Celebrating Brook!

It's Friday!  My parents arrived in Bogota late Wednesday night & we are happy to see them again.

Today, I am celebrating Brook through lots of pictures from her 10th birthday & 1st birthday in Bogota.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

(Happy Birthday in Spanish)

My homemade decoration sign

Friday night before her birthday, a friend went with our family to eat pizza.

Brook and her homemade cake (by homemade, I mean from a cake mix.  Cakes made in Colombia are not good & um, ignore the sloppy icing)

On her birthday Saturday, we went to eat at her favorite pasta place here in Bogota. You must always find a place that serves plain buttered noodles!

I was able to tell the waitress it was Brook's birthday, so she sang happy birthday & brought her ice cream.

We went as a family to a place called Multiparque.  Here is the family getting ready for go karts.

Brook giving the peace sign.  Notice the mountains in the background.

This park had lots of fun activities for the girls.

Like this

And fun on a huge swing

Avery & Isabella were strapped into these swings 

Then they were pulled up high & released to swing through the air.

Brook & I watched :)

The girls did the bungee jump/trampoline, whatever you call this thing.

They both really liked it!

Isabella flipping through the air

Brook 

Isabella

This was a fun challenge for the girls, or maybe I should use the word frustrating.

They climbed up through the nets & then came down a slide.

She was glad to be on the ground again.

They were the only ones on the carousel & had many poses.

Sorry these are a little blurry.  I'm not to good at the action shot photography!

Brook had her traditional breakfast in bed.

It was a great weekend to celebrate our Brook!

Okay, Part 3 of the DR (and I'm done)

Before I share the final installment of the DR, big news alert: My parents come to Bogota, today!!
We are so looking forward to late tonight when we get to see them & will share more about that later.

We had one excursion day during our week.  The rest of our days were full of worship services each morning & night, with a break out session every day too.  We actually just had 2-3 hours each day of free time, but we enjoyed it all.  On the excursion day, Avery went fishing (with Bruce), Brook went on the zip line (with the Jesch family), and Isabella & I went to Saona Island. So therefore, I basically just have pictures from Saona Island.

We rode on a catamaran for an hour and a half to arrive at the island.  We did stop once for swimming & we were able to hold starfish.

Just a man and a machete selling fresh coconuts

At the island

Our group for the day....

Lauren, Mandy, Jessica, me & Isabella

Lauren & I

On a later day, Brook & I posed together.

As we were leaving the DR, our friend Mateo, came to see us.  We met this kid in our neighborhood in Bogota.  He spends his summer in Bogota, but is from the DR.  It was good to see him again & meet his mother.

There was a Wendy's at the airport & the girls got Frostys!!

This is a picture of our gate at the Punta Cana airport.  Remember I mentioned it was an open air airport?  You could definitely feel the wind when a plane took off from the runway.

So thankful for our time away to be refreshed in every way.

DR, part 2 of ???

Round 2 of pictures from the Dominican Republic:

Our family with Mandy, who spent January with us in Belgium.  Mandy lives in Honduras working with street kids there.

Here we are with Floyds, our teammates we are awaiting to come to Bogota, hopefully in the next few months.

The beach

At sunset

Selfie

I was so excited to meet this friend, Emily.  She is originally from Mississippi, spent a year in Bogota, & then moved to Peru.  We have been communicating for a while on line, so it was nice to finally meet face to face.  

Isabella did a great job narrating for a skit in the youth talent show.  The whole show was pretty entertaining.  It felt so good to just laugh & laugh.

Avery & Jessica did a karaoke duet.

Then we got french fries & sat in hammocks until early, early morning on our last night in the DR.  This is Mandy, who also works in the Atlanta office, with Lauren.

Here we are with the Elswick family who we have also gone through all of our training with the past 2 years.  We had fun being in Belgium with them & it was good to see them again.  They are on their way to serve in Nicaragua.

This is Lydia, Isabella's sweet small group leader.  She was a blessing to Isabella last week.  She & her family on preparing to serve with MTW in Scotland.   

Some of our group eating at the Mexican restaurant one night.  

We were able to spend time with Matt & Esta Jesch.  They were the family who helped us so much when we arrived in Bogota & we moved into their house.  They are now serving in Guadalajara, Mexico.  And Avery & I were wearing long sleeve shirts because we were on our way to catch our flight to Bogota where it was cool when we arrived.

The girls & Mateo Jesch had fun being together again.

A picture of Esta & I

Family photo with Jessica, our resource rep.

And last, but certainly not least, our family with Bruce & Susan Young.  This was a highlight to just be with them each day.  We love this couple so much & they have spoken so much wisdom into our lives.  And the girls just fell in love with them during our Belgium time.  They spent 30 years serving in Japan & now work with the Spiritual Life department at MTW.  We are overwhelmed with the friends we have made all over the world through this journey to the mission field & thankful for the bonds we share with these people.