ball.  How great is that?

Update about last post: I only posted it for a few hours and received too many phone calls, emails, and messages on facebook that I decided to take it off.  That is why I don't like posting things like that.  Lesson learned.  It's just another day in the life of living in a foreign country.  And let me say thanks for all the concerns, I really appreciate it.  Love to you all!

Enough of that.  I have great news.  Shannon's grandparents will arrive in Ecuador on March 1, 2011.  We are very excited to have family coming for a visit.  I think they are just excited as we are.  This will be the first time that they have been out of the country.

This picture was taken right before we left for Costa Rica.  Wow!  All the kids have grown so much.

Dathan Eli

We have a new nephew!  Born on January 8, 2011 in Germany.  We really wish that we could see the little guy but know it's just not possible.

Here are some pictures of Dathan and the happy new family.  Click here. Congrats Laura and Doug!




And a picture of Ethan, just because.